One sure fire way to recognize your teammates skill level is how they play against invisible heroes. Riki is arguably the most feared hero in noob brackets due to his Permanent Invisibility skill. This may seem overpowered and unfair to unsuspecting noobs, but Riki's godlike powers can be stopped for a mere 180 gold. Invisible heroes tend to have great escape mechanisms and will leave lesser teams confused and angry. The reason heroes like Riki and Nyx Assassin are so dominant in noob tier Dota is that most players don't buy enough detection to deal with them. Instead, they run around scared, worried that one of them is going to pop out of nowhere and kill them.This will happen every time you neglect buying detection. Detection is a pretty painless way to take a hero out of rhythm. Dust of Appearance is great to lock down Shadow Blade carriers. Sentry Wards provide area true sight for heroes like Weaver or Slark, since Dust is useless against them. Gem of True sight is quite a risky pick up, since it is both expensive and dropped on death, but the constant true sight will make taking out roaming gankers and dewarding a cake walk.
Film junkie, casual hardcore gamer, and human music database. Learned how to write so that I could share my ideas and justify the hundreds of hours I've spent glued in front of a screen. Follow me on Twitter for my less formal musings on geek culture.
