That first clip shows a really good principle you didn't cover, and that's how the creep wave is super valuable for echos. Every illusion, summon, and lane/neutral creep adds another chunk of damage to the pile, so if you're fighting in lane like in that first scenario, you really want to keep in mind where the next creep wave is, as a wave of 6 creeps is like another 3 heroes in the echo radius. Waiting just three seconds would have been far more effective, and likely a vital change in a fight if the match had been closer.
In a lot of clips the itemization is really suspect. Every clip is phase boots or treads. Phase boots are the worst on shaker, simply because a majority of his purchases will have mobility, and Totem hits only multiply the base damage, not the bonus damage phase gives.
There's something to say about getting treads, it's a decent compromise between mana needs and damage, but really it's just not worth it, especially when you don't religiously treadswap to cast. Arcanes are just simply far too good to pass up, especially if you pick up soul ring alongside and drop arcanes to pop the ring for even more mana. Tranquils are also good, but make him even more reliant on mana regen items, they pair well with soul ring and euls but of course that delays blink quite a bit, which sucks if the enemy team starts grouping and pushing when you only have pickoff potential.
Also, that "hit with end of fissure then blink in" combo looks neat, but it really should only be reserved for if the enemy has an instant cast counterspell, since it passes up on the potential of the aftershock damage when casting fissure. This is also a great reason to master force staff aiming/distance, as you can cast aftershock or fissure while the forced movement is happening, letting you stop by a target with the enchant/fissure already mostly through the cast delay.
My take is that there are two closely related hero groups: heroes that don't mind losing mid, and heroes that make it hard for the enemy to win mid.
Dont mind losing mid: Zeus (can contribute with global, still outputs damage) and Venomancer (easily farm jungle while still pressuring tower with max E). Maybe also Pugna since you can easily shove waves but many matchups are still rough if you are behind.
Hard for enemy to win mid: DK is number one here, two in E at level 3 and you're good. Necrophos if you have higher auto damage since free regen. Viper depending on the matchup, if they can't kill you early you will most likely have a fine lane.
Medusa's another good example of the latter group, even if she's a little bit out of the meta right now. It's really hard to beat her without rotations since she's super durable and can constantly harass for free mana for her shield.
Or harsher punishments
Harsher punishments do nothing when the punishments aren't given out to the friends of the guys in charge.
Shrapnel? You mean waste two good rightclick talents for pitiful magic DPS in lategame? Pass, thanks
The 6 shrapnel charges talent, not the shrapnel dps talent.
The dps talent is definitely rarely worth getting, but the extra charges are extremely good, as that much extra vision and slow is really strong in late fights, and it lets you siege high ground towers for so long that they're basically forced to leave their high ground to stop you or lose the tower.
How viable do you think of putting pl at mid against heroes like Arc/Invoker/TA?
Not OP, just another PL spammer.
If you look at the stats, mid PL is the most successful lane for him right now.
He's really good against invoker. PL counters pretty much every spell invoker has if he's played well. He can phantom rush through ice wall, dopple dispels cold snap and lets him dodge all the aoe, even if he is hit with a tornado you'd need nearly perfect timing to land emp as well. If you have dust and diffusal and see invoker alone that's a free kill every time.
Things are Similar with arc, he can use illusions to pop the wraiths, or dodge them with dopple. Arc's slow only affects units not near allied units, and he can dispel it with dopple if he really needs to. Really the only issue is making sure you're positioned inside the static field when fighting him.
TA is probably his weakest matchup of those three, and even then that's simply because TA has a really strong cs game going on and can out harass him with psi blade hits. Refraction can be popped to dodge spirit lance, meld strike and traps popping force him to dopple to dispel if he wants to survive.
There are mid heroes he doesn't want to fight though, even if they're not really in the meta right now they shut him down hard.
Ember is the second strongest counter to PL, and it makes sense as he's a pain the whole game. In lane he can just run you down with flame guard once he's level 3 since you only have one source of magic damage, and it's not enough once he gets the second point. Any time he catches you without illusions bam you're rooted, any time he catches you with illusions bam you're eating slight of fist. With mjolnir and radiance and flame guard you don't get any chance to be at full illusion numbers and he can whittle you down easily.
Timbersaw is the hardest counter to him, and while he's not usually played mid he can totally lane there. If spirit lance hits him he gets free armour and almost enough Regen to cover the damage done. His kit melts illusions and reduces damage in lane really well, and once he has a bloodstone it's nearly completely impossible for a PL to win a fight.
Puck is just the worst. Orb is a strong Gap closer and lets him get ranged creep cs, he can dodge every spirit lance easily, his silence means you can't dopple out, and dream coil is the worst because dopple doesn't actually move you until the invulnerabilty ends, meaning you'll still eat the damage and stun if you try to dopple out.
Either way, the biggest weakness in PL mid is that he's not going to be able to make effective rotations in the early game. Like medusa, he has no real early game power spikes. Until he's built to x-4-4-2 at least, he's a prime target in any team fight because of the long cool downs on his mobility spells, and without diffusal even a full army doesn't really anything but give free gold. He's a damn fine split pusher though.
Sleight of fist doesn't disjoint, it just makes you invulnerable for (0.2+0.2*targets hit) seconds.
You're far better off simply accepting that qop will qop, and get extra regen. A wand will fill up fast against her, and your waveclear is far stronger at level 3 than her, allowing you to shove and go for the rune.
The next good number is 60, which is why the Babylonians used base 60 math.
The good number after that is 420, smallest number divisible by 1 to 7.
Ignoring all the "ew grass stains" arguments, one major issue I see is that it's structurally unsound. It's freaking cardboard, and soil absorbs a lot of water. One good rainstorm, or just a few weeks of regular watering, and it'll slump into a mushy mess the moment weight is added.
Why not just make a beanbag out of astroturf?
Pheonix is in a pretty strong spot right now, but he's very reliant on the right enemy lineup, and can fall off really hard if you itemize poorly.
If the enemy has strong attack speed and an effective way to purge fire spirits, his teamfight potential is far lesser than it could be. Slark, LC, Juggernaut, and a handful of others, they can just dispel and focus the egg pretty effectively. If you see someone who can deal with your spirits, especially if it's a melee carry, don't go for the luxury of shivas or radiance, rush that halberd.
If your team is weak at pushing, get meteor hammer. You can cast it during icarus dive for some sick plays or safe split pushing, and it's a great followup to drop on enemies after a successful egg drop.
Can't we cool it until it is less stupidly hot? It's a long way through cold space from the sun to Earth
The only way to efficiently cool something is to use the energy to heat something else up as well. Space is mostly empty of stuff to cool the helium down.
This is awesome.
What, no base screenshots?
The reason her core build is damage/speed item, damage item, speed item, damage item, is because she's not supposed to take damage in the first place. Powershot can get her cs in the hardest of lanes, and windrun/shackle can be used to escape most offensive moves if you're smart.
That being said, there are plenty of good options if you're in a game where you feel you need the sustain.
Wand is a good item, if they've got a spell spammer or two in lane get that stick asap and upgrade it when you can. Raindrops doesn't regen hp directly, but it does massively increase her effective HP when dealing with caster harassment, which is her biggest weakness in lane. If you're offlane, consider getting a bottle at the secret shop before the 5 minute bounty runes spawn.
Nullifier is really good on windranger, as is Linkens. If you're sure you want one of those in the late game, there's nothing wrong with getting the helm/ring early, but honestly you'll be far more effective if you're low on HP in the midgame to either farm in the jungle while waiting for the courier to deliver a salve or two, or simply walking back to fountain and deciding on where to go next from there.
Using the word cataclysm in a roguelike title that isn't descended from the original Cataclysm is probably a bad idea. There's probably not a legal issue, but it does cause needless confusion and can be seen as pretty rude and trying to leech off the success of CDDA.
Also you probably should pick a title that doesn't share an acronym with the other, more infamous CoC.
I haven't been as focused on indie games this last year, so my list of games is pretty small.
Celeste was great, brought me back to the days of Super Meat Boy's golden years. The side C levels break my sanity.
Into the breach is fun and I enjoyed playing it, but honestly it felt a little repetitive after a while, it needs more maps and content to match the massive amount of teams you get.
Dead Cells is probably the best permadeath metroidlike so far, even though the combat seems repetitive I still haven't mastered it.
Eight-Year Club
