Why is ratting frowned upon?

Why is it? It's supposed to to be a strat like the rest. Then why do people not like it?

In pubs, the gameplay is about ganking and teamfights because that is mostly considered the most fun way to play dota. That's why Pudge and whatever fotm ganker carry is always most popular in game. Because pubbers love teamfights it's given massive winrate to heroes like Spectre and Necrophos who just wrecks these.

Now, on ratting. Ratting is the only way to counter really teamfight based drafts. I think it's frowned upon for several reasons.
1. For your enemies it forces them to chase you instead of fight so people hate playing against it, especially if it means they get less money than usual and have to chase the AM across the map.
2. For your allies it requires them to put faith in you and that terrifies some people. And it makes their game painful since you're not around to help fight so people often hate playing with rats. We have all had a game where Prophet thought he was making the right choices but just kept feeding the Slark.
3. Ratting was impossible in the last patch because Storm was the most overpowered hero in pubs so people have forgotten about it.


But yeah. Rat if the game calls for it or if you're lone druid, lycan, or naga where it is the only thing you can do. Don't do it against Legion, Nyx, or Meepo and you're fine.

It's looked down upon?

Well ain't that something sad.

*squeak squeak*

*scurry*

Radiant's bottom tower has fallen.

Radiant's bottom barracks are under attack.

its actually pretty simple

you dont fight and you run away.

they try and fight you and you run away :P thats cowardly or a rat.

but meh i dont mind it i dislike it when it achieves nothing. if your a rat.... squeak squeak rat away but dont just run away without achieving anything thats what i hate.

the rats that are cowards. gives ratting a bad name. your supposed to be taking towers and forcing people to hunt you and if your not doing that then GTFO

Wanna hate on rat?
5 man up and take towers. what will one rat do when his mates dies while defending a tower and yo5 eat one lane worth of towers?>
He RATS!!
WAHAHAHAHAHAHA

well yes and no. you first have to have a decent team to be able to do that. second you need the enemy to not have a strong 4 man fight. try pushing into pugna magnus SF leshrac bristleback medusa disrupter enigma and many more. the reason why rats are rats is because they have the ability to take towers quickly. treants, deso, increase in structure damage i.e bear or tiny, summons.

plus what happens in you push as 5 to take a tower and you fail? the rat is left alone and does what he does best ... rat away.

BUT then again if the team is useless against 5 man push then of course your going to make the most of it. usually it comes down to balls.

who has the biggest pair ;)

It usually comes down to whether your 5 man>their 4 man.

At least in pubs.

Also, if someone that is not a rat pushes a tower, I have gathered that it does not immediately invoke a response from the enemy. So if I am one support that has a ring of basilus and push an early tower, I find they don't use glyph or no TPs.

But maybe that's my bracket. And hence I win whenever my ping is low.

---

point is rats are not self sufficient. They resort to be left alone so they build an infestation and then they release themselves like some horde of locusts that cant be stopped.
Think about it

Tiny needs aghs
TB needs BoTs
Naga needs radiance
Lycan needs necrobook.
BM needs lots of levels and a necro book
Druid needs level 7 and not be shut down in lane
pugna needs some hero with him and an unattended lane
DK can push at 6
WR needs 6
DP needs 6 and idle tower

You really need to wreck lanes,their lanes so they take time to make their rat infestation.

No one mention Tinker?

I have a foot in both camps. I think it's a legitimate way of winning games if winning is what really matters. Alliance won a TI and with millions of dollars at stake you can hardly frown upon them finding a way to win that's within the rules of the game, and was executed with skill and strategy.

On the other hand...ratting can be so boring. It can be extremely frustrating to combat if you don't have the right heroes to counter it. If you've ever played a ridiculously long game against a 6 slotted Naga Siren it's a very slow strangulation. You can feel powerless to stop the inevitable, or simply bored by having a few hundred HP knocked off one of your towers every few minutes until you lose the will to play.

Losing to superior ganking or teamfighting or just sheer brute force has the psychological effect of making it feel like a "fair" victory. You got outplayed, made mistakes, whatever. Ratting can feel like being beat without really being beat. If the game isn't fun because it's slow, unsatifying and dull...well game should be fun.

So I'm not going to totally frown upon it because it's legitimate, but I'd also say it frequently isn't fun.

Not for the one who's ratting. You play 1 vs 5, Stirlitz and Donald Trump simulator at the same time.