December 13th, 2016519The Dota 7.00 patch makes Dota 2 a new game at fundamental levels. Here are ten important changes you need to know before you boot Dota 7.00.
Preface: I started doing professional patch analysis, first at JoinDOTA, then at DotaBlast and other outlets, about three years ago. I’ve been the first to break apart over a dozen patches...
December 18th, 201534By now you’ve read the patch notes and seen some of the changes, but 6.86 is a massive patch. We’re going to be finding new game interactions for weeks, if not months, but I wanted to first look at one of the most impactful changes: the new offlane Hard camp.
This camp exists by each team’s Secret Shop, both facing West (toward...
November 24th, 20154Often the fastest way to estimate a tournament’s hero balance is to look at the most banned heroes rather than the most picked heroes.
If few heroes were always banned, it generally means the patch is not well-balanced. If many heroes get banned more equally, it usually means that teams are diverse and trying to leverage metagame...
September 28th, 201581Every Jim and his manager has put out a patch analysis of some kind. Most of them are very specialized or many hours long. This is not that. This is a patch note look for people who want to understand patch changes and not just people who want to know them.
June 23rd, 201543Recently I was checking out at the grocery store, a full assortment of rice, pizza rolls, and various canned beans (you know - a balanced diet) ready to be paid for when I made a terrifying realization: I had forgotten my wallet. I had a $20 bill on me, and I had to filter down everything I wanted to buy into quite a bit less.
I...
June 6th, 201528The last two months have been a busy time for the Internet’s favorite milliner. Although it may feel like Rome rose and fell in a shorter time than it's taking Valve to release the International immortals, in reality this newest patch has just begun to grow chest hair.
Six weeks ago, analysts, fans and pro players speculated what...
