It’s a joy to write this post as I take some time to reflect on the new version. In fact, the new version gives me a lot of encouragement to write this very post.

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Get it here.

Changelog:

* Fixed an exploit possible with Puck
* Armlet recipe now changed to include Quarterstaff instead of Blades of Attack (bonuses and total price unaffected)
* Fixed Wrath of Nature from targeting couriers
* Fixed a bug with Spirit Bear’s entangle and overgrowth
* Fixed Heart icon on the endgame scoreboard
* Undid a couple of the fun names recently added
* Fixed a rare abuse that could cause other users performance to drop

You probably know about the social network plague known as Facebook, so yes, while in some ways I am completely against it, there are still a few good reasons to join up (if you haven’t already).

The Dotastrategy.com Facebook Group - CLICKY!.

Over 10,000 LoL keys are up for grabs - League of Legends Facebook Page.

Oh right, I have a Facebook - IT’S A SECRET (adding people who add me).

DotA 6.63 is out!

Download it here.

Changelog:

HEROES

Anti-Mage
- Mana Void AoE increased from 275 to 325
- Strength changed from 16 +1.5 to 20 +1.2

Axe
- Battle Hunger duration reduced from 10/15/20/25 to 10/13/16/19 and increased damage to keep the same total damage output

Bane Elemental
- Fiend’s Grip manacost increased from 100/175/250 to 200/300/400

Batrider
- Reduced base damage from 64-70 to 48-52
- Sticky Napalm fixed from doing a higher constant slow instead of stacking and starting lower
- Sticky Napalm manacost increased from 15 to 20

Blood Seeker
- Base armor reduced by 2 points

Bone Fletcher
- Strafe changed from 50/60/70/80 AS for 10 seconds to 90 AS for 4/6/8/10 seconds

Bounty Hunter
- Imported a custom model for him that has his selection box fixed

Bristleback
- Warpath’s attack speed increase changed to bonus damage (10/20/30 base with 4/8/12 bonus per stack)

Broodmother
- Insatiable Hunger lifesteal increased from 40/55/70% to 40/60/80%
- Insatiable Hunger duration increased from 12 to 14 seconds

Centaur Warchief
-Double Edge manacost removed
-Double Edge can no longer cause a suicide
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by the talented barrierbreak

LULS! Parts 2 and 3 soon!

I wanna marry meet this guy… seriously.

This is an age old debate, a war that has been raging for… about 3 years and as is with most stories, there are two sides.

Graphics… and Gameplay.

I am classifying graphics as - any visuals ; and gameplay as the controls, style and story of the game.

The arguments we see are simple, if you support the graphics team, you say something along the lines of “Graphics are everything in a game” if you are on the gameplay side you say “Gameplay makes a game”

now I am going to come clean now and tell you that I am a supporter of the Gameplay team. If we go way back to the year 1998, Goldeneye 64 was released, a very good game, one of the best shooters of all time in that it really set the stage for the genre more than anything else.

new shooters have awesome graphics, but the trade of is gamespeed, you enter a heavy fire fight and your FPS drops to 2 as a result you die not knowing what happened. but using a shooter as an example is probably a bad idea. Their gameplay stems more from the fun you have while playing (not to say that dying in the metaphorical 2 FPS is fun) so instead let us use a different game.

Diablo II - the game is made by 2D sprites, by no means are these graphics good, but by some crazy chance, the gameplay was so addictive, it is still played by thousands today despite having games with “next gen” graphics on offer.

Now I know I am making it sound like gameplay is the all important factor, but it isn’t, I love great graphics, hell proof of my devotion to graphics is in me upgrading my graphics card and RAM so that I could play TES4 with all graphics on max with additional mods to improve them further. My point however is that gameplay is the most important element in a game, after that I would probably say music and then finally graphics. We also need to consider that graphics in some cases will fuel gameplay and vice versa.

So what do I want in a game? Simply, I want it all, gameplay, where applicable, an awesome storyline, good music and SFX (bad music is possibly the biggest turn off on a game) and finally beautiful graphics, not all that “next gen” crap, but something truly beautiful, we don’t need our circles to be perfect, we will not be using maximum zoom on a sniper rife to check and see that each brick is unique in any given shooter (we will hopefully be to busy blasting some suckers head off)

And so I reach the point in this blog where I get to insert some propaganda that is, HoN vs LoL - Graphics vs Gameplay.

this is the battle currently being fought between the two - HoN fanboys say that HoN has <insert big list of things that LoL has anyway> but also has better graphics, while LoL kids (me included I guess) counter with “but we have all that, and better and original gameplay” but wait, there is more.. I am still unable to post pictures of LoL (because of the NDA) but I can say that it actually has pretty amazing graphics, the thing that HoNboys don’t see is that it is the graphical style that is so different.

yes, HoN has those darn fangled “next gen” graphics but LoL has something simple, that runs fast, looks good and when you take the time to use the sniper rifle (or mouse wheel) to zoom in on bits of the forest floor, beautiful graphics.

/propaganda

while on the topic of MOBAs, I would like to once again point you in the direction of Bloodline Champions, a game I feel may be truly beautiful.

fast paced, fun, replay value, beautiful graphics and hopefully music to match.

As part of our efforts to be more hands-on with you people, we have an official Twitter page at:

http://twitter.com/dota_strategy

So what does Twitter do that will make DS more hands-on? Well, unlike Facebook and blogs (including this one), Twitter allows people to post short, simple, but relevant messages fast and in real-time. Meaning I could be at some DotA scrim and I wanna ask questions but I hate having to wait for a long while waiting for a reply to my thread (which is usually the case for many people)

Or I got something real interesting about Dota but that’s not long enough for a blog post or announcement, or I’m just plain lazy to post it.

Did I also mention that I prefer keeping it short and sweet?

Or maybe one of the mods are attending some big Dota event and they want to post updates real quick.

This is where Tweetown steps in, by

1. being free of charge
2. simpler to use than Facebook
3. faster in updates than anything short of IRC
4. keeping it short and sweet at 140 characters
5. addictively fun

I highly encourage you to register for an account at Twitter’s official website and follow us to get real-time updates, hints, and your Dota questions answered asap. Since some of our staff aren’t very good with twitting, that implies I’ll be there most of the time. So I hope you guys keep it real at

http://twitter.com/dota_strategy

*Driving to Tweetown now*