Holla. I’m still working out the details for the Tidebringer Rum auction. I’ve been in touch with Child’s Play, and now it’s just a matter of getting the auction listing ready. I’ll make another post when it’s up. In the mean time, don’t forget about the Tidebringer Rum prints. They’re going fast!

Oh, also, Dazzle prints have been ordered, but won’t be available for a couple weeks. And don’t forget to vote for the next print!

Bane has some of the best disable in the game. Fiend’s Grip will pretty much guarantee you a kill, so long as no one else is around to interrupt it. Nightmare is insanely powerful, but can be problematic if you have new players on your team that don’t understand how it works. Enfeeble lets you nerf the crap out of the enemy carry, effectively taking him out of the fight for 20 seconds. It’s hard to believe they put these skills all on one hero.

In HoN, there’s a 3v3 map that I played from time to time with friends. Bane (Succubus in HoN) was always in the mix because of his excellent disable. At level six, you could sleep one enemy, grip another, and let your teammates focus down the only one that was left. It was almost unfair.

What do you think is the best disable in the game? Fiend’s Grip? Ravage? Black Hole? Let us know in the comments.

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UPDATE: Woo! Featured on Kotaku last night! Thanks to everyone for your kind comments and suggestions for what to do with the bottle. I think I’m going to try and auction the bottle off, giving the proceeds to Child’s Play. It seems like the right thing to do. I’ll have more details on that soon…

Also, I’ve got Tidebringer Rum posters in the works. Check ‘em out!

Here’s something that I’ve been working on for a couple months now, and it feels good to finally put it out into the world. May I present a long lost bottle of Admiral Kunkka’s 100 Proof Tidebringer Rum from his private reserve. Smooth, strong, and guaranteed to put fire in your belly.

I’ve made a weird hobby out of video game/real world crossovers. I don’t really know why I wanted to make Admiral Kunkka’s Tidebringer Rum so badly, but I was so in love with the idea that I worked on it pretty much non-stop on a weekend back in March. The design progressed really quickly, starting out as just a quick mock up of the idea and growing into a near-finished state (at least as far as concept is concerned) in about 24 hours.

With the basic elements finished, it was time to go back and produce a high resolution version. For the illustration, I tried to recreate the feeling of an old woodblock or lithograph print. This was probably the hardest part of the whole process, as my figure drawing skills are kind of meh and trying to reproduce that antique etching style was difficult. I also spent an outrageous amount of time hand drawing all the text on the bottle in a rough and loose style to simulate the irregularities of primitive printing methods. It’s hard to see in the finished version because it’s so small, but I think you’d notice if it wasn’t there.

I printed the design out using my boring old laser printer, creasing it and carefully scraping away the toner with sand paper or a finger nail. Then I distressed it using the time honoured tea-bag method several times with varying intensity. It was tough to strike a balance between distress and legibility, and I actually went through a couple of botched labels before I finished one that I liked. At this point, the label looked great, but the bottle itself was far too clean and perfect looking. I ground up some grey artist’s chalk and applied it to the top faces of the bottle using a makeup brush to simulate the dust that would collect after years of sitting on a shelf in storage.

I’ve recently discovered that custom rubber stamps are both relatively cheap to manufacture and excellent at adding an extra level of “authenticity”, so the early designs featured a stamp of approval. But, I really wanted to take this concept to the next level, and a simple 2D rubber stamp wasn’t going to cut it. After doing a bunch of research, I decided to order a custom wax seal stamper and some bottling wax to give it that old fashioned feel. The wax was a real pain to work with and clean up, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

To capture that nautical vibe in the pictures, I picked up twelve feet of 1 inch manilla rope from a nearby sailing supply store and headed down to the lakeshore on a cold April night. Turns out that all the docks were either cement or metal, but I found an old, weathered picnic table that would do just as well. You can see my setup here, including the small flashlight I use to help my camera autofocus in the dark.

And that’s it. I don’t know what to do with the bottle itself, right now it’s on display on my bookshelf, but I’m open to suggestions. Sound off in the comments with your ideas.

Edit: A bunch of people have asked if they can purchase this bottle, or a bottle like it. I don’t have any plans to make more, but I’m looking in to auctioning off the original and donating the proceeds to Child’s Play. Seems like a win/win situation.

For those interested, I’ve also drafted up an 18×24 print version that’s available for pre-order over at the store.

Here’s a few more pictures from the shoot:

And here are some wallpaper sized pictures for y’all:

My apologies for disappearing off the face of the Earth. I’ve been busy with some other stuff… some of it Dota related. I’ll let you know about that tomorrow. But, in the meantime…

If you’ve poked around the site at all, you probably know that I’m a photographer as well as a designer. For the past few years, I’ve been setting up a photo booth at local comic conventions and taking pictures of Cosplayers. Convention season started a couple weeks ago with Wizard World Comic Con Toronto, and I was busy getting ready for (and wrapping up from). We took some cool pictures. Check them out, if that’s your thing.

Finally, there’s a new batch of heroes up for voting at adamcbeamish.com/vote. So, you know… go vote.

Today we’ve got Storm Spirit and it’s dedicated to my brother in arms dator, who discovered the joys of puddin’ poppin’ only recently. He was also the only remaining Radiant intelligence hero in the current pool, so it felt like somewhat of an accomplishment to finish.

The original Storm Spirit came out roughly when I stopped playing the original Dota. And he was completely different. Literally none of his skills are the same (Overload still has the same name and a similar function, but is now triggered by casting spells as opposed to every X attacks). Anyway, he basically had a mana draining steroid skill that would give him crazy IAS, as well as a shield that would absorb magic damage. His ult was kind of similar to the current incarnation; it was a blink that would also pull nearby heroes with you.

I know heroes often get reworked from time to time, but Storm’s rework was pretty dramatic, especially considering he was already a fairly new hero.

What hero do you think needs an overhaul the most? Or maybe you prefer an older incarnation of a current hero? Let me know in the comments.

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Yeesh. I can’t believe that it’s been two and a half months since the last batch of prints went on sale. I’m going to try to get prints going on a more regular basis, but we’ll see how that pans out. This is the second batch of prints that were done by Kid Icaurus, and once again they turned out perfectly. I had a bit of difficulty capturing the colours of these prints; the reds are much more vibrant than they look here.

Also, while I was working on Lycan yesterday, I noticed the sweet wolf sigil he wears on his shoulder. Since I’m a huge Game of Thrones/ASoIaF fan, I was put in mind of the words of House Stark: Winter is Coming. I riffed on these wallpapers, and after a bit of messing around, this is what I came up with:

I also whipped up a quick little wallpaper with a sigil and motto for a fictional House Davion as well; the similarities between Dragon Knight and the Targaryens was too much to pass up.

Maybe mixing fantasy IPs isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought I’d share them anyway. Enjoy!

Hot damn. DK prints are done. Check em out here. I’ve got a lot of stuff in the pipes, but it’s just going to have to wait. In the meantime, go vote for the next hero to be printed: http://adamcbeamish.com/vote

Those of you that have played with me are probably aware that I don’t normally play carries. This is partly because they don’t fit my personal playstyle, which tends to be mostly cautious, but also because (in pubs at least) carries are overrepresented, so I feel that I’m helping the team more by playing support.

All that changed a couple weeks ago.

You can call me a noob, or scrub or whatever, but I really like playing Lycan. I can’t exactly pin down why, but I think it’s because he’s a jungler. I’ve always liked jungling heroes. Jungling is like a little game unto itself, where you’re stacking and pulling and trying for optimal efficiency. I suppose laning is a bit like that too, but when you (sort of) remove the threat of the enemy team, it becomes much more pure. I also really love the wolves. I love everything about them. They add a bit of micro to an otherwise straightforward right-click hero, and it’s so satisfying to use them to scout, harass, chase, or cover my retreat.

It probably doesn’t hurt that he has some of the best voicework in the game.

Anyway, I said it. I’m having a love affair with Lycan, and I don’t care who knows. What about you? What hero do you just have to play? Is there someone you pick in a disproportionate number of your games?

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Round 3 of voting is going on over at adamcbeamish.com/vote. Looks like Ancient Apparition has taken the lead, with Venomancer bringing up second place. Head on over and make your opinions known.

Shadow Demon. Most annoying harasser in the game? Yeah, I think so.

I had stopped playing Dota before he came out, so his introduction a few weeks back was the first time I had played against him. It took a while, but I’m getting pretty good at anticipating/juking his Shadow Poison, and if I’m going to be up against him, I make sure to get magic stick/wand ASAP.

But, damn, son. The range on that move is in-sane. Even if I’m not getting hit by it, I’m still forced to stay pretty far back from the wave. He’s the M249 of the Dota world, punishing you for poking your head out, even if you’re not getting hit.

I said a while back that I thought Viper was the best harasser in game, but I have since change my mind. What do you think? Is Shadow Poison a better harassing tool then an orb?

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No surprises, I suppose, but Dazzle has won the second round of voting. And people really don’t like Beastmaster. Duly noted.

I’ve put up the heroes for Round 3 over at adamcbeamish.com/vote, so head over and make your voice heard!

No promises, but I’m going to do my darndest to put up 5 Defenders this week, just like the good old days. Oh, and Dragon Knight prints should be ready Friday.

I think Shadow Fiend was the hero I most  wanted to do when started this project. But at the time, I wasn’t sure I could do him justice. At any rate, I think I’m glad I waited. Nevermore was one of my favourite heroes back in my old Dota days. Shadowraze is awesome; hitting a hero perfectly with all three shadowrazes just feels so good, on par with the perfect arrow or hook imo. Combine that with a great teamfight ult, and I don’t see what’s not to like about this hero.

All that said, I think I’ve only played him once or twice since I started playing Dota 2. He feels a lot less powerful than he used to, and I’m not sure if it’s just because the meta has changed, but I don’t see him being picked nearly as often as he used to be.

So, are there any heroes that don’t interest you the way they did in Dota? Maybe it’s because the new model turns you off, or because Valve hasn’t properly captured the feel of the hero. Let me know in the comments.

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If you haven’t already, you can still vote for the next defender print for a few more days.  I’ll announce the winner on Friday. Go go go!

PS: I feel sorry for Beastmaster.  No one loves him.

One of the best things about Dota is the breadth of the game. Most games have only a handful of characters, classes, or heroes that you can choose from.  BF3 has 4. TF2 has 9. Dota has 108 now. The amount of variety within the heroes is really quite robust, and this applies to skill levels as well.

When someone is just starting out and asks me which hero they should be, I usually recommend a hero with only a few simple, active abilities, usually including a stun. Someone like Vengeful Spirit, or maybe even Sven.

Invoker is the polar opposite of that.

With ten abilities, he’s hands down the most complicated, and arguably the most powerful, hero in the game. In the hands of a truly skillful player, he is almost too powerful. I am not a “truly skillful player”, so I stay away from Invoker.  But I’ve learned to both respect and fear him when he gets picked.

Do you think Invoker is the hardest hero to play in Dota?  If not, who do you think has the highest skill cap?

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Don’t forget to vote for the next hero to be printed at adamcbeamish.com/vote. Dazzle has a pretty healthy lead right now; will it stay that way until next week?

Boom.  Lion. Valve has done a great job with this model. I mean, they’ve done a great job with pretty much all the models, but I really like seeing the heroes personalities getting fleshed out through their redesigns. This new model much better personifies Lion the character. He’s seems way more evil now, and I mean, his original DOTA model had a shield. What’s up with that? I’m pretty sure Demon Witches don’t use shields…

Contrast that with someone like, I dunno, Crystal Maiden, who has basically stayed the same through the transition. They’ve expanded on her lore, and yeah she’s got more of an icy look now, but I feel she hasn’t really grown as a character all that much.

At any rate, for me, one of the coolest things about Dota 2 is just how much more detailed the world has gotten. Hero lore has changed, and in some cases been woven together to create a much more interesting and exciting in-game universe. I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more of this type of thing before the game is released.

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Well that was fun!  Round 1 of voting has ended, and after more than 500 people had cast their ballots, Dragon Knight emerged victorious.  Everyone’s favourite wyrmhunter will be the next Defender to be printed, and should be available in early April. Be sure to cast your vote for Round 2 at www.adamcbeamish.com/vote

For those of you that are interested, the final number of votes broke down like this:

Dragon Knight – 178
Razor – 115
Bounty Hunter – 72
Tinker – 61
Leshrac – 47
Pugna – 38

So Dragon Knight gets printed.  Razor and Bounty Hunter make the cut, and are available again in Round 2 of voting.  Tinker, Leshrac, and Pugna have been taken out of the running, for now. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever print them, but they’re just low on the priority list.

To fill out the roster, I’ve added Alchemist, Beastmaster, Dazzle, and Queen of Pain to Round 2 of voting, which will run for the next two weeks.  Head on over to http://www.adamcbeamish.com/vote and let me know who you want to see printed next.

Here’s Chen, as requested by EnduringAtlas more than a week ago… my bad!

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