Chapter 727 - 727: Back on Track

Ben's voice wasn't the only one filled with despair.

Hannah, Zack, and even the Butcher Engineer on the top lane were feeling pretty hopeless.

Even though they already knew this AI mode was part of an event challenge, just like the Despair Mode in "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" or the Death Mode in "Dark Souls" back in the day,

this DOTA AI event was on the level of "despair and die."

But they truly hadn't expected it to be this strong. Their opponents on the lane were using all sorts of subtle tactics, like aggro-pulling and using jungle creeps to farm and clear waves, keeping the minion waves constantly near the Night Elf's defense towers.

And their last-hitting, which was like clockwork, completely crushed them.

Their skill combos were also incredible.

Of course, if it were just that, it would be bearable. But the AI's performance showed them even more powerful details.

Ben's Invoker in the mid lane was in a truly pathetic situation, level 7 against level 11. The only difference was that after being killed by Shadow Fiend again, he completely dared not fight Shadow Fiend head-on.

He had also bought a 550 gold Cloak of Magic Resistance. Plus, since Shadow Fiend had no stun or slow abilities, as long as he stayed far back, it would be unrealistic for the opponent to kill him.

Another point was that the AI bots weren't that aggressive towards the defense towers.

If this were a game against real players, Shadow Fiend could have easily pushed the tower with siege creeps by now.

But since this was an AI mode designed for players to challenge, the bots wouldn't actively push towers or dive towers to kill players before the 15-minute mark.

So, despite being miserable, Ben and his team could still play.

And they could learn a lot from the AI.

"You can pull these jungle creeps like that and then clear the waves!"

"And using hero aggro to pull the creeps closer to their tower, that trick seems really useful!"

"When using consumables, dropping your items on the ground allows you to recover more health and mana. That's so detailed!"

Zack and Hannah were very surprised by the AI's moves.

Ben couldn't help but complain, "It's excessively detailed! Selling those Power Treads for 1400 gold to Shadow Fiend was such a waste! Switching to agility treads for last-hitting, strength treads for tanking damage, and intelligence treads for using Shadow Fiend's ability. What kind of a power boost is that? It's like buying a speed and attack speed maxed-out Orb of Lightning!"

As one of the basic boots in DOTA, the biggest feature of Power Treads is its ability to switch between three different stats.

Each stat gives a 9-point bonus. The Orb of Lightning, on the other hand, is a 2100 gold item that grants +10 to all attributes.

So, if you use Power Treads well, it's like getting an Orb of Lightning for free!

Zack and Ben chatted about their in-game experience.

They were getting crushed on the lane. The AI was significantly higher level than them in terms of fundamental skills and teamfight ability.

Although this challenge event wasn't designed to crush players, as time went on and players got better gear and higher levels, winning wouldn't be too difficult.

But the key problem was that Zack and his team's lineup was really bad.

Putting aside their skills, the bottom lane combination of Butcher and Bomberman was truly a joke.

Butcher could hook creeps accurately, but couldn't hook heroes. And the Engineer, a newly released hero, clearly their player didn't know how to play him.

As for Ben's Invoker, all he could do was rush in with his ultimate active to sacrifice himself. As long as he could cast his first skill, Immolation, that was the best he could do.

The most useful hero was Zack's hero, Keeper of the Luminous.

In the current version, Lucas hadn't introduced the Shard abilities from the past, but he had added a crucial item to all heroes.

That item was Aghanim's Scepter, and all heroes had unique Scepter features.

For Keeper of the Luminous, the Scepter ability was that after allied units within a certain range died, they could still remain active for a few seconds.

However, among the few, only Bomberman had an area-of-effect skill to clear waves, and this player didn't know how to use it. His mine-laying skills were simply pathetic.

After the team struggled for about fifteen minutes, they were finally defeated by the AI destroying their main base.

"We lost! The AI is too strong!" Ben exclaimed, looking at the final score of 7-27.

This was the game where he died the most, almost 30 times.

"Ben, watching your Invoker, I think Shadow Fiend is still pretty good in this version." Zack sighed.

He didn't care about winning or losing the game anymore. His mind was filled with Ben's earlier words.

'Shadow Fiend isn't suitable for this version.' 'I'm not a player who keeps getting crushed.' 'How did that hit land on me?'

It was all just too dramatically funny!

"Shut up! I have my own understanding of playing DOTA! Let's go play ranked! I'll show you what Zhao Yun truly is!" Ben pretended to be furious and quickly changed the subject.

After playing one AI game, he felt that playing against real players might be less stressful.

"Forget ranked. Let's play another AI match and win one before we go. It's tough in the early game, but if we pick more heroes that can defend towers, like Sniper and Zeus, we can still win."

"This game, I'll be Zhao Yun. You, as Ah Dou, don't cry in Uncle Yun's arms, okay?" Zack sighed.

...

After the new version was released, many players were trying out various modes.

Some were challenging this newly released AI event to get some rewards.

Others were itching to play ranked to see their current skill level.

Of course, most were just playing in normal matches, trying out the latest hero, Bomberman.

Meanwhile, as the number of DOTA players grew and their skill levels slowly increased, more and more tutorial videos appeared.

Especially when some players discovered a special feature: this latest AI challenge could be played as an AI 5v5 match.

This immediately opened up a new world for many players. They found that in the AI 5v5 mode, it was like a battle between gods.

Starting with Smoke of Deceit for vision, the five players grouped up to take high ground objectives, coordinated jungle pulls and lane rotations, and late-game teamfight kiting were all on point!

And there were many new strategies that amazed players, like the combination of Wisp, Gyrocopter, and Sven, which was incredibly violent.

The combination of Naga Siren and Enigma was unbeatable with their ultimates.

Through the tactics and coordinated strategies shown in these games, and with continuous research and sharing by more players, no one was complaining about DOTA having no content or being too simple, as they did when DOTA first came out.

DOTA's popularity continued to soar, and everything was back on track.

During the New Year events, DOTA's active player count reached new heights.

The daily active players successfully broke through the 17 million mark.

This data surpassed World of Warcraft.

But for a PC platform, this number was simply unbelievable.

And more importantly, DOTA's popularity remained exceptionally strong, even feeling more engaging than World of Warcraft.

However, Lucas knew very well that this was just the beginning.

The current initial version and plans for DOTA had already set the game on the right track.

It was also time to move on to the next phase of work.

(End of Chapter)

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