DOTA 101 [Updated!] Basic Knowledge of the Game [Complete!

]
*Taken and collected from DotA-allstars and PlayDOTA forums.

Introduction:

Welcome to DotA! If you're a fan of exciting, team-based multiplayer games, you'll find it a lot of
fun. The first think you should do is make sure you have the latest map. You can find it at the
official download site, here.

DotA is set up as an epic, ten player battle that takes place over the course of about an hour-long
game. There are ten players at a time, split into two teams of five. Each player takes control of
one hero, and the teams fight it out across the battlefield with the help of computer controlled
units and structures until one side destroys their opponents' Ancient. The Ancients are heavily
defended structures situated in the middle of each base.

There are several places you can play the game with others. Blizzard's Battle.net service is a good
place to start; there are always plenty of DotA games going on at all times which are open to
everyone. The second place is in private leagues and servers, which you can sign up to participate
in. The third popular place for playing DotA is LAN cafes and other local gaming hotspots. A lot
of cafes have very active DotA communities, so if you want to have fun and meet some new
people you should definitely check them out. DotA is a team game, so if you have friends who are
interested in playing or already play, forming a team of friends can be a lot of fun and take the
game to a whole new level.

There is an incredible amount of depth to DotA's gameplay and at first it can be quite
intimidating. Because of this, we've prepared a set of guides to help you learn the ropes of the
game. However, we don't just tell you some of the basics, we have guides on advanced techniques
as well, so that you'll have things to keep learning once you've mastered the fundamentals. We'll
be updating and expanding these guides frequently, so don't be afraid to speak up and tell us what
else you'd like to learn about!

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."
02-20-2010 03:28 AM #2

Beginners Guide
Basic Survival

Introduction

When your hero dies in DotA, several things happen: You have to wait a designated time (your
level x 4 seconds) until you revive at your base fountain, the opponents gain experience and gold
from killing you, and your allies lose a valuable asset temporarily. Dying in DotA can be an
unpleasant experience, even more when it happens to less experienced players. These are a few
fundamentals that you can learn will help you to stay alive when facing better opponents.

Starting the Game

Basic Items

A lot of newer players tend to go right for items like Boots of Speed or Gloves of Haste in the
beginning of the game, and tend to ignore cheap ways of increasing your survivability
dramatically; some even give you an offensive edge!

* Regeneration

Ancient Tango of Essifation: Tangoes provide uninterrupted healing so you can get right back to
the middle of the action.
Healing Salve: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Salves heal about 1/2 to
3/4 of your life early on.
Clarity Potion: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Allows you to cast more
spells.
Bottle: Heals HP and mana. Empty bottles automatically refill when you return to your fountain,
making them useful all game. They can also store runes. For more information about rune
powerups, visit here.
Magic Stick: Accumulates heal/mana on standby, this item is great against opponents who use
spells frequently.

* Statistic-Increasing

Gauntlets of Giant Strength / Slippers of Agility / Mantle of Intelligence: These items give you
very minor +3 bonuses to a specific attribute
Circlet of Nobility: +2 Rounded attribute bonuses usually if you intend to make Bracers, Wraith
Bands and Null Talismans
Ironwood Branch: +1 to stats, Cheap and effective, these fill out slot spaces nicely

Patience

Keep an eye on the timer at the top-right corner of your screen. When it counts down and reaches
0, that is when the first wave of creeps will spawn from your base and at your three towers and
walk outwards. They will continue walking along the lanes until they reach the enemy creeps or
tower. It is a good idea to stay near and behind these creeps because they can provide you with
safety from enemy attack.

Creeps and Towers

Creeps

While you can easily kill one on its own, their strength lies in their numbers. A common mistake
many players make is to engage multiple creeps by themselves. Stay behind the safety of your
own creeps so that you can fight them at your leisure. Creeps spawn every 30 seconds.

Towers

The primary defensive measure for both teams, standing in the safety of your tower is a strong
incentive for enemies to back off. Towers deal a sizable portion of your hit points in damage,
making them powerful unless there are other targets already in their attack range. Try to figure out
how far this distance is so that you do not take unnecessary damage.

Both creeps and towers will change their targets to attack you if you have chosen to attack an
enemy hero in the vicinity. This can be seen clearly in our first example.

Example: In the first part, the creeps are content to attack each other until Sniper starts attacking
the Priestess of the Moon, at which point they switch to attacking him. Note that the creeps do not
go for the Priestess when she attacks the Sniper back because she is too far away from them. In
the second part, the tower stops attacking the creeps in order to attack the Sniper when he attacks
the Priestess.

Spells

Dying to spells is very common to new players who might not understand the individual effects or
mechanics of the many heroes in DotA. There are hundreds of unique abilities in DotA, so it
would appear to be very daunting to have to learn and read about EVERY single hero. Instead, try
to place the spells that you have seen your opponents use into major categories so you know how
to react to them in the future:

* Direct Damage
These spells often deal lots of damage quickly to an opponent, great for harassing and/or finishing
them off. Try to be careful of these spells by keeping your current HP relatively high.
Examples: Laser (Tinker) and Culling Blade (Axe)

* Area of Effect
Affect only the area specified by your opponent. These spells can sometimes be avoided if you
can be unpredictable as to confuse your opponents or keep your distance so that the spells do not
reach you.
Examples: Sonic Wave (Queen of Pain) and Macropyre (Twin-Headed Dragon)

* Damage Over Time

Rather than instant damage, these abilities do their damage in segments but can come with extra
effects, such as slow. While this will prevent Healing Salve and Bottle from healing you,
regeneration items and specific abilities or items such as Mekansm can still be used.
Examples: Venomous Gale (Venomancer) and Ignite (Ogre Magi)

* Disable/Stun
These spells stun you or prevent you from responding in some way - movement, attacking,
casting spells, or sometimes in combination. Generally you have to watch your distance or have
an ally to assist you in case this happens.
Examples: Shackle (Shadow Shaman) and Fiend's Grip (Bane Elemental)

* Buff/Debuff
These spells either make you or your allies stronger or opponents weaker in some way such as
increasing damage, armor, prevention of status effects.
Examples: Repel (Omniknight) and Frost Armor (Lich)

Just be careful because sometimes certain spells fall under more than one category: the best way
of dealing with these spells would be from gaining experience, learning from your mistakes, and
good teamwork.

Buying Items

While it can be tempting to go for huge damage items like Buriza-do Kyanon and Radiance, it
helps to know that buying items in a certain order can really help a lot for improving your
survivability. Here are some tips:

* Bracers/Wraith Bands/Null Talismans

Sometimes it can be useful to make 2-3 before going for more expensive items. They provide
useful bonuses that help you survive and use more spells or deal more damage.

* Power Treads/ Phase Boots / Boots of Travel

Upgrading your footwear will also give you both a movement speed boost and may come with
useful abilities. Power Treads are good if you want the attack speed, Phase Boots give you a little
more damage and armor, and Boots of Travel gives you a teleportation ability to any allied unit.

* Buying order
Sometimes players tend to purchase items in the wrong order, so in order to explain this more
thoroughly, let us look at the components of an item, the Linken's Sphere, which is comprised of:
Perseverance (Ring of Health [875] + Void Stone [875]) + Ultimate Orb [2100] + Recipe [1325]
It is a good idea to start with the ring of health or void stone to help provide regeneration in the
lane. This will help you survive and save up the 2100 for your Ultimate Orb. Of course, if you
were fortunate enough to get that much gold early then feel free to buy the more expensive
component. NEVER BUY RECIPES FIRST.

* Scroll of Town Portal

The reason this item deserves special mention and its own category is because it is one of the
most important items that EVERY hero gets.While you do not have to buy one at the beginning of
the game, this item is extremely useful and provides you with the ability to escape from enemies
or to defend your buildings. Be wary of its channeling time, because it can be interrupted by some
spells and items. You definitely want to be carrying at least one of these at all times, especially
later in the game.

The Map
The map terrain and features are not only for decorative purposes, something that newer players
will understand very quickly when they are facing opponents who do have the knowledge to make
use of the environment and playing field: Here are several aspects of basic understanding that will
help you to learn about the static features of the DotA map:

* Elevation
Players in low areas cannot see enemies located above them: They also suffer a 25% miss chance
when fighting higher targets. Players often get surprised when they seemingly get attacked
without warning near a ramp. In short, the higher you are, the better.

* Terrain
There are many small pathways and little areas of trees that obscure vision and provide perfect
hiding spots for your enemies. Sometimes it can be a good idea to run into the trees if you are
trying to escape from them.

* Time
You will have less vision at night, making it easier for opponents to close in and surprise you.
Bonus fact: Some heroes like Drow Ranger and Nightstalker have higher than normal vision at
night. More information here.

* Crossing the River

The River divides up the territory between Sentinel and Scourge. Please be extremely cautious
when you decide to travel across to the other half of the map. One of the most common mistakes
for less experienced players to make is to fight creeps too far into the other side and eventually get
killed as a result of this. Unless you are extremely confident in your abilities to escape, or bring
allies with you, entering enemy territory alone will always result in an easy target for the
opposing team to exterminate.

Example: Look at the trouble that Sniper gets into from crossing the river alone! This play by
Sniper is doubly bad because he also goes uphill into the fog, which severely limits his vision. He
can't see the enemy team lurking above him until it's too late.

Summary

Hopefully, after reading this guide and learning more about some fundamentals, you were able to
pinpoint some of your mistakes as a newer player to DotA. Learning how creeps and towers
function, dealing with spells, which items are useful, and understanding the map itself will allow
you to better survive against players who have learned this through their experiences. Dying
happens to everyone, use the knowledge gained by those deaths to improve as a player and you
will be a great asset to your team in the near futur
I would like to come to a close by reminding you that DotA, while full of individual play and
customization, is still a team game. Nothing gives you more survivability than the 4 allies fighting
alongside you, so having coordination and teamwork can often be the difference between
surviving together, or dying alone.

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."
02-20-2010 03:30 AM #3

Common Terms and Game Modes and Commands

Common Terms

Player Abbreviations

OJ - Orange
LB - Light Blue
DG - Dark Green

Areas On The Map

Mid - Middle lane. The line traveled by the creeps through the center of the map.
Top - Top lane. The line traveled by the creeps through the west and top portions of the map
Bot - Bot lane. The line traveled by the creeps through the bottom and east portions of the map.
Woods - The areas in between lanes where neutral creeps are found.
Jungle - Same as woods.

Item Abbreviations

AC - Assault Cuirass
Aghs or Agha - Aghanim's Scepter
BKB - Black King Bar
Blink - Kelen's Dagger
BoT - Boots of Travel
Crow - Flying Courier
Deso - Stygian Desolator
DR - Divine Rapier
Hex - Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
HotD - Helm of the Dominator
HoT - Heart of Tarrasque
Mek - Mekansm
MoM - Mask of Madness
Phase - Phase Boots
PT - Power Treads
RoB - Ring of Basillus
RoR - Ring of Regeneration
RoH - Ring of Health
Sheepstick or Sheep - Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
SnY - Sange and Yasha
Vlads - Vladimir's Offering

Basic Need To Know Terms

Farm - Farming up gold. Refers to the act of systematically killing creeps in order to earn gold.
Even when you are virtually killing creeps all game long, you say that someone is "farming"
when they are completely dedicated and concentrated on that.
Focus - Means to concentrate all attacks on a specific target (I.E "Focus Lina" means that Lina
should be the primary objective and that all the team should have attacking her as a priority in
team fights)
Harass - Relative to the act of putting pressure in your enemy by attacking him during the laning
period. Basically, harassing is attacking the enemy in front of you in the lane, so as to make him
an easy target for a gank or to prevent him from farming freely. Therefore, "harass Ezalor" means
that you should try to damage Ezalor with your skills/attacks.
Juke - Juking, means to make deceptive maneuvers with your hero while moving, so as to delude
your opponent and make it harder for him to predict where you will be heading. This is used
mainly to escape while you are being chased, or to make your enemy miss/misuse a spell (for
example Avalanche, which has to be targeted to the ground).
Pull - Creep Pulling. Getting creeps from a neutral camp to follow you into the path of your lane
creeps.
Spam - Spamming your spells, refers to the act of repeatedly using a certain spell, a lot. "spam
carrion swarm" means casting Carrion Swarm a lot, most generally as soon as the cool down is
up.
Rosh - Roshan. Refers to Roshan, the big neutral creep next to the river just below the middle
lane. Usually indicates the player's belief that either the enemy team is killing Roshan right now
or that the player's team should kill Roshan now.
Gank - Bringing several heroes to gang up on a target to kill them. "Gank lina," is a request for
you to come help kill her.
b - Back. If your allies start calling "b," get out immediately, it usually means that you're getting
ganked. This is a more urgent warning than a miss or mia call.
TP - Teleport. A request for you to use a Scroll of Town Portal or Boots of Travel to come assist
in a fight. "tp mid now"
Def - Defend. Self-explanitory, "tp to def mid"
Push - Traveling down a lane as a team in order to work together to fight and kill enemy
buildings.
DD - The Double Damage rune.

Hero Missing/ Returning Calls

miss - Missing. A warning that enemy heroes have gone out of view and might be ganking, so be
careful. Usually said with a hero name, such as, "Lina miss."
mia - Missing in action. Same thing as miss, such as, "Lina mia."
re - Returned. The opposite of a miss/mia call, "Lina re" means that she's back in the lane she
came from and you don't have to worry about her.

Hero Descriptions

nuke - A generic term for any spell that does damage. "Nuke him" just means throw your damage
spell, pretty much no matter what hero you have.
ult - Ultimate. Any hero's level 6 ability is refered to as their ultimate
oom - Out of mana. Don't expect any more spells from this player during the fight.
mana - Just saying "mana" usually means the same thing as oom
cd - Cooldown.Should usually be interpreted as, "Hold on, the spell I need isn't up yet." Also, you
might see something like, "ult cd 30" which means, "My ultimate is still cooling for about 30
more seconds."
stacked - Stacked of items, means that a hero has gotten many and powerful items, therefore
making him really hard to take down. "Nevermore is stacked" means that Nevermore has many
and good items.
farmed - Same as stacked.

============================================

Game Modes and Commands

There are many commands that you can enter during the game, some impact the game itself,
while others display useful information. Here we provide a list of most of the commands in the
game. There are some other commands that you can also use, but they are almost entirely for fun
and have no impact on the game, so we will start by covering only those that impact gameplay.

All commands must be preceeded by "-" to work, for instance, "-ma". All game modes must be
entered on a single line preceeded by "-", for instance, "-apemomsc".

Common Game Modes

ap - All Pick. Each player is allowed to pick a hero from any tavern.
ar - All Random. Each player is given a random hero from any tavern.
rd - Random Draft. 20 random heroes from any tavern are selected and players take turns picking
from them.
sd - Single Draft. Each player chooses from one of 3 individual random heroes.
cd - Captains Draft. 24 random heroes are selected. Then Blue and Pink take turns banning
heroes, then picking heroes. Then the players on each team pick from their team's heroes.
cm - Captains Mode. Blue and Pink take turns banning heroes, then take turns picking heroes.
These heroes are then chosen by members of their team.
em - Easy Mode. Towers are weaker, and players get extra gold and experience.
dm - Death Match. When you die you are given a new hero. The game can end normally, or when
one team reaches a certain amount of deaths.

Other Game Modes

rs - Random Side. Places each team on a random side.

du - Duplicate. More than one of each hero can be played.
sp - Shuffle Players. Randomly switches around players from each team.
xl - Extended League. Both Sides will take turns picking heroes. Each team captain can pick 4
heroes to remove from the pool.
om - Only Mid. Only the middle lane is used.
sc - Super Creeps. Powerful creeps will spawn every 10 minutes.
lm - League Mode. Both Sides will take turns picking heroes.
mm - Mirror Mode. After one minute, each team will have the same heroes.
tr - Team Random. You will be given a random hero from your taverns.
mr - Mode Random. Selects a random game mode.
vr - Vote Random. You will be given a random hero from the voted groupset.
rv - Reverse. You pick a hero for your opponent.
oi - Observer Info. Disables extra information display for observers.
sh - Same Hero. All players will be given the hero that Blue has.
aa - All Agility. Only Agility heroes are used.
ai - All Intelligence. Only Intelligence heroes are used.
as - All Strength. Only Strength heroes are used.
id - Item Drop. When you die, a random inventory slot will drop an item.
np - No Powerups. No runes spawn.
nt - No Top. The top lane is not used.
nm - No Mid. The middle lane is not used.
nb - No Bot. The bottom lane is not used.
ns - No Swap. Swapping heroes is not allowed.
nr - No Repick. Repicking heroes is not allowed.
pm - Pooling Mode. All items can be used by other players.
mi - Mini Heroes. All heroes are half normal size.
fr - Fast Respawn. Reduces death times by 50%.
mo - Melee Only. Only melee heroes are used.
ro - Ranged Only. Only ranged heroes are used.
er - Experimental Runes. Uses an experimental rune spawning system.
so - Switch On. Allows use of the -switch command.

Commands

tips - Gives you various helpful pointers about your hero throughout the game.
random - Random. Gives you a random hero in modes like All Pick. You get 250 extra gold.
random int - Random. Gives you a random Intelligence hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150
extra gold.
random str - Random. Gives you a random Strength hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150
extra gold.
random agi - Random. Gives you a random Agility hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150 extra
gold.
ma - Displays the heroes your opponents control and their levels. Alias: -matchup.
ms - Displays your hero's current movement speed. Alias: -movespeed.
cs - Displays your creep kills, denies, and neutral kills.
switch - Allows you to switch teams with another player.
cson - Activates the cs display to display your creep kills and denies.
csoff - Deactivates the cs display.
disablehelp - Prevents certain spells, such as Test of Faith cast by an allied Holy Knight, from
affecting you. Also prevents allies from picking up your items in the fountain area.
enablehelp - Re-enables effects from certain allied spells and allows allies to pick up your items in
the fountain area..
unstuck - Pauses your hero for 60 seconds, after which you are teleported to your base.
recreate - Sometimes rare glitches occur with certain heroes, recreate can fix those glitches.
Recreate takes about 2 minutes to complete, and only works on Lycanthrope, Lifestealer, Dragon
Knight, Soul Keeper, and Tormented Soul.
swaphero xx - Offers to swap your hero with another player's.
showmsg - Shows messages.
hidemsg - Hides messages.
showdeny - Shows a '!' above a creep when it is denied.
hidedeny - Hides the '!'.
weather rain - Switches weather to rain.
weather snow - Switches weather to snow.
weather moonlight - Switches weather to moonlight.
weather wind - Switches weather to wind.
weather random - Switches to random weather.
weather off - Turns weather off.
di - Enables -cson and -showdeny. Alias: -denyinfo.
don - Shows the death timer. Alias: -deathon
doff - Hides the death timer. -deathoff
roll xx - Shows a random number between 1 and the number entered, max of 2000. Default of
100.
hhn - Hides the hero name portion of player's names. Alias: -hideheronames.
test - Enables single player commands.
mute - Toggles sounds on and off.
gameinfo - Displays information about the current game modes.
kickafk xx - Used to kick a player who has been AFK for a long period of time.
mines - Shows you how many Land Mines you have placed with Goblin Techies.
mc - Shows how many times you have Multicast with Ogre Magi.
fs - Shows how much bonus Strength you have gained from Flesh Heap with Pudge. Alias:
-fleshstr
ha - Shows your average accuracy with Meat Hook or Hookshot.
aa - Shows your average accuracy with Elune's Arrow.
invokelist - Displays all of Invoker's spells, and what reagents are needed to use them.
water red - Makes the water red.
water green - Makes the water green.
water blue - Makes the water blue.
water default - Makes the water the default color.
water r g b - Sets the water color to the color specified by r, g, and b. Example: "-water 255 0 0" is
the same as "-water red".
water random - Sets the water to a random color.
terrain snow - Makes the map have snowy terrain.
terrain default - Returns the map to normal terrain.
gg - Displays bonus gold gained from Alchemist's Goblin Greed ability.
rh - Displays a random hero name. Alias: -rollhero.

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."
02-25-2010 07:57 AM #4

Intermediate

Lane Control

If you've ever gone to lane and felt outmatched and soon found yourself underleveled or
undergeared, you've come to the right place. This guide contains a good deal of information for
the laning of phase of the game, a very important phase which often dictates how the game
progresses through mid-game (during the ganking phase).

Goals of The Laning Phase

Your goals in laning are not very deep: get money, get experience. Pretty simple ideas, right?
That's why I do anything in real life and dota is no different. So lets get right to it.

Experience
In order to gain experience, you must be within a certain range when a creep or hero dies (1000
range). If another allied hero is also in range, you split the experience equally (which is why a
solo lane will typically be a higher level than dual lanes). As you gain experience, you will level
up and your abilities will get much more powerful.

Since your opponents are often trying to kill you (that is, deprive you of money and experience),
it is often smarter to take charge and do that to them BEFORE they get the chance to do it to you,
thus allowing you to gain experience and money without restriction.

Money
In order to get money (in addition to the gold accrued every second – a relatively slow source of
income) you must get creep kills in lane. When you get the last hit on an enemy creep, you get an
additional amount of gold that would otherwise have gone to another teammate (if they get the
last hit) or to no one (if your allied creeps get the last hit or the enemy denies the creep).

Both of these ideas goals are very straightforward. Accomplishing these goals, however, with
your opponent trying to maximize his money and experience becomes a little bit more difficult.
There are a lot of things that must be considered in order to widen the gap between your
income/experience gain and your opponent's income/experience gain. First of all, I will address
the universal ideas that hold for (pretty much) every hero.

If you manage to stay in your lane longer than your opponent, you will widen the EXP gap
between the two of you and likely the money gap will follow suit.

-- This is the central idea to all aspects of laning. If you maximize this gap during laning, you set
yourself up for excellent chances of winning further along in the game. If you fall behind your
opponent in these areas, prepare for an uphill climb. I will reference this point in most sections.

Regeneration (both hit points and mana)

If you manage to stay in your lane longer than your opponent, you will widen the EXP gap
between the two of you and likely the money gap will follow suit. So how do you stay in the lane
longer? Regeneration is the answer.

When you head out to lane, in almost all situations you should have some regeneration items,
mainly flasks or tangoes for HP and clarities for mana. Mana regeneration is nice but as some of
you may notice, you can still survive without mana. This is NOT the case with HP – so bring
adequate hp regen.

Flasks or tangoes?
The choice is really up to you and your preference but some situations lean towards tangoes and
some towards flasks. If the enemy is more prone to physical harassing (through normal attacks or
arrow skills – Clinkz' searing arrows, Viper's poison attack, Drow's frost arrows, etc.) it is often
more worthwhile to take tangoes. They will often attack you and try to widdle your HP down
(preventing you from gaining EXP) but do not have nukes to take off your HP in larger chunks.
Also, since they will be attacking you often and aggressively, you are less likely to be able to
recover healing from a flask as any attacks during the duration dispel the remainder of the heal.

If the opposing lane is one with lots of burst damage (consisting of Sand King and Lina, for
example) a flask is often a better choice. A burrowstrike followed by LSA and dragon slave with
attacks in between takes off a LOT of hp, and healing back HP through tangoes (slowly) will
often put you in harms way for another similar combo. A flask solves this problem faster and
allows you to remain close and contend for last hits/denies as usual.

Lets say now that you are the ones with a nuke combo. If they have a flask (which heals 400 hp)
and you leave them with 200/700 HP after you use your nukes/disables, they will be able to
reenter battle quickly. If they do not have a flask but only tangoes (or better NO regen) you can
probably manage another attack resulting in their death once your spells are off of cooldown.
Choosing a target in lane can often be based off of their regen (or lack thereof).

Tying in the Golden Rule

Another thing worthy of note: sometimes not getting a kill is just as good – if not better – than
getting a kill. No, you do not get the experience from their death or gold from killing them. At
very early levels, however, this gold and experience is negligible compared with what you can
gain from freefarming. If you force someone to have to travel back to base in order to avoid
death, you gain a LOT of valuable farming time.

You free farm, they walk back to base; you gain experience and have freefarm. They waste time
and lose out on money.
Mana Regeneration
Mana regeneration through clarities or another source (CM aura, basilius aura, obsidian aura) is
also important for maintaining aggression on your opponents. After all, if you do not have any
mana to cast your spells, how dangerous can you be to them? - It is this same logic that makes
Nerubian Assassin and Keeper of the Light very frustrating to lane against as they will deprive
you of your mana through skills.

Poultry
In all cases dealing with regen, a chicken is EXTREMELY useful. If your lane opponents are
particularly aggressive and you run out of your starting regen, have the chicken/crow send you
some more. If you aren't in the habit of buying a chicken, either start buying one or get a friend to

buy one . (or join a game until you find someone named tinfoiltank)

Harassing – weakening your opponent without the immediate intent to kill

How To
Harassing is a pretty important topic in lane control. Some heroes, however, won't be able to
harass as effectively as others. Melee heroes have an obvious disadvantage when you consider
“creep agro.” Creep agro is the aggression of creeps (to attack your hero) based on your actions or
position. The creep has AI designed such that if you issue an attack command on an enemy hero
(either by a + left-clicking or right-clicking by itself) the creeps will attack you. The serves as a
form of anti-harassment, so to speak, and you can lose a lot of health if you are not careful. There
are some ways to get around this.

If you position yourself far from the creeps before attacking the enemy hero, the creeps will have
to walk further to get to you and you can retreat before they are able to damage you much. This is
ranged heroes often have an easier time in lane. They do not have to be right next to the opponent
(and creeps) in order to attack unlike their melee counterparts.

Another more unique form of harassing is using arrow skills, such as those on Drow, Viper or
Clinkz. The creeps react to these skills like they do normal spells, that is they do not draw
aggression (must be manually cast, however). This is a nice way to get in extra attacks without
causing yourself to lose health from creep aggression.

When?
When should you harass? Not all the time. Some times you must play a bit more passively and
simply stay for experience. If, however, you are laned with a melee hero that is relatively item
dependent, it is often a good idea to harass so that person will be able to contend for last hits. If
you don't make this effort, the other team will be able to harass your heroes and force you to lose
some last hits and possibly experience.

What about in a solo lane against another solo? Harassing here is a bit safer since they will often
lack the power to kill you by themselves (unlike dual stun lanes, for example). In this case,
however, you are not contending with a teammate (or trying to support one) for last hits. This
means that if there is a last hit available and you elect to harass the opponent, the money from that
last hit does not go to your team. Wasted money is no good.

If you are in a solo lane vs two opponents, it is much more dangerous to harass (depending on the
opposing lane, of course, as some are much more dangerous than others). Many times in this
situation being content with some last hits and gaining EXP is best. Some heroes can “harass” in
these more difficult lanes through use of certain spells and also get last hits. Some examples
include Death Prophet's Carrion Swarm (timing the cast to hit heroes and get a last hit or two),
Zeus's Arc lightning and Leshrac's Lightning storm.

Tying in the Golden Rule

The more you harass, the more the enemy will have to retreat to regen or otherwise play
"passively" allowing you to farm more freely.

Here is a screenshot of myself and a friend playing a pretty formidable lane (NA/Lina) against the
not-so-strong lane of ES/PL.

The important thing to notice is the enemy's distance from the creep wave. There is almost no
chance of them getting any last hits without risking their lives (or using their long range spells).
My ally was harassing quite a bit and we still had plenty of mana to kill them should they step
close.

Note about aggression

If you have the ability to be aggressive, by all means take it. Seizing the initiative is very
important when talking about lane control. An enemy that is afraid of you will be much less likely
to engage you and will probably make poor decisions in an effort to return the balance. You
WILL (or should) be the target of ganks in this scenario, so make certain you are prepared (with
observer wards, mostly, or adequate "mia" calls from your teammates).

Hero Choice

With regards to early game laning, not all heroes were created equal. So what hero should you
choose? It's not always an easy question to answer. A lot of this depends on your opponents hero
choice (and skill level!) in addition to many other factors. Also, playing heroes you aren't
comfortable or familiar with is often pretty difficult, so before choosing a “top laning” hero be
sure to know what skill builds and item builds you would go under which circumstances.

Stunners/Combo Nukers

Heroes with stuns work particularly well in laning – after all when a hero is stunned he cannot
deal damage (excepting skills like pudge's rot or clockwork's battery for example) and certainly
cannot cast anything against you during this time. Also, you are free to get in a number of attacks
while they cannot retreat.

Particular combinations that work well are those which include two stuns – at least 1 of which
being targetable (f/ex storm bolt). When multiple stuns are landed in conjunction with normal
attacks, the enemy will lose a lot of health, if not all of it. With that being said, the enemy will be
much more apprehensive when approaching creeps to last hit.

* This is what you want the enemy to be scared of - they will be less able to get creep kills and
likely be more passive allowing you to last hit more freely - bringing forth yet again the golden
rule.

Some ideas to keep in mind possibilities for offensive lanes

At least one hero should have a targetable stun or slow. This serves two important purposes: 1)
damages the enemy hero; and 2) inhibits movement. Unlike strictly AoE spells, these do not miss
and allow for nice combos with other spells.
At least 1 ranged hero. Two melee hero lanes does not allow for much last hitting (or any
offensive tactics while the spells are on cooldown or you have insufficient mana) and are
generally forced to be passive due to the harassing edge the enemy will have.
Cooperative teammates. This is perhaps the most important one of all. If you and your lanemate
are not on the same page regarding aggression, there is no way you can expect to dominate a lane.
If he is passive, how well are you going to fare when you jump into the fray as he calmly last hits
creeps? Probably not very well. "Why didn't you go on that guy?" Communicate beforehand to
avoid any problems.

Healers

Heroes that have a healing spell can do well in lane since they will have to purchase less on HP
regen and can spend their money in other ways. Such examples include Warlock (Shadow Word),
Dazzle (Healing Wave), Omniknight (purification), Bane Elemental (Brain Sap), Necrolyte
(Death Pulse), Enchantress (Nature's Attendants), Bloodseeker (Blood Bath) and to a lesser
degree Lord of Avernus (Death Coil heals a teammate, but damages you). Many of these heroes
have an easier time in lane since they can replenish health in more ways than other heroes. Many
of these heals are also instant so they can be used for quickly gaining the upperhand in a fight.

Babysitters

These are the heroes that are item independent that can support a teammate in lane. Some of the
healers as mentioned above make good lane partners as they can aid their teammate when
necessary. There are also some offensive babysitters that make an easier time for their teammate
not because of defensive or healing capabilities but rather due to the threat of killing the
opponents.

Last Hitting/Denying

Base damage and attack animation are the two biggest concerns here. If you have higher base
damage than the opponent, you will be able to kill the creep at a slightly earlier time than your
opponent. You can increase your base damage by purchasing stat items (which you should
probably be doing anyways) of your hero's class. These are often the best choice for starting items
as they help your last hitting and can be built into useful items later. No, boots do NOT boost your
starting damage!

Attack animation

Again in this category not all heroes are created equal. Have you tried laning as Crystal Maiden
against a competent Sniper? Getting last hits and denies is pretty difficult. This is due to the attack
animations of the characters and each hero has a unique one. This is something that you simply
must play with and get used to as some people have an easier time than others with certain heroes.
Generally, faster projectiles (Sniper and Troll Warlord for examples) are easier to last hit with
than slower ones (Crystal Maiden, Lina).

To solo or not to solo - that is the question

Advantages - The Golden Rule strikes again

No competition for gold amongst lane partners (not a problem with disciplined babysitters but
those people probably won't be reading this!)
If you have a lane to yourself, you do not have to compete with an ally for last hits. This is mostly
a good thing as every creep can only be killed once yielding one bounty. It is for this same reason
that putting two item dependent heroes in the same lane is a bad idea, as they compete for farm.
Jump in experience
If you are laning by yourself, you do not share the experience with another hero leaving you with
all of the experience to advance in levels. This can be useful for a carry hero or a ganker. With a
ganker, it is a strong advantage to have high level nukes so that your ganks in other lanes are
successful (for example, a level 8/9 Tinker does 561 or so damage with laser/rocket to one hero
and 241 to another - if the lane you are ganking is level 5/6 the 561 is probably a LARGE chunk
of their HP)

* Do not take these 2 reasons and immediately call a solo lane. It is important you have a hero
suited for the lane to be able to take advantage of these perks. Imagine you call solo with slardar
and run to lane faced against Bane/Potm. Good luck living for long and good luck with last
hitting.

** Think about your team and not only who benefits most as a hero but also as a player.
Sometimes the less powerful hero might benefit more from the solo lane due to the actual player.
Remember that you can not all solo (or can you?).

Disadvantages
You become only target of enemy (for spells and harassing)

Yeah, you might have been the target of attacks before but now you have no one at your side to
back you up. The enemy has a much clearer target and due to being safer during the attack, will
probably be more aggressive.
You carry a bigger load for your team.
This can be seen as a good and a bad thing, but I will put it under bad. If you fail in your solo
lane, the gold and experience advantage that you SHOULD have had is squandered. That gold
and experience will not come back and is simply lost.

Example: you have called solo and proceed to middle. You aren't last hitting well and find
yourself against some tough dual lane. Your team's other lanes are doing alright but are sharing
the experience of dual lanes (and thus the money). You die multiple times. That farm/exp is lost.
Your team's levels are 6/6/7/7/7 (you are one of the 7s) creating a total of 33. The other team has
been doing well in all lanes (including the solo) and are levels 7/7/8/8/10 for a total of 40. This is
a level gap of 7 across the whole team and lets you know where you stand with the golden rule.
(Note: this example depends on heroes and a lot of other things as to whether or not the farm/exp
means a lot; it is just meant as a general case)
You will (likely) have a more difficult time harassing and killing the opponents

This ties into the first point but deserves its own as this is focused on offense and depriving the
enemy. Going back to the golden rule, you are trying to create a gap between yourself and the
opponent money/exp-wise. If you are unable to force them to retreat or kill them, their exp will
not suffer.

Blocking/Creep Line Dynamic

The creep line is the location where the creeps are fighting. This doesn't matter at all, right?
Wrong. If you here reading this guide, you probably have some interest in improving your lane
control and this is one of those topics that you need to know.

Notice here the location of the creep line (far left of the screen).

My buddy and I have done pretty well in lane and the opponents are quite far away (even missing
EXP). If the creep line were any closer to their tower, they would have protection from the tower
and we would not be able to maintain our aggressive post on "their" side of the wave.

Blocking the incoming creep wave (by dancing in front of the creeps to impede their progress)
can move the location of the creep line back towards your tower. Conversely, aoe spells that
damage all creeps are likely to move the creep line forward towards their tower. Ideally, you want
your tower nearby for protection but not so close as to take your last hits! (This will also push the
lane out).

The creep line's location has a big part in the success of ganks in that lane and many other things.
Note in the screenshot above even though our opponents are far from the wave, my teammate and
I are much more vulnerable to ganks since we are so far from our tower but very close to theirs.
Pulling
"Pulling" is when you tick off a neutral camp and get it to follow you to your creeps who then
fight with you to kill the neutral camp. This is covered in more detail here but basically allows
you to deprive the enemy of some experience (since your creeps are not near them) and also gives
you a chance at farm that you otherwise would not have had.

Importance of Ganks
Ganking is one of the best means of hurting the enemy team and it is very important to organize
ganks to kill the enemy carry. At this stage of the game (lanes have maybe broken down a bit,
some towers have fallen, etc.) you need to find the enemy carry and kill him. The golden rule still
applies but now there are other considerations - namely the farm/exp for a team's carry has a lot
more value than the farm/exp of a support hero. If you must sacrifice some farm for your team's
support heroes while limiting the enemy carry, this is a fine outcome. At the same time, your
carry is of great importance (and target of enemy ganks).

Importance of TP Scrolls
Teleport scrolls are extremely important in saving teammates and towers (namely
ganks/counterganks and teamfights at towers) since they allow you to be there almost instantly.

* Ganks: teleport into an opposing lane (preferably when the enemy cannot see you TPing in) and
gank the enemy team with a certain hero advantage.

* Counterganks: come quickly to help your teammates when the enemy starts to get close to your
tower. You will often be able to use the enemy's aggression against them and get a kill for your
team instead.

* Teamfights at towers: if you have something to contribute to a teamfight, you had better be
there for your team if it will make a difference in the outcome of the fight.

Knowing your opponents and their tendencies and abilities

This develops over time and is not as useful if you are not playing against the same people all the
time, but it helps to know how aggressive your opponent is. Are they content to sit back and farm
or will they consistently tower dive if there is even a chance of killing you? These sort of traits
about the opponent dictate how you should lane. Try to piece together everything you know about
your opponent (the hero AND the player) so that you are prepared for whatever they decide to do.

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."

02-25-2010 08:13 AM #5

Intermediate

Building Lanes

5 heroes, 3 lanes ( 1 jungle )

* Strong solo
o Heroes that CAN solo
o Heroes that SHOULD solo

* Duallane
o Babysitting
o Comboing
o What you shouldn't do (2 melee on one lane, 2 ranged on the other etc)
o Reference to pulling guide

* Jungle
o Reference to jungling guide
o How does it influence your laneup (is this an ok wordplay..?) (2 sololanes)

This guide needs to work hand in hand with other guides (jungling guide, pulling guide, lane
control guide, roaming guide (when is it time to leave the lanes etc))

Building lanes, that is the way of splitting up the five heroes on your team onto the three lanes on
the map. Right after hero picking and buying your starting items, this is the very first strategical
step in DotA and one which has a huge impact on the game. Now let's have a look at the possible
combinations locations you can go to after picking your hero.

Middle lane

Usually your solo hero goes here. The middle lane offers a lot of safety thanks to the hill and your
tower being very close to you. The middle lane also has easy access to both runespots and is able
to gank both sidelanes. It is also very hard to get a combo going against you because there is very
little room to do so.

Examples for solo heroes

A good solo hero is able to farm in the middle (preferably preventing your enemy from frarming
too) thus ranged and capable of ganking both sidelanes. It is also a hero which benefits a lot from
the additional experience (mid-lategame heroes). Good examples would be PotM, Shadow Fiend,
Lich or Tinker. Bad examples would be Stealth Assassin, Centaur, Spectre or Crystal Maiden.

Short lane (Top for Sentinel / Bottom for Scourge)

The short lane is the lane where the creeps clash far away from your own tower. It's the most
dangerous lane for your team because if you have a combo laned against you, it's a long way to
safety, also an enemy hero which comes to gank you will be able to approach you from behind,
cutting off your escape route. Usually you should put your own combo on this lane, preferably
two stunners and at least one ranged. Do not put a solo hero on this lane.

Examples for short lane heroes

Anything that could combo and/or has an escape mechanism. There should also be means to
prevent the enemy from farming too much. Worst case scenario is that the enemy carry hero is
farming like crazy and you cannot stop it. Do not put dual melee lanes or carry heroes top. Good
examples would be SK/Lina, Sven/Lesh or Venge/Lion. Bad examples would be Bristleback/SK
(dual melee), Spectre/Invoker (carry) or any solo lane.
Long lane (Bottom for Sentinel / Top for Scourge)

The long lane is the safe, relaxing lane. The creeps are usually close to your own tower, you have
plenty of room to combo/gank your enemies and you can pull neutral creeps. The long lane is the
lane where you can place your farmer hero to creep safely. In case there is a jungle hero, this is
the lane where the second solo hero should be, because the jungle hero can assist the solo hero
and because you absolutely do not want to have your second solo on the short lane.

Examples for long lane heroes

A babysit-lane (a carry and a hero to secure his farm by either harassing the enemies or
preventing him from being harassed), a combo lane, your second solo lane.. pretty much anything
can be put on the long lane. Good examples would be Warlock/Spectre, Panda/Venge,
Meepo/Jakiro or a solo hero. Bad examples are hard to tell because if you have a garbage lane
(remember all 5 heroes have to lane somewhere..) that lane should be bottom.

The Jungle
To learn more about jungling, go here. Remember when jungling that this means you have two
solo heroes. If you just don't have two solo heroes, don't jungle. This could be a bit less benefical
for you, however it will be a lot better for the hero who else would be forced to jungle and
ultimately your entire team.

Roaming
A very unique and sometimes risky way of playing. Read more about it here.

===============================

Jungling/Neutral Creeping

Neutral creeping in general refers to fighting one of the neutral camps at any point in the

game, but for this article I will talk about neuting from level 1.

This strategy is quite powerful if you know what you are doing, so some practice is in order.

General Information

- The first wave of neutral creeps spawn at 0:30

- After this, neutrals will spawn at each camp on every minute (x:00)

- Creeps will not spawn if a unit is within a certain rectangular area of the given creep camp at the
next minute mark
- This includes your hero, any creeps (neutral or otherwise), wards and DEAD creeps (that leave a
corpse - a creep takes between 15 and 20 seconds to disappear, so if you kill a camp at x:55
leaving a corpse in the area, the next wave will not spawn)

- All neutral creeps have some AI (some are "smarter" than others)
- higher level creeps (level 5/6) will attack a low hp hero rather than creeps
- predictability of neutral creep AI will allow you to jungle effectively

- High level Centaurs/Furbolgs will use their stomps when 3 units are at melee range
- High level Satyrs will send out a shockwave when 2 units are in range of the wave (careful of
chicken!)

- Neutrals can be "kited" by ranged heroes due to their predictable aggression patterns

- Since neutrals will not respawn at the designated time if units are in the area, you can pull the
neutral creeps out of this area and make an additional camp (creep stacking) by engaging the
creeps and then running out of the area

Advantages of Jungling

* Gives your team an additional solo lane (increased EXP, money for you AND the team as a
whole)
* You do not have to compete for last hits against allies/enemies
* Easier time ganking (since you are always "mia" and can pop out at the best time)
* If pulling, you can decrease the enemy's experience/money gain
* Some heroes perform better in jungle (can farm better unhindered by enemy)
* An entertaining change of pace from conventional laning

Other notes

- lots of starting builds are acceptable but in general, HP/mana regen (depending on hero) is
essential
- practice is required in pretty much EVERY case (except maybe Enigma ^.^) in order to get good
experience/farm

So - Who makes a good jungler?

Summoners

Enchantress, Syllabear, Enigma, Furion, Chen, Lycanthrope, Broodmother

AoE spells/abilities

Juggernaut, Beastmaster, Bristleback, Pandaren Brewmaster, Leviathan (Anchor Smash), Axe,

Dark Seer, Centaur Warchief (Return)

Other

Troll Warlord (Blind, kiting), Bloodseeker (Blood bath), Naix (Feast), Terrorblade
(Images/meta/pulling), Ursa (Fury Swipes)

Note (Tree Destroyers)

Both BMs, Furion - expand upon this

In actuality, many heroes can jungle - even more than the ones I listed. In terms of difficulty,
however, these ones are generally a bit easier than others, so try these to start. Also, just because
you CAN jungle doesn't mean that you should given the hero lineups.

Summon Strategy
Summoners have a wonderful aspect to their neutralling - they have a built in tank! The most
important thing to keep in mind here is to make the most out of that tank.

* Many summons cost significant mana: prioritize mana regen over HP regen in these cases
(clarities or perhaps a RoB/Sobi)
* Have you and your summon(s) attack the same creep (fewer creeps = less damage)
* Once your summon is low in HP, move the summon back so that another summon or a hero can
tank for a bit allowing the hurt summon to attack (particularly important with Enigma)
* If the summon is about to expire to time, it should tank as much as possible (even dying)
* you can also send the summon to scout (rune location, perhaps)
* Remember that your summons (as well as hero) will block the next spawn if they are within the
designated area
* Do not forget about your other abilities and forgo ganking if there is a good opportunity
(especially in the case of Enchantress/Chen who can use their neutral creeps)

AoE spells/abilities

* Take into account the nature of your jungler: if the hero is mana independent for jungling, spend
more on HP regen items/HP boosting items or a stout shield
* Axe, Centaur, etc.
* Use creep stacking to maximize the value of your spells (Axe w/ Counter Helix; Dark Seer with
Ion Shell; Leviathan with Anchor Smash)
* Use creep pulling have your creeps tank a bit of damage for you
* If mana dependent, consider a bottle (HP/Mana Regen + Rune capturing) or clarities
* If possible, try to kite the creep camps to minimize damage (though this takes more time)

Specific Camps and how to tackle the jungle

Here is an overview map of the Jungle.

These rectangular areas are the ones I was referring to earlier regarding "CREEP RESPAWN."
You do not have to memorize them but be familiar with the general area so you can position
yourself far enough away come the next minute.

Small Camps (one of these sets of neutrals will spawn in the small locations)

* 2 Fel Boars/1 Ghost

* 3 Gnoll Assassins
* 1 Kobold Taskmaster/2 Troll Beserkers
* 1 Troll High Priest/2 Troll Beserkers
* like 200 little Kobold dudes
This is often the best camp to try to fight as it is very easy to take in the early levels (in fact, often
it will be the only one you can take without requiring a full HP heal). This should be where you
start your journey (unless you are Chen/Enchantress and can dominate a creep).

Medium Camps

* 2 Normal Wolves/1 Alpha Wolf (command aura)

* 1 Centaur Khan (stomp)/1 Centaur Runner
* 2 lvl4 Satyrs (mana burn)/2 Satyr Tricksters (purge)
* 1 Ogre Magi (frost armor)/2 Ogres
* 2 Mud golems (magic immune)

The medium camps are important ones since the topmost (scourge) and lowermost (sentinel) are
the ones that you use for creep pulling. The mud golems are generally the worst to fight as they
deal a lot of damage and are immune to many spells (enchant/persuasion, conversion, ion shell,
etc.).

- High level Centaur Khans will use their stomps when 3 units are at melee range: keep this in
mind when pulling or using summons. Try to bait the Centaur into using his stomp by getting in
range and then quickly leaving range.

Large Camps

* 1 Centaur Khan (stomp)/1 Centaur Runner (same as medium level)

* 2 Furbolgs (white one has a stomp, red one doesn't)
* 1 Satyr Hellcaller (shockwave), 1 lvl4 satyr (mana burn), 1 Satyr trickster (purge)
* 2 Little Blue Trolls/1 Dark Troll Warlord (with net/summon skeletons)
* 1 Enraged Wildkin (tornado)/2 Baby Wildkins

These camps are the most difficult to kill. It is not a good idea to take these early but with
summons and good micro, this can be done (better to take other camps first, however, to level up
until these are easy).

I will not mention the ancients much since that takes a lot of gear in most cases as well as a lot of
time. Lycan, however, (as one example) can take ancient camps at hero lvl7 (lvl4 wolves) with a
vladmirs offering.

Creep Pulling

This term refers to pulling a neutral creep wave out of their camp's location for some other
purpose. Most of the time, the purpose is to have allied creeps aid you in fighting the neutral
camp, an EXTREMELY useful tactic to employ.

* Allows you to avoid taking damage since your creeps fight for you
* Denies some enemy experience since your creeps may die to neutrals
* Useful while your summons are on CD or you do not have sufficient mana
* Greatly disturbs the creep wave line (first, brings the "wave" way back under your tower and
after the creeps have finished engaging, there will be a push back in the other direction towards
the enemy tower as your wave will contain more creeps)
* Can be done by any hero, not just those with good jungling abilities
* Pulls on the two primary camps should be done at approximately x:15/x:45 but can be a bit
varied (easy to do with a few times of practice)
* Makes it difficult for enemy team to lane as they will have to proceed far past tower to stay in
exp range (or go to the neutral area where you have creeps and they do not)

*Since these spawns are blockable by use of wards, teams in higher level play will often place a
ward in the spawning rectangle in order to prevent the neutrals from spawning. This makes the
lane easier for them.

The two primary camps that are used for pulling are the topmost medium camp on scourge (near
top 1st tower) and the bottommost medium camp on sentinel (near bottom 1st tower).

- If the camp you are pulling contains a Centaur Khan (lvl5 with stomp), he will stomp you/allied
creeps if 3 units are in range of the stomp. Your creeps will lose their agro towards the camp if
this happens and they are out of acquisition range (make sure to keep vision of these creeps when
pulling on sentinel side so allied creeps will know where to go).

Creep Stacking

This term refers to a special technique of pulling the neutral creeps away from the rectangular
area just as the next minute occurs (thus allowing another set of creeps to spawn as no units are in
the rectangle).

This is particularly valuable for heroes with AoE abilities or anyone that can take the extra
damage. I would advise this with Axe as often as you can, Centaur, Dark Seer, plenty of
summoners and maybe Leviathan (but not early).

Using this technique allows you more experience and gold than you would have gained by killing
the creep camp in the x:40 - x:59 window in the rectangular area. The exact time varies from
camp to camp but it is generally x:52 - x:55. Note that if you are trying to stack a camp with a
satyr trickster in it as a melee hero, he will purge you slowing your movement (and the neutral's
movement) so you may need to start earlier in this case.

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."

02-25-2010 08:32 AM #6

Intermediate

Runes

Basic Information

* Runes are powerups that spawn on every even minute (0:00, 2:00, 4:00, etc.)
* There are 5 types of runes: illusion, regeneration, double damage, haste and invisibilty
* The rune will spawn randomly at one of two designated locations in the river (top or “bot” rune)
* If there is a rune that still remains at its starting location (that is, it has not been bottled, used or
destroyed, another will NOT spawn at the next 2 minute mark)
* Runes can be captured and used later through use of a bottle (also refilling your bottle's 3
charges)

Useful tips

* Shift-clicking on the rune will allow you to pick it up without stopping and might make the
difference between you surviving and dying.
* If you coordinate with your teammate to check one rune and you check the other, you are much
more likely to get the rune for your team. Talk with your teammates about this!

Importance of Wards and Rune Control

If you have not read a guide for warding and do not have much experience in warding, I urge you
to read this. I will not go deep into warding but will mention the importance of warding rune
locations.

If you place an observer ward at the rune location, you will have knowledge of any activity in that
location for 6 minutes. That is a lot of time in game. So why are the rune locations more
important than other areas of the map? In games where ganking is prevalent, the river and rune
locations are primary points of travel. Other than Furion and Boots of Travel wielders, an enemy
will have to walk in order to gank you (how much is dependent on where they TP and where you
are, of course). A lot of times they will walk over the rune areas as it provides an entrance into the
neutral areas and subsequently top and bottom lanes. Having sight of this area means you can spot
ganks before they occur and be ahead of the enemy. Also, should they grab a rune, you will know
of this and be able to react accordingly.

Try to coordinate with your teammates about checking both rune locations at the spawn times so
your team is guaranteed to get the rune. Tell your bottom lane “I'm checking top rune” and ask
them to check bottom (or other similar calls). Runes often set ganks in motion as they provide an
undeniable advantage in many situations.

Solo Mid Battles

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your standing with lady luck), a lane can be
completely won or lost based on runes. I have been on both ends of this and suffice it to say that
when all else is equal (approximate laning skills), the person who controls the runes will win the
battle. It is VERY important that you try to make sure this is you, but remember that each time
you leave the lane you are missing out on experience and potential gold. At the same point, you
might lose MORE experience and gold if the enemy gets a rune that causes you to die. You also
miss out on the opportunity to do this to your enemy so be mindful of runes and their power in
winning a lane. Additionally, successful ganks that come with runes can also easily win another
lane.

Functions of Runes

Haste

Grants the hero maximum movespeed (522 ms) for the entire 30 second duration of the rune.
This is always an exciting rune to find for its utility in many different situations. Some of these
situations include:

* Positioning for hard to position (non-targetable) spells (Axe's Beserker's Call; Centaur's Stomp)

The enemy has a much shorter window to react when you come at them at maximum speed.

* Performing additional attacks when the enemy is retreating

With haste, you can very quickly close the ground and get in additional attacks that you would not
have had given your normal movespeed (See guide on animation cancelling for proper use of
this).

* Escaping precarious spots

Just be certain when trying more risky maneuvers that the duration of haste will not expire mid-
fight causing your death.

* Traversing large distances

Be mindful of the duration as you do not want it to expire leaving you with no escape plan.

Bottle Usage

If you pick up a haste rune in a bottle, it is often wise to save it for sticky situations that you
otherwise might not be able to escape from. If you wait until you start to engage the enemy before
activating, you will be able to use the entire 30 second duration during the fight. These seconds
you might have wasted earlier in getting to the lane might mean the difference between your
survival and death.

Additional thoughts

This rune is almost always a welcome pickup for a ganker and thus should often be reserved for
those who can make particular good use out of it. If you simply plan on going back to your lane
and farm with it, it saves you a bit of time, yes, but could perhaps have been better used by
someone ganking. If none of your teammates are close enough to pick it up, you should grab it
regardless of what you plan on doing with it. It is better for your team to have it than the
opponent's team.

Invisibilty

The invisibility rune grants the user 45 seconds of invisibility (cannot be seen except with true
sight) or until the user issues an attack command or casts a spell.
Positioning for hard to position spells (during ganking)
Invisibility is in most cases better for this purpose than is a haste rune as the opponent has NO
time to react (well, they actually have a very small window if there is a frontswing on the spell,
but that is a different matter)
*Caveat - make sure to communicate with your teammate when you are invisible. Often your
teammate will simply look at the minimap and see your dot, not realizing you are invisible. Make
certain that you are ready to engage AND your teammate is ready.
Scouting behind enemy lines
If the enemy team has a number of members missing from the minimap, you can use the invis
rune to safely investigate areas that you do not have sight of. Be careful not to go to close to
towers as they have truesight and you will be spotted.
Escaping enemies
If you are running along in the river being chased by enemies and find an invis rune, it will often
save your life. You can also use this to juke any aoe spell that hits invis if you grab it in river by
quickly changing directions upon picking it up (be careful, there is a short fade time of 2 seconds
during which the enemy can see any direction you may go).

Bottle Usage

This is a great rune to have in bottle as unsuspecting enemies that do not think you have an escape
mechanism (if you are a hero without blink/ww). If you do not have a difficult to position spell,
consider saving this rune for use as an escape. If you have one of those tougher to land spells,
using it to initiate is normally a better choice.

Also, given the 2 second fade time, you can still cast spells before you go invisible even after
activating the rune. One frequent usage of this technique is clicking the bottle once immediately
after using the invis rune thus giving yourself the rune charge you otherwise would not have had.
If you try this after the fade time, you will break invisibility and not be able to get it back.

Illusion Rune

The illusion rune spawns 2 illusions that look exactly like your hero. These images take 400%
damage and deal 50% damage and last for 75 seconds or until they die. (verify numbers)

* Scouting enemy territory

Sending an illusion into enemy lines where you do not have vision is a safe way of gaining
information about the enemy's whereabouts.

Another important thing for certain heroes that falls under this category is scouting the map for
blink/teleportation possibilities. If no character on your team has been to a particular location on
the map (and thus it hasn't been revealed to anyone's minimap) you will be unable to blink or
teleport to this area. In certain cases you may be trying to escape to one of these areas and find out
too late that you are unable to blink there. Use one of your illusions early on to scout this area so
that you will be able to blink/teleport there later. This only applies to Furion, QoP and Anti-mage
(or those with blink daggers).

* Baiting enemy spells

When they see “you” approaching them, they might use one or more spells on you. Remember
not to send both illusion runes or else they will know that you have an illusion rune (but you can
send 1 in with you and go yourself causing them to think both are illusion runes and making them
“relax” since illusion runes can't cast spells – did that Sand King illusion just burrowstrike me??)
Be careful not to attack or take damage with these illusions, however, as both allow the enemy to
make sense of the situation very quickly.

Here I send in one of my illusions knowing that ES will likely use fissure.

He took the bait and my allied Lina and I can go in for the kill as his only solid defense is
currently cooling down.

I will also include in this category the idea of placing your illusion in lane while you are off
ganking. It serves a similar purpose (deceiving the opponent) as baiting enemy spells. When you
are "casually farming" your lane, the enemy hero will not report you as missing to teammates.

* Damage increase

In some situations, you may want to simply take the illusions back with you to lane and help you
last hit or harass the enemy. They will help you last hit and if you send to the enemy they will be
forced to tank a bit of damage or retreat – both of which are good outcomes for you.

* Creep pull/Creep manipulations

If you have decent micro and timing, you can use the illusions to pull a neutral creep camp (either
allowing a double spawn or so that allied creeps will come attack). The double camp may be
worthwhile if you have an AoE spell which takes out multiple units.

You can also use these to divert enemy creeps from the lane. The enemy creeps do not know that
the illusion isn't real so they will pursue it as if it were actually you. Send it behind a tower (not
through the tower's path or else it will die) and drag the creeps to a different location.

* Camping certain locations (rune, woods) as “observer wards”

Since runes are relatively important, you should try to control them if possible. One way of
determining where a rune spawns is by sending an illusion to one of the rune locations shortly
before the next even minute. In this way, they function as observer wards. Similarly, if you send
an illusion to the nearby woods where you do not have vision, you will be alerted of any incoming
ganks from that direction. This might give you enough time to retreat to the safety of a tower or
TP away if you spot an incoming gank.

Bottle Usage

Storing this rune in a bottle doesn't provide the same benefits as with the other runes, but you still
get to better control where and when the illusions are deployed (and you also get your charges
refilled – always a good thing!)

Additional Notes

Illusions will carry certain effects from different heroes along with them.

* Radiance
* Axe's Counter Helix

Double Damage

Increases the hero's damage by 100% for 45 seconds. It does NOT take into account pure damage
items (Divine Rapier, Buriza, etc.) but rather your base damage and stat increasing items (agi, str,
int).

This rune has some fun uses, all of which deal with beating the heck out of your opponents,
creeps, towers, rosh, ancients, etc. I won't be as specific about uses since pretty much ANY
situation is good for this rune.

I will mention, however, that during ganks this should be reserved for the hero best able to get in
a lot of attacks. If you give this to a hero that won't attack at all (for example, a Rhasta channeling
shackles) it is of little to no use. Also, in the very early going, it is probably better to give it to a
ranged hero as they will likely be able to get in additional attacks (through animation cancelling
and/or kiting).

Double damage can be purged away, so if you are a melee hero fighting the satyr neutral camp,
you might want to use the DD rune elsewhere while you have it.

Bottle Usage

This is a pretty good rune to have in a bottle since it can surprise your opponent and turn the fight
in your favor. If they accurately assess a fight with you accounting for your normal attack damage
(if you were to get in a number of hits) but do not know of your DD rune in bottle, they might
engage in a losing fight with you. If you wait a bit to pop the rune while it is too late for them to
run, you will nab yourself a kill.

Regeneration

Heals your hero 100hp/second and 67 mana/second for 30 seconds or until you take damage.

Like the haste and invisibility runes, this rune can quickly turn defense into offense. For the
majority of the game, this rune refills all of your hp and mana - a very worthwhile rune indeed.
* Using your mana while regen is on

If you have a spell or two that is off cooldown (preferably a low cooldown spell – don't go
blowing your ult just because you have regen) you should attempt to use it before you are hit – the
regen will give the mana back to you very quickly.

* Avoiding a fountain trip (by walking/TP)

If you are very low in hp and would otherwise return to fountain, check the nearby rune to see if it
is regen (assuming it is safe to do so). Allowing you to avoid the fountain trip is worth a lot of
time. This could be refilling after a gank, after roshan, neutrals, escaping someone's clutches, etc.

Bottle Usage

Here is where regen really shines. Through use of a bottle you can trade blows (wasting HP and
mana) with your opponent and quickly be back at full. Particularly wise usages include entering a
fight with your opponent and then hiding under fog cover. The enemy will likely be more relaxed
and perhaps will not even call “mia” since you are on your way back to heal. They might even
elect to stay in lane at low HP knowing that you do not have sufficient mana or hp to fight with
them. You then show up a few seconds later will full HP and mana ready to gank anyone or just
to continue farming.

It is important to use some of your mana before you pop the rune, as otherwise you are wasting
some of the effectiveness – your spell could have damaged the enemy and caused them to retreat
or use some form of regeneration and you will still have full mana shortly thereafter.

Here is an example in which properly timed regen usage nets me a kill and I avoid death:

I am hiding from an enemy Ogre Magi while ignite's effects wear off (so I can use regen)

Allied Lich comes to my aid and distracts the Ogre Magi giving me time to get away.
My regen has filled me back up and I can rejoice as we skip off to ice cream.

===============================

Warding

Few things are more important in DotA than having vision of your opponents. At its core, DotA is
a strategy game and in order to make the best strategic decisions, it is key to have as much
information as possible. While your team often has vision of the lanes due to the presence of
creeps and towers, the lanes make up a relatively small portion of the map. Warding the other
areas on the map gives your team a huge tactical advantage, but your stock of Wards is quite
limited and refills very slowly. Therefore it is important to place each ward in a place that gives
you the maximum sight radius. This guide is certainly not a comprehensive list of warding
locations in DotA, but it covers all of the fundamental ones. Feel free to experiment and find your
own useful locations!

Rune Spots

The two most important warding locations on the map are the cliffs that overlook the top and
bottom rune spawns. Not only do these wards show your team what rune has spawned and where
it has spawned, but they also will spot most enemies traveling from lane to lane for ganking. They
boost your offense by giving your team rune control and boost your defense by spotting ganks, it
doesn't get much better than that. These spots are very important to have covered early and
midgame, but become far less important later on because the lategame tends to involve more 5 on
5 team battles than ganks.

Forests

Wards can be placed in the enemy forest for two reasons: preventing neutral creep spawns and
spotting heroes to pick off. Early in the game it can be very beneficial to block a creep spawn,
shutting off the enemy's ability to creep pull their lane. Jungling heroes are also very easy to pick
off in the earlygame, so if you can spot them with a ward, it's not hard to go take them out and
stunt their farming. Late in the game, the forest is generally considered to be one of the safest
places to farm, so having a ward there will often give your team opportunities to pick people off
and then take a tower while you have an advantage.

Near the Enemy Base

Wards near the opposing base are nearly useless for the majority of the game, but when you are
trying to push for victory, they suddenly be coming very important. It's often quite hazardous to
push a base, you're fighting uphill against a tower and your opponents have plenty of room to
come at you from all directions. A well-placed ward will let you know how your enemies plan to
defend and prevent your team from getting caught off-guard. Picking off the guy that was meant
to ambush you from behind, because your team spotted him with a ward can be the play that wins
the game for your team. Always try to have ward cover when you attempt a push!

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."

03-03-2010 06:51 PM #7

Advanced

Animations

The winners in battle are sometimes decided by hundredths of a second, where squeezing in an
extra attack or spell separates victory from defeat. This guide is meant for more experienced
players who would like to learn how to optimize the time they spend on their spells and attacks,
though in-depth knowledge of their hero's animations. Knowing how to deal the most damage in
the least amount of time is often a key to success when you are faced with strong opponents.

Attacks

Attack Animation: The actions that any unit must go through in order to release a physical
attack, consisting of a damage point and damage backswing.

Damage Point - The animation from when the unit begins to attack and goes through the
command. For ranged heroes, this is when the projectile is released, whereas for melee heroes the
damage is dealt at the damage point.

Damage Backswing - The animation that finalizes the attack animation, its importance is nothing
more than cosmetic. This is the portion of the attack that can and should be cancelled by inputting
another command immediately after the damage point has passed.

Example: Bloodseeker is known for his ability to chase heroes. Although he has a decent attack
point, his backswing afterwards is about 70% longer! By using a move command immediately
after the damage is dealt, you can continue closing in on your opponent before your next attack.
These additional attacks can be crucial and could be the difference between getting the kill and
surviving (thanks to Bloodbath) and dying. Check out the difference between his first attempt to
kill Leoric, without canceling the backswing, and the second attempt with canceling. He kills a
full two seconds more quickly!

Spells

Casting Animation: Heroes with spells must go through an animation that consists of two parts,
the casting point and the casting backswing.
Casting Point - This is the time between where an order for a spell has been given, to when the
spell is actually cast. By canceling here (like with stop command), the unit will not cast the spell
and the spell will not begin cooling down.

Casting Backswing - This is the animation which is purely cosmetic after a spell has been cast.
This portion of the casting can and should be canceled to prevent your hero from simply standing
there moving his or her wand.

Example: Crystal Maiden has a fairly impressive casting point of 0.3 seconds when using her
spells. However, after casting her spell she begins a long animation where she begins moving her
wand around. While it might look pleasing cosmetically, this animation takes 2.4 seconds to
finish! You could have been attacking your enemy or casting another spell during this time
instead by issuing another command on your hero. Check out the difference between how long it
takes her to start an attack after the spell the first time without canceling, and the second time
with canceling.

Channeling Spells - Spells like Sand King's Epicenter and Enigma's Black Hole require you to
stay in place for the duration of the cast. The spell will immediately use up mana and go into
cooldown, so canceling it (either by yourself or from being interrupted by an enemy) before the
spell has finished casting will result in nothing happening.

Delayed Casting Time - Certain spells, such as Furion's Teleportation, Kardel's Assassinate and
Nevermore's Requiem of Souls have a longer cast point than their other spells. If they are
canceled before they finish casting, the spell will simply reset and the cost is not used as with any
other spell.

Special Properties - There are five abilities in the game that are based on the ability "Fan of
Knives" and have the special distinction of having a zero cast point. This means that their effect
happens the moment you use them and if you issue another command immediately to cancel the
casting backswing, you can use these abilities without even stopping for a moment. These
abilities are:

* Queen of Pain's Scream of Pain

* Tinker's Heat Seeking Missile
* Earthshaker's Echo Slam
* Necrolyte's Death Pulse
* Bristleback's Quill Spray

Example: Here you will first see a Queen of Pain fail to cancel her Scream of Pain animation,
losing a lot of time. Then she tries again she executes it properly, casting with no loss to her
movement speed thanks to proper canceling of her backswing.

Items

Items with active abilities like Mekansm and Arcane Ring are incredibly easy to use because they
have no animations at all. They have zero cast point and backswing so their effects occur instantly
and there is never a need to cancel them. This means that you can maintain completely fluid
motion by shift-queuing item uses. For example, you could click a Guinsoo on someone and shift-
queue an attack order on them, so that your hero will start to attack them the moment that
Guinsoo goes off.
The only downside to this is that there is no opportunity to cancel your item use. The moment you
click a Town Portal Scroll on the map, it casts, and you have no opportunity to take it back. So,
just remember to be careful when using your activated items, they are powerful when used
correctly, but they do not easily forgive mistakes and misclicks.

==============================

Blocking in Combat

The battle is close, your allies need help, but your spells are cooling and your basic attack won't
do enough. Don't just stand around, your hero has a body -- get in there and put it to use!
Blocking is one of the most neglected, yet useful, techniques in combat. If you've been practicing
your lane control, by now you should know that you can jump in front of your creeps in order to
slow them down. The exact same principle can be applied to enemy heroes.

Note: If you haven't read about how to block units yet, go check it out in the Lane Control article
before reading on.

Introduction

Blocking is an awesome trick to have up your sleeve on both offense and defense. It can prevent
an enemy from escaping the fight or save an ally that is getting chased down. The best part is that
you can do it with practically any unit in the game! It doesn't matter what hero you have, how
much mana you have left, how long your spells have left to cool -- you can always step in and
block someone.

The most common to block is to prevent someone's escape. If your allies are nearby, but not quite
in range to help, a couple of seconds of blocking can keep your target around until they arrive.
For example:

VIDEO CLIP COMING SOON!

Blocking to Save Allies

Blocking to save your allies is far more dangerous, if your team already is at a disadvantage in the
fight, getting in close with your opponents to block them will often mean that you die in the
process. However, it can certainly be worth it to trade your own support hero for the escape of
your team's carry, or sometimes it's a question of if both of you die or one goes back to block so
that the other lives. Blocking is at its most effective for saving your teammates against melee-
range chasing heroes, like Lycanthrope and Clockwerk. A morphed Lycan is certainly fast, but if
you can get between him and his target, you can often prevent him from getting the kill.

VIDEO CLIP COMING SOON!

Blocking with Blink

Heroes with Blink have a special advantage, in that they can almostly instantly jump anywhere
they want on the battlefield to get in somebody's way. For instance, a Sandking who's
Burrowstrike is cooling, but has Blink ready doesn't haven't to sit around and wait for Burrow to
cool to get back into the fight. He can Blink in front of his target and slow them down until
Burrow comes up. Blinking directly in front of someone is especially useful for Antimage, as it
will block them and allow him to land several extra hits.

VIDEO CLIP COMING SOON!

Blocking with Illusions and Summons

Blocking is not only a technique for every hero, but also a great way to get extra mileage out of
illusion runes and summons. You can get a lot of extra attacks off on an enemy by ordering your
real hero to attack them, then switching to controlling your illusion or summon and blocking that
enemy. This is a rather advanced technique, as it requires you to be able to maintain a block with
the illusion, while not losing track of your actual hero. Don't worry if you can't get manage it on
the first couple of tries, but it's a useful trick and worth putting some practice into.

VIDEO CLIP COMING SOON!

Mindgames

It's also worth noting that a lot of mindgames go into blocking someone. While sometimes there's
only one direction that they can go to escape and it's not hard to cut them off, this will not always
be the case. Often in order to block someone, you'll have to make a guess on which way they are
going to go. At that point, blocking becomes a mindgame, and there can be a huge payoff if you
predict your opponent well. For example, check out this clip where slahser's Warlock takes down
KuroKy's Shadowfiend by anticipating the direction he'll run when he reaches the trees.

VIDEO CLIP COMING SOON!

Summary

While blocking can be hard to get the hang of at first, especially when using other units to do it
while still controlling your hero or trying to predict your enemies, it's well-worth learning.
Besides, since you can do it with practically any unit in the game, you'll never be short of
opportunities to practice it. Best of luck!

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."

03-06-2010 04:16 AM #8

Roaming, Soloing and Support

Roaming

Roaming happens early-game and involves moving between lanes, hopefully unseen, and
focusing your efforts on killing and hence keeping down enemy heroes and allowing your allies
an advantage in their lanes. Clearly some heroes roam better than others, and these are often those
with some kind of skill which can be casted often (low CD/manacost/both), and gets a lot of its
power without levelling it to max (as you want it to be powerful from the get-go).
To successfully gang you need allies, the runes can also be very helpful, and seeing as how you'll
not often be tied down to a specific lane, they'll often be at your disposal. A successful gank
requires allies and good timing. As a rule, wait until your gankee is overextended and then strike,
use your primary attack first to chip them down, then throw a slow/stun as they start to run away
to maximise the usage of your spell. This is important as these early-game ganks can often come
down to whiskers of remaining HP so you have to squeeze every last amount of use out of yoru
spells.
Finally, manaregen, hp regen and small advantages over your opponents in terms of items are
hugely important to all roaming heroes. As such, empty bottle is pretty much a no-brainer, giving
you the means to use yoru spells more frequently and get the most out of any runes you discover,
and in many cases early boots of speed, perhaps even as first item, will let you get kills you might
not have otherwise gotten.

Roaming Heroes

Venomancer

Veno is an excellent roaming hero from the very beginning of the game, his Venomous Gale
allows him amazing ganking power due to the strong damage and the exceedingly powerful slow.
Without runes Venomancer is nasty, with runes he is often fatal. Try to wait for the opponent to
overextend themself in the lane and then strike with an ally. As you level up you obtain an
additional slow in the form of poison sting, and more sources of damage in the levelled up Gale
and Poison Nova so veno's roaming remains potent for the most-part of the early game.

Vengeful Spirit

Venge is another excellent roaming hero, although less powerful than veno on the first couple of
levels in general, venge's roaming power really takes off after you obtain some more levels in stun
and later swap as well. THe fact that missile is instant damage, rather than damage over time, and
that it is a stun rather than a slow combined with the possibility to use your stun twice in one gank
because of its low cooldown mean that venge becomes one of the most powerful mid-earlygame
roamers around. With some good warding for nether swap, and some timely ganks, a well-played
venge can devastate what might otherwise have been powerful lanes.
 Tidehunter

Tide is very similar to venge and veno in how his roaming actually plays out, he approaches from
the back and uses gush to slow them etc. However, he is far tougher than either of the above, and
this allows him a certain amount of leeway in his ganks. ON top of that, unlike veno, his spell
takes away armour from the opponents, and when this is combined with the possibility of an
anchor smash, tide can do and aid in the doing of some especially potent damage. Furthermore,
when Tide hits level 6 his ultimate means that, with enough mana, you can often ensure a kill
every time it is cooled down. Mana, however, is a problem for tide, his low intelligence mean that
he struggles to regenerate (and have a decent-sized pool of) mana, so bottle and hence runes are
very important to him. However, if you fix these flaws along with a small amount of HP, tide can
survive like this for the whole game, meaning that once you have these problems solved you can
cause havoc all over the map.

Rogue Knight and Skeleton King

Sven & Leoric are both similar roamers, stormbolt is used as your ganging spell, and the main
power of these heroes comes from that spell combined with their relative fatness. A sven/Leoric
had a LOT of hp, even more when you consider that they can easily level stats early in the game,
and this means that they can dive right through yoru tower and creeps to land two or more
stormbolts early in the game, mana permitting. Roaming for the whole game is unwise with them,
as they (particularly Skeletong King) are fairly farm-reliant, but some timely roaming at an early-
stage can give your team a strong advantage which can be built on to achieve victory. The style is
similar to that of venge or veno.

Earthshaker

Shaker is a fairly unorthodox but extremely powerful roaming hero in the right hands. The key
here is fissure which gains full duration and range at level one. Early-game fights, particularly in
solo lanes, are often fairly close, and this is where shaker comes in, with a timely fissure you can
stun and cut off the escape of an enemy, netting a kill for your ally and hopefully winning him the
lane. Another important factor is the presence of shaker in the game, while all roaming heroes
force a certain caution onto the enemies, shaker's potential impact is so great, and his range of
influence so wide that simply the fact that he is roaming can often force the enemies to play more
passively. This can result in an ally not only getting kills but also getting freefarm as well, and the
potential impact should not be underestimated. Despite the potential rewards, shaker is an
incredibly hard hero to roam with, fissure and hence shaker are hard to use at the best of times,
but in this case you don't have the safety blanket of farming up a blink dagger and hence your ulti
to fall back on. A roaming shaker is a naked shaker, you're playing with your skills and your allies
abilities alone. Furthermore, shaker has unusually high manademands for a roaming hero; both
bottle and clarities are highly important in making sure that you have the mana to actually have an
impact in ganks.

Juggernaut

Jugger is a fairly simple, albeit challenging, roaming hero. He relies on the raw damage of spin to
dispatch enemies early game. Clearly he has no stun or slow here, and although his innately high
movespeed, and possibly early boots, can help him to a certain extent, using an allied
disabler/slower is advisable to make the most out of jugger. A shadowstrike or a Shakle can allow
you to get off a full blade spin on an enemy hero which, in almost all cases, will net you an early
kill. Jugger should not spend the whole of the early-game roaming, as unlike most other heroes
mentioned, he is a genuinely powerful lategamer and some effort should be given to getting items
to take advantage of that. However, he is fortunate in that bladespin not only allows him to kill
stuff, but also means that, with a supply of mana, he can take out whole creepwaves and neutral
camps in one go making for easy farming inbetween ganks.

Priestess of the Moon

PotM is very rarely used as an out and out roamer but is a role a skilled potm is more than capable
of fulfilling. Her ganking power revolves around her arrow, a perfect, long-ranged arrow is
unrivalled in stun-duration early-game, permitting 5 seconds of PotM and her allies beating on an
enemy. However, hitting these arrows as a PotM who is simply laning can be a challenge as the
enemy can quite easily anticipate them. If, however, that PotM is roaming around the map, the
arrows can be far more difficult to dodge, firstly because the enemies won't know the PotM's
location, and secondly because of the more varied directions from which they can come. Because
of her massive area of influence and potential a roaming PotM will have a similar effect to a
roaming shaker in that she will force the enemies to play in a different, more cautious way. It is
important to remember that, as PotM, although you have great ganking ability, at some stage in
the early-game she must get some farming and levelling done, it is important to have every single
one of your spells maxed out, and this will mean that some levels will be needed at some stage.
Therefore, unlike some of the mentioned heroes you cannot afford to spend all of your time
roaming. Fortunately, Starfall gives you some leeway here.

=======================

Soloing

As you are probably aware by now, there are three lanes in DotA and your team has five heroes to
split between them. This can mean only one thing: someone on the team has to be on their own
and solo a lane. Proper soloing techniques are very important and skills that any aspiring player
should attempt to master.

Note: If you haven't read the article on the fundamentals of Lane Control, go give it a read before
continuing. This article builds upon many of those concepts.

Heroes that Solo

There are two fundamental classes of heroes that tend to solo, for two very different reasons:

Those that need a quick boost in levels

Heroes with powerful nukes often make great solos, because having all of a lane's experience for
themselves makes them level more quickly than the rest of the heroes on the map. This means that
their nukes are more powerful, more quickly, which puts them in an excellent position to gank all
around the map and apply lots of pressure to the enemy team with their superior firepower. These
heroes tend to solo the middle lane, as it gives them easy access to the runes and also a short
distance to travel for ganking either of the other lanes. Some examples of these heroes would be
Tinker, Shadowfiend, Priestess of the Moon, and Zeus.

Those that need to farm

Heroes with weak earlygames due to lack of nukes, but strong lategames due to multiple combat-
related abilities also often solo. They benefit immensely from not having to split experience with
an ally or fight with that ally for the creep kills. This boost of levels and gold helps them more
quickly become powerful enough to have an impact in fights. These heroes tend to solo the
bottom lane on Sentinel and the top lane on Scourge, since those lanes are not only more secluded
and protected, but they also have a neutral camp that they can pull. Some examples of these
heroes would be Syllabear, Troll Warlord, and Visage.

Solo Middle

There are many important skills for soloing middle, which when properly put together can lead to
complete dominance of the lane. Note that in one form or another, they all revolve around
establishing control of the runes. The runes are extremely useful and most solos choose to take
full advantage of them.
Starting Items

It's extremely important to have a Chicken if you are solo middle. Ask your allied support heroes
if they will buy one and share control, but if no one is up to it, grab your own. The ability to
obtain new items from the chicken is key when soloing middle, as the delay of going back to base
to get them sets you too far back and allows you opponent to gain a significant advantage. From
there it is wise to spend the remainder of your gold on stat items like Branches, which ever of
Slippers/Mantles/Gauntlets gives your hero damage, and regen items like Tangos.

Early Positioning

For the first few creep waves, neither you nor your opponent will have strong nukes, so the
majority of the combat will be done with your basic attack. You'll be attempting to get as many
last hits as possible, while also getting in harassing hits on your opponent. Since ranged attacks
have a chance to miss uphill, it is to your advantage to keep the creep combat up the hill on your
side of the river, so that you are assured to hit all of your attacks, but your opponent is not. Also,
your opponent's vision is more heavily restricted uphill, so you can take advantage of this to better
time your last hits and harasses.

The Bottle

An excellent first item to head for is the Bottle. The first one to obtain a Bottle has a large
advantage in the lane. They can trade hits with their opponent for a bit and then immediately pop
a Bottle charge to get back up to full health. They then have a large lead in health and their
opponent is forced to retreat because they can no longer afford to trade hits with them. Until that
other hero has regained some health or gets the gold to get their own Bottle, they are at a
significant disadvantage.

Rune Control

Once a hero has obtained a Bottle and used it to gain some control over the lane, it's highly
recommended that they go find a rune. Not only does this refill their bottle, but it can also be a
good opportunity to use the rune for ganking another lane and generating the team some
advantage there as well. Keeping your Bottle full by recharging it with runes gives you
significantly more health and mana regeneration, which lets you stay in the lane longer to trade
spells and harassment with your opponent. Clearly it is important to be the one getting the runes,
so while the side they spawn on is random, you can do several things to maximize your chances
of getting them:

* Push the wave: While usual lane control logic says that you should never push and stay as
close to your tower as possible, pushing is very useful in rune wars. If you throw an AoE spell at
the creep wave a bit before the rune spawn (every 2 minutes), they'll be forced back towards their
tower and have a farther distance to travel to get to the runes, which gives you the edge you'll
need to snag them first.
* Wards: Placing a Ward on one of the ledges above the rune spots will tell you which side it
spawned at. If you don't see it on the side you warded, it must be at the other side!
* Look at top rune: The top rune is much closer to middle lane than the bottom one, don't forget
that you only have to walk up a short distance to see if it is there or not.

If You're Losing
You're not going to win every lane you solo. Things can certainly go wrong, so whether you were
outfarmed and got a slow Bottle, your opponent got a few runes in a row, or you just got ganked
repeatedly, there are a few things you can do to salvage the situation:

* Call in ganks: This may seem obvious, but don't be afraid to ask for help. A timely kill on your
opponent can give you enough time to rebound, or just keeping an ally in the area for a while can
stop an overfarmed opponent from harassing you as badly.
* Go for bottom rune: The bottom rune spot is generally less desirable, as it is farther away from
middle lane, but as such it is also safer. If you're losing the lane, head for it about ten seconds
before the rune spawns, half of the time it will be there for you. Your opponent will get it half the
time at top, but you couldn't have fought them for it anyways, so at least you have a 50% chance
of getting a rune that can put you back in the game.
* Use the crow to refill: Don't forget that you can always bring a courier out to grab your Bottle,
bring it back to the fountain, and then return it to you filled. Make sure to use a crow for this, as it
takes too long with the basic Chicken. It can be a lifesaving trick if you just can't gain any control
over the runes, giving you a reliable stream of health and mana. It's actually not a bad trick to use
even if you aren't losing the lane, more Bottle charges are always good!
* Change lanes: This is usually the worst solution, since the person you'll be switching with
won't have soloed and will probably have no more items or levels than you do. However,
sometimes there will be another player on your team with a hero that nicely counters the opponent
in middle. If it doesn't seem like you have a chance of winning the lane, it can't hurt to ask if
someone wants to take it instead.

Be Alert

While middle has the most freedom to go gank other lanes, don't forget that it goes both ways. All
of the other lanes also have plentiful opportunities to come gank you. A hero farming in middle is
open to ganks from nearly every direction, often from uphill and out of the fog. It's very important
to pay strict attention to the missing calls from your allies. Not only can any gank kill easily kill
you, but you are not the only hero that wants runes. Going for a rune at low health, hoping for a
refill of your Bottle, and running into an enemy can be disasterous. While it may seem like middle
lane can be just a battle of yourself and the opposing solo, never forget that there are eight other
players on the map. Learning to be aware of where they are at all times will pay off heavily.

Keep up the Pressure

The most important thing to remember about soloing middle is to maintain constant pressure on
your opponent. If you are in the lane against them, don't get absorbed in simply farming,
constantly look for openings to hit them with a few harassing hits or a nuke. If you go off to gank
a side lane, don't spend too much time there, or else your opponent will simply freefarm middle
while you are gone. Try to minimize the time that you spend out of the lane, don't forget that you
can teleport back middle from your base as well as the side lane shops.

Video Demonstration
Coming soon, we will have a video that will take you through the first few minutes of a game
with the Shadowfiend, a classic solo middle hero. Check back soon!

Solo Side Lane

Soloing a side lane is incredibly simple compared to soloing middle lane. Since the side lanes are
too far away from the runes to get them conveniently and reliably, there's no need to get wrapped
up in a Bottle war of attrition. You'll simply be trying to stay alive and farm, using conventional
regeneration items like Flasks and Tangos. Try to keep the creep wave as close to your tower as
possible, don't forget that you can creep pull to bring the creeps back towards it. If you don't
remember how to creep pull, you can find instructions in our Jungling Guide. While this isn't to
say that you need to be completely passive, by all means try to pick up some kills if you can, but
keep in mind that your general goal as a solo in the side lanes is to be patient and rack up some
gold and experience.

Happy soloing!

===================

Support

Note: The techniques described here work best when playing with an organized team or allies
that you trust. However, assisting your allies and going out of your way to benefit the team is
appreciated at all levels of play! Do a good turn for your ally in a public game, save him from
certain death, he might return the favor when it counts most.

The "Greater Good" Role

A well-functioning team needs people in many roles, like those who gank actively around the
map and those who farm items for lategame. One of the most key roles to the team's success can
be a good supporting player, one who opts to make their plays for the overall benefit to their
team, rather than in an effort to get the biggest items possible for themself. While it might sound
boring to let someone else get the glory, there's actually a lot involved in being a quality support
player.

Who Plays Support?

The best support heroes are generally casters that do not need many items in order to fulfill their
role in combat. For example, the Warlock is a classic support hero, since he has a large amount of
health and mana by default and all of his skills are incredibly effective on their own, he does not
require large items to back them up. Other casters like Lich, Lina, and Crystal Maiden also often
fall into this role. It really depends what heroes are on your team, the one that needs items the
least should generally take the biggest part in the supporting role.

Couriers

Any good team needs a chicken from the start! Don't hesistate to buy one and share it with them,
they will appreciate it immensely. It takes a lot of time to walk back to the base to buy items,
having a Chicken available means that your entire team can stay in their lanes longer and keep the
pressure up on your opponents. The Flying Courier upgrade is incredibly useful as well, as it
dramatically reduces the transport time. If your chicken is seeing a lot of use, grab the upgrade,
everyone will thank you for it!

Wards

While map control via Warding is a whole topic in itself, remember that Wards cost money, so
somebody has to step up and buy them. If you've got some gold to spare, grabbing the team a
pack of Wards is a great investment. If it saves just one ally from one gank, the pack has already
paid for itself. Also, Wards often have to be placed in dangerous territory, so the hero that goes to
set them is at a good bit of risk. Chances are, the hero sent to place them will be the heavy
support, as they are the most expendible, but it can't hurt to convince an ally or two to come with
you for safety.

Participation

The most enjoyable part of being a support hero is that you'll get to be in nearly every fight for the
entire game. That's a lot of action and certainly more than most of the other players on your team
will get to see. Keep an eye on your minimap and a Town Portal Scroll on your hero at all times,
if you see that your allies are getting into a fight, immediately teleport to join them. Nothing turns
a 2v2 battle around like a third hero teleporting in to help. If you show up to lots of fights, your
team will win lots of fights, which leads to good things all-around. This is one of the most
important aspects of being a support hero -- while you can ask your allies to chip in and help you
buy Couriers or Wards, but there is no substitute for you being an active presence in combat.
Active and alert support heroes win games, learn it, love it, play by it.

Baiting

Some opponents can be cautious and hard to gank, but it's often hard for people to resist the urge
of taking what looks like an easy kill. Acting foolish and wandering into enemy territory "alone"
can be an excellent lure. Ask a couple of allies to lurk in the woods near you, when the enemies
come to take you out, throw everything you've got at them and then watch your allies clean up.
It's a bit dangerous for you, but with some practice, it's not too difficult to survive. Remember,
even if you die, if your allies pick up a couple of kills in exchange, trades like that will win your
team the game.

Self Sacrifice

Sometimes things just go badly. It's going to happen, nothing that can be done about it. If you're
with an ally and both of you get ganked, try to get a realistic grip on the situation. Does it look
like both of you can survive? If not, figure out which of you needs to survive the most. If that's
your ally, do everything you can to save them. Jump back into the gankers, disable one of them,
block another one, then perhaps try to make an escape in a completely different direction. It's not
too difficult to be enough of a distraction to let your ally escape. So the next time you get into a
tight spot, don't blindly keep thinking, "I've got to escape no matter what," because a suicidal
move on your part might save an couple of your allies and be a huge benefit to your team.

BALANCE!!!
"That's what I need."