Yeah god I will have to adjust my build for sure with Rook.  Its just that he moves so damn slow if I get swapped into enemies its going to be like immediately having to try and run out of there and cross my fingers lol

The problem with rook move speed builds being you have to sacrifice so much to move faster with Rook (which compared to other DGs is not all that fast lol) that is sort of gimps your game.  Looks like it'l be some interesting strategy adjustments!  Maybe an elven cloak will become standard equipment for Rook players lol, although the teleport range is very small.  Hopefully the swap range will not be much longer than elven cloak teleport.

Or you could just spend 4,500 on Warpstone?  Been a while since I looked hard at the trinket menu, did they take it off?  (They should drop the price to 3500g anyway though, no one uses this right now)

Its range is too negligable....

I don't see how this will change mine Reg's that much.  If this assasin comes at you with another demi in tow, then you probably want to run on sight instead of pissing them off w/ mine traps, but if it's just one on one, you just need to position yourself very close to your mines and his shadow warp thing will tele him right into them.

I don't really get area warp.  Do you do a sequence of warps and attack after each warp?  If that's true and assasin is invincible, AND the warp clears mines, that could be an issue.

The way you guys talk about DAs ingame makes me think of the damn Lord Mariscal in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

just had a thought about a teleportation disruption ability.

the game i just had there were very co-ordinated ports into the thick of things.

an ability to stop (possibly even do dmage 200/400/...) teleportations within a radius.

DA sounds perfect for this, if not the some item or such...

ah ok, 5500 then, thanks.  I definitely see (and remember) the issues with a cheap Warpstone (I think it was 1500g at one point in Beta with higher range and entire teams would blink in from FoW for the gank - not fun to be in the barrel on that one).

OTOH, it's ironic that we would be concerned about future homogeny given the current set of six or seven items used in 95% of online games, on all DGs.  

When you get down to it the pricing on this item and about 80% of the buyable items in the game is just wrong.

It's an easy fix in most cases.  Build a formula off the 500g equipped items we have now where you add:

+500g for each effect

+500g for each item slot freed by an additional effect

and you'll get a variety items people have to work for but are willing to buy, rather than the short list we all use in lieu.  Heck, you'd actually re-introduce equipment as a strategic build consideration!

As for Warpstone and other non-standard trinkets, I think they need to lower the price until the one item costs a bit less than the *total* average equipment budget you get in most games.  If I am spending 5500g on equipment then my team is doing very well, and I have 5 items - I'm no more going to buy a Warpstone, currently, than an Artifact.

Sorry for the serious derail, but I guess we can come back to the original premise by saying that until they revamp items you can counter DA Swap by playing a General with Cloak of Night

So... any clue on when the new demigods will be released? Or at least when we get to see the other new demigod?

It seems to be just me, since everyone else is already in love with this DG, but don't the Forces of Darkness already have a Aliens-esque character in UB? And doesn't it seem like introducing an entirely new game mechanic in shadow-swap seem like a good way to unbalance a pretty balanced game? I mean, we all want something different and kind of original, but even though all the DGs achieve the effects differently, they are all some balance of melee attack, ranged attack, shield, heal, stun, AE, and DoT (there are others). While some DG's have this in a more effective balance than others (read UB and Erebus) none of then do something the other DGs (or at least a well balanced team) completely cannot do (Reg's Snipe is the closest thing).

No one knows yet how this will balance out. (As a former Magic player, one of the hardest things to do is guess how new cards will affect the field before they are released, and it is often not one you see at first as over-powered.) But it does seem to me that this is a mechanic which will force you to alter your game if you are playing against it, perhaps by having to take the Warp cloak favor item to avoid ganking, whereas right now, most builds are designed to deal with all DGs, with maybe a slight alteration to your skill order selection or item purchases if you are facing a particullarly efficent player playing a particular DG.

I think a lot of people will have to decide in lobby, "Well guess I'll be playing my anti-Demon-Assassin build, to avoid ganking."

And I do hope there is a better name than something a 4th grader would think was awesome.

Xenomorph with swords? How can anyone object? :<

The only complaint I have is the name, and the sheer number of somewhat boring passive abilities. Or, well, at least the one that sends enemies into the air for the ultimate. Is there really any use to that at all? Sounds like that could be an addition to the last level of the skill, rather than a skill itself.

his name is  " Xanghul - the Black"...that would fit ime

dear DotA fans......dont cry about copy skill here copy skill there...or do u really want me to find out where DotA copied the skills from ?????????????

Live is XEROX your just a copy !

cheers...da micro

So today is my Sister's Birthday and she wants to know if she can "play the cute alien thingy that hops around yet or not?"

This would be an awesome gift to her.

Or as Bart says, "are we there yet?"