The Small things that no one tells you.

Hey guys so ive been chatting away and watching TI like an avid fan and i have a little TS server set up and people jump in and watch the games together while conversing and theory crafting...

ive noticed that a lot of knowledge is in the form of " story telling" in that being passed on knowledge. Yes thre are an incredible amount of knowledge online and in game on how to play dota but the more "macro" strategies and playstyles are stuff that you just cant learn without being told of them. for example i was in chat and some people were asking why XBOCT was creep cutting. they didnt realise that by creep cutting you can pressure the lane a lot more since by the time the wave gets to th 3rd enemy wave you will have a double wave. Also the more macro things like timing windows, peaks and troughs, synergies and movements, efficiency, smoke timings.

Now i know some people know most of these but i thought it would be a good learning process and a helpful idea for people to comment with some of things they were told or learned that isnt "common" knowledge.

For example :

- the small thing that no one told me is that each hero has a timing window for some its from minute one to minute 30 and others its minute 30 till the end BUT each hero has a peak time which is usally a combination of both a level an item and a time. so for example Tide level 6 with a blink before 15 minutes.

I recently read a post on reddit where someone had written a comprehensive mid-lane guide that went into incredible detail about the mechanics behind creep aggro and tower aggro. Thus showing why high level mids can seemingly harass at will without drawing creep aggro, or how to entirely avoid tower aggro whilst siege-ing.

It was incredibly useful to read, and I'll probably look for it tomorrow so that I can quote something more directly.

That'd be something worth reading, if you could would you mind posting the link here? :P

Starting with a Null Talisman on Heroes like Techies, Zeus, Leshrac and Death Prophet is stronger than starting with Soul Ring components.

Take Techies as an example, starting with Null Talisman, Town Portal Scroll and a Clarity allows you to TP to Lane, place 3 mines and have enough Mana for Suicide Squad Attack at lvl2.

Bear in mind that as Techies, you should be TPing to the Offlane T1 and placing Mines (as well as a Ward if you're lucky enough to be Pooled 1) as soon as you spawn.

At lvl1, you start with a measly 286 Mana. Due to Fountain, regen, you don't have to worry about the Mana Cost of a TP Scroll, but this only leaves you with enough Mana for 2 Mines (125 Mana Cost at lvl1).

Let's add in the Clarity shall we? 170 Mana Brings you to a total of 436 Mana to work with at the start of the game.

Now let's add in that Null Talisman. 6 Int gives you 6 * 13 == 78 Mana, right? Yes and No! You're forgetting that we also have a Clarity. Since it's unlikely that anyone will TP to the Tier 1 Safe Lane to contest your Mines (it's risky and you can adjust your Positioning so that they have to chase you over Mines if you're scared it will happen), you can drop the Null Talisman while you're not placing Mines to get the most out of your Clarity. If you know about Tread Switching, you'll see where this is going.

Your Clarity is recharging 170 Mana to your Pool of 286 + 78 == 364 Mana, that's 46.7% of your total Mana Pool. If you drop your Null Talisman, you are recharging 170 Mana to your 286 Mana Pool, which is 59.4% of your Mana Pool. 59.4% of your Mana Pool when you Pick up Null Talisman if 364 * 0.594 == 216.36. In effect, the Null Talisman gives you another 40 Mana by dropping it while you're not placing Mines.

...and there's more...

When placing a 125 Mana Cost Land Mine, you're using 125 Mana right? Yes and No! Without Null Talisman, you're using 125 Mana from your 268 Mana Pool, which is 46.6% of your Pool. When using Null Talisman you use 125 Mana from your Pool of 364 == 34.3% of your Mana Pool. Let's say you've just placed your 1st Mine and have dropped your Null Talisman to chug your Clarity for that delicious ~210 Mana, how much Mana do you have after dropping Null? It's not 268 - 125 == 143, it's actually: (1 - 0.343) * 268 == 175.97. You save 23 Mana by placing Mines with [[Null Talisman equipped. Your Land Mines only cost 125 - 23 == 102 Mana, nearly a 20% drop in Mana Cost!

Let's quickly look at Clarity again. Land Mines has a 20 second Cooldown at lvl1, and by using the trick of dropping Null to conserve Mana, it uses only 102 Mana after Null is dropped, in 20 seconds, a Clarity will regen 170 * 20 / 30 == 113.33 Mana...so we're actually wasting a little bit of Clarity if we pop it straight after placing the 1st Mine. You'll actually recharge the full 102 Mana used in 30 * 102 / 170 == 18 seconds. So Place a Mine, count to 3 (don't forget Base Mana Regen), then pop your Clarity to save that 11.3 Mana (you never know, you may need it)

Let's add this all up now and caluclate just how much Mana Null Talisman gives you with that starting Clarity. We know that a it makes Clarity give us 210 Mana (you're going to lose a little by reequipping Null to place Mines, let's just say 3.6 Mana), we also know that using Land Mines then dropping Null makes us lose only 102 Mana. Finally, you start with 364 Mana.

After spending your Initial 125 Mana and dropping to 239 Mana with Null / 166 with it dropped, you'll pop a Clarity after a few seconds. 20 seconds later, you pick up Null, drop another Mine and drop Null again. 12 seconds later, your Clarity has finished. You now have more than 286 + 170 - (102 * 2) == 234 Mana without Null (this does not take Techies' base Regen into account, so it'll be even more than this). You've place 2 Mines and placing a 3rd will leave you with more than 132 Mana without Null / 179 Mana with Null equipped. Once you reach lvl2 (which you can do fairly quickly if you're Solo Offlane), you've have enough to cast Suicide Squad Attack and maybe use another Land Mine.

The most important thing that people dont talk about are those timing windows.
For instance AM has one of the fiercest timing windows in the game, but its also not that long, and depends on multiple factors. His sweetspot starts at 35 minutes, and depending on the enemy lineup he can either be very strong to just borderline immortal. See silent's AM in game 2 against LGD.
Same with PL after he gets one or two items after his diffusal. See game 1 of LGD vs empire.

Ember spirit, 5-15 minutes, which he can extend if he snowballs, and later after he gets battlefury+deadalus.

Lifestealer, an almost immortal window at 25-35 if hebis actually against team that hes good against, which is rare nowadays.

Wyvern, has a timing window extremely early with ganks, but also later when an enemy rightclicker gets strong.

Enchantress, 0,30-5 minutes and when she can put out damage with impetus.

^^^^ so that just happened... jeeezzzus christo and fatherland thats an explanation and a half.

Okay, and what about Zeus, Death Prophet and Leshrac? You really get a Null on heroes with low cd spammable nukes?


Can I get a link please? The only guide I've seen that mentioned creep aggro techniques was ChaQ's.

I missed out Storm Spirit, but anyway...

Yes, you do if you're planning on getting a Soul Ring (which these 4 tend to since they'll want to build Bloodstones) or a Bottle. The idea behind it again, in short, is down to the extra Mana you get from starting with a Null so you can easily secure Last Hits to get your Bottle / Soul Ring. Admitedly, it's not as effective on Storm, Orophet and Lesh due to the lack of a Clarity, but it's an extra Nuke or 2 before you run dry.

There's also the +9 Damage for Last Hitting / Harrassing (that includes Techies btw).

It mainly applies when you're in the Safe Lane and ergo, not Rushing a Bottle.

Edit: I could also go into Jungling Nature's Prophet. Null > Basi > Gloves 8{3

Ok I can understand DP, and, with a huuuge tolerance even Leshrac with Null, but getting it on Zeus is something from insta-report zone. He has a spammable skill that is completely dedicated to secure him lasthits and harass enemy at the same time and you still get a rightclick item for this gnome with one of the worst autoattacks imaginable(screw 800 range creep sniping, gotta come in on 350 range and try to lasthit with 9 bonus damage like this will prevent enemy from denying every creep, typical Xyrus core).

Thank you, that actually helped me find the link. I was browsing through my internet history very slowly before that.

https://chaqdota.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/chaqs-new-ultimate-guide-to-avanced-middle-lane-solo/