EPTSometimes I would get serious and try to get MMRs but it doesn't really last more than a session, then I stop caring again. I always had the attitude that I had no interest in "playing to win" alongside bad players, it just wasn't fun and a waste of energy and moral. So I got an attitude where I didn't invest anything and just chilled doing jungle invoker and whatever coz I like to press buttons.
I went and made a new account, for the purpose of getting better games that were actually worthwhile playing in. After 4000 games of Dota obviously I am wanting to play fun, decent games.
The first new account I blogged about a lot, it was going OK (iirc) but then I mixed in twice as many games playing alongside my 2k friend and consequently it adjusted my hidden MMR downwards and calibrated at 3.something in the end. That was annoying a/f.
After that I made another new acc and was just going to solo every game, and done OK to begin with. I picked voker most games and was playing alongside 4.5-5.5 (and one 6ker) (mixed uncalibrated and ranked accs) and having really fun, intense games for the first time, enjoying being up against and alongside much better players than me.
Then I thought I'd try out safelane core instead of mid for a change very quickly realised that I actually had no idea how to play the role (always I am mid or support)!
Here you can see this account and the disaster of me trying safelane core:
https://www.opendota.com/players/373132413
After that I immediately switched back to my original 2k account and, with some new excitement and interest, asked around for help learning safelane core and trying to figure out why I was losing with it and how you win with it.
I spammed Jug games like crazy trying to get experience and the first thing I really understood was the power of earlygame items like yasha.
As mid/voker/support I never bought stat items and had no idea that something as small as a yasha could have so much impact. I think I spent like 20 straight games going yasha manta diffusal and was having some success, but mostly getting a feel for how I was able to contribute to earlygame fights. But I found that when my game wasn't a stomp in my favour, I would be losing to opponent carry 100% of the time.
After that period I was told to just stick preferring to farm up a battlefury as much as possible so I was able to outfarm (or match) the opponent carries. With my new experiences I was able to mix in early yasha/aquila as and when I thought I needed it too. In the end I was usually going bf yasha manta basher.
In the 14 day period of learning safelane core I brought my original account from ~2400 to ~3000. I am really happy with the progress I made because at first you have no damn idea why you are losing, and that slowly over the course of 50+ games and asking around different people for advice this starts to transform into having a decent confidence of why you are losing any given game. FeelsGoodMan
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MYZMR8M.jpg)
(graph only shows last ~10 days)
There are some things I learnt that I can put into words I guess, so here are some of them:
1. Learning the realistic strength of (stat) items and thus the importance of getting them, and getting them fast!
E.g. if i finish my yasha I can 1v1 the opponent core in lane or contribute if I feel like I am going to be involved in early fights. Or if i finish my bf then I will outfarm the opponent carry and still win even if he is 5-0 at the 10 minute mark, because he never got round to building a farming item like I did.
2. With this confidence of gameplan and in my hero, I have less time "panicking" and wondering what I should be doing. Instead I make my items no matter what and trust in their power, and try to instil confidence in my team too (I talk a lot on audio sometimes).
3. Teamfight positioning and decision making is a bit different for melee heroes and needs to be practised and executed without mistake. I'm used to ranged supports or ranged mids like invoker so switching to melee was obviously weird and actually sped my micro/apm up by like 100%. My arm aches after playing a ton of Jug games now, in the past that never happened lol. Also now when I switch back to ranged heroes, I have a new appreciation of their range and how to use it!
3. Spell usage execution needs to be, obviously, flawless. On Jug it is very easy to spin at an imperfect time, but the real problem is that usually you won't notice when you do this and so you really need to keep thinking about it otherwise you won't improve. If you carefully watch the Jug players in pro games I think you will see times when they spin (or use other spells) too early or at wasteful times. You really need to actively think about and practice this or it will start to add up.
4. My early CS is still pretty poor just from carelessness. I pointedly have a "warmup" session in demo hero before playing a game because, personally, there can be a massive drop in performance from day to day at times and you just need to make sure where you're at.
5. I talk to team a fair bit, depending on my mood. Usually I will say hi coz there will be another guy there feeling like me and who will say hi back, then we got 2 guys who care about playing with each other already. Sometimes someone says hi and I make sure I say hi back rather than just thinking about it. If people are talking shit I usually say something trolly in all-caps to distract them a bit. If someone says something "negative" after picks then they are instantly muted, coz after 4000 games you gotta be pretty stupid to not be muting people at this point.
6. When opponent is killing my guys and I can't help them (not enough mana, not near tower, no kill potential, no farm potential), I push my lane. It often forces opponent to go back and defend a tower instead of pushing our own tower (works in 2k pubs anyway).
7. Jug is OP against some 2k mids like voker and kunka so I ask for mid sometimes and explain why.
8. Although I stopped spamming Jug and started marking mid Invoker again now, I quickly give up mid to anyone who wants it. You get huge karma points, and shit my voker isn't good enough right now anyway.
9. Someone pointed out that my lane pushes more than it should and I realised I had a habit of walking around my creeps a bit too much. When one of your creeps dies, the opponent creeps will obviously target the next nearest thing - if you happen to be walking around them at the time then you'll take a few hits and your lane will push! So its very important to keep an eye on when creeps are dying and make sure you're not accidentally the next aggro target.
10. You must check the other guys' items. Sometimes they will be standing there with 0 gold of regen or 300 gold of regen, but you must remember to have a look asap.
11. If I use some mana in lane I tend to get my Sage's Mask as soon as possible rather than boots or whatnot, usually it makes sense.
12. In this bracket, as soon as you get to the lane you should tell your support not to waste his mana or not to get out of position. A few simple words here can save any given game from a sad downward spiral...
Here are my stats for voker and Jug the past 1 week and past 1 month (this includes party games tho)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mQ05mqt.jpg)
The exciting thing now is that my new understanding and experiences trying to win mean that I am more aware of what improvements I now need to make on my other heroes (like Invoker, where I know I desperately need to learn QW gameplay to improve my overall game).
It also means I can dive into other safelane cores like ... naix, sven, pa, slerk, pl, and so on. The question of "which core to pick" will for the first time become a legitimate question to ask. I will be worrying less about the fundamentals of how to win with a safelane core and can instead focus on how to abuse the opponent.
Shoutout to everyone who helped me, even for a moment!
Full profile (excluding party games):
https://www.opendota.com/players/114635809/heroes?excluded_account_id=49352850&excluded_account_id=47547664&limit=&date=30&lobby_type=7
