Question bomb from a semi-noob

I've played Dota 2 for nearly 130hrs. While I don't consider myself a noob, I don't consider myself an expert. I understand the terms such as carries, the items, all the basics of playing and many terms. But there are still many things I still don't understand. So, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate some answers

1) I understand what a "carry" is but I don't understand terms like "semi-carry" or "hard carry"
2) What does ss mean? I assume it means side shop or secret shop but I want to be hurt
3) Does "b" mean "Be careful?"
4) I don't understand terms like "off lane" "hard lane". What do they mean?

I'm no expert either but I'll try my best to answer every single one of your questions.

1) I may be wrong, but a semi-carry is a carry that does not need that much farm to be effective. Just a little bit of farm - and they can go around and start killing people. A prime example is Timbersaw. A hard carry is a carry that needs plenty, and I do mean plenty, of farm and loads and loads of items before they can start playing a part in the teamfights and all. But once you give them their items and farm they will be extremely dangerous to go up against. Examples of hard carries are Doom and Alchemist.

2) I do believe it means side shop/secret shop.

3) B basically means "back". So if you're going forward and your teammate asks you to "b", he's basically asking you to get back.

4) The offlane/hard lane is, well, as the name suggests, the harder lane. In the harder lane, it is harder to farm and easier to get ganked, which is why heroes that go to the offlane are usually heroes that possess abilities that allow them to escape from enemy clutches easily. Some offlane hero examples are Dark Seer and Windrunner. For the Radiant side, the hard lane is the top lane, while on the Dire side it's the bottom lane.

Hope I helped :)

well i'll ease ur pain. Altough Glenn T up there almost nailed it. Altough timber ain't a carry...

1) The term "carry" aplies to any heroes that use GOLD and EXP more EFFICIENTLY than others, in exchange however, they wont be much good without them. Its as simple as this: semi-carry>carry>hardcarry. with the SEMI-CARRY needing ONE core item or so and the HARD CARRY requiring ALOT MORE items, while being even more USELESS EARLY on.

2) It usually means miSSing, its the same as "miss" and "mia" but only two letters long.

3) It does mean BACK, be aware that most ppl say this when they're backing or already back... so BE HASTEFULL whenever u hear it.

4) Radiant's TOP it's the HARD/SHORT/OFFLANE. Usually taken by soloers or aggresive trilanes.
Radiant's MID it's... well mid.
Radiant's BOT it's the EZ/LONG/SAFE. Usually taken by the carry and or a trilane.

Dire's TOP it's the EZ/LONG/SAFE. Usually taken by the carry and or a trilane.
Dire's MID it's... well mid.
Dire's BOT it's the HARD/SHORT/OFFLANE. Usually taken by soloers or aggresive trilanes.

-You can see the lanes are just a mirror.
-Called SAFE lane cuz u can control the lane by pulling, using ur jungle to your advantage.
-Called HARD lane cuz it's the opposite of the SAFE lane, u get no control over it unless u are aggresive.

I suck at english (T.T). GL MAN!

A carry is a very loose term. Hard carry is a hero like Anti Mage, A hero that it is better to farm than to gank and kill. A semi cary likes to farm too but is more of a snowball that is much more active early and mid game.

SS is the easy was to say miSSing. It is an odd way to say it but when you are using qwer as your key bindings ss is a fast quick message. Going hand in hand with ss is re. When some one calls re it means the hero was missing and has returned.

b is back. Again easy to type fast and gets the point across. If you are taking a tower and you know they are going tank you call b. If you take Rax and your team is derping around in there base when they respawn call b. In short when you are getting out fast let your team know with a fast b.

Off lane/hard lane is Radiant top or Dire bot. They are the shortest lanes and the biggist difference is you don't have the ability to pull. (that is a lie because you can pull Raident top but it is REALLY hard and the other team will kill you so it is not reliable.)

I may be restating what some other people have said but I'll throw in my input.



Carry is pretty broad on the spectrum. There are all kinds of carries that operate in different ways, like Necrolyte, Bristleback, Medusa, etc. Hard carries are those that excel late-late game, like Faceless Void, Medusa or Morphling. Semicarries are those that have the greatest damage output mid game, and usually don't need to dedicate time to free-farming mid-game but instead getting kills. There are a ton of semi-carries, but I'll name a few for you: Enchantress, Dragon Knight, Bristleback and Bounty Hunter.

Missing. If mid calls "ss" it means his lane opponent isn't in the lane and is most likely off ganking.

Back up.


Offlane/hard lane are used to refer to Radiant's top lane and Dire's bot lane. The lane has less control than the safe lane, which is why only hard-to-kill heroes USUALLY go in the offlane, and carries go in the safelane, though there are exceptions to this rule, as with most general rules in dota.

IMO semi carry is very hard in itself to define because IMO almost 90% of the heroes in dota can semi carry even some support type heroes if given mega farm but they always fall to true carries

Ah, so ss means missing. Everyone I play with refer to ss as the secret shop/side shop though :l

1. A Semi-Carry is a hero who isn't a dedicated Carry, typically useful early on and peaks during the mid-game, trailing off as the Hard Carries start to hit their stride. They are also called "Semi" as if they get enough of a lead in the early/mid game and start snowballing, they can take over the Carry role. One example is Slark, he isn't a dedicated Carry but if he can snowball then he is definitely a viable option for the role.
A Hard Carry is a hero dedicated to the role of carrying, and hits their stride in the late game. Once they do, they are pretty powerful.

2. Means missing hero/es

3. b for "Back", quick way of telling someone to get out quickly or to generally just fall back (say if after a team fight you start to over extend or stick around too long).

4. Off lane and Hard Lane are interchangeable terms, and refer to each side's short lane. Reason its called the Hard Lane is because the other side have a pull camp which gives them more lane control, and creep waves naturally meet close to their tower. That and Hard Lane heroes are more easily ganked due to the terrain.
Basically, your goal in the Hard lane is to scrape together what farm you can, with the main objective being not dying and denying them XP/farm, especially if your there solo.

The meaning for SS depends on your area, if you play in the SEA servers then they mean your ult.

Apparently, it's because it's your "special skill"

True, if fed ANYONE can become a semi-carry. However a fed Tiny/jugg will be more powerfull than a Fed Lich/cristal maiden/shadow shaman. Its all about who can make the most out of the resources given.