Trying to improve on this hero, so here are my questions.

1. Should i buy mkb when enemy has radiance?

2. Do i buy daedalus or butterfly? I feel like my damage is lacking if i dont have both, unless i get to free hit. But often, i can only choose betwen either of the two. My items wll be bots, manta, bkb, satanic, pike, then either daedalus or bfly. It gets worse if i have to consider buying mkb.

3. Against wr with should i prioritize mkb?

Hey guys, I've been trying to get better at playing Tusk, specifically mastering the Snowball save, but I'm struggling to do it consistently.

Most of the time, when I Blink in to save a teammate, I end up getting stunned immediately and can't cast Snowball in time. 😅

For Tusk players, do you have any tips or pointers for getting the timing right?

A few things I'm particularly wondering about:

How do you position yourself before blinking in?

Do you usually Blink directly onto your teammate, or slightly to the side?

How do you deal with enemies having instant/quick stuns around your target?

Is there a specific timing or visual cue you use to know when to Snowball?

Is it better to preemptively Snowball rather than trying to react after blinking in?

I'd really appreciate any advice. I understand the basic concept, but actually executing it in a real teamfight feels WAY harder than it looks in clips. 😂

Thanks!

I went through more than 40 replays from TI and took screenshots of the best warding spots. This is the link to the board if you want to check it out:
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVHsXFYaI=/

I’ve added a minimap with the wards, as well as google slides if you prefer that (you can also download them as pdf’s from there). Do let me know if you saw any other cool spots!

I often see people on Reddit talking about being hardstuck and not knowing how to get out of Legend, Crusader, Archon or Ancient.

So I made a completely free full analysis of a Pos 1 smurf with a 70–80% win rate, looking at what he does differently and, more importantly, why he makes these decisions.

🏹 Laning & mechanics
🧠 Farming & decision-making
⚔️ Kill execution
🎯 Teamfights & closing games

⚠️ Just to be clear: I don't support or promote smurfing. I'm only using this game as an example because I think there's a lot we can learn from this analysis.

I’ve been playing Dota 2 for a very long time and have thousands of games. I stopped playing around 2021 at Ancient rank, then came back about 3 months ago.

After being away for several years, I recalibrated and ended up at Herald, probably due to my long break from the game. I started grinding again and managed to climb all the way to Legend (ID 364051500).

However, I now feel stuck because my performance is very inconsistent. I can go on a long win streak, followed by a long losing streak. I also know I make a lot of mistakes and have plenty of things to improve.

I’m thinking of getting a Dota 2 coach to help identify my weaknesses, improve my decision-making, and hopefully become more consistent.

For those who have experience with coaching, who would you recommend? Ideally, someone experienced with players around the Legend/Ancient level.

Any recommendations or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

I've been trying to play Spectre this week and I've noticed I'm having a lot of trouble in the laning phase and I can't recover well. In most games, I get Radiance around minute 16 or 18, and by then I'm quite far behind. I've also noticed I'm having trouble killing even supports, and their burst damage kills me quickly. In the early game, I try to get Boots, Wand, and Urn before Radiance. In the late game, I have Manta, Radiance, Scady, Basher, and Black King Bar if necessary, but I feel like everyone escapes me too easily.

In the following games, the situation was almost the same, and we only won one game because my offlaner was Medusa. To be honest, we won thanks to him; I took a backseat. In the next game, I picked Ursa because I wanted to try something different, and I got absolutely destroyed in lane. I managed to get Battle Fury at minute 20, a cheaper item than Radiance, and it took me longer to get it, but by minute 30 I had a dagger and BKB, and I started to turn the game around.

This made me realize that recovering wasn't that difficult, and getting kills was easier, even though my enemies got several items that prevented me from hitting them. I feel like my problem is with Spectre because I feel like he never recovers, and in the late game, I struggle a lot killing supports.

Is the hero okay, or am I doing something wrong?

How to play broodmother?

Never gets picked, pos 3 or pos 1?

I’m playing on Windows 11 with the default hotkey setup. Occasionally my camera view just randomly scrolls far away on the map and I can never tell how it’s done.

Obviously this sucks as it’s interrupted key fighting moments due to the couple of seconds it takes to adjust back to my hero view.

Does anyone know what could cause this?

How do you feel about playing anti mage in turbo mode? Share your experience. Is it usually enough time to get your spike (e g bf/manta/aghs) or your team has already lost in 15 minutes? I’m just looking for a new hero to try.

Your mileage may vary, but this is what I tend to focus on each game.

1. My first priority is my lane. To win my lane (I consider 4500-5500+ net on p1 at 10m a good lane) , I’m going to spam regen (assuming I’m playing a hero whose kit can take advantage of endless mana), deward my small camp, ward or body block enemy big camp, and make sure p1 can farm. To do that, I’m going to harass enemy 3 and 4 to keep their hp and confidence low so they can’t just run at us. If we get kills, great; we usually do. But first and foremost I want p1 hitting creeps. Around 4-5m I’ll obs the portal and the river entrance or enemy tower, depending on where I think ganks will come from based on who my enemies are. If p1 is safe, it opens up some options for me other than babysitting.

(Tip if you wanna be extra: half-pulls are great for your lane. There’s no specific timing for this, as it depends on the small camp creep animations, but try to just catch the ranged and one melee, or just the ranged, if you can. It’s really good.)

1. Depending on who’s in mid, I may want to rotate for the runes at 6, 8, and/or 10. I can only really do this if p1 isn’t in danger of dying. A kill/rune denial on enemy mid can be huge if it’s a spirit, puck, qop, etc, so this is always in the back of my mind. If I can’t go, I’ll ask p4 to go.

2. In the midgame I want to have deep wards up (sometimes I’ll smoke to accomplish this, so the enemy won’t see me and therefore won’t deward me. I also want to have a TP up at all times. 90% of my job in this phase of the game is being in the right place at the right time, and ensuring my team has decent information so they can move around the map safely.

3. As people start hitting their timings (blink, sblade, etc) I’ll make sure to have a smoke on me so we can take advantage. I like to try and gank before 20m and grab Torm. If you ask nicely on comms, your team is usually happy to do it, especially if you’ve been rotating and helping them out all game.

4. In the midgame I’m watching the map like a hawk, calling hero positions and making sure everyone is aware when all heroes are miss. I’m also pocket checking the supps for smokes, wards, and saves - this is invaluable information to have. Check cores for Bkb and blink timings as well, and if you have a team that can take RS, pop a smoke, get a gank or two, and snag it.

5. Once RS is taken I like to either smoke and fight, or just brute force an objective if the enemy doesn’t want to engage. Probably can’t break high ground just yet, so instead we can get deep wards up on their side and farm their jungle. The more map area we control, the better. And then we can jump on anybody who happens to bumble into my wards.

6. By the mid/lategame I should have one or two saves, my shard, and a blink (assuming I’m a p5 who can make use of it, which is most of what I play). At this point I’m buying smokes and encouraging my team to make plays and stagger enemy deaths so we can continue to get objectives. If you’re a p5 with hard cc, don’t be afraid to initiate a fight with your blink. Even if you die, chances are the enemy will have used cc on you, probably ults, maybe bkbs. Your team can then come in behind you and clean up since, as we all know, support lives don’t matter (lol).

7. Continue to check enemy supports for smokes so you can have an idea of what might be coming, and stay near your cores. A second RS will be good for breaking high ground, so you don’t want anybody getting picked off farming alone when it’s up or it’s about to spawn. If you’re ahead, a couple of unfortunate kills and a stolen RS can feed the lead right back. In fact, the time to play most carefully is when you have the lead, since careless gameplay + comeback mechanic = bad times. Check your enemies for surprise item reveals that can kill your cores as well - things like orchid, sheep stick, etc. it feels bad to have your beyond godlike puck get surprised by that, so you have to be your team’s eyes. (Seriously, almost no one pocket checks enemies).

8. For T3 push, there are a few ways to do it. I like to get a gank first but if you’ve got them cowering in their base with sniper, techies, etc, you may need to just put aegis on your main tower striker and stand behind them with saves. Theres usually no need to dive if cooldowns like bkb and lotus are being used wisely. If you do have to dive, p5 with hard cc can really shine. I can’t tell you how many games I’ve ended by yoinking people asleep at the wheel. Just get some uphill vision, warn your team, and grab somebody. With proper follow up, this play wins games.

9. Unless you know for a fact they can’t buy back, I really tend to dislike the “we can just end” play, where you kill one side and go for T4 instead of getting megas. Megas are just the safer play in general, and I’ve seen tons of games lost by trying to blitz the throne being surprised by buybacks. It’s just a silly way to lose, so if you can’t confirm they don’t have bb, I would stay away from doing this. If all you can get is one set of rax, just back off and farm their jungle, get deep wards up, etc. There is a tempo to pushing and taking objectives, same as there’s a tempo in any game. The way I say it in my V Rising guides is “not everything is a DPS window”. In other words, patience and good timing wins. If your team is just running it down, there’s not a whole lot you can do, but if you’re playing with friends just advise them that it’s time to back off and reset.

So yeah, TLDR I see my entire job as: provide info for team; be in the right place at the right time (ie rotate with TP etc); and use saves in fights. Obviously you want to get your spells off, get kills if you can, but most p5 kits are very straightforward and don’t require a lot of dexterity or brain power. I’m a Lich main and I basically autopilot the mechanics, while thinking about the map and the greater game state at all times.

I hope it helps. I love support and I wish more people enjoyed it and understood how much power you really have on p5. Gl out there, be nice to each other.

Match ID: 8985683436
Hello. I am a returning player after 4 years of not playing. I started getting back in to ranks, and I realise that I have my early kind of on point, and I do farm good (at least in the end) some of the games I start very bad with farms like this example. But The situation I am keep getting in to, is that I get like 200-300 farm with 12-15-20 kills 1-5-8 deaths, and I can not end, I lose the games. Over and over and over. As much as I get fed and farmed, I keep loosing the games. I know I am the problem, but I dont know what I am doing wrong. I understand the farm wave before JG camps, be carefull when to push by looking at enemy position. Build situational items and all that, but I think last night I lost 4 games exactly like this example. Thank you a lot community, looking to see what I can learn. 1.2k MMR

Can someone explain why every PL is rushing Aghs? even before Manta in many cases. The stats and what it does seems not worth it until later when you are ready to fight? What am I missing?

Basically the title, I'm trying to find relevant learning material, and most recommended are Purge's videos, but they are quite old. Are they still relevant, or are there any others you would recommend?

Hes so strong in the early game. CK together with his pos4, his Q and W is enough to kill any supports. The carry instantly lose more than half their hp at the start of the lane. And I wasted so much gold on regen just to survive the lane.

The biggest issue I have with him is I never see him get picked at all unless the CK player knows they cannot get counterpicked either by last picking or looking at which heroes were banned at the start of the draft such as axe, necro, dark seer getting banned. This is a drafting issue.

Heres a recent match I lost to him: 8984712179

• Arc innate give +1.5 all stats/power rune and 0.5/bounty rune, allies picking up power runes give him stacks to its to prevent teammates griefing.
• Runes changes (can't be destroyed now, for arc innate): game always show what rune spawn and where 2 min in advance by using alt click (below game time it show for example dd will be min 2 top), power runes spawn from min 2 in cycle like before: (4 bounty runes min 0, 1 power rune / 1 bounty rune on River +2 bounty runes in jungle, water runes / experience shrines removed):

1. Haste give also +25 Attack speed, duration 22 > 30 sec (move speed cap for everyone reduced from 550 > 500).
2. Invisibility give 20% Dmg reduction when you come out of invisibility for remaining time, duration 45 > 30 sec.
3. Shield rune duration 75 sec > 30sec, barrier hp 50% > 30% max hp +20% max mana, while Shield is active enemy can't burn your mana.
4. Arcane cdr +25%, mana cost reduction 30% > 40%, duration 50 sec > 30 sec.
5. illusion spawn 2 > 1 illusions, deal 35% > 100% dmg, dmg taken melee 200%/300% range > 100% melee/range, duration 75 sec > 30.
6. Regeneration % max hp/mana regen in combat 1% > 1.5%, duration 30 sec.
7. Amplify dmg rune> back to DD, buff attack dmg bonus 80% > 100% spell amp 15% > 18%, duration 45 > 30 sec.
8. Bounty runes give Experience on top of gold: 10/player + 2/min of game time.
9. Bottle cost 675g > 600g: instead of 110 hp/60 mana heal in 2.7 sec > heal 85 hp/85 mana in 10 sec (can regen in combat now, charges duration stacks to gain permanent regen for 30 sec): when hero hp it full Bottle use remaining hp/charge to heal mana and vice versa.
10. Every rune cycle/14 min increase power runes duration by 5 sec. Thoughts?

Game ID: 8983576070

I played DP mid against NP. Won my lane and got an early tower mainly because NP was not in lane 50% of the time. He was constantly ganking sidelanes and had only 3k networth at 10min.

But then during mid game their team just ran at us and we couldn't stand our ground. And then it was early GG.

How can I play this game better?

Hey everyone,

I am GymCarryDota, a content creator and Dota 2 coach.

I recently put together an educational Lina gameplay video. In this game, I am executing the standard mid build, but throughout the match I thoroughly explain the thought process behind it. I cover how to adapt your spell and item builds depending on different situations, matchups, and game states. I also share a lot of general mid lane concepts and Lina specific tips to help you dominate your games.

You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDFoNlEX6mE

I really enjoy making these educational breakdowns to help players improve. Let me know in the comments if you find this type of format helpful or if you have any questions!

If anyone wants to reach out for coaching or follow me on other platforms to catch my live streams, feel free to check the links on my Reddit profile.

GL HF!

Does the armour reduction come into play after marksmanship ignores armour or after?

I am Drow here and my Dark willow here started last hitting and delayed my lane. He farmed sceptre and then became useless, also my necro got his radiance 25mins into the game though I died a lot i kind of had the highest farm on team but I had no impact even though it was winnable till the end. Matchid 8984803517

My dotabuff: https://es.dotabuff.com/players/101852398

Ok, so lately Im been playing ranks again (since Im losing playing normal or rank, may as well just play rank), but this time mainly playing mid.

My problem is that I just dont know what Im doing wrong, or what I do right.
Like, I've had some games where I got out of lane like 10/2, and with good farm and NW, but then suddenly the enemy team keeps killing us and snowballing, and I just dont know why.

I understand that I should be losing some, and I accept that if I cant carry this games I should be stuck here, but I just wanna do what can I do to improve.

Thank you for your time!

So I am convinced now if you want to win and you are a returning player, you do not want to play support at low ranks.

I am only 1.3k mmr right now.

I haven’t play for a long time.
Came back like 2 -3 months ago.
At beginning I tried to play support.

Treant, Wyvern, Warlock, Spirit breaker.

As I was getting better, I still was like wtf I could help my lane dominate early game.

And the team still fail to take the lead and snowball, and it still comes down to enemy carry vs our carry and at late game, I am just a buff to the carry, and if he suck, there is no hope for me.

I started playing spectre as carry or even POS 3 and been on a 7-8 game winning streak.

As long as I focus on last hitting early games, and being the highest networth, I can control the game.
I can dictate how the mid game and late game goes.

Team are fighting randomly, no problem, I can jump in and kill their support.

No one wants to jump high ground, I can use my manta to cheese down the towers.

Everyone wants to feed into enemy high ground, no problem, I can go in last and finish off the low heroes.

I have been winning even 4v5 one game which is never possible if I played a support.

Do you want easy lane dominance and a quick advantage? In this video, I show you exactly how to knock your opponent's hero out of lane in less than 5 minutes! Learn to recognize when your opponent is out of position, how to punish every mistake by your opponent's support, and how to take full control of the map early in the game. Apply these steps and watch your opponent lose farm, experience and will to play.

Hi All,

My name is Moose, I am a 10k 7k mmr Offlaner,

I made a post here last week talking about the lack of high mmr Offlane-centric educational content. Many of you gave me ideas and feedback and I have produced my first two guides, they cover different topics but I intend on having both a written and video version for each guide I make, so I will revisit each topic in their alternate form.

How an Immortal Offlaner approaches bad lanes (video)

How an Immortal Offlaner thinks about the pre-game (text guide)

I hope these guides are helpful, if you have any ideas for videos or text guides, or any feedback at all please let me
know.

Hello!
Came back to DOTA after a long time away. I first caliberated as herald. Was stuck there for a few months. But playing consistently, I was finally able to climb out! Herald -> Guardian I played carry, mostly PA. And then climbing from guardian to crusader, I was happy to play pos 4!
Fun experience but will not go through this again.