Dota 2: How To Get Better At The Game

As The International Dota 2 Championships approaches, the community funded prize pool continues to grow. With a million prize pool, teams try to minimize mistakes and maximize opportunities to win.

These Dota 2 tips won’t secure your TI4 Championship, but they can at least help improve your play and win a few more games.

Remember:

Keep calm and play on

Staying calm seems like an obvious tip, but it’s an important one.

Every player at one point – actually at many points – string together 10, 12 or 15 game losing streaks. Immediately after a loss uninstalling Dota 2 and vowing to never play again seem like the only ways around a losing streak.

But instead of making reactionary decisions, take frequent breaks, watch replays and correct mistakes. Everyone makes them.

Improving the different Dota 2 roles

Middle Lane

The middle lane gives valuable solo experience and gold, so try stay in the lane as long as possible.

Players from other lanes may whine and beg for help, but never listen. Only gank when ready and you can guarantee a kill. A failed gank wastes potential time earning gold and experience and also gives your opponent uncontested farm.

Gank when enemy lanes push, when runes spawn or when you can secure a kill. Never leave the lane unless you benefit in other ways. 

Support

A support’s assistance increases in value when they place frequent Observer Wards, protect the carry and gank the middle lane.

But great supports do more than their expectations. Each support should stack jungle camps, stack ancients and pull creep waves.

Supports should also buy detection items like Sentry Wards and Dust of Appearance before invisible heroes like Riki or Bounty Hunter tally 10 easy kills. Great support players may not receive the deserved recognition, yet everyone notices a greedy one.

Carry

Many players refuse to accept it, but a carry doesn’t need kills – a carry needs farm. Don’t chase risky kills; just match the gold gain with 5 creep kills. Kills awards gold, experience and even takes gold away from the killed hero, but one failed fight can swap team fortunes. 

A carry must remember two things: kill creeps and stay alive. As soon as the carry dies and as soon as carry stops earning gold, the less threatening the carry becomes.

Solo off lane

As supports double-up to protect the safe lane carry, the solo off lane player must delay as long as possible. The solo off lane hero can’t protect the tower long, but they can at least earn valuable solo experience and gain a level lead.

Not all matches use the 1-1-3 lane structure, but when it happens, the solo off lane hero must only do one thing: never die. As soon as the off lane hero dies, there goes the level lead.

General tips and tactics 

Smoke gank – Purchase a Smoke of Deceit, group up and surprise an enemy hero. For just 100 gold a Smoke of Deceit allows undetected movement under the vision of wards and forces fights initiated by your team.

Transition into tower pushes – After successful ganks or team fights, transition into tower pushes for easy gold. Players often return to the fountain to heal, farm the jungle or return to mid instead of destroying the lane tower. Take advantage of opponent respawn time. Higher kill totals don’t win games, destroying the enemy Ancient does.

Avoid stacking stuns – To maximize disables, time your stuns well and avoid disabling an already stunned hero. Chaining stuns leaves enough time to kill strong enemies without taking much damage from them.

Always carry a teleport scroll – No one likes spending gold on teleport scrolls, but carrying one allows quick escapes or instant defense of towers. Fights unfold at any time on the map and a teleport scroll lets players react without walking from end to end.  

Stay occupied

Beyond the lane stage of each game a lot of support players stand around waiting for something to happen while the carry farms. No matter which role you play, always find something to do. De-ward, stack camps and farm. Even as a support player an extra item may help your team win the next fight.