DOTA IDEAS A DOTA 2 INTERACTIVE FORUM

Ability Draft is quite fun, but it could be better. One of the main issues I have with it is that there is a good chance you get stuck with abilities that don't work well with each other. Other times you can get busted combos. And other times there are abilities on the bored that are useless without another ability. Here's what I think would maybe fix it and make the game mode more enjoyable and not a hit or miss.

A ban phase. Both teams get 10 seconds to vote on an ability to ban for each pick phase. The ability with the most votes on it gets banned. (So a max of 1 ability per phase.) If there is a tie, it will randomly choose one from among the most voted ones.

Abilities re-roll after everyone has picked 2 abilities. Once everyone has chosen 2 abilities from the first two pick phases, the next 2 pick phases swaps to a new set of abilities from a round of random heroes that have not been in the first round. The issue with the 3rd and 4rth pick rounds is that there are usually not really good abilities to choose from after the first 2. Having a new set of abilities to pick from would freshen up the game and make it so some people playing wont get screwed over with bad abilities. Especially the ones that pick last or the ones that pick in the middle.

Being able to pick your hero like Single Draft where you have the option of 3 random heroes from each type. (Strength, Agility, Intelligence.) The abilities in the ability pool would be from random heroes in the game and not the picked ones like it is currently.

Being able to swap abilities with an ally once per game. Can only swap before the horn sounds.

Scepter and Shard doing something for the heroes that didn't get abilities with a scepter or shard upgrade. Maybe make the shard give them 30 attack damage and 10% spell amp and the scepter give them +60 attack speed and 15% cd reduction. Or something like that. A buff that makes it worth it to pick up these items so they are not useless on players that didnt pick abilities with the upgrades.

Talent tree rework. Right now in Ability Draft, talent trees for abilities that are not picked are replaced with gold. I suggest that this gets changed. After the pick phase is over, if the abilities you chose have existing talent trees, they are added to your talent tree if it is an empty slot. If its not an empty slot, you may choose which talent you want in that spot from the existing ones you are able to put in there. Of course, you can only put the talent tree in the spot where it is originally on the hero. For example, you cant put a level 25 talent in a level 10 talent slot.

Game rewards you for making a balanced hero. To encourage people to not choose broken combos without getting rid of them completely would to reward them for choosing a under-powered or balanced build. Maybe with bonus starting gold or a bonus item. Some example of broken builds are: [Aftershock and any super low CD ability] [Spirit Bear, Teather, Rot, and Infest] [Timelock, Bash of the Deep, Greater Bash, Walrus Punch] [Arctic Burn, Shadow Relm, Impetus] [Rearm, Tombstone, Vacuum, Split Earth] etc. Have it so the game detects if these kind of broken combos are in the game and it wont give them the little bonus.

I think this change would honestly make the game mode more fun and enjoyable and less of a hit or miss.