New metagame?
Posted by migrees on February 17th, 2010 | Visited 5277 times, 1 so far todayWah haven’t blogged for a while, apologies for the delay 
Since 6.65 (and now 6.66) has been released, a new metagame is becoming apparent. That is, a ganker dominated one. The end of DPSgeddon? Probably not. But Icefrog is trying to focus on a whole new dimension here, and if you don’t believe me, look at the changes that have been made.
The first and foremost one is obviously the introduction of Urn of Shadows. For almost all gankers (and strength gankers in particular), this has been a spectacular item. Run around, tower dive, kill somebody, cast urn on yourself and Voila! Back a full HP, a death earned with minimal cost. The ability to use this as a nuke is just an added bonus. Seriously, if you are looking for an item for gankers, this is the one.
Another significant (but slightly older) item change is the upgradeable diffusal. Now it can give a total of 16 charges, which if used correctly means 6 more kills that you could previously get with the whole diffusal.
With the introduction of ganker based heroes like Nightcrawler and Ancient Apparition, as well as changes to Bounty Hunter, Doom Bringer, buffs to Batrider’s ult, etc., it seems like the era of gankers has come back around.
What will actually happen, I don’t know but it does seem like our favorite frozen amphibian has taken his focus off of DPS monsters and eyed the gankers once again.
Sorry for the short-ish and really delayed post. Hopefully a longer and more in depth one will come soon.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
It really looks like our frog is going to do that. Although I don’t know much about changes of metagames, I don’t know what hes doing or will do, it will be so lovely the ganking era again. Also, it seems that some ppl support this ( some pro’s asking for giving the old dagger back, in example )
I would simply say go ganking era!
February 17th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I liked ganker-era so no problem for me,
February 17th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
There never was such thing as DPSeddon. Dota is a game of balance and I think the new changes have made Dota more enjoyable than before.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
With the number of players DotA is losing to DotA based games like HoN, Icefrog has to do something to spark up the interest in DotA.
Admit it, nobody wants a farm fest.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
other noteworthy mentions are the minor tweaks and buffs to Furion’s teleport, Clockwerk’s rocket flare, Pudge’s meat hook, variuos Kael spells, Clinkz’s spells, and the rework of Barathrum’s charge of darkness that also show the change icefrog is trying to implement
February 17th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
nice post! this is a natural response of icefrog since the SMM revelation:
farming > ganking
farming is honestly a boring game. promoting gank is the sweetest thing icefrog did to the new map. DPSgeddon still has its chances. i think DPS heroes can reign in games if their team effectively gank from early game.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am
dude, you didn’t even know why Medusa was a popular ban/pick in leagues. You don’t know sh.t
February 18th, 2010 at 2:12 am
I agree! A lot of people who watch replays of competetive games were complaining after SMM that even though the matches were very highly skilled, they was SO BORING! So I think IceFrog saw all of this from the community and decided to make the game a bit more fun once again
February 18th, 2010 at 11:09 am
well games now bring more action and thats good, BUT
and this BUT is big
slark is a king of IMBA. i think that icefrog did on purpose - he wants players to suffer a bit, he wants to give us a new test of faith.
i think slark will be nerfed or even reworked in 6.7
February 18th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
the thing is, if you gank successfully from early game on, games go by much faster, which leaves little room for farming for dps characters.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Excuse me promama?
You think you know what you’re talking about?
February 20th, 2010 at 8:53 am
promama is right
purge as a ultimate, not a charge based item, was great for ganking.
on early game, nobody could get a difusal, but medusa already had purge. this is why it used to be banned.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:53 am
i think Frog had to do it since the gossips of DPSgeddon and Farmforthewin.
and to do that frog had to make some changes so that it shall be better for players that want action in there games.
promama
what? medusa popular ban/pick etc stuff? we are talking about changes,the new era of ganking, not league bans/picks….
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Stalking for a Gank is the best thing in DotA apart from a well coordinated massacre due AoE in a team fight, Moar Buffs to the Gankers plox!
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:55 am
In the European style of gaming, gank is better than farming and turtling but in the Asian’s way of gaming, they proved that farming and turtling was better than ganking. The gamestyle of the east and the west differs but it is not really clear whether Icefrog wants the game to be focused in a ganking phase or a farming phase. Even though a lot of heroes are buffed or made to be a ganker, I think some heroes are improved to become farmers and carries.
Some shitty comment:
It was shitty when Barathrum would cast charge of darkness to you and you will see him on the map. It sucks to be his ally and it’s nice to be his enemy. But once he gets aghanims and madness, GG
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:59 am
as the gank era has come and pop out, i saw many hero nowadays been supplied with Aghanim’s upgrade. Isn’t that already prove that this is totally a ganker era. CD been cuts down, more damage been added and so on…but what makes me kinda upset that Ogre lose his Aghanim’s user title….huhuu
March 4th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
leave it to frog.. samtymz dagger shld b balance accrdng to itz map..