DotA 2 Guide to Stat Manipulation

 Introduction

Stat manipulating is something most DotA players have heard about, but not something usually used to its full extent. Many of us have heard the casters pointing out how a player dropped two of his gauntlets (+3str) to get the most out of their salves, or heard how changing Power Treads to agi lets you refill more mana and HP with a bottle charge. This guide will explain the inner workings of stat manipulation and cover all relevant tricks, from the most common to the most rare and rewarding.

Basics

All of this guide is focused around filling your bars in the fastest, most efficient way possible. Those bars are your HP bar, with a maximum value of (150+Strength*19+bonuses from items/skills) and your Mana bar, with a value of (13*Intelligence + bonuses from items/skills).

One way to fill those are the passive regenerations, which are:

-HP regeneration = Base Regeneration (all heroes have 0.25 at least) + Strength * .03 + Bonus HP Regen from Items/Skills

-Mana regeneration = Int*0.4*(100% + % based regeneration from items) + Flat regeneration (Basilius and similar auras, Crystal Maiden's Aura)

The other way are items with activable effects and skills with relevant effects to the current HP/Mana values. Since most of these effects are flat (not based on max HP/mana), the smaller your max hp/max mana is, the stronger those effects will be. And that's where stat manipulation comes into play: you can lower your max HP/Mana by either dropping items to the ground or switching power treads while keeping your current HP/Mana percentage the same, get the bars refilled, and increase the max values of the bars again.

There are some maxHP/maxMana changes that change the current values for the same number (and as such, can't be used for these tricks). Those actually hurt or heal you, changing your current % value. Some examples of these are white number stat changes (levelup, Morph), Death Pact(it heals you on activation, and only lowers the maxhp once it finishes) and Armlet of Mordiggian's active effect.

Example scenarios

That's right, straight for the usage examples. I thought about listing items relevant in a separated section, but would have ended repeating a lot of information.
I'll list a bunch of items you have in your inventory, your objective and how much time you have to achieve it. The answers will be spoilered so you get a chance to answer it yourself before checking.


Scenario 0:

You have 20 seconds to recover as much HP and mana as you can.

Drop the gauntlets, use the healing salve and the clarity potion. After 10s, you can pick the gauntlets, since the salve effect has ended, and the clarity effectiveness isn't affected by the strength of the gauntlets

Scenario 1:

You have 3 seconds to recover as much HP as you can, while sitting at max Mana.

Drop the bracers, use Mekansm, pick bracers. You do pay a bit more mana than you could since you lost int from dropping the bracers, but max HP was the targe

Scenario 2:

You're traveling towards your jungle from your ancients, and you want to recover as much HP and Mana as possible during the displacement.

Set the Power Treads to either int or agi and wait. Setting it to int or agi doesn't matter at all, since your max mana, current mana and mana regen scale directly proportional to your int

Scenario 3:
+
Same as before, you're moving through the map and want to recover both mana and HP.

Set the Power Treads to agi and wait. Since you have two sources of flat mana regen (Brillance aura and Vlads aura), setting your PT to int would make those flat regens less relevant

Scenario 4:

You are missing mana, and want to recover as much as possible in 11 seconds.

Set Power Treads to Strength, drop the bracer, use Soul Ring (-150 HP, +150 mana), pick your bracer, set the PT to int and wait 10s.

Since you will increase your int, the 150 mana of the SoulRing will get multiplied by: (Base int+3[Bracer]+8[Power Treads])/(Base int), but you will only lose 150 mana at the end. If you were, for instance, a Level 7 Sven (23 int), you would have gained ((23+11)/23)*150-150. That amounts to 72 mana.

Remember that you could also have spent 150 mana in those 10 seconds (after switching PT to int and picking the bracer), preventing the mana removal, and the SoulRing would have provided 150+72 effective mana. This also allows you to set your PTs back to STR/AGI and keep the same mana % at the end of the SoulRing buff, since no mana will be subtracted.

Setting your PTs to STR, using SoulRing, PT to int, cast a spell, and PT back to STR is a very good habit in combat/farming situation

Scenario 5:
+
You have to manage two heroes that want to recover as much mana as possible.

Hero1 drops both items, Hero2 drops the null talisman and uses the Arcane Boots. Then Hero2 drops the Arcane Boots, Hero1 picks his up, uses them, and then both pick the rest of the items up

Notice that if you had to wait a long period of time, you could keep the Arcane boots or Point booster dropped, since droping those keeps your mana regen the same, but decreases your max and current Mana. If there are flat regens involved, even droping the Null Talisman would help

Scenario 6:

You're at your fountain, sent back by Chen during a clash. You want to recover full Mana and HP as fast as possible to rejoin the fight.

Drop the Aghanim and use bottle. Most of the regen of the fountain is percentage based, but there's a small flat mana regen component, plus the big flat HP/s Mana/s provided by the bottle. Dropping the aghanim and picking it up before teleporting hastens the refill

Hero-specific tricks or item tricks not covered by this guide should be easy to infer from these examples. There are times that neither option is optimal. For instance, you want to use Mekansm. Do you drop the Point booster to get healed for more, or do you keep it to pay less mana? You'll have to decide what's the best option, and if it's worth the risk of getting the item destroyed. Tricks with Arcanes or Mek are safer, since if you're fast enough (specially with shift-queue) it's almost impossible for someone to hijack/destroy the item. On the other hand, bottle or specially salves carry a considerable risk if you're not under an allied tower.


DotA2 exclusive, making use of items during the 10s window

DotA2 has a 10s period of grace during which you can have an item and sell it back for full price, as long as you don't use its active (when possible). Apart from the obvious disadvantages (you could get killed and be forced to keep the items), there's also the fact that if you spend Reliable gold, you will only get Unreliable gold back. You can read about Reliable gold here.

I'll list some useful items from the Side Shop, since that's where this trick is most useful:


You can buy these items to increase your current mana, TP back, and sell them at base. Or you could use them to cast a spell, and sell it right back, to diminish the mana cost on your real mana pool. Energy booster works only if you have already your tier 2 boots (since if not, you'll build Arcane boots and won't be able to sell back for full price).



These can be bought to boost your regen for a few seconds. If you're doing it, it'll be safer to sell and rebuy them each 4-6 seconds, so a 2 second stun doesn't prevent you from selling them (death will always prevent you though, unless you plan to buyback)



Useful to reduce the damage received from delayed damaging effects (like Maledict or Shadow Poison), or preventing Zeus from claiming vengeance in the name of the ally you just killed. It reduces Thundergod's Wrath lvl 1 damage from 169 to 143.

Last words

If you have any scenario you'd like me to cover, maybe even hero-specific (I could make a dedicated section for specific hero tricks), don't doubt asking for them.

Any correction (specially, which are the actual mechanics behind the armlet trick) or suggestion about the other sections is also very welcome.

About the title: I know that DotA2 is supposed to be spelled without capital A. I still think that those of us who consider DotA2 the true and only sequel to DotA should spell it like that, regardless of Valve not being able to do it.

Finally, I want to thank flamewheel for letting me use his AM guide as template.

Source : Here

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Bedakan Dampak Kecanduan Game dan Psikopat

Seakan ga ada habisnya, kecenderungan bermain game yang berlebihan sering dikonotasikan hal-hal buruk dan mengarah ke tindakan brutal. Paling minim sih, saking hobinya dia bermain game sampai melupakan interaksi sosial dan kegiatan sehari-hari, tapi kalau sampe tersangkut tindak kriminal…Hmm, mari coba memilah mana yang masih dikategorikan kecanduan game dan mana yang sudah benar-benar terganggu kondisi kejiwaannya atau seorang psikopat!

Ambil contoh saja kasus terbaru yang terjadi di Cina, dan bukannya menghakimi perilaku gamer di sana negatif ya, tapi memang banyak kasus kecanduan game terekspos karena jumlah gamernya yang juga membludak. Seorang gamer bernama Zhao begitu kesal dengan pengelola warnet tempat dia biasa bermain saat koneksi internet (ISP) yang digunakannya terputus manakala sedang memainkan salah satu game web-based favoritnya. Kekesalannya begitu memuncak sampai dirinya ‘ngeyel’ menghampiri langsung sang pemilik warnet berlokasi di Renqiu, kota Hebei.

Awalnya, mereka berdua hanya bertengkar mulut, karena sang pemilik (disebutkan bernama Ren) malah menuduh Zhao telah mengunduh virus yang menyebabkan terputusnya koneksi internet. Semakin berang, Zhao pun meluncurkan bogem mentah ke arah Ren. Dengan posisi mempertahankan diri, Ren masih sempat merenggut sebuah palu, tapi gagal mengenai si Zhao. Bahkan palu itu berhasil direbut Zhao dan digunakan untuk memukul kepala Ren berkali-kali hingga sang pemilik warnet terkapar tewas di tanah.

Lebih ‘gila’-nya lagi, begitu istri Ren masuk ke ruangan dan bergerak menghampiri jenazah suaminya, Zhao melayangkan juga palu itu ke kepala sang istri yang tak tahu apa-apa tersebut, kemudian menikamnya dengan gunting yang tergeletak dekat jangkauannya. Demi menutup kejahatannya, Zhao akhirnya membakar warnet berisi mayat pasangan suami istri tersebut bersama senjata pembunuhnya.

Kasus pembunuhan tersebut terjadi di bulan Desember lalu, namun pihak berwajib baru berhasil menangkap Zhao di bulan Januari ini. Berdasarkan sumber pemberitaan dari Cina, Zhao terancam hukuman mati atas tuntutan pembunuhan ganda. Hukuman setimpal untuk seorang ‘psikopat’, tapi bukan untuk gamer yang kecanduan game tentunya…

Andaikata 2 aline pertama di atas hal yang wajar kita temui pada dampak kecanduan game, maka dua alinea berikutnya akan menggambarkan hal-hal yang membedakan gamer dengan orang yang kemungkinan terganggu kejiwaannya, alias psikopat! So, bagaimana Sobat Digitalife? Stay healhty, and keep happy gaming! ^_^


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DotA Guide Role

Hardcarry

Main carry of the team, it’s the ultimate arsenal ace card or whatever, in late game. Its farming time spans from early game to mid game, sometimes to late game if used to solo push.

Accurate lasthitting

Hardcarry is often positioned in a trilane with 2 supports, sometimes dual lane with 1 support having a good lane support ability, making farm a lot easier since the lane is evenly balanced / dominated. The standard CS of a Hardcarry should be about 40-60 creep kills in 10 mins and 80-120 in 20 mins.

Lane coordination

When being in trilane, both 2 Supports and Hardcarry should all try hard to scare the enemy hero, as well as to kill when chance comes. With 3 heroes having nukes for damages / disables / slows, the capability to kill is extremely high. i.e. Naga, Leshrac, Earthshaker (LV3 nuke output damage is about 450 + hitting damage of 250, considering all 3 can disable awhile, it’s a 700 damage output!)

Creep control

Being a Hardcarry is not just about good last hitting. Hitting enemy’s creeps continuously will result in self’s creeps pushing forward, thus making the enemy heroes  farm easier. Furthermore, it makes their flanks and rear secure, vanishing trilane’s capability to scare / gank the enemy. On the contary, if you manage to draw their creeps closer to your tower, you may have better chance to farm easier and have your supports flank them. So you may like to block your creeps, deny your own half-HP creeps, and last hit whenever the enemy’s creep HP is exactly 1 hit left.

Map awareness

It’s inevitable for a Hardcarry to farm a lot, and risk of being ganked is also present. Always constantly view maps while farming to see whether there are missing heroes. Think about the missing heroes capability to kill you, if you think that they are capable enough, you should back immediately, if not, continue farming. Most Hardcarry will also needed in mid game clashes. Today’s Hardcarries like Chaos Knight or Naga Siren got nukes that will help in ganks / clashes. That’s why full farming the whole game is not really a good option for those heroes, you have to use them to their full potentials, including in ganks. You should be aware of the clashes’ possible positions, and head there without risk of being initiated first.

Semicarry

Semicarry farms early game and roam mid game (since the full potency of a Semicarry can be pulled out in mid game). It is positioned on solo lanes, either mid lane or side lane. A Semicarry needs level more than gold. Level’s necessary to execute ganks in mid game.

Accurate lasthitting

Semicarry is often positioned in a solo lane. When it’s a solo vs solo, you should farm well, since that you are equal in number advantage, compared to your opponent. Should it be a bad matchup against a better solo hero or against trilane, not farming is just fine. It’s better not to farm than dying and making solo lane unstable. 

Lane control

Semicarry should be able to dominate the lane, at least when having a bad hero matchup (i.e. facing trilane or stronger solo hero), Semicarry should not be killed for a waste and stable in getting exp. If it’s not possible to stay near creeps, it’s just fine to do tower hug, waiting enemy’s creeps to come to your tower. Lane balance is always the first priority. Farming is just second.

Creep control

Try to draw the enemy’s creeps closer to your tower for easier farm and exp. You may like to block your creeps, deny your own half-HP creeps, and last hit. Mind your creep balance to avoid fogs and uphills.

Map awareness

Remember, a solo has far less backup capability since supports are far away, making Semicarry the most vulnerable role to ganks. Always constantly view maps while farming to see whether there are missing heroes. Think about the missing heroes capability to kill you, if you think that they are capable enough, you should back immediately, if not, continue farming.

Ganking prowess

When you feel that you get a certain level of nukes necessary to gank (usually at level 6), observe and the other lanes. See the opponents who are most prone to ganks. Before going, try to push your lane. Reasons are, you farm faster on that stage, and your move to that other lane can’t be discovered because of the fog.

Support

Supports are used to lane control, ganks, or clash assistance. They buy wards and couriers and do not require much gold to unleash their potentials. Support is commonly placed on trilane. Sometimes, duallane and roaming.

Warding

Wards are supreme in having vast map control. Although it costs gold, it is not that bad of an investment. Think about the ward you buy that will save someone from dying. It prevents the opponent from having 200 gold and your team losing 200 gold. Observer wards off 200 gold with 2 charges traded with a gank prevention which worth 400 gold (assuming you lose 200 gold and opponent gains 200 gold ) is not a bad idea.

The following picture shows you common locations of wards.

I will explain the logic of each ward placement.

- Yellow : Placed on the high elevation land, making the visible area large. It’s used to see whether the neutrals are being farmed, whether someone is out from the bottom lanes and whether someone enters neutrals site from the ward site.

- Brown : Placed on the intersection. Good for observing the neutral site to prevent ganks to lane.

- Blue : Placed on pulling site. Sole purpose is to make the neutrals not showing, so that the opponent can’t pull.

- Purple : Placed on the river end. It provides vision to determine who cross that point of lane.

- Red : Placed on high elevation “island” near the rune site. It provides vision to rune, opponents going in to the neutrals site from the opening and to opponents trying to face Roshan. (Remember, they can blink in or use smoke to avoid you knowing, though)

- Green : About the same like Red, but the vision is more focused to the intersection in Dire’s side.

Quote from JerokPower or 1331 or whatever (he frequently changes his username lol):

“Wards are also used when we are on the offensive and defensive stances.”

When on the offensive, wards should be placed in lanes to determine the positions of opponent’s heroes in a certain lane (called lane warding), so that the push will be easy, knowing that an opponent’s hero is not ready for clash. Plus, your push attempt can’t be ganked from flanks / rear easily with wards around you.

When on the defensive, try to place wards in places that the opponent’s heroes may hide. Especially when defending base, wards are extremely important. Let’s say, opponent got Sand King, ready to cast Epicenter and dagger straight in to the base. If there is no ward, you will get no clue as of when the Sand King will start casting.

Positioning in clash

Supports generally have no escape mechanisms. Plus, they have low HP (i.e. Crystal Maiden or Lich). That’s why correct positioning is highly essential since they got to execute everything almost perfectly. This is even more important for initiator support (i.e. Earthshaker or Tidehunter). The basic way of thought to achieve good positioning is, “Be on the spot where you can have access to nuke the opponent while giving cover the the team is also possible”.

Ganking prowess

Supports normally try to dominate lanes instead of going to other lanes, but it’s OK if the lane is already dominated and the Hardcarry is able to farm with ease. Supports should not be static in mid game. They should actively move across the fogs to gank. Don’t worry about gold, supports don’t need gold.

Lane control

Supports should try to flank opponents from sides or rear. This will scare the opponent not to go further in lane, especially when the opponent is soloing, with no backups available. This will make Hardcarry’s farm easier. When fighting enemy’s solo, the flank may be widen. Supports may hide in the woods to scare the opponent. When fighting enemy’s trilanes, the flank should be limited to the lanes’ right and left sides. Widening the flank just makes the side supports vulnerable to being killed because of low backup capability.

Creep control

As I have mentioned above, creep control is about drawing the enemy’s creeps closer to your tower for Carry’s farming ease. One of the supports, preferably melee one, should pull creeps to maintain creeps balance. Support staying in lane should start hitting self’s creeps which have half HP already, when self’s creeps is too forward. Blocking creeps is also necessary. Of course, not hitting opponent’s creeps continuously is also necessary, unless you are trying to push.

There are 2 types of pulls:

Single Pull

Pulling neutrals from 1 camp only. Although it may appears as if the opponent’s creeps will be advancing toward your tower, the truth is, the result will be your creeps advancing to their tower.Because of that, it serves as a pre-push setup. If it’s a little hard to comprehend, I think you should try by yourself. 

Double Pull (Double Stack)

Pulling neutrals from 2 camps. This will remove 1 of your creeps wave completely. This type of push will result in opponent’s creeps advancing to your towers. This type of pull eases your Carry to farm and cancels your opponent’s heroes in getting exp.

Map awareness

Remember, a Support is the vital source of backups. That’s why you will need a constant TP (Town Portal) in your inventory. You are to get to the positions where and when you are needed in instant. Support should always present in clashes. Having low HP and no escape mechanisms, supports should be smart in hiding and to react fast to circumstances.

Source : Here

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DotA Vs Life

The main reason of DotA addiction actually comes from peers pressure. Imagine, when you are on the middle of serious studying, a PING!!! or Buzz comes into your phone or messenger, with a word, “game”. This is the more reason for you me to teach you guys to avoid these temptations.

Academics Study Issues

“Pro DotA players suck at school” (Really?)All Posts

I don’t think so. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a renowned DotA player in my school, among lots of other players in my school, since that when I play, my team will always outplay them. But, at the same time, I rarely fail my exams.

 Why am I able to excel both DotA and studies? It’s because I don’t dare to neglect my studies. When there is an upcoming test in the next 3 days, I never even try to open my Steam.

When you play before you study, you will get tired at the moment you start studying. Furthermore, if you are losing, you will still be thinking about the game. The worst part is, when you lose, you tend to play one more game. WTF, when will you study then ?

When you play after you study, you will get tired too when you play, but for me this is not of a significant degree. I can play after I study. That’s a win-win solution for me. But according to some of my friends, playing after studying will reduce what they have memorized in the study. If you feel so, please don’t exert yourself playing.

 Playing All Night Issues

Playing all night will friends in a computer rental is extremely fun, but not really that fun for your health. Especially when tomorrow you got class, you will be more likely to sleep when you got lessons. I have experienced those feelings, when a scary teacher is teaching and my eyes are about to close and I insisted on opening them (it was also a result of DotA).

Aside from that, it may trigger illnesses such as, stress, emotional disorder, heart disease and diabetes. That’s why, play only on special occasions like when you are on a trip with your friends.

Source : Here

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Antusiasme Besar Gamer Hadiri ‘NVIDIA Gaming Seminars’

Hari Minggu (13/1), bertempat di Level One Cyber Café – Binus Anggrek, Jakarta, NVIDIA menggelar sebuah acara bertajuk ‘NVIDIA Gaming Seminars’, yang diperuntukkan sebagai ajang sosialisasi deretan graphic cards terbaru dari GeForce GTX 600 series ke seluruh fans gamer pecinta produk NVIDIA di Indonesia. Setelah menyambangi kota Jakarta, acara serupa juga akan berlangsung di Bandung (19 Januari 2013, Digital Lounge) dan di Yogyakarta (24 Januari 2013, PLATINUM).

Bagaimanakah keseruan dan antusiasme para gamer di Jakarta menyambut sekaligus menguji performa produk anyar NVIDIA tersebut? Simak liputannya berikut ini.

Meski berembel-embel seminar, namun konsep acara kali ini tersaji secara santai dan nyaman bagi para gamer yang hadir di acara tersebut untuk dapat menyimak seluruh penuturan fitur maupun ragam keunggulan graphic cards GeForce GTX 600 series, yang disampaikan oleh Bapak Kris Ardianto, selaku Field Marketing Representative dari NVIDIA.

Dari sekitar 50 peserta yang hadir di ‘NVIDIA Gaming Seminars’, beberapa diantaranya pun tidak ragu untuk bertanya secara langsung berdasarkan pengalaman mereka sendiri sebagai pengguna produk NVIDIA agar dapat lebih optimal dalam pengimplementasiannya terkait game yang mereka mainkan, atau sekedar mengorek info lebih detil mengenai fitur-fitur terbaru GTX 600 series.

Selain dihadiri oleh sejumlah komunitas / clan gamer dari berbagai genre game populer, nampak pula salah satu ikon tim gamer girls asli Indonesia, yakni nXa-Lad1es, yang juga antusias mengikuti acara dan secara pribadi mengutarakan harapannya agar NVIDIA dapat terus memunculkan inovasi-inovasi baru untuk graphic cards maupun produk lainnya.

Puncak acara dari ‘NVIDIA Gaming Seminars’ sendiri adalah Mini-Tournament yang mempertandingkan DOTA 2 dan CoD: Modern Warfare 4, dimana peserta berkesempatan memenangkan hadiah graphic card ZOTAX GTX 650. Berikut ini adalah foto-foto suasana kompetisi yang terjadi sepanjang sesi Mini-Tournament.

Sebagai penutup tentunya pengumuman para pemenang dan pemberian hadiah. Dari Mini-Tournament DOTA 2, keluar sebagai juara pertama yakni tim Ritter Moest, diikuti oleh tim NxL DotA yang meraih runner-up, sementara juara ketiga diduduki oleh tim OTL. Pemenang kompetisi CoD: MW4 adalah eFox, sedangkan tim NxL, Level 1, dan nXa-Lad1es secara berurutan menduduki peringkat kedua, ketiga, dan keempat.

Juara 1 DOTA 2, Ritter Moest

Juara 2 DOTA 2, NxL DotA

Juara 3 DOTA 2, OTL

Juara 1 CoD: MW4, eFox

Juara 2 Cod: MW4, NxL

Juara 4 CoD: MW4, nXa-Lad1es

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