(The picture looks a bit weird because it's a combination of my real account and my smurf account, as I decided to level it up for my experiment and also to hide which hero I plan to play for the match.)
To prepare for the Dota 2 challenge issued by D, I've been practising mid heroes. Given my requirements of needed to end the game quickly, and having a hero that can 3v1, I tried Shadow Fiend and Outworld Devourer. Both of those games were a disaster and I was pretty discouraged, but Pharmacist told me to keep trying, and we had a few 1v1 mid games where I played SF against Viper, Sniper and DK, and I got used to playing him a bit more. The Skywrath game was because the other team picked SF first.
It has been tough changing to a different mindset. For one thing, I shouldn't be throwing my life away to save another player. The farming priorities are different, and it's (somewhat) OK for me to walk up to a lane that's being farmed by a support player and start taking the farm. This one has been really hard for me to adjust to, as I've played support so much, and I know how hard it can be to find farm.
Playing mid makes me feel a lot more pressure to perform well. If you miss a deny as a support, or screw up the block it's not a huge deal. If you do it as a mid, it can be the start of a huge uphill battle - literally. I never realised how frustrating it is having to manoeuvre around the hill. The last game I played, I was matched against Alchemist, and once he started levelling his acid spray, positioning became so much more important, and it was a lot harder to line up my razes.
At first, SF was really frustrating, because I'm not used to playing a right-clicker. Even my favourite hero, Silencer, has spells to help farm and kill people. I am getting better at it though. In my 1v1 games against Julian, my creep scores (kills / denies) were: 6/6, 6/2, 16/5, 17/5. I struggled to get bottle before the 4 minute rune. Now, I am usually getting it before 3 minutes, which still isn't ideal, but it's an improvement! I'm also getting better at hitting my razes, and I rarely screw up and hit the max range raze when I meant to press the min range one.
I also keep forgetting about BKB. As a support hero, other than special cases like Enigma, having BKB is a luxary you rarely get to experience, so it's one of those items that I rarely think about, along with MKB, Manta Style and Divine Rapier. I also swear the recipe for Silver Edge used to include Sange in it somewhere, but it seems to be an Ultimate Orb now.
This whole experience has been pretty eye-opening. I still think the support role suits me much more than mid, but having played so many games in a row in mid lane, I am getting a better understanding of how the mind of a mid player works, and that will just make me a better support player in the long run.
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Before I forget, today marks the end of week 1 of the 12-week body fitness challenge. Here are my stats:
Weight: 58.4 / 59.1
Waist: 74.5 / 75.5
Hips: 88 / 89
Bust: 89.5 / 91
Left thigh: 52.5 / 51.5
Left calf: 35.5 / 35.5
Right thigh: 53.5 / 53.5
Right calf: 36.5 / 36
Left bicep: 31 / 29
Right bicep: 30 / 29
Not the best progress, but I know from experience not to be discouraged after such little time has passed.
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