Insight into FFA (1)

[Dovekie]

I'm making a series of videos where I go over FFA strategy. The quality is nice (1080p/60fps), and my commentary will get better as time goes on. It's very hard to commentate while I play, so this is probably the best way I can do it.

This is aimed at anyone really, experienced and inexperienced players alike. I don't really go into detail about micro tips or specific early-game build orders, but instead broad ideas, questions, advantages/disadvantages, map positioning, different types of counters, probably some unique insight (I generally don't play too standard) and things like that. I will be making more.

Cheers

[ZsSuperCumulo]

I´m glad you are sharing your thoughts on FFA with our community. When you played with us last sunday, you proved to be a worthy opponent and even managed to defeat some of our best players. I´ll listen to it with pop corn when I get home :). Thank you doveki :)

[FML|red7z7]

Holy hell I've been pronouncing your name wrong all this time. So it's "Duhv-key" not "Doh-veh-key"

[Ponty]

Nice to see you pursued this video idea you talked me about on twitch few days ago 

I'm gonna share my opinion

Concerning creeping : that's also the way i creep on this map, only difference is after creeping the mine and the orange spot, i go creep the merc shop, hire a priest (and maybe a berzerker), while pumping about 1 or 2 more archers, then I can easily creep the central mine by pulling creeps back, even without the AoW. This way you can get some of the mid creeps before your oppos.
I also try to get hippos rather fast to creep the middle fountains easily.

Concerning scouting : Like you said i don't think scouting is as necessary as people say, permanently scouting the map is not needed in bot games, only effective scouting is worth something. So on that I agree with you. I still try to scout my neighbors discreetly at the beginning just to be informed of their races, even though it can be seen as an agression. Once I finish my first opponent(s), I scout others and usually get all the infos I need.

Concerning expanding : I avoid getting the central expo at the beginning of the game as it attracts all the players who see it to attack you. In your game it worked (maybe luckily) fine since you set up good defenses to protect it and didnt get teamed. I prefer expanding on the side expos while sieging quickly my direct opponent (I kill his natural and set up my expo here at the same time I siege his main). These mines are more discreets.
I like the fact that you build a lot around your natural making it harder to kill.

Concerning 3 orbs and mountain giants : I already wanted to try 1 orb of venom on each hero but finally never did it since it's very expensive, I often get only 1 on my kotg (and swaps it to my panda if I need power vs air). I think it can have good value to buy 3, definitly worth trying. I remember seksi saying he doesn't really like to buy 3 though. I see two downfalls to it : the price and it takes the slot of a periapt, scroll, boots, staff or TP in your inventory.

I agree with you concerning mountain giants, bears or even dotts, they are all interesting units and have good value vs some armies, always good to have some of these instead of pure chippos. Bear can provide rejuv' which allows your hero to tank towers (bot players love towers), and roar. MG is pretty good vs ground armies, gargs and buildings. Talons are amazing vs orc and tanks. Always worth upgrading all these units if you get enough ressources, or at least one or 2 of them depending on what race you are going to face.

[Ugrilainen]

dude cumulo everyone knows dovekie in the ffa community, he does not have to prove to be a worthy opponent to anyone :lol:

[ZsSuperCumulo]

lol, it's just that we rarely get to play with him :O

[junkerzam]

arguing that scouting is irrelevant at any stage of the game just doesn't fly.. like you said yourself, it comes down to being lazy

[ZsSuperCumulo]

arguing that scouting is irrelevant at any stage of the game just doesn't fly.. like you said yourself, it comes down to being lazy

name me one player who constantly scouts other than j33, srly lol

[junkerzam]

fetta_ook obviously.

other than that dunno, i don't keep tabs on other players scouting habits expect for fetta who i always try to learn from. but most players are too lazy to scout properly yup

[ZsSuperCumulo]

fetta_ook obviously.

other than that dunno, i don't keep tabs on other players scouting habits expect for fetta who i always try to learn from. but most players are too lazy to scout properly yup

lol, your idol will perish this round ... just see.

[Dovekie]

@ponty

creeping: Yeah I played a little passive this game.  But as you saw there were like 3 other people out there pretty early creeping, and I wanted the expo mine cleared.  But yeah there are tons of other things that you could do, this is just what I did.  I used to clear the center fountains first every game, but there is always someone like red (the guy with early mass gargs) trying to clear them too, and I didn't want to commit 12 food into hippogryphs, especially when I was surrounded by human/elf.

scouting: yeah.. I said "I dont really care whats happening early game", and I guess I could have made the distinction that it isn't the same as "it doesn't matter".  I'm sure it would help a little bit, it is just 5 other things to think about and that wasn't what I wanted to think about yet.

center mines: I never take them either but with bear/hippo MK, no one would be able to take it from me, so I took what was rightfully mine AND tried to take the other guys mines, but it didn't go so well with mass gargs hitting me.

This wasn't a perfect game by me by any means. I could have either 1. hoarded longer, or 2. killed the guy above me quicker and towered the mines there, but it worked out. By 30 minutes into the game I did have 7000 gold, the best hero/hero levels, and good map position, I wasn't gonna lose to a hoarder any time soon anyway. Hoarding on 3 mines on this map with enough lumber wisps is essentially just heroes, and I can't kill anyone like that so I have this weird 4 minutes where I am at 65 food, but that was intentional.

[FML|Mage]

FYI I edited your original post to embed the video.  Didn't change anything else haha

[Tleilaxu]

Maybe scouting doesn't matter when you're playing noobs.
You fucking chump.