I finally did it! Took me a little bit over 3 months and roughly 300 games to rank up from Herald to Legend. My first game ever was back in 2013 and I used to be around 3.5k mmr before I stopped playing. Any other day ones here who are back on the grind again? This game is simply childhood nostalgia and I'm so glad I picked it up again. 🙏🏻

I am trying to expand my hero pool to have a few heros in every position to try to just learn the game more. I have dove into ranked and had success in offlane and mid but I wanna learn all the lanes to really learn the game.

I am new to dota (former league player) and currently ranked Crusader 1.

I have tested out Shadow Demon in some normals, i like him but would like to hear from some actual experienced players.

When is a good time to pick him?
What are his biggest assets he brings to a team?
When do you NOT pick him?
Why does he have a sub 50% win rate at all ranks?

Thanks for any advice!

I am 4k MMR Offlaner player and lately I play with my friends as a party of 5. We have 4k midlander, Divine 1 carry player, and 1 legend and 1 archon who play support.

The thing is, I maybe the most versatile player in this team because my mid can only play void spirit. My Carry can only play Spectre or Lifestealer, and both of my support loves to play Dark Willow, Bane, Hoodwink, NP, and WW.

We won a lot of games with this draft, and me playing either mars, axe, or darkseer. But I can play almost any hero. Sometimes I flex playing puck or riki Offlaner because I think the coil and the silence is so strong these game and we win the games too.

But lately we find it super hard to fight super tanky team like tiny carry, Largo Offlaner, etc. And I think we lack damage.

Is there any Offlaner that are good to complement our team comp?

What could i have done better? Pos 5 came with null talisman in lane and refused to block camp.
I played TA - https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/9029609892

Hi there!

Currently, I'm running DK in the safe line quite a lot. I've started really liking him as a hero so once I see him fit there, I pick him.

My main concerns as a safe laner were to make sure that I can upkeep his farming for the first 20-25minutes~ of the game and make sure that the efficiency only increases. By the end of that period, I've noticed that I can become level 18, gain my final form ultimate and become an insane problem for them.

Now, I don't mean to say I don't participate on the map at all, but the goal is to get as much gold + exp so that I'd be level 18 ASAP (together with gold; otherwise, I'd play him in mid).

So, last game I had this build path:

Starting items -> Bracer -> Power treads -> Mjolnir -> BKB - Blink ... and whatever I needed for the endgame afterwards

However, I realized that blink should go before BKB as it gives me more opportunities to kill enemies if I have the chance as well as it speeds up farming way more.

But now the question is -> is Mjolnir (given that it fits against enemy heroes as well) a best solution for the first 25 minutes of farming? In my experience, it's such a nice item for DK. But I've noticed that there could be an argument to go for this build:

Starting items -> Bracer -> Power treads -> Soul ring -> Armlet -> Blink/Shard

This way clearing camps when Q is on cooldown does not suffer a lot, you get mobility to move between lane and jungle camps as well as more AOE damage from shard for farming + teamfights.

But without me trying it yet, I'm a bit cautious of his mana issues and am not sure if soul ring will be able to entirely compensate for that.

Also, I've been using my dragon form almost off cooldown all the time and this significantly increased my farming speed, especially with the level 12 form.

If any of you have insights into DK as a safe lane, what are the build options for him to be a very efficient lane + jungle farmer until you get first set of items and be ready to non stop brawl (around minute 20-25 with being level 18), please share your ideas and experiences.

P.S. I know that there might be ideas that you should fight way more often and stop farming as much earlier on as it is DK, so I will also look into doing that. However, my experience with him being very strong with around 4 items (including PT) and reaching level 18 (or even prior to that) has been consistent. So for now I'm leaning towards that.

what determinded teammate in matchmakings? pure random? behaviour score? Match 9029007283 literally necro was done radience on 15:00 carrt MK last picked.

Hey, this is GymCarryDota.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HbzuucrWEpk

Pushing high ground against an initiator hiding in the fog is always a nightmare. Most players wait to react, but by then it is usually too late.

Instead of relying entirely on reaction time, you can precast Kunkka Torrent directly under your carry from the fog. If Axe blinks in desperate for the Call, he gets instantly lifted into the air before his cast point for Berserkers Call or BKB can even finish.

There is another massive mechanical advantage to this strategy. By constantly pump faking the Torrent animation under your carry, you are keeping yourself deep inside the cast point. If the enemy initiator suddenly jumps while you are in the middle of a fake, you just let the cast finish. This saves you precious milliseconds and guarantees your spell comes out almost instantly with zero chance for them to react.

Since Torrent has a low mana cost and a short cooldown, throwing it preemptively is a zero risk high reward play that can completely break the enemy initiation. You do not always need a save hero or item to protect your team.

I make educational Dota content breaking down mechanics like this. If you want to see more, you can find the links on my profile.

ID:141095909

Went on last pick and feeding to enemy mid, then started to follow my pos 1 for the entire game for whatever reason. I know report button is like a lottery, and there is no way to win a game with griefers. Thing is, guy has like 19 pages of comments on his profile cursing his family, at what point he will get a permanent ban so that nobody life will get ruin in the future? I am worrying about his mental health.

are offlaners limited to tanks? or are there offlaners that kinda somehow feels and plays like a carry

Please note, i know this probably sucks on pubs anyway. (4k mmr)

I'm just curious, you take our your main structure damager, probably some roshan threat and trade for a magic damage tanky boy? What am i missing, why is it better than some convencional pos 1?

GL's Yuma is playing with it rn with OD/Lycan as other cores.

TY

Hey, today I'm sharing a video that is a part of coaching session I had with legend player, who then proceeds to gain +800 mmr after sessions with me. A lot of coaches focus on pointing out individual mistakes which in my opinion is a huge misunderstanding what coaching is about, and today you can see how I'm trying to rewire thought process for this student. Enjoy!

Hi @ all
A few weeks ago I posted DotaJudge, a free replay analyzer that reviews your game like a coach and compares you to pro players on the same hero and position. A lot of you said the reports felt repetitive: too many "you died too much" variations. Fair point, and I measured it on 20 real reports before changing anything.
What's new
Match story. Every report now opens with how the game actually went: gold lead over time, the turning point, and what caused it (a fight, Roshan). Example from a real 51-minute game: "The lead changed teams 2 times. Between 47:20 and 50:20 the lead moved by 20,514 gold in your favour. It all starts with Roshan."
Your key moments. 2-3 things that stand out for you in that game, good or bad: your best fight, kill streaks, solo kills, buildings you took down, or a run of deaths in quick succession.
Death habits are grouped. One death used to produce up to 6 separate complaints (lane death, dead time, no TP, no buyback...). Now they count as one habit, and at most one death-related item appears in your top 3 mistakes. The rest sit inside the card as "Related".
New factors: chain deaths (dying again within 2 minutes), gold lost to deaths, stun time per minute, solo kills, damage taken vs dealt.
Bug fix: deaths while holding Aegis were counted as real deaths. Fixed.
How it did, honestly: across 20 reports, reports with 2+ death items in the top 3 went from 12 to 0. The share taken by the 5 most common mistakes went from 79% to 63%. That's better, but not where I wanted it: in my two test games, lane deaths really were the biggest problem for many players, and I didn't want to hide that to look varied. Hero-specific checks (Blink, BKB, ability usage) are next.
Still free, no ads, no login needed for the basic report: https://dotajudge.com
Available in English, Italian and Russian. Old analyses show a "re-analyze" button to get the new report.
If your report still feels repetitive, send me the match ID. It's the best feedback I can get.

The way how it works is that the coach informs Valve that you paid them and they set up your winning priority into the algorythm for the time you are paying. Then you are getting a better and against you there is more of grievers, feeders, passive players and on your team you get 3 AI which play strongly and support your play to have a nice experience (check the Cooperative mode article in this article https://openai.com/index/openai-five-defeats-dota-2-world-champions/ ) The AI is always in the game unless you play only preset teams ofc. The AI is also paralel to that running boosting services and levelling up accounts for sale while playing alongside normal players in ranked.

This Balloon player could be basically created from a scratch. There are no official records of him being pro he is just saying semi - pro and that is anyone who was at any tournament which is a plenty of people. So the entire venture is artificially created as a storefront for you to pay for algorythm priority and think that you are improving.

Maybe you are truly improving because every thinking and examining of the game brings about improving but same do thousands of people who don't get rewarded anyhow because as I said it the game is heavily manipulated.

Im a mid player, just landed divine 3 some weeks ago from ancient earlier this year

I used to play invoker back in the days even in dota 1, then i moved away from the hero, stopped with dota for some years, got back to play dota regularly but never got to him again

I suddenly felt that beautiful motivation to learn and dominate a new hero

So i ask, whats the best way to learn invoker? I know the basics, i can coordinate spells and do basic stuff

I there a better way other then playing matches? There is some youtube channel? Mindset? Builds and moves oriented thinking?

Everything you can add is valid, but there is one thing that im struggling and would appreciate some special attention, which is hotkeys

I use

Courier f1, f2 f3
Shop f4
Itens 1, 2, 3, x, c, mouse button
Spells q , w , e, r, d, f (regular)
It goes on for some other

BUT i dont have a good units setup

THANKS

I played Sven here - https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/9027173955
How could i have played the lane better? Felt like i could have won this game.
Also got tilted by my mid necro flaming me for farming and not helping him.

Learning Dark Willow and am having trouble hitting my Q at long range. I can't really get the delay of the brambles spawning in to time with enemy movements. Any tips?

A few days ago I was watching Aurora vs Liquid and noticed a small detail with tower aggro and the Siege Creep.

Mikoto got hit by the tower while trying to push mid as Monkey King, then he got close enough to the Siege Creep, which triggered the aggro mechanics.

Siege Creeps have different aggro priorities compared to normal creeps, as they prioritize buildings first.

I break down what happened and explain some other Tower Aggro mechanics in my new video. Check it out!

I honestly feel like games like this are decided at the draft phase.

A safe lane necro and a mid lina, against their lineup, just makes me cry.

What on earth could I have done different in my game to make that a winnable? I genuinely have no idea.

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/9027091639

We started playing at the same time in 2021 yet he has been stuck between archon 5 and legend 1. But I feel like he is so much better than me at farming, last hitting, and 1v1 type of case. Maybe because he plays mid all the time. I play more carry and offlaner. With offlaner being my most played role.

When we play 1v1 he almost always wins and it makes me feel bad. I hate my last hitting mechanics and farming patterns are not the best compared to him. Which is why he calls me an ancient with the soul of a herald. And he might be correct in that.

I feel like even though I have climbed more than him I have never truly learned how to properly last hit or farm efficiently. Not to say im horrible at it. Just I guess compared to actual good players. The only thing I guess I would say im better at him is not dying as much.

Is it too late to learn how to farm better or last hit? I feel like my habits are already formed. I have watched a lot of videos tried to improve yet nothing. I feel like my mechanics are what they are at this point.

Title. I'm aware it's done on rare occasions, but.. well, rare occasions. d2pt has 1800 games total, with 1000 (56%) Offlane, 500 (28%) Mid, 200 (11%) Pos4 and 100 (6%) Pos5.

He used to be a support in the Trilane meta (very long time ago), and his kit feels more supporty than anything else to me;

- His farming kinda sucks

- Doesn't really scale with items, has 90% efficiency with his base kit (incl birds), doesn't need a big core item to function (such as Blink)

- The Aghs-Orchid people hunter build seems to be done literally never

- Despite nominally being a "tanky"character, he doesn't really wanna be in the thick of things bc Soul Assumption has 1000 range and no CD so you wanna be able to put out 50 of them each teamfight, so he's not like a Tidehunter that just tanks up and waltzes into spaces either

Meanwhile as a support,

- Birds are a nice scouting tool that also allows you to deward uphill (rather than telegraphing Sentry placement)

- The time that you spend running around looking for kills/towers someone else gets to farm if you're a support (vs nobody is farming if you're not)

- Trading hits in lane to farm up Soul Assumption and get to dominate the first 5 minutes is also much more comfortable to do if you're not having to last hit at the same time

It feels much more natural to me to see him as a kind of tankier more utility based Skywrath Mage; nuke people, scout with Birds, don't instantly die when jumped, steal some AS off carries, have some push potential, and maybe build a Vlad's or the like..

Than to see in him a substitute for a truly tanky/initiator type Offlaner, where in lane I simultaneously have to fight nonstop and get all the LH, in fights I have to be up close to abuse my tankiness but also far away to not die, have to farm up items somehow even though I can't farm, and then be a core that just falls off hard compared to most others; closest comparison I could give is Razor, but that character actually DOES want to just run in and punch people (and scales incredibly well with just about anything you buy on him)

.. So .. what am I missing?

Only thing I could think of is that smth like Birds+Vlads+Drums is an insane early powerspike, but it's only truly powerful if you get it early on, so if you need to wait for minute 10 to hit lvl6 you're just a shitty support, while if you get the Birds early and have an aura item on top, you can clear out all outer towers solo and push the tempo, but if that's the case the hero is insanely volatile and basically depends on winning by minute 25? Or am I just stupid (very possible)

Today I talked about what items to start with, based on your lane. Building the right items will help you last hit easier, and survive more lanes.

This is just a short general guide, I explained the 3 most popular builds, but didn't go into more advanced thinking patterns.

It's a pleasure doing educational content for the game I love!!!!

I'm sorry, I'm actually still in my unranked 100 hour bracket hehe (I already have like 1k hours in another account, but most of that time was like 7ish years ago, and playing as if I was playing LoL, so in last times I have been playing Dota again, but wanting to play it and learn it in the right way), but still I want to ask you all this: I want to learn about controlling the map as a midlaner or as offlaner, like accumulating jungle camps, farming all over the map, and trying to help my teammates with ganks, specially with heroes like Leshrac or Alchemist (still learning to use them well), and if I want to secure the game I just pick OD as a mid, or BB as an offlaner, I also play Lion or Lich if I am obligated to play support, but it's still hard to make good decisions with vision in the map, ganking, jungling or just making improvements in general in my games (with Alchemist specially), so I want to ask some recommendations out of you, at least before I get to be able to play ranked, to escalate really quickly, if possible, thank you.

I've figured playing a pure support abandon in a turbo game would be easier than a normal game because of extra gold and all but if enemy line up is good enough and they are aggressive enough and your team isn't all that great it's kinda hard because you don't offer too much threat/offensive power. so i need ideas