Jakiro the Herald
I've been playing Jakiro for a long time but sadly not long enough. When I started DOTA 2 my brother in law who is a very high-skilled player casually recommended playing Tidehunter, saying he was a good support/offlaner and I would have high impact in team fights. I don't actually think he expected me to spam Tide for 160 games but I did. This made my first year playing DOTA 2 more miserable than it needed to be. My skill level personally, and of course my team skill made Tide a poor choice.
Eventually, probably influenced by Purge I tried Jakiro. At first the hero seemed poor but soon I realized they were a good fit for me. I'm slow, Jakiro is slow. Every ability has an absurdly slow animation. However one of many great things about Jakiro is that they work well with slow team mates. My team mates are also slow. Slow to react and also slow to catch on. But with Jakiro there is a splendid visual signal of exactly what effect we're having on the game at any moment. Ice path is a huge column of ice that freezes/stuns our enemies. No mystery about what is going on. Macropyre, bright and dramatic wall of fire. Also clears out the pesky trees which confuse my fellow Herald players. Dual breath ditto, simple, leaves the enemies alight. The only ability which is less than painfully obvious to my team mates is liquid fire, but that hardly matters either since it simply does its job without needing the other players to seize an opportunity.
All these features of these simple abilities are especially useful for playing with no mic as I do. Since I can't shout over mic to explain to my team mates what I'm doing, Jakiro's actions have to speak for me.
There are plenty of other virtues of Jakiro that any Divine scrub can tell you about. But I'm here to deliver a unique Herald perspective and I think the slowness and obviousness are the crucial traits. Other heroes share some of these virtues but are compromised in other ways. Crystal Maiden is close for example but Freezing Field has a higher cool down and is channeled which makes it's opportunity cost significantly higher than Macropyre. Getting it wrong, in terms of positioning almost always costs a life or a kill. Underlord's 2 AOE's are great for skirmishes and easy for your team mates to respond to but that ult... omg no. Shadow shaman ought to be very similar, but with shackles being channeled you're once again at the mercy of your team mate to do something useful with the opportunity you give them. When they don't the price is often another life. Remember your rank!
For this blog, as of today I expect to focus on Jakiro, Crystal Maiden, and Underlord. However I have a keen interest in playing more Snapfire and Treant so we'll see what happens.
Eventually, probably influenced by Purge I tried Jakiro. At first the hero seemed poor but soon I realized they were a good fit for me. I'm slow, Jakiro is slow. Every ability has an absurdly slow animation. However one of many great things about Jakiro is that they work well with slow team mates. My team mates are also slow. Slow to react and also slow to catch on. But with Jakiro there is a splendid visual signal of exactly what effect we're having on the game at any moment. Ice path is a huge column of ice that freezes/stuns our enemies. No mystery about what is going on. Macropyre, bright and dramatic wall of fire. Also clears out the pesky trees which confuse my fellow Herald players. Dual breath ditto, simple, leaves the enemies alight. The only ability which is less than painfully obvious to my team mates is liquid fire, but that hardly matters either since it simply does its job without needing the other players to seize an opportunity.
All these features of these simple abilities are especially useful for playing with no mic as I do. Since I can't shout over mic to explain to my team mates what I'm doing, Jakiro's actions have to speak for me.
There are plenty of other virtues of Jakiro that any Divine scrub can tell you about. But I'm here to deliver a unique Herald perspective and I think the slowness and obviousness are the crucial traits. Other heroes share some of these virtues but are compromised in other ways. Crystal Maiden is close for example but Freezing Field has a higher cool down and is channeled which makes it's opportunity cost significantly higher than Macropyre. Getting it wrong, in terms of positioning almost always costs a life or a kill. Underlord's 2 AOE's are great for skirmishes and easy for your team mates to respond to but that ult... omg no. Shadow shaman ought to be very similar, but with shackles being channeled you're once again at the mercy of your team mate to do something useful with the opportunity you give them. When they don't the price is often another life. Remember your rank!
For this blog, as of today I expect to focus on Jakiro, Crystal Maiden, and Underlord. However I have a keen interest in playing more Snapfire and Treant so we'll see what happens.
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