Chapter 718: This Might as Well Be a Dress-Up Game! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

"Honestly, with two heads, I'm definitely a bit smarter!" Wang Han, sitting next to him, chuckled twice.

As her words fell, the Ogre Magi in the game also exchanged a classic dialogue. 'We're smart, right?' 'Of course!'

"But your hero's skill growth probably isn't high. I estimate your core skill is the third one, becoming a BUFF monster in the late game." Although he hadn't played DOTA-like games before, the previous new player tutorial and his experience with other games gave Zhang Yi some insights.

He didn't quite understand the Ogre Magi's ultimate ability yet. As for the first and second skills, they seemed merely adequate. However, the movement speed and attack speed bonuses from the third skill, when compared to items in the shop, essentially gave his core a few thousand Yuan worth of attack speed equipment for free.

This was clearly one of the reasons the Ogre Magi was defined as a support. As for being so robust early on, he could also help the Big Bro tank abilities.

Looking at his three skills and the skill point allocation prompt, Zhang Yi thought for a moment and chose the third skill, Dragon Blood. He felt that this hero should primarily focus on leveling the first and third skills. As for the second skill, its improvement wasn't very significant compared to the other two, so he could just put one point into it later as needed.

[The Warhorn Blaring Across the Field...]

With the announcer's voice prompt, soon a combination of three melee creeps and one ranged creep emerged from the barracks on the top, middle, and bottom lanes, advancing along their designated paths.

Following the creeps to the middle junction, Zhang Yi also saw the opposing AI heroes. It was Sven the Wanderer Swordsman and Windranger, but what truly caught Zhang Yi's attention wasn't their skills or attributes.

What truly interested him was the cosmetic items of these two heroes. "Holy cow, the AI has cosmetics too? The enemy heroes look so cool!"

Zhang Yi was completely stunned. The Wanderer Swordsman opposite him held a magnificent Shattered Greatsword, wore South Sea Heavy Cavalry Armor, a Warhawk Helmet, and had a Night's Watch Sigil Shield tied to his left wrist.

The other Windranger carried an Arcana named Wind-Chime Circlet, her orange-red hair paired with white stockings, and she even left small swirls of white wind on the ground as she walked, looking incredibly cool.

Originally, Zhang Yi thought his Dragonhold Davion already looked quite handsome. But he never expected the AI in this game to have all their cosmetic items maxed out.

Why do this? The answer was naturally simple: to stimulate player spending! Look at these cool particle effects and unique designs, don't they tempt you? Don't you feel that with these cosmetic items, even hitting people feels a bit more impactful?

For the various cosmetic items in the game, Chen Xu adopted a random matching mode. Of course, the matching pool basically consisted of better cosmetic items. Particle effect visuals and skill effects were definitely essential basics.

Similarly, the AI Couriers also came in different styles.

"But they really do look good, and each hero has different accessories, just like in World of Warcraft," Wang Han said from beside him.

Earlier, she had felt her Ogre Magi's Arcana was quite cute, but seeing the white-stockinged Windranger appear, she suddenly felt the Ogre Magi wasn't pretty at all.

Her perspective also switched to another lane for a look. The bottom lane had a combination of Crystal Maiden and Timbersaw. She didn't pay much attention to Timbersaw, but she noticed that the opposing Crystal Maiden also wore a full Arcana set, and she was followed by a very adorable little dog. It was utterly adorable.

"So, you can freely mix and match in this game? This might as well be a dress-up game!" Zhang Yi couldn't help but complain. He could already imagine that if this game became popular, there would surely be many players with mediocre skills but who owned a full collection of cosmetic items.

While sighing with emotion, Zhang Yi also controlled his Dragon Knight to last-hit.

The AI on easy difficulty provided a relatively good experience for players in terms of last-hitting; it would only last-hit its own creeps and not deny yours.

At the same time, it wouldn't frequently cast spells to harass enemies. Zhang Yi controlled his Dragon Knight to last-hit. As a melee hero, Dragon Knight's attack damage wasn't low, and Zhang Yi also had a foundation from his previous experience with Warcraft.

After all, Warcraft also had the concept of last-hitting. When using a Demon Hunter or Blademaster to pursue others, sometimes you had to pay attention to last-hitting monsters to secure the final blow, which would grant experience and bounty from neutral creeps.

Zhang Yi diligently last-hit, and also tried to deny creeps according to the previous tutorial. Although he missed quite a few, he still looked the part.

Wang Han's Ogre Magi stood next to Zhang Yi. When the enemy heroes came up, she immediately took her hammer and went to strike them. Although this drew creep aggro, Wang Han didn't pay much attention.

Although the previous new player tutorial mentioned the issue of creep aggro mechanics, for many new players, this was the most easily overlooked point. Also, one of the characteristics of the Blue Ogre hero was its thick skin and high HP.

In addition, regarding Chen Xu's design in the game, he chose not to include the Stout Shield from his previous life in the current version. However, because Neutral Items were not yet implemented, Chen Xu retained the Ring of Aquila.

This item was a versatile transitional piece of equipment. Although it was removed in his previous life, it was brought back as a Neutral Item. There was also the Falcon Blade, suitable for all attribute heroes, to replace the Aquila's position.

So, this also meant that all melee heroes in the current version inherently had damage block. As a representative figure who "rolled out of" the Intelligence class, the Blue Ogre's unreasonable 7 starting armor and 5.5 base health regeneration could only be described as domineering.

After Wang Han used a Tango to consume a tree, she had 10 HP regeneration per second, so even if she drew aggro, it felt negligible.

It was the same for Zhang Yi. With Dragon Blood leveled in the early game, and the skill's buffs, he was even tankier than the Blue Ogre. Consuming a tree and tanking a wave of creeps, combined with the easy AI not auto-attacking and casting spells like real players, gave both Zhang Yi and Wang Han a feeling of invincibility!

Their health barely dropped at all. But clearly, other players' heroes weren't as fortunate as theirs.

Just reaching level 4, seeing that the opposing heroes' health was somewhat low, Zhang Yi prepared to call Wang Han to cast spells and initiate.

Just then, a "FIRST BLOOD" announcement echoed across the entire map.

Zhang Yi was taken aback. He looked closely and saw Mirana and Terrorblade, the two "brothers" in the bottom lane, pushing a wave of creeps and clashing with the opposing Timbersaw and Crystal Maiden.

However, their focus target wasn't Crystal Maiden, but Timbersaw, who was standing in front. Moreover, Timbersaw's passive stacks were already full.

Although the easy difficulty AI, during the early laning phase, would almost never cast spells to proactively harass unless they were in critical health, these two "brothers" were clearly a bit unlucky. They encountered one of the tankiest early-game heroes, the fully stacked Timbersaw.

Having drawn creep aggro, as they fought, Terrorblade and Mirana soon realized that their own health was dropping much faster than Timbersaw's.

With critical health, Timbersaw used Whirling Death, assisted by Crystal Maiden behind him who cast Frostbite, and then an auto-attack instantly took down Terrorblade, leaving only Mirana to escape with two consecutive jumps.

Zhang Yi was about to offer some encouragement. After all, getting First Blood taken by an easy AI was indeed a bit embarrassing.

"This Timbersaw is really strong! But it's not a big problem, I'm a late-game core. Once I get Butterfly, Daedalus, Eye of Skadi, Manta Style, and Black King Bar, I'll crush this Timbersaw!" Contrary to Zhang Yi's thoughts, the Terrorblade in front of him clearly had a very good mindset.

Although he didn't know what these items actually did, the recommended items told him that these were what his hero could build, and picking the expensive ones was surely correct.

"...Keep it up," Zhang Yi said, pointing at Terrorblade. He looked at Terrorblade, who had bought Boots of Speed and only had 10 gold left, feeling a bit speechless.

Because of his inexperience, he had missed quite a few creeps, but now he had 1100 gold. This Terrorblade had only 10 gold left after buying Boots of Speed, didn't that mean his net worth was less than half of Zhang Yi's?

Following the system's recommended item build and looking at the descriptions in the shop interface, Zhang Yi used the Courier to buy two Bracers.

Zhang Yi found this item system quite convenient. It was divided into four modules: Starting Items, Laning Items, Mid-game Disassemble Items, and Final Items.

Each module also had detailed descriptions. For example, Black King Bar, Blink Dagger, Assault Cuirass, and so on, all clearly stated what these items were for.

Rookies who were just starting might not understand the specific effects. But the simple descriptions were very direct.

Attack items like Daedalus and Desolator. Attribute items like Eye of Skadi and Sange and Yasha. Defensive items like Assault Cuirass and Heart of Tarrasque. Special effect items like Black King Bar and Scythe of Vyse.

Coupled with the text descriptions, it was clear at a glance. Of course, even if one still didn't understand, it was fine; they could just follow the recommended items and build them one by one.

Although DOTA's biggest feature was item choice, in most cases, formulaic item builds actually didn't pose a big problem. (End of Chapter) <>