I have almost 100h in the game (still bad and cannot do any of the speedrun tech), reached the Abyss like 50 or so times, and every time i just get lost and hit dead ends with no visible path to progress. Also there's an annoying monster, which doesn't make it easier. So, what am I doing wrong? Am I missing somethign?
Axe was always going to end up removed. Anyone who's spent more than five minutes thinking about the hero and items he usually buys could see this coming.The problem is that he is completely broken and fundamentally impossible to balance, mostly due to the continued existence of Blink Dagger and Blademail.
Blink Dagger completely invalidates the concept of positioning. Axe is supposedly a slow melee hero that needs to get on top of people, but instead he just materializes from 1200 range and instantly forces multiple heroes to attack him. Berserker's Call, despite not being an ultimate like a Black Hole, also pierces spell immunity for some reason. I don't know why, i don't think Valve knows why, it's fucking stupid.
And then there's Blademail. The classic Call + Blademail combo has been blatantly and most outrageously overpowered combination ever since patch 6.87, when Valve made it so the armour bonus from Berserker's Call no longer reduces reflected damage. Ever since then, Axe has been rewarded for the highly skilled playstyle of blinking into five heroes, pressing two buttons, and be rewarded with everyone just killing themselves into blademail.
What's truly remarkable is how long this has gone on. For nearly a decade, professional players, pub players, and anyone unfortunate enough to queue into an Axe picker have been subjected to this nonsense. Frankly removing the hero was the only reasonable solution. Reworking Blink Dagger, Blademail, Berserker's Call, spell immunity interactions, or any of the underlying mechanics would have been far too complicated. Deleting Axe entirely was the most elegant and balanced outcome.
Thank you Icefrog for not being a pussy and deleting this poorly designed hero.
Do you guys any self imposed challenges that are actually fun and not just tedious? (i understand it's subjective but still)