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Solo Lane as Melee vs Ranged hero

Forum Index > Dota 2 Strategy
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JohnJohnson
Profile Joined April 2008
United States49 Posts
October 16 2012 17:12 GMT
#1
This may be a dumb question, but I didn't see any searched threads pertaining specifically to this.

I'm fairly new, I've got about 70~ hours on DOTA2 now.

The one thing bothering the most is specifically how to lane as a melee character, vs a ranged hero, particularly in mid.

Scenario: I went random, got spectre. All my random team-mates took their top/bottom slots and refused to trade out with me. I end up stuck on mid lane vs Silencer. It's near impossible for me to move away from my tower, as he will harass + use that spell that drains Mana+HP. Consequently, he ended up like 3-4 levels ahead of me, more money, etc.

I tried to get one of my teammates to swap positions with me so I could have a ranged person support me in a lane, but no one would communicate.

So.. is there a specific technique or something I should be doing when I get stuck in a situation as a melee hero vs a ranged, early game, trying to farm up some xp cash? I ended up just getting stomped the rest of the game because I couldn't hardly make any money to buy useful stuff.
Ansinjunger
Profile Joined November 2010
United States2451 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-16 17:37:25
October 16 2012 17:15 GMT
#2
This is the star2 forum.

There isn't a specific technique if your allies are unresponsive. Being abusive only makes things worse.

It may be worthwhile to learn AI behavior, where creeps will attack you if you make an attack command at the enemy hero. That way, you can draw the enemy creeps closer to you, which may give you a better position for making last hits.

I haven't played DotA2 but I assume this behavior is copied from regular DotA.

Soul Rings, if they're still in the game, are also rather useful. Sure, you lose life, but you would have lost life anyway, and this way you lose less life than the higher ranks of the silencer spell would have taken, plus you get regen, plus you get to deal damage back to the silencer and/or last hit some more creeps.

Additionally, the silencer glaive orb attack does not follow the same AI rules if manually cast, giving the silencer the ability to get free hits without getting creep aggro, making it a terrible mismatch if your hero can't close the gap quickly. The mana cost of dagger is too prohibitive unless you get the jump on runes with a bottle or have a soul ring, or some other possibility. It's generally a mismatch in favor of silencer in early game.
heha
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Australia425 Posts
October 16 2012 17:16 GMT
#3
Obviously wrong forum.

OT: you got fucked, it's pretty hard to solo mid with a hero with shit lane control. Only thing you could do I guess is try to survive and tower hug. PMS, plenty of regen, and just get last hits when you can. Very risky randoming spec in a pub mate, especially if you didn't do it early enough to go safe lane.
Random for life! phoneheha
Meta
Profile Blog Joined June 2003
United States6225 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-16 18:05:06
October 16 2012 18:03 GMT
#4
Specter can't solo mid vs any hero and win really. There's no go-to answer for this, it depends entirely on the heroes, but generally melee solos are either tanky or have self-regernative capabilities, or harassment spells to contest the other guy for creep kills.

Specter will never, ever win a solo lane vs silencer. If you wanted to win that lane as a melee hero you should have picked pudge or kunkka or bloodseeker.

If you do end up in a shitty situation just try to stay in range of experience when creeps die. I think you can turn on "show exp numbers on creep death" or something, to make sure you're inside experience range. Even if the other guy denies a bunch of creeps, you'll still level up faster than the dual lanes, and later on you can use your level advantage to gank for them and get gold that way.
good vibes only
Archeon
Profile Joined May 2011
3253 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-16 18:11:05
October 16 2012 18:06 GMT
#5
spectre cant really solo lane successfully on any lane, let alone against a ranged character.

general melee-vs-ranged in mid:
Try to get the creeps close to your ramp by pulling aggro (see ansinjunger's advice) so that the enemy cant see you. Only run down the ramp to last hit and immediately go up the ramp after the last hit to minimize the time he can hit you. In general in a melee vs ranged situation concentrate on denying where you can without getting harassed, but spectre is a hc and needs farm, so in this special case concentrate on last-hitting. Call for ganks and make clear that you will loose the lane otherwise and that they will be massacred by a free-farmed silencer in the late game if they dont help you.

Get PMS and ring of healt or some RoRs to be able to tank some hits. Get tangos via cicken for further heal support, silencer will eventually run out of mana if you tank his curse long enough and it's a dot so it wont kill you immediately. On most hard-carries vanguard doesnt hurt, so getting this in a hard lane is imo advised, or go battlefury after RoH and jungle.

If you loose the lane to the point where you will die when you try to last-hit, go in the jungle. it's free-farm for the enemy anyways, dont add kills to his free-farm.

If you random, random before your allies pick, so that the other players can think about how to build the team. The team can loose the entire laning phase just because somebody randomed after the team picked.
low gravity, yes-yes!
TheWarbler
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States1659 Posts
October 16 2012 20:13 GMT
#6
Spectre can solo if pulled items and can get a fast bottle and rune whore and spam dagger.
if you can believe you can concieve
Archeon
Profile Joined May 2011
3253 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-16 20:48:39
October 16 2012 20:42 GMT
#7
@thewarbler do you mean with pulled that you have sb. to pull creeps? that wouldnt be solo imo.

apart from that spectre is a bad rune whore (no killing potential nor blink) and in your average 70h player's pub there wont be any wards, making rune spawn a complete gamble. he has a low damage nuke with high range and high mana-cost, idk if bottle alone will be enough to be a threat. and it's delaying your items by 500 more. it could work against a more passive hero though.
low gravity, yes-yes!
GG_DotA2
Profile Joined August 2012
United States199 Posts
October 16 2012 21:06 GMT
#8
whenever im melee and i go against a ranged by myself
always get a stout as that item will help you endure the harass
get basic regen but depending on the harrasment, i get 6 tangoes.

However, you were playing spec in mid, so advice to this is just soak up exp and last hit when the creeps are near your tower
Icefrog - a myth, a memory, a shadow. We seek him, but he is not there. He watches, but we are not aware. He is Icefrog, the shadow of the game. He is Icefrog, he is but a name.
LustDota
Profile Joined October 2012
Canada14 Posts
October 16 2012 21:07 GMT
#9
The simple answer is that you abuse your random gold. Get stout shield + quelling blade + 2 tangoes + 1 salve or
You can get a poor man shield + tango + salve + branches.

What these build allow you to do is tank up more dmg than normal so you can farm your next lane item. (RoH, or boots+bottle)

Then those laning items allow you farm up your next core item and have an impact on the game.

If you have random gold on top of the other solo it should almost always go even or in your favor. Losing the lane that badly and not having gold all game means there's a lot of other flaws in your game play. What I think the best thing for you to do for improvement in any match up is to work on your last hitting.

Also, getting a bottle solo mid is viable no matter what hero you are.
Nevuk
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States16280 Posts
October 16 2012 21:36 GMT
#10
On October 17 2012 05:42 Blackfeather wrote:
@thewarbler do you mean with pulled that you have sb. to pull creeps? that wouldnt be solo imo.

apart from that spectre is a bad rune whore (no killing potential nor blink) and in your average 70h player's pub there wont be any wards, making rune spawn a complete gamble. he has a low damage nuke with high range and high mana-cost, idk if bottle alone will be enough to be a threat. and it's delaying your items by 500 more. it could work against a more passive hero though.

He meant pooled items as in having supports give him some extra regen at the start.
Archeon
Profile Joined May 2011
3253 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-16 21:49:21
October 16 2012 21:47 GMT
#11
@nevuk k, missunderstood him, thank you.
will be hard if the allies ignore him though
low gravity, yes-yes!
rabidch
Profile Joined January 2010
United States20289 Posts
October 16 2012 21:51 GMT
#12
On October 17 2012 05:42 Blackfeather wrote:
@thewarbler do you mean with pulled that you have sb. to pull creeps? that wouldnt be solo imo.

apart from that spectre is a bad rune whore (no killing potential nor blink) and in your average 70h player's pub there wont be any wards, making rune spawn a complete gamble. he has a low damage nuke with high range and high mana-cost, idk if bottle alone will be enough to be a threat. and it's delaying your items by 500 more. it could work against a more passive hero though.

correct term is "pooled" items
LiquidDota StaffOnly a true king can play the King.
JohnJohnson
Profile Joined April 2008
United States49 Posts
October 16 2012 22:03 GMT
#13
Thanks for the responses. As for this being in the starcraft 2 section... I don't think it is.. Says "Dota 2 strategy" above my OP.
igotmyown
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4291 Posts
October 17 2012 03:17 GMT
#14
You're going to lose the lane, the question is how badly. Solo spectre with no mana against an orb walking hero...

If you get within his attack range, you will lose at least 1/3 your health. Your best bet is probably boots, so you can minimize the time he can orb you, you will not be able to out regen his harassment.

Second, you should spend as much time as possible blocking your waves (you have no chance of getting gold if the creeps are on his ramp), to try to get them to your tower. Maybe you can get 2 melee creeps per wave if things go well.

Finally, level up dispersion, and maybe get a magic stick in addition to some consumables if he's spamming curse of the silent. It won't help you lane, but you'll have enough mana to dagger and escape into the trees.
heha
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Australia425 Posts
October 17 2012 03:49 GMT
#15
On October 17 2012 07:03 JohnJohnson wrote:
Thanks for the responses. As for this being in the starcraft 2 section... I don't think it is.. Says "Dota 2 strategy" above my OP.


Haha, a mod moved it for you
Random for life! phoneheha
eu.exodus
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
South Africa1186 Posts
October 17 2012 09:29 GMT
#16
Pubs are retarded. Too often I've had the same problem. Just yesterday I played a game with some people who rush picked QoP, Invoker, Morphling and of course the obligatory Riki. So I picked Omniknight to support. They then proceed to all take side lanes. As luck would have it all requests to switch lane fell on Russian ears. Nobody replied with anything I could understand.

Anyway even with zero offensive spells I had a bit of luck with letting his creep line push to just in front of the high ground on your side. You can sometimes be seen and he will try to harass you but he will be attacking from the low ground so his attacks have a chance to miss so you take less damage. Like others have said you need regen, luckily I had a healing spell so it saved me cash on tangos and salves. Its still really hard either way.

Not that it made a difference, because I was playing support and we obviously got raped but I still had similar CS going into the mid game as the other 4 in my team.
6 poll is a good skill toi have
Erasme
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Bahamas15899 Posts
October 17 2012 09:34 GMT
#17
tranquill boots are the solution! As well as stout shield and aquila. Always stay in xp range, only close in to last hit/deny. As spectre max dispersion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7lxwFEB6FI “‘Drain the swamp’? Stupid saying, means nothing, but you guys loved it so I kept saying it.”
Alex)
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Scotland263 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-17 12:42:18
October 17 2012 12:36 GMT
#18
It's sort of different for ever 1v1 matchup but for spectre ill give you an example. Say you HAVE to go mid as spectre and there is a silencer mid. Grab a scout shield and some good healing so you can last hit at least untill 6 and a bottle. Your not going to out farm him or farm well once he level's his curse of the silent alot so the idea is to out gank him. (use runes as well!)

Max out your Q and W and gank alot, try get an ally support to ward rune as well. This how you will make money and win the other lanes for your team.

General Idea is if you cant farm mid very well you may as well gank as much as you can.

If you get no ganks of and you die as spectre mid you may as well just ward the map for your team (and by this i mean at least 3 wards on the map every 6 mins plus counter warding). You are not going to end up carrying, take the persure of your supports to ward and let them rush fast mek and pipe.

I WOULD NOT try to sit in that type of lane and farm just to point that out to the other people in this thread.
TheWarbler
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States1659 Posts
October 17 2012 19:54 GMT
#19
If a silencer is mid he should not be leveling COTS. Stats, Glaive is much more powerful.
if you can believe you can concieve
prplhz
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Denmark8045 Posts
October 17 2012 21:55 GMT
#20
On October 18 2012 04:54 TheWarbler wrote:
If a silencer is mid he should not be leveling COTS. Stats, Glaive is much more powerful.

so your solution is to convince the silencer who is beating him to do another build

i doubt this is effective at all
http://i.imgur.com/M7t7egx.png
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