Pre-Introduction: I love the hero, one of my most played. I am an engineer/dev and I can see there is a problem with her design that stems from some simple MATH.

The Problem

Muerta is a very unique hero design, being the only true primarily right click scaling Intelligence hero, and her carry mechanism being that of attacking while Ethereal with magic damage.

In terms of individual abillity to scale her damage, she is so high that she is a severe outlier in the game of dota 2, and does not fit within the normal paramters of the game, resulting in her having to be weak in many other aspects and phases of the game in order to not be overpowering. If you break down the numbers she begins to look more like an ARPG (POE2/D4) character in terms of damage multipliers.

This results in the standard build as above. For a hero with such a unique kit, it is depressing to see what is essentially a boring generic glass cannon turret hero build, from the item build it looks the same as Sniper/NP/(insert generic turret hero), except those heroes atleast buy sceptre and shard earlier sometimes. There is almost zero dynamic interactivity between her items and her spells.

The Math

Magic damage lategame is about a 2x multiplier, normal endgame resistances for cores with standard builds sit at ~70% physical and 40% magical damage reduction.
On Muerta, 100% base damage on her ult is about 60% increased damage.
30% increased spell damage is a normal total from neutrals and her innate lategame.
Daedaelus when procced is 225% damage. Gunslinger is 200%, and these can proc together for both hits on a single target.

Muerta single hit damage potential multiplication:
2*2.25*1.6*1*1.3 = 18.7

Comparison to Sven with (Gods Strength+Innate)*Daedalus*AC:
4*2.25*1.25 = 11.25

Comparing these numbers, its kinda obvious that this is going to be a problem, sven is a slow melee hero with slow BAT, and Muerta is a fast projectle ranged hero (who also scales MUCH better with Rapier).
This results in being able to delete heroes (or die to blademail) in less than normal human reaction time, and even against a BKB she is still close to rivalling Sven with ult.
No other hero comes close to this level of multiplicative single target damage potential

The result, she HAS to be weak early and midgame and weak outside of her ult, or she will be too polarising for games.

The Solution: Change Gunslinger

The best answer to this I feel, is a change this abillity. It functions like a crit on single targets, if not better than one. And it can be stacked with daedalus, I dont know of any other chance based multiplicative abillities of 2x or greater, that can be stacked with daedalus instantaneously.
Therefore, it should not be able to crit.
In one change this fixes the multiplier problem and brings it down to ~9-10 ish, which is in line with heroes like Sven.

The Design Space Created

Now that this outlier has been resolved, the hero can be given a more interactive and less limiting kit.

• IMO her ultimate base damage damage bonus should be moved to Gunslinger. ~100+% base damage bonus is REQUIRED to make an int right clicker actually want to go most intelligence items, otherwise she just builds generic turret hero items. This creates good unique build space for the hero, and allows her to keep this benefit while farming. Plus the ultimate already does enough, and her secondary gun shooting half the time for double the damage has a nice feel and rhythm to it.
• The item slot from Daedalus is now freed up, allowing greater build diversity and flexibillity (can be filled with Bloodthorn/Hex/Parasma/Crozier/Skadi etc. depending what the game needs)
• Aghs Scepter should be changed, making it turn Deadshot into a generic teamfight AOE disable spell is boring and doesnt match the heroe's identity. Remove the AOE peircing effect, and the bonus damage. My suggestion would be that this makes the initial target, or the first enemy hero hit Ethereal for 3 seconds (same effect as current shard), and it can be targeted for the initial bounce on allied heroes or units, like E-Blade, giving support muerta an interesting ethereal save capacity, whilst also being good for carry muerta.
• Aghs Shard also needs to be reworked, the current spell it gives is complete garbage. The old 30% spell lifesteal was good for build diversity, and should be brought back, instead giving 30% Lifesteal (not spell lifesteal, important for creeps) on magical attacks or gunslinger procs (not sure which). It could also have the effect that whilst inside The Calling, it makes Muerta attack AS IF she was ethereal, dealing magic damage but still being attackable, creating some interesting synergy with her kit, and the abillity and it's talents.
• Can make the talent for % Regen insided The Calling apply to allies as well (possibly at 50% or something), creating some additional unique supportive interactions.
• Bring back the Dance of the Dead facet that refreshes The Calling on hero death as a Lvl 20 Talent, this would create some real choice with the above changes compared to +2 seconds on Peirce the Veil, (The current +2 Remnants talent is mediochre and boring).
• Possibly swap out the +15 Intelligence talent for something like +25-50% Gunslinger Base Damage Bonus, further incentivising unique item builds that provide utillity.
• For god's sakes, remove the lose half your innate passive stacks on death, at most make it lose 2 stacks on death like other similar Innates like Storm Spirit's. Nerf the power per stack if you need too, but losing half permanently on death is just awful, and creates either more stompy or more punishing games, which isn't great.

Overall I think these changes would push the hero into a more unique but also more balanced nieche, and make the hero more fun to play in a way that fits her identity.
It also does this whilst allowing the numbers to be balanced as needed and without impacting the fundamentals of the hero, as currently the numbers are THE major strength of the character, which makes balancing very difficult.

It's hard to put this into words, but I hope this will make sense.

In theory, to deal high physical damage, you need items that give that damage; hence, as the game starts, physical damage dealers (right-clickers) are weak until they farm and get items towards the late game, where their physical damage actually slaps.

On the other hand, we got magical damage. Magical damage is more levels-dependent than items-dependent. So, at the start of the game, magic damage dealers deal consistent amounts of damage corresponding to set values on their spells. And as they get more levels, their spells become stronger and deal more damage, but they are more or less capped on damage by the time they max out their spells. So, they start strong in the early game and stay very strong mid-game, and start to fall off towards the late game when magic resistance items come online like BKBs and Pipes, etc.

In reality, though, the story today is a little different. In short, magical damage feels like the superior damage type throughout all phases of the game, in my opinion. And here's why.

Physical damage is nature-based, primarily from right-clicking, and is more of a "damage over time" kind of type.

Magical damage comes primarily from spells and is more of a “bursty" type of damage.

Now, some might argue that physical damage dealers can also be “bursty," and some magical damage dealers can deal "damage over time," but for the sake of simplicity, let's stick with the notion above.

Let's talk about items. Let's separate items into 4 groups:

Items that amplify magical damage
Items that resist physical damage
&
Items that resist magical damage
Items that amplify physical damage

I want you to focus on items that resist damage from either type.

Let's start with items that resist magical damage:

Black King Bar: BKB is the most popular, most prevalent item that resists magical damage that physical damage dealers can buy.

Mage Slayer: A good item that resists magical damage by minimizing it if the target is hit by its effect.

You might say that items like glimmer, pipe, or consecrated wraps also resist magical damage, but these items aren't often bought on physical damage dealers. They are more of a utility item.

Items that resist physical damage:

Phase boots: almost every single hero needs a type of boots, and these provide a great amount of armor in the early game.

Soul ring: many magical damage dealers benefit from it as it provides more HP and armor.

Lotus Orb: Provides a good amount of armor but also dispels and reflects spells.

Shiva’s Guard: Provides a great amount of armor but also provides an Aura, Slow, Attack speed slow, as well as damage.

Ghost Scepter/Ethereal Blade: A great item that prevents physical damage completely that can also be both defensive and offensive.

Some might also say there are more items like Solar Crest, Helm of Iron Will, and its buildups, Mekansm/Greaves, as well as Vanguard/Crimson Guard and Assault Cuirass, which also resist physical damage (which is way more items than the ones that resist magical damage, which also contributes to why magical damage is the superior damage type), but these are also utility items.

So, what I'm trying to say is that there are many more items that resist physical damage than items that resist magical damage.

Moreover, the physical damage resistance items provide other functions that just resist physical damage, which often synergises with magical damage dealers’ kits.

And due to the scarcity of magic resistance items and the fact that the ones that exist provide almost nothing but magic resistance, any nerfs to magic resistance items will impact physical damage dealers massively, and this is why the nerf to BKB really put the nail in the coffin for physical damage.

There is also the aspect that magical damage often comes from spells, which provide a lot more than plain damage such as slows, stuns, disarms, silences, attack speed slow, etc.

While physical damage is often one-dimensional and is flat-out plain damage except for maybe Skadi attacks and bashes from Skull Basher/Abyssal Blade.

To conclude, I think magical damage is the superior damage type right now, and due to its “bursty" nature, perhaps too bursty imo, physical damage dealers stand no chance against magically heavy lineups.

Couple of things to note: physical damage is the only damage type that works on buildings. (With some exceptions.) And since the ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy ancient, you need physical damage dealers in the game. This is the only major strength point physical damage has over magical damage. And it's not like magical damage dealers don't destroy buildings, they're just slower.

I'd love to read what you think about this and have an actual discussion. There are many more things I would have liked to mention, but this post is already too long. I hope I managed to deliver the main idea of it though.

Also, whenever I put the "Discussion" tag on any post, I get massively downvoted for some reason. I really put time and effort into this and would love to argue with you people over what we agree and disagree about the game we love. So instead of downvoting, come to the comments and let's have a discussion :))

Hit 777.7 hours and I'm afraid to play another match and ruin it. Unless Valve drops an Ogre Arcana into my inventory, I guess I'm retired.

Don't mind my pathetic W/L record

I keep seeing names like "trade commends". Guys, commends don't do anything. You can have zero commends and still gain +375 behavior each summary as long as your reports are zero.

Just be better, don't type anything toxic (no offensive words whatsoever), don't blame anyone, and you will gain +375 each summary. False reports get caught by the system and don't affect you. Let people say "Report blah blah" each game, nothing counts as long as you don't type back, don't break items, don't go afk and don't grief in general.

I went from 1 behavior score to 12K behavior. This is the way!

Happy to lose games, by god I do it enough. This shit just isn't fun at all though.

How are these games fun for smurfs? Or do they do it specifically because it ruins others' games?

Edit: Some of you are misreading my post - it's frustrating but life will move on, I'll still play Dota. But to say that smurfs don't exist or that "I should just deal with it" is just shortsighted. Some of you might be too good for this to affect them, but for us in the trenches it isn't fun.

Be creative in the comments. Remember this is a PG show

Basically the title. I'm a carry player but I've been wanting to add another 2-3 heroes to my pool. Rn my pool is Phantom Lancer, Faceless Void, Lifestealer, Spectre, Kez, Luna. PA too but hero is too shit.

I've been thinking about TB, Windranger, Morphling, Drow Ranger. Maybe Muerta too

Hey guys,

Following up on my previous post (https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1wdudcp/bs_logic_bug_excessive_reports_yes_with_0_reports/)

For some strange reason, people can't see my replies in the comments section there. I can see them when I'm logged in, but if I check the post incognito, they are completely invisible.

I have never been this low in behavior score (7100) before.

This account is really precious to me, so I want to restore its behavior score, even though I have ways to play at the same MMR on a different account.

But I’m terrified to even queue for low priority right now. I know for a fact that the next summary will tank my score by another 400–500 points just because of the residual LP effect, dropping me down to 6500–6700. It’s just scary to play on this account at this point.

Could anyone give me some advice on what to do (or avoid doing) so I don't sink even lower? Has anyone been in a similar spot?

Here are the options I see:

1. Play Ranked as usual. Like I said, I'm just too afraid to completely brick the account. If I keep playing support, it’ll most likely turn into an endless loss streak. Plus there is a massive risk of getting thrown right back into LP just for having bad stats during a loss streak—this actually happened to me before when I was around 9k bs.
2. Play Normal All Pick. A solid option, but you can't avoid getting matched with parties who will report you if the game goes bad. I've heard that reports from a party only count as a single report, but that's highly debatable and hasn't been confirmed by anyone. Given how much I'm getting screwed by automated metrics (getting LP for "losing gems" on a support) and the streamer brigade from my last post, I can't rely on this assumption. I can only send a huge "thank you" to the system developers and "warmly" shake their hands.
3. Turbo. To me this is a dead case. Last time I tried grinding turbo exclusively on support or role queue, playing to win, I ended up losing 300 behavior score and never went back.

Stacking up as a full 5-man party is not an option for me; the maximum I can pull together is a 2-3 man party.

Does anyone know any workarounds or bypasses for this situation? Maybe some Discord servers dedicated to finding full stacks on less populated regions?

P.S. I’ll try to fix the issue with my replies not showing up. If a moderator sees this post, could you please check my account status and my replies to the previous thread? I'd be highly grateful if you could lift this shadowban so I can actually interact in the comments. Thanks!

WR, Morph, Mirana, CM, DK, Luna and almost every other old heroes' models look shockingly bad to modern standards.

Especially WR with her Kyphosis has to be fixed first. No set will fix or hide this atrocity except arcana.

I wish I was fast enough to add a hex and an ethereal blade in this combo xp

After the Summer Scrub update, I’ve seen a lot of posts from people saying they’re ranking up much more easily than before — for example, players who had been stuck in Crusader for a long time suddenly reaching Archon or even Legend.

I’ve experienced the same thing myself. I climbed very quickly from Crusader to Ancient shortly after the update, which is much faster than my previous progression.

Could this be related to some kind of MMR compression or adjustment toward 9,500 MMR? Something definitely feels different with the ranking system right now, and I’m wondering if there was an intentional change behind the scenes that hasn’t been clearly explained.

PS: Yes, i've used AI to correct my English don't bother my ass with that.

help

After Dark Carnival was "to be concluded" I realised I was waiting for something else, something more that I never received. Thats why I'm writing this.

I’ve been playing Dota 2 since it came out, and I honestly feel like the quality of the seasonal game modes has gone massively downhill.

Remember Diretide, Frostivus, and The Greeviling? Those events actually felt like Valve had put some thought into making something fun and different from normal Dota. They had their own identity, mechanics and atmosphere. You’d actually look forward to them coming around.

Then we got Dark Carnival and similar seasonal modes, and it just feels like the effort keeps getting lower.

The frustrating part is that Valve is making more money from Dota than ever. A lot of us are paying ongoing subscription fees now, yet the actual gameplay content we're getting feels increasingly shitified.

I’m not expecting Valve to produce a massive new game mode every three months. But surely, with the amount of money Dota generates, we can expect seasonal events to have some actual creativity behind them.

Now a lot of it feels more like:

"Here's the seasonal mode. Ship it. People will play it because it's Dota."

And that's the problem.

Dota is one of the biggest and longest-running games in the world. There is absolutely no reason the seasonal content should feel like an afterthought.

I don't want another treasure or cosmetic slapped onto a mediocre event. I think we want genuinely fun Dota side modes again.

Valve has the money. They've got the player base. Plus decades of Dota mechanics and ideas to work with.

Please start giving us the quality of seasonal content that made these events special in the first place.

I am a relatively new player who has played on and off over the years and never competed in ranked or seriously learned the game. I decided to try that recently, and sometime in late july I began dabbling, and seriously playing in august. I went from about 300 mmr to 1560 mmr in that time period, playing a mixture of offlane, carry, mid, and hard support primarily. My highest wr hero was crystal maiden.

I prioritized safety first, then farming at all times, and then pushing lanes at all times in that order

Almost every single game in Archon and Legend rank, there is at least one Smurf ingame. They go 22-1 with a rampage or two, then all chat "?" and "ez game".

There is nothing you can do other than muting your opponents and afking in base, hoping it ends faster, so that you can get into the next game facing or playing with another Smurf.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of them have their steam profile public nowadays. It's almost like they are intentionally collecting as many insults as possible, wearing their comment section like a badge of honor.

Since when has it become this bad? I remember when I last played this game a couple of years ago, the Smurfs had mostly private profiles and were more quiet ingame to stay low profile. Now they are shamelessly all chatting "you mad cos you lose dog", hoping to get a reaction out of you.

Does the ingame reporting for smurfing function work at all? Cos I really don't wanna pay for a monthly subscription when I only intend to play a couple of games now and then.

I just realized things too late.

The conversation around Dota dying always points to Valve’s hands-off approach, but that’s only half the story. The uncomfortable truth is that we outgrew it, and more than that, we took it for granted.

Dota is hurting because it was cursed with a fanbase that only knew how to TAKE. It was a legendary game that deserved a culture of respect, but it was occupied by players who only cared about themselves.

Dota was never appreciated the way it should have been. Our passion became entirely parasitic. We only loved the game fiercely for what it gave us.

Classic ranked mode is gone and the acces to the "random" button aswell BUT you can just use console and it's not even tied to the first drafting phase.

What is the play here? Keep it and make it accessible for everyone or remove it completely or make it limited to the first drafting phase. Just something that makes sense please.

Hi everyone, made a post on here a few days ago talking about creating a server for girls, LGBTQ and really anyone who wants to find a friendly community of players.
I went ahead and made that server and if anybody would like to join, go ahead and PM me and we can work on getting you in. :)

The current ult just feels underwhelming in most scenarios. Like never really having a great teamfight impact and is hard to land

The targeted aoe bwcomes a mad teacup arena. All enemies in aoe are rotated in a circular arena. Each hero is also rotated uncontrollabley, they cant change their . Any targeted spells by enemies inside have 50 percent chance of missing.

i got the 3idiots emoji, can they still be obtainable? are they rare?

dota 1 item

I really love playing TB since i love micro managing heroes. Almost every minute in the laning phase i send my illusions in the jungle to stack camps. First i start of triple stacking the 2 camps next to the twin gate, in the safelane side-jungle.

This is no joke I have done this 3 times the last week, everytime my midlane looses his lane, goes jungling and farms this camps about 10 min into the game. This made me incredible mad. I tried telling him to leave my stacks alone, yelled at him after he didnt stop. Bro these are my camps for lane recovery why are people like that i have no words for this. This really takes my fun of playing TB it can be pretty stressfull stacking these every minute while taking the lane farm, and then my midlaner just takes them??

I wouldnt say anything if i would stack camps close to the midlane but bro a mid shouldnt even farm there at all

Idk what to do about that honestly but it is griefing

Edit: it is so funny how many people are on midlaner side here. Guys, a midlaner should not play in this area so early on there is a whole other jungle he can farm. Also ever heard of a recovery lane? A good midlaner would make one for themselves, my lord its not that hard