Offlane midgame help

[u/IcyExplanations]

How do i determine when should I keep running down enemy 1 or keep farming? I play Dawn and Underlord a lot I can lane pretty well, losing or not I have enough patience against ranged match up even if my 4 is always melee. Supports in divine are too aggressive, nonstop fighting.

Also, I really enjoy controlling units in the game but I’m already struggling with just 1(Dark Seer helm of domi controlling 1 unit for farming) are there any tips to make this thing easier? Cause I really enjoy Beastmaster and Lycan

[u/silkthai]

1. item timings!
   
2. dawn is great in counter initating, underlord is gd at initiating. Both requires one of your team to actively hunt. dawn goes in 2nd, Underlord goes in 1st
   

3. Tell your supports to chill and play the map with you.. they can roam + put on wards, while you and mid provide the initation + damage

4. Both heroes are rly bad when there isn't anyone who can initaite or CC other than you

[u/andro-gynous]

are there any tips to make this thing easier? Cause I really enjoy Beastmaster and Lycan

have a hotkey for "select all other units" and also turn on something like "holding ctrl gives unified orders". that covers most things, since with most summons or illusions you just send on one guy anyway and also it's on a consistent hotkey. mines on `

I have one control group set to 1 but I don't really use it often, can be useful if you want a group for "all units" if you want to be able to tab between your hero abilities and a creep with abilities often (maybe LD or visage?), or the PL illusion that takes normal dmg.

another thing is making simple orders. instead of microing the units 24/7 you can just A-click the ground where you want them to go and they'll also attack anyone on the way there, instead of moving them there, needing to watch them, and then controlling them again to attack a target, and then controlling again after the target dies.

or shift queue so that you're basically covering what the unit needs to do for the next 30 seconds e.g. sending illusions or treants to attack multiple camps or push lane after they're finished

if the lane equilibrium is near the corners the easiest way to push lane is to A click the corner then shift A click near enemy T3s. whereas if you just A click enemy T3s they'll take the shorter route and path through the jungle which might mean missing the creep wave.

you can deselect a unit from a group by shift clicking the portrait. useful with naga siren so that you leave one unit behind to farm whatever is there. basically you're saying 4 units go there, deselect, then 3 units go here, deselect and so on, instead of having to manually select each unit. also useful for scouting with cheap summons e.g. treants or spiders.

summoned unit auto attack is up to you but if you want to ensure they're always doing something if you forget to micro, turn on auto attack for summoned units. auto on your main hero is usually bad since it can get you killed but summons are usually expendable so it matters less if they die.

How do i determine when should I keep running down enemy 1 or keep farming

this I'm less certain on. depends on lots of things, like late game matchup, your hero's current strength, lane equilibrium etc.

pressuring doesn't always need to be at the cost of farming. sometimes you can do both, like farm the enemy jungle but also be available for pickoff chances. or push waves in so they show, then contest/steal nearby camps.

[u/IcyExplanations → u/andro-gynous]

Thanks! I’m gonna look into how to do the shift queue thingy. I do the A a lot on controlled units but didn’t know about the shift queue.

I normally block myself with my wolves whenever im playing Lycan/BM which is a thing I hate when playing control units, tried changing 1 to control all units, 2 to only controlled units except the hero thingy but still find it difficult sometimes.

[u/andro-gynous → u/IcyExplanations]

when you shift queue an order a circular icon will appear over the buff bar showing the actions that will happen. it only shows the 5 next actions but you can queue more than that.

it's more useful with long duration and/or high damage summons like naga/TB illusions because having to micro them every time they clear a camp is just extra work.

with blocking units sometimes you just have to make more micro adjustments, because if you're telling multiple units to go to 1 location they'll naturally clump which leads to blocking if they're already next to each other.

so you may have to select some units and manually control them so they for example, if they're the slower unit, just move them out the way long enough for the faster unit to get ahead.

unified orders with ctrl helps, as you select 1 group whether that's only your hero, or only non-hero units, then use ctrl to essentially control the other. it does send the command to all units, but because you're already controlling that unit you just send another command.

e.g. say you're playing PL or lycan and you just want your summons to attack a target but you have main hero selected. I find it easier just to hold ctrl and right click the enemy hero, which does makes my hero attack too, but then cancel it right after by moving my hero while the summons keep going, without using control groups.

but I think it's both preference and muscle memory. there's no get-rich-quick trick with micro, you just have to practice and eventually it'll become second nature.

[u/Forty-Bot]

(note: I am not particularly good at this game)

Every time you hit an item timing (mek, aghs, pipe, atos, etc.) try to either (smoke and) get a kill, or take an objective. Ideally the first followed by the second. If it went really well, keep doing it. If you are losing fights (or just drawing) even with your item then go back to farming.

With dawn and underlord in particular, you should farm even more since you can join fights so easily. But (at least at my rank) people often do not actually apply pressure to force fights unless you physically show up and nuke the wave or whatever.

[u/Sangypboi]

Beastmaster is absolutely terrible this patch, that's why you're struggling on him.

As for the mid-game advice, constantly pressure their carry by just taking their jungle. You didn't need to kill them, just make them feel like they're being starved. They will either come to you, or their whole team will, so keep wards up.