@jong: I merely quote my teammates (then discussion mates since I wasn't part of their team) for the Pudge thing. This whole hero log also tries to show that about every damn hero can be used in draft match.

My brother apparently witnesses someone getting AAA for Max 300 on his Campus' DDR machine. That guy can probably 1v5 microing 5 computers at once with his feet.

The referrer bar is kind of wonderful. Makes you realise how many other people out there strife to improve, and then some who play too much without improving.

I realised it somewhere along the time Lone Druid was being popularised, I think it was around April last year or something. Basically there were times where I would be playing Bear and before the game I would tell my teammates "Okay, I'm not in control, I'm not going to do well". Happened often then, and only now do I realise that I actually had that kind of feeling in other games with other heroes other than Lich (and Lich when I was sick during GXL). It was just that microing 2 units made the feeling much more obvious.

It's simply a feeling, but most of the time I didn't end up doing very well in those games I had that feeling. I was basically playing those games mostly by instinct. I had no idea what was going on, where people were missing, etc. etc.

So then I decided to stop playing by instinct. To conciously try to check myself at every moment, realise when I was basically getting lost into the game. It worked for me at least. At this current moment I proudly say that I've progressed quite a lot from one year ago. If I can attribute that improvement to one thing, I'll attribute it to this.

I TRY (and often fail, but I try) to always be concious of what is happening. Unless urgently needed, decisions are planned for rather than jumped into. If something goes wrong, I know what went wrong and correct it, because I'm aware and was in control if that wrongdoing.

And then there is the part where you try to improve on whatever didn't go as you had ideally planned. "I could have escaped from them if I had passed my boots from my Bear to the hero... next time I'll make sure I can and try to do it..." or in the more drastic cases "we would have won if I had gone Skadi on my Morphling... next time I'll get Skadi on my Morphling, or just not play Morphling anymore..." Perhaps this is why I get pissed off easily at things that I can't correct when they don't go ideally, like Chain Frost bouncing wrongly, Bear not getting entangles off, etc...

Now for some very short hero logs. The ones I feel are nice and cool to talk about... I'll procrastinate.


Hero Log 17/82: Viper

Everyone seems to like Viper but me. Hate this guy. There's something to be said about vulnerability here. He basically owns everything badly in a 1v1 but fails at anything beyond that. Good Vipers are able to make it so that even in a big battle, their fights are not anything more than 2v1s. Avoiding AoE while actually being in some part of the battle to attack someone while not being vulnerable to everything is key to playing Viper well, and I can't really do that.

That and the fact that a good Viper needs INSANE farming. I farm well, I farm safely, but that means my Relic comes about 10 minutes slower than other better Vipers.

I also go for BKB rather than Relic first, because it's my nature to just not like running around with no form of escape and no form of survivability. Other Vipers seem to be just fine with that disability. Meh, I can't catch up to them. Viper is a good hero, but I'll put it to one side.


Hero Log 18/82: Tinker

You know the feeling of lostness I talked about earlier? I get the same thing with Tinker in battles. Basically the frenzy of casting spells and rearming and casting everything again in such quick succession leaves very little time for thinking, which I'm not very favourable to.

Insane farmer and insanely irritating with BoT, unfortunately even with BoT and whatsnot I had serious problems getting him to do anything but spam missile and send people home.

Luckily, given the correct mindset, you can basically keep the opponent off all 3 lanes for a long time. I guess kills don't really matter when you stop them from farming, but they do matter to me somewhat. Not much fun harrassing and not getting kills, though the effectiveness is undeniable from their lack of items.


Hero Log 19/82: Shadow Fiend

Another hero with no escape mechanism. Did I mention that I hate playing heroes with no escape mechanism? Which is why I get lothars on him.

There is much more fun from playing SF to be gotten than from playing Viper though. Shadow Raze is a sick sick AoE spell in a few situations. Those situations don't come often, but are very satisfying when taken advantage of.

Not to mention that Lothar-Requiem instagibbing is also very satisfying. Comes far too rarely though, and there's always the chance that you get caught and die before being able to get anything pulled off. This is a hero I guess I might revisit some day, but for now, he's still rather unstable, since he's easily ganked and only useful in some situations.


Hero Log 20/82: Shadow Priest

New hero++!! Can't say if I'm good at this or if this hero is good or not, although Shallow Grave is perhaps the best support ultimate for your late gamer. Lack of survivability (read: dirt low HP and armor) makes him really a pain to play against teams with a lot of AoE. Considering that his spells are much more effective when he's in battle for a longer period of time (low cooldown and insanely annoying spells too), he's a rather difficult hero to play.

Plus the Shadow Priest has no AoE and no real means of killing things by himself. Good support hero, but that means that he needs a good team to be made fully effective. Until I can play support well AND can find a good team to play this, I'll stay off this hero.


Like I said, really really short hero logs. I didn't actually enjoy playing those heroes much.

just as a reminder for when I ever actually decide to write them:
21: Bristleback (had a few really fun games with it)
22: Silencer (I can't actually think of what to write, but I like playing him anyway)
23: Doom Bringer (I'm actually going to withhold this writeup)
24: Lord of Avernus (had a period of time where I played him a lot, still love him)
25: Treant Protector (had really good experiences with this in IHCS)
26: Bane elemental (just finished a really good game with it, and lots of potential on this hero)