There's nothing intrinsically bad about denying. It adds abort dimension of skill and makes the mid lane in particular that much more intense.

Don't see what's wrong with creep pulling either. It's a tactic that adds a new dynamic to a lane and opens up the potential for dynamic responses. It's also been nerfed for about a year, since Valve put easy creeps in the pull camp.

As far as casting spells in the laning phase, there's many heroes who can. Shadow Fiend and Bat rider both can stack small spells for potentially debatable effects of left unattended. Lion and Kotl both have mechanisms to spam powerful nukes. Every hero is radically different, which is something I love about Dota. And likewise, every stage of the game is different. It's also why most starting builds have a Clarity or two in them, so you can nearly regularly cast spells but when the opportunity arises.

As far as your Bounty Hunter example, that's just one strategic option, he can (and often should) duo lane fine and even mid to an extent. A lot of heroes take solo offlane for leveling purposes but good players will take opportunities to CS and even harass when they can. Likewise, any good support is going to plant sentries and zone him out. The permutations of and responses to Dota strategies is what makes the game.

Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post

Second, while the competitive players aren't sure how the game is going to turn out long-run, they have agreed that this game has the greatest come-from-behind potential of any other major MOBA.
That would be awesome. It's something Dota needs more of and Valve has continuously tried to patch for.