Match review

Hello all,

So, i bit the bullet and made a smurf recently, because i went and calibrated at lvl 13 when i was awful and i think i have come a long way. Raising my MMR from 1.5k is a nightmare. People dont know how to play (i know this is true at all levels, but at least i could 5 stack with friends if it was a bit higher!).

Anyway,since i normally play with a friend on my smurf my solo stuff is unchanged. I figured i needed to play some solo to get that going. Turns out it is an awful experience (as we all know)

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1208059978

So, if anyone would be so kind, could someone analyse my game? I played Dazzle and i am pretty happy with how i played. But, i think, the only other person on my team who was competent was our mid Tusk while we had an offlane Juggernaut and Pudge and a safelane "farming" Ursa with me supporting.
Lanes:
Safe Dazzle + Ursa vs Tiny + Spirit Breaker
Off Juggernaut + Pudge vs Alchemist + Undying (the Undying ended up rotating bot)
Mid Tusk vs Drow Ranger

Now, i know the game is horrible and we have a pretty quick abandon (the Tiny left, i like to think because of my zoning/harass skillz...) and their Spirit Breaker wasn't much after. But we weren't clinical enough and it ended up the 3 that stayed just got more levels and farm.

Anyway, i think i played pretty well. I know in a couple of teamfights i made some misplays (not in range for Shallow Grave/using it too early/not using Weave at the best time), but i am pretty happy with most of it. (I will continue to never use my Medallion of Courage unless doing Rosh... Forget it has other uses.)

If anyone could let me know what they think and give any advice possible!

And let me know how terrible my team was... So i stop feeling so bitter. (At one point, after feeding the Drow for the x's time, the Ursa just said "I am trolling!". He got reported. If you are in client and you search for the match, report him also please.)

Appreciated!

I looked at your match, only watched up to about 8+ minutes since I have to go soon so I'll update again in maybe... 10 hours? lol >__>

I will watch from your perspective and we'll be looking at the way you play and the thought-process behind your actions. I'll only be focusing on your play, whether or not your teammates did well is irrelevant to your personal skill and decision making.

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The first mistake has already been made incredibly early in the match. You never want to rank up a skill until you've arrived to lane or you're about to fight somebody. Second mistake is getting Shallow Grave first, that skill does absolutely nothing for you. Shadow Grave essentially protects you from taking that last fatal damage correct? If there's nothing to cause that fatal damage then what's the point of getting that skill that quickly? Shallow Grave rank 1 also has a whopping 60 second cooldown with a huge mana cost of 140. At level 1 you only have 377 mana points, that's more than half your mana pool. It's better to level up either Poison Touch or Shadow Wave first since you can actually do something with those abilities.

Bottom lane problem - Your lane combo at bot IMO was a lot stronger if you decided to go the max Poison Touch route (or to at least rank 3). The increased slow percentage would really help Ursa stick to his target and destroy him. Even if you can't kill the enemy (your attention should be directed at Tiny btw) in one go, you and your lane partner would bring whomever to fatal range. You then repeat this process, forcing the enemy to either go back to fountain losing EXP and gold or die to your lane. If I was you and I had Ursa as my lane partner, I would've had rank 2 Poison Touch and rank 1 Shadow Wave by level 3 for aggressive commitments. However one big problem was that your Ursa had no Tangoes and Healing Salve for sustain in lane. If your lane partner bought regen instead of relying on you to heal him fighting back would've been a lot easier.

6:00 - At 6 minutes, you decided to go mid but accomplished nothing. That was just a waste of time, Tusk killed Drow Ranger by himself and you were not in range for easy exp and gold. Whenever you want to gank like that you should have a Smoke of Deceit handy if not then stay bot and help the Ursa. The hero Dazzle need a lot of levels compared to other supports so you going mid was a really bad idea. Carry a tp if you were going to gank like that and only tp if you think you can save or gank/counter-gank someone.

Skill build problem - Another problem was putting another point into Shallow Grave. You really needed to prioritize either Point Touch or Shadow Wave so you have something to commit to a kill with. Your lane is awful at harassing but the way you want to win the lane is to wound an enemy hero like Spirit Breaker to fatal health levels or commit to a kill unless near tower. Ursa has so much burst damage and Dazzle has a pretty strong slow at level 3, so at level 2 or 3 you two could've played much more aggressive. You were up against Tiny and Spirit Breaker; Tiny has no armor so your Poison Touch and Shadow Wave will be doing full damage (the two spells are physical damage types).

Aside from that little snippet about Ursa, the hero is amazing at bursting a hero down however he's easily kited so maxing Poison Touch is the ideal path you could've chosen. If you had maxed Shallow Grave, that means you've committed 6 levels for a chance that a teammate would die every 60/45/30/15 seconds. That was NOT the case and rank 1 of Shallow Grave was more than enough. If you chose to maxing Shadow Wave then it is fine, a bit more on the defensive side. However you and your lane partner could've played more aggressively if Ursa had some regen since your lane had a lot more damage.

Info about the hero Dazzle - Dazzle is BAD at harassing other laners out, weak overall damage output, and his attack range is slightly below average for supports. Dazzle doesn't have Venomancer's Poison Attack for an extra kick nor Skywrath Mage's skillset so what you really needed to focus on is committing to kills or control the lane by being really aggressive. Of course if you see somebody TPing in like that Undying did, then you really need to back up.

I'll either update this post or make another post later, I have to go now

Thanks for this.

I agree about the lvl 1 skill. I misclicked, was supposed to go into Shadow Wave.

Yeah, i get that Poison Touch would have been better for laning. I should have done this. I think i was thinking more about fights and wanted the range on Shallow Grave for when the Tusk rolled in and i was at the back. Either way, definitely shouldn't have maxed it first.

When i went mid was a warding? If not, just poor. I don't normally try to gank with Dazzle, so I didn't even consider a smoke gank.

Look forward to the rest!