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Draft How2 Howto Drafting Tips

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#1 Whiteboard

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Posted 10 April 2015 - 10:58 AM

There are very few essential rules that dominates LoD games in general.

 

And this is my formula i've evolved over the years.

 

1: More stuns, more win.

 

 - The best opponent is one that does nothing.

 - Only applies if you cant 1-shot people. 

 

2: Draft activatable abilities that supports and/or synergizes with your passive(s).

 

 - Never go full out on either of activated or passives. Get something that supports the activated skill and vice versa.

 - Grants a higher output when your skills directly synergizes with the others. Example of this is armor reduction theme.

 - This allows casters early game to have a slight carry role in the end game.

 - This allows carries to be influential early game.

 

3: Always have a mechanic in your completed draft kit.

 

 - It allows you to be influential, to have power. A walking tincan cant engage and will be kited or stunlocked.

 - One of these are the following:

 - Movement spell, stun, silence, invisibility, slow, haste.

 - Preferably dont pick silence alone as your only mechanic.

 

 

---

 

Simplified version for dummies.

 

1: Destroy / Kill - give no chance.

 - Get stuns and damage.

 

2: Get bonus.

 - Pick spells that boost eachother. (Triggered heals, standard steroid carry ats+dmg, armor reduction + physical dmg, dmg boosters).

 

3: Get power.

 - Spells that have stuns, silence, can move fast in and out. Stealth is also good, but avoid Riki ult.

 

4: With this, you move in fast. Stun them, deal loads of dmg to kill and move out fast. Repeat until you win/happy.

 

---

 

Final words, Gl hf with this "How2draft4win" formula.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#2 HUEHUE

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Posted 16 April 2015 - 06:20 PM

Whiteboard pls. The only legit drafting strategy is picking 4 stuns that resq forgot to mark as stuns. For example torrent xmark stasis trap and Batrider Lasso. Yes it works.



#3 Hillomunkki

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 06:38 PM

Don't forget to pick those stuns on a 0 cast point hero so you can stunlock them to death.



#4 Whiteboard

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Posted 21 April 2015 - 08:19 AM

That being said, best opponent is no opponent. "One that does nothing".

 

You can either destroy him on the spot. By simply having damage output enough for it.

 

Or.

 

You can disable them for the duration to compensate for the lack of damage output.

 

I do know damn straight where these tantrums are coming from thought. And I sympathize it.

 

Guess who and why enforced the disable limit that exists in the -extended balance mode as it does today.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#5 Whiteboard

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 07:21 AM

Advanced version of first descript

 

This is a more thorough explanation of previous points i've covered so far.

(Simply because im bored at work atm)

 

1: More stuns, more win.

 

An opponent that does nothing, is in short evaluated as, you dont give him/her a chance. Real gameplay happens if you fail this step.

But winning isn't about cutting your edges to give your opponents a chance. That's arrogance in short.

 

Now, what wins games is killing stuff, having damage output. But as I mentioned, perma stun is also an option. If you have the damage for it, a single stun is often enough. As in a lategame carry using Coup de grace per example, could very well destroy his target within the time window of a Storm bolt/ Chaos bolt/ Hellfireblast. Naturally, that depends on items and other factors as well. But fundamentally, a late game carry can with those 2 skills finnish his/her target within that time frame. ( I should also mention the fact that you dont need a stun at all. If you can destroy everyone with overwhelming damage:

Finger of death / Wrath of the thundergod /Assassinate + Multicast shows this case clearly.)

 

The opposite side of the coin, which is lacking in damage but exceeding in crowd control will ultimatively lead to the same result. A standard Faceless Void is the best example of this. His default/standard skillset puts you in a position where you farm to buff up your Chronosphere potential. Incidentally, you can directly improve your Chronosphere with Aghanims.

 

Optimally speaking: The Aghanims is worth it, if you can afford the powerloss for more frequent spheres and when you can afford to be greedy with how many you can kill (as it extends it's time duration with the upgrade).

In short, you could spend that gold you farmed during that period on more power. (As for lategame when more time has passed, the sacrifice is an itemslot - thus reducing your maximum potential in terms of firepower).

 

Which comes down to a simple rinse and repeat scenario: of avoiding potential threats while gathering gold and going out on a hunt for a target to cast Chronosphere on. And once that happens - it's a contest of gathered power. As for gameplay, that happens when people interupt Void's farming phase.

 

To summarize, these two factors are in scaling versus eachother at any time.

 

Damage vs Disables/Cc.

 

Keeping either high to compensate the lack of other is a core feature to winning games in general.

 

---

 

End of point 1: Advanced /indepth explenation.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#6 Whiteboard

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Posted 07 May 2015 - 09:01 AM

Advanced version of first descript

 

This is a more thorough explanation of previous points i've covered so far.

(Simply because im bored at work atm)

 

2: Draft activatable abilities that supports and/or synergizes with your passive(s).

 

First thing up is the core element any draft needs to have irregardless of theme or approach. Power (which can be found in above topic point 1.)

Now assuming you have this core point secured you can go on to the fun part.

- Making a themed / synergizing build.

 

There are plenty of examples to work around with. My personal favourite is centering your build around a single ability to maximize the effect and efficency.

For example the new ability which has been added with the Talon Queen hero - Open Wounds.

 

This ability has a chance when dealing damage (from most sources, if not all) to apply a dot which deals 30% of that damage. Giving you a 30% boost -> 130% total damage dealt.

Now because the ability has a prock chance, it's favoured to go for frequent damage sources rather than big.

 

Simply because it would be a pure gamble to hit for the big numbers with a large cooldown ultimate like Laguna Blade in comparison to Ice Blast. Having Ice Blast dealing frequent damage which will prock the bonus damage frequently, while disabling the ability to recover hitpoints gives a brutal result.

At this point we allready have 2 abilities which benefit from eachother greatly. On top of that should you need a disable, i'd recomend Hellfire Blast. It does the job of disabling + slowing while giving another dot that benefits from Wounds.

 

For the last slot, you got a personal choice to make, so far we have checked off synergy + firepower and control. Personally I hit for a movement spell such as leap or blink at this point.

Otherwise you can maximise the effect even further by adding a "Hold your ground" - ish spell such as Leech Seed, to compensate for the lack of movement of your own. You lower others and replenishing your health -> While procking the Wounds from Leech, Hellfire and Ice. Making you a complete powerhouse where you stand.

 

Now im running low on time, and i'll leave it at that for an example of drafting with synergy. Leaving us at 3 active nukes with 1 passive that all benefits from eachother.

Ice Blast for payloads of damage (Good for finnishing people off with the % threshhold). Hellfire for control, easy hitting with blast. Seed for survivability.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.
 


GG humanity, as always.

#7 sm0ke

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Posted 02 August 2015 - 07:55 PM

Don't forget to destroy enemy buildings in good moment. Killing heroes is good. But you can still loose the game when your team have 2x more frags than foes.



#8 Whiteboard

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Posted 03 August 2015 - 06:35 AM

Don't forget to destroy enemy buildings in good moment. Killing heroes is good. But you can still loose the game when your team have 2x more frags than foes.

Aye, the moba-flow.

 

Always knock down buildings after a successful clash / takedown of the enemy team.
- Wanking around for frags wont win games. Destroying the enemy base does. It so happens to be that the one with most power has easier access to the other's base and is usually the one who wins.
Exception of this is backdooring and base-racing.

This has nothing to do with drafting thought ^.^

 

If requested, I could write a short thread regarding "how2moba" in my spare time.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#9 Whiteboard

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Posted 05 August 2015 - 06:44 AM

Advanced version of first descript

 

3: Always have a mechanic in your completed draft kit.

 

As fundamentally explained earlier, a walking tincan with bolstering power is not a threat. As the power is 90% of the time missplaced hence wont pay out when the time comes.

This can usually be quick fixed by getting either Lothars or Blink dagger to enter the frame in a quick manner.
With manuevrability you pose a great threat with your influence in early game and depending on farm + mid/late game potential even a greater one.

As goes in early game, any thing goes as majority of all heroes are weak in that stage making nukes a supreme tactic for snowballing.

 

With that said, having an infuelntial or disabling spell such as Storm Bolt, Time Walk or Trample allows you to control the enemies pace of play and force them into positions that are less favourable to them.
If not, you are able to grab the chance for a kill in a moment of weakness or bad positioning. In proffesional games most games decide the victor by these criterias.
- Getting the jump on them with a massively influental spell such as Black Hole, Echo Slam, Chronosphere and dish out the damage.

 

In order for that classic and solid game ender to happen, you need both mobility and control. These two comes in smaller packages that can decide the flow of the game right from the start of the game and not just for game enders. In a less efficent drafting method, you can exclude all controling abilities for having more mobility, as long as you have the power to kill players uncontested makes either of these 2 factors redundant but still beneficial.

 

By not having any mobility aside walking demands that you have control instead in order for you to have influence.
- Either the fight comes to you and you keep it there or you take it to them and keep it up their asses as they are intent to flee.
* Mobility favours ganking while control favours pushing.

 

 

These as well are in a balance gauge towards eachother as Damage output is towards control. A bit of a conflict from previous posts but albeit true.

If you can move in to destroy players at will vs punish others for engaging you and destroying them in the process is what counts with this topic. This assumes that you have the damage output before either of these 2 types of influence becomes relevant / essential.

 

Stuns are preferable above the inferior mechanics as Silence and Slow. Stuns however pays the price by having a shorter duration.
If you have a clear goal what your build must achieve, slows and silences are ocationally more beneficial than a simple Disable-Nuke.
Silences and Snares for example are nichГ©d control spells that lasts longer for one game mechanic (movement, casting) with an increased duration.
- Ensnare ignores Magic immunity by being a physical spell which makes it an ideal counter for Shapeshift or standard Blinks.

 

In some cases you can combine 2 inferior control spells to achieve a better effect than 2 simple stun skills.
- Ensnare + Smoke Screen -> Gives you a trapped target in the cloud for roughly 5 seconds. Do note that their inventory is free to use, hence easily countered by Manta Style or Ghost Staff.

 

In other cases you can combine control with mobility to decide the game flow for your opponent. With Waveform + Leap + Flaming Lasso.
This combo allows you to engage for damage with Waveform, Stun the target and drag it back to where you came from. Ideally you have team mates nearby who can help you kill the lasso'd target.

 

Long story short: Depending on how much damage output you have versus control and mobility decides if you are a carry or support as far as drafting goes.

I also need to mention that < Permenent Invisibility > is a useless pick as it only grants cloak. Other cloak skills at least provides unitwalking, movement speed and/or damage on break.
Hence making it an exception to previous mentioned points as it doesnt allow you to jump people. Fog of war matters more than cloaking. Ergo other stealth / mobility skills are more favourable.

 

End of point 3: Advanced /indepth explenation.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#10 Whiteboard

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Posted 05 August 2015 - 07:16 AM

Offtopic: Please pin this post on the thread mainpage and remove this reply with the request when it is done.

If possible, move up the Advanced descriptions to be in successive order falling down.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.

#11 Hillomunkki

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Posted 07 August 2015 - 04:53 PM

 

- Ensnare ignores Magic immunity by being a physical spell which makes it an ideal counter for Shapeshift or standard Blinks.

 

 

You can't think like this, Unstable Concoction is also physical but it doesn't bypass magic immunity. There is no "logic" when it comes to Dota.



#12 Whiteboard

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Posted 07 August 2015 - 06:10 PM

#Ensnare Okay, it simply ignores magic immunity without following a patter / rule.
- If anything: by arbitrary settings from developers.

Noted.

 

- Sincerely, Whiteboard.


GG humanity, as always.





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