Not that many others that read the forums on the regular and are even distantly likely to come, but fingers crossed!

I don't think I have that many games in common with the crowd, but it has been so long that I think playing a bit of backlog and chatting will be a plenty good plan.

Signs the game is not going well for the 1 MK:

(Nick 5 Warlock feeding!)

Yeah, don't think that's ever happening, win streaks tend to be inspiration for experimentation these days, so gaining even a percentage point in win rate seems hard to do.

I am btw pretty sure that 1% deficit is pretty much all All-Hero-Challenge

Was a bit surprised that Bob has started playing a bit agian, until I looked at OpenDota and realized what must be his obvious motivation:

Clever to do it while beach is off on important WOW duties for an extended time too, could have been a short moths work to finally get overthrown in the rankings.

(Should only queue with CSaur and beach really though going by the winrates.)

You are entirely correct, and it has since been clarified what happened by 7.31b: Zombies used to do the basic damage type but didn't have their damage adjusted when it was removed and all damage was made the 100%/100%/100% hero type, which was 33% buff in damage for them.

Soul Rip numbers changes are always a wildcard, will veer wildly between bad and broken.

Tiny up there though, nice, the question marks perhaps a bit of a bad analysis on my part

The quick scan of the heroes I like or would like to play:

• Clockwerk untouched as a support (level 20 thing good but unlikely to matter.
• Dark Willow ruined (0.3 second fade time on realm is a ton of defensive potential gone).
• Earth Spirit buffed a bit overall, nice nice.
• Hoodwink got a tiny buff.
• Marci nerfed badly and was already not very good the way I played her.
• NP support even more garbage than before.
• Nyx a wash, seems fine.
• Puck has gotten a few nice buffs, perhaps not enough to make it relevant as a support, but eyeing that still.
• Spirit Breaker got some substantial nerfs, with the 20 extra mana on charge hurting the most. I don't think it is actually ruined though, e.g. the damage does not matter that much in most situations.
• Tiny (??)
• Tusk is overall buffed quite a bit as a support role I think, movement speed reduction hurts, but crit on ult does not really matter compared to cooldown, and more damage on both spells is very good.
• Weaver as a support probably dead with the aghs now being much worse value. In principle it wins lanes as support anyway, but the teamfight offering is kind of garbage if you don't have another power spike with aghs as at least a potential thing.

Real twist: new hero does not look the least bit like a support. Strength hero granted, but attack damage-based stuff happening, so have to think it slots in as a core somewhere.

Here we go, new hero and all: https://www.dota2.com/primalbeast

Started playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and for once found that gripping me straight away. Good times.