Coaching Challenge (Kind Of)

Heyoh!

So here is the scene: I am right at a 1500 solo MMR, I want desperately to get to 2000-2100 as a short-term goal. I play fairly well, all my friends I play with are 2500-3k MMR and they have taught me a lot. My problem is that when I play in my bracket, I cannot seem to gain the edge to progress.

Backing up a bit, I believe that ELO hell or the Trench exists only for those who think that it does. If you as a player are convinced that your losses are coming from your team being bad, you will never look critically at your own performance to improve. That being said, it IS much harder to win consistently when your teammates are basically four coin flips.

I am missing something, but I am not sure what. I have tried Furion split-pushing like hell to try to get my team some ground independent of the skill of my teammates, but that only works about half of the time. I have tried doing a strong mid and early ganks, but again that only helps if my team capitalizes on the space created, which is a ****shoot. Supporting is another coin flip on whether or not the person you support will use the support to dominate the lane. (It doesn't help that I am a mediocre support at best)

I have tried to build more flexibly, filling whatever role is needed. I have bought courier as a mid, warded when I should be saving to get items, etc... and I have also tried the opposite-completely ignoring my team in order to get the things I need to hard carry them. Regardless of what I try, it only works part of the time. In addition, I have tried just pubstomping with Rikki/Blood/PA which works fairly well, but which isn't improving me as a player at all.

Which brings us back to my original point-I am missing something, and I have no idea what it is or where to look for it. So I am appealing to all of you, the wiser community, for some help. If you are willing/able to help, PM me, add me on Steam, add me on Dota, etc... I will provide all the info needed below. I am willing to try anything you think will work., and I am hoping that input from multiple people will fill in any and all gaps I have in my knowledge.

Thank you in advance for your help, I hope to hear from all of you!

LINKS

Dotabuff: http://dotabuff.com/players/104971658
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/galadwarder

P.S. I have a wide array of VOIP programs, so we can use whatever you are most comfortable with to talk, should you want to do so to coach.

Hey man. My name is jake, I might be able to help you. I have 3k MMR and 2000+ hours on dota 2. I am usually a hard ccarry but in your situation I don't think that is what is needed. I can help you reach your goal.

Steam: ladjayke / Jaykee
Dotabuff: http://dotabuff.com/players/129068865

Cool! I added you, I look forward to hopefully learning from you!

Thanks so much for helping-here's to success!

-UPDATE-

So after some coaching from assorted people, I learned that I am mixing up my priorities as far as ganking and objectives go. I am tunneling very hard on kills I want, and not making good calls on when or when not to dive/commit.

After straightening that out, I have improved quite a lot. Still missing things though-covered basic warding and positioning which helps, but isn't quite it.

A huge shoutout to ColdStorm, Bonta-Kun, and Jaykee for their help so far, I can still use help from as many people as are willing, so if you think you can help, hit me up!

Played two ranked matches today, lost both, and stopped before getting too tilted. MMR stands at 1433.

I will continue to document my journey out of the trench here in the hopes that others in my position can benefit from what I am learning :)

Until next time, Happy Hunting!

Lost some more matches today, had a slight breakthrough in the hero selection process. For lower, more trenchy MMR's, high-impact, strong early-mid heroes are fantastic in pubs, and here is why:

Assume that both teams are equally derpy in their play. Whoever gets the earliest upper hand (first blood, first tower, first Rosh, etc...) will have the advantage, and assuming each team is equal, will sustain it into the late game. Comebacks take more coordination to pull off, so 75% of the time, if you can set the enemy team back early, you can carry it into the later game.

One thing I found though is that the hero you pick has to have the ability to still carry late game with sufficient farm, else you are counting on your team being prepared to sustain your lead, which is a coinflip.

So far I have had success with Nightstalker, more tests to come.

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/forum/general/mmr-constructive-feedback-5563
I have a thread on this, I'm actually very close to you now. My trick was getting an auto-clicker and playing captains mode so I actually get good teams. Also warlock mid works as explained in my thread. Good Luck

Fleet-
Thanks for the reply! I really like the idea of a warlock mid, the downside is that I feel like the chances of getting that with so many sniper/pudge/viper instapicks is fairly slim. You would end up either sharing the lane, or booting someone to feed elsewhere.

As far as Captains Mode goes, I have actually tried that, but it comes out to about an even 50/50 of people who instaclick Captain and draft horribly, and ppl who know how to draft. I personally am terrible at drafting, so I don't want to mess with that can of worms.:P

From what I have found, the Captain's mode works exceptionally well from about 2200 onward. Until I hit that mark, I think that All Pick is the way to go.

-UPDATE-

Played some more matches the last few days-I have averaged about 8 hours on DOTA per weekday and closer to 11ish on weekends. No ranked matches recently, I still want to pursue the idea of a strong, high-impact early-mid hero, but I don't feel too comfortable playing ranked with any of them yet.
Practicing feels good, especially when I see improvement in my play! I have also started to random my first few games, that way I get both warmed up, and don't become a "one-hero, one-trick pony"

I have found that using a guide the first two plays on a hero really helps, but after that I try to avoid them. No item/skill build is a one-size-fits-all, and by forcing myself to make decisions on my builds, I get a better grasp on both items and how I need to play from game-to-game. Plus, when I go full ****** on an item choice, I have my lovely team to ensure that I know about it. :D

I still play super greedy, working on that more.


Finally, a word of wisdom I received yesterday that has helped me a lot with my map awareness:

"Try to glance at the minimap every time you last hit or deny something. It is a good way to remember until you get in the habit of checking the map."

This has helped me a ton, and I use the same trick to check cooldown on Midas. Shoutout to ColdStorm for that gem, and as always,
Happy Hunting!

strong mid game heroes huh:
quick list:
-Juggernaught
- Silencer
- Viper
- Lina
- Chaos Knight
- Razor
- Slark
-nyx
- Bounty Hunter
- Skywrath Mage
- Ogre Magi


anyhow, I will add you to talk. No offense intended here but I do believe I am potentially better than you and as such I think I may be able to help you. I use mumble to communicate.
I have added you anyway

Thanks for the list!

I will add you too, I have no doubt that you are better than me (so no offense taken), and would love any help you can give!

I am DLing Mumble at the moment, hope to hear from you soon!


*EDIT* Hello, Reader! This forum thread now has a Page Two! So don't forget to click over to continue reading if you are interested, it was kind of hard to tell on the website, so I figured I would point it out ;)

lel I actually forgot to add you :S done now sorry

edit: oh wait you added me *facepalm*

I'll watch out for you being online