The second installment of the Item Remakes series, see http://www.dotastrategy.com/blog/item-remakes-part-one/ for the first installment.

Here we will be talking about a few items that all got changed for the same reason: Phase Boots, Assault Cuirass, and Khadgar’s Pipe of Insight (and to a lesser extent, BKB and Bloodstone). The title of the post is slightly misleading, because they didn’t actually get remade, they just underwent a few (but very significant changes).

If you notice one thing, it is that they all have/had armor as part of their bonuses at some point in time.

First things first, why did Icefrog change these items?

A little bit of history on each. When Phase Boots was first released, it took one Boots of Speed, one Blades of Attack, and one Chainmail as items and they turned into Phase Boots (no recipe). Upon their release, they were immensely popular as a choice of boots, in many cases overtaking Power Treads as the boots of choice for many INT casters, gankers, and even some carries.

Old bonuses:

• +70 ms
• +16 damage
• +5 armor
• Phase (active, increases MS by 10% and gains zero collision through units)

You can see why they were such a strong choice.

• Movespeed for gankers to move quickly between places. The phase ability gives a good escape tool and chasing tool, eliminating those pesky blocks.
• Damage for last hitting? Check, even more damage than Power Treads could give you. This allowed many heroes that normal don’t farm very well due to their role as gankers a big boost, like CM, Lion, Sand King, etc. Some carries that aren’t that dependant on attack speed (Yurnero, Skeleton King, Panda) used this item well, because what was lacking in AS Phase made up for with the damage and superior chasing power.
• Armor, however, was the big pull factor. So many heroes got this item because of the big boost in survivability. The 5 armor points this granted gave a 35% boost in EHP (each point of armor boost EHP by 7%, but does not give 7% more reduction. There is a big difference). That gave many paper thin support heroes some much needed endurance in battle, and probably led to an increase in their use on many other heroes as well. What it doesn’t block is Spell damage, which probably contributed to the rise of the RAL(of which each member has the ability to deal significant spell damage), which peaked just as the frog started his DPS craze.

New Phase Boots (implemented in 6.63): Boots of Speed, Gloves of Haste, Blades of Attack

• +60 ms
• +12 damage
• +30 attack speed

The key thing missing is the armor, now. In an effort to rebalance the boots, the frog buffed the most forgotten pair, the BoT. Simultaneously, he nerfed the other two more popular ones for balance reasons, but why remove the armor bonus? Why not transfer it over to Treads, which lost all of its AS?

Ah, you guessed. Again, DPSgeddon is here. And herein lies the reason behind the reworking Phase, and Khadgar’s Pipe. The frog mercifully gave the AS back to Treads, which saw VERY little use in 6.63. In exchange, he buffed phase a bit by adding more damage to offset the loss of AS, while increasing the base MS some as well. As for Pipe, he removed the armor component, and made use of another similar item, the Headdress of Rejuvenation instead, and adjusted the bonuses accordingly. This removal of armor from two of the most favored armor boosting items mean that almost at all stages of the game, many heroes have less armor, resulting in a much easier role for DPS heroes to play.

What does this mean? Armor wins games. The lack therof loses games. This has led to an increase (as many of you have noted) in including Lanaya, Slardar, Dazzle, and Vengeful Spirit as picks, as well as the all time league favorite Nevermore. I shall refer to them as the Triple A (Anti Armor Association). All of these heroes have the unique ability to reduce armor significantly or in a large area, which allows carries (which may or may not be the same hero) to rip into the opposing team. The importance of armor has translated into the buffing of the most popular higher-tier armor item, the Assault Cuirass. A decrease in price and the new ability of aura to affect buildings clearly underlines the frog’s attempt to turn players’ eyes onto that damage reducing stuff.

Implications? Similar to the reason behind the first post in the series. Icefrog wants to make players think more before making a decision. The frog wants to reward intelligence, not allow heroes that are almost impossible to kill rush in and just mindlessly autoattack while making a fool of everybody else. The side effect of this is that DPS heroes do benefit (broken record zzzz) as long as they are supported by a good team.

This type of ideology is also responsible to the nerfs in BKB and Bloodstone. Similarly, the reworking of these items leads to more careful playing, and not letting DrifterZ and his Krobelus accumulate 36(not sure of exact number) bloodstone charges in the DS room.

What to expect?

• Well first of all, I expect that the Triple A will continue to be frequent picks in leagues, perhaps even more so than now, and for the members to make the Bans list more frequently as well.
• Possibly an increase in the use of Bristleback as well, with his spammable armor reduction and high physical damage dealing.
• An increase in the use of heroes that have a high armor point and can carry (Dragon Knight, Rooftrellen, Sven), or heroes that can supply high armor points to the carry (Sven, Rooftrellen, Lich).
• Less use of people that can just walk in and be virtually unkillable (Axe, Centaur, Tidehunter [less as a tank and more as a support with ARMOR REDUCTION, slow, and stun], and the like).
• More use of the other lower-tier armor boosting items if applicable (HotD, Blademail, Vlads, Armlet, Mekansm), as well as slightly increased Assault usage.

*sigh* It’s late, I’m sleepy, so I’ll leave it at that. Remember the Triple A, and woe be to the noob that doesn’t think before rushing in. It will hurt more now than ever :P. Apologies for sounding like a broken record x_x

Icefrog recently posted this video on Youtube to whet our tastebuds on what’s to come in version 6.65. And it looks like a new hero is under development, which he codenamed “Nightcrawler”. I presume this character has a powerful passive skill that renders him/her invisible, similar to Mortred’s Blur. Or is it an ultimate spell like Anubseran’s Shukuchi? My instincts tell me it’s passive. Or not. Lol. Tell me what you think.

UPDATE:

Thanks to a tip in the comments section, “Disfal the Nightcrawler” might be the hero we’re talking about here. Check this link. And he does have skill that renders him invisible at night time:

Night Crawl

The nightcrawler will become permanently invisible when night. The invisible will removed when the nightcrawler attacks, use a skill or when day comes.

Level 1 - The nightcrawler becomes invisible when night. Has 8 seconds fade time.
Level 2 - The nightcrawler becomes invisible when night. Has 7 seconds fade time.
Level 3 - The nightcrawler becomes invisible when night. Has 6 seconds fade time.
Level 4 - The nightcrawler becomes invisible when night. Has 5 seconds fade time.

It says the “invisible will removed” (lol) when the hero attacks, yet he will become “permanently” invisible when night. Confusing. In the video he appears to be attacking his enemies yet remains invi. Hmmmm.

You hear me, the NDA is officially non existent and open beta is set to begin… well about now.

In 2 days we will see all stats reset (again) and the pre-season will start and continue until early 2010, during this time you will be able to  get your summoner level up and unlock your favourite Champions (with the 10 free champions rotating regularly)

On top of this, before the the first official ladder season begins Riot plans on introducing a heap of features currently not in the game, these include clans, teams, tournaments, ladders, draft mode, as well as additional content such as new champions and maps.

Other hot~ish topics in the forums include a fully integrated VoIP system, other game modes (CTF, KotH) and Replays all of which are being taken rather seriously and various posts from Zileas would suggest that the “top men” in the office are working their butts off to make it possible.

Anyway, what are you waiting for, if you haven’t played yet, flood the games with noobs

sign up!

http://signup.leagueoflegends.com

Dota Allstars 6.64 is out!!

Get it here.

Changelog:

Broodmother
- Spin Web now shows a minimap icon

Clockwerk
- Armor decreased by 1

Dark Seer
- Ion Shell cast on an already affected unit will replace the old buff instead of stacking
- Wall of Replica damage dealt when affecting an enemy hero increased from 125 to 150
- Wall of Replica image damage increased from 60% to 70%

Dazzle
- Removed the extra vision on Weave that remains for 12/18/24 seconds. It now only reveals for a couple of seconds during the cast effect.

Huskar
- Burning Spears damage rescaled from 6/8/10/12 to 4/8/12/16

Lanaya
- Psionic Trap now adds to your most recently placed trap to your selection panel as a secondary unit

Leoric
- Vampiric Aura increased from 5/10/15/20% to 10/16/22/28%

Lone Druid
- True Form movement speed decreased by 35
- Hero movement speed increased by 10
- True Form transformation time increased from 1.45 to 2 seconds
- True Form armor increased by 2
- Spirit Bear’s leash range reduced from 1500 to 925
- Spirit Bear no longer returns to Syllabear when he attacks out of leash range. Instead the bear will not attack

Lord of Avernus
- Aphotic Shield cast range decreased from 800 to 300
- Death Coil cast range increased from 300 to 800

Morphling
- Morph Replicate mana cost increased from 0 to 150

Necrolyte
- Strength gain increased from 1.5 to 2.0

Nerubian Assassin
- Mana Burn can no longer target creeps since it no longer effects them (42965)

Nerubian Weaver
- Urna Swarm’s Scarab’s cast mechanism changed. If you cast Infestation while having multiple Scarab selected, only one casts one at a time instead of all of them.

Night Stalker
- Darkness cooldown reduced from 240/180/125 to 180/150/120

Obsidian Destroyer
- Agility increased from 15 + 1.4 -> 24 + 2.0

Pandaren Brewmaster
- Primal Split’s Fire Panda now has hero damage type

Pudge
- Flesh Heap reworked, it no longer gains strength from creeps. Instead he gains strength (same values as before, 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8) for any nearby (400 AOE) dying enemy hero. You still get the bonus if the unit dies outside of the aoe if you are the killer.

Rhasta
- Scepter version of Mass Serpent Wards no longer increases ward count. Instead, the damage of the wards is increased to match previous damage output.

Storm
- Base Intelligence increased from 23 to 26

Sven
- Warcry AoE increased from 350 to 450

Techies
- Remote mine now adds to your most recently placed mine to your selection panel as a secondary unit

Tidehunter
- Kraken Shell reworked, instead of removing buffs in time intervals, buffs are now removed whenever 600 HP is lost from player based damage. The counter is reset whenever you don’t take damage for 6 seconds.

Undying
- Base strength reduced from 25 to 22
- Intelligence gain reduced from 2.8 to 2.0
- Dying Illusions no longer trigger Plague Aura for regeneration

Viper
- Movement speed decreased by 5

Warlock
- Fixed Upheaval from slowing in the AOE around you rather than at the target AOE as it should

Arcane Ring
- AoE increased from 400 to 600

Armlet of Mordiggian
- Recipe restored to previous version since there is no more recipe conflict. Requires claw and 900 gold recipe instead of quarter staff and 500 gold recipe

Demon Edge
- Damage increased from 36 to 46

Heart of Tarrasque
- Bonus strength increased from 35 to 40
- Regeneration disable time reduced from 10 to 8

Necronomicon
- Recipe cost reduced by 50 gold

Mjollnir
- Static Charge changed from 45 cooldown to 35

Phase Boots
- Bonuses and recipe reworked

Power Treads
- Bonuses and recipe reworked

Orchid Malevolence
- Increased damage by 5

Satanic
- Bonus damage fixed on units that morph
- Cooldown reduced from 50 to 35

* Reworked buyback cost scaling

* Lots of ingame scoreboard improvements

* Slightly increased the regen rate of barracks and towers when they are attacked without nearby creeps/corpses from 40 to 55

* Added colored teleportation effects (allied only) at the target destination to match your player color (infrisios,5153)

* Added a new command -ii (-iteminfo) that displays allied hero items in the scoreboard

* Added a new Forked Lighting Icon, Name (Ether Shock) and visual effect (16523)
* Changed Vengeful Spirit sound set (13425)
* Changed Void’s Time Lock visual effect (5793)
* Items that get disabled with damage (Heart & Dagger) are no longer affected by self damage. Roshan damage now disables them.

* Added a new test command “-killwards” to remove all observer and sentry wards on the map
* Added a new Eyes in the Forest icon (46851)
* Added a visual effect for Kraken Shell when buffs are removed
* Added color change visual for Morphling’s model based on the ratio of agility to strength
* Added buyback message for observers
* New replay data available

* Fixed bug that prevented Open Wounds from working properly on non-hero units. It can now target regular units.
* Fixed Linken Sphere to properly block Nerubian Assassin’s Mana Burn
* Courier’s Deliver Items ability now properly exits its logic if you interrupt the courier with a different order (shield and burst don’t count)
* Fixed Mjollnir’s Static Charge being stackable
* Fixed Proximity Mines not triggering automatically on Scourge Towers like they do on the Sentinel ones
* Fixed a bug with disassembling Mjollnir not giving the recipe
* Fixed Enchant from being able to take over Primal Split units
* Fixed a bug with HCL mode where the game mode could be duplicated resulting in various other weird bugs
* Fixed various typos
* Fixed missing cooldown tooltip to neutral creep Tornado ability
* Fixed Glyph from affecting Tombstone

IceFrog has begun working on the Dota 6.64 map update about two weeks ago, and in a recent statement he said that the 6.64 update will focus on balance improvements. In an older article dated September 23rd, he mentioned a bug with Phase Boots:

However, we found out that there is a technical issue with Phase Boots. They seem to prevent procs like crits, bashes, etc while phased. It was never as apparent before because it was not coupled with attack speed. This makes the Phase Boots a bit anti-synergetic.

A workaround was underway and he is playing around with different versions of Phase Boots and Power Treads:

Phase Boots:
Boots of Speed (500)
2x Blades of Attack (1000)
Recipe (none)
Total: 1500

+70 Movement Speed
+26 Damage
Phase (Active)

Power Treads:
Boots of Speed (500)
Boots of Elvenskin or Belt of Giant Strength or Robe of the Magi (450)
Gloves of Haste (500)
Recipe (none)
Total: 1450

+60 MS
+10 Any Attribute
+30 IAS

While he notes:

While there may be workarounds for that bug, most would probably come at the cost of some functionality. So while still keeping with the primary no armor concept, I am exploring a new buildup for Phase Boots and Power Treads. Keep in mind that numbers are still at an early stage and this change is by no means final, but I’d like to share one version of what we are experimenting with.

While Dota 6.64 will contain mostly fixes, IceFrog hinted new remakes and heroes in version 6.65.

IceFrog recently announced a teamup with big gaming company Valve, the creator of such games as Counterstrike and Half-life. What this partnership entails is still unclear, but IceFrog promises to reveal more details soon. In the meantime I suspect more far reaching implications. IceFrog had already detached himself from Dota-Allstars.com and setup his own PlayDota.com portal, which is now considered the official Dota-Allstars website. I think it’s natural for IceFrog to scout for big companies to support his efforts in taking the game further.

Take a look at IceFrog’s statement:

I have some really awesome news I’d like to share with you guys. I am now leading a team at Valve! I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right.

My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights. Addressing these issues will enable us to further enjoy aspects of DotA such as the gameplay, mechanics, and in-game feel that currently work well and ought to be maintained. As I’ve said many times in the past and especially after today’s developments, I am very excited about DotA’s future!

With regards to the 6.64 patch, the focus will be primarily on more balance improvements. It is moving along very smoothly and I expect to have it ready soon. Once those refinements are done, I’ll be working on some fun new content such as heroes or remakes for the 6.65 version. If there are specific things, big or small, you want me to consider for patches that follow, let me know.

Now, as we all know (or if you don’t), Valve is the company behind Steam, a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform. Steam facilitates the distribution and sale of games through the Internet with over 20 million users and 800 different titles available. Four key components might play importantly in this partnership. One is Steamwork’s multiplayer lobby feature, a lobby system where players agree on game settings before joining a server, something we have yet to see in Dota. Another is a matchmaking system that automatically groups players based on a criteria. Steam’s social network, aptly called The Steam Community, is a place where players interact with each other, see player stats and history of gameplay. Lastly, Steam Cloud enables Steam users to store game settings and saves on a central server. Really, really exciting stuff here, but then again, all of this is pure speculation by me.

It may be a few weeks to a few months before we learn what IceFrog’s really up to. Whatever it is, I hope it will be awesome enough to give the community a much needed boost and fire up the game for years to come.

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
(more…)

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.