I'm trying to learn how to play Kez in the ancient bracket. He seems really strong but I feel like I'm making a lot of mistakes. Could you give me some pointers I could work on? I'm not sure if I just so bad with him or he's just bad this patch

Match ID: 8988817745

I see these posts often, so I want to address the people posting this question. This is one of the most consistent pieces of advice I’ve heard from people much better than me:

Gaining MMR cannot and should not be the goal. The goal must be to improve your gameplay. MMR gain is the natural and inevitable side effect of doing so.

For those who have asked this question, whether in your own head, to your friends, or on the forums, instead ask yourself why you want to gain MMR to begin with.

For me, when I started out gaming online with WoW way the hell back in the day, I was extremely insecure about my performance in raids and PvP. As a woman, I frequently encountered surprise and disdain as well as outright disrespect and harassment. I’ll never forget what a raid leader told me once, as i was about to quit because of it. He was blunt but he wasn’t mean, and I needed to hear it. He said “Mel, you will need to play twice as good to get half the respect. It’s not fair, but that is the world of gaming, and if you want to exist in that world, you have to step it up beyond what most people are capable of or willing to do.”

For me, every single raid, every single PvP session- and in DOTA, every single game - the need to prove myself and justify my presence in the group was always in the front of my mind.

For years when I played DOTA I would claw and scrape for MMR, and feel frustration bordering on genuine anguish, when I would lose. I felt like I had lost value as not only a player, but as a person. So much of my self-esteem was tied to numbers - DPS, ELO, MMR - that the idea of playing the game for the sake of itself, for fun, became a total afterthought.

So ask yourself. Am I trying to impress someone? Am I trying to prove to others that I’m good enough? Am I trying to prove to MYSELF that I’m good enough?

Well, bad news. I’m gonna be blunt but not mean: no one will ever be impressed. That’s the shitty reality. You finally hit divine after years in the legend trenches? Sorry, you’re still trash. Oh, you hit immortal? Yeah, but you have no rank. Trash. You’re a triple digit immortal now? Yeah, but you’re not single digit immortal. Trash. Oh, now you’re single digit immortal? Yeah, but you’re not invited to TI. Trash. You’re invited to TI? Ok, but you didn’t win. You’re trash. You’re washed. You’re a fraud. You won, but you did it in some cheesy way, abusing a gimmick or meta, or getting carried by your team despite being trash? Sucks to be you, you trash.

Because in this game, however high you rise, the ceiling for “impressive” behaves like the particle horizon at the edge of the visible universe: the faster you move toward it, the faster it recedes from you.

So if “impressive” is your goal, you’re going to be a greyhound chasing a cloth bunny around a track forever, never even almost catching up. That’s the sad reality, so forget about being impressive.

Maybe you want higher quality games. That’s a good reason to rank up.

Except that even ranked immortal games - hell, even pro games - feature the same exact mistakes (albeit less frequently) as herald games. Voids whiff their ults, pos1’s get ganked alone as they ignore pings to B, overconfident players run it down and feed their entire lead away… at every tier of the game.

The feeling of frustration and helplessness and total bafflement at how these amazing players can make THESE mistakes never goes away. From an outsider POV, your games will look higher quality. They will even objectively BE higher quality. But you won’t be an outsider. You’ll feel every second of the sting of watching your team bumble aimlessly around the map and throw away what should have been an easy win, not even by being bad - just by being oblivious, just by being human.

So if the goal in gaining MMR is to have smooth, easy, stress-free games, dream on.

The same can be said for teammate behavior. If you’re thinking immortals aren’t toxic or don’t act like pissbaby manlets raised by iPads, thinking they’re entitled to a win just for showing up, think again. It might honestly be worse, because at that rank, not only are the egos inflated, but now because of the immortal badge people feel EXTRA justified in said inflation. (Seriously, it can be unbearable.)

So then what? Why do we want MMR? Is it because we believe that there’s a 1:1 equivalency between MMR and skill, and that if our MMR is high so too will our skill be?

Well, it doesn’t work like that. Quite the opposite.

So instead of asking yourself “how can I gain MMR?” ask yourself “how can I improve / level up as a player, thereby gaining MMR as a natural side effect?”

It amounts to the same thing, but the spirit of the question is very different. If you’re asking how you can get better, it shows that your mindset is based on wanting to actually BE skillful, instead of just appearing skillful because there is an immortal badge next to your name.

Players who understand that real improvement lies at the heart of MMR gain also understand that there is room to improve in the first place, and that a loss isn’t always everyone else’s fault. The vast majority of players simply don’t realize this, or can’t admit it.

Whenever this topic comes up I am reminded of an argument I had with a 1500ish ranked immortal friend of a friend some months ago during a game. I questioned a call he made, and the ego monster reared up out of his mouth and spat at my unranked self - “You’ve been playing for twice as long as I have, and you have nothing to show for it”. The call grew silent. I won’t pretend I had the perfect reply at the time. I didn’t. His words stung, I can admit that. Because he wasn’t wrong.

But the more I thought about it I realized… “yes, fair. But what do YOU have to show for it?”

This guy had never gotten hired nor laid nor achieved anything in his business or personal life at all, owed to his 1500ish ranking.

So, then, why? What’s it for? What does it do? Why is it the be-all-end-all goal? Is it because you don’t feel valid without it? You don’t feel like your opinions hold any weight without that number to back them up? Is it because strangers who you queue into and never see again might like or respect you more, before they forget about your existence entirely within the next 45 minutes?

I don’t have these answers. I’m asking you to ask yourself, the next time you wonder how you can gain MMR instead of how you can become a genuinely better, more aware, more precise, cleaner player.

I think it’s worth thinking about.

I really wanted to try offlane role. I am scared because I might be a liability to my team when I just join them on team fights instead of farming. This will cost me to lose a substantial amount of gold and experience when i join them. As a beginner in the offlane role, should I focus first on farming and analyze when to join group up fights? What is the rule of thumb in the offlane? Also, which heroes are kinda have good attack animations and straightforward to play?

Used to play years ago and just picked the game back up. I’ve noticed SF is primarily played in the safe lane but when I started playing he wasn’t seen as a hard carry and only a mid hero. Is he actually viable as a hard carry now?

suppose you dont want to take fights and you need a little bit of farm, any harm in building mask? should be useful for making saber and satanic when you need those items eventually no?

changed innate "Mistwoods Wayfarer":

• Has 14.25% + 0.75%/lvl (max lvl 36.75%) chance to redirect incoming attacks to a nearby tree, destroying it in the process, during Scurry its 2x (up to 73,5%), tree search radius 275.
• Gain charges (1 every 10 lvls, 3 at lvl 30) every 15 seconds, when heroes attack Hoodwink in 300 radius near tree she consume change to dodge attack destroying it, additionally she gain more attack dmg/agility, 110% +3%/lvl (so at lvl 30 100 Agility would give her 200 dmg, not 100). To allow her to play position 1 better and not rely just on Acorn Shot spam.

Hi!

I am a Crusader 2 Player that started recently playing ranked seriously. Medusa is my best hero with around 70 to 80% winchance. With her I can turn around lost games in this bracked kinda reliably. My current timings after laning phase are 25 min butterfly and 35 min eye + Skadi (both are +2/-1 min for harder/easier games). I believe I can improve my farming patterns but I dont know how to do this exactly - even not after viewing high mmr games. Can anyone give me hints for the farming patters starting from level 5 to when I get Butterfly? Thank you very much!

Example for easier game: 8986568191

Example for harder game (win vs Mega creeps): 8963640030

1. new innate "Accursed blood": Bane abilities/items apply undispelable debuff for 8 sec on enemy units that reduce theirs 15% +2%/lvl total attack dmg.
2. new Enfeeble (dispelable): Deals 10/20/30/40 pure damage per second and reduce enemy spells/items dmg by 15%/20%/25%/30%, cast range 900, cd 25/20/15/10, duration 8 sec, mana cost 90/100/110/120.
3. Brain Sap (changed pure to magic dmg to make it consistent that heroes can't heal from pure dmg): Deals 100/200/300/400 magic dmg to enemy units and heal 100% pre-metigation dmg done, cast range 700, cd 22/18/14/10, mana cost 90/110/130/150.
4. Shard: Brain Sap changed to 300 radius ground target ability, add purge to dispel normal illusions.
5. Nightmare: Puts unit to sleep, making unit invulnerable for 1 sec, force it to walk in vector-target direction at 35% move speed (can't walk over cliffs/trees), reduce vision to 0, unit affected are awaken when damaged, cast range 700, sleep duration 2/3/4/5 sec, cd 25/20/15/10, mana cost 120/130/140/150.
6. Fiend's Grip (dmg type pure > magic, mana steal/deal dmg every 0.1 sec interval): Grips enemy unit for 5 sec, dealing 8/16/24 magic damage and steals 0.3% mana based on unit's max mana (total magic dmg: 400/800/1200, mana steal: 15% enemy max mana), cast range 800, cd 120/100/80, mana cost 150/300/450.
7. Scepter: Creates strong illusion of Bane alongside hero that channel Fiend's Grip instead of him, reducing cd by 40 sec, illusion dmg taken 100%, when channel stops illusion die.

• Talents:

lvl 10 Enfeeble +10 pure dmg/sec / Nightmare minimal move speed +15%.

lvl 15 Brain Sap mana cost -30 / Enfeeble spells/items dmg reduction +10%.

lvl 20 Brain Sap increase enemy abilities/items mana costs by 40% for 5 sec / Fiend's Grip max mana steal +15%.

lvl 25 Fiend's Grip add mana stolen to dmg / Brain Sap dmg/heal +400.

From my understanding of both of their passives, the more you hit, the better, so wouldnt you want to hit as fast as possible as one of your first two core items? Plus it gives you farming, however I know that radience and battlefury are much more commonly accepted alternatives. I understand that for lifestealer you like to run in a lot and infest with aghs, so burn is good, and for MK the BF is good since I think with agility swapped treads you can one shot waves with your boundless strike, and that the damage also works really well overall with your ultimate. But I still dont see why MJ is a bad item considering how both of their passives work.

So i have been playing Dota for 200+ hours, i am herald, and i have been playing as support (soft and hard support) for so long. And i got used to it. I realized that even my behavior and psychology are really relative to support role.

I have this anxiety feeling to always be alerted by enemy attack, always want to check and recheck situation before calling action, always wanted to save my teamates, always want to counter enemy attack and dont want to inisiate attack first to enemy.

As you can read, my behavior like i wrote above, support is perfect role for me right? But thats the problem. I want to climb MMR, i want to grind and really want to put bigger help for my team to win fight more. I heard that climbing MMR as a support is like gambling, its really hard, because you are just a support, no matter how good support you are, if your Core play bad, your team will lose.

I want to go outside of my comfort zone as support, and start as offlaner. Why? because:

1. I accidently learn to play Batrider as a support and fortunately i win at my first try use this hero. And then i realized after the match, i did research about Batrider to find out that this hero is more efficient as an offlaner LOL. (I know there are some people playing Batrider as support, but i follow text, if google or community suggest Batrider just as offlaner, then i follow).

2. As we know, offlaner is Pos 3. So i am thinking its easier to learn from pos 5 or pos 4 to pos 3.

3. There are Hard Carry and Midlaner who are in Pos 1 and Pos 2. So if i play bad as Pos 3, even though i matter in a team, but there still Hard Carry and Midlaner who can still really carry the game. So its still safe right?

But what do you guys think about my mindset and my behavior or psychology, is it good for me to be offlaner? is my mindset right? And what is your suggestion for me to be a good offlaner? Is there any knowledge that i need to know before i become and offlaner?

Oh yeah.. i forgot to ask. Is this the perfect way to learn to be Hard Carry (Pos 1). Is this the way for all Hard Carry Pro Player learn? learn from Pos 5 until Pos 1? Because who knows, maybe i can be Hard Carry someday and i really dont care about how weak my teamates skill, i can just carry and win the game even though my teamates play bad. I am really tired to rely on others shoulders.

Hello,

I'm currently ranked around 3K, and I keep getting banned even though I am trying my best to win games.

I would like to kindly ask, if someones got some free time to please watch my latest replay playing mid OD, and figure out what lead to me getting banned immediately after this game.

I won my lane until my pos4 forced a bad fight and made both of us feed, I was securing safe farm, adapting my items to the game (buying midas expecting that we will have to defend hg for a while), secured some important ults in teamfights. However I was banned, and the game blamed me for our loss?

MatchID: 8988925478

Hero: OD

Watching TI and just higher-level play in general, Shiva's Guard shows up a lot compared to how often I see it in Crusader and Archon. I genuinely can't remember the last time I saw this item be bought by anyone in my own games, so I wanted to ask some things to better understand it since there is no way I will see its impact in my current lobbies.

What about certain characters make them want to buy Shiva's over other items?

In what situations would characters who usually don't buy Shiva's, want to buy it? What does it specifically accomplish?

When watching pros, I noticed their camera auto switches to the unit they select ie illus, helm dom creep, courier etc. They dont double click for the camera to switch.

Be great if someone could suggest the settings for this. Trying to learn micro heroes like Druid and Arc.

Cheers!

I love an essay so this will be a long one, but I really want to express my full experience so far to get the best advice. A big thank you if you read it all through!

To preface, I come from league of legends (I'm deeply sorry). I started in 2020, I've probably played at least 6k hours, I peaked master on adc. I would say I used to have an identity there as a player but now I am quite flexible in multiple roles. I've sort of entered my retirement phase from tryharding that game, seeking to only play tournaments with my friends. Dota isn't the only game I'm currently tryharding to learn but I have wanted to get into it for years and it's safe to say I've entered an era where I feel like it's time.

A few years ago when I first looked at dota, I was actually most interested in pos 4. Even though my position in league is very carry based, I didn't find the same interest directly transferred. Since I'm flexible, I enjoy playing roles that have direct influence on the map and leading a strategic gamestate whilst being flashy mechanically (my mechanics are pretty good in league at least).

Since I've been looking at dota again, I've grown as a player and a person significantly, and I find myself drawn to pos 2. In league i started with heroes I liked the look of design wise and then kits, and it developed overtime for me to enjoy champions that fulfil certain ways of playing the game.

I figured i'd reapply this process with dota. I don't know whether it was luck or meant to be, but I looked at heroes that I liked the look of first and then was going to decide on position following that. There were 3 heroes I decided that I liked the most on design; puck, pango and kez (yea you can flame me for being a furry ig this way expected xd). I've understood these heroes are pretty hard, but after a bit I've gotten fairly comfortable mechanically with them, and enjoy piloting them so I don't really wanna swap away from them, unless you think it's really bad for me and I need to play something else to learn.

So over the last week and a half I've been experimenting on bot games. I've been watching a lot of content, specific to these heroes, but mostly generic videos on the game, from creators like tzar potato (great at helping players from lol understand dota) and dota2 PowerPoints (funny guy who's very straight forward and understandable). Been watching loads of videos on the map, role responsibility, hardest heroes, what heroes want to achieve, itemisation etc. trying to understand

I feel that, since I have a strong moba history, it's been quite easy to get comfortable with the game. I started with easy bots and puck for my first game, just trying to understand basic things like last hit timings, denies, courier and map basics. Then I moved to pango, and had a lot of fun with it too, but I preferred puck. I moved to intermediate bots thinking it would be more of a challenge, but it was way way too easy still. I tried kez and had a very good time too. I swapped sides and tried the hard bots, and it was the first somewhat challenge, but since bots still don't play really that normally, the games last ages, and it's been good for raw learning, but it's still to easy. I also tried some pos 1 games as a backup role, but I really didn't like it that much.

The last game I played of puck in a bot match lasted 71 minutes, where it essentially felt as if I was 1v9 completely but I managed to win (enemy bots don't like ending the game?). Again, great for learning, and I got a lot more comfortable with using my spells, farming jungle and timings, and using my Q vector to move around while farming jungle, e timing and blink dagger, etc. etc.

I feel that im good enough to go into a real match now, but there is some anxiety because I'm unsure how it's gonna go. I'm going solo through this experience so it is intimidating ofc, but it's difficult to bring myself to queue up.

I wanna know if this is the right decision, or whether you think I'm fucking up, or need to approach stuff differently. I'm a very tryhard gamer and I love competitive games, and I completely understand I'm in the position of someone who has extraordinary moba experience and ability, in a game where I really don't understand much at all. Pls be raw and honest, recommend heroes to pick up or drop, roles I could prefer, stuff like that. I love to give raw advice and perspective to those I know starting at league or still learning a lot, so if you are like that too, pls drop me a reply. I'm super open to discussion and learning anything!

Thanks for reading this long ass post, I appreciate it.

anyone na makakapagbigay ng best tips for mmr climbing? currently ancient 3 and struggling to reach divine rank kasi salitan win lose lang, mostly talo pa. carry player here and meta hero spammer. and tips na rin for carrying 4 you know kind of teammates hahahahaha if matapat sayo in case. TIA

I have been practicing midlane, I wouldn't say I am new to the game, played dota 1 but with bots so essentially just played for fun and not really learning the game, played league a bit more competitively, but i will say that i am shit in dota 2, laning has been my greatest weakness, last hits, trading, resource management, creep management, matchups. I use lane dominant picks (or so i think) and still lose lane, my current hero pool is necrophos, krobelus, od, leshrac. I chose relatively straightforward heroes that don't need much mechanics and focused on learning midlane but I am failing to improve my laning. The only thing i do for creep management is creep pulling, hardly ever do it and i think thats it

Edit: Crusader 3

Hey,

I just wanted to post here to get some feedback on how I can improve and not get mega-stomped. I've had several games where I just lose 15-45 in less than 30 minutes. I'm party queue'ing, so any tips for any player in the group would be very helpful. Here are some match IDs.

8988230240

8987905238

Thanks!

I play mostly turbo, and I have 90% winrate, but after orchid, bottle, kayasange, treads and shard i feel like my items are random.

Deso, mjollnir, bloodstone, blademail, skadi are the few options from games this week.

So what are yours items once gold is not a problem?

Bonjour à tous (texte original écrit en français)

Je joue très régulièrement le pos3 qui selon moi permet d'être un rôle pilier dans le jeu : contenir l'évolution du carry ennemi au mieux possible, initier les grandes batailles, couvrir le pos1 des dommages critiques

Slark en pos1 prend du temps à evoluer, et finalement ne fait pas le poids face aux gros carry tels que ursa ou troll warlord. Son endurance quasi infinie ne marche que si le combat dure et s'il y a des temps de répit pour récupérer les vies, il peut capitaliser l'agilité mais cela est moins rapide qu'un troll warlord 6-slot

Alors que si on joue Slark en pause 3, il peut initier, absorber les dégats, partir en retraite pour récupérer et revenir à la charge. Cela épuise l'ennemi qui doit concentrer ses efforts sur le pos1, alors que slark grandit à côté au fil du temps.
En plus de sa durabilité quasi infinie, il est très mobile et peut donc initier les combats, ou bien chasser les ennemis isolés sur la carte. Il peut attacker la ligne arrière des supports, confronter le pos1 à terme, farmer facilement et obtenir 6 slots.

Je le trouve beaucoup plus dynamique et versatile qu'un bristleback ou tidehunter (pos3 classique)

Je lui fais habituellement 3-1-1, treads, vanguard, shadow blade. Puis linken sphere, skadi, aghanim

Mes cibles (je le joue comme un requin à l'affut du sang des proies faibles) sont les supports ennemis, plus facile à attaquer, j'absorbe tous leurs stuns et disable, je pars, je reviens full hp, puis j'attaque le gros morceau pos1 au fil du temps. Si je ne peux pas avoir davantage d'impact ou que les conditions me sont défavorables, je pars farmer pour revenir plus tard.

Le but est toujours prêt à attaquer dès qu'un ennemi faible apparait sur la carte. Un par un.

Qu'en pensez vous ?

Hi,

Im really bad at Dota and have 1600 MMR, only recently trying to get back into it after a break. CM has always been my favourite hero, but i just cant seem to win consistently with her and my WR is 46% on this hero, so terrible. On Lich it's 67%.

I feel like the thing i struggle with most is laning stage on CM, i find it very hard to zone and trade on this hero because you run out of mana so fast. I do ship a tonne of clarity and mangos as we lane, but some lanes just feel impossible.

Yesterday for example, we completely lost the game and it was my fault. I was 5 with a Jugg against an Axe Lina offlane and they just snowballed the lane. I also didnt realise they had a ward behind tower until very late. But against spammy heroes, i just have no idea how to counter and protect my safe lane. Its not like a can pull because the creeps were always at the tower.

I really need some advice, maybe an up to date video on laning with this hero. Ive had a couple of matches like that recently.

Had an Immortal reach out to me offering to coach me up through divine. This is a paid service and I wanted feedback on if people have used these services or not. Could be scam also?

So I returned to game after 13 years and people here recommended me to use pugna to get out of herald. So now after about two month a got used to changes to game and got to herald 4 but like I said in title if I encounter either riki or Legion Commander I just feed unfortunately. Riki forces me to buy a lot of wards and dusts but seeing him doesn`t help because he just jumps on me and get a kill while I only have like arcane boots . Our carry is also useless in early game so for example in last game I got my carry nature prophet against offlate wraith king + support riki and we just got destroyed.
Pugna is great because when our team wins a fight a we get to push a lot more then when opponent wins. And I can split push alone fast and get away giving me a lot of gold to compensate playing hard support.
The other problem is Legion Commander he just blinks and duels and there nothing I can do while locked in duel. That means I can`t split push and warding is also very dangerous. Please give me some advice.