Item Remakes: Part Two
Posted by migrees on November 20th, 2009 | Visited 3652 times, 1 so far todayThe 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
November 20th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Nice wall of text that I did not get bored reading.
So based on your artikel, will we scream outrage when Lich becomes a favorite and starts leveling up Frost Armor first instead of Nova/Death Ritual? Just like the outrage when leaguers made CM level up aura first
November 20th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Sounds like a good plan. Lich levelled up nova/ritual because it allowed him to solo extremly well. Now, with frost armour being key, he’ll be more support and less ganking killer, I’d presume.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Each point of armor is +6% EHP, not 7.
Good job.
November 21st, 2009 at 4:28 am
The armor was the main reason I made Phase Boots too. Thanks for this insightfull post!
November 21st, 2009 at 5:38 am
Nice nice migrees!
Just a few things I noticed.
1. The Triple A are already visible in most leagues. Maybe u should say, “It is expected that their appearance in league games will not diminish anytime soon.”
2. I don’t think Assault usage will rise. The price is still too high just for the aura. By the time Assault is gotten, then that means the game lasted too long and if you watch more league games, you will notice how short most games are now. Games seem to average about 40~50 mins and most carries will benefit more with other items at that span of time.
3. Sven is mostly not chosen for Warcry, but for his buff in his stun.
SheHe is more of a ganker than a carry, and seems to perform better at that.4. DrifterZ got those bloodstone charges from Krobelus ^^ another hero who was nerfed both directly and indirectly.
Other than that, well explained.
November 21st, 2009 at 10:47 am
Noo! Don’t make Lich do that! Nooooo…
*ahem* No it was really good, I agree with the Prince, not remotely boring. And correct.
November 21st, 2009 at 1:47 pm
@ reiva
#1, Ok, will reword that statement.
#2, I think the usage will increase a little, especially if the game drags on, since it has been buffed. We will see to what degree though.
#3. At the current stage, yes, his stun is the more noticed skill. But I still have faith that slowly, leaguers will realize that the AOE almost-berserker’s-call-like armor boost and MS boost will be a good asset in the team. And I still think that Sven is more of a carry than a ganker, since all of his skills have too high of a CD to be used more than once in a gank.
#4 will change.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I seriously want that armor bonus from Phase Boots back. Even if its just 3 or 4 armor, I would take it. The lack of mid-level armor items is becoming a problem and one that Icefrog will have to address sooner or later. The usage of AC, Shivas and even Butterfly will increase from the need of armor. Seeing heroes like Slardar, Dazzle, VS in every game is getting to be quite boring.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:46 pm
to put armor items into perspective:
Blade Mail (Support, Carry)
Shiva’s (Support)
Mekansm (Support)
Arcane Ring (Support)
HotD/Satanic (Carry)
Vlads (Support, Carry)
Assault Cuirass (Support, Carry)
Armlet (Carry)
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 am
lol at the bloodstone thing.
Good read, sir.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:53 am
This post help me a lot. Good job. Need to have some dota strategy for my game.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:27 am
isn’t gondar part of the triple A?
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:47 pm
nice article.
@gia
migrees refers the triple A as heroes who do AoE armor reduction. but gondar is a decent hero as he can probably spam “track” to all enemies in sight.
this atircle also support cfx’s “bristleback comeback” post. rigwarl has a spammable armor reducing goo.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Not really, his armor reduction is rather small, and is not really a good asset in a team since he has little teamwork with others.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
oh, and @quale (when it shows up lol)
AOE reductions AND people that can reduce armor significantly (hence lanaya and slardar)
Also, track has a high mana cost early game (which is when armor reductions are most effective), which makes spamming it not so advisable. Later on then, with a battlefury or something, sure. But then, it’s more for gold and less for armor reduction, so he never really fits into the Triple A that well.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:47 pm
AOE reductions? then how about tauren chieftein? his passive skill “natural order” reduces both magical and physical resistance. 250 AoE is small though. but cairne is melee anyway, and his ancestral spirit inherits this skill.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Tauren does little for amplifying physical damage.
A common misconception is that Natural Order removes armor points and base magic reduction. That is FALSE.
His aura reduces the BASE resistance of different types of armor. For example, if Fortified armor normally reduces 50% damage fron heroes, it would reduce only 10% damage at level 4 aura (80% reduction). Similarly, that means that the only physical damage amplification on heroes would be against creeps and towers, since heroes have a base resistance to those types of damage.
Of course, magic is reduced as well, but that’s off topic. But in terms of amplifying physical damage and making the job of carries easier, TC actually does nothing, since hero armor has no inherent resistance to hero damage, and the hero’s armor points remain the same.
November 27th, 2009 at 12:08 am
By lowering BASE resistance, as you say, is he not in effect amplifying damage. Do the physical attacks do more damage with the aura on than without? Or do we need to look up the word amplify for you? But I’m not gonna say he fits in with ur AAA (btw why does everyone make up terms these days?) “And as you said, armor wins games” that is debatable at best, especially in the ganker oriented playstyles these days where chain nukes and disables are involved. I’m not really trying to challenge your work here, I think it is good food for thought; merely playing the devil’s advocate
November 27th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Hero armor has no base resistance to hero damage, so no, it doesn’t really have any effect on making the job of carries easier.
Now we will agree to disagree