Dear DrmDestryr,
So what’s this I hear about all the Murky play?
-HREnugh
Dear HREnugh,
A mixture of obsession and defiance, I took it upon myself to learn Murky and, as of Sunday, learned him to Level 10. He is my first 10, and through that journey, I learned a lot of lessons, namely various ways to I can end my own life.
What did this stimpak induced grind teach me?
Build for Maps
Pufferfish is ideal for maps that rely on push power. Cursed Hollow and Dragonshire are the two main. Whereas in Blackheart’s or Sky Temple, grabbing coins or holding a temple is far more important to succeeding. Bribe is another map-specific choice. Perfect for Dragonshire. Not so nice in Haunted Mines.
Team Comp
Murky is incredibly reliant on a full team comp that can deal and take a lot of damage without falling apart. The best are four man teams that can hold their own and win against the full force of the enemy. This means I could take full responsibility for tower pushing. Otherwise, he needs to build damage/survivability to aid the team during brawls.
Nova
Nova is mostly played by people with serious anger issues.
Test the Enemy
Within the first few minutes of a game, I can very well predict just how adept the other team is. ProTip: If they don’t target the pufferfish, chances are you’ll be able to do massive siege damage.
Think Ahead
Because Puffer takes a few seconds to go off, a trick I had to learn involves shooting it out far enough away so that by the time the creeps/mercs walk into the area, the puffer explodes. Also, though they may not target it, most enemies know not to stand within its area of effect. This means you can lay it down either to block a passageway or divide their forces. If you get really good, pop your bubble and body block them so they can’t leave the explosion radius in time.
Team Fights
More than any other hero, I learned when to join team fights. Even though your main purpose is to cause tower damage, this is utterly pointless if your team can’t secure objectives without you. Taking down their top lane does nothing in Garden of Terror if they keep spawning a Terror. This mechanic is far too powerful to simply ignore in light of Murky’s more selfish tendencies. Now, once your team has secured a strong lead, you are more than free to keep the enemy team busy with your annoying antics.
-DrmDestryr
Dear DrmDestryr,
Sometimes I just don’t get it. I think I’m in the right spots all the time but I just fee lost.
-RainyDays
Dear RainyDays,
We all feel lost at some point in our gaming career. It’s a perfectly natural thing to feel. And while it lasts for different periods of time from person to person, the main problem is you’ve either never found or completely lost your purpose. You know how to play the game. You rank as a strong intermediate. Yet something is missing.
Like good writing, many problems dissipate when you go at the game with purpose. In order to live a fulfilled life, you need some semblance of drive. In order to play a great game, you need to think and act with resolve.
Indecisive things like deciding what lane to head to or taking too long picking a talent means lost seconds. Over the course of the game, it adds up to minutes you could have been helping increase XP or creating situations the enemy team needs to deal with, buying your team time to grab objectives. Even if you know where to go, not having some sort of idea of what you need to do once there can lead to lost mana or lost XP. In the beginning, for instance, do you use abilities to try and hit the enemy even though they’ll respawn super fast? If you do, you are down mana. However, not killing them means they can keep gather XP at the same rate you are.
Ultimately, the answer resides in separating relatively pointless fights from those that serve the ultimate goal of winning. Dying for the smiley face at the start of Blackheart’s Bay is hardly a noble sacrifice when you know darn well the chests will be popping up soon. Same with Cursed Hollow. Is that first tribute even worth it when, instead of dying, everyone on you team can ignore it to soak creep XP and begin injuring the towers?
Tied to this is the role your character plays on the team. Specialists are the merc grabbers and tower pushers, often going off on their own to cause mischief. Assassins are tank body guards. Tanks are the guardians of the people. Your ultimate reason to play is to give the enemy hell in the best way your hero is suited to do so.
-DrmDestryr
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