Alas! (or should that be At Last?)

[RedRagToAnOrc]

I am forced to relinquish my title as King of the Hill, as GA wins the 10th series by 3 games to 2. They were all pretty good games and I hope I get a rematch soon!

Well played GA!

Game 5 - RR (UD) vs GA (R/Hu)
Phantom Grove

Both players do the same as Game 4, although I get an earlier expansion up, and GA expands cruelly right across the map, and starts to mass (gasp!) towers, Gryphons, Gyros and Knights with MK/Pally in response to my DK/Lich/Fiendshee/Stat/Dest. Despite me having a Health Stone, Potion of Greater Healing and Death Pact on my Level 7 DK, GA finally nails the hero kill and with a lack of expansion I am forced to resign! Replay attached.

[mAnbimanimanimA]

I'd watch the replay, but I hate the human race enough already as it is.

Congratulations to GA though! I'll look into the 'new challenger' poll tomorrow, after sleep.

[Basan]

Hmm, haven't checked the other thread but aren't a few replays of this KotH's week missing? :P

[wa123]

congrat! I hope to free up some time soon and watch all the replays.

[GenocideAlive]

RR always mis-casts the replays. T_T

I had an expansion from tier 1 all the way to tier 3. RR got an expansion after a long tier 2, which I rapidly quashed. Basically the only thing that won me this game was that he stayed in tier 2 so long as to not be able to get destroyers. With my MK/Pally vs. his fiendshee, he could give me a good run but nothing to finish.

[RedRagToAnOrc]

What? Games 1, 2 and 4 are in the other thread (The King of the Hill) and GA has Game 3 yet to post.

[Monty]

I believe GA's (congratulations, by the way) posted it in the other thread.

[Schwitzer]

Congratulations, GA! Finally, a new champion :)

Of course, RedRag did an awesome job to remain King of the Hill for so long, so he really deserves congratulations too.

Thanks for the replays, guys. I enjoy watching them. :)

[Yoda]

Alas, RR won't be able to keep his original signature... :shiftyr: I'll watch the replay when I have time, which is unlikely to happen for a long time unfortunately.

Good job GA.

[GenocideAlive]

Frankly I'm rather pleased with the series irregardless of the results--I definitely took something away that I could use. Insofar as my using MK/Pally vs. UD for nukage, I never really encountered something that could counter the amount of damage that the HU nuke puts out. However, with the discovery of AMS in terms of counter, my love and interest in this game only deepens.

The first time I played against it, I pretty much was at a loss. My harass was OK but my general unit-combos were useless and I wasn't dominating tier 2 as well as I felt like I should have been. I couldn't figure out how to deal with it and I couldn't really make my expo work for me. I was afraid of producing Knights while he had Banshees because of possess, but didn't really have much choice.

This second time, I tried something a little different: focus and nuke the Banshees. Keep doing that for a little while, and eventually he won't have any (or enough) Banshees left to cast AMS on everything. He might have been able to make them go a little further if he had turned off Curse, but I think he just quit producing them. Additionally, that's one of the few cases that I could understand someone taking a point in Pact to help with the DK.

I think if he would have caught my expo while it was going up or taken it down shortly afterwards, that would have come out differently. But that's why I picked Phantom Grove, because it's an expo map and it's extremely difficult to simply creep like crazy and just keep an eye on one or two mines. Since UD is so gimped in terms of expansions, it pretty much gave me 75% chances to come out ahead in macro.

Anyway, they were pretty fun games and it was a hell of a series. Thanks, guys.

[ice]

congrats to the new KoTH, GA ... nice game i watched it 5 min ago

[Basan]

I've finally dl'ed the whole lot and will try to see'em tomorrow. Btw, couldn't this thread be merged with the other one that presents most of your KotH matches? ;)

[Prozerran]

Interesting query here on what GA stated about the DK and Pact. When I take the MK, I always get three of his skills before his ultimate, or to be more specific, I get Clap at level 4 every game. Similarly, is it better to take the DK point from his Aura and put it in Pact at level 4 with the typical DK/Lich(/CL)? Similarly, for other heroes like Far Seer's Farsight at level 4 to help with detection against Human. Seems to me that it's situational, but generally speaking, what's the verdict? Is it better to change up the standard skill distribution or stick to what's typical for higher level skills?

[Monty]

It's much better to approach hero skills with an open mind, that's for sure. Most common one I saw did regard the DK, especially if a DH came on the harass. Of course, the brilliant move against this, on the elf's part, is to not pick mana burn - when the DK picks his aura, you pick immolation. Of course, neither player could pick a skill - I haven't actually seen this, however. (I thought it happened on one occasion, but the UD actually picked coil straight away! That is the other situation you have to watch out for.) Much more likely to work against a good player, in the world of bluff and double-bluff (which in itself is more likely to benefit the elf, whose goal is to contain whilst going for a quick tech).

As for later skill choices, mixing it up is definitely beneficial. Playing Orc v Hu, later on the wolves can become rather useless (if expansions are towered, in particular, and when playing a skilled player who won't let your wolves hit away at the army forever!), which obviously favours choosing far sight and chain lightning. Definitely situational - what people don't realise is the amount of situations where switching it up is favourable. If there's a merchant, of course, choosing different combinations of skills is of even greater benefit!

[RedRagToAnOrc]

It's much better to approach hero skills with an open mind, that's for sure. Most common one I saw did regard the DK, especially if a DH came on the harass. Of course, the brilliant move against this, on the elf's part, is to not pick mana burn - when the DK picks his aura, you pick immolation. Of course, neither player could pick a skill - I haven't actually seen this, however. (I thought it happened on one occasion, but the UD actually picked coil straight away! That is the other situation you have to watch out for.) Much more likely to work against a good player, in the world of bluff and double-bluff (which in itself is more likely to benefit the elf, whose goal is to contain whilst going for a quick tech).

As for later skill choices, mixing it up is definitely beneficial. Playing Orc v Hu, later on the wolves can become rather useless (if expansions are towered, in particular, and when playing a skilled player who won't let your wolves hit away at the army forever!), which obviously favours choosing far sight and chain lightning. Definitely situational - what people don't realise is the amount of situations where switching it up is favourable. If there's a merchant, of course, choosing different combinations of skills is of even greater benefit!

The only heroes I know with which this happens are the following;

DK (Coil/Aura/Coil/Pact)
Lich sometimes (Nova/Ritual/Nova/Frost)
Archmage (Water Elementals/Aura to fast expand, retrain to Blizzard)
MK sometimes (Bolt/Bash/Bolt/Clap)

It certainly isn't done enough, but in most situations it's too risky to try it. It mainly happens when there's an effect you want, eg. Slow/Stun, which is constant at all levels, and you don't really care about the damage or other effect. MK's slow (using Clap) is 50% at all Levels but is very useful, hence taking it at 4. DK is different, because Pact is more beneficial at higher levels, but normally Level 1 Pact keeps him alive pretty easily.

[GenocideAlive]

RR said it; Clap is generally a crappy skill to rely upon all game until it's useful in terms of dmg at L3 and by then you've got a lot of the speeders around (dryads, Frenzy ghouls, etc.) anyway. However, it's nice to slow down a front line to give your units a momentary edge in positioning.

In this case, however, to answer Proz's question, I pick Bolt/Bash exclusively because that extra 10% stun chance. 2-3 whacks on the DK and odds are that Bash will Proc and buy me more time for another Bolt upside that frilly hairdo. Clap is extremely expensive for the MK and I already spend plenty of time and money on keeping his mana around. Admittedly, a Clap's slow effect may come in handy if I want to deal some quick damage, but odds are I'm going to need another 75 mana to Bolt for a finish. Might as well save it, work on my positioning and micro, and hope for the proc.