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
Read the rest of this entry »
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
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*
The people of Dotastrategy.com have spoken — Diablo III trounces Starcraft II as the community’s most anticipated Blizzard game. This is how you voted:
Diablo III 52% [ 1187 votes ]
Starcraft II 47% [ 1076 votes ]
Diablo pwned Starcraft by 111 votes. However, with a margin of error of +-5%, I call it a virtual tie. The poll indicates that both games have an astute following in the DotA/Warcraft demographic. The similarity in genre might have swayed the vote towards Diablo and put SC at a slight disadvantage (you know, mechs and all versus mystical beasts). How did I vote? I put my money on Diablo! Unfortunately for all of us, Blizzard’s been notoriously mum about the games’ release dates. Starcraft: Wings of Liberty may see the light of day in the middle of next year, at the earliest. And that’s just a rumor. Diablo may take a year or two longer. For now, we’ll have to do with those pesky (but awesome) cinematic trailers and previews to ease our pain.
Do you agree with how the poll went?
In a survey thread recently concluded in DS, we had the opportunity to gauge the popularity levels of Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends and DotA itself among DS members. The results were as follows:
All right, before I’d say anything about the results, I gotta admit that the “Neither” option was a bit ambiguous. It could have meant only DotA, or both LoL and HoN or all 3 since there sincerely might be game geeks who will love DotA and all its succeeding ripoffs. Therefore it is not surprising to me that “Neither” got the most number of votes.
Lesson for the mods: make clear vote options. But that will be for next time.
Now, having said that, the numbers for LoL speaks volumes. Just ONE, clear-cut option gave it as much as 534 votes, indicating very much that LoL is bound to get a lot of fans and players from DS itself right after its official launch. Also, it’s openly known that Pendragon aka Steve Mescon, as well as Guinsoo aka Steve Feak were (and are) very much involved in DotA. It’s obvious they’ve been riding on the DotA tsunami to crash land LoL on our shores, presenting it as an attractive diversion. It is still unknown why a fallout happened between Icefrog and the two guys, but I bet gold it’s definitely got something to do with the thought-of notion that LoL will supersede DotA to oblivion.
May I suggest somebody go undercover to find out what’s really happening? You could start at their official website, http://www.leagueoflegends.com/
And then HoN. First things first, I think that HoN has several glaring weaknesses in terms of marketing and presentation. As of this moment, nothing concrete is being presented on their official website at http://heroesofnewerth.com/. Other than some eye-candy and a link to Facebook, we don’t know what hot stuff is going to take place on HoN and how. It’s true that Facebook is notorious for viral marketing and so the strategy of having an FB (not “a”, “an”) spotlight helps a lot, but you still gotta have a PROPERLY functioning website or blog first. Bad move.
Then the accusation that HoN is literally a clone of DotA. In this respect I have to admit that a perception battle is being waged and guys at S2 don’t seem to have it their way. The battle is not yet concluded, but if anything I think that HoN had better do something to avoid charges of unoriginality at the people’s court. The way I see it, the frog will never admit defeat. He is definitely adamant at making DotA stand out and make people who contend that LoL or HoN will eclipse DotA swallow their words. Remember, Blizzard has a stake in this battle too. If Dota gets less popular this equals very much less WC3 players. In other words, this is WAR and it is not just about defending the ancients anymore.
In this respect, it maybe why HoN got lesser votes than LoL or “neither”. I also noticed with a slight amusement how our DS member Blarfles consistently prepped up LoL at the expense of HoN. Maybe I’m thinking a little too much, but somehow LoL is really lucky to have free propaganda.
As for me, I’m relishing the opportunity to catch both HoN and LoL in action. I don’t care about the tripartite war, all I care for is profit. And a dose of entertainment. 
Here’s an announcement from Riot Games, creator of League of Legends:
DotA-Allstars.com is proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Riot Games, the makers of the upcoming MOBA game League of Legends, and GOA, League of Legends European publisher to host an invitational DotA tournament at their booth at Gamescom in Cologne Germany. The event will be streamed live to the web on the tournament portal located at http://web.dota-allstars.com/tournament
Tournament Information
Format: Groupstage into single elimination finals
Prizes: $15,000 USD
Dates: August 19th-23rd
Location: Gamescom (Cologne, Germany)
Links
Tournament Announcement - http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=294607
Tournament Coverage with live video - http://web.dota-allstars.com/tournament
Event Schedule - http://web.dota-allstars.com/2009/08/13/event-schedule
Coverage on Twitter - http://twitter.com/RinoaSunie
Pendragon on Twitter - http://twitter.com/RiotPendragon
Message from Riot Games
Marc Merrill, the president of Riot Games said, “We’re hoping to raise the profile of DotA to a mainstream audience by displaying it at one of the largest consumer gaming shows in the world. Additionally, this tournament is one of several things that Riot and GOA have planned to “give back” to the DotA community that we’ve been part of for such a long time.The competitive space is extremely important to us, and we already have additional events for both DotA and League of Legends in the works!”
A video featuring SK and MYM players doing imba escape moves to survive…
by EndMyLifeNow
In a fit of motivation (and a thread on the subject) we have made an IRC channel for members of DS.
originally it was going to be on quakenet… but then a couple of random internet people later, we were established on gamesurge.
find us at the url below…
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/dotastrategy
To use irc you need to have an IRC client.
Mozilla users have the benefit of ChatZilla and I don’t know about the rest of the world.
do a quick google search and you will find heaps of them.
