Common mistakes from Replay

Man I'm loving the replay, I can finally see why things went the way they did.

Persistent mistakes are the usual, losers are consistently buying high priced items and failure of people to adapt their builds to the enemy DG's

Examples:

We had a massive come from behind win that shouldn't have happened. Enemy Tower Rook, Oak, and Erebus were dominating the field and by level 10 had a strong hold on 1 of our portals. Yet by DG level 15 we were routinely crushing them and then won. Replay showed that their Oak bought $15,000 in 2 weapons. So yes, he was a terror 1 on 1, but he also went without any minions and failed to upgrade anything (and our Oak was masterful in not dying around him much). Meanwhile all that time he was hording gold we were buying incremental upgrades and cheap equipment. Then the Tower rook got slam 3 and decided he was now a Teleganker (to respond to our desperate assaults on their portals) and would jump into the fray without any of his level 4 towers around . . . and die. Having Erebus go without minions was also a big plus. He and Oak tried to be dedicated Assassins without ANY minions all game long (and our team was Oak, Ice Mage, and UB). The dedicated Ice build for TB was obviously painful early on (probably would have lost us the game normally) as we had little to counter the rook's towers. It was usefull by level 15, but man its wimpy early on.

Another example is a recent Pantheon game, QOT/UB vs 2 Regulus. Usually I would expect dark to win this so long as they avoid getting sniped to death. But we lost. Replay showed UB went a full speed/spit build against 2 regulus . . . he never bought a single piece of armor. He did buy >3,000 in healing potions though (typically 1000 at a time) and lots of mana items, including the 5k boots that give you speed and mana. Of course this did nothing for us as the Regulus were quite wisely running from UB and laying mines. I watched the entire game go UB spits, chases regulus into minefield, retreat, get shot a lot, drink potions, go back for 1 more spit and then run away or die. I was shocked that someone would actually keep doing this . . . The fact that he never had a single piece of armor or health regen (except for his artifact) just killed me. He couldn't kill creeps, he couldn't kill Regulus and he rarely had time to spit on towers.

Ren

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

Replays help a lot. I find that I've died a lot less since I've been watching them, although now I can be a little too cautious at times. I agree with the item spending too. Spending 5 or 6k on an item is fine if there are no upgrades necessary and cash is plentiful, but often times getting the store-brand generic items and a currency upgrade works out better in the long run.

Successfully updated karma reason!

It doesn't help that the store is full of 5k+ items which are only incrementally better than 1500 equivalent.

The biggest mistake I've noticed is forgoeing creep upgrades. The additional pressure put on the enemy by priests really adds up.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Buying stuff incrementally is a must do I think.

THere is no reason not to get scaled helm, Banded armor, and scaled armor asap. For the money these are great things, Later in the game when slot are full, Ill sell scaled to get nimoth chest, and banded to get the harbok.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Biggest Mistakes

Not buying currency 1 as soon as you get war rank 3. There really isn't any excuse for this in 3v3 or better.
Buying Plenor Battlecrown before other mana items. What the heck guys, it is an awesome SECOND helmet... but get the vlemish first if that is your 'thing'.
Use mana abilities on Creeps. Seriously, hammer slamming away on guys you can easily kill in a few seconds just isn't worth it.
Boots of Speed Overuse. Seriously, I routinely win games with lots of kills and flag captures, where I am the slowest person on the map... I just never need to run. A small slice of builds can get away with 'kiting' strategies... the rest need to buy some darn HP.
Not Fearing the tower/flag as a teleport target. The chief way that you gank someone in this game is by teleporting them into a trap.
Generals Not buying Monks. -- Yes they really are that good. Only very rarely should you let this golden opportunity get away from you.
Not capturing flags. Flags are more important than getting a few more grunt kills worth of xp, especially if capping the flag won't lose you a different flag.

Successfully updated karma reason!

I tend to agree with most of Zechnophobe, I've been watching some of my own replays - and even against friends of mine these mistakes are present.

Quoting Zechnophobe,

reply 4

Use mana abilities on Creeps. Seriously, hammer slamming away on guys you can easily kill in a few seconds just isn't worth it.

I personally think that this is a guideline, rather than a Rule. Numerous times I've Bat Swarmed/Hammer Slammed through an entire Creep Wave, killing them all, and enabled my own Creep Wave to move up on to a Tower quickly, providing the necessary Meat Shield that enables me to get it down before the Enemy has reached my position and prevent me from doing so.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting ZehDon,

reply 5

I tend to agree with most of Zechnophobe, I've been watching some of my own replays - and even against friends of mine these mistakes are present.

Quoting Zechnophobe, reply 4Use mana abilities on Creeps. Seriously, hammer slamming away on guys you can easily kill in a few seconds just isn't worth it.

I personally think that this is a guideline, rather than a Rule. Numerous times I've Bat Swarmed/Hammer Slammed through an entire Creep Wave, killing them all, and enabled my own Creep Wave to move up on to a Tower quickly, providing the necessary Meat Shield that enables me to get it down before the Enemy has reached my position and prevent me from doing so.

Yeah, it really depends. If no one is around and mana isn't an issue, why not speed things up? I think what he's saying though is people using critical time or mana to remove creeps, which is usually a bad idea.

Successfully updated karma reason!

ya.. when i hit lvl 10 oak, I will surge through a wave of creeps and move on to whatever i want to do. Playing most other characters, I don't care really.. I usually won't be killing creeps at lvl 10, if I get xp for being around them dying to w/e.. great. Otherwise, I'm doing something else.

But yes.. the lvl 1-5 reg dropping 1-2 mines onto creeps is so wasteful.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Yeah, there are some reasons. TB can often get away with it too, simply because he generates so much more mana than anyone else. That said, if I were teaching a new player, I'd tell them "Never use mana on creeps" and be pretty confidant in it improving their playing power.

Just played another game, and saw yet another person get Plenor Battlecrown as their first mana item. I mean, it isn't like these games are on Leviathan...

Successfully updated karma reason!