THE DOTA BLOG
DOTA 2 TRADING GAMING AND COMPUTER TIPS
DotA – IO, the Guardian Wisp GUIDE
Originally nothing more than a lowly spirit of the trees, Io dwelt peacefully amongst his kind in the Great Forest. As the Great War spread across the land the creatures of the forest were forced to defend their home. The desire to protect his kin awoke power in Io he had not known he possessed. He discovered he was able to connect his life force to another creature to strengthen them or help them flee by instantly transporting them out of harm. Io became known amongst his people as the Guardian Wisp, a protector of the Spirits. All other spirits swore to assist him and can be summoned to his side to aid him in his battle. Uninterested in the battle between the Sentinel and the Scourge, Io fights only to protect his people.
- Hero Class: Guardian Wisp
- Hero Name: Io
- Range: 525
- Movement Speed: 295
- Hero Type: Strength
- Starting Armor: 0
- Starting Damage: 33-42
- Agility: 14 + 1.6
- Strength: 17 + 1.9
- Intelligence: 23 + 1.7
Tether
Io tethers himself to an allied unit, granting both units bonus movement speed. Any enemy units that contact the tether will be stunned. The tether will break if it stretches beyond 900 units. Lasts 12 seconds.
- Movement Bonus: 20/25/30/35%
- Stun Duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0
- Cooldown: 12
- Manacost: 40
If you try to tether a unit that is outside its range (by up to 900) Io will latch on and pull himself closer to the unit.
Tether transfers other states on the hero to the allied unit. This includes Overcharge, Relocate and any time you regenerate hp/mp.
Note: Has a sub ability that lets you break the tether.
This skill is what makes Io such a scary supporter. Combine him with Ursa and say goodbye to your target. However, this skill won’t do much if you don’t want to be a support hero.
Spirits
Io summons 5 ancient Spirits over the course of 6 seconds; the Spirits dance around Io in a circle to protect him. If an enemy hero moves close enough to touch a Spirit, the Spirit releases its life energy in a burst, damaging and slowing all enemies in a 300 area of effect. Nonhero units only take minor damage upon touching a spirit and do not cause them to explode.
You have two sub-abilities. One to move them outwards and one to call them back in. You can stop them at any distance by toggling the ability order.
- Damage per Spirit: 25/50/75/100
- Slow: 30%
- Cooldown: 14
- Manacost: 120/130/140/150
Cool skill!
Overcharge
Io draws on more energy than he can safely handle, granting him bonus attack speed, but draining 2.5% of his current HP and MP per second. If Io is tethered to an ally the bonus attack speed is also granted to that ally.
This is a toggle ability.
Attack Speed: 60/80/100/120
Note: This bonus affects a tethered unit as well.
Another support skill which should be combined with Tether for maximum benefits.
Relocate
Io temporarily relocates himself, along with any tethered hero, to the target location for 12 seconds.
There is a casting delay and the enemy has visual indicators on the minimap and the world of the teleport before it happens.
- Cast Delay: 2.5/2.25/2.0
- Cooldown: 80/60/40
- Manacost: 100
Note: If an allied hero is Tethered, that hero will be teleported along with you. You can break the tether at any time to prevent that hero from returning back with you. -disable help is available for this ability.
An instant gank skill. Tether Ursa or Sven, kill your enemy quickly and you go back to your place before. Need some coordination with your partner to maximize the gank. Also useful during the line phase to refill Bottle and buy something in your base with ease.
Warcraft 3 DotA – What Is DotA?
History:
DotA is a custom map from Warcraft III – Reign of Chaos and it’s expansion, Warcraft III – The Frozen Throne. The date of the first appearance of the map is not 100% clear, but it was sometime in 2003.
There were many different maps that developed on the first DotA mod, but the one that eventually become dominant was developed by Steve Feak also know under the nick “Guinsoo”.
After about 2 years the development was handed over to a mapmaker under the nick “Icefrog”, who was been working on it ever since.
Gameplay:
Unlike most RTS games you do not control a race and have to build a base, gather resources, expand, etc. At the very start you get to pick one of 104 unique heroes, which are sorted under 3 main attributes; strength, intelligence and agility. There are different games modes which give you a certain pool of heroes to choose from or similar, but I won’t go into detail as it would take to long to explain every single mode.
After having picked a hero you buy item from you start gold and move to a lane. About 1 minute and 30 seconds after the game having started your allied creeps will spawn from your base. There are 3 different lanes which the creeps will enter, on each lane there are 3 towers. These towers are very strong at the start, but loose importance the longer the game lasts since the heroes grow in strength as well. So from both teams, “Sentinel” and “Scourge”, creeps spawn. The creeps are controlled by the computer and evenly balanced if no heroes interfere.
The main aim of the game is to push one, or all, of the 3 lanes, enter the opponents base and destroy their main building, for the Sentinel it’s “The World Tree” and for the Scourge it’s “The Frozen Throne”. Before you actually destroy the main building of the opposing team, you can also destroy their “barracks”. Each lane has 2 of these, and for every 1 you destroy you own creeps will get stronger giving you an advantage.
To achieve your goal you have to level up your hero, you do this by standing close to enemy creeps to gain experience. For every level you gain, you get a skill point. You have 3 different skills and 1 ultimate skill. You can level each skill up to level 4 and your ultimate up to level 3. The other 10 skill points are used to upgrade your stats.
Besides leveling up you also have to farm gold to buy yourself powerful items. You do this by last hitting enemy creeps, or neutral creeps which are positioned around the whole map.
Other info’s:
Average DotA games take around 40 minutes even though some are decided after 10 minutes and some take about 90 minutes! There are a lot of games hosted on b-net by players and host bots alike, but like any other major e-sport there are also leagues and tournaments with considerable prize pools.
To be able to play DotA on Warcraft III’s very own battle-net you simply have to buy Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne. Both are available for 10 euro each in close to every major PC shop.
I hope you enjoyed this short review of DotA any maybe you are inspired to give it a try.
Using Failures for Improvement in DotA
You failed? That’s great! You’re one step away from improvement. Failing is normal, being afraid to fight is not. Not having the guts to fight means you already lost. No matter how strong your opponents are, fight. Feeling frustrated after losing a fight is alright but don’t dwell on it for a long time. We all want to win but in order to do that we should first learn the game. If you lost, it just means that you still have more room for improvement. Though other Pro players played this game for more than 5 years already, they still do commit mistakes. Don’t rush into winning at once. There are a lot to consider and to analyze in this game and the only way to make this possible is to be brave enough to take the risk of failing.
Great people failed too
Michael Jordan was cut of from high school varsity team but proved to be the best ever to play basketball. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he lacked imagination and had no original ideas, but look at how every Disney films are loved and patronized by people of all ages until now. Bill Gates failed in his businesses before getting into Microsoft and became a billionaire. Even the best people on every field, failed. Don’t be afraid to fail. In fact, when someone would ask me how to have the best team in the world, I’d give a prescription of failing 3 times a day. You may experience a lot of trash talks and stuff, but so what? They can’t hurt you without your consent. It’s up to you if you would accept those words. You just have to believe in yourself no matter what. Have your goal on your mind and use your experience in reaching it.
Analyze Every Failures
Don’t analyze how bitter the feeling of the failure was, analyze all the factors that lead to failing. Failing alone wont make you improve. Don’t just fail and drink after because your failure would be useless. There are a lot to analyze why you lost. Lane control, ganking, hero picks, team fights, map control. It is better to save your replays and watch it to see the errors clearly. Whenever I lose a game, I try to think of the best move I could have make instead of committing the certain error. I also watch enemy’s point of view to know their strategy, so that we wont lose to same strategy again.
Have a Conclusion
After analyzing your failures, decide what adjustments your going to make. Stick to this plan. Do your adjustments in your next games. Don’t make the same errors and execute your new strategy. Chances are your games will improve. If ever you fail again, detect the errors and make the necessary adjustments again. After tons of failures and adjustments, I bet you are already one scary DotA beast.
Learn From Failures of Other Players
A lot of Professional DotA Replays are uploaded everyday. We have Gosugamers, , playdota, MyMym, Mineski, itsme, and other sites that upload Pro replays. You could use the replays of pro teams to your advantage. They are pro teams and errors are very minimal but they occur in every single game. Watch very carefully and analyze every aspects of the game. Conclude on what should and not be done based from the replays you’ve watched. Don’t just watch to get yourself entertained like what most people do. A lot of people are complaining after watching a replay that it was boring because the team turtled or played safe. What they do not understand is that the teams are just being careful because in DotA, you can lost in one wrong move.
