Allowing specialization and bringing stability into Dota 2

[Ex Player]

When I made this discussion or posts, I already have accumulated a lot of wounds within my heart. Some turned into scars. Some remain fresh wounds that only deepens. I have nothing to lose anymore and I apologize in advanced if what I am saying is indeed too harsh or not acceptable to majority of Dota 2 community.

I will first start with specialization allowing. Current Dota 2 when the winstreaks of a hero reaches more than 52% (in my case it's my grandmaster dawnbreaker), it will start to appear in most successful hero tab. If people or valve were to check my stats in game, they will realize that my stat is really strange. No versatility aspect at all, in such a case, in ranked matches(be it classic or role) and all pick (unranked), people can actually look at the most successful heroes of my profile and decides to maybe ban my hero in all likelihood(it's close to 100%). Let's say the players don't really ban the hero, congratulations .. there's a system based RNG that will ban the hero. Could Valve or even Dota 2 community really allow such players to exist? I don't want to think badly .. but from what I understand.., they don't really allow. Ideologies? Nature of the game? There could be a lot of reasons.

A simple not allowing players to ban the hero that low versatility specialized in by Valve and also rework on the RNG based system banning is really all it takes to address on the issues faced by low versatility or even specialized players but the problem is the community wouldn't allow. People climb to the top rank as they are because of the current hero banning mechanism. I don't really ask for the banning mechanism to be disappear, I asked them to be reworked to allow specialized or low versatility players to enjoy the game modes as much as normal players.

On a similar note, can valve really do something to the single draft punishments? Can valve come up with some punishments that low versatility players can get over with as the punishments work really well for generalized players instead of specialized or low versatility players? I don't really know .. I feel lost and depressed to this game..

There're a lot of issues that specialized or low versatility players really face. One of the said issues is hero tier issue. I believe many of the players who really get to master to grandmaster tiers. Some perform well, some perform bad as it's at least 2 sided. Let's say the players with grandmaster tier did indeed perform well but when people look at his/her rank, they will speak out words that hurts the most, some of the words include "account buyers", "smurfs" but ultimately these players are not really smurfs.. People don't expect such specialized people in their bracket and ultimately these reports were filed. Did the community or Valve really know about this? I bet not .. so what exactly can these players do?

The loneliness, separation, mistreated, no guidance as time passes, they become wounds that can't be repaired easily or is impossible to be healed. Can valve and the community really do something to allow such players type to exist? You can close your eyes and fool yourself that only generalized players are the ones that suits to play such game. No matter how one choose to ignore, such players do indeed exist be it now or in future. There's really no spaces for such players to survive in ranked without a doubt. For unranked, perhaps they can only survive in turbo instead of all pick.

I don't really expect the hero tier issues could be addressed by valve because to a lot of people's eyes, it might make the game a pay to win but again I don't really know who to consult as my ideas are just in draft phase.

I talk too much on allowing specialization. Let's focus on bringing the stability.

Huskar, techies, ursa, drow ranger. I believe the majority of Dota 2 community or even Valve know these heroes. Huskar has been reworked, techies has been reworked, ursa has been reworked, drow ranger has been reworked. Did the community or even valve really asks the players do they want such a rework? Perhaps not, but it's considered to be a fact that the rework of such champions or heroes accompanied with large player base being removed from the game in an instant? That's hero rework issue. This again is an issue that's at least double sided issue. People find it both fun to play with reworked heroes and depressed that they can no longer play such heroes.

Previously, there's a mmr rework that happens before the current system that we know now aka herald, guardian, crusader, archon, legend, ancient, divine, immortal. This again forces a lot of the players to leave and join at the same time.

It may come to a consensus or agreement that the most stable game genre belongs to fighting games or MMORPG/RPG games. They don't really have these constant big changes. For sure they might not have that many amount of players but the underlying concept is the players amount is enough to sustain them. They're stable and one of the main reasons is because they don't have that big and constant changes continuously made to these games.

Can Dota 2 community and valve consider to bring in some of the stability from other genre games into Dota 2? If a rework was indeed required, how about making it in such a way that let's say huskar, there's both huskar version 1(dota 1) and huskar version 2(dota 2) which can be chosen by players in a way that they choose the huskar version instead of dota 2 fixed it to dota 2 version? Wouldn't it be fine that way?

People are having less and less time to deal with constant changes or even big changes towards the game. The players who surround me despite not really working in real life .. have already grow tired towards the constant changes of the game. Is there a potential solution for that?

What Dota 2 and its community need to be focusing on as the most priority is not about the meta balancing or new items or some other applicable stuffs but it should be these underlying hidden issues that dictates the future of Dota 2 and its player base. What could be the use of meta balancing or making new items or balancing the new items when these fundamental and hidden issues were not really addressed (partially solved) or solved? Where're the focus to these issues? No one likes to talk on these real issues but instead just like real life, many focuses on issues that seemed to be not really that big of a deal because it may not hurt that much compare to these real issues.

Escaping or not acknowledging these real issues can be good in short term but it's not really good in long term. This may become a price for Dota 2 community and Valve to learn it the hard way in near future.

I have given up on Dota 2 and its community because of these real issues. I have posted some ideas or even suggestions but mostly it's related to real issues in my channel, Grandmaster Dawnbreaker. The purpose of this post made in this discussion was not really aiming to convince anyone. I am just voicing out what I have experienced and what I know. There're always at least 2 sides to a question or an issue. If always try to convince people is not gonna work and it'll hurt people and even myself.

My responsibility towards Dota 2, Valve and its community officially ends here after this post was created and posted. Like it or not, this's the way it's. I want to leave this land that only brings despair and depression.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
SEA Grandmaster Dawnbreaker

[Zagryzaec]

You need to widen your hero pool.

Dota is a game about conscious choices. And hero pick is one of those choices.

[:D]

play some unranked/turbo or what ever and come back to rank and spam.
iahve 7 grandmasters. I always got a grandmaster to pick if I want

[Ex Player]

Zag, I understand on your advice but the thing is I only play pos 3. Tell me exactly what other alternative hero can I really use? Consider the uniqueness in dawnbreaker.. Not an initiator, always can ulti tp to aid my allies and in some cases sacrifice for them. I tried nature prophet and underlord before, these 2 heroes simply don't work. In this position, all heroes are always an initiator. If I were playing non dawnbreaker based pos 3 heroes, it's easy to switch to other pos 3 heroes but now it's no longer possible.

The same argument I also said to smurfs that I encounter. They agree with my points. The one that I can only blame on is perhaps myself. Why do I have to start off or learn on dawnbreaker. It'll be easy to switch if I use other pos 3 heroes instead of her in the first place. This similar case can also apply to walter white in breaking bad and saul in better call saul. It's just some people called it as lucifer effect.

[Ex Player]

":D", I have given up on Dota 2 in both ranked and unranked previously back to last year's December. And now I actually meant it. I have no more mental and physical energy to really go to play either ranked or unranked. I hope this clarifies something. I make this post here is just to voice out. Hoping something can change or will change. I am asking for flexibility and diversity for players such as myself. The responses that you and the other Dota 2 player .. is mostly what I have expected.. Thank you for you 2 advises.

I really have no more energy to deal with any of these things. The once positive energy filled player is now officially filled with only dark and pessimistic energy. It's not easy for you 2 to change it. That's the current state of my mind.

[Zagryzaec]

Originally posted by Doing Shadow Work ...:

Zag, I understand on your advice but the thing is I only play pos 3. Tell me exactly what other alternative hero can I really use? Consider the uniqueness in dawnbreaker.. Not an initiator, always can ulti tp to aid my allies and in some cases sacrifice for them. I tried nature prophet and underlord before, these 2 heroes simply don't work. In this position, all heroes are always an initiator. If I were playing non dawnbreaker based pos 3 heroes, it's easy to switch to other pos 3 heroes but now it's no longer possible.

The same argument I also said to smurfs that I encounter. They agree with my points. The one that I can only blame on is perhaps myself. Why do I have to start off or learn on dawnbreaker. It'll be easy to switch if I use other pos 3 heroes instead of her in the first place. This similar case can also apply to walter white in breaking bad and saul in better call saul. It's just some people called it as lucifer effect.

The thing is - specialisation is a trap. As meta changes and your specialty no longer fit you are going to be and feel useless and myserable.

Even if your role AND hero never out of meta you will just get tired from repeating same things over and over again.

You need to learn other ways to play.

Instead of farming away from your team you can farm nearby, or even lead them after yourself.

Another thing to understand is that functionality you lack from hero internal capabilities can be gotten from items.

For your preferred gamestyle of joining the fights from afar I recommend you to buy fast travel boots.

But it will take gold from the items I was about to build! You tell me, naturally.

So as your item get you the ability your previous hero had (global presence) that fill the need of his skill (sometime his ULTIMATE skill) you just need to choose the hero that from the beginning has skill that replace the first 2000 item you were farming.

It could be batrider or primal beast as even without items they have tons of durability and utility and benefit from movement speed greatly.

I have even saw axe getting travel boots vs splitters and quickly recovering spent gold by outpushing massive waves that were supposed to clash into towers.

Sorry for long no answering, I'm more playing than reading at this time.

[Ex Player]

I understand on this. If this's the case then it's fine. Let MOBA games .. be the games that suit generalization. You see MOBA games as the way it's but I see MOBA games as a potential gateway or solution in addressing the same situations faced by "Walter White", "Saul" and perhaps "Van Gogh" & "Bobby Fischer". In my humble opinion, perhaps the EU initial draft of "Industry Revolution 5", one of the main ideas is to emphasize back the need for specialization.

I already know my hero, dawnbreaker, she's slowly being phased out or being nerfed. Ultimately, what you have said, I considered before. I checked the pick and ban rate with Dota 2 plus. It's lower than she previously used to be pre 7.33 patches. The one that's naive is perhaps me, myself.

I appreciate the effort into replying me. It's good that you're supportive to new types of players such as myself but I think my days in Dota 2 perhaps is really up and ended. My previous teammates and friends .. They .. all leave dota 2.. some because of real life matters, some because of constant changes and I myself I think will soon follow suit. Constant changes are always good for the community and particularly in other types of games as well but let's see .. whether the speed of players going tired of the constant changes and leave is slower than the speed of players becoming more interested of the constant changes or it's the exact opposite.

Excluding the meta changes, the underlying curse issues which can be categorized as either discovered or not discovered are already haunting the unranked from my biased observation. If Dota 2 or any other MOBA games still don't directly acknowledge and face heads on with these curse issues, the stability of MOBA games couldn't be guaranteed. MOBA games .. perhaps can only sustain until latest pre industrial revolution 5.

I hope I am correct on my prediction but I don't think one can ever be correct on something .. neither you nor me.. towards the future and whether MOBA game is really dying. And strangely enough now that when I am replying to you, I no longer feel scars or wounds in my heart as if they have become memories of the past and is in the process of letting go of them.

The gap of getting into ranked or unranked .. as time passes and as new changes coming in, they're becoming more and more narrow. Isn't this one of the reasons why smurfs are not solvable nor addressable(partially solved/eased).

It's always good to chat with the community in the form of forums. I have learnt a lot.

Thank you unknown stranger.

Thanks and best regards,
SEA grandmaster dawnbreaker.