DOTA 2

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Also, have a Berksniper guide:

Do this for skills.

Take aim is your main priority, it opens the gap between you and the bad guys, making you harder to kill, additionally above 3 levels your auto attacks are outside tower range.
Headshot adds some nice damage, but it's no good being able to hurt things if you're dead.
Assassinate is what makes sniper very, very useful, it's long range and high damage, makes you very, very effective at dispatching enemy heroes who are running away, second only to Zeus from what I've seen.
Shrapnel is pretty crappy until very end game, so just ignore it until you're making your final push, then stick a point in there to give you another source of income.

Items wise, go for:
Boots of speed
Crystalis
Upgrade boots to Power Treads
Upgrade Crystalis to Daedalus
Buy another Crystalis (The buffs are seperate, most attacks will get the crit modifier)
If you've not won by this point...
Shadow blade
Mask of madness
Monkey king bar

You can pick up the mask earlier if you're having trouble with towers (the attack speed clicky makes it easier to get them down).

Admittedly, this is a high cost path for gear, relies pretty much on you not sucking and killing lots, but also being pushed enough by the enemy that the game lasts a while.

If it's a bit easy, or you're not making a lot of cash go:
Boots of speed
Mask of madness
Upgrade boots to Power Treads
Crystalis
Monkey king bar

[Dog Pants]

Nice build, I've seen the autosniper in action and it's a monster. Do you ever put points into STR for the extra damage or do all your stat points into AGI for the RoF bonus?

Also, I've noticed a couple of patters while I've been looking up various characters, which is always point up your ultimate at 6/11/16 and almost all seem to pick Power Treads (for the changeable stat bonus, presumably it's pretty good for the price).

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Being an agi class, sniper gets 1 damage per point of agi, so there's not a lot of point stacking other stats. The points in attributes/stats as far as I can tell just add one point to everything, will confirm later with actually looking.

The ultimate thing is just a matter of it usually being fucking handy, so you wanna level it asap.

I think the thing with power treads is that they're a logical upgrade from the boots of running away quickly which IMO are essential, especially with squishy classes.

[Dog Pants]

Oh! I didn't realise AGI adds damage too, I thought they were just recommendations. But they might add a point to every stat? Interesting. It's funny about the ultimates. My character of choice in LoL had an ultimate which made someone invulnerable for about 3 seconds. Pretty useless to me, since I'm a cack handed spaz who couldn't coordinate something like that, so I always dumped points into the other attacks. In DOTA2 I'm finding they're a lot more useful (but generally a bit less powerful).

[Joose]

Ive been playing a lot of Broodmother, and her ultimate isnt that exciting: attack speed goes up and you get a bit of lifesteal. Near end game ive managed to use that to squish three on one fights and come out full health, which is pretty good, but its very much an endgame thing. I tend to only get it once the other more useful things are near maxed out.

[shot2bits]

Oh! I didn't realise AGI adds damage too, I thought they were just recommendations. But they might add a point to every stat?

If your playing an agility hero then agility gives you more damage, strength gives you more damage on strength heroes and intelligence gives damage for the intelligence heroes, beyond that it seems for every hero strength gives a boost to max health and health regen, agility attack speed and armour and intelligence mana and mana regen.

I think depending on the type of hero you are playing each level they get more points in their respective skill, or the buffs from that skill might be more effective im not sure, i think i remember seeing something when hovering over the attributes that said increases x amount of points per level

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Ahh!

Attribute Bonus, also known as Stats, is a passive ability possessed by every hero except Invoker. Each additional level of Attribute Bonus increases all attributes—Strength, Agility, and Intelligence—by 2.

[Dog Pants]

Cool, that means it's a non-decision. They're the best kind.

[HereComesPete]

Being an agi class, sniper gets 1 damage per point of agi, so there's not a lot of point stacking other stats. The points in attributes/stats as far as I can tell just add one point to everything, will confirm later with actually looking.

The ultimate thing is just a matter of it usually being fucking handy, so you wanna level it asap.

I think the thing with power treads is that they're a logical upgrade from the boots of running away quickly which IMO are essential, especially with squishy classes.

Power treads are useful, but as a squishy sniper I would lean toward boots of travel as an escape with the teleport, if you need to really panic flee, double clicking on the boots teleports you to your home fountain where you can get health and get reset quickly.

In terms of points I like to drop a couple of early points in shrapnel, it's great for dropping on creep and setting them up for one shot kills that really rake in the money, allowing you to get crystalys/daedalus faster. Plus it scares off melee enemy who look for a quick stun & gank.

I would take monkey king bar over the second crit sword expenditure, it's mini stun (seemingly) stacks with the snipers stun and leads to most shots holding the enemy hero in place long enough for the next one to drop another stun, they can't drop escapes or invis once you've got it set up and it allows time for 2 assassinates to be used without any need to buy something like refresher orb to reset your cool downs.

[Roman Totale]

Apparently I have this. I don't know how long that has been the case.

[Dog Pants]

I think someone sent it you some time early in the week.

I've spent some time today looking up a few noob-friendly characters. Apparently the easy ones we've been picking out aren't as effective as we though, so common opinion seems to go in the forums. So I've written a bit of a crude starter character guide, which I hope to expand on. I'll post the proto-post here anyway for those who aren't really feeling the love but want to persevere.


STARTERS
Starters aren't necessarily the easiest heroes to play, but they are the easiest to be effective with. While the 'Easy' heroes further down may be simpler, they will not contribute nearly as much to the team without knowing the basics of how to make them effective, while the starter heroes here will allow you to progress in a game without too much idea of what you're doing. Generally your role as a starter hero will be support - stick with another more experienced player and help out. Chances are in the early game you'll be more powerful than them (and the guys on the other side), and later on you'll be swinging the odds in your team's favour in team fights.

Lich (Ranged Support)

Pnut used Lich to great effect earlier in the week, bagging a decent number of kills late game, including a triple kill.

SKILL
Level 1 - Sacrifice (3)
Level 2 - Frost Blast (1)
Level 3 - Frost Blast (1)
Level 4 - Sacrifice (3)
Level 5 - Frost Blast (1)
Level 6 - Chain Frost (4)
Level 7 - Frost Blast (1)
Level 8 - Sacrifice (3)
Level 9 - Ice Armour (2)
Level 10 - Sacrifice (3)
Level 11 - Chain Frost (4)
Level 12 - Ice Armour (2)
Level 13 - Ice Armour (2)
Level 14 - Ice Armour (2)
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Chain Frost (4)
Level 17+ - Stats

ITEM
Initial
Iron Branch / Iron Branch / Iron Branch / Healing Salve / Courier
Early
Headdress / Bracer / Boots of Speed / Magic Wand
Core
Flying Courier / Mekanism / Drum of Endurance / Power Treads / Observer/Sentry Wards
Luxury
Aghanim's Sceptre

PLAY
In early game when beating up creeps use Sacrifice whenever off cooldown to deny the XP to the other team, and hammer their creeps with Frost Blast. The mana boost from one should maintain the other. Once the game turns to fighting other heroes stick with your team and hang back. Keep Ice Armour up on as many as you can and don't be scared to Chain Frost into the fight when they start bunching up.


Lion (Support)

SKILL
Level 1 - Earth Spike (1)
Level 2 - Mana Drain (2)
Level 3 - Earth Spike (1)
Level 4 - Hex (2)
Level 5 - Earth Spike (1)
Level 6 - Finger of Death (4)
Level 7 - Hex (2)
Level 8 - Earth Spike (1)
Level 9 - Mana Drain (2)
Level 10 - Hex (2)
Level 11 - Finger of Death (4)
Level 12 - Mana Drain (2)
Level 13 - Hex (2)
Level 14 - Mana Drain (2)
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Finger of Death (4)
Level 17+ - Stats

ITEM
Initial
Healing Salve / Tango / Gauntlets of Strength / Clarity / Iron Branch
Early
Boots of Speed / Magic Wand / Bracer / Bracer
Core
Refresher Orb / Phase Boots / Aghnim's Sceptre
Luxury
Pipe of Insight / Mekanism

PLAY
Lion is a harassing support who excels at causing trouble for the enemy by stunning and disabling. This will enable your buddy to take the guy out, or concentrate on their own fight. If you're looking for a gank hit them with Earth Spike and finish them off with Finger of Death. If they're still alive you should be able to stop them running away with Hex.


Lina (Ranged Harasser)

SKILL
Level 1 - Light Strike Array (2)
Level 2 - Dragon Slave (1)
Level 3 - Dragon Slave (1)
Level 4 - Fiery Soul (3)
Level 5 - Dragon Slave (1)
Level 6 - Laguna Blade (4)
Level 7 - Dragon Slave (1)
Level 8 - Fiery Soul (3)
Level 9 - Fiery Soul (3)
Level 10 - Fiery Soul (3)
Level 11 - Laguna Blade (4)
Level 12 - Light Strike Array (2)
Level 13 - Light Strike Array (2)
Level 14 - Light Strike Array (2)
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Laguna Blade (4)
Level 17+ - Stats

ITEM
Initial
Tango / Tango / Clarity / Circlet / Circlet / Courier
Core
Bracer / Bracer / Boots of Speed / Desolator / Void Stone / Magic Wand / Flying Courier
Luxury
Scythe of Vyse

PLAY
Lina is great for frustrating enemy players. Light Strike Array will stun long enough to hammer with the huge Dragon Slave, if you can hit with it. Later on once she has Laguna Blade you can then use that to finish off and become a handy ganker. Unfortunately mana can be tight and Lina is fragile, so she's better staying out of the way and causing trouble.

[Dog Pants]

Also, this beginner's guide is bloody handy.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

5punky pvp tonight? Ideally need 6+, I reckon.

[Dog Pants]

I'm up for that if the times are right.

[Joose]

I'm up for that if the times are right.

[shot2bits]

I'm up for that if the times are right.

although im working late so i expect ill probably miss it

[fabyak]

I'm up for that if the times are right.

although im working late so i expect ill probably miss it

[fabyak]

as I can't be arsed with pasting it into more chat boxes I shall bung it on here

dota at 9?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Yarp

[shot2bits]

anyone fancy a reattempt of trying to gather enough for a 5punky pvp game tonight?