CONTENTS GAME ANALYSIS 03 EARTHSHAKER Needs a nerf!
18 BECOMING VENGEFUL SPIRIT Life, love and lore
05 LANE MECHANICS
27 CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
08 STATUS EFFECTS AND DISPELS
28 THE ONE BEHIND DOPATWO
Mechanics in a nutshell
10 DRAFTING TIPS FOR <4K
The Dedicated Dance of Decision
FAN CONTENT
43 DOTA2 HERO EMOTICONS 44 INVOKER GIRL 46 SILHOUETTE POSTER
Creator of 5 Reasons to Pick YouTube video series
ESPORT 32 INTERVIEW WITH WICKED Cosplayer, streamer, and casual Dota 2 player
MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS 48 CREDITS 50 CONTACT AND SOCIAL MEDIA
15 INFEST
The secrets of Lifestealer
16 A TALE OF FOUR CITIES
DEPARTMENTS
Puppey, Kuroky and Arteezy from TI5 to Manila Major
ARTIST GALLERY 38 ROSH FIGHT 40 DOTAWATCH BY FWOSH
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03 GAME ANALYSIS 15 FAN CONTENT 32 ESPORT 38 ARTIST GALLERY 48 CREDITS For past issues of Feederâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Digest visit issuu.com/feedersdigest
NEEDS A NERF! EARTHSHAKER
RAIGOR
EDITOR: KTMUFASA Hello readers, and welcome to the inaugural writing of “Needs a Nerf.” There are many heroes who have been nerfed in 6.88 ranging from Slark to Invoker, and some may have been more deserved than others. Regardless, Icefrog has done his best to take what many considered an amazing patch and still improve on it. What I aim to do isn’t talk about blatantly overpowered heroes like 6.86 Arc Warden or 6.83 Sniper. I’m here to talk about the heroes who nobody notices until it’s too late, like 6.84 Lina who received years of buffs in a row.
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s tackle my favorite hero in the game; Earthshaker. Everyone remembers the 6 million dollar echo slam. Clearly the hero was quite strong in 6.84 if EG were willing to draft him in the grand finals. So what comes next? A minus 15 damage nerf on Fissure. So far, so good. Well the hero is still quite popular so let’s see what comes next. In 6.87 I was hoping for a small buff. What I got, was madness.
Earthshaker leaping through the heavens.
3
A literal dunk. All the come on and slam jokes were now just a description of the hero’s power. Sure there’s a 4200 gold price tag to boot, but when a hero is usually played as a position 3, that’s more than attainable. Let’s break down why this buff is massive. He now has 2 ranged stuns, granted both have a long windup. It was already standard to get blink dagger into force staff on the hero. Now, with all 3 of these combined he has 2700 units of escape. Combined with octarine core, the hero is almost impossible to kill in the late game unless he fails an initiation while burning all his spells and items. Even still, he isn’t picked up as much as I was expecting by pros, having only been picked 17 times at Manila, and banned out 6. Regardless, I was expecting a nerf. The hero was quite strong in pubs. Imagine my surprise when I saw this instead:
Earthshaker’s pub winrate now is at 50.23% which seems balanced at first glance until you realize he’s higher skill cap than most heroes. The cast time on fissure leads to many players missing entirely or blocking their teammates in on the wrong side, and many players save their ultimate looking for a perfect 5 man echo and end up not getting anything as a result. This hero has gotten some pretty crazy buffs recently, and is one small overbuff away from dominating the scene. What’s my proposal? Increase the cooldown on enchant totem when not self-casting. This would be unprecedented to my knowledge, but it would be much needed considering how slippery the hero is. In this way, the hero’s bad early game is preserved, and his monstrous midgame is reined in a little bit. That said, no matter how nerfed Earthshaker ends up, for me, it’s always time to shake things up.
4
101
Lane Mechanics
MIS
EDITOR: RAIGOR
Last Hitting
This month, I’m focusing on laning mechanics. There are numerous guides to laning mechanics out there, but a lot of them over-complicate the • Buy a quelling blade on melee heroes matter. It is important to take small steps in this game – patch the fundamental mistakes in your • Be conscious of the enemy. If they are trying gameplay before moving on to master higher level for a deny, calculate it as best you can. gameplay. • Last hitting under tower should be no probI think a lot of players basically ignore the sinlem. See this post on reddit, and study it until gle player version of Dota 2. What I mean by this you understand it. Then practice it. The rule’s is that there is a whole dimension of gameplay “damage” is referring to your damage. that revolves around optimizing your play with minimal interaction with enemy heroes. The biggest one that I often see completely botched is
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cs” refers to creep score, or in general just “creeps”. Side fun fact – I believe this term originates from WC3 ladder days when you’d go out and “creep” with your hero and army and kill neutrals to get gold and experience. Hence, creeping was literally moving, but somehow eventually became a noun.
laning mechanics by safelane cores and supports. • Video from two years ago . Old video, right? Everything from last hitting, pulling, equalizing the But that’s how important the concepts are – lane, freezing the lane, or correct zoning can be they go unchanged for two years and the core ruined in any given game. This article is aimed fundamentals are the same. towards increasing awareness of these problems, as it is ultimately up to you whether you • Missing free cs is unacceptable. You should be decide to practice the concepts and fix them. very critical of yourself if you miss free cs. In the following segments I have bulleted key • Practice in a private lobby. Just once a day, for points for each mechanic, and at the end I will ten minutes, is a good warm up and extremelink a 35 minute video that portrays the mistakes ly valuable in the long run. Don’t skip leg day often made by players at an average or slightly guys. above average skill level.
6
Lane Control
• Do not allow weak offlaners to gain experience past level 3. Even if it is a 1v1, you should be denying every creep and then transitioning into bullying once you have more items such as phase boots plus orb of venom.
Lane control is a function of total creep effective health points vs total creep damage per second • Pull if the lane control is ruined, or if you know you can pull without ruining lane control. Your entire creep wave needs to die to the neutrals in order for this statement to be true.
That’s honestly it. If you follow each bullet, and really remember what to do in a lot of different scenarios, you will find your lanes going better as a byproduct of better laning mechanics. Screwing over someone indirectly is often the best way to gain an advantage that allows you to bully them directly at a later point in the game. Prime example? Rat dota.
• Lane control is ruined if your lane accumulates two range creeps. • Deny before last hitting, if possible.
With that, just like last month, I made another video shedding light on common mistakes. I simply compiled three match IDs, and immediately found that two had the glaring mistakes that I knew should exist. Sorry for the audio, mic was a bit close, but here it is!
• Tank the enemy’s archer instead of running back into your tower. This will allow the enemy’s wave to accumulate two archers next cycle, and kill your wave even faster, allowing you to continuously freeze the lane. • If the enemy creeps are full health and no creep is going to die for a while, run at the enemy offlaner. Come back, deny while they are out of experience range, and then last hit. Timing is key for this.
7
MECHANICS IN A NUTSHELL
STATUS EFFECTS AND DISPELS
HAPPYMEAL
EDITOR: KTMUFASA DISPELS and status effects are some of the most essential yet complex mechanics in Dota 2. There are just so many of them and they are one of the most encountered aspects within skirmishes and teamfights. So, how do dispels and status effects actually work? A status effect is essentially anything an item or ability does to change how a hero operates. Anything from hexing your opponent, to reducing the cooldown of your teammateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next skill to just an aura that increases your armor is a status effect. The biggest subcategories to understand are positive buffs and negative buffs.
Positive buffs, also known as just buffs, impact heroes in a way that benefits an aspect of their mechanics, though not necessarily always in a helpful way. One of the biggest examples is chilling touch. While it benefits you when right clicking heroes, it does not help while right clicking buildings and can slow down a push. Be sure to always analyze your situation before buffing your allies! Negative buffs, also known as debuffs, do the opposite. They impact a hero in a way that lessens or dampens their mechanics. Within these two categories, there are a variety of other subcat-
Here is a Wraith King from the Secret vs. Escape Gaming TI6 regional qualifier tiebreaker match. Can you tell which positive and negative buffs are affecting him? 8
TYPES OF DISPELS Death
Removes all positive and negative buffs for the duration of the death
Basic dispel
Removes most slows and silences as well as stat altering effects
Strong dispel
Removes a significant portion of the available debuffs, such as stuns
egories such as disables. However, what’s most important is ridding oneself of debuffs and ridding the enemy of buffs! The most effective way of executing this is dispels.
inexperienced Omniknight using Repel after a stun. However, this does not work as it is a basic dispel rather than a strong dispel and as such, does not affect stuns.
A dispel is anything that forcibly removes a status A STRONG DISPEL removes a significant portion effect. The three major categories of dispels are of the available debuffs. Aura effects cannot be death, BASIC DISPELS, and STRONG DISPELS. removed such as Alchemist’s Acid Spray or armor reduction from an Assault Cuirass. There are also Death is the simplest one, as it happens all the certain abilities that cannot be removed by strong time within a game! Anytime someone dies almost dispels such as Axe’s Berserker’s Call or Bane’s every status effect will be removed from them. Enfeeble. However, there are no strong dispels There are some exceptions such as permanent that affect the opponent. As such, the only known status effects like Alchemist’s Aghanim’s upgrade way to rid the enemy of buffs are basic dispels or an aura from an item one possesses. The latter that can target the opponent such as Shadow can be removed by walking out of its radius, exDemon’s Demonic Purge or Diffusal Blade. cept for the hero that holds said item (selling the item will get rid of the effect), while the former Any interaction between dispels and status efcan’t be removed currently. fects can be found on the DOTA 2 WIKI! If you would like more information on any of these The next form of dispel is a BASIC DISPEL. These segments, be sure to check it out. It is a wonderremove most slows and silences as well as stat ful database of free information that can help altering effects. Some examples of basic dispels you learn the details of many mechanics and skill are purges from Diffusal Blade and the Satyr interactions. Banisher, the cyclone from Eul’s Scepter, and Omniknight’s Repel. Sometimes, one may see an
9
THE DEDICATED DANCE OF DECISION
DRAFTING TIPS FOR <4K PIZZADOG
EDITOR: RAIGOR
The thrill of picking a superior draft to the enemy team. Confidently predicting the outcome, knowing that you have the heroes needed to win the game. These are occurrences not normally associated with the drafting phase in pub matches. More often, you scratch your head in confusion or pound it against the table in frustration as your teammates pick four late-game carries, leaving you with the unsavoury experience of having to find the perfect hero to allow your team to emerge the draft victorious. Most of the time, you cannot control what your pub teammates will pick. However, you there are steps you can take to ensure that the hero that you pick is as close to the perfect pick as pos-
sible, and give your team a fighting chance, no matter the circumstances. These tips are primarily intended for pub play up to around 4k MMR, but players of all MMR ranges should find that these concepts apply throughout all skill brackets. These tips will be divided according to when in time they apply: before the game, the drafting stage, and post-drafting.
BEFORE THE GAME One of your most powerful tools in the drafting phase is knowledge. This knowledge can come from playing games, but is also easily acquired by watching professional games, reading articles
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Drafting knowledge can come from playing games, but is also easily acquired by watching professional games, reading articles related to the current stage of the game, or even trying out online drafting tools or games.
related to the current stage of the game, or even trying out online drafting tools or games.
LEARN THE HEROES AND THEIR ABILITIES The most important thing that you can do to help your drafting is know all of the heroes in Dota, and their abilities. This is a hard task, with more than 110 heroes in the game, but the more knowledge you have, the more likely you are to pick the correct hero. You don’t have to know the minute details of every ability (such as its cooldown or cast range)
– just a general idea is enough. As long as you know what each hero can do, you will be better able to find what your line-up needs to win the game.
KNOW THE PUB METAGAME The term ‘metagame’ or ‘meta’ refers to the heroes that are considered strong at the very moment that you wish to play Dota. The meta changes with every new patch, and often changes multiple times within that patch as heroes are found to be particularly strong.
11
DURING THE DRAFT
An important thing to note is that the heroes that are utilized in professional games and heroes that work well in pub matches are often very different. With your new-found knowledge, you are ready to This is due to the increased co-ordination and tackle drafting with greater purpose. mechanical skill of professional players making certain heroes viable or useless in comparison to ENSURE THAT ALL ROLES ARE FILLED pub games. For example, Invoker might be popular amongst professional players, but it is unlikely that an Invoker in a 2k pub match will be as effective on the hero as Aliwi ‘w33’ Omar. To help with this, Dotabuff.com releases a PUB HERO TIER LIST with every patch (see the lists for 6.87 & 6.86), detailing which heroes are most likely to result in a win in pub games. Browsing this list will help increase your idea of what is particularly good or bad in the current state of Dota.
We’ve all seen it. Five carries, no support, no stuns. Sometimes, teams such as this will win due to greater late game power. Most of the time though, they will get run over in the early game and lose because of their lack of items. Be sure that your team composition has: • At least one support, hopefully two so that you don’t have one poor soul buying all of the support items all game. • A hero that can initiate a fight. Without a
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Pick at least one support, hopefully two so that you don’t have one poor soul buying all the support items all game.” 12
“
In the rare case no one picks carry, be sure to round off your line-up with a carry hero.”
way to start a fight, it will be hard for you to take fights when your team is strong.
high-ground.
• A carry of some kind. Most of the time in pubs, this won’t be a problem, as almost everyone will highlight a carry hero and select to go into either the jungle or the safe lane. • Stuns. Even if you can take a good fight, if the In the rare case that this does not happen, enemy can just run away before you can kill be sure to round off your line-up with a carry them, you will not be able to capitalize on your hero. advantage. On the other side of the coin, stuns can help save your allies if they get initiated An important thing to remember is that multion, and could help turn a bad fight into a good ple roles can be filled by one hero. For example, one. Vengeful Spirit can support, she has a stun in her Magic Missile, and she can initiate a fight with Nether Swap. Knowing the heroes and their abilities will help you pick the ideal hero in each situation. • Some form of healing. Without healing, it will be difficult to win drawn-out fights, like Additionally, some of these draft needs can be those that occur when defending or breaching filled with items. Your team needs more healing? 13
Buy a Mekansm. Your team needs a little more lockdown? Get a Eul’s Scepter or, if you’re rich, a Scythe of Vyse. Start planning your item builds from the moment you draft your hero, so that you won’t be caught with weaknesses that could be avoided with a little bit of planning.
COUNTER THE ENEMY HEROES Some heroes have well-known counters that can be obtained with appropriate picking. Heroes that rely on invisibility are countered by heroes with abilities that provide True Sight, such as Bounty Hunter and Slardar. Heroes use spells to deal damage are countered by heroes that can give themselves or other heroes Spell Immunity, such as Lifestealer or Omniknight. There are many small interactions like this that can help you expose the weaknesses in the enemy’s line-up, and increases your chances to win the game. Synergize with the rest of your heroes Beyond being able to counter the enemy heroes, another aspect to consider is how well your hero works with the rest of your team. This goes beyond simply filling all of the necessary roles, into unique synergies and interactions between heroes. If your team has a Huskar, consider picking a Dazzle to Shallow Grave him when he’s low and give him extra time in his steroided, flaming lowhealth mode. If you have a Necrophos, maybe get some burst damage to try and delete one hero from the fight right away. Small combinations like this put more emphasis on learning heroes and their abilities, but can add an extra layer of power to your draft.
POST-DRAFT Once the draft is over and you have (hopefully) picked a solid hero, the role of your drafting is largely over. Mention can be made of knowing your power spikes and a host of other aspects of the game, but these won’t be discussed here, as they are more related to actual mechanics and game tactics than drafting. Once the game has started, there is only one thing you should really be thinking about with regards to your draft:
EVALUATE YOUR DRAFT Did your draft perform as expected? Beyond just winning and losing, how could your draft have been better? Were there aspects of your draft that performed completely differently than how you expected? These are all important questions that you should try and answer during and after the game. If your goal is to try and become the best drafter that you can, it is important that you assess whether your decisions were accurate and correct. If things differ from what you expected, try and establish why – if you figure these out, you will be more accurate with your drafts in the future. Drafting is an often under-discussed aspect of pub gameplay. This is mostly because, a large portion of the time, you cannot control what your teammates do. This means that, for the most part, well-co-ordinated drafts are impossible. Nevertheless, finding the ideal hero for each game is vital, and could turn sure losses into hard-fought wins. By working on your draft and keeping these tips in mind before, during, and after the drafting stage of each game, you might just find yourself turning the tides of your pubs with solid drafting decisions. 14
Chroneco
15
A TALE OF FOUR CITIES
SEATTLE
FRANKFURT
©captain meow 2016
16
Captain Meow
SHANGHAI
MANILA
Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note I know Artour has been playing well lately. But we have to wait until TI6 to see if the boy has become a man. 17
Shendelzare, the Vengeful Spirit Lore
©CHEROBEROS
The Ghastly Eyrie
Before the Defense of the Ancients when the Ancients started recruiting heroes from all over the world, up in the sky, there was a great incident on the Ghastly Eyrie, the sky kingdom that was ruled by the notoriously irritable race, the Skywraths.
They were having a pleasant conversation until Dragonus brought up his decision not to pursue his studies of Skywrath sorcery further because it would be time consuming. He was worried about leaving the princessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side after the recent vile assassination.
The assassination of the Skywrath queen was in the headlines for over a month. The Sentinels suspected that an invisible assassin, an expert one, killed the queen. Despite being a major incident, the investigation was closed only after a week.
Knowing how much Dragonus loved learning mystical magic, the princess rejected the idea bluntly and ordered him to stay away from her until he became a proper Skywrath mage. Both of them were upset with the outcome, but they knew it was for their best.
Next in line for the throne was the fierce young scion named Shendelzare. She had just gotten back from a hunt with her childhood friend, Dragonus the Skywrath mage.
Some time had since passed; the princessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coronation as queen was due to take place in just one day and the two of them had not met since their conversation.
Shendelzare and Dragonus 20
As the eldest princess, Shendelzare was entitled to become the queen by default. The scions of Skywrath had high hopes for her, as while she was of short stature, she was brimming with confidence. As a Skywrath, no one could match the speed of her small but swift wings and as a warrior, few could match her prowess in combat. Even if the successor to the queen were chosen by democracy, she would still probably have won the popular vote. However, one royal particularly resented Shendelzare’s succession to the crown. She always wanted to be the queen herself. She had hired the assassin, a friend from another race who she knew from years before, to assassinate the previous queen. With her royal authority, she hid the whole assassination properly without anyone suspecting her. That jealous royal was Shendelzare’s ruthless sister, the princess second in line to be queen. While Shendelzare was granted legitimate authority since birth, it was not the same for her sister. Due to her lack of power, she needed to be extremely cunning in political matters just to get attention the attention she felt she deserved from the other Skywrath scions. In contrast to Shendelzare, who lived her life proudly, her sister’s whole life centred on her eternal envy of Shendelzare. Before the new queen’s coronation, this cold-blooded sister had already plotted a vicious scheme. Shendelzare was a warrior princess; she despised having guards around her when she went hunting. An exception to this was, of course, her childhood friend, the talented mage Dragonus.
Shendelzare’s Sister Ever since their argument where Dragonus wanted to give up studying magic, Shendelzare always went hunting alone. This was all predicted and planned for by her vicious sister’s as she foresaw that the that argument might happen after the previous queen was assassinated. One day before the queen’s inauguration, Shendelzare descended from the sky to go hunting. What she did not know was that an invisible, stealthy assassin tailed her. In the middle of the hunt, the assassin showed himself. He was a satyr and he declared that he would assassinate her. Suspecting that this invisible assailant had assassinated the previous queen, Shen21
Shendelzare is ensnared delzare began to fight him without restraint.
getting her entire body stuck to the net.
As they exchanged blows and strikes, Shendelzare realized that the assassin was more powerful than her and she flew to the sky, hoping that aerial combat would work to her advantage. However, Shendelzareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flight advantage didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work well as she had hoped; the assassin was an expert in blink assassination.
The assassin confessed that the net had been prepared just to catch her. Never one to give up easily, Shendelzare taunted the assassin to kill her quickly hoping that she could counter attack. But the assassin just sat and watched her for hours.
She retreated up a cliff only to found her wings ensnared by a huge net that looked like a spider web. The net was extremely sticky and tough; if Shendelzare were to move too much, she risked
Shendelzare began to realise that the assassin had no intention of killing her. Confused by his actions, she told the assassin to retreat since her rescue squad would come sooner or later. The assassin ignored her threat and waited, silently. The rescue squad never came. 22
By this point Shendelzare had suspected that the one behind this assassination was her sister. She had the authority to thwart any incoming rescue and also had the most to gain from Shendelzare’s absence. Shendelzare then realized that the assassin was trying to kill her through starvation; he wanted her to die suffering. At this point she had to made difficult choice - dying of starvation with her wings stuck to the net like some pathetic bird, or severing her wings to get out of the net. The second option was even worse than death to a Skywrath, and even if she really did cut her wings off the assassin would probably still be able to kill her. Shendelzare nearly gave up hope. She knew that the queen’s coronation was the next day and when her sister became the queen, any search for Shendelzare would be quickly abolished. Contemplating what had happened, she started to regret many decisions she had made. Hour after hour she prayed to her goddess, Scree’auk, hoping for guidance. That night Shendelzare had a dream. A goddess figure appeared before her. Every Skywrath would have recognized the figure - Scree’auk. She told Shendelzare that the one who plotted all of this was her sister and that Shendelzare had to do anything stop her. The goddess told her that her sister wished to bring harm to The goddess. Scree’auk told Shendelzare to sever her wings and return to the Ghastly Eyrie. if she were to comply, the Scree’auk promised to give her even grander wings. When Shendelzare woke up, she noticed that she could no longer feel the assassin’s presence. She then committed the action worse than death to a 23
Skywrath; she sliced off both of her wings and fell free of the net. After she fell down to the river, she did something that no other skywrath could even imagine doing. She climbed up the mountain with her bare hands. This was the first time in the history of the Ghastly Eyrie that a Skywrath had reached the eyrie by climbing. Shame, revenge and the pain of her sister’s betrayal to the goddess filled her mind and fulled her efforts. She couldn’t wait to rip her sister apart. In the midst of climbing, she heard the sound of a bird horn. It signaled that the new queen’s coronation ceremony had started. Knowing that she would be too late, she still kept on climbing. Finally, she arrived on Ghastly Eyrie. The Sentinels were astonished to find that their lost princess was in such a horrible state. Realizing that she had no wings, the Sentinels offered to fly her directly to the throne room. Through her shame, the exhausted Shendelzare had no choice but to accept their offer. Arriving into the throne with the escort of two Skywrath Sentinels, Shendelzare saw the new queen, her sister, sat on a nest of thorns, a smug and satisfied look on her face. With the high scions present including Dragonus, Shendelzare presented her case that this was all a coup planned by her sister. Well prepared, her sister threw out argument after argument on as to why Shendelzare was not fit to become the new queen. Her final and strongest argument was that the Skywrath did not need a queen without wings.
Shendelzare confronts the Queen 24
Futilely, Shendelzare then revealed that Scree’auk had promised to give her new wings once he stopped her sister. The scions didn’t believe her. Knowing that that no one would believe Shendelzare, the queen cruelly and unexpectedly ordered a democratic vote, believing that being rejected by her own people would finally and utterly shame Shendelzare. The high scions voted for her exile, much to Shendelzare’s surprise; even Dragonus voted against her. Broken in mind and body stood Shendelzare, frozen to the ground. The Queen walked over, choked her and threw her down from the skydoor. Shendelzare fell, helpless, to bottom of the eyrie. Saved only by her unique Skywrath physiology, she barely managed to survive the fall. Still confused and helpless at the bottom of the eyrie, Shendelzare was greeted by Scree’auk who had suddenly appeared. Feeling betrayed, Shendelzare cursed the goddess for not supporting her in her time of need. However the goddess revealed the truth of what had happened. As a Skywrath goddess, Scree’auk was indifferent as to whoever wielded the throne. The goddess that had visited Shendelzare in her dream was not Scree’auk but another entity, the Goddess of Dreams, Nyctasha. The day before, three hundred Skywraths in the Ghastly Eyrie had their dreams stolen from them. Shendelzare’s sister offered their dreams to the Nyctasha in exchange for a favor. Normally a goddess wouldn’t offer to exchange her power over such trivial matters, but it was as 25
if some other nightmarish entity had possessed Nyctasha, and she agreed to the exchange. Shendelzare then clearly understood just how far her sister would go just to humiliate her. She vowed to take her revenge and kill sister, no matter what it took. Sympathetic with the plight of the former princess, Scree’auk offered her power. In exchange for her current, broken body, Shendelzare would receive her more power to allow her to commit her vengeance. But it wouldn’t be enough for her to simply storm through the Ghastly Eyrie. Scree’auk told her to go to the north to aid the Ancients. After they had been helped, Scree’auk promised to give her even more power, enough to overthrow even her sister. Scree’auk warned Shendelzare that if she accepts this path, she would not be able to return to her physical body and she would perish after she accomplished her revenge. Without hesitation, Shendelzare took the offering. She had lost everything - her status, her Eyrie and her trust for any other Skywrath. There was nothing else to live for except to kill the new queen. Scree’auk smiled bitterly. After the ritual was finished, Shendelzare was no more. All that’s left of her is her Vengeance and Spirit…
Shendelzare turning into Vengeful Spirit 26
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
SHALEBLADE
Sven rolled his glowing eyes, sighing as he lowered his greatsword. “Maiden,” he pleaded, “please be realistic. We’re working together here.” He shifted his weight to lean onto his greatsword, slowly burrowing the blade’s end in the grass. “We must all begin modestly.”
don’t have the intelligence to grasp your role here, you are here to help me. You can start by buying that ugly beast-” she motioned to a bleary-eyed donkey, curled up beneath a hanging suit of chain mail “-and some of those... ugh...” She wobbled her sword at a pair of plants covered from stem to tip with blinking, twitching eyes. As she hesitated, a raspy voice piped up: “Wards, Naga.” The purple priest hobbled over, a sedated grin plastered across his face.
Rylai whipped around, her pale complexion flushed with indignity. Her tasseled cape lazily coiled around her legs. “Sven, this is for all of us!” she said, clutching a pair of glowing pauldrons. “Look, these runes mean it can freeze everyone in their tracks - easy pickings for the rest of you!” Her attention darted between running her fingers along the runes and staring incredulously at her accuser.
“Er, yes. Thank you, Dazzle,” she said, barely concealing her disgust at the gnarled priest. Her narrowed eyes slowly moved between the two mages before she turned in a huff. “The two of you can settle that. Just remember your priorities...” she cocked her angular chin over her shoulder, meeting Rylai’s gaze over her back. “Me.”
“Look how much gold you have! You can’t afford that-” “I can afford part of it!” Rylai stamped the ground, kicking up dust and frosting the grass around her boot. “Look, this part’s only six hundred! I’ve got just-” “Enough!” shrieked Slithice, sending a small family of birds flying off. The lithe Naga Siren slithered over to Rylai, close enough that she could smell the fish on the naga’s breath. Tearing the pauldrons from her grasp, Slithice threw them behind the shop’s counter and pointed one of her blades at the bottom rung of items. “Since you clearly
As the naga slithered off, Dazzle tilted his head at the stall, his eyes running over the menagerie of equipment. With a sigh, he extended his rattling staff towards the shop. “Well, maiden, shall I?” Should Rylai buy the wards and courier, or should she leave it to Dazzle? Vote here!
27
THE ONE BEHIND
DOPATWO
28
This month, Feeder’s Digest’s Pedro spoke
with
Rafael
“Dopatwo”
Hatadani. You probably don’t know his name, but his 5 Reasons to Pick videos constantly hit the top of r/Dota 2. His latest entry, 5 REASONS TO PICK EARTHSHAKER is full of funny jokes, endless references to anime, and an orgasmic mix of Brazilian and Dota memes —definitely a must-watch. Creating original content nowadays is very hard, considering how many people try it and how few succeed. Reasons range from lack of talent, persistence or desire to improve to just plain luck.
Interviewer: Pedro Editor: Shaleblade
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THE ONE BEHIND DOPATWO Who is the person behind one of the most successful and entertaining YouTube Dota channels? Thanks for the opportunity, and the compliment! My name is Rafael Hatadani, from Londrina, Brazil.
I learned a lot from the viewers too. They were always sending me tips about timing and sound and complaining about ugly sprites. So, I tried to fix these as I made more. My patrons also help me a lot with ideas and suggestions. Today, they’re very important to the process.
How long have you been drawing/animating?
Whats video are you really proud of?
Professionally, I’ve been drawing since 2007, I think. Animating, since 2010.
Dark Seer was the first video I really liked. From the last ones, I like Enchantress, Mirana and Earthshaker.
How did you learn to animate? I decided to live in Curitiba for a year, started looking for a job, and found one related to e-learning. We had to illustrate and animate a lot. Who or what inspired you? I got inspiration from old anime like Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, YuYu Hakusho and eventually, some newer cartoons like Adventure Time, SpongeBob, and Robot Chicken. Those are actually old. Damn! I’m old. And from YouTubers, redminus and Mundo Canibal (Piologo). How has your view of the series 5 Reason to Pick changed over time? In the beginning, it was supposed to show exploits and griefs; things we see in public games that are funny, upsetting, and can only happen in Dota. It was basically a guide for douchebags. But not all heroes could do stuff like that. Also, I started worrying about how bad that concept was (spreading the cancer).
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I learned a lot from the viewers. My patrons also help me with ideas and suggestions. Today, they’re very important to the process.” How has the success of the series impacted your life professionally and financially? Is it your main income? Well, the channel is small, actually. I do have another job — I work as a graphic designer for the editorial segment. The channel and this job complement each other. 30
I see that you have been publishing some work in the Valve Workshop? How is that going? I made three t-shirts but then stopped. I wish I had more time to dedicate to that, though. When did you realize that your videos were a success and how did you react to all that? I was really impressed when one of my videos reached 500k views. It felt good because the videos are fun to make. And knowing that some people wait to see more content from you is really exciting.
to LoL when HoN became pay to play. Yes, LoL. And I was pretty good. I had fun with it until the servers were split, they moved the Brazilians out of the North American servers. It became a mess, then. When Dota came out, it looked and played so much better that I couldn’t play anything else. The Brazilian Dota community was much better, too. For how long have you been playing Dota 2? 2011, I think. Since closed beta.
My reaction was to spend all the revenue I earned on counter strike karambits and Dota stuff.
Do you follow the eSport scene? If so do you have a favorite team/player?
How is your relation with the fans? Do you have some funny stories to share?
I watch The International every year but I don´t understand much because things change too fast. I liked Dendi and Puppey back in the day, I think it´s a cliche. It felt good to watch them pull a Chen / Pudge combo back in 2013.
I chat with them on Steam, and on Discord too. We play together sometimes, so the funny stories are always game-related. Do you have any other projects for the future? If I ever quit my other job, then I have a list of things I’d like to do in my channel. Overwatch videos, for example.
I believe that’s it! Thanks for your time and the interview, love your content and wish you the best! Do you want to say some words for your fans? Thanks to everyone! And thank you for the opportunity again.
How did you discover Dota ?
Follow Dopatwo on YouTube | Facebook | Twitter
I used to play HoN, I was really bad. Then I moved 31
WICKED
COSPLAYER, STREAMER & CASUAL DOTA 2 PLAYER
For this month’s ESport interview, Greed-Sama and what we can look out for at TI 6. Over the sat down with Cat “Wicked” Revell – a cosplayer, course of the hour-long interview, they wandered streamer, and casual Dota 2 player. off on a few tangents, and Greed-Sama had an absolute blast getting to know Wicked. Readers not familiar with Wicked may remember her INTERVIEW WITH TOFFEES during TI5. She Wicked is definitely someone you should follow if and her “Princess Zelda” cosplay were asked to you aren’t already; she is an amiable, passionate leave Key Arena because of her Windranger bow. Dota 2 fan with maybe a dash of NA salt. Wicked and Greed-Sama talked at length about her introduction to Dota 2, gaming as a whole,
Interviewer: Greed-Sama Editor: ktmufasa 32
FOLLOW WICKED @Wickedscosplay wickedplaysgames COMPLETE ALBUMS
So, I first saw you at TI5 after you were told to leave Key Arena, but how did you get started with Dota 2? It’s not exactly the type of game that people easily get into. What drew you to it? I got into Dota 2 after watching my ex-ex-boyfriend play it, and he started playing it just before open beta ended, and I remember watching him play a game where he and his whole team were getting rekt by this Riki. Like, this Riki was 40 and 0, and I remember my ex, he dies and pounds on the table he was sitting at and he’s like, “fuck, goddammit,” and I remember Riki typing into all-chat, “commend me and I’ll tell you how to stop me,” and I was like, I want to do that. 33
So I picked up Dota. My original setup was... because I only used my rig for playing Skyrim at the time, so I had my computer hooked up to a TV on an end table and I had the keyboard in my lap and the mouse to the right on a couch cushion, so I didn’t realize at the time how much that was impacting me until I got a desk set up six months later. I was like, wow, shit, this is way better. I really liked Dragon Knight. Firstly because he is in the tutorial. Secondly, if you need to know about chicks playing games, it’s that we always want to play the druid. Okay? We always want to turn into an animal. We always want to turn
into a fucking bear, and this guy turns into a fucking dragon. I took him safelane and made my ex-boyfriend play Kotl and give me mana, so I can breathe fire everywhere. Well, what about gaming in general? When and how did you get into it? So, I really liked video games when I was a little kid. I got a Playstation 1 for Christmas when I was four. I probably played 100 hours of Spyro, which when you’re a little kid is a lot. My parents were the kind of parents who got their kid a console and then one game, which defeats the
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I really like the sense of community you get when you’re streaming. For someone like me, people don’t come into my stream to watch amazing, sick Dota plays. People come by for the social experience more or less. It’s kind of like hanging out with friends.”
whole purpose because a console is so expensive. Eventually, my parents got me a Playstation 2 and Final Fantasy IX, which at the time was a PS1 game that I was playing on the PS2, so I don’t know why they got it.
magazine for me to talk about how much I love Undertale, so we’ll leave it at, I love Undertale and it’s an amazing game and a work of art. So moving on, I really like Overwatch. It’s a lot of fun. It has the capacity to be played competitively, but I feel like it’s a much more casual game. But I’m I played five games so much in my childhood, and also a long lover/enjoyer of the Soul series, so I’ve it wasn’t until I was 18 that the aforementioned been playing a lot of Dark Souls 3. I just finally ex-ex-boyfriend made me a computer out of spare finished Bloodborne for the first time a couple of parts and I was super pumped because I could months ago. Amazing game by the way. I ordered play Skyrim now. It was the only thing on my a PS4 to play Bloodborne. No flame, no flame... mind, and it wasn’t until a year after that when I was 19 when I saw him playing Dota. I visit your stream every once in awhile when I find the time. You do it pretty often. What about Any recent favorites? streaming do you enjoy? Undertale, but there’s not enough pages in your
Um, there are a lot of things I enjoy about 34
© Wicked 2015
streaming. I guess I’ll just list them off as they come to my mind. I really like the sense of community you get when you’re streaming because you have your regular viewers; you have people who maybe don’t come in all that often that you’re always excited to see when they come on. For someone like me, people don’t come into my stream to watch amazing, sick Dota plays (although you know I’m pretty good at Crystal Maiden so feel free to drop by for that). No, people come by for the social experience more or less. They’ll watch me make an ass of myself, chat with me, chat with other people. So, it’s kind of like hanging out with friends a little bit. It also makes it so I have to shower and look presentable for the day, which is good. That’s a good thing ‘cause normally I would just hang around in my underwear, unshowered playing Dota, which isn’t good. No one wants that. So, I think it forces me to be a little more productive. And I think, when I have a stream schedule (sorry to my viewers, just cause I don’t have one right now), it makes me feel like my whole life is a lot more organized. Whenever I don’t stream it makes me feel really bleh. Are you hoping to one day get a partnership with Twitch? I think as time goes on being a Twitch partner is way less critical to being a full-time streamer. So, to answer your question, I don’t really care. I’d like to get emotes. Emotes are sick. Honestly, emotes are the best part about being a partner because Twitch takes fifty percent of the revenue you get from any person that subscribes to you, unless you have a premium subscription, which is only available to eSports teams. People already have quality options on Twitch without breaking their stream every time it happens. So, as much as a career destroyer as saying this might be, no, I don’t really care if I get a Twitch partnership. If someone is like, hey can we give you a partnership, I’d be like, yeah, cool. And I mean, I’ll probably apply again just for the sake of having a purple button on my Twitch © Wicked 2015 36
page, but I don’t think it’s important and it’s not critical to anyone’s success, I don’t think, honestly. Alright, enough of the serious stuff. Are you planning to go to TI 6? I am going to TI, I am not going to ESL One Frankfurt unless something miraculous happens. No? Okay, cool. So yeah, I’m going to TI; I don’t think I’m going to any other event because TI is the only North American event this year. Any cosplays we should be looking out for? Yeah, I am currently in the process of making the Bladekeeper Juggernaut set, which is the DotaCinema set with the glowing red sword and the black and red omnislash. It’s going, it’s going. I am really terrible about procrastinating for my cosplays, so I’ve had all of the stuff to do it for like a month. And I’ve done like 10% of the work, maybe? Yeah, I guarantee what’s going to happen is I’m going to be like, “oh I have plenty of time,” up until two weeks before TI and I’m going to do all of the work while crying. My cosplays go one of two ways. There’s always a panic at the end. It either goes I finish my first cosplay with plenty of time to spare and then I go, I can totally make another cosplay in this time, and then I panic on that one, or I just procrastinate right up to the end with my first cosplay and then I do all of the work while crying for that one in the last week. So, who knows, maybe I’ll do another cosplay. I haven’t decided. I want to do something weird. I want to do OD or something or like Clockwerk. But I want to do something that hasn’t been done without it being this giant mess. I don’t want to be walking around in a Timbersaw cosplay. If you would like to be interviewed by Feeder’s Digest, please contact Greed-Sama Email: projectsolis@gmail.com Twitter: @ProjectSolis_ 37
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Raigor
Tsunami
Greed-Sama
Head & magazine organizer Only started playing after TI4, but quickly fell in love with the game
Game analysis writer Be the better procrastinator
Writer & editor Owner of @ProjectSolis_
Pedro
HappyMeal
Akasaka
Editor of interviews & fan content Day memer night pole dancer @3xgore
Game analysis writer You are what you eat
Esports writer
Has a hot/cold relationship with Dota 2
? Nilceps
Mis
PizzaDog
Magazine editor Lift long and prosper
Game analysis writer
Game analysis writer A player of games and Ultimate Frisbee. He is loved by raccoons
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CONTRIBUTERS
LodbrokDota
Cheroberos
msr-
Game analysis writer Writes a Dota 2 blog
Artist & fan content contributer Loves Dota 2 but barely play the game itself these days @CheroBeros
Magazine cover maker
Shaleblade
Chroneco
TAMingW
Writer & fan content contributer Still waiting for Rubick mid to get back in the meta
Artist & fan content contributer @Chrone_co
Assembly Wanna know my secret identity? @TAMingW
Sheepsticked
Captain Meow
ktmufasa
Artist & fan content contributer I play Overwatch now @sheepsticked
Assembly & fan content contributer Team Secret fan girl @ksliang
Assembly I AM YOUR FATHER @ktmufasa
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General inquiry and writing Editor Raigor - FeedersdigestMatt@gmail.com
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