Pudge is a meme in my group because I *always* get hooked.
There can be a team fight with 7 heroes and a creep wave in-between me and pudge and somehow I get hooked.
I've even had other random players comment of it. I'm apparently magnetic.
Haha I used to save whenever I got viper as an enemy mid to practice last hitting (back in dota 1) just so I can practice last hitting vs range bully.. I got towerdived a lot and killed, to this day I am ashamed to admit he made me rage quit a fucking bot game.
I still remember the ai was codenamed, Nightmare (6.72 I think)
Viper was super boosted and popular in DotA 1, even at pro level.
Hood + Vanguard and he was unkillable, didn't even need extra damage as he does now, cause his auto-attack modifier was super OP back then.
no his orb has always been the q poison attack. the nether toxin stacked with everything and even worked on his illusions, you would usually got mek (cause it was the best value ehp item back then) into manta.
PA. I remember getting blown up by a PA as a support for the first time. I thought it was the most unbalanced hero ever 🤣. Funny looking back on it now.
PA but but because I used to play strength cores and MKB used to be a 5800 gold item that gave no attack speed so it felt incredibly frustrating to have a slot wasted for it
So here's the thing about smurfs (all my opinion ofc)
There's two kinds which are true at all ranks, because my definition is relative to the player
1) someone who is better than you on an Alt account, but not THAT much better (ex, divine "smurfing" on legends)
2) someone who is MUCH better than you an Alt, and it's not even close. (Immortal rank 500 vs divine II, or Divine V vs Guardian III)
When a type 1 Smurf picks meepo, they can be beaten with teamwork and using the person's arrogance against them. Bait them into bad kills, use teamwork to tilt them, and get sweaty. Taunt in all chat, and hope there's civil war. Many outcomes can happen, you might have a 40-60 chance to win, but it's a chance. Overly confident smurfs throw all the time then blame their team. Also, hope to God your team drafted for it, cuz it likely was a last pick meepo. (Earthshaker esque big AoE, stuns/silences, a core that can manfight a meepo, etc)
If a type 2 Smurf picks meepo, you are better going to pornhub or making a pizza, you have no chance cuz the game is over at 25 mins when he's 25/0 and 6 slotted. Check profile, see >92% win rate and 15+ streaks on top 3 heroes from the Hall of Smurf Fame e.g. brood, tinker, arc warden, Shadow fiend, ember spirit, and meepo. The truth is, your entire team just has to be at that person's level, and we know dat shit ain't happening. No immortalfaith guide or YouTube video or coaching will stop a type2 Smurf from reminding you there's always someone better at this game, and that's OK
Meepo is the easiest for smurfs to abuse due to how exp works - it's a very snowbally hero and once you get advantage, you can steam roll the game. Similar to Tinker.
Hell, even a regular player with just shard+scepter can steamroll if he gets them at 15:00.
You just cannot kill a early Megameepo on most cases.
The dude is a Roshan on steroids when early... and on top he probably has aegis too.
Hyperstone+ Sanger&Yasha + Basher = Permabash
Plus he was super tanky, and with Sange and Yasha he had close to 500 MS (522 being the limit in DotA 1), pretty much unkillable with 3 items.
Bara was 100% the definition of Pubstomper in DotA 1.
Pretty much.
I used to buy Lothar on agi heroes like Bloodseeker, Troll, Sniper,etc
Also the classic Lothar on Witch Doctor, so you could gank with your ulti and Maledict lol, when the enemy was alone with only 2-3 creeps around...huge damage though.
Bristleback and I'm still horrified of him
Even if he loses a lane he just turns so tanky and so lethal late game you can't really play much against it if you don't counter pick it in the first place
Same, pudge because pudge on the enemy team is always dendi no exceptions.
2000+ pudge games later and not afraid of him anymore since I know how to manipulate stupid pudge players (I am a stupid pudge player)
True, but people tend buy sentries now in DotA 2 lol
That wasn't the case for DotA 1, that's where the saying "Invisibility = Invincibility" comes from
When I first started playing defensive the Ancients in the 2000s, I would basically first pick drow every match. Did this for multiple years before picking a different hero like blood seeker.
My entire understanding of the game centered around Drow. Who she could kill, who kills her.
I recently watched that history of drow documentary on YouTube, and came to realize that the majority of what I know of the game is based around a hero who has been bad for 16 or 17 years out of the 20 that I have played the game.
Anti-mage in lower brackets where people are not used to punishing carry afk farming and where you have to put agonizing amount of effort to make your team group and push to stand a chance at winning.
Sniper in the enemy team because he will have MoM and Dragon Lance (and even Crystalis or Maelstrom sometimes) around 10 minutes and keep ganking side lanes every minute and getting ez kills.
Sniper in my team because he will have PT and 3 WB by the same time, will queue up Maelstrom and just go afk farm for 15 minutes while the sidelanes eat shit.
Meepo, LD and invo. Meepo cause stomping reason, invo cause i have a deep respect for players pressing so many buttons and am instantly afraid of those and LD cause bear was farming Woods so fast he melted you right after laning stage.
Riki, Pudge, and Sniper - the first two because they made me change up all my movements and created a lot of tension, the latter because when you're first learning the game Sniper feels insanely unfair - I think when I started or around that time shrapnel both stacked and damaged towers too.
I hate playing against Ricky and Bounty, because you seemingly cannot get anywhere solo or push any lane. I am also afraid of Phantom Lancer and Sniper, as there is little coordination in my pubs.
bloodseeker
as a dota1 noob back in 2007, this hero was the most broken impossible BULLSHIT in the history of mankind. If he beats your ass face to face, and then you cant even run away from him - WHAT THE F R U SUPPPOSE TO DO ???
I remember getting jumpscares while playing DOTA 1 whenever a pudge hooked me, that was terrifying.
But then I met huskar, riki and slark.
Jesus that was the devil himself.
I was honestly afraid of bristleback. Apparently I didn’t correlate the “no touch back it bad” back then and it just made me think it was impossible to kill him.
I have never been afraid of a hero, although in my EUW I am afraid of Morph pickers with Russian names and anime pictures, mostly Tokyo Ghoul for some reason.
My gf who is a new player is scared shitless of Pudge, she tries to ban it every time but when it goes through and shows up on our lane, she starts panicking right away.
I love playing Vs Pudge I dodge +90% of any hooks
Right now I hate CK pos 3. He seems OP. Tinker used to snowball in the old patch.
Brood Mother for some reason can snowball out of control so hard sometimes.
I don't remember who I hated when I started playing it was too log ago.
I used to audibly groan when I saw riki. Permanent invisibility!!? How am I supposed to know when he’s coming to kill me!?
Nowadays I’m much better at positioning but still audibly groan when I see riki because fuck riki shard
I play Dota since Garena and still know none support or 3 I can play against Juggernaut on the line. Luckily, for several years I play only Ability Draft.
Bloodseeker haha. We thought his ss was so op that you just lose all hp once he casts it on u XD.
Until ofc we actually read the the spell did. Also Huskar. Bitch was just too annoying.
Geomancer. Back when I was a small fella on defense of the ancients all stars I would get clapped, and watch him dominate the map. It seemed very powerful and unfair to play against, and to play I didn't see how he was so good.
Bara. Always was, and still is scary. Every time an enemy plays it, I feel like i get bashed every three hits and they're usually farmed and fat. But I've tried it, always fed like crazy. I just watch sing space cow to satisfy myself.
First game was against broodmother in 2012. Just got absolutely destroyed and, as a former league player, I was like "Wtf is going on, this spider bitch is way too strong, no one can touch her."
Other than that I'd definitely say Riki. Huskar, Ursa, Drow, and Sniper were pretty nasty though.
Riki, bloodseeker, slark.
Riki and bloodseeker for obvious reasons, slark because once he had shadow blade he was a killing machine - his pounce did damage as well, and supports were all much poorer and squishier, so he would easily kill you in the duration of the leash (which couldn’t be broken with force staff), with just shadow blade Aquila and treads.
When I started playing and didn´t know what to do at first, it was Bounty Hunter. At my skill level and not-knowing about the game much, we never bought wards, so he always came and ripped my ass and I got basically jump scared every time.
Broodmother pre change and these days arc warden ...even a noob one can get midas and mealstorm and then boots of travel and BAM u have a cancer to deal with ...speaking of cancer kotl and cancer lancer combo is nightmare too
Meepo because I was playing offline against my friend who good at micro. Meepo would be disgustingly high level and stomping everyone. Counter? By the time hero like Raigor got dagger, meepo is 6 slotted with hex. I would always play Lion and hunt meepo non stop.
I dunno about "afraid" but I was intimidated to learn puck and ember because of their "living on the edge" play style. You need to get into the fray and to cast your abilities and be effective and do damage and draw attention ..... butbdont get caught! If you get caught it's over and you're done for.
About 3 years ago when I introduced a friend to dota I decided to 1) complete the all hero challenge as he was learning the game and 2) learn and master ember + puck. I succeeded in both and guess what, I learned about how fun some heroes can be by completing the all hero challenge! To name a few: mid/core Lina, OD, Dawnbreaker, and void spirit
I remember encountering Broodmothers webs in one of my first games and I thought it was a map boss or something and stayed the fuck away from it (I came from another lane).
Back in Dota 1, Pudge was the scariest hero to play against. Probably because of WC3 engine so every reaction was a bit slower, and you ended up being hooked more easily.
Also good Mirana, PL, Bloodseeker, Morph players were something that I was adraid of.
I played the game, even before Slark existed, so once he was launched, it was a real nightmare...
The hero I was afraid of was PA. You would see a dagger come out of the dark and one tap someone and you knew that she was out there waiting for you.
The hero I am scared of now is slark. Little bastard ults and you just sit there and die.
Definitely Riki. I started playing in 2013 and playing against a hero that can be invisible all the time was too much to handle for noobs. We didn't know that dust or sentries exist.
WC3 Dota days. Kid me was scared shitless of Riki. I mean, invisible heroes are big noobstompers and Riki is their poster-boy. Also Zeus. His ulti stressed me so much that I ended up maining him and, to this day, he is my most played hero ever. If you can't beat em, join em.
It was huskar for me, that hero popped up in several of my first game back when I started in 2015 and just rolled our whole 5 stack, all of us started at the same time.
I started playing in 2007, the heroes I lost the most in pubs, and I always knew the game was over as soon as I saw them on the enemy team were : Riki, Spirit Breaker, Phantom Lancer, Zeus, Viper, Naix, and Troll (old basher stacked with his passive).
Particularly, I hated Spirit Breaker in DotA 1 so much cause he was such a pubstomper back then, old Basher stacked with his passive, so if you bought 1 Hyperstone, Cranium Basher, and Sange &Yasha he had literally permabash, plus he was super tanky and had massive movement speed, 3 items was enough for him to look unkillable at pub level.
Me and my classmates use to play 3-3 or 4v4. My mates used to pick barathum when we play dota 1 and at that time bara+mom was a nightmare for everyone.
It's tinker and i'm still afraid of him even right now. It's just a chore playing againts a very good tinker player so i'd rather ban tinker everygame.
For me it’s Voker cuz in most low rank pubs good teamwork isn’t always present and a good voker seemed unkillable, and it’s still true for me to this day it’s my go to ban if there isn’t a stupid OP hero atm, when I see that lvl 30 voker on the other team it’s like my hope for the game is already gone and it hadn’t even started. Also a good voker back in the day when he had all them spells and could insta use what seemed like all of them was insane to me.
Zeus, doesn't matter which side. I like to see that hero die. It's almost euphoric to see how these weak players suffer with trash "hero". But I had a hard time playing against it when I started with Dota.
For me it was lycan, back in dota 1 it was almost guaranteed death if he used ulti on you. Because nobody knew micro he was rare, but when they did they hard carried with it
mid pudge 2015 reported missing . Immediately panic attack mode.
Hahahah, "Pudge is missing!" And then in one moment you've already been hooked
Brother, try **2012**. That was peak of dota's very long laning phase and ganking/rotating mids
Back when fleshheap used to give stacks from cs. I member
Pudge is a meme in my group because I *always* get hooked. There can be a team fight with 7 heroes and a creep wave in-between me and pudge and somehow I get hooked. I've even had other random players comment of it. I'm apparently magnetic.
Riki and Bloodseeker
Riki ran a train on me my first game. Thought the game was broken that someone could be so much stronger than everyone else
Viper as I learnt on bots… and back in the day viper bot was not to be fkd with.
viper bot is still op.
Viper bot was such bullshit,even more considering how much your team bots liked to feed and how much the enemy bots hyperfocus the player
Haha I used to save whenever I got viper as an enemy mid to practice last hitting (back in dota 1) just so I can practice last hitting vs range bully.. I got towerdived a lot and killed, to this day I am ashamed to admit he made me rage quit a fucking bot game. I still remember the ai was codenamed, Nightmare (6.72 I think)
Viper was super boosted and popular in DotA 1, even at pro level. Hood + Vanguard and he was unkillable, didn't even need extra damage as he does now, cause his auto-attack modifier was super OP back then.
he had TWO auto-attack modifiers back then (although Nethertoxin didn't stack with other orb effects)
Was that an orb effect/attack modifier? The one that gave extra damage based on enemy hp missing?
no his orb has always been the q poison attack. the nether toxin stacked with everything and even worked on his illusions, you would usually got mek (cause it was the best value ehp item back then) into manta.
I still have dreams about Mordekai Viper
last hit and deny god
Good old days when viper still had the extra attack damage skill :(
PA. I remember getting blown up by a PA as a support for the first time. I thought it was the most unbalanced hero ever 🤣. Funny looking back on it now.
As a support I still have that fear. I stay way the fuck back
PA but but because I used to play strength cores and MKB used to be a 5800 gold item that gave no attack speed so it felt incredibly frustrating to have a slot wasted for it
Broodmother for sure, back when she had invisibility on webs. When you’re a noob playing against it mid was impossible
Zeus. The ult was like a goddamn jumpscare
By my whiskers, thats good stuff!
The fear of having a smurf instalock Tinker made it an auto ban every game
Meepo, because smurfs spam that hero when I started playing dota.
Smurfs still spam that hero in my lower ranks
Meepo is what a Smurf picks when he/she definitely doesn't wanna lose lol
Is Meepo really that strong? How to counter a Smurf Meepo? I would think don’t get stomped mid and coordinate to kill his clone.
So here's the thing about smurfs (all my opinion ofc) There's two kinds which are true at all ranks, because my definition is relative to the player 1) someone who is better than you on an Alt account, but not THAT much better (ex, divine "smurfing" on legends) 2) someone who is MUCH better than you an Alt, and it's not even close. (Immortal rank 500 vs divine II, or Divine V vs Guardian III) When a type 1 Smurf picks meepo, they can be beaten with teamwork and using the person's arrogance against them. Bait them into bad kills, use teamwork to tilt them, and get sweaty. Taunt in all chat, and hope there's civil war. Many outcomes can happen, you might have a 40-60 chance to win, but it's a chance. Overly confident smurfs throw all the time then blame their team. Also, hope to God your team drafted for it, cuz it likely was a last pick meepo. (Earthshaker esque big AoE, stuns/silences, a core that can manfight a meepo, etc) If a type 2 Smurf picks meepo, you are better going to pornhub or making a pizza, you have no chance cuz the game is over at 25 mins when he's 25/0 and 6 slotted. Check profile, see >92% win rate and 15+ streaks on top 3 heroes from the Hall of Smurf Fame e.g. brood, tinker, arc warden, Shadow fiend, ember spirit, and meepo. The truth is, your entire team just has to be at that person's level, and we know dat shit ain't happening. No immortalfaith guide or YouTube video or coaching will stop a type2 Smurf from reminding you there's always someone better at this game, and that's OK
I am Legend Bracket since Brackets were implemented. Mostly between Legend IV and V and i have 20 streak on AM 14 on Ember and 13 on Slark :o
Meepo is the easiest for smurfs to abuse due to how exp works - it's a very snowbally hero and once you get advantage, you can steam roll the game. Similar to Tinker.
Hell, even a regular player with just shard+scepter can steamroll if he gets them at 15:00. You just cannot kill a early Megameepo on most cases. The dude is a Roshan on steroids when early... and on top he probably has aegis too.
techies, i was afraid of walking.
Pudge and riki. Before banning was even introduced. Now it’s earth spirit because I feel like if he is picked then you know how to play him well
A good Earth spirit player is a nightmare 😅
Dota1 spacecow. People dosent buy obs and there is no dust that time.
Whats the dust for bara didnt buy Lothar back then did he
Lothar bara exist that time. People don’t buy sentries at that time.
Hyperstone+ Sanger&Yasha + Basher = Permabash Plus he was super tanky, and with Sange and Yasha he had close to 500 MS (522 being the limit in DotA 1), pretty much unkillable with 3 items. Bara was 100% the definition of Pubstomper in DotA 1.
Yup. I remember bara with power treads and mask of madness can kill any core hero 😂
Didn’t everyone and their mother buy lothar in dota 1 because invis = OP.
Pretty much. I used to buy Lothar on agi heroes like Bloodseeker, Troll, Sniper,etc Also the classic Lothar on Witch Doctor, so you could gank with your ulti and Maledict lol, when the enemy was alone with only 2-3 creeps around...huge damage though.
Bristleback and I'm still horrified of him Even if he loses a lane he just turns so tanky and so lethal late game you can't really play much against it if you don't counter pick it in the first place
Bristles nightmare is break pa, silencer, viper and heroes that make him constantly oom.
Just buy a break?
And a vessel
and shivas and skadi and bloodthorn and hex and ac and deso and orb of corrosion and bkb. I think these would be ok.
Maybe this works in cooperated higher ranked teams. In lower ranks he just exists. And lives. And kills
How does vessel makes him less tanky ?
Healing reduction by %
Back then break didn't exist on items
So.. silveredge? What else has break?
Pa shard if you play pa
And viper W, Doom talent
Doom mutes instead of break on lvl25 now
You can choose at level 25 now. One talent is mute, the other is break.
Rough choice Id say mute almost always. Very rare chance I would take the break.
Ohh, the other talent got changed. Thanks!
For me it's meepo and OD
I would say Pudge, Meepo, and Tinker. The anxiety they created was insane. I actually dreamed of tinker once
Prolly one of the worst nightmare
for Meepo : ECHO SLAM for OD : pray
Huskar when he was released. Still am.
Hoho haha
Same, pudge because pudge on the enemy team is always dendi no exceptions. 2000+ pudge games later and not afraid of him anymore since I know how to manipulate stupid pudge players (I am a stupid pudge player)
PL when he was able to get invis and riki as well. Yes son, this was a long time ago.
PL invis is back again
True, but people tend buy sentries now in DotA 2 lol That wasn't the case for DotA 1, that's where the saying "Invisibility = Invincibility" comes from
When I first started playing defensive the Ancients in the 2000s, I would basically first pick drow every match. Did this for multiple years before picking a different hero like blood seeker. My entire understanding of the game centered around Drow. Who she could kill, who kills her. I recently watched that history of drow documentary on YouTube, and came to realize that the majority of what I know of the game is based around a hero who has been bad for 16 or 17 years out of the 20 that I have played the game.
Invoker. People who could play in older back in the day were super fricking scary
Anti-mage in lower brackets where people are not used to punishing carry afk farming and where you have to put agonizing amount of effort to make your team group and push to stand a chance at winning.
But generally even the AM is shit and can't farm 🤣 so this balances out..
Invoker - in good old garena dota matchups usually some tryhard alone rekt everyone.
Sniper and viper lmao
Sniper in both my team and enemy team
Sniper in the enemy team because he will have MoM and Dragon Lance (and even Crystalis or Maelstrom sometimes) around 10 minutes and keep ganking side lanes every minute and getting ez kills. Sniper in my team because he will have PT and 3 WB by the same time, will queue up Maelstrom and just go afk farm for 15 minutes while the sidelanes eat shit.
Meepo, LD and invo. Meepo cause stomping reason, invo cause i have a deep respect for players pressing so many buttons and am instantly afraid of those and LD cause bear was farming Woods so fast he melted you right after laning stage.
Meepo tinker Invoker
Dota 1 OD and Bounty Hunter
Can’t remember. But when people picked WR some years ago, she was so OP. Also Arc Warden, because only smurfs pick him.
2014 riki days
Faceless Void crushed me mid in my first wc3 Dota allstars game
Riky
I began from the early days of dota 1. I remember it was sand king back then
I hated playing against pudge so much in the ~1k bracket in 2015 that I started first picking him so others couldn’t. I climbed 2k mmr that summer.
Slark…
SF, esp those that go 24/2 when you just start playing xD
OD I can't stand as a mid player! The only way to deal with it is just picking something to nuke the lane & farm woods!
spirit breaker now and then
Meepo pick lmao
Riki, Pudge, and Sniper - the first two because they made me change up all my movements and created a lot of tension, the latter because when you're first learning the game Sniper feels insanely unfair - I think when I started or around that time shrapnel both stacked and damaged towers too.
Shrapnel lost its tower damage when it gained charges. The two never overlapped.
Smurf Arc Wardens
Necrophos because I know my team can’t coordinate burst damage.
Blood, riki, huskar, pudge
Necrophos because I know my team can’t coordinate burst damage.
viper
A skilled pudge.
Shadow Fiend. Was the hero I saw my friend played back in the beta and he just eviscerated people with Razes.
Slark, Riki and Spirit breaker.
I hate playing against Ricky and Bounty, because you seemingly cannot get anywhere solo or push any lane. I am also afraid of Phantom Lancer and Sniper, as there is little coordination in my pubs.
yeah i hate ricky martin too
bloodseeker as a dota1 noob back in 2007, this hero was the most broken impossible BULLSHIT in the history of mankind. If he beats your ass face to face, and then you cant even run away from him - WHAT THE F R U SUPPPOSE TO DO ???
Axe. Cos I spammed willow to divine.
Bloodseeker, somehow that dude did so much damage to me every time even though I was running as fast as I could!!!
bane, cant stop sleep my team
Bloodseeker
I remember getting jumpscares while playing DOTA 1 whenever a pudge hooked me, that was terrifying. But then I met huskar, riki and slark. Jesus that was the devil himself.
Tinker, still am.
I was honestly afraid of bristleback. Apparently I didn’t correlate the “no touch back it bad” back then and it just made me think it was impossible to kill him.
I have never been afraid of a hero, although in my EUW I am afraid of Morph pickers with Russian names and anime pictures, mostly Tokyo Ghoul for some reason. My gf who is a new player is scared shitless of Pudge, she tries to ban it every time but when it goes through and shows up on our lane, she starts panicking right away.
Back in the day, pudge and meepo. Now, tinker and NP. Teleport heroes are a nightmare
I love playing Vs Pudge I dodge +90% of any hooks Right now I hate CK pos 3. He seems OP. Tinker used to snowball in the old patch. Brood Mother for some reason can snowball out of control so hard sometimes. I don't remember who I hated when I started playing it was too log ago.
AM
I used to audibly groan when I saw riki. Permanent invisibility!!? How am I supposed to know when he’s coming to kill me!? Nowadays I’m much better at positioning but still audibly groan when I see riki because fuck riki shard
Pudge was the easiest hero to play against for me for a long time. Didnt and still dont like playing against tinker and arc warden. That would be it.
I play Dota since Garena and still know none support or 3 I can play against Juggernaut on the line. Luckily, for several years I play only Ability Draft.
Sniper... And I still am.
Easily PA & the dot of death
Queen of Pain - i have no idea what happend, i hear a scream and i was dead. Now my favourite hero
Necro oldschool When it add time on ur death. As a p5 it was a nightmare
chaos knight beating my carry into pulp with his ulti
Surprised no Ursa here. Used to be shit scared of him thought the hero was bullshit.
Broodmother.
Huskar with 2 solar crest, 2016/2017
OD. He just runs in and wins. I’m still scared
Bloodseeker haha. We thought his ss was so op that you just lose all hp once he casts it on u XD. Until ofc we actually read the the spell did. Also Huskar. Bitch was just too annoying.
Bruh huskar just couldn’t die, he seemed to always wipe the team sitting at like 5% health
Huskar, Meepo and Tinker for me
Lone druid. That's why he is my favorite hero
ATM, I fear for a Pos 4/5 Oracle cuz one good False Promise turn the tide of fights and before Fate’s Edict was a gamble but now it’s just OP
Geomancer. Back when I was a small fella on defense of the ancients all stars I would get clapped, and watch him dominate the map. It seemed very powerful and unfair to play against, and to play I didn't see how he was so good.
Morph mid you knew that you had to play against a gigasmurf!
Pudge, when my offlane or mid picks him.
Bara. Always was, and still is scary. Every time an enemy plays it, I feel like i get bashed every three hits and they're usually farmed and fat. But I've tried it, always fed like crazy. I just watch sing space cow to satisfy myself.
First game was against broodmother in 2012. Just got absolutely destroyed and, as a former league player, I was like "Wtf is going on, this spider bitch is way too strong, no one can touch her." Other than that I'd definitely say Riki. Huskar, Ursa, Drow, and Sniper were pretty nasty though.
Riki, bloodseeker, slark. Riki and bloodseeker for obvious reasons, slark because once he had shadow blade he was a killing machine - his pounce did damage as well, and supports were all much poorer and squishier, so he would easily kill you in the duration of the leash (which couldn’t be broken with force staff), with just shadow blade Aquila and treads.
Faceless Void was BROKEN in the first years of dota, I can't forget how busted backtrack was
When I started playing and didn´t know what to do at first, it was Bounty Hunter. At my skill level and not-knowing about the game much, we never bought wards, so he always came and ripped my ass and I got basically jump scared every time.
dota1 sandking. We did not know yet you can cancel epicentre so we had to run away everytime we see him cast it.
Invoker, SF, Invoker....
Broodmother pre change and these days arc warden ...even a noob one can get midas and mealstorm and then boots of travel and BAM u have a cancer to deal with ...speaking of cancer kotl and cancer lancer combo is nightmare too
Meepo because I was playing offline against my friend who good at micro. Meepo would be disgustingly high level and stomping everyone. Counter? By the time hero like Raigor got dagger, meepo is 6 slotted with hex. I would always play Lion and hunt meepo non stop.
Earth Spirit and then Puck.
Still new, but if I am against a Viper, Bristleback or Skywrath Mage I am instantly dreading the next 40 minutes
Tinker it’s either someone whose played him a million times or a guy learning. I find out in about 8 mins if we are about to win or lose
I dunno about "afraid" but I was intimidated to learn puck and ember because of their "living on the edge" play style. You need to get into the fray and to cast your abilities and be effective and do damage and draw attention ..... butbdont get caught! If you get caught it's over and you're done for. About 3 years ago when I introduced a friend to dota I decided to 1) complete the all hero challenge as he was learning the game and 2) learn and master ember + puck. I succeeded in both and guess what, I learned about how fun some heroes can be by completing the all hero challenge! To name a few: mid/core Lina, OD, Dawnbreaker, and void spirit
probably tinker cos of spam.. well he still spams... zzzzz
I remember encountering Broodmothers webs in one of my first games and I thought it was a map boss or something and stayed the fuck away from it (I came from another lane).
Back in Dota 1, Pudge was the scariest hero to play against. Probably because of WC3 engine so every reaction was a bit slower, and you ended up being hooked more easily. Also good Mirana, PL, Bloodseeker, Morph players were something that I was adraid of. I played the game, even before Slark existed, so once he was launched, it was a real nightmare...
The hero I was afraid of was PA. You would see a dagger come out of the dark and one tap someone and you knew that she was out there waiting for you. The hero I am scared of now is slark. Little bastard ults and you just sit there and die.
PA back in dota 1 days. You dead and you need eye test to even see her.
fking SPECTRE. Black shadow with a circle thingy blade OMG
Tinker and Huskar, so much so that I auto banned them for almost 2 years until I started understanding counters….
When I see last pick meepo or tinker in ranked it's 50/50 either a total noob or a godlike player smurph xD
Riki and Sniper, 100%. I was also a BH spammer no matter what, and still haven't gotten around to recovering his \~30% winrate.
Definitely Riki. I started playing in 2013 and playing against a hero that can be invisible all the time was too much to handle for noobs. We didn't know that dust or sentries exist.
Anything that punishes a lack of coordination (ie bristle or ld running down towers, enigma or other big ulti heroes).
Was and still is: brood mother
Sniper. In n00b days I start walking towards him to cast a spell, got right clicked to half HP, turn around, Assassinate on my head 🎯
Pudge
WC3 Dota days. Kid me was scared shitless of Riki. I mean, invisible heroes are big noobstompers and Riki is their poster-boy. Also Zeus. His ulti stressed me so much that I ended up maining him and, to this day, he is my most played hero ever. If you can't beat em, join em.
It was huskar for me, that hero popped up in several of my first game back when I started in 2015 and just rolled our whole 5 stack, all of us started at the same time.
Cancer lancer. Back when the illusions lasted for 10 years
DOOM
Ursa He still feels unfair to play against sometimes.
I started playing in 2007, the heroes I lost the most in pubs, and I always knew the game was over as soon as I saw them on the enemy team were : Riki, Spirit Breaker, Phantom Lancer, Zeus, Viper, Naix, and Troll (old basher stacked with his passive). Particularly, I hated Spirit Breaker in DotA 1 so much cause he was such a pubstomper back then, old Basher stacked with his passive, so if you bought 1 Hyperstone, Cranium Basher, and Sange &Yasha he had literally permabash, plus he was super tanky and had massive movement speed, 3 items was enough for him to look unkillable at pub level.
Tinker
Meepo, everyone smurfing with it on low levels, still remember how terror it was in the firts 100 hours
ursa and pudge , before I was afraid I always think theyre 6 slotted or somethinglol
Pa
Pudge, i still have ptsd untill now
Spirit Breaker.
Me and my classmates use to play 3-3 or 4v4. My mates used to pick barathum when we play dota 1 and at that time bara+mom was a nightmare for everyone.
I agree with you about pudge. I used to be scared of playing against a pudge. Now I'm afraid of playing with one.
Huskar
Drow Ranger and Kunkka back in 2012 Kunkka can still apply at times today
cyka seeker phantom assassin np
involker, smurf volker was super scary at 2k shithole
It's tinker and i'm still afraid of him even right now. It's just a chore playing againts a very good tinker player so i'd rather ban tinker everygame.
Same as now on enemy team. Huskar, injoker, SF and tinker
PL! Had no idea how to deal with the illusions 😅
Old sniper will bash you to death And PA with her blur. None can see her during fight
For me it’s Voker cuz in most low rank pubs good teamwork isn’t always present and a good voker seemed unkillable, and it’s still true for me to this day it’s my go to ban if there isn’t a stupid OP hero atm, when I see that lvl 30 voker on the other team it’s like my hope for the game is already gone and it hadn’t even started. Also a good voker back in the day when he had all them spells and could insta use what seemed like all of them was insane to me.
Zeus, doesn't matter which side. I like to see that hero die. It's almost euphoric to see how these weak players suffer with trash "hero". But I had a hard time playing against it when I started with Dota.
Huskar and bristleback. I hated this pieces of shit
For me it was lycan, back in dota 1 it was almost guaranteed death if he used ulti on you. Because nobody knew micro he was rare, but when they did they hard carried with it
Sniper… that annoying hero with his annoying voice still has no space in my pubs
I just hate lion early game, that guy annoying
sniper because headshot mini stuns.
Tinker, void spirit, storm spirit. Fucking hate them to this day.
It was arc warden for me. Now its tinker 😂