Walk Down Memory Lane - Crazy Concepts And Heroes
When we launched our new achievements feature, we were happy to see how the community reacted to it. Our Arbitrary Awards, especially, seemed to be well received-- who doesn’t like bragging about playing Dota since 2011 and remembering things such as when Io was still called Wisp. DotA:Allstars and Dota 2 both have a rich story behind them and in the years of developing this game into the big title that it is today, we’ve seen some crazy things. If you look back on it now, it seems almost surreal to think that some concepts were once part of the game.
Crazy hero concepts
Still today we see hero concepts being reworked and further developed. Patch 6.86 had 5 heroes see their spells reworked, and to some degree, their fundamental playstyle as well. 
Faceless Void was designed out of a carry position into more of a utility core and 
Riki is still looking for his identity.
These concepts needed little tweaking, as the following patches 6.86b to f showed, but we have long passed the point where almost every second balance patch would introduce some big ability or concept change. Riki is certainly one of the more recent examples with vast changes to the abilities in the past two years, much like 
Bloodseeker, 
Terrorblade or 
Silencer.
Back in the day however, we used to see changes of concepts much more frequently. Why? Because some concepts just turned out to be way too strong and would probably even today be deemed “op”.
For one, there have been several heroes and concepts that were just completely disregarded. Gambler, a 25 spell heavy Invoker and the undead monster that Pudge once was would be challenging to balance around nowadays. For a refresh on these heroes and their abilities, read this forum post.
Fat Pudge and Crazy Zombies
Pudge is a good example of one of the crazy heroes to think about. Flesh Heap currently provides extra strength based on the amount of heroes that have died near Pudge. Up until 6.64, he used to gain strength from creep kills as well though.
- Each unit Pudge kills grants him 0.03/0.06/0.09/0.12 strength if it was a non-hero unit, and 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8 if it was a hero.
- Pudge has to make the last hit to gain the strength. Works on denies.
With how efficiently camps are stacked these days, the idea of gaining strength based on creep kills seems surreal. Granted these numbers seem somewhat balanced (100CS for 12 str), but it is still a concept that we haven’t seen around since.
Note: Loud music, careful with headphones- Calls the Undying's fellow zombies out of the earth to fight. Once a zombie attacks six times, another one will rise alongside it.
- When a zombie dies, its reanimating life force returns to Dirge, healing him by 50 hp.
Do you like playing against 
Undying? Let’s be real here, nobody does. Unless you like picking Gyrocopter. Either way, Undying is not fun to play against, since he can be a pest as Tombstone seems to be too strong early on. Not to be that guy, but Tombstone seems like a kid’s birthday party compared to what Undying used to be able to do before. As mentioned above, “Raise Dead”, one of his former spells, used to summon zombies that could summon even more, much like an Eidelon. All kinds of playstyles seemed viable, such as jungling him, solo-ing Roshan or just diving the tower whenever you felt like it.
Interactions and mechanics
Blink Dagger - Now gets disabled for 3 seconds upon taking damage
Yes, you are reading this correctly. There was a time when Blink Dagger would not be disabled when taking damage.
Do you know this feeling? Chasing an opponent who has a Blink Dagger, nervously trying to keep the damage up so he cannot Blink away. All of that was moot once, so picking off an opponent was quite the task without any lockdown. These days, people are annoyed by [missing hero: outworld-devourer], whose Astral Imprisonment allows him to Blink out of danger as much as he likes, much like 
Puck's Phase Shift.
Elder Titan (Tauren Chieftain) Spirit
Elder Titan is the third least played hero in the pub scene right now and virtually non existent in the professional scene. The hero doesn’t seem fun to playThere was a time however, when there was something special about him that made him quite interesting. Up until patch 6.75, roughly half a year before ET was added to Dota2, his Ancestral/Astral Spirit was not controllable. Not by conventional means anyway. It would act as a mirror image and move the same way you did in the direction you casted it into. While this was heavily confusing for newer players, it allowed more skilled players to abuse the mechanic for some neat little tricks, such as sniping weakened opponents in their base.
Phantom Assassin - Don’t you dare buy Aura items
In DotA, 
Phantom Assassin’s Blur used to be quite the spell. Not only did it provide the evasion as it does now, but it also provided transparency. Yes, you could be virtually invisible in the game with this hero once. A level 4 Blur would leave Mortred to be the silent assassin that she was. Often enough, you’d almost be dead before even noticing her presence.
There was however one little trick that allowed you to see her: Auras! Back in DotA:Allstars, auras would be visible around the hero, indicated by a certain ring or symbol at the feet of the hero. This was often reason enough not to purchase any aura items, such as Ring of Basilius, to keep her less noticeable and stealthy.
You will always remembers
Dota as a game has such a rich history. With millions of players, everyone develops his own attachment to the game and has his own experiences. While all the crazy ideas and concepts mentioned above were all in DotA:Allstars, Dota 2 itself has had some crazy ones as well. To think that 
Io's Tether once stunned enemy heroes upon impact seems unreal at this point. Even the most recent changes to 
Winter Wyvern make the hero look stupidly strong in retrospect: an AoE ulti that pierced magic immunity and you could damage all affected heroes/units? Madness.
Every patch, there is a new “op” hero, a pubstomper, a go-to hero that people despise. It may be 
Invoker or 
Spectre now, but in a year it could be some hero we don’t even have on our radar just yet. And that’s the beauty of the game. It keeps on changing, it keeps on giving and it keeps on creating beautiful memories. Except for 6.83's Hoho Haha, there was nothing beautiful about that.
Image Sources:
ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ༼ຈ ل͜ຈ༽ﾉ•︻̷┻̿═━一 ｈｏｈｏ ｈａｈａ ｓｈｒａｐｎｅｌヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ•︻̷┻̿═━一 ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽヽ｀ヽ、ヽヽ｀ヽ
second :(
And there will be a time when we'll remember how many years it took Volvo to finally port Pit Lord into Dota2
Can somebody ask s4 if he remembers the millon dollar dreamcoil?
And then there is Omni. The Knight of pub, with his omnipresent 60% winrate.
Does anyone remember when Invoker had 27 spells? Man, those were good times.
What was wrong with 6.83? (i started playing a few months ago)
lovely
Why look back to this, dota 2 is already perfect as it is :p
Naix have 60sec spell immune + armor SS and a 400% lifesteal.
Lycan wolves have bash.
Speaking of bash, since there is no ghost scepter, u can perma bash by buying double basher.
@Lumus Three heroes were considered very very strong and were picked constantly. I used to wait nervously hoping that they wouldn't get picked. But now we have random draft so that helps.
Not noticed here but phoenix was a god damn op hero. Icarus dive had disarm, fire spirits insta 300 damage and here comes the biggest one "sun mother.ucking ray" that endless ray slows enemy and deals damage. Considering the sentinel's easy lane creeps are meeting at t1 sentinel tower, heroes without escape mechanism were pretty dead. And i also like the no item 3k hp centaur tho.
"an AoE ulti that pierced magic immunity and you could damage all affected heroes/units? Madness"
I reeeeally hope that this is just poorly worded satire.
Sniper was so silly. Hahahaha.
This is a pretty neat flash back even to people who have been playing as little as three years.
Nice post!
Now Gaben is releasing patches like once per 6 months, so we will have a little bit of OD Omni SPectre Zeus LD. BrokeBack
Kyou ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ
as I recall it, it was 20 sec avatar. 1st hero I ever played
Thank you :) Which were the OP heroes then?
and we should recall that Venomancer, Akasha, and PA (Mortred) has something in common..
I loved Riki's ulti in 5.8x, that was basically a ward like Witch Doctor's, just that it wasn't channeling, you just put it down like Jugger's healing ward, and it wreaked havoc, while you also still had Riki with a regular blink like Anti Mage's.
Ho Ho ha ha ?
Hell yeah, why valve and icefrog not released Pit Lord in DotA2? SUCK
Pit lord is going to need a hell of a lot of nerfing, thats why. That damage and tp is too op.
The age of Global team Rat will be upon us with Pit lord. IO + NP + Specter + Pit lord = Dead base
Great article !
I am looking forward another !
Oh the good old times...
Stackable bash,Troll Warlord with 2 skull basher=permastun
Huskar passive buffing not speel resistance but raw damage,with Dazzle shallow grave 5 seconds of mass destruction
Yeah Dazzle...with a bloodstone-like ulti that reduced revive time
Razor with uber-buffing passives and spells,Butterfly+Mjollnyr(builded with Eaglesong)=GG
Keeper of the light spawning healing creeps with ulti...that was funny xD
Pudge with bending hook,Naga siren with crit chance,Medusa with useless ulti,Tidehunter with splash attack passive and Jakiro with non-target liquid fire
And Barathrum alias Spirit Broken : global INVULNERABLE charge with an unstoppable ulti that catch even phased puck or ulting Storm Spirit...
Good old times.Well,surely not balanced times.But good times.
ауе
fuck 6.83
6.83 in a nutshell : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqmu16hrEg
Anyone remember the time when Riki have a deathward and have critical instead of backstab?
Also the time where razor have chain lightning and have free radiance like ulti?
The old silencer, chen, riki
void demon, gambler!!
will there be any new heroes for dota 2, new hero concepts and heroes. That would be brilliant though the game is enough itself.
No one remembers the good ol' times when faceless void had global 5 second stun? Back then you could still build atma weapon and play with IceFrog and Guinsoo.
that map tho xD
missing old silencer where last word is aura 1000 range lol xD
Fountain hook and skewer.. RIP
Buyable aegis, anyone?
REALLY old silencer:
Healing Wave (close to Dazzle's heal), Starfall (potm Q), Rain of Chaos (Warlock ult w/ multiple golems; not even his ult), then ult was Global Silence.
Also Luna didn't need beam for ult so you can skip it and go full right click :D
Drow can one hit creeps with ult, can't remember if worked on neutrals.
never forget azgalor u mutterfuckers
Going really old school, Shadow Plates anyone? +10 to all stats and +10 armor?
Slightly less old school, when Tinker BKB turned him into a tank?!
I still await for the official release of pitlord. He is literally completed and playable as of now, and he has been for a while already. I wonder why volvo wont release him. If they dont I will call them and ask for cars
There's that time where a dragon is guarding on each base and all the items has no descriptions at all, it had only "?????????"
i used to play on Medusa with ulti purge. that was great)
I remember getting Aghanim's or Battle Fury changes sprite or attack lool
Tide with BF would spin like crazy! ahahah
Forget exactly which patch it was the nerf, but pre 6.65 bristleback UNKILLABLE!
remember n'aix had the same model as the creeps? The recent infest changes brought those memories back