EPTI Introduction
II The System Explained
III How to use it
IV Closing words
I - Introduction
Hello hello, fellow TLers
Don't you just hate the moment you are thrown into the picking screen and you have absolutely no idea what hero to play? Do you struggle finding a suitable pick/ban in CM-mode? WelI, I do! The issue is the that people like me are simply we are simply overwhelmed with information. In our case we have too much to choose from.
So, here I present to you my attempt to solve this problem.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZPgiX1x.png?2)
click me
Let's say you were given a hero database and you would then apply a filter like 'DISPLAY SUPPORTS ONLY'. The usual suspects like 'Crystal Maiden' or 'Keeper of the Light' would obviously appear among 42 other entries that match the criterion.
But that does not exactly help you out on your decision, does it? You hear the horns being blown ingame already, team starts flaming "Y U NO PICK SUPPORT ALRDY?" and you are all like:
"Well, screw you guys. I'm going cancer-friggin-lancer b*tches!"
True story.
II - The System Explained
Over the last few days I sat down and started thinking of general attributes/strengths/weaknesses of every hero. Soon I realised using the usual dota terms weren't quite enough. 'Anti-Mage' and 'Faceless Void' are both carries, hell hard-carries even. Yet, these two heroes are quite different from one another and shine in different scenarios/stages of the game. So, when should I pick AM over Void?
I opted to expand the widely used concept of farm priority (1-5) with following somewhat unconventional system to help distinguish each and every hero. The discriptions may differ from the usual definitions and only apply to my system! I do not claim it to be superior than other ones. However, I do encourage you to use it if you like it!
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- FARM PRIORITY
Every hero is given a farm priority ranging from 1 to 5, which is determined by the CURRENT hero composition.
It changes for most heroes with each game, hence it is NOT something you look up on any website! - LANE PREFERENCE
Not every hero is suited to head to the ever so fearsome jungle or the so-called suicide-lane.- Mid Solo
- Safelane Solo
Refers to the 1v1-matchup between the sidelane-solos.
Hence, it does NOT necessarily take place on your longlane (bot for radiant/top for dire). - Hardlane Solo
Refers to the lane, where your solo is outmatched.
Hence, it does NOT necessarily take place on your shortlane (top for radiant/bot for dire). - Jungle
- Dual-/Trilane
- Mid Solo
- ROLE
A hero's role is defined by its strengths and weaknesses and determines the things a hero DOES and/or excels at throughout all (or most) of the game. A hero is not limited to one role. *- Farmer: Spends majority of the game farming and/or has the ability to flashfarm.
- Ganker: Has strong ganking abilities and/or spends the majority of the game looking for pick-offs.
- Nuker: Deals large amounts of damage within a short period of time to 1 or multiple targets at once.
- Disabler: Has strong stun-, silence- or movement-imparing-abilities.
- Brawler: Has a strong midgame presence due to spells and/or survivability and will be looking to provoke skirmishes and teamfights.
- Initiator: Has the ability catch enemy heroes off guard and either lock down and/or isolate one or more targets.
- Pusher: Has the ability to (split-)push lanes efficiently, which involves taking down towers and/or kill creep-waves quickly.
- Defender: Can stall/discourage enemy pushes by being able to counterpush (from a safe distance) or by posing a threat to enemy heroes in a certain area.
- STRENGTHS
are attributes a hero possesses based on his stats and spells. They are:
Durability, Elusiveness, Mobility, Lane/Global Presence, Supportive/Disruptive Abilities and Anti-Magic-Immunity.
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For consistency's sake I decided not to use the broad and most of all vague terms 'carry', 'support' and so on for this. Technically, support heroes are the ones carrying the game in the early stages of the game while carries are being carried.
On top of that, while carries share similar attributes (as in strengths/weaknesses), they do their job in very different ways.
On top of that, while carries share similar attributes (as in strengths/weaknesses), they do their job in very different ways.
III - How to use it
Initially I started out on excel and then I figured there might be more people that would have interest in such a thing. So I gave google-docs a shot, which I've never used before. After showing the first prototypes to some friends of mine I realised the use of the cloud-version had an interesting side-effect I hadn't thought of. You can actually give the link to YOUR spreadsheet to your party and so they participate in the act of picking/banning heroes for your ultimate lineup!
Originally I tried to create a tool to ease up the drafting for newer players to CM. While it's still the main reason why I made it for myself, it's not necessarily the best idea to pick/ban solely based on the output of some weird spreadsheet. To draft you will need to have some kind of strategy/plan set up beforehand. You can use it for individual picks/bans though if you struggle finding a suitable hero for a certain position, given you have an idea of what your or the opposing team lacks for example.
But first things first. Click on the preview image if you haven't already. It is a demo version of the spreadsheet, where everything is protected (locked) except ROW 8 on the search sheet. This is where you can set up your filters for your search.
- You can use the dropdown-menu on each cell to set/adjust a filter
- Typing '1' enables a filter on cells C8:V8
- '0' or a blank cell disables a filter
- I suggest you use tab/shift-tab to jump cells and NUM1/NUM0 to change the filter.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/T1F5heo.png)
The best thing about this being a spreadsheet instead of a simple webpage is that we don't have to all agree on one and only BESTEST database! If you're not happy with my ✔/✓/✘ for certain/all heroes go ahead and adjust them in the 'Overview'-sheet on your very own private copy!
Thats about all you need to know for now. Feel free to ask if something's unclear.
IV - Closing words
It's been quite a long time since I've been wanting to contribute to TL in some way. Hopefully you find the spreadsheet to be useful. Let me know what you think and If you have any suggestions/improvements I'd gladly hear them!
Depending on how it is received I might continue working on improving the spreadsheet. If you wish to help out, send me a message containing your gmail-address, so I can add you to the contributors.
Cheers, phrenetiC
(:
Future plans
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- Ability to mark heroes that are in your team's hero pool, so that heroes your team can't play reliably are ignored.
- Counterpick-Sheet: Select your opponents heroes to get suggestions on how to exploit their weaknesses. (eg. if their team lacks defensive abilities, push-oriented heroes are displayed.)
- Improve queries.
Known Issues
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- Following warning appears as note on cell A10:
"One or more of this result's entries may not be displayed. Select this cell and press Ctrl+Shift+E to show them."
Sometimes when the document is changed while the saving process is not finished the search results are not completely shown (not entirely sure on that though).
Changelog
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- Friday, May 24 3:00am GMT (GMT+00:00):
Thread created, Version 1.0 released - Sunday, May 26 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00):
Version 1.1 released (new Lookup Heroes sheet), fixed some typos
