Just wanted to get out some thoughts on different map features and what makes them good for the different races. Might help a little with map selection for season 20.
Things that help Orc: -Ability to tome/item creep -Fountains of mana -Marketplaces and big item drops like CoK and claws +12. -Natural expansions -Big, difficult creep camps and high number of creeps -Shredders -Shops
Things that help NE: -Natural expansions and fewer up-for-grabs creeps -Many expansions with easy creeps -Lack of map randomness (ei not being surrounded on Mur'gul) -Fountains of health -Lack of mana fountains -Lack of shreders -Shops -Tavern -Lack of marketplaces (if there are orcs) -Ground to build AoWs on, especially near expansions
Things that help HU -Shredders -Safe, non-communal creeps -Lack of tavern -Lack of purge creeps -Tomes of Power -Health fountains -Mana fountains (in games where not getting AM is viable) -Shops
Things that help UD -Lack of shops -Lack of natural expansions -Lots of creeps -Lack of marketplaces and claw/stats item drops -Mana fountains -Health fountains -Lots of communal creep camps -Relatively few expansions
Anyway, I'm sure some people will want to argue a few of these points and that's fine. The idea though is just to give some attention to making a balanced map pool between races. That doesn't necessarily mean giving certain races huge advantages and disadvantages (like having a no-tavern map or a no shop map) but rather finding a mix of all around "good" maps, that give varying small advantages to different races.
Even some very good maps are pretty biased. 4 player deadlock is extremely good for NE because there are healing wards, no shredders, lots of expansions and relatively few creeps and big items. Deathrose is extremely biased toward Orc, because the tome creeping routes are ridiculous and most of the items are less useful to other races (no amulet of spell shield, endurance aura, etc). Market is bad for NE because getting someone in your corner is a huge setback, expos are hard and limited, there's a mana fountain and there's enough creeps for players to creep ~5/5/3 or so.
So for tl;dr, for season 20 lets try to find a mix of maps that benefit all different races. And as we introduce custom maps, think about which races they benefit, and perhaps find ways to even them out if they're too biased.
So since the strategy section is essentially dead, let's get get some ideas going. Post anything you've tried or think is worth trying regarding strategy, such as odd build orders, creeping patterns, hero combos, counters, etc.
I realize that most things have already been tried in FFA, but there's always a little room for strategies to evolve, whether it's just a trick on a certain map (i.e. creeping fountains for tomes with BM on Deathrose) or something more substantial.
I'll start.
1. NE Hero Combo: BM/Panda/Kotg
I've messed around with this combo a little bit and it shows some promise. I realize that BM is generally considered useless in FFA, but in this case I think he's somewhat viable. Summons provide good tier 1 scouting and let you creep quickly. They're also useful vs magic immune heroes and are supprisingly effective in hero vs hero battles. Maybe not as strong as a few of the top elf combos, but certainly worth experimenting with.
2. UD Build Order
I mentioned this in my guide. Essentially you’re getting a tavern hero (presumably DR) at about the same time you’d normally get a late UD hero, but you’re able to tech before the 2:00 minute mark and still expand quickly. If you want to use a combo like DR/DK/Lich, this build is awesome on maps like goldrush and twilight.
1. Acolytes to gold, Ghoul to wood 2. Queue up 2 Acos and build a Crypt and a second Necropolis 3. When your fifth Aco completes train a sixth 4. As soon as your sixth Aco comes out, use it to scout both positions next to you before sending it to the Tavern 5. Tech when resources allow 6. Build an Altar as soon as you have enough wood and keep pumping ghouls 7. Build a second Ziggurat when resources allow 8. Build a Tomb of Relics 9. Your Aco should reach the Tavern before your Altar finishes 10. Use your sixth Aco to expand, making Acos from your second Necropolis.
Feel free to post your own theorycraft or lightly-tested-craftl, or discuss what's already been posted.
Okay, so I don't want to create a new thread for this however I think Nooblex deserves to be credited a lot more than he is currently for his guide to FFA. It wasn't the first guide, and it wasn't the last, however it is probably the most comprehensive guide out there and must have taken countless hours to complete it. While I won't claim that it's completely up to date, it is absolutely worth a read for all of our players both old and new. The entire guide would probably take an hour+ to read, but it's beautifully organized so that you can jump around to different parts of the guide.
I've gone back and made a few grammatical fixes to the guide as well as hyperlinking the index to help people get around. I'm going to re-upload the word version of the document as well as putting it into my Google Docs account viewable to all so that hopefully we never lose this. As you can see from Nooblex's original post below he didn't treat this like it was any big deal, however I think he absolutely deserves a word of thanks from everyone. Who knows, maybe in a few seasons he'll make a re-appearance again.
--------- So I've got a ton going on IRL right now and probably won't come back to FFA.
I do, however, have a gigantic updated version of the guide that I mostly wrote when I was at my peak a few seasons ago. It still needs a little work, but I'm willing to do that even if I'm not playing. Shouldn't take too long.
Worpex said he'd want me to post it here...so how do we do this?
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