Suicide lane solo

Hello everyone, I am "trying" to get into team play and find myself a team, I would like to learn and be good at the suicide lane role. However In pubs all duo lane i struggle to get some practice in. Thus find it hard to find a team that would have someone learn from scratch.

What I would be interested to know, is which heros can suicide lane alright + why?
which heros are worth just getting used to in pubs to start to get used to in team games, + why? (probs the same as above)
Also if there are any "needed" hero counters? (i.e. if they pick a carry do I "Need" to go a off lane'er to counter their farm a bit?)

Thanks in advance.

good suicide laners usually have a.) an escape mechanism in case they get ganked and b.) a way to farm creeps from afar, so its hard for the enemy to harass them.

Windrunner - Powershot allows her to farm, while Windrun provides her with an autoattack-evade + escape

Bounty Hunter - once his invis is at level 2, it will last longer, than it has cooldown --> his Jinada also provides great harass, if an enemy is greatly out of position. Also he doesnt need early last hits, since his Track allows him to get all the gold he needs, just by ganking.

Weaver - with his The Swarm he is able to scout for ganks, while his Shukuchi provides for escape, harass and safe farming.

Dark Seer - especially good vs melee heroes, since his Ion Shell does considerable dmg, while also beeing his farming ability --> Surge is an excellent escape skill, that also can be used to speed up allies when i.e. your midlaner is coming for a gank.

Usually there's no shortage of people who want to jungle (just mention pre-picks that you want someone to jungle and they'll probably bite your hand off), which means you can off-lane.

Be aware of a few things though:

- You need an appropriate hero (as mentioned above, plus Mirana, Brood Mother, Clinkz etc)

- Be very aware of their safe lane combo, some heroes can be a real pain for a solo (e.g. never take Weaver against a Drow Ranger).

- In organised games you'd expect to be against a tri-lane, so you'd have to play ultra-defensive and get very minimal farm.

- Observer Wards are your best friend up there, blocking their pull camp will get you lots more farm than you'd get otherwise.

Awesome Thank you, I know Dark Seer is picked alot and I kind of guessed why! but i also notice he gets banned alot.

In "high level" games wont BH, Clinkz and Weaver just be countered by a ward? and thus make it impossible to do anything in lane?

Beyond annoying the other teams carry, What does the suicide laner do later in game? or is there not a "set" role for him? just do what he can later on?

I'm guessing you are meant to push the lane back to your tower as much as possible hence why warding the pulling camp is a good idea?

Also thanks alot for your help, it mostly confirms what i thought, but i was still unsure as heros that are "acceptable" apart from DS.

Whichever hero you pick is countered by something - even Dark Seer can be easy meat for long stuns, or powers like Glimpse or Sprout.

What you can do in lane depends what you're up against - if the enemy has a poor combo, or no real way of dealing with your escape then you can pretty much compete for hits, deny, harass and whatever you'd normally do in lane. You level twice as fast as them, so any kind of parity means you come out ahead.

On the other hand, against strong, dangerous combos that counter your escape, you might have to be very passive - hide in the trees soaking up XP, grab a few last hits by your own tower and just scratch around for whatever you can get. Keep your tower alive as long as possible, and try not to feed.

It all depends on skill, hero matchups and how the opposition try to play their roles. Clockwerk is another popular off-laner, he's tanky, has good blocks, and can get some farm using Rocket Flare.

Invis heroes are easily countered by sentry wards, but if you play carefully they'll need to set 2 to totally zone you out. If you warded their pull, then the creeps will get to you eventually and you can farm under your tower. If they counter-warded, that's already a 400 gold investment, and you're crippling their supports. And besides, sentries only last for 3minutes, so just go to the jungle for a few minutes and come back.

The solo offlane role is actually optional. A lot of teams opt to just jungle and let the enemy carry free farm. But if you are playing it, then your priority is to NOT die. With exceptions such as Windrunner, Dark Seer, and Clinkz, the solo offlane is meant to get a quick level 6, preferably by 5-6min. Then you make something happen mid or on the easy lane. That's why heroes like Clockwerk, Magnus, Puck, Bounty Hunter, etc. are all viable. The offlane is usually dependent on some levels to be impactful.

Regarding warding their pull camp.

1. If they stack the camp, then they will deny every other creep wave and make you very underleveled. As I already stated, you want the creeps to come towards your towers for a few last hits anyway.

2. If their supports farm the camps either through stacking or pulling, they will get lots of levels and farm. Block the camp to cripple supports, especially if there are two in their easy lane.

3. It will give you at least a bit of vision to watch for potential ganks. For example, a ward in front of the dire pull camp will spot any TPs to the tier 1 that want to gank you by going through that jungle entrance.

Hmm... I never thought about it like that before. Interesting, thanks :D

I tried a couple of suicide lane solo's last night, both with clockwerk, went alright I feel. first game they had a chaos knight that after killed once just spam run down the middle to feed us :| :( still i kept to my lane to try and learn how to do it and it went great i even managed to get a kill or 3. then ofc the game fell apart as our mid has a massive gold advantage :(

2nd game a group tri-laned and i solo suicided. I think i did well denying as much as i could, but still pulling the creeps back as far as i could. use rocket to get a bit of farm and tryed to keep jug under farmed as I could, Unfortunatlly my tri lane failed against their duo lane, with our carry on 0-7.... still i managed to kill off one of bottoms supports a couple of times when he got out of place. so all In all I am pretty happy.

Thanks so much for all your help :) Now to learn the tricks of jungle warding :P

this reminded me of another strong hero, that profits from high exp/min, doesnt need that much farm and still has the ability to fight back, when challenged --> Lich

his Sacrifice keeps your creeps (if u have warded their pullcamp) near your tower almost all the time and throws the enemy back in exp- and gold gain even further.

Treant Protector seems to be one of the best offlaners IMO. He can trade hits very well since he has the highest overall damage in the game and he has second highest Strength, he can harass decently with his Leech Seed which also acts as a heal of some sort, he has Nature's Guise as his escape mechanism though a bit unreliable and most importantly he has free regen using his Living Armor that can also be used on towers when the enemy team is pushing.

TL;DR: Treant Protector is the best offlaner!

Enigma and Lone Druid can suicide lane really well too. Lone Druid can pull the creepwave to your tower,or behind it,and get safe farm,enigma has good lane control with the eidolons(his summons),but he is really squishy.