A few tips to improve your DotA game.

Hey guys. I haven't been posting much, but I've played a few games recently that kind of inspired me to post on the forums after a long break.

After coaching a few new players, I saw that they all made very similar mistakes in their games, and I felt making a post about these mistakes would be helpful for new players.

First of all, timing and anticipation is everything. I recently played Lion (Supporting my friend as Void) in the short lane. We were against an aggressive tri lane (Wraith King, Lich, and Lina). This tri lane was very very difficult to go up against. It was pretty much guaranteed that we would not win our lane. At one point I was dived. Wraith King stunned me, and I ate a full combo of stuns and attacks. Our Invoker TPed from long lane IMMEDIATELY when I was stunned and casted Cold Snap. I ended up dying, but the Invoker got a double kill.

Too often do I coach players and they do not have a TP to help their allies. They literally forget that there are other lanes in the game. Do you like items? Gold? Experience? You can get them in other places BESIDES your lane! The tri lane became very very defensive after Invoker TPed. It mentally implanted the idea in their minds that "Oh... We can't dive with this really aggressive tri lane or we will keep trading poorly. Let's just farm." Sometimes one mistake is all it takes. Recently I played a game as Chen and we were doing Rosh. Our Magnus was fighting in the Rosh pit with the rest of our team. Axe blinked in and got a 4 man call. We all died and they got the Rosh. He said "Sorry, I'll sit in back next time." but we never got a chance for a "next time". One wipe like that is all it takes to lose a game. So think ahead. How are your opponents doing? What advantages are they looking to press? How can you nullify those advantages?

Second thing is... When you "call" your lane... You're not actually calling a lane. This is basically telling your team "I'm going to be here for a bit... But I will move around a lot if I have to." Here's a game I played yesterday with the MMR ranging from 4400 (Me, the lowest haha) to 5500.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/766113510

Me, Alch, and CK get first blood top against an off lane NP because he was too aggressive. At this point NP played VERY defensively, and used teleport to jungle a lot too when Alch and I were mia and the lane was pushed towards our tower. So what did Alch and I do? We smoked mid and killed Tinker. A lot of the players that I see will just stack/pull because they aren't confident in their ganking abilities. People think 'I need items" or "I need my level 6 before I can gank". This is completely false. You can gank at level ONE with a combo like Alch/AA. After our successful gank on Tinker (Who was on the radiant), I plopped a sentry on their ancient hill (No ward) and we just sat there. When the Tinker came back, we killed him again. At this point the tinker went MIA and jungled with the NP. Meanwhile CK is getting solo, Skywrath gets solo, Nyx gets solo... And AA/Alch don't need many levels.

Also, an uncontested lane is an easily pushed lane. This means more gold, more map control for you, less for your opponents, easier Rosh, etc etc...

This reminds me of another game I recently played. A player was clockwork long lane solo, vs a Morph, sand king, lina. Once the SK and Lina started rotating, the clock said "Guys I need a gank. I can't stop morph from farming." Clockwork is very dangerous in ganks... He plays similar to a BH. When he is off of the map, you scare the lanes. We shouldn't be coming to the clock. The clock should be coming to us. Like the Alch/AA game I just talked about: If we had a tri lane going top with CK/AA/Alch and we're just sitting in lane pushing, Tinker would be mid against Skywrath. When we're MIA, Tinker is forced to jungle and give skywrath free farm (As well as all runes, and freedom to gank when he wishes). If you're a ganking hero, you need to be CONSTANTLY MIA and active. Make the opponents fear the possibility of a gank. When you're off lane against a morph, only morph is in danger, and he may play more passively. When Clock is MIA, you affect ALL lanes, and they have to play more passively because you could be anywhere. Even if you're helping the team get an early Rosh or something... They have no idea where you are. You affect the game all the same when you're MIA with a ganking hero.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully you find my advice helpful. Have a good day. ^_^

Anderps post so long, but was worth reading. 10/10, would read again.

On topic : The post is very interesting, and sums up using Teleport scrolls, ganking early, and how to make trilanes work without actually even being on the trilane. I encourage people to read the entire post.