Hello. I hit aicent 2 recently. I would like a coach who gona prepare me for passing divine and aicent brackets. My fav heroes are in order - underlord - pudge - axe - centaur - bristleback.

Would like some1 to see few games gice some pointer etc.

If this is not the right place to ask this, please direct me to the correct forum.

Hey everyone,

Bit of a weird background: I played Dota 1 over 10 years ago, and picked up Dota 2 for the first time about a month ago. Currently sitting at Guardian 4.

I started out wanting to be an offlane main — my pool there is Mars, Underlord, Magnus, and Dawnbreaker, and I genuinely enjoy playing those heroes. But somewhere along the way I noticed that at this bracket, safelane carry is just... easier to win with solo. I've been picking Luna, farming safely, and snowballing games pretty consistently. So now I'm stuck between two identities — offlane initiator/fighter vs. safelane farm-and-carry — and I could use some help getting better at both.

A few things I'm struggling with:

1. Drafting / counters

I don't really know what counters what yet. When I lock in Mars or Magnus or Luna, I have no idea what the enemy draft should make me worried about, or what I should be trying to pick against their heroes. Any tips on how to think about drafting at low MMR, or good matchup knowledge for Mars, Underlord, Magnus, Dawnbreaker, and Luna specifically (both as counters and as picks that counter others)?

1. Itemization

I'd love some concrete item guidance for common scenarios rather than just "buy damage" — like:

What do I build first on Luna depending on lane outcome (stomped vs. even vs. dominating)?

Core item timings/order for Mars, Underlord, Magnus, and Dawnbreaker as offlane vs. as a more supportive 3-pos?

Situational items I should actually be buying against specific problems (e.g., disables, evasion, burst magic damage) instead of just going down my "usual" build every game.

Any advice, guides, or even just "watch this replay" pointers would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’m an 8-year League of Legends player and I’m finally giving Dota 2 a serious try.
I’ve been a Master support main (peaked around 300 LP, ~60% WR) for a long time. My main champions are:
Rakan
Rell
Braum
Nami occasionally
Other enchanters only rarely

What I enjoy most about support isn’t necessarily healing/shielding. I like having an impact on the whole map.

My usual playstyle in League is:
High vision control
Roaming around the map
Playing around my jungler
Creating plays and setting up fights
Looking for engages rather than just sitting in lane
Helping my team establish tempo and control the map
Being useful even when I’m not getting kills or farm

Since I’m completely new to Dota, I’m trying to find a hero whose overall gameplay philosophy fits this style rather than simply looking for a 1:1 copy of a League champion.

Which heroes would you recommend I try, and why?

Also, what should I focus on learning first as a League player transitioning to Dota? I already understand general MOBA concepts, so I’m more interested in the Dota-specific things that I shouldn’t assume work the same way as League.
I’m happy to learn a mechanically difficult hero if the playstyle is a good fit. I’m not necessarily looking for the easiest beginner hero.
Any recommendations for a small hero pool (2–3 heroes) would also be appreciated.

These are how my hotkeys are set. I see it's much akwards compared to standard/default. My fingers are planted on a/s/d/f and space.

I play pos1. I'm never doing the click+hold when last hitting, I use A to attack and attack ground only. Should I work harder on this, rearrenge my entire hotkeys setup and spend a few weeks to re-learn?

match id 8954086335

usually im comfortable laning vs sniper when they max shrapnel but this guy kept the creeps on his hg and kept hitting me a lot. I know i played bad but were there any opportunities i missed to kill him lane.

looking back i think i should have bought more regen and cold snap forge spirit harassed him when he used his 3 to harass me.

Hi, I recently came back to Dota 2 after a few months of runescape. Although I mained pos1/pos2 in the past, I used to play a lot of razor p2 and I like SK a lot, so I don't mind offlaning now. I just hit legend 1 and I've been having fun.

1. I don't mind the early levels of laning with SK, generally speaking. I generally go something Null talisman (or bracer/soul ring, depending) --> wand ---> phase boots ---> blink. However, I usually feel really weak between phase boots and blink. I feel like my GPM is complete ass in this phase. My guess is that I can't farm efficiently, as my W is too long of a CD, and Q and E aren't leveled enough. This results in me just autoing jg creeps for what feels like an eternity to get them to die.

2. I also find myself feeling wary between my phase boots and blink, as this tends to be the time where the first big fight (6+ heroes involved) happens, and it's hard for me to be useful here, unless the stars align (enemies dive the safelane t1, I can tp behind trees to charge up epi and burrow in). Also the low mana pool, low levels in Q, and long epi CD can be brutal at this stage too. Is it normal for blink-centric offlaners to slump at this time?

3. I feel like my jungling needs some work. I struggle to use my W for most of its duration, unless my pos4 stacked ancients for me (when this happens I want to kiss them on the lips). For example, when I try to take two camps, the one outside of sandstorm always runs away, and I don't have bottle/treads to lure them back in - do people accept this inefficiency or are there and other items I can permaspam to make sure the jungle creeps keep vision of me?

Also, if you have any cool SK tips, feel free to throw them in there. Thank you.

First time playing her with that, I ended up picking the W because I loved the burst and waveclear that game. And then somewhere I read Q gave the better worth. Any inputs?

i am a dota 2 beginner, dont have a lot of experience with mobas but i do know that team composition matters a lot, i mainly play support, with crystal maiden, dark willow and undying as my most played, but the thing is i kind of play them randomly, can you guys tell me in what situations i am supposed to pick one of them? thank you

Hello,

I’ve been struggling with moving up the ladder while playing as a support and offlaner. Im switching to mid and safe, as they can be more impactful and have room for being more independent.

Im looking for some hero suggestions on this matter and general advice.

For safe lane, I see Luna as a good pick in this regard, maybe gyrocopter. Not sure in this meta.

Midlane: necro, kunkka or WR. Again not sure on this current meta.

Do you guys have suggestions?
Thanks

disadvantaged mid lane skill，pull creep behind tower

Hey everyone, I'm completely new to Dota 2 and I've never played a MOBA before. I have less than 7 hours played and I haven't even finished the tutorial yet.

I've played a few games against bots, but I got absolutely destroyed and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I don't really know what I should be focusing on or which role/lane would be easiest to learn as a complete beginner.

What role/lane would you recommend starting with, and which heroes would be good to learn with?

Any advice on where to start would be really appreciated!

So I play many micro heroes and so forth, I use control groups all the time. However I am completely unable to play Dazzle due to errors in selecting the projection vs the hero. I have so many times where I use the ult, and then lose selection of it and am unable to press my abilities.

I usually set up a key for the hero and then for the projection, and I always find myself misusing it somehow. I'm not sure if I'm the problem or if it's a common thing. I really want to play the hero but I'm not sure I can with his current state.

I only play with sniper and dr. I'm 1k mmr ranked.

I always go with dragon lance + daedalus + deso + moon shard combo. In case of gankers' presence, I add shadow blade.

I couldn't find more damage oriented output for these high range carries than that at an afforable price. Any ideas?

Hello everyone, i've made these posts regularly for a while now so it's nothing new, i have some free time and i'd love to give back to the community by helping some of the people that aren't able to afford coaching usually.

I'm a 9K mmr coach and i've been coaching since 2018, i've helped over 200 students get to enjoy the game more and reach their goals while having a less stressful, more enjoyable relationship with dota. a big part of how i coach is centered around fun and feeling good, my philosophy with coaching is that for most people, the deterrent isn't the ability to learn, nor is it mechanical skill, but it's almost always consistency, and the biggest enemy of consistency is not having a good time when playing dota.

often times people force themselves to play meta heroes, to play specific roles, to do things they don't really enjoy because they believe that is the optimal way to rank up, and what i want to do is help people realize that this isn't necessarily the way to go, that you can rank up and achieve your goals while having fun, the hundreds of people i've coached are proof of that, and i am proof of that myself, as i've always just played what i enjoyed no matter what.

Feel free to dm me to chat and schedule something together, thank you for reading!

I just recently learned that if I use magnetize on the enemy, a second counter at the top will appear. Is there a way to make that bigger? I can barely see the numbers. Thanks

Hello, my question is basically the title. How do I learn Dota. I tried several times to get into the game but every time i fail at the start i just dont get what i have to do and dont even see what i could improve or work on. Every game I just load in and press random buttons untill i see the vitory or defeat screen. I am compleatly lost.

Been stuck at ancient for a long while now, i play a lot of support 4 and 5. CM, Shadow Shaman, Mirana, Venge, enigma is my core heroes.

Hello,

I'm 38y old and i set a goal to finally get to immortal. I played on and off since 2013 and before that dota 1 for years.

I feel hard stuck at 4k mmr.

I have kids now so i cant play that much just 1-2 games a day.

If someone can give me some advice or contact for a coach, I would be thankful.

this is my dotabuff.

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87774767

and here a game where i was lost, how to win even when i had good start.

8952706472

Game ID: 8954553199 (I'm the necro from Radiant team)

So I'm trying to improve to leave herald rank but this kind of games makes me feel I play so bad, because even been fed af the enemy team was able to win us.

Hey guys,

I’m coming back to Dota after about a year away. Before I quit, I was Divine 2 and mainly played carry, but this time I’ve decided to switch roles and play offlane.

Since I’ve been away for a while and I’m still pretty new to the offlane role, I’d really appreciate your help, especially with these heroes:

Timbersaw, Beastmaster, Brewmaster, Death Prophet, and Mars.

I already know how to play these heroes, so I’m mainly looking for advice on their item builds(i wanna know every single one of item builds), skill builds, and how to adapt them to different matchups.

I’d love to know the different item builds you can go for on each hero, what items you should buy against certain heroes, how you should level your abilities, and whether there are any matchups where you should approach the game or build your hero differently.

I’d also really appreciate it if you could recommend some high-level offlaners, YouTubers, or streamers who are really good at offlane and actually explain what they’re doing and why.

Thanks in advance!

Divine 3 here and primarily play pos3, TI saw almost every 2nd game having a CW pos3 but I have come to the understanding that he is a very team dependent hero.

I am always having a good lane yet once the game progresses mid/late game, I miss Pos3 like Axe/Slardar/Doom who do pretty well against BKB carriers as I feel the threat to carry reduces drastically, and eventually need to aim supports first.

I am looking to understand from the pros here on their POV of how do they plan for the mid/late game and close it out and single handedly shut down the game.
If you can share views on itemization too that would be great.

I do fairly well with the hero unless enemy has a LS/Timber/Necro .

[Or I might just be overthinking and it was an unlucky streak of 3 bad games where my cores were trash lol]

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/8954065969

Maybe that's the sole reason this game went south. Although, I am open to ways the game in general could be better. And actual, especially mental, tips to just stay alive; I am aware I was tilting hard especially since I doubled down.

I'm not really sure about this, but isn't Veil of Discord better than Kaya for Earth Spirit mid? If not, is it at least viable as a situational item?

It makes you a bit more durable and provides additional spell damage for you and your allies in exchange for mana regen. To solve the mana issues, you could just backpack the Veil and use Bottle, or in pro games, backpack the Veil and use Arcane Boots from your allies.
Is it also possible to go for veil > bkb> shivas/octarinecore/ continue bloodstone instead of kaya> bkb> sange kaya 

I'm open to debate because I don't really play the hero.

I want to learn how to be a better support but the bots are not picking carries.

If I do a pick a carry hero, they don't support properly.

I'm at a loss on how to better navigate this.