Int Heroes are too powerful.

My friends and I played a few games of this and we have been playing Dota for 3-4 years each and noticed one thing immediately about this game was that there's too much early game effectively. Int heroes rule the game for too long so that it is very hard, or near impossible for teams not formed of the best nukers to win. I know that by design AoS maps favor int early, agi late, and str heroes generally mid-late, however, the game never gets there since the nukes, lacking any mana cost, become overpowering for some heroes. The ability to spam aoes to keep the enemies off the creep wave seems a bit imbalanced. Perhaps increasing cooldowns across the board for a lot of the casters may seem harsh, but this is just what I encountered on a few playthroughs. A lot of persona combinations allow you to cast 2 Cone/Line Aoes in rapid succession to keep the enemy either permanently at no shields or tower sitting. I hate to use such vague descriptions, but I can't remember many of the hero combinations we used. It may be chalked up to a lack of knowledge of each hero, but we all got the impression that Int/Int combos were the way to go since the lack of a mana pool allows you to unload up to 6 nukes at level 6 with just 1 int/int combo, effectively (if chosen properly) ending any hero near instantly due to slow/blink effect type skills (gush/waveform) (charged bolt/telekinesis).

Anyway, I enjoy the game overall and understand it is a new AoS so there will definitely be balance issues, hope to see a lot of updates to this.

On a side note, I saw an announcement reporting there are several new items being put in, Ideally I think each item should be used in a recipe at least the mid level ones. The biggest complaint was the lack of high level items to get.

welcome to the site!

on the items: yeah we just put up a really simple item system with core items that people can grasp. the last thing we wanted was to bombard everyone with 60 new recipes! we're going to expand those for sure.

now getting to the meat of your argument; shield heroes (or really, INT heroes, casters) are very strong for the lane game. there's no doubt about that. it's clear that you do understand the game mechanics pretty well. I am also a dota player of many years, and dota seems like it behaves better with regard to INT heroes than perSonas does, at first. actually, the early game dominance is really the reason why a lot of the int heroes have really high cds (compared to dota).

there are two real key solutions here though:
- 1: the spell shield. 15% reduction to all spells (including shields) is a huge deal for only 2500 gold. it can work wonders. there will probably a better version of this soon too. not to mention, heros take 40% reduced dmg from magic on HP (not shield). that means stacking strength really counters magic heavily.
- 2: i'm not sure that shield heroes really carry their weight later on. sure, it's very hard to lane against them (esp if youre two melee heroes) but absolutely nothing is stopping you from going to jungle. in actuality, because the creeps level up (you have to clear them and then they level up when they respawn), you can techically get XP even faster. that being said, obviously it can get rough if they push really hard and have creeps knocking at your front door step. however, there's no doubt that late game strength and combat heroes can make really short work of heroes like ceraunomancer and banshee. basically, if you are going to lane, then like in dota, the INT heroes really do win out early on. later on though, they don't hold their weight nearly as well.

personally, i've never felt completely or utterly dominated by an int/int combo, but that doesnt mean it isnt imba. how do you guys feel about this?

Yeah, I was unaware of the reduction on HP like that. I'm sure that will make a large difference now, although the 15% stacks on the 40% with diminishing returns doesn't it? That is:
the damage taken is (Damage of Spell) * (1-Hero Resistance) * (1-Item Resistance)
instead of
(Damage of Spell) * (1-Hero Resistance - Item Resistance)

None of us tried the neutraling since we hadn't figured out which heroes were best at it (Like Lycanthrope or Chen in Dota). I'll definitely give it more plays to hash out the problems due to lack of knowledge and find out what may actually lie beneath. Great game so far, really polished as a first go on an AoS and a lot of fresh ideas.

Most heroes can jungle fairly effectively.

I would never pick two int heroes. I play to dominate games and not having a potential carry is crippling. You haven't seen what a good late-game hero with even one elite item is capable of.

In fact, if int heroes couldn't control lanes and be extremely effective early-game, they'd have no purpose at all.

Just play some more and see if you still feel that way.

Also, thank you for your feedback and kind words. ^_^

yes, the magic reduction stacks using diminishing returns.

Yes, but bengal and i played a game together, i chose water wizard (as always) and bengal chose the royal guard. First he spammed the hell out of str, and his water strike easily killed my int hero, theres nothing rigged about them, i think moon pointed out that in the beginning they are good but still, int heroes can easily be killed by str heroes, or anyone that knows how to deal damage, Banshee and Troll Headhunter are good combos against int heroes. You just eliminate their shield and they are goners, they have low HP, as do most int heroes.