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When you hit midgame, and teamfights start to break out, a whole new level of dota emerges that goes far beyond farming, harassing and ganking. Teamfighting requires not only good items, but also effective positioning, effecient focusing, and skill synergy. But, like any sport or even war, there are more to fights than just numbers. Players themselves get affected by being focused, disabled and being low on life.

So, today I will focus on teamfights, and on what could metaphorically be called the Morale Bar, which is actually the HP bar.
Consider a teamfight. Skills fly, right-clickers click, and pretty soon you see your HP bar falling below the half-way mark and still fall very fast. Your mindset at the start of the fight was, 'let's own them all'. Now, however, you start to feel a bit more 'scared'. Not real fear of course, its only a game, but you fear for the life of your character. This will make you more inclined to flee, and less inclined to stay in the fight. The lower life you are, the less brave you feel. That's why I call it a Morale bar.(I know lol). This is one of the aspects to remember when clashing. Now, when entering a team fight, always consider four important things;

Number one, your role. You need to realize what your purpose in a teamfight is. If you are the carry, you should be taking out the other carry or nearby supports. If you are the support with a stun, you need to be targeting high-DPS carries or other potential timed comboers to break their synergy by stunning or disabling. It is important to know what you should be doing in a teamfight. This is something you learn as you go along, or by watching other people do it.

The second thing is positioning. It sound silly, but is actually very important. Supports should always be behind the tank or the durable carry. Having a support out of position could mean that the enemy team will focus him down, leaving you with a 4v5 fight where it could have been avoided. Also, if you are too far away from the action, you might not get into range in time and cost your team the clash. So remember to know your position.

The third thing is skill synergy. If you have for instance a and a in your team, you have a large potential for team fight. But for it to work effectively, the Dark Seer needs to targets together, and then with a blink Enigma can cast on more targets because of the Vacuum, followed by DS's wall. This will already create a great setup for the rest of your team to finish.

The fourth thing is player morale. The lower a player's life is, the less likely he is to commit to the fight. Thus, having an idea of which heroes to target can make a huge difference. There is a reason why heroes like Zeus and Lina are expected to cast their ultimates before or in the middle of team fights instead of the end. They are not meant for kill steals, but to reduce the enemy's life in burst amounts to reduce their commitment to the fight. This will really help you in winning it. If the enemy's running, they can't fight. Remember that.

This isn't the end-all way to do teamfights, but it is food for thought. So remember to sometimes think of the HP bar as a Morale Bar. The lower it is, the higher your chances of winning is.

Thanks for reading!

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(22) |

If it motivates someone I'd be happy haha. ^^

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Quoted:

I remember there was once my team fight against another, i was the carry, Naga Siren and my friend was playing the support Jakiro, my whole team died, leaving us both. Jakiro stuns one, uses ulti and pulls along the enemy carry with him. Obviously, he died. Against one carry and support. I managed to kill them both. Jakiro obviously died but at least i manage to hunt down the half-dead carry. - See more at: http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/blog/skystormspectre/the-possibilities-the-morale-bar#sthash.oW313lgR.dpuf

Quoted:

I remember once being chased down as Lina by a BKB'd Phantom Assassin - she'd been Laguna Blade'd one too many times and was bearing a grudge :). I managed to draw her away from the fight and then Eul's myself to waste precious seconds - still died, but it meant the rest of her team got wiped and my allies had a 4v1. - See more at: http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/blog/skystormspectre/the-possibilities-the-morale-bar#sthash.oW313lgR.dpuf

These are great examples of what I was talking about. By using the player's own anger, or by making them feel obliged to try and kill you can make a great difference in a team fight even if outnumbered.

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(51) |

Good post. Sounds like a motivation post XD

Problem in pub game is everyone wants to be a carry (yes, even supports). Nobody wants to initiate, not even the initiators. The second someone who is assumed to be pro dies, everybody runs and everybody obviously dies.

I remember there was once my team fight against another, i was the carry, and my friend was playing the support , my whole team died, leaving us both. Jakiro stuns one, uses ulti and pulls along the enemy carry with him. Obviously, he died. Against one carry and support. I managed to kill them both. Jakiro obviously died but at least i manage to hunt down the half-dead carry.

Thanks to Jakiiro sacrifice i manage to get a Butterfly, which then I manage to own like fuq leading us to winning.

moral: teamfights are mot only about killing. Sacrifice have to be made sometimes and keep the carry alive =D

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(118) |

Good post - it's very important to know your role in team fights and act accordingly. As a carry you need to both inflict as much damage as possible, and also survive - you can't damage if you're dead. Initiators need to ensure they get their abilities off to best effect at the right time (often the most difficult job), and to stay calm so they get it right.

As supports/casters your role is actually a bit simpler - hang on the edges of the fight and get your important abilities used first - it doesn't really matter so much if you die though, as long as the team gets a good result.

For example, as if I get off a good and then my job is 80% done, and are both good additions, but the vast majority of your effectiveness is already done. Likewise, try to CC/kill heroes with big team fight skills early, but generally don't bother focusing them once they've done their job.

Sometimes just wasting their carry's time trying to chase you down can be extremely valuable if it gives your team time to win the rest of the fight - especially against heroes like melee carries.

I remember once being chased down as by a BKB'd - she'd been 'd one too many times and was bearing a grudge :). I managed to draw her away from the fight and then Eul's myself to waste precious seconds - still died, but it meant the rest of her team got wiped and my allies had a 4v1.

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(22) |

I wish my cary player had a morale bar... after and during fights he spends more time on 1/4 health than he does full.

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