Best products from r/DotA2

Dude, I created a reddit account just to write my first comment here and I really hope it helps. I have a lot to say and I hope I can express it in a understandable manner. Here I go :)

I was also depressed. And it is not entirely gone. I have good and bad days too but at least now I can somewhat control it. You have to realize that your mood is directly connected to your thoughts. i will not go into detail about it but If you sit by yourself thinking all the negative things that you can muster up it will bring you down, you will go into this dark tunnel of negative thoughts, that usually are illogical, but at that point seem true as fuck and it will be very hard to climb out of that dark hole. At least that's how it happened to me.

Of course it is easy to say that you have to realize this and that than to do actually it. I was unable to do it by myself, that why I looked for help from a professional psychologist. Only medication will not be as effective as an actual advise from a professional. I think the best thing is a combination of both. I know you said you have financial struggles, but I believe you can find organisations that provides such service for free or at least cheaply. And trust me, it helps. There is something about hearing things from a person who spent big part of their life studying your condition that gives a sense of hope, that this is an illness, just like any other and it can be cured with help of others, medication (if necessary) and personal effort.

Other thing that helped me massively was reading. Previous to that point of my life, I always thought that all these books that thought you how to be happy and such was a big pile of BS, and then my doctor advised me to read https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Handbook-David-Burns/dp/0452281326 . Buying this book was the best decision I made during my recovery process. This book, together with my doctor, who based her practice on his theories helped me understand all my mistakes in thinking that eventually led to depression. This is called - cognitive theory - please google it when you have a spare moment. It is very practical and very detailed and I cannot stress enough how important it is to read to every person suffering any form of depression and/or anxiety!!! THIS IS A MUST. PLEASE BUY IT ASAP AND READ IT!!!!

Besides that, I see a lot of people suggesting taking up some activities and they could not be more right. Dota is a great way to escape negative thoughts, as you get immersed into the game and the only negative thing for another hour are the 9 other people :))) But when you take up an activity, it brings purpose and a sense of achievement. Let me give you an example. I worked at a big corporate firm, I was overtiming like crazy in order to show my superiors that I was worth promoting but everyone was busy with themselves and never noticed my efforts, over time it got so frustrating that one thing at work could determine my mood for a whole week. And then I started working out. Every evening after work I would go to the gym and work out, I also started eating healthy, I lost a bunch of weight and every night after my workout I would feel good (I wrote "great" at first, but good would be more fitting) even if before I felt like doing nothing and not going anywhere (just generally empty inside, I believe you are familiar with that feeling). Same goes with playing sax I guess. Even if the day sucked at work, after working out or playing an instrument for a while you fell like you did something for yourself, you improved, you were active, healthy and busy and this is great. Eventually I changed my job too and everything got better. I was very happy even though before I thought I would not find such a good spot money wise and I was afraid to leave. I found one even better in every aspect and my colleagues are great!! I would strongly suggest to start looking for another job while still working at current place. It can only get better. If your job sucks so much, it can not be any worse, right? Worst case scenario, you will end up at the place just as bad, but it will not be worse, so the chances are on your side. No need to be afraid, trust me (trust a random guy on the internet, yeah right :)).

In conclusion, every time you find yourself in a black hole of emptiness thinking all kinds of negative shit about yourself and how this is so bad and it will never end - remember - depression is causing it and DEPRESSION IS AN ILLNESS, it CAN be controlled, it CAN be cured and you CAN fight it! You will need help so don't be afraid of asking for it. Please see a psychologist and read that book (I promise I am not a sales guy :) that book helped me so fucking much and I sincerely believe it can help you too). Once you realize that your thoughts is the main reason causing the depression it will be much easier to fight it. If you have any additional questions let me know, I will try to do my best to help! I believe in you, we believe in you - stay strong and beat this shit!!!!

The biggest difference maker between a high level player who plays for fun and pro gamers is Deliberate Practice.

If you're going to rise from 1800 mmr to pro level, you'll need deliberate practice, and a lot of it. If you're not familiar with the term, here are a couple books and an article to introduce you to the subject. Learning these techniques will have benefits far beyond dota.

The first goal is to prepare your fundamentals. There are plenty of other comments in this thread to help you there. You should build a working knowledge of every hero in dota. How? Don't just play games. For every single hero in dota, do the following.

• watch a guide video to learn the hero. Learn their combos, playstyle.
  
• watch a pro replay. Take notes.
  
• go into demo mode. CS with no items for 10 minutes. I don't care if it's fucking Techies. You need to know how to lasthit at heroes you want to play. Spawn some enemies and practice the stuff you saw the pro doing. If you're not sure how to do something, find a video that breaks it down.
  
• Play a game as that hero
  
• Go back into demo mode and do no items CS for 10 minutes.
  
• practice some more combos.
  
• play 2-4 more games on the hero.
  
  At this point, ask yourself if you can see yourself playing this hero long term. You should be looking to whittle down the pool from ~115 to ~20. If so:
  
  
• watch your worst replay and take notes.
  
• play at least 10 more games on that hero. Watch replays of the worst ones and take notes.
  
  At this point, you should have 700-800 games of dota under your belt. If you haven't improved to at least ~3.5k during this whole process (yes I know you've been learning heroes.), then pro dota is not in the cards for you.
  
  If you have improved, choose AT MOST 5 heroes, the best heroes you've got, to become your hero pool. Why? Because once you've learned the fundamentals, everything you can improve upon requires playing against better players. The longer you're in the trench, the longer you're solidifying bad habits. You're getting away with stuff that will be punished at higher mmr. Therefore...
  
  The second goal is to gain MMR. Like, at least 5000 higher than your current MMR. One important thing to realize is that it's possible to obtain a high MMR without any concept of teamwork whatsoever. You can begin working on your teamwork now, but KEEP IN MIND that this practice can be counterproductive at low MMR, as many patterns you will learn will change as you get better.
  
  Spam. Get a coach. Tryhard. Watch replays. Get yourself out of the trench. DON'T buy an account. Don't rely on your teammates. Watch replays, take notes. Win at all costs. We want to be playing against better players.
  
  If you actually make it to 6k, I think you'll know enough to be able to know how to take the next step.
  
  Good luck!

Truth with a capital T. Like, the things that actually are. Though nobody may know what is really true, we can try to search and search and eventually understanding some inkling of what is true. Examples of vestiges of "truth" throughout the ages might be Logic, the Scientific Method, Plato's Realm of Forms, Kant's Intuition, stuff like that. In politics, understanding truth is about separating things that are not true from what actually is. Politicians like to lie to their constituents about their true goals, but you would not dispute that those true goals exist. Just the same, though you do not know what is "out there" in the great unknown, you would not dispute that something is. Most of us humans search our whole lives for something that is true not just to one person, but something that is true to everyone. If there is not one thing that is true to everyone, then we live a sad and sordid existence. That would basically preclude the possible existence of morality, god, other people, love, happiness, creativity and many things that our world be worse off without. That view is strongly tied to Solipsism and denies an existence filled with other people. A universal truth can be factual, such as with science, or it can logical, as with Philosophy, or it can implicit, such as with Art, or it can be systematic, as with Mathematics, or it can be experiential, as with Spirituality. But to deny the existence of such universal truths is to say we live in a cursed and fetid world. To understand why such a world cannot be ours, I suggest you read Leibniz's Theodicy.Cheers!

I haven't had a problem like this. But I did have an issue with heavy teamfights that would make me crash (was able to get back into the game though.) So I decided to upgrade my PC. Was running a 7 year old GPU before and upgraded to 1660ti. Will sort me for the next 5-6 years just like the last.

But mainly and the thing that I believe will help you is getting an SSD. I installed the new SSD and did a fresh OS install on that(deleted OS off old HDD). Then just reinstalled Dota, steam and other main programs to run on the SSD. That way I had the speed and performance of the new SSD but still had all my files from my old HDD which is now my storage. I'd recommend the WD Blue 3D SSD( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073SBZ8YH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ). I went for 500GB but you can go for anything that you feel is enough for your OS and programs you want to run.

(I can't tell you how nice it is not crashing and also launching and being able to use my PC in 30 seconds compared to 15 minutes.)

Hope this helped man and wish you the best :)

​

Edit: link

While people are recommending headsets that come with the mic. I'm going to recommend something else. Get a high quality set of over the ear headphones. I'm talking something like the Audio Technica ATH-M50S, Audio Technica ATH-AD700, Sennheiser HD555/595 (The 595's are very similar to the 555's but sound better, there are links around that you can mod your 555's to become 595's), or Sennheiser HD380 Pro. And then attach a Zalman Mic to it.

I have a pair of HD595's and absolutely love them, I can wear them all day and not feel it. They are built like tanks and have amazing sound quality. With my Zalman mic, I not only have a headset that has much higher sound quality than any gaming headset, but I can also use it for VOIP.

I used to have a pair of Creative Fatal1ty MKii, but after picking up my Sennheiser's I can't go back to them. The comfort and sound quality is literally night and day.

Although slightly out of your price range, the two companies make extremely high quality audio equipment. If you look through their offerings you'll definitely find a pair of headphones that will fit your budget. If you watch Amazon you can find that they cut prices dramatically from time to time, I picked up my 595's for around $150, and now they're almost $250.

A brew hoodie (this one happens to be small): https://www.amazon.com/DOTA-Brewmaster-Zip-Up-Hoodie-Small/dp/B00H7IPOGS

Edit: more brew hoodie searches. The firts few are M/L and more places after that: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=dota%202%20brewmaster%20hoodie

Brew shirt: https://www.amazon.com/Brewmaster-Short-Sleeve-Charcoal-Heather/dp/B00HB4FPQW

Shirt: http://www.redbubble.com/people/oprove/works/22481323-pandamonium?grid_pos=1&p=t-shirt&style=mens

Mousepad: https://www.amazon.com/Customized-Resistent-Brewmaster-Mouse-Pads/dp/B00ZKXKEJ4/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1472828892&sr=8-31&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster

A brew pint glass (because brew drinks duh!): https://www.amazon.com/Dota-2-Brewmaster-Glass-Code/dp/B00NY0MT16/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472828850&sr=8-2&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster

Brew poster 1: https://www.amazon.com/CGC-Huge-Poster-Brewmaster-DOTS09/dp/B00XZEG5P2/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1472828850&sr=8-11&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster

Brew poster 2: https://www.amazon.com/CGC-Huge-Poster-Brewmaster-DOTS10/dp/B00XZEGIBI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1472828850&sr=8-6&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster

And a bunch more stuff on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adota+2+brewmaster&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster&ie=UTF8&qid=1472828957

A brewmaster plushie (Search for the best prices and shipping time. It comes in a blind box series 3.): http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=dota+2+brewmaster&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=dota+2+brewmaster+plushie&_sacat=0

Good luck!

Edit: If you need anymore help I am pretty good at finding gifts online, so just shoot me a message.

To add on to this,

Going on the Brewmaster theme, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dota-2-Brewmaster-Glass-Code/dp/B00NY0MT16/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472828510&sr=8-2&keywords=dota+2+brewmaster

There is this. Also Valve used to do an official one on their site, but they seem to have taken it down now.

This shirt features brewmaster (middle left), along with Tusk (top right) and Bristle (bottom right) If he enjoys Brewmaster, its not out of the realms of possibility that he has similar feelings for the other 2 heroes as their playstyles are pretty similar.
http://valvestore.welovefine.com/brawling-buddies-81.html



There are also these Mini Plushies
http://valvestore.welovefine.com/series-3-dota-2-blind-box-micro-plush-40.html

One of them is brewmaster, unfortunately they are blind boxes, and so you dont know what you are going to get. So its a bit of a gamble.


On a more general 'Dota player' gift guide. There are some cool things below, that show that he likes dota, but are maybe a little more discreet so people who know, know, but its not in your face for people who dont know to ask.

http://valvestore.welovefine.com/all-accessories/dota-2-neck-tie-11037.html

http://valvestore.welovefine.com/all-accessories/dota--new-beanie-11031.html

http://valvestore.welovefine.com/all-accessories/dota-2-metal-cap-11029.html

http://valvestore.welovefine.com/home-office-drinkware/dota-2-coaster-set-of-4-11047/sort/pps.seller_sort.html?order=DESC

Here is my contribution to the list

Normal mug

Wall Print of the same image

Travel mug

Glass Stein (plus ingame unlock)

T-Shirt (plus ingame unlock-unlock not brewmaster related though)

Iconic Muggernaut (Not brewmaaster, but perhaps the best mug option, if he uses mugs)

I would encourage you to peruse RedBubble, a site full of community submitted designs. They have some really neat things. Your key words would be Brewmaster and/or Primal Split, and Dota 2 I guess. Most of the designs can be made as anything from stickers to hat to metal prints.

Required reading for people looking to legitimately get better at Dota (especially when you've played for a long time with little improvement):

Talent is Overrated : What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

and

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

While these books clearly do not focus on Dota, the ideas contained in these books are probably the most helpful ideas in making you a better player, in terms of what your practice and mentality needs in order to get better.

This guy gets it. Games are a steady productivity drip that help you feel more in control/accomplished compared to what real life usually offers. The first step out of a cycle of suffering is to see that you are in one, which it sounds like you are doing. Engage your problems, make improvements, and keep trying. Feel free to PM me as well.

For related reading, try Reality is Broken and The Art of Learning. The latter, in particular, helps cultivate the perspective that makes success in other things as interesting as games can be.

The Zalman mic you're referencing.

I cannot recommend this gadget enough. I have used multiple headsets and been disappointed by every last one of them. Without fail, the headsets had shoddy build quality, uncomfortable earpieces, miserable sound, or some combination thereof.

In grabbing that link, Amazon reminded me that I purchased my Zalman mic three and a half years ago. In that time, I've used it in two apartments on three computers, on headphone cables or just taped to my desk. It's been used and abused and it's still fantastic; my friends regularly praise the audio quality. The ONLY downside is that in a taped-to-the-desk configuration, it will not sufficiently cancel echo from the speakers, but for an $8 mic being used outside of the intended configuration... that's barely a concern.

Whenever anyone asks what to get for a headset, this is always what I answer. Getting a pair of headphones you LOVE and adding a modular microphone is so much more cost efficient, comfortable, and versatile than buying a branded gaming headset, and the Zalman mic fights way above it's weight class.

Not sure what his opinion's worth now that he's no longer at Valve (that, and he was talking about Half-Life in this case, not Dota), but I remember Marc Laidlaw once said Valve would never do a tie-in novel because that would mean outsourcing the story to someone else. And if Valve could come up with the story themselves, why not just tell it in-game?

So yeah, as much as I'd love a Dota novel, not likely. Best you can hope for is they do another comic collection.

> G502

Wow that looks really nice. What is the difference between the HERO and Regular versions? Trying to figure this out on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Spectrum-Shifting-Personalized-Programmable/dp/B07GBZ4Q68?th=1

I'm a web developer. I'm not claiming to be someone from valve who makes 100k+ a year, but I've done my research for the most part.

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882

This book is pretty popular and has a section on comments being more harmful than helpful.

I currently use this combo:

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1323130988&sr=8-6

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323130978&sr=8-2

I have had plenty of headsets over the years, and this one has been my best purchase. My friends on skype tell me the voice quality is fine.

You are also going to get way better sound quality through headphones rather than a headset.

As a big history book buff, I've read a pretty good one on this topic.

https://www.amazon.com/Opium-Wars-Addiction-Corruption-Another/dp/1402201494

If anyone else wants to check it out. It's a very illuminating read.

At its heart it was an economic power play. Opium was already introduced to China and was having devastating effects. So government officials worked at trying to ban it. But Opium at this point had become a huge part of the British tea trade with China. It was the most desired good that the British could trade for tea and the Chinese were uninterested in most other British export trade goods. So without opium the British all of a sudden don't have anything to trade for tea on favorable terms. So the British go to war to keep ports open to the opium trade after the Chinese try to outlaw it.

its arguable. The basic rule I would advise people is that if you can spell it logically it is latin based. If you can't spell it logically its german. If the verb changes tense in the middle of the word, then its of semetic origin, as all germanic strong verbs are.

If you are curious please see:

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Magnificent-Bastard-Tongue-History/dp/1592404944/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412209131&sr=8-1&keywords=our+glorious+bastard+tongue

The book will actually make you laugh. Well written.

Here

I have one of these at home for play and one for work. It has a very comfortable Matte finish on it and can customize all the side buttons, DPI, etc. Even save multiple profiles for quick switches. If you are looking for one with hotkeys on it anyways.

JVC Harx700 + Zalman mic. Runs about $45, and much better quality than any "gaming headset".
There is a more expensive ($60) JVC Harx900 headset if you want to get something a little more pricey.

If you want to get fancy you can get some snakeskin cabling, some heatshrink, and a lighter and semi-permanently combine the mic cable to the headphone cable.

https://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ
https://www.amazon.com/JVC-HARX700-Precision-Sound-Headphones/dp/B0013OWPV4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013P3ZOE/ref=psdc_12097479011_t1_B0013OWPV4

While you are at it a decent soundcard will do wonders if you are using an onboard card. You can get a decent entry level card for about $40. Just like a standalone mic is better than a headset mic. A standalone sound card is miles ahead of an onboard card in the vast majority of cases.

https://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DGX-GX2-5-Audio-Engine/dp/B007TMZ1BK

Redragon Perdition

This is what i use, Really comfortable, up to 16400 DPI, 12 macro buttons, Weighted mouse that you can change, Love it

ITT: Too many people recommending headsets.

OP, the ModMic is on the pricier side at $40, but is a great mic and can attach to your headphones, turning it into a headset of sorts.

The Zalman clip-on mic isn't quite as good, but still more than adequate, and is only $9.

As the poster below said, that's a borrowed word from Old Norse (The Vikings raided England and actually ruled the island for a few years almost a millennium ago. The show Vikings depicts this event.) .

There's actually a good book about the history of English, with a great name. "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue". The tl;dr is in the title: English has a lot of words borrowed from other languages.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Magnificent-Bastard-Tongue-History/dp/1592404944

As for stuff like "Knight" of "Thought", the "gh" used to be pronounced like the "ch" back of the throat sound in "blech" but it eventually got dropped.

Then there's the famous "Vowel Shift" which changed how basically every vowel was pronounced, which was most likely influenced by the large number of borrowed words in the middle ages.

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html

I use a Logitech G13, mostly because it lets me move the camera with the analog stick on it and it has way more buttons than any other of the similar devices that Razor puts out (and changeable back light colors, a screen, and better software).

My map for the G13 stems from my roots in League of QWER DF and 123456, it looks like this screenshot, ctrl, shift, tab, and alt all do their default things; I have my voice and chat wheel on my side mouse buttons (as well as another way to quick buy).

Wow, there's clearly something wrong with your CPU temperature.
Maybe the fans are dusted? Or the CPU fan is not spinning at all?


If the CPU fan is running fine and there is no excessive amount of dust, you could also try to replace the thermal compound between the CPU and the radiator. It's quite easy, just unscrew the radiator, clean the old compound with isopropyl alcohol on a tissue and apply new thermal compound. There are set's on amazon for less than 10$ (something like this, but I don't know this in particular! So no idea if it's the best/cheapest/... just googled it so you see what I'm talking about)

Here is a real cheap $6 one that you attach to your headphone cords that works great. I've used it for years and never got complaints about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485230223&sr=8-1&keywords=zalman+clip+on+mic

These have faithfully served me for at least two years... I would highly recommend them.

This is probably the best option sub $20 - https://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/

I use a Logitech G600 combined with my Logitech G13 and I love every minute of it.

i use this and i love it.

I have had this mouse for about 7 months and it's still working great: http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Pro-Full-Size-Mouse-K72369US/dp/B004P1IU5C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1397588365&sr=8-3&keywords=kensington+mouse

yeah, I figured that out after looking into it. its definitely just a shutter stock image. you can these headphones have purchased (or maybe they just stole) the image for use with their product


https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Surround-Headphones-Cancelling-Microphones/dp/B07CYKSX6N

You should read the book "Talent is Overrated"

http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1591842948

Which strangely reminds me of a saying that there is always someone out that there is better than you.

Seriously though, there have been cases of this kind of thing. Josh Waitzkin in his book mentions how in one of the world Tai Chi Chuan tournaments he attended, the tournament played with the schedule and gave everybody 'heavy' food (everyone becomes hungry because matches are delayed). The point was to throw off the foreign combatants. The local teams already knew of the schedule alteration, so they planned their eating accordingly.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Desktop-Microphone-Black-Silver/dp/B00009EHJV + http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-555-Stereo-Headphone/dp/B0001FTVDQ

the mic was like $20 back when I bought it, no clue why it's so expensive now

Full input volume, I use this mic. It's in an audio jack, I'll test with other games and get back to you at some point.

Here's another option, only $6! It's not what i'm using (i have an at2020) but it's hard to beat for $6!

I use separate headphones and mic.

This mic you can clip to the headphones cord or I have it sitting on the desk in front of me and have had no problems.