Dota 2

I typed a giant rant, and decided to just delete it. I have too many strong opinions and emotions on this game, and not enough motivation to properly organize them. I'll just state a few things, instead.

The game is a shell of its former self (Think all streamline, and no soul). It peaked just before 7.00, which was a long time ago. I would sooner recommend someone to open up WC3, and play DotA Allstars. It's currently the superior way to play the game, IMO, despite the UI limitations and some missing QoL stuff. It actually feels like DotA!

Despite being fed up with the current state, it's been very cool to witness the slow evolution of a game over two decades of my life. From a messy fledgling custom game that me and my middle school friends stumbled upon, to a worldwide craze that rewards it's best teams millions of dollars. Hats off.

The best and the worst game ever at the same time, but still, NOTHING can compare with DOTA2.

Between 2013 and 2019, I have played over 3,000 matches of Dota 2.
Some notes:

- This game has one of the steepest learning curves in video games. This is a title that takes hundreds of hours just to comprehend the basics. If you have little-to-no experience with RTS-style controls and mechanics (like I did), tack on a few hundred more hours needed. An average match of Dota 2 lasts 30-40 minutes.

- If your frontal lobe isn't fully-developed, please do not play this game. I am saying this with sincerity. There have been countless times where someone had a meltdown over trivial stuff and ruined the game. I have been that person a bunch of times, and I regret it.

- Playing this and getting immersed by it was definitely an experience

I have at least a total of 3k hours of playtime in DOTA and all I can say is that it is the best MOBA up to date. The complexity of the gameplay and the customization of skins is also a great feature of the game is also what makes it different from others. I've played HON and LOL but there is so much you can do in Dota that you just won't be able to do in those games.

I recommend against trying this game on the off chance you become addicted. From what I can tell that chance is about 1 in 10. I had to quit. I had to quit watching other people playing it, too. To me, it really was the most fun game I have ever played.

A lot of the recent updates - at least, before I quit a few months ago - made the game worse. At the time I wrote a list of changes I would make to the game; mostly streamlining the game by removing mechanics - sometimes new ones, sometimes old ones that had been in the game since Dota 1. I dont hate all the new additions; Rosh dropping refresher was cool, and having something like shrines or outposts to TP to during the midgame I thought was great. But most of the new additions would at least be altered.

Here's the list:
Changes I would make to Dota
- Remove neutral items
- Outposts no longer give XP, dont give vision and cant be converted, theyre just there to TP to
- Outposts are destructible after you destroy any one of those little filler buildings in the enemy base
- (Also remove the filler buildings close to the edge of the base)
- Reduce the money and XP you get for ending a killstreak
- No longer start with any TP scrolls
- TP scrolls have no initial cooldown
- Remove respawn penalty for denying yourself to neutrals early on
- Wards cost a bit of money, say 50
- Remove personal couriers, now each team has 2 couriers from the start
- (Maybe put some indications on courier control so its hard to accidentally mess with one of the couriers when someone else is using it)
- Add side shop again, it barely has any items but it definitely has boots and TP scroll
- Stop Roshan dropping Aghs buff
- Roshan now only ever drops 2 items, 1 of them is always Aegis and the other alternates between Cheese and Refresher (second Rosh is always Cheese, third is Refresher, etc.)
- Everyone has 10 less base move speed
- Aghs shard no longer has the 20 minute purchase restriction
- Make Aghs shard cost a little more, say 1500
- Nerf the Aghs shards that help you farm to compensate (Storm, QOP, Naga, Gyro, TB (not AA though leave that be (make mid AA great again)))
- Make a button to centre camera on currently selected unit (I dont think this exists, I know you can centre on one of your units youve given a group bind but not for one you have unbound, such as a random illusion you just tabbed to)
- Remove uphill miss chance, make it so uphill attacks always do 25% less damage
- Remove blink upgrades

Changes I want to make but dont know how
- Make solo-offlane/jungle/trilanes/duo-mid viable again (make more lane setups viable)
- Make it so you no longer get shafted at power runes for guessing which rune will spawn incorrectly

DotA 2 is almost unreviewable, it's constantly evolving and very few people that you play with will actually take it seriously.

It's slowly becoming a game engine with a lot of mods and cosmetics too; Warcraft 3 ended up the same way, but at least there was a campaign and a very static meta-game to its packaged multiplayer.