Blocking Heroes
In the same way you are able to block creeps you can also block enemy heroes to your advantage. Especially when playing support or even as a carry you can block enemy heroes to prevent them from fleeing or reaching an ally. In later game this will not be as effective as there will be a lot of heroes to deal with in 5 man teamfights, but early game you can block the enemy from finishing off your carry by simply walking in front of him and blocking him from reaching attack range. And in the same way you can block an enemy from escaping while your carry right-clicks him to death.
Just be careful as you can also block your own allies from escaping or initiating properly.
Pro Tip : You can use controlled or summoned creeps to block, giving you a chance to escape or secure a kill, but it requires a bit more micro.
The Magical Stop button
Many heroes has skills that have a cast animation, be it short or long. Usually this makes it harder to land depending on the skill. For example Split Earth on Leshrac or Nyx's stun. Both skills are 'skill-shot' abilities as they cannot directly target an enemy. With the animation comes the ability to cancel the casting of it. If, for example you started casting your stun, and you see that you are about to miss you can effectively cancel it by pressing "S". Doing this will allow to to try again without wasting the skill.
Many things in Dota can be done with the Stop button in addition to skill cancelling.
- Use it to control last-hitting by cancelling an attack animation just before it hits, delaying the hit to make sure you actually kill your target.
- Use it in conjunction with moving to instantly stop your hero and have it attack the closest creep for last-hitting
- Use it to cancel long attack animations in the case of attacking suddenly being a bad idea. (Spiked Carapace, prevent stealing a carry's kill, etc)
- Spamming it for a second while you check somewhere else to prevent him acquiring targets if you use auto-acquire.
Note : The Stop command can be replaced by moving, which also cancels animations, skills and attacks, but requires you to click somewhere which sometimes isn't what you want.
Team Tactics - Drawing the Enemy
When you play as a Team, you very often have a hard carry that needs some time to become strong. The only way to achieve this is to give him space to farm. And the best way to do this, is drawing the enemy to a specific point on the map, usually far away from where you're carry is farming. Towers are of course the fool proof way of forcing the enemy team to come to you. If you push with four heroes on a tower, especially tier 2 or 3, they have to come defend or forfeit it, giving you gold and losing map control. Playing aggressively on towers helps keep the enemy from ganking your carry because they need at least three or four heroes to defend a 4-man push. Do this for long enough and it will lead to a well-farmed carry and a easy victory.
PS : Getting teamwiped while pushing in this way isn't always the best idea, because you will lose towers yourself and reverse the situation.
There might be a part 4 later.
A quick tip:
Typing [Rule] instead of the "-"s is easier way to make a line and it is also more appealing :)