Personally, I've been playing a mine throwing/AF regulus more lately. At level 2, I put a point into the first range upgrade and never touch it again. At level 9, I stick a point into snipe. Eventually I take snipe up to 3rd or 4th tier, but Generally I max out attributes instead.
But lately I've been wondering if it wouldn't be better to simply forgo Snipe altogether for range upgrades.
-Snipe-
Snipe as an ability has two uses, imho. First, and most often, as a finishing move. Either you are cherry picking someone else's DG (either before they can do it, or else if they can't do it/in retreat), or you are kissing your own Target a fond farewell. This is very effective when enemy DG's use a scroll to port out - as some have noted, as long as you start the Snipe with the target in range, the shot will track and hit the target, no matter where they port to. Think of it as a blue turtle shell in Mario Kart.
Second, Snipe can be used as an opening, generally for another DG - the opponent may feel confident that they can withstand an opening salvo, but not consider the possibility of a Snipe from outside of visual range landing right before a combo. At the least, it may persuade a DG to retreat, rather than chase one of your wounded allies.
-Range Upgrade-
The first upgrade is pretty obvious in it's benefit - for one, you can stand further away, but this is most noticeable when attacking Orb and Archer towers (allowing you to hit from out of counter attack range).
But range has another benefit as well; It extends the time that Regulus can DoT a given DG. By having a larger range, you can fire on enemy DG's sooner, and continue to do so longer as they flee. Although I'm not totally sure of how the numbers presented in the game work, if we make some basic assumptions, I think the point can be illustrated.
You have a move of 6.0 (assumed to mean 6 units per sec), range of 15 (assumped to reference the same units as movement), with damage of 150 (keep in mind, these are numbers used purely for hypothetical purposes), and Attack speed of 1.0 (assumed to mean 1 sec in between each attack)
Enemy has a move of 6.0, range of Melee (3?)
From the moment the enemy enters your range, you begin firing. It takes the enemy 2 seconds to enter melee range and engage you - you have fired twice for 300 damage. As he melees, you are firing. All things being equal (HP, Armor, MP), he will begin his retreat before you need to. You will get another 2 shots for 300 dmg in without being countered.
At this point, giving chase is really tempting to try to finish the kill... but folly. Once the enemy is out of range, as long as they move in a straight line, they will always be out of range - because the two of you are moving the same distance in the same amount of time. It's only if the enemy DG makes a turn, or for some reason stops momentarily, will you be able to get off another shot.
However, if your Range were 17, you could almost get off an extra 2 shots (another 300 dmg) - one coming in, one going out. It's also that much easier to catch the DG if you give chase. If your range were 19, those extra 2 are guaranteed.
So in many ways, Snipe and Range boost seem about even...
+Snipe vs. Range - Early game+
Early game is where Snipe tends to outshine range boosts. The reason is simple - enemy DG (in my experience) tend to Walk-In, Port-Out (as opposed to Walk-Out). The 'Hit Anywhere' finishing ability of Snipe is much more useful (as well as the lump dmg for the lower HP values) than Range... because you only get the Walk-In dmg bonus. In reality, all this does is simply make the DG Port-Out sooner.
+Snipe vs. Range - Mid Game+
Range starts to show it's value (I think... need to do some testing, so consider this theorycrafting). The reason is again simple - the value of range depends entirely on another factor: DPS. The more you can reduce your attack speed and the higher you cam pump your per shot dmg, the greater the advantage afforded by being able to fire sooner and longer is. By midgame, you'll have more gold (granting access to these items, as well as some -movement speed on target) as well as more points in AF.
+Snipe vs. Range - Late Game+
Here is where I think Range completely outshines Snipe. Unless you have concentrated snipes from multiple Regulii, it just doesn't do enough dmg. Additionally, game dynamics change - everyone has access to better items, and movement tends to be Port-In, Walk-Out (as Regulus, you can also force this behavior - remember, there is a long cooldown on scrolls, but you can burst grenades, mark, grenades, af shots to bring a DG into retreat-HP before the recast is up)
When enemies Walk-Out, Snipe doesn't travel as far, and doesn't gain as much bonus dmg.
However, at this time, it's possible to get Regulus' dmg in the 480-540 range, wither ~0.50 attack speed. Even an extra second of shooting is about 1000 damage extra (not to mention on-hit effects). In most cases, that's sufficient to kill a fleeing DG (even if they are trying to Port-Out). Thats at least comparable to the damage Snipe can do, but that bonus is always "on". Moreover, it's easier to attack towers and even forts from saftey.
-Conclusion-
I'll be testing this a bit, but it seems to me that (depending on your play style and tactics), it might be better to invest in range boosts and maiming (slower target = more time to shoot from safety). It's interesting to note that only 3 DG naturally Ranged Attack (R, TB, QoT [only general]). Of these, afaik, Regulus is the only one who can increase his range...
TL;DR? - ROOK SMASH!
One put into scope to outrange towers, one point into tracking device so you can snipe fleeing demigods, rest into mines(priority) motb(2nd priority), snipe (3rd priority). Reason being, snipe grants some awesome damage from mid to max range, mines do an incredible amount of damage and provide a way to protect your backside if you have to flee, and mob is just amazing with its aoe damage and incredible slow.
My tactic is usually to set 3 mines at my back if I have to run, then when a demigod approaches me I motb him, then throw mines in his path, this will make most players panic as it is 2150 damage burst, and then I will just throw in some autoattacks until they run, when they run finish them off with snipe. If the intiial burst doesn't cause them to flee, run backwards into your mines and laugh as they take another 1350 damage and finish them off with auto-attacks/snipe. Late game I will finish off sniper scope and put 1-2 points into AF and max maim. I rarely make it to this point though and usually just have mines/motb/snipe maxed.
Also want to add that I play with a sedna and an oak 100% of the time so I have lots of support.
I find maim to be superior to extra levels of scope. The first level of scope is imperitive as it allows you to fire on towers without fear of counterattack as you mentioned. Any more levels really dont seem to be very effective if you ask me. Id rather put points into attrobutes then more levels of scope. Increase in damage and attack speed (so you get more damage as you were trying to get with scope) plus HP, hp regen, mana, mana regen and armor.
About main, the first point gives 5%, the next up to 7% and the last up to 10%. Because the second and 3rd level together equal the reduction on movement you get from the first, I find it to be a waste of points whereas something else would be much better. So, just like scope I never invest more then one point into this ability. When you add in the fact that Regulus has a attack delay of 0 (which means he moves while shooting) as long as you are just as fast or faster then your oponent, they can not get away. You dont need huge bonuses
On topic, I dont really think the two can be compared. Dont get me wrong, you did as good a job as possible of doing it, but they serve very different purposes. Snipe is pretty straightforward and you have it down in your post. The only thing I can see the range increase really being useful for is to be outside of AOE damage while your attacking your enemy. Such as cloak of flames or circle of fire or UB's Ooze. Aside from that I find very little use to the range increase and for your purposes would rather have maim or attribute bonuses.
I've found abilities like snipe start out awesome, continue to be awesome (so long as you add points to them), then suddenly start to suck near the end game. Same goes for just about every other single-target damage ability. They stop improving at level 15, but heroes continue improving long after reaching level 20, so inevitably they're not going to scale well into the late game.
The key is to end the game before late-game. 480-540 damage per shot with 0.5 attack speed means a lot of artifacts. Throwing half that money into catapaults and giants will probably win you the game much faster.
The thing about Snipe is if it gets you a couple early kills, it's a big momentum boost for your team. It's harder to measure how all that extra gold and xp you have over the team translates to your later success in the game.
The way I play my Regulus, I don't rely on autoattack damage. Instead, I focus on bursting via active skills. Fully stacked mines, mark of the betrayer, an extra set of mines behind them after the first set have been set off, and a snipe when they turn tail to flee will likely kill the enemy demigod.
A max range Snipe I will do I think 510 or 540 damage. It forces the other team to play a lot more defensively (same with Unclean Beast dots) because if they get below a certain health point, that's an invitation to get sniped to death. The difference is, with the Unclean Beast, they only have to worry about it if they're fighting him, but with Regulus, they have to worry about it pretty much no matter where they are on the map.
Staff of Renewal (-20% cooldowns) also makes this work better.
I don't use Angelic Fury anymore. It makes you a more noticeable target and the mana drain is annoying.
Yeah, just as a follow up...
The testing didn't pan out. As i stated, it was theorycraft when I wrote it, and sadly, it will remain that way. There are a number of issues that prevent it from orking out as a superior strategy.
For one, the range increases simply aren't significant. As we all note, the first increase is significant because it allows you to outdistance towers (and this demonstrates why, on paper, range increases are superior).
However, all subsequent increases are, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. They simply aren't enough range. For example, forts can fire out to 20'. TB has a natural range of 15 and fireball with range of 20; rain of ice has a similar range iirc (especially if you 'fringe' the targetting circle). So with a max regulus range of 21, you are only barely outdistancing others; let us keep in mind that some dg's can put points in faster movement. And also erebus' batswarm has a range of 20 also I think? Or was it 30 at max?
Against other range attackers, the benefit of increased range is almost neglible. Because enemy dg range is almost identical to yours in all meaningful aspects, the 'duration' of the benefit is substantially less than that against a melee attacker.
In thinking about it, it would only seem to be effective against rook. Every other DG either has the same range as you (basically or exactly, if you fight a 'clone'), a movement speed skill/bonus, a means of soaking damage to allow them to close the distance safely, or some means of forcing a retreat (minions, towers).
Oh well =/ If the range increase were more substantial, I think this tactical consideration plays out more interestingly. But I think for this to be the case, the max range increase would have to result ina 30' range... which is quite large. As it stands though, I can't really advise range increases beyond the first, and even that one is somewhat questionable. Let others bust the towers.
Finally someone who gets it.
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