Dlarimit

Np, I'll try to catch you there

No, he has only assassins + pseudo-assassin Oak here.

Lol

I usually prefer to play with cloak of night, but because we were mirror matching every game I had to use a different style.  I used cloak in the first one and we lost because I was too cautious about jumping into the middle of the action with my low HP.  Those replays though aren't what you'd normally see because I got currency 3 both games, only because I assumed it would be a long game and knew my amazing teammates would take advantage of it (90% of teammates won't). So even with blood I had to play defensively but it gave me enough HP for the important fights. In a pug game I'd almost always go cloak and gank constantly.  Early brain storm isn't a huge priority when there's no uberfix so more King of Minotaurs might be nice.  The games against zen_gods team are how I like to play, most Occulus' go blood no matter what the situation though. 

My fav. occ build:  BotF  (cloak can be nice but it affects staying power)

1. Blast off
2. chain
3. KoM
4. chain
5. bs
6. blast off
7. chain
8. blast off
9. hold
10. chain + blast off
11. BS

After 11 you can either go with more KoM or lightning.  The balls are pretty good when max leveled but pretty much suck before then.

1. monks
2. scaled + banded
3. plenor
4. unbreakables
5. vlemish
6. nimoths or hauberk (i tend to get hauberk if there is an aoe on the other team that takes out the monks)
7. bishops
8. hungarlings (replace vlemish) - best purchased when opposing a rook.

With the level 15 ability, when the balls hit the ground, they detonate. I'm not sure if they still detonate if they are destroyed by damage or not, but that's generally not an issue (as you likely have hauberks and no one is direct targeting the LB.  Anyway, you can force the detonation by summoning another set of lightning balls.  Once you resummon then, its about 1 second until the original balls hit the ground and detonate.  Then its just rinsing and repeating.  So, if possible, summon them just before you go into battle.  Get them where the conflict is going on, and resummon immediately. 

Thanks, Pacov! I guessed I am supposed to suicide the balls non-stop, since otherwise their performance is really sub-par.

Thanks, Brasher! Yours is a Uberfix-only build, though, as Electrocution does not work w/o it.

Well, yeah, but the ultimate lightning balls are just nice, while Acclimation is simply game-breaking. I don't think I've ever won a single match with a UB-less team vs a UB-enhanced team, unless our team had a smashing advantage before the UB hit level 15. I'm talking about skilled matches, of course.

Well, I don't know how someone could avoid getting bored just playing the same dg over and over period.  Guys like paint used to love play reg and only reg - jon loved oak and only oak.  Took those guys hundreds and hundreds of games to branch out and start using a diff dg.  That would bore the crap out of me. 

That said, if you could only play 1 dg that fits in just about every combo, ub certainly works.  Acclimation is strong, no doubt, but I've never felt it fits as being game breaking or crazy op.  I don't think you must have a ub to counter a ub, though.  Its all a bit situational really.  If you are against oak/erb/ub then you very likely want a ub.   But vs other combos its not always necessary.  But then again, I enjoy my random assassin games where I end up fighting 3 ubs as reg/tb/da.  Just because a level 15 ability is quite strong certainly wouldn't make me choose ub.  I think that sometimes folks see a ub and decide they must have one, without taking into account the talent level of the players in game.  Kind of a knee jerk reaction like WIP would make in the past where he'd refuse to play if someone on his team choose a dg that he felt made the team a weaker combo.  Anyway, bottom line - sometimes you have to take a ub to counter, but I'd argue that its not necessary 100% of the time in a fairly matched game. 

I used to use this build but then started getting branstorm at 5 & 11 and kom at 3.  This puts off getting blast off II for an additional level but it really helps.

The KOM and brainstorm really help with mana management and provide a lot of staying power so you dont have to return to the shop as much. 

Cool, cool. I do like the extra mana. I'll have to look at it again. I'm just on the fence now about KoM 1 at level 3 or BS 2 at 11. OK, you can only pick 1, you have magnus rod at BS 2, which do you choose?

Can someone link to a skill tree or something? I can never find them. What's the difference on BS1 and BS2 mana cost and net mana gain?

Evenly matched games are not the same at all levels of play.  noob v noob, mid v mid, expert v expert.  All are different.  Just saying. 

fair enough

Evenly matched games are not the same at all levels of play.  noob v noob, mid v mid, expert v expert.  All are different.  Just saying. 

Well, we won't discuss noob v noob here: weird shit is happening during those matches. Most games and players I play with and against are mid+ by your US-centric taxonomy, I suppose That's perfectly all right, though a lot of them got much higher grades from Renz (was curious as to adequacy of my nooby impressions). However, some of the Russian guys (Dreamcatcher, Seawolf, Al-t, McLoover, Akumrise), Iz, doggu, ppapanek, renz are surely expert in my book. On that skill level (call it whatever you like), the same game flowchart I've witnessed in that second Zen vs McOrcenz match applies: the UB-less team is doing fine until late game, and can even have a good lead in kills and warscore, then the UB hits 15, and if he gets Bulwark - well, gg. If he doesn't, it just becomes harder, but still manageable. Good teams feed their UB items, though, so...