The Eight Essentials in Winning DotA Games

AOE spell casters are the heroes that can damage enemy within an area of effect making it possible for you to damage maximum of 5 opponents in one spell. Some of these heroes are Shadow Fiend(raze, requiem), Kunkka(torrent, splash, ghost ship), Earthshaker(all his skills), Pugna(Blast, Ward). AOE spells make it easier for the team to kill all the enemy faster, particularly in team fights. 1 blow of good AOE can make the opponents running back for their lives, especially if they don't have healing items or skills.

It is essential to have stunner, slower or other heroes that can hold opponents to one place. It is easier to kill an opponent if he's stationary rather than moving. DotA would be a funny game if the only way to kill an opponent while chasing him like Tom and Jerry. Stunners give you advantage of being safe from towers and back-up opponents. When I was just starting to have my own team, I, honestly, relied on stunners. We won games from better team than us because of having mass disables. But, I'm not conveying that you should do the same thing because stunners are easily countered today. Enemy heroes using black king bar make this disable strategy useless.

Having proper mind set is having the right attitude towards the game. It is important to trust your team mates, specially your Captain. You should not be emotional in this game because you're going to end up ruining your game and lose. Anger makes you aggressive. Fear makes you passive. Doubt makes you work on your own. Impatience makes you die. Not having the mood to play makes you think less. These are some traits you should free your mind from to attain your best potential in games.

Having a fast farmer player contributes to winning too. This makes the opponent move more to try to gank that hero. Thus, you can use him to bait these enemy players to have more kills. Fast farmer player also serves as an insurance in case you reach late game. He can carry the whole team to victory having his hero fully equipped with damage and tanking items. Learn more at Dota Guide: How to Farm Fast.

This is more important than having a fast farmer player because great gankers have the ability to delay your farming and have extra gold for their team. Getting killed makes you lose gold and time to creep. They may have slow farmers but they could farm more if they have good gankers to help them.

I always play support role because I know how important map control is. The team can farm well having this. Proper ward placing and having the ability to deward the other team is like playing boxing against a blind guy. Map control makes you decide quicker seeing the plan of the opponent. You'll be ready whatever their plan is and make it easy for your team to win.

Leaders serve a very important role in this game. The game often depend on the team leader's knowledge. First role a leader will play here is hero picking. Most of the games today depends on hero picks. Getting outpicked will make it harder for the team to kill, to push and to win the game. 2nd role of the leader is motivating the team. If the leader is trembling in fear, would he motivate his team? Leaders should possess the right attitude and give his team mates what they need, specially confidence. 3rd role, is giving commands. The team should know what to do next and leaders are responsible for them to know this. If not, they will act without coordination and make the opponents take advantage of this.

The team with better strategy and execution will always have the control of the game. The players in this team moves like brothers. Team Play boosts the individual strengths for every weakness of one hero is complimented by the other heroes. I don't fear anything in DotA but if I'm going to choose one thing I'm going to watch out for is not the individual skills of players, like farming, but it's the players' ability to work as one.