Neutral Portals

Assets or Liabilities?

from Demigod Forums

When a Demigod match reaches its climax, with giants and catas dominating the lanes, a single portal can change the course of the game.

However, that stage of the game is fairly short compared to everything working up to it.  During most of the game, are neutral portals an asset or a liability?  Is the advantage gained from creeps pouring from the portal greater than the advantage the enemy gains from an extra portal's worth of gold and experience?

On one side you obviously have the additional creeps on your side.  This means extra damage and meat shields.  You also get an XP boost from capturing the flag, in addition to a teleport node, extra LoS, and more War Rank.

On the other side, your enemy now has another place to farm creeps.  There are ultimately more allied creeps than enemy creeps making it theoretically possible for the enemy to level faster than you.  Even if they stick to one lane, each neutral portal you capture gives them one more place to run to and farm without you harassing them.

Is controlling a neutral portal ever a bad idea?  If so, when?  When does it become a good idea?  What kind of actions are appropriate when the enemy captures a neutral portal?

1,512 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

War rank, nuff said. This is why even though the artifact flag on Leviathan is mostly useless because you don't gain anything but war rank from it, but that war rank is enough to get currency sooner, to get catas sooner, ect.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

The artifact flag is different.  While there is no direct benafit to capturing it, it doesn't actually hurt you either.  Creeps in the early game serve no real purpose other than to level up the other team.  By increasing the amount of creeps on the field, you are increasing the rate by which the enemy Demigods can level up.

I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, but the example of the artifact flag doesn't take the negative factors into account.

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Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

yea the extra creeps before even priests help the other team but again if you are and the team upgrading the citadel then war rank is more important.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

I'm really not very good yet, but can you really move fast enough to consume all the creeps from every lane? Isn't this just a theoretical question, unless fortress and tower kills count for your side's exp.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

You get XP when a creep within a range of you dies (15 is normal ranged attack range).  It doesn't matter who gets the kill.

 

While a single person cannot get all the lanes, multiple players can.

 

(Note that you get gold from creeps that you did at least 25% damage to).

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Unless there is another Demigod on the second lane clearing out enemy creeps or your creeps are upgraded much higher than the opponent's creeps, it isn't very hard to one-shot a wave and run to the next lane before the creeps are killed.  One some maps like The Brothers this is impossible, but on other maps (off the top of my head I would say Leviathan is easiest) there are neutral portals very close to the main creep lanes.

Additionally, I'm fairly sure that XP is granted to every Demigod in a 30 yd radius of the creep's position on death.  Gold requires you to have done at least 25% damage to the creep, but XP just requires you to be in the general area.

How big is 30 yds?

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2503/screenshot141.jpg

You can pretty much stand in one spot (on that map) and get XP from both creep waves.

EDIT:  Eh?  15 you say?  Pretty sure I read 30.  Test time.

EDIT 2:  I was getting XP from grunts 30 yds away.  It is definately 30 yds.