Yo! ;D It's real hard to choose my favorite hero, but I guess the one who appeals most to me is Sven due to his lore, being easy yet fun to play, and being one of the few morally good people in the game lol.

As in level your Dota account to 20? Hm, I'm afraid I wouldn't know any other method aside from win games. I recall there being items that you earn from games that can be used to increase your EXP in order to easily level your account but I'm not sure they're still in use ever since the Reborn patch...

Aaaahh....Sven *barely contained hate* I swear it took me a few matches against him to realise that Storm Hammer is an AOE stun, combined with Great Cleave...Sven really ruins my day xD Especially considering when I play carries, it tends towards illusion based heroes like Naga Siren or Chaos Knight.

While usually I wouldn't be against simply playing the game, I wanna jump into Ranked but this grind is just so long. The most annoying part is you have to WIN matches to actually gain progress to towards levelling up which only worsens the grind.

Yeah, Sven is very irritating to play against. xD I just have too much fun with him to really care. Though I feel your pain lol. I have an undying and maximum hatred for Pudge because of his pure damage hook, the potential for limitless strength, his ult, and there being no real hard counter to him. Well okay there's Lifestealer but even then Pudge will almost always hook you with an ally next to him, guaranteeing your death.

Indeed! They really need to make it easier to level up to 20 or at least punish disconnectors more severely. Having a 50/50 chance of actually leveling up is bad enough but those disconnectors just make it impossible. Only thing I can suggest is to play games with 10 friends, that way no one would leave a game even if they're losing badly. But sadly making friends is hard lol.

Well the thing with Pudge is, that hook is everything. If you can't land it, you are going to be next to useless because he's a mediocre teamfighter and heavily relies on, again snagging kills with his hook to stack Flesh Heap.
I know there are tiresome obsessives who might play nothing but a single hero to master the fuck out of them, meaning they land every hook perfectly. But Pudge's biggest strength, is also his biggest crutch.

I still totally get what you're saying though, and if you are playing against someone who can play Pudge well it's a fucking nightmare. But that's the nature of DotA.

Very good point! I guess I just got tired of seeing the hero because there's always someone who plays him in every single game of mine. xD And that hook of his have ruined my day one too many times. But you're right, that hook is all Pudge really has, so the time to strike is when he uses it and misses. >:) Oh, but I forgot another thing about Pudge that makes me hate his guts: too often that Rot of his successfully suicides him, denying my team the gold and exp when we get him dead to rights. But on the other hand, he still dies and we no longer have to deal with his bullshit lol.

Oh, and actually, thinking about it some more, I think Dark Seer is my true favorite Dota hero lol He's surprisingly very effective, fun to play, and he's at least not evil. Only downside is his ult, which I personally think is very weak (the wall itself is easy to dodge even with the best placement and the illusions are much too frail to be of any real effect), and being a support he's going to die quickly if caught off guard.

Anywho, if you decide to form a team of 10 to get to level 20, I'll happily help out. :D Just say the word and I'll note you my Steam stuff.

I've not had much experience playing with or against Dark Seer so it's hard to really judge if his ult's weak or not.

As for myself, my favourite hero is Shadow Shaman mainly because of that lock down. Shackles into Hex and ruin someones day. It's basically a "You don't get to play DotA today" combo. Also if I had a penny for everytime some doofus tried to run through my Serpent Wards before realising they were getting ripped apart, I'd have tuppence! :D

I doubt I'll get a team of ten together, I don't know that many people that play DotA xD

I see. xD Well, to sum up the ult, DS summons an ethereal wall which damages enemy heroes and summons an illusion of them that attacks them. However, being a wall, it's very thin and also rather small, so it's easy to avoid, and the illusions are so fragile it isn't even funny lol.

Oh god, Shadow Shaman was one of my most hated heroes for a long time because of those dang stuns lol as well as that Mass Serpent Ward tearing down towers like nothing. But now I've learned how to play as him and now find him fun. xD

Just like most heroes though, it all comes down to knowing how to play around him as well as hoping that your team is competent enough to cancel his shackles given it's a channel. Conversely playing AS him requires good positioning and knowing when a good time is to shackle someone :3

"Skittering! *click click click*" Weaver was one of the first heros I picked up when starting to play dots and is among my favorites. I also play Necrophos who would be my second favorite... trying to learn Earthshaker because I like his kit, but I have gotten bored of playing solo queues ;3;

I used to play will a full group, but they all kept raging and eventually quit to play on a private server for WoW. :/ I haven't played in a good couple months, but I still watch videos and large main events

That used to be the case back when I played LoL. I used to play with friends but they quit way before I did. Then I quit LoL earlier this year.
I went off the MOBA train for a while until about a month ago when I got back into DotA and found it to be the far superior game :3

Bloodseeker and Clockwerk are probably my top two favorite, for both lore and gameplay,
Though I've also been having a lot of fun with Spirit Breaker! Nothing more satisfying than storming across the map catching someone off guard~

I've been playing a lot with someone recently who next to exclusively plays Spirit Breaker, it makes ganks a guaranteed kill, especially if I'm playing as Shadow Shaman >:3