Interview With Top Dota Players

Here we have interesting interview with two very good dota players about game's inner life.


1. Hey there Mooseman and m0rdiN. First of all thanks for your time. Could you please introduce yourselves to our readers and of course tell us a little bit about your job at Dota-League?

Moose: Hi, my name is Moritz Zimmermann and I am the lead designer here at the Dota-League. Apart from that I mostly take care of public relations- , marketing- and sponsoring related matter and of course do everything I can to improve the site in any way possible.
That can range from news-writing to helping out Carnie, m0rdin and Spudlich and all the other admins with the league- and tournament systems. About myself: I am 26 years old, from Germany and finished my studies in Media-design last year with the focus on video and film.

m0rdiN: Hello, my name is Martin Hermes, I am 26 years old, living in the west of Germany, Muelheim an der Ruhr, close to Cologne. I finished my education in spring 2007 at the university of applied sciences in Duesseldorf in business economics. During my academic studies I played DotA and founded the DotA-League with 3 friends of mine, which is one of the favourite platforms to play DotA nowadays.
At the beginning I coded the website and did a lot of administrative work, but today I am acting more in the background. I am one of the guys behind the league and my job is to develop the future plans for it and to hold all divisions of the site together.

2. What do you think was the biggest factor in the development of the League?

Moose: Interesting enough, I think the biggest factor in the development of the league was to create a site that a lot of people would be interested in visiting. It is important to first of all have a site that is working well and offers something to re-visit and one that also is an eye-catcher.

But over the years we have learned extremely much from the community, so that we were able to improve it according to their wishes and ideas. Everything that we have created was supported by the community and they helped us building up this site immensely.

m0rdiN: In 2005, we saw the potential of the great game DotA. It is based on the popular strategic game Warcraft 3 with a lot of features to build up your individual hero. You can choose one of around 90 heroes and buy special items for them, which gives nearly endless possibilities for teams to build up strategies. Another factor is, that the strategy, the teamplay and the skills of the individual players are very important to win a round. Especially the team-element could even be compared to Counter-Strike, one of the most popular online games ever! But if you compare DotA with CS, you have much more possibilities to set up your team and be successful.

This combination makes the game DotA the most awesome game and because of that it will grow further on in the future.

One of the important things at the beginning of DotA-League was the decision to set up the project with an international scope. At the beginning in 2005, there were only a few DotA-Teams in the German scene, so we decided to keep the whole website in English.

3. You’re a part of the Dota-League from the very beginning. Why did you start the project and did you expect it to grow this big?

Moose: The idea was created by Carnie and his brother Spudlich. It started off by just playing DotA ourselves and since we (Carnie, Spudlich, m0rdiN and I) are all friends, we started building up on the idea to create a league which was missing three years ago. Now our HQ is in a garden shed where we set up a little office to sit together and program, design, find new ideas how to improve the site and think about future projects to make DL the coolest site for DotA.

When we started the site we thought we could have a chance to make it an interesting site for people to play the game. But we, of course, didn't have any really decent reasons for people to go there fist except for others to find companions with the same goals – to play DotA.

But as we improved the site with the help of the community it started to get really exciting to watch more and more users join our site. That is a very big compliment to us!

m0rdiN: We started the project in 2005 and saw the potential of the game, because we loved it so much! At the time, there was no organized website to play DotA and after a while we were sick of playing public games. This was the reason to create a platform for teams and individuals to fight high quality games against each other.

I never expected that this project would grow up so fast and that it would reach such a high number of members as it has today. At the beginning

I remember the point we had our first 100 (!) registered users, and we were very proud to reach the DotA-community that much.

4. DL exists for almost three years now. Have you ever tried to play DotA professionally yourself in that long time?

Moose: Ha ha, well in the beginning, we all played DotA like crazy. As I mentioned before, that was one of the reasons why we started the league. But we also only had a few hundred users which meant that we had less work than today. Nowadays we have more than 100.000 users registered here and all of them need to be supported. We get a few hundred support questions every day and these need to be answered. We take contact to our users very seriously. But that also means that according to all this work we have with the big DotA-bunch of users, we don´t find so much time to play ourselves anymore. My stats say it all . But playing DotA is very important for us. Otherwise we would not know what to improve!

m0rdiN: No, I am not made for professional DotA gaming. I would say I am a very bad DotA player and I don’t have the goal to be a professional, because the league is demanding a lot of work from the founders. Though I find myself wondering how it would be to play professional.

5. The past season was won by Meet Your Makers over SK Gaming and mousesports. Did you expect that result?

Moose: I for myself did expect a result like that. The Pick League is becoming more popular these days. This means that bigger clans are taking part in it and only the name “Mousesports”, “Meet Your Makers” or “SK-Gaming” can let a chill roll down people´s spines who are not playing in such a professional clan. And of course the pressure to win immediately rises.

These clans are extremely organized and professional, which fun-clans or clans created out of a friendship mostly don't have. So the competition is not as high for professional clans yet, as for example in more mature games such as Counter-Strike or StarCraft. The more people play it, the harder it gets to become and stay No. 1. But I highly doubt that MYM, SK or mousesports will lose their spots in the high ranks. ;)

m0rdiN: In general there are a many DotA teams who are extremely professional, who are very well organised, who fight for the wins between each other. But there are a lot of other clans climbing up the ladder who get more and more organised so that we can expect exciting fights between teams in the future. MYM has been there in the very beginning which means that they had a lot more time than other teams to improve their game- and teamplay. That is of course a big advantage. But other teams will follow and the hunt for first place is on.

6. Who do you think will win the upcoming season?

Moose: It would be nice to see a fresh and rather unknown clan win the season. A clan no one would expect to win.

m0rdiN:May the best team win. There are many candidates.

7. What is the expected number of participating teams of the pick league?

Moose: The amount of participating teams for the current season is around 500 teams. That is the biggest number we have ever had and we will do our best to manage that large number of players attending.

m0rdiN: We have had a lot more teams signed up than we had last season and having more than 3.000 people participating in the pick league clearly shows that is is beyond our expectations and makes it the biggest league for DotA world wide.

8. You recently announced prizes for the Division 2. What was the reason for you to add them?

Moose: We upped the prizes since we thought that not only Div 1 teams should have the chance to win something. It´s always the first, second and third who win something. If you look at sprinters in the Olympic challenges for example, it´s even worse. The first one is the only one who gets all the recognition, even though the second was about half a second slower. That's not a lot and we think that people who worked as hard as a first placed and did their best, should get recognition as well.

m0rdiN:The standard in Division 1 is even as high as in Division 2 which should be rewarded as well, according to the rise in quality and organization in the second division. We also want to reach out to more people to show them the path for a more professional gaming future.

9. Until now you always gave away product prizes to the top three teams. Could this change during the ninth season or maybe in the next and if yes what would be the reason?

Moose:We are working hard to compete with other tournaments and leagues who give out prize money.

This is our goal for 2008.

10. Could there be a possible LAN Event organized by the DotA-League?

Moose: We already thought about that some time ago. We want to get bigger with the league and want to be able to meet and greet, and of course get bashed in DotA, by the people who play through DL. It´s at this point still a huge thing to plan, so we focus on more important matter first: Improving the site. But that is definitely a goal.

m0rdiN: Yes of course, this might be possible. At the moment we are focused on online gaming, but if DotA will grow further on, there might be a chance to arrange some offline events. I think the community is big enough now and there would be lots of intercessors, because the whole scene is getting more and more professional.


11. Did you ever think about joint events with other organizers like the DreamHack for further DotA events?

Moose: We, of course, also put some thought into having offline Dota-League events on LANs such as tournaments. But as I mentioned before, one thing at a time.

m0rdiN: That is not planned at the moment, since we focus on the main work in the online world. But according to the answer I have given before, our thoughts of course go further into the offline scene too. A cooperation could be possible in the future though.

12. Besides the Pick League, you’re also running the DotA Masters 8 ½ at the moment. Are there any plans to expand to a 2on2 version of the Pick League?

Moose: As the name “8 ½” already says, it is a tournament “in between” and people seem to love it. We will definitely have more 2on2 tournaments in the future. The high recognition we get by 2on2 teams shows us that DotA is in fact interesting even for the league system.

m0rdiN:The 2on2 was picked up greatly by the people at DL and it shows that something has to be done in this branch but momentarily it´s not planned yet, though we are thinking about adding a 2on2 or 3on3 ladder system.

13. Okay that’s it! Are there any final shout-outs or greetings?

Moose: Greetings to everyone at DL, especially all our admins and everyone who is taking part in the pick league. Shoutouts? Here is one: Eat more carrots! Improves the eye-sight for better vision ingame! xD

m0rdiN: Thanks to all our admins for the good work. We want to do the best possible for the game and the community to make it grow greatly to bring DotA to the next level and give it a highly professional touch.

Source: SK-gaming

Push Strategies from one of the Russians Top Players

Original article by: Virtus.NS
Translated by: lamocomp (DotA-Allstars.com)
Edited by: lamocomp & Sunie


On Push Strategies

Recently, I decided to think over some push strategies and I really believe thats one of these strategies can work! There is one major problem though: effective pushing strategies are very rare.

I don't know how SK planned to push against MYM during their last game (this was when the article was written, the replay is attached) but the strategies used had a lot of issues. However, it really did have some great ideas. For example, Chen with boots of speed in enemy forest is very smart.

Let's study what push strategies are and how they can be used.

What makes an effective push strategy

First of all, heroes like Keeper of the Light and Death Prophet (which are generally considered push heroes) are not really push heroes at all.They may be used in some kinds of pushes, but they should be marked as"anti-push" heroes. They are very good with disrupting any sort of push. Also, more examples of *so-called* push heroes are Shaker, Brood Mother and Furion. They are generally considered pushers – but the truth is that they break the push down.

So, what do you need for a successful push? I came to the conclusion that you need to maintain some concurrents. Here they are:

• You need Pugna. If the enemy team has Pugna – gg to your push. If Pugna is banned, it is still possible to push but it will be much harder.
• Heroes that have a lot of nukes – They need to do a lot of damage to all enemies, preferably at some range. Zeus suggests itself, maybe even Tormented Soul, and at the moment I can't seem to remember any other heroes.
• You need to create a situation when the enemy team has used all of their spells/abilities/items, but your whole team needs to be alive. You are going to need heal. There are different kinds of it,but the best one is Chen's ultimate and Abbadon's death coil/shield.
  Note that Abbadon is a really imbalanced for push strategies. I can't understand why nobody uses him to push. The time before level 11-12 is his time – he is so strong at that point! He has an AoE nuke, a heal/nuke, can dispel disables/stuns/slows and so on. He is also very tough and not easy to kill.
• Heroes that can tank the tower and take it down quickly. Best variants are Syllabear, Terrorblade(like SK did) and Chen. Chen is necessary for many reasons, as you can see.
• Pushing is better for you if enemy heroes can't move around the battlefield freely – You need to lay some pressure, like a lot of units– Sylla's and Chen's summons, for example.
• You need the right items! It's hard to be specific with this since it depends on heroes,but the essential ones are – Ring of Basilius, Mekasm, Headdress. Yes,Headdress of Rejuvenation! You may think that this 2 hp/sec is not that significant, but 2 hp regen from Headdress, plus 4 from Mek, plus 2from Satyr's aura – it's really helpful. Also, you will need 3-4 heal potions. You use these to heal your allies and prevent them from getting killed by re spawned enemies. In push strats, people usually don't buy bottle, but a couple of them can help a lot, especially if they can be passed.
• A Hero that can initiate the battle – A team needs to be stronger while pushing, but 3-4 lighting storms from Leshrac will cause all your team to be low on hp. If the enemy attacks,you will lose. To avoid this – we need VENGE. Vengeful Spirit should be used in pushes as a hero that can initiate combat.

So, after some thoughts we end up with a strategy like this – Chen, Pugna, Zeus, Abbadon, and Syllabear. It is possible to replace Bear with Venge and Zeus with Leshrac. It is difficult to compare Venge and Syllabear – it will be two different pushes and two different games. Venge is a useful hero with stun and swap, and her aura is great for the whole team. On the other hand, Bear takes towers down quickly and his summon is very strong. If your push is succeeding, he will get his Radiance soon. This will cause the game not to be about pushing, but more about Sylla killing the whole enemy team.

Replacing Zeus with Leshrac can be a fatal mistake. This is because Zeus is simply stronger, so as all of the other heroes we need will be infrequently picked by your opponent,its better to first pick him.

You may ask – why Venge? Because we have another important part of push – Lane phase. Push heroes need to win or at least not lose their lanes. A skilled Zeus/Leshrac can solo against any two heroes, Pugna can do it too. However, Syllabear =dead lane. Even with Abbadon it will be very hard to hold their lane.Venge is another story, she has strong nuke and is not bad at laning.Vengeful and Abbadon are not the best combination in DotA, but they can at least survive.

In depth on our lineup
Zeus, Chen, Abaddon, Pugna, Vengeful Spirit

Zeus needs to solo an easy lane, Pugna to solo mid, Abbadon and Venge at a hard lane, and Chen jungling.
Or Zeus can solo mid instead of Pugna. In principle, Pugna is harder to stay in lane, but recently Maelk has shown some interesting tricks. For example, Pugna with boots first item (Maelk's idea) - he used it for along enough time. Pugna with boots in an easy lane is hard to kill if you control him well enough. Pugna (solo mid) with Basilius (don't turnoff aura) can take the tower down really fast against almost any solo hero – this is Maelk's innovation too. The choice of lane depends on enemy lineup and disposal of enemy heroes on the map.

Items –Zeus Arcane Ring, Pugna Necro book, Chen Mek, Abbadon – he may buy anything, even a euls. He can even buy Mek, and Chen can just mass hp.This is because in combat Chen is one of your key heroes. If he dies before using his ultimate – it's gg to your team. His creeps die veryfast without heal and the +200 hp to all teammates can often change the outcome of the game. Abbadon has enough mana for all his spells, even with Mek, while Chens mana is very limited. Venge doesn't really need anything except HP, preferably boots of travel, but 5 bracers will be good too.

Accordingly, if everything goes well, at lvl 7-8-9 itis time to attack. You need Zeus with Arcane, somebody with Mek, three strong neutrals, and Pugna's ward level 4. All other components aren't very significant. If you don't have Necrobook – it's okay. The first few towers can be taken down without it, and those will give money to buy other necessary items.

Counters to push strategies

What or who can oppose us? First and foremost – anti push heroes. Even if you owned lanes and everything is going well – pushing KotL is a problem that is better to avoid. So you will need to conceal your push. That isn't easy. For example, if you first pick Zeus, then Venge and Abbadon, guys on the other team will think that you are idiots or that you might have some strange plan, but this doesn't make it look like push. On the other hand, it's a risk that enemy may take Pugna. Anyway,push strategies are so uncommon that it's almost always a surprise to your opponents and I doubt somebody is ready to pick KotL so early instead of others heroes that are considered "strong" (Lina, NA, BB,Sven). They might take KotL as last pick, but KotL alone is not so dangerous. Other anti push are: Magnus and Shaker, it's better just to ban them. Also, it's hard to push against Warlock, but you can hope he will be banned by the other team.

Also, our strategy may be countered by a trained anti push combo. But you do not fear this because I have not even seen well executed pushes yet – I remind you of MYM,who didn't even buy Basilius in that game vs SK.

The main problem that can disrupt our entire plan is the laning phase – the lanes are very likely to lose, because almost all pushing heroes are mediocre at that phase. And you have to lay yourself out to not being owned during this phase.

Closing comments

Note,this article is only one kind of push strategy (imho, the best variant)other variants are available like: "nuke" pushes (Shaker, Zeus, Tinker,or something like it), Warlock pushes, old school mana-rush, push with Venge and Magnus and so on. I mean, they exist, but even if they are used, it seems like nobody thinks them over, and attempts to use them were poorly executed. In my opinion, push strategies can be very strong and I hope to see teams experiment with lineups and strategies in the future.

Dota Allstars v6.51 released

Icefrog and company continue to develop Dota Allstars UMS with high speed. Latest changes include:

6.51 Changelog
===============
* Fixed a bug with Kellen's Dagger that caused it to sometimes not get disabled when hit
* Fixed Land Mines tooltip
* Increased cast range of Kelen's Dagger
* Undid previous Bottle changes. Bottle now works as follows: Costs 600 gold, does not require mana to refill, auto-fills it when you are near fountain, rune refills it to full, resells at 50% like normal, purchasable at base only, regenerates less than previously, has no usage cooldown.
* Fixed Medusa's Mana Shield from triggering Essence Aura
* Fixed Searing Arrows' tooltip
* Changed Hyperstone purchase hotkey to fix a conflict
* Fixed a bug with Invoker when creating illusions
* Updated Kelen's Dagger tooltip
* Undid some of Morphling's base damage buff from last version
* Fixed Bloodrage tooltip
* Fixed Pulse Nova and Invoker's Reagents from triggering Last Word
* Smokescreen interrupts teleportation once again
* Color coded Invoker's spell descriptions (203050)
* Improved Sange's percentage and Yasha's percentage, and lowered the recent buff on S&Y a little
* Fixed Vladmir's Offering sell cost
* Increased Counter Helix chance by 2%
* Minor bonus armor in True Form
* Improved the effect timing on Split Earth (187877)
* -swapcancel code is triggered when a swap is successful (to prevent other accidental swaps)
* Improved Shuriken Toss cast range
* Added new Backtrack icon (183079)
* Changed Battlefury recipe slightly
* Lowered Poof casting time from 2 to 1.5 seconds
* Lowered Elder Dragon Form's manacost and cooldown a little
* Added neutrals field to -cs
* Changed Phantom Edge's secondary ability from evasion to magic resistance
* Replaced Phantom Assassin's Shadow Strike with a different similar ability (132694)
* Fixed a minor coding bug with Time Lapse
* Fixed Impale based spells from moving Juggernaut during Omnislash
* Added new icon for Melting Strike
* Reduced some lag with Invoker
* Fixed level 1 March of the Machines doing slightly less damage than intended
* Removed stock cooldown on Ironwood Branch
* Added a new system that tracks when you help an ally kill a hero (no gameplay ramifications at this point)
* -swap is now allowed in -sd
* Fixed some minor neutrals' vision and pathing glitches
* Lowered level 1 and 2 cast range on Replicate
* Lowered Phantom Assassin's cast animation time
* Fixed a bug with Exorcism's cooldown after leveling Witchcraft
* Fixed some issues with -ah
* Refined how some kill related messages and sounds are shown
* Increased mana regeneration on Perseverance by 25%
* Lowered Buriza recipe by 250 gold
* Changed Voodoo Restoration to heal over a smoother interval (same total regen)
* Lowered Manta Style's cooldown a bit
* Fixed a bug with Voodoo Restoration and Impales
* Fixed a bug with invoker in -spreverse
* Fixed some inconsistencies with tower visions (TheLoneWolf14)
* Increased duration of Lycanthrope's wolves a bit and allowed them to attack air
* Temporarily disabled -unstuck command

Dota Allstars v. 6.50 and 6.50b released

Hooray! It happened at last. Dota Allstars 6.50 came out and almost immediately 6.50b has followed. New version have so much changes that it's hard to remember it all. A lot of bug fixes, balance changes and much more. For example, now you don't need 8 seconds for new portion of coins. Now you get one coin after one. And another important change affect Kelen's Dagger of Escape. Not you can blink only if nobody damaged you in last 3 seconds. It's interesting, why it still names dagger of escape because it's hard to escape now. Here's changelog:

6.50b Changelog
===============
* Fixed a bunch of bugs reported


6.50 Changelog
==============

Hero Changes:
-------------
* Removed manacost on Mana Shield activation
* Changed Leap's cooldown to scale with levels
* Improved Juggernaut's movement speed
* Implemented a better silencing mechanism in the Black Hole area to prevent spell execution regardless of cast animation time
* Lowered Drow Ranger's Agility gain per level
* Changed Drow Ranger's Marksmanship ultimate
* Increased Morphling's base damage
* Macropyre's cooldown no longer increases per level
* Added an extra bounce to Chain Frost
* Reduced Sprint's damage amplification
* Increased Maledict's area of effect by 15
* Changed Spectre's Dispersion
* Redesigned Visage
* Improved casting range on Acid Spray
* Changed how Song of the Siren levels up
* Reduced cooldown on high level Shapeshift
* Improved armor on Enigma's Eidolons
* Reduced Expulsion's cooldown and manacost
* Improved Keeper of the Light's attack animation
* Improved Scattershot's damage range from 10-35 to 20-35
* Improved Alchemist's base Intelligence and growth
* Slightly improved Psi Blades' spill width and range
* Improved Chemical Rage
* Increased Phantom Lancer's Strength gain
* Increased cooldown on Psionic Trap from 7 to 14 seconds
* Improved lifesteal on level 2 and 3 Insatiable Hunger
* Reduced Replicate's manacost and cooldown
* Improved Troll's base movement speed
* Decreased Rampage's movement speed bonus and cooldown
* Improved Spirit Bear's Demolish
* Increased Lightning Storm's cooldown by 2 seconds
* Reduced cooldown on level 4 Metamorphosis from 135 to 110 seconds
* Reduced Lina's movement speed by 5
* Improved Sand Storm
* Reduced the slow on Epicenter
* Improved range on Drow Ranger's Trueshot Aura
* Improved cooldown progression on Insatiable Hunger
* Reduced Sven's base armor
* Improved Enigma's movement speed
* Modified initial projectile speed and effect on Paralyzing Casks
* Improved Enfeeble
* Improved Auto Fire's area of effect and duration
* Reduced Queen of Pain's Blink range at early levels
* Improved Earthshaker's movement speed
* Zombies now give a bit less bounty
* Reduced Gravechill's cooldown a bit
* Increased Primal Roar's cooldown a little bit
* Eclipse's damage is based on Lucent Beam level and doesn't ministun
* Lucent Beam ministun duration increases per level (0.6 level 4 up from a constant 0.01)
* Lowered Eclipse's manacost and gave it constant cooldown progression
* Increased Lucent Beam's casting range and lowered manacost slightly
* Improved cast range on Expulsion and Fire Storm
* Improved Ravage a little (it became slightly less effective with the Impale recodes)
* Reverse Polarity's cooldown is now the same on all levels
* Changes Queen of Pain's blink cooldown from 12/9/7/5 to 12/10/8/6 seconds
* Removed true sight from Spin Web
* Added some extra movement bonus on higher level Spin Web
* Improved Keeper of the Light's movement speed
* Improved Storm Spirit's base armor
* Lowered Mirror Image's cooldown slightly
* Improved slow on Drunken Haze
* Improved movement bonus on Witchcraft
* Lowered Searing Arrows' cooldown
* Improved Reaper's Scythe's leveling a bit
* Changed Purification's damage type to Pure
* Lowered Axe's starting Agility and increased his starting Strength
* Lowered Death Coil's cooldown
* Improved Undying's base armor
* Improved Meepo's base Strength
* Rebalanced Pit of Malice
* Increased AOE on Firestorm
* Reduced the search area for Omnislash
* Changed Bloodrage's stats a bit
* Lowered level 1 Mana Void's manacost
* Lowered Exorcism's damage return threshold and cooldown
* Restored Bone Fletcher's old Wind Walk speed bonus
* Lowered Geminate's attack cooldown
* Slightly improved how Medusa's Purge levels

Item Changes:
-------------
* Redesigned Eul's Scepter of Divinity
* Redesigned Orchid Malevolence
* Redesigned Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
* Added cooldown to Bottle usage and reduced its sell cost
* Bottle is in full state at all the side shops once again
* Changed how Dagger of Escape works. It cannot be activated if you took damage in the last 3 seconds.
* Added Hyperstone to the Goblin Shop
* Changed Unholy Rage's lifesteal type to be the same as regular lifesteal
* Reduced price on Ultimate Orb
* Added Ring of Health to the Goblin Shop
* Added Quarterstaff to the Goblin Shops
* Increased Perseverance's damage from 7 to 10
* Added Javelin to the Goblin Shops
* Removed the stack restriction on Shiva's Guard
* Improved Vanguard a little
* Changed Lothar's Edge's recipe and stats
* Reduced Vladmir's Offering recipe cost
* Reduced Linken's Sphere's cooldown
* Removed stacking restriction from Bloodstone and improved its stats
* Improved Helm of the Dominator damage from 10 to 20
* Improved Oblivion Staff mana regen by 25%
* Quarterstaff price reduced
* Hand of Midas can now target level 6 Neutrals (Satyr Hellcaller and Dark Troll Warlord)
* Reduced Void Stone's cost by 25 gold
* Improved casting range per level of Dagon upgrade
* Improved Sange and Yasha
* Removed Flying Courier Mana and gave it a Mana base upgrade ability
* Wards now require 5 mana to be placed
* Reduced animation time and cooldown on Manta Style
* Ring of Health's regeneration increased by 1

Neutral Related:
----------------
* Change some of the Scourge's top left forest area
* Changed the locations and distribution of neutral creep camp groups
* Fixed neutral spawn times in various modes
* Reworked the trees and pathing near the small Sentinel creep camp
* Increased neutral creep Centaur's aura by 5%
* Added an Alpha Wolf with a command aura in the wolves' creep camp
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Ghost with Frost Attack + 2 Fel Beasts)
* Added a new ancient creep camp group (Jungle Stalkers)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Enraged Wildken with Tornado + 2 Wildkins)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Dark Troll Warlord with Raise Dead and 1.5 sec Ensnare + 2 Dark Trolls)
* Changed the Furbolg's Stomp to a Clap
* Improved Satyr Hellcaller's Unholy Aura
* Neutral Ogre no longer autocast Frost Armor
* Changed the location of some of the Scourge creep camps
* Redid neutral creep spawner code for some optimizations

Bug Fixes:
-----------
* Recoded impale based effects completely, fixing various ramp bugs, stacking issues and a lot of rare problems. (Burrowstrike, Impale (Lion), Impale (Nerubian Assassin), Ravage)
* Fixed Land Mines to properly detect floating heroes
* Fixed a problem with Huskar's Burning Spears that would cause him to swing incorrectly when the enemy is moving
* Fixed some bugs with Wild Axes
* Fixed some color issues on the load screen (kunkka)
* Couriers can no longer use Scroll of Town Portal to make buildings invulnerable
* Fixed Dark Rift from initiating cooldown when cast incorrectly
* Fixed a bug introduced in the recent Aghanim's Scepter changes on Crystal Maiden
* Fixed Last Word triggering off of Linken's Sphere's usage
* Fixed Berserker Rage triggering Essence Aura
* Insatiable Hunger, God's Strength and Rampage are no longer removed by Cyclone
* Fixed Javelin's odds being slightly off
* Fixed an issue with the Cheese drop from Roshan
* Fixed an issue with Forest Troll High Priest's pathing scale
* Fixed some text display problems when viewing replays (thanks DonTomaso)
* Fixed a very minor bug with Elder Form's duration
* Fixed Armlet of Mordiggian's recipe cooldown
* Fixed typo on Psi Blades
* Fixed some creep death time discrepancies (188461)
* Fixed a very minor bug with the damage mechanism on Shukuchi
* Fixed a display bug with Mode Random
* Fixed a possible abuse with Helm of the Dominator
* Fixed Overload from using its charge when attacking an allied unit
* Fixed Last Word from turning off Electric Rave

Others:
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* Remade Invoker as promised in 6.49
* Added a new game mode -singledraft or -sd (swiss)
* Improved Sentinel creep pathing on top Sentinel lane
* Adjusted starting gold between all game modes like ap/xl/rd/sd to be the same (all the same as xl) and for randoms to be like ar. Gold is now give at the start and income starts with the first creep wave.
* Income is now distributed in 1 gold intervals instead of in 8 gold intervals (same total gold)
* Added a new experimental command -ah
* Added a new system to detect replays used in -ah and other future applications (thanks PandaMine)
* Changed how the secondary shops work. You can now see their location and click them while in fog.
* Added new visual effect for Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn (JetFango)
* -roll now shows the range the person entered (188889)
* Added a new command -clear to clear game messages from your screen
* Reduced model size and changed the look of the non-ancient Golems
* Added a new command -apm to show your actions per minute
* Couriers can now disassemble items (161180)
* Added text descriptions for power ups (68307)
* Delayed the creep spawn time by 30 seconds in -vr
* Made "Helm of Iron Will" item name consistent between recipes and core, using Helm instead of Helmet.
* Centered swap request notice is given to a player (182779)
* Added -afk that displays how long each player has been idle for
* Added a conditionally available -kickafk command to boot players that have been idle for more than 10 minutes (171984)
* Necronomicon icon now changes per level (190183)
* Changed durations of some power ups (Haste 45->30, Illusion 60->75, Regen 45->30)
* Moon Wells now gather water during night and get drained during day. This has no gameplay impact (60920)
* Added new tooltip text on items showing if they can be disassembled
* Improved tooltip for observer wards to detail the stock mechanics
* Added a new command -courier that toggles idle courier icon on and off (Ro-Coco)
* Added a new command -swapall to request to swap for any hero (175040)
* Improved Shackles caster effect
* Added an additional constant (7) Mana regeneration to Fountains
* Removed replenish interval from buying Clarity Potion (like tangos now)
* Changed Heartstopper pure damage type to HP loss (not a nerf or a buff, just works with things like dagger in a more desirable way)
* Improved Electric Rave icon (169997)
* Improved Luna's orb warning message (113338)

Birthday

Today is birthday!