A month or 2 ago I learnt the importance of farming an item advantage instead of running round looking for kills. That 1 fact increased my winrate by a huge amount.
Yesterday I learnt that a 6k player really can go 27-0 at my MMR (2.8k) and that one of the reasons is because he knows how to dominate the laning phase. He does that by harassing the enemy hero at the appropriate times - not just by careful last hitting.
I picked up Lina today/yesterday and have been trying to dominate my laning phases, which a sick degree of success. I fucked up a Viper mid - something I would have told you was impossible just 2 days ago.
But after seeing this guy go 27-0 in my bracket, I no longer have any fear or reservations. I know it can be done and through this recognise more and more of my flaws.
My scores with Lina today so far (2-3 record) have been:
18-4 19-13 18-5 22-13 20-5
My advice to any scrub tier player such as myself: it can be done so stop moaning and go figure.
Happy laning.
PS if anyone fancies coaching me the laning phase a little go ahead and send me a message :D
Don't leave your lane for no reason, hit both the enemy mid and his creeps when last hitting with aoe nukes. For example, killing the ranged creep and damaging the other mid with dragon slave, thunder clap, razes, overload hits, poofs, whatever you have. With heroes like lina or brew, if the other mid is at less than 75% you have an instant kill. If they leave, stay and farm, it's worth it for the gold you get.
Edit: Also, learning how to use aggro tricks means you can get in a billion easy auto attacks with no retalition!
On February 15 2015 08:12 Rawr wrote: Don't leave your lane for no reason, hit both the enemy mid and his creeps when last hitting with aoe nukes. For example, killing the ranged creep and damaging the other mid with dragon slave, thunder clap, razes, overload hits, poofs, whatever you have. With heroes like lina or brew, if the other mid is at less than 75% you have an instant kill. If they leave, stay and farm, it's worth it for the gold you get.
Edit: Also, learning how to use aggro tricks means you can get in a billion easy auto attacks with no retalition!
This video seems to cover + pushing before rune + drawing aggro to farm closer + drawing aggro to contest projectile speed + tanking creeps to stop them going under your tower and making cs hard + pushing to his tower to harass and deny while he tries to cs under his tower
are there more tricks? specifically about when to go for rightclicks on opponent? for example, i'm guessing a good time to right click him is when he is trying to go for a cs. would you trade denies for rightclicks on him situationally?
Qop or am are great examples of some things you can do. Right click the opponent -> blink in and hit. It will take 2 seconds for the creeps to start hitting you.
Yup. DOTA2 is actually about all the little things. Learning each individual trick, however silly and gimmicky it may seem, is how you become a better player. And, because the game is inherently snowbally, all those little things add up fast. One extra attack on the enemy every 10 seconds means he has to go heal before you, which equals a minute of uncontested farm, which equals an additional 300-400 gold, which means a Bracer when he has nothing, which lets you kill him in lane and get 200 gold and 30 seconds of freefarm... it just goes on and on.
That said, I need to keep practicing these things. I've been slacking hard on 'em.
Laning is my favorite part of DotA. This sounds silly but I usually judge how good a player is based on how he performed in the laning stage. I mainly play offlane so the matchups I encounter are vastly different from what most people get in the midlane, and I really love it when I get to 1v1 the safelane hero since it really lets me get a feel of how our skill levels match up.
That said it can sometimes be a bit unfair because offlane heroes (Timbersaw, Centaur, Bristleback) often have strong lane presence and have a huge advantage over safelane heroes (AM, Drow, Jugg, Spec etc).
There needs to be a comprehensive and in-depth offlane guide like the various midlane guides that exist...I know most people just sum it up with "stay alive" but I know there's so much more you can do if you are good at playing the lanes. Just look at what iceiceice accomplishes.
On February 16 2015 00:21 xAdra wrote: There needs to be a comprehensive and in-depth offlane guide like the various midlane guides that exist...I know most people just sum it up with "stay alive" but I know there's so much more you can do if you are good at playing the lanes. Just look at what iceiceice accomplishes.
It's not feasible to discuss offlaning comprehensively like that because of the vastly higher number of variations in the state of the lane.
On February 16 2015 00:21 xAdra wrote: There needs to be a comprehensive and in-depth offlane guide like the various midlane guides that exist...I know most people just sum it up with "stay alive" but I know there's so much more you can do if you are good at playing the lanes. Just look at what iceiceice accomplishes.
It's not feasible to discuss offlaning comprehensively like that because of the vastly higher number of variations in the state of the lane.
Agreed. Laning mid is much easier to replicate in pubs, and you rarely have deviations (the rare dual lane, or the hero at mid) compared to the offlane (you can get a solo matchup, a defensive tri, a dual lane, a solo with roaming supports, an extremely aggressive defensive tri, etc). And the worst thing is that 99% in pubs, you will have someone with you
EPT
