I'm not sure what other tactics you can expect. Yes, there is a heavy reliance on tank gear in this game, but no matter what kind of gear you get the goal is still "take down enemy towers until you can steal their flags and take down their citadel." If people got good DPS gear, it would be "Kill the tower real quick and stroll off laughing" rather than "tank the tower for a minute til it finally dies and stroll off laughing." I don't see how the former would be preferred to the latter. Lastly, what grounds does a Regulus have to complain about other DGs getting tank gear to be able to take down towers, when he doesn't have to worry about getting hit by them at all? (I don't see how you think being able to kite is not in this game, I've seen some pretty effective speed builds with Reg and TB)

Ahhh danielsan they cannot tank the tower AND you... so wax on wax off.. shoot them more...

0.35 seconds of net_lag makes proper kiting very difficult and more risky than it should be.

If anything other than HP stacking was viable you would see people take dps builds, speed builds, builds that gimp one character while pumping all gold into another (eg fast bracelet), minion builds, disable builds...

At the moment only a few of these are competitive. HP stacking and controlling the map through staying power, then upgrading creeps is the only strategy that seems to be very effective. Fix the dps and other non HP items and maybe we'll see some variety.

 

Speed builds are reasonably effective depending on the game, minion build trump hp build. BUT I agree we lack both dps and disable builds.

I'm completely new to the game and only have the demo - the retail is on it's way, woo - so I'm not calling this a fact, but entirely an impression. I do feel that there's no definitive counter to tanky builds, other than going tank yourself and making each skirmish a matter of attrition. This has become my "if I want to win" strategy, where other builds are purely for experimentation. I feel it's much more viable to outtank a damage dealer, than to outdamage a tank. Maybe it's related to the demo's demigod roster.

the dps items are not as effective as hp items, especially when you take armor into account.

e.g.
+25dmg on gauntlets of brutality vs +500hp and +5hp regen
20 hits needed to negate hp, not even counting hp regen or armor

blood of the fallen 800hp +5regen vs mards hammer 40dmg +5%atk speed
taking armor into account, you have to hit him over 20 times to negate his health

It would appear that all the dps items need a buff to be more in line with hp + armor items.
They should make it so that blood of the fallen is equal to mards hammer, so if an UB with blood of the fallen goes vs an UB with mards hammer, they both die at the same time.

You took that line out of the rest of my post. To win the game, you still want to "pummel down the towers," as the OP put it, regardless of what build you might have. The only difference might be you wait for creep to do it for you. I don't disagree that HP items are disproportionately favored in this game, and that the other items should probably be reassessed to make them more viable. However, the OP's argument fails to illustrate why this is so.

Ice TB makes a pretty fun autoattack character.
Take Mards Hammer, Gauntlets of Brutality, Slayer Wraps and Mageslayer for starters. Ashkandor later on.
Don't forget to keep changing forms for the bonus dmg.
Build is max rain of ice, max permafrost, 1 point in deep freeze, 1 point in ice nova, max stats.

Not recommended for a serious game

hp > all is not valid for all dgs in all situations! this thesis was allwys only from the perspective of an ub (or ub like). but you do much more with your dgs than standin infight.

you are the first person to quote me properly ^^

[quote who="[ShakeNBake]" reply="11" id="2324323"]the dps items are not as effective as hp items, especially when you take armor into account.

e.g.
+25dmg on gauntlets of brutality vs +500hp and +5hp regen
20 hits needed to negate hp, not even counting hp regen or armor

blood of the fallen 800hp +5regen vs mards hammer 40dmg +5%atk speed
taking armor into account, you have to hit him over 20 times to negate his health

It would appear that all the dps items need a buff to be more in line with hp + armor items.
They should make it so that blood of the fallen is equal to mards hammer, so if an UB with blood of the fallen goes vs an UB with mards hammer, they both die at the same time.[/quote]

You suck at theoretical math don't you...

If my base damage is 225 (torchie or regulus at level one can easily get this) and I add 25 base to that I am at 250 damage.. and the 500 hp is wiped out in 2 hits...

3 counting level one armor mitigation...

 

Ranged demigods who can harass easily can greatly benefit from gauntlets. However, melee demigods can have a little more trouble as it becomes much harder to actually attack another player. Also, the flaw behind saying that 2 250 damage attacks take away armor's bonus is that, pitting your regulus against the same regulus (with armor) puts him ahead of you for roughly 20 hits. And I really doubt regulus needs to take 20 hits before he goes to the fountain. Even if he did, you two still have active skills which can add to non-auto attack damage (though I suppose you both take angel form to hit 200 damage per shot), which mitigates the effectiveness of autoattack+ and armor, while increasing the effectiveness of HP+ items.