How to survive low level pub games

So if anyone in this forum recognizes my name, you might remember me from my thread asking for which heroes to start learning( Also, many thanks to those people that replied, you were a great help). For those of you that don't know me, I'm a LoL player in the process of learning Dota 2. I'm a veteran LoL player, been playing for about 2 years now,and I've got roughly 800 wins total under my belt. I've also been playing Dota 2 for a good while now(Though most of that's been practice against bots, and researching all the hero and meta related stuff on guides and on the wiki), and I've also got some experience in Smite. So I'm familiar with MOBAs for the most part.

So, on LoL, my main roles are ADC(Attack Damage Carry, which is the equivalent to playing the main carry/hard carry of a team on Dota) and Support, so of course, the heroes I'm having the easiest time learning on Dota are carries and supports. So far, I feel comfortable playing Chaos Knight,Luna,and Viper as carries(With Chaos Knight being my best so far. Really like his autoattack animation, I rarely miss last hits with it. I'm also trying to learn Ember Spirit, but that's a different story). As for supports, I've done some games with Lich,Keeper of the Light,Warlock,and Vengeful Spirit. I also play Skywrath Mage a little, though I've played him mid more than support.

However, I recently grew out of playing bot games, and I've jumped into what seems to be the hell that is pub games, and I've come up with alot of questions about how I go about getting through these. I've run into quite a few problems in the few real games I've played. For one thing, I run into alot of situations where I'm the only one on my team that seems to speak english, and everyone else speaks Spanish or Portugese(I actually couldn't tell when some people were speaking Portugese,but when I checked their steam profiles, it said they were from Brazil, so that's how I guessed). Communication was rather difficult in those games. Also, I can understand that for other new players, its hard learning the game with more than one hero at a time, but it seems to really be a problem when my team can't even form a proper team composition. Half the time I have a team full of carries(And I can guarantee you, half the time one of the carries is a Bounty Hunter or Riki. I've heard its a bad thing to make a habit out of playing stealth heroes in the early levels, so that worries me even more), so I end up being the only support on my team.

And that's where most of my questions come in. Alot of the times when I am forced to support, it seems like the carry that I'm laning with (If we even get the luxury of being able to go to the safe lane,that is), they normally don't know how to last hit, and alot of the time, they also like to auto attack the wave and push our lane. This results in them getting caught out by the enemy lane, and them inevitably dying no matter how much I peel for them. Sometimes I MAY be able to pick up the kill for them after they die, since after I've blown all my cooldowns trying to disable their attacker, I autoattack them to death, but in the end, they're still send behind even more than they were before from not being able to last hit. What do I do when I have carries like this? Is there a point when I just take last hits from them so the gold doesn't go to waste? Or do I just go help other lanes that can actually use my help?

Aside from that, I've got a couple of basic questions for supporting. First, when is it optimal to start pulling the safe lane camp if we're in the safe lane? Half the time I forget to do it since I'm so focused on denying, and when I remember,it's too late because our creeps are past the pulling point. Another thing is warding. Aside from warding the rune near our lane, where are the other core places to ward during the early to mid game? Lastly, aside from upgrading the courier, buying wards, and getting at least a mekansm and tier 1 boots, are there any other core items I should focus on getting as support?

On the other hand, what's the best plan of action when I pick a carry for our team, but we either end up having no support(Normally,I don't let this happen, I'll pick support if we need one,but right now I'm speaking hypothetically), or the support I get also has no idea what they're doing, or goes to the wrong lane and forces me to lane with another carry.And then when the small skirmishes and teamfights start, our team still has no initiatior or anyone to take the enemy team's focus, or support to peel for me or the other carries, so as the shorter ranged carries like Luna and Chaos Knight, I have no way to go in and deal even the slightest bit of damage without getting melted. I'm also underfarmed most of the time, so BKB is never an option until later. Where can I get my farm from if I'm unable to get good last hits for whatever reason? Should I change up my build path and plan for cheaper damage items to make up for low gold income, or should I just try to go for my normal core items as best as I can? And speaking of low gold income, should I be worried about ever having to solo the offlane in these low level games? Because in one of my recent games, someone decided to go Axe jungle, which I wasn't expecting, so I had to play Dark Seer for the first time(Insanely fun by the way. Picked him up fairly easily despite me being only familiar with playing carry and support), but laning actually proved to be almost as difficult as playing support for a bad carry or playing carry with a bad/no support. So should I prepare for this and learn offlane heroes as well, or stick to my small hero pool that I'm already comfortable with?



Whoa,wall of text. Sorry for all the questions, but these last couple of games have been very difficult, so some input from more experienced players would be nice. Just seems like being a new player is chaotic and hectic, even if you are experienced with MOBAs, or have done your homework on the game. I really just wanna learn the game and get better at it =\.

Sometimes carries will be noobs, you gotta live with it, keep them alive as best you can and call for ganks if he is your only carry.

Pull whenever you feel like the wave is moving past the halfway line, I dont stick to a specific pull time, after so many years it just goes by feel.
Also pull if your carry has trouble last hitting.

Remember that pulling the wave will push the wave instead if you deal a little too much damage to neutrals. Try stacking then pulling.

If you are the carry and not getting farm just ask for ganks or try for kills, or worst case scenario pull for urself and try to jungle.

Ward spots might be the rosh pit if they have ursa or lycan, highground wards which cover choke points, or provide defensive vision in the jungle.

Mekansm is for the 4 to buy, u play 5 which is the ward *****, stick to consumables.

As for offlane,try to remain in exp range but dont go too close or they will kill you, use ur ion shell for seer to gain last hits, a double shell will make it impossible for the enemy melee carry to get last hits.

Only pick seer against melee heroes, he is not that good against ranged ones.

A better offlaner would be windRUNNUNER

From what i have read you have a massive edge in game knowledge over your teammates so if you can put it into practice you will get out of noobville faster. Almost no one will know about lane setups, and proper roles, let alone team composition. A lot of people just play a hero and get whatever items they see on them a lot.

If your autoattacking carry will miss a lasthit, sure take it. If the carry is hopeless you can abandon him if you feel confident in your ability to roam. In those kind of pubs 1 to 3 players can win the game by playing well, you might not need that carry at all.

The way that a lot of pubs work is that you need to fight decently early. Hard carries like anti mage generally need protection from a trilane, but trilanes shouldnt be attempted since they offer no benefit to the team without most of the players havin more experience with the game.
Pick a carry that can fight early try to get every lasthit that presents itself, you wont get freefarm level, maybe not even a third of it but it is ok if you just use your better game knowledge to outplay them and snowball.

It is centainly handy to learn offlaners. I played offlaners in dual lanes a lot when the lane setup was always 2-1-2 And making the transition to solo laning wasnt that hard. In fact i preferred it becouse i got more XP that way.
Weaver, clockwerk and timbersaw for example are strong in pub offlanes.



About supports and what items to get it all depends on the situation.
Mekanism is NOT an exclusive support item, you can get it on a core hero if you want to win early fights with your team of to make a hero tanky early. Axe, Viper, Necrophos.
Items that are good on supports are a lot of utility items. Force staff, blink dagger, mek, pipe, urn, medallion, vlads or any item that benefits your team most in that current situation.

My advice would be to try learning a "Roaming" Support. The best example I can think of would be Mirana, Pudge and Vengeful Spirit can work too though. Essentially, you buy the Animal Courier and maybe Wards if needed, but make sure you have enoguh Gold left to rush Items that can Sustain you while you spend most of the Early Game doing nothing but Ganking.

With Mirana you can get a 5 second Disable at lvl 1, so follow the guy on your Team who can best make advantage of this, e.g. Pudge with Rot, Riki with Backstab, Ursa, etc. If the other Team doesn't communicate well or pay attention to the Mini-Map, you can usually use Trees or High-Ground to send an Arrow they don't see coming. It takes skill and you'll fail at first, but once you get to the point where you cause 4 Kills in the First 6:00, you'll feel like a God! From there just Snowball as best as you can, keeping up the Warding if necessary.

Only Pull the lane if it is close to the other Team's tower, or if you're confident that your Carry can Last Hit under the Tower...I'm sensing the latter isn't likely though.

Wherever you think Ganks, Teamfights or Pushes are going to happen, e.g.

* The other Team has a Pudge Mid, and you're worried he's going to Gank your Carry, place a Ward in the Jungle, so you can see where he is when he tries to Hook...and hope your Carry is smart enough to avoid the Hook

* You feel as though you can Push down the other Team's Safe Lane Tower quite quickly, but are worried that the other Team will TP/Roam in to defend it, place a Ward in the edge of their Jungle, so you can clearly see the stretch of Lane behind the Tower, as well as any TPs. If anything comes, you'll be ready for it.

* etc.

As Mr.E43 says, Mekansm is for positions 2-4. You'd have to royally fed as a 5 to be able to afford a 20:00 Mek. Persoanlly, I recommend an Urn of Shadows on a Position 5, just make sure no one else builds one ;{). If you get Kills it's amazing, and the Stats are quite useful too. Also, consider a Magic Stick, whether they have Spammers or not.

Mid Game, think about bigger Items, like Blink Dagger if you have something powerful to drop on someone, or Force Staff, possibly even a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.

In these games, it's better to pick a Hero like Slark or Ember Spirit, they can Solo anyway, so it'll be tough but doable.

Nothing is more important than a Black King Bar in 90+% of games. Damage Items can wait until after it, especially if you're struggling.

I've already recommended learning to Roam with Mirana, and it will help you here as well, because Mirana can be effective in any Lane. Safe Lane Carry, Mid, Offlane, Roaming Support....not Jungle though, but practically anywhere you need.

Also Tim suggested WindRUNNER, who is equally flexible and effective in all Lanes (I believe that Aghanim's Scepter makes her a potential Hard Carry, but that's a whole other Text Wall <}3 ).

Nobody makes walls of text bigger or better than mine -_-