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Hi everybody and welcome to my guide on how to improve quickly in dota 2. Now note that if your mmr is above 3k you shouldn't bother much because most of the content will be very obvious and you will just keep repeating yourself "you dont say?". If you're new to dota or your rank is below 2k, you might find some interesting facts here and they will help improve your game further.
For myself, I've had nearly 2000 hours in dota 2 and I've never played dota 1. I started playing dota 2 since august 2013, as the hype of TI3 got the better of me, and I succumbed to MOBA XD. After I played about 1200 hours my rank was at 3100, which is about 500 points higher than my older friends who played dota for 3,4 years (mostly dota 1 for 3 years). And I've seen many other players who are stuck at 2k, 1k mmr range and one day 1 guy told me "Hey i should create a new account, then my starting rank would be better so I wont get grouped with these ******s". And he really did, but after 1 month, his new account's mmr was still at 2k range. From here, you can see 1 fact that: If your mmr is hellish, it's mostly because of you, not your team mates.
After that, I looked into his accounts and my friends' accounts and I found some similarities that low mmr players usually have:
- Their hero pool is very little, they played only about less than 10 heroes and do not want to play new ones. As a result, their roles might not be diverse as well.
- Usually low GPM and XPM in most of the games that they play
- Their item builds are not very diverse, meaning for every game they go for only 1 item build for a particular hero.
- Usually low APM and no map awareness, this might be due to the fact that their hero pool is low.
Those are the main problems that I see in low mmr players, and in this guide I will come up with some solutions to these, based on my own experience.
Many new players ignore this option and just went straight to pub, either to play casually or to try a new hero. I suggest that you should not do that because if you play badly, you'll likely to be blamed. And when you're blamed, you don't feel well, and when you dont feel well you can't play well thus you can hardly improve. And the loop just keeps repeating.
There are something to highlight about bots (I'm talking about hard bots and unfair bots only):
- Their last hits and denies are VERY good, can be a good practice partner
- Their reaction is also very fast, almost inhumane
- Their chain stuns are usually very good too and can be a good example for new players.
- Most of the heroes that bots play are quite easy to play and learn, so if you wanna learn new heroes try the heroes that they play first.
These are just the pros, the cons is almost unlimited so let's just move on.
When you learn a new hero, it's better to try out with bots to understand how the hero works first, about once or twice if you're a fast learner is enough. After that you can start trying in pubs. If you don't know how a certain hero's supposed to work, USE THE GUIDE IN GAME AT THE TOP LEFT CORNER, many many many new players skip this and in my opinion it's the best way to learn a new hero quickly. Remember to try the ones with a lot of likes and dont follow a troll one. If you have a friend who is good at dota, tell him/her to help you choosing one.
Now some of you might misunderstand that I'm encouraging newbies to pick carries in all pub games and bring hell on earth. There is a few reasons why new players should play carry first:
- They have to learn how to last hits, this is the most basic skill in dota and only carries usually have high base damage and good BAT to learn last hits skills properly.
- Carries usually do not require much skills from early - mid game. They are usually easier to play as they do not have a lot of active skills which can be confusing to new players. (Of course at higher level it's not very true and carries need to be more skilled)
- Support players need a good understanding of the game and have to know how to pull, stack, make space for carries, gank, ward, etc.. which are very confusing to new players too.
- New players usually like to play carries anyway so let's just let them.
When I say learn a carry, it doesn't mean you can just go into pub and pick a carry. Most likely you will be grouped up with 4 other carries too.
So let's just switch to bots, at least there will be 1 or 2 supports that let you practice your last hits in peace. As I stated before, bots are very good at last hitting, so once you practice till the point that you're on par with bots, you will not have any problems in pubs. Remember try to deny enemies' creeps too as it helps you improve your laning presence as well as getting some exp from denying your own creeps. Try to hit 50 creeps by the first 10 mins as starter.
After that, try to learn how to last hit under tower, and last hit on your opponent's towers, as these are very important too.
These are some easy heroes that you can try to learn how to last hit effectively:
Viper
Sniper
Chaos Knight
Lifestealer
Anti-Mage
Bloodseeker
etc...
Among these i think Viper is the easiest and I started my good life in dota with him :3
However: Don't learn 
Riki yet.
This is because Riki or 
Bounty Hunter will make you oblivious to positioning skills and this is bad in the long run. Many new players rely too much on invisibility without trying to learn how to predict opponent's positions and ward's positions.
You can refer to this video to learn how to last hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_0NP4U8aUk
Basically you only need to learn last hitting and farming skills while trying to learn carry heroes, but this is no where near done yet, we still have a long way to go :3.
There are a lot of benefits from learning new heroes:
- You can understand other heroes better, which will give you more confident when you play AGAINST them
- You will have a better understanding about countering heroes and it will help you get more options in picking phase.
- When you play new roles, it helps you improve other important skills such as map awareness and avoiding ganks.
- It helps you understand that "killing isn't everything". Sometimes pushing and assisting your carries are more important
- Generally Dota is less boring when you can play all the heroes :D
A lot of new players have the mentality that "killing is everything", thus results in a large amount of low mmr players picking carries in every game. Of course kills are important but there is a reason why Dota is a team game: You dont kill alone (unless you're fat), you kill together and thus there are assists.. When you learn to play supports you will know that you're supposed to give carries the kills and you should be happy with your high assists count.
When you only play 1 role, you will most likely do not know how other roles are supposed to work. There is one thing I learned from playing gankers: If you do not gank, you will not know how to avoid gank.
Before I moved on from playing carries, I kept getting ganked by heroes such as 
Spirit Breaker or 
Lion every time. Until a point i got really frustrated and decided to play those 2 instead. AFter a few days, I knew exactly where and when they might appear to gank me and I learned how to avoid those locations when they're not on the mini map. Thus, that was one of my early lesson for "Map awareness"
When you learn a new hero, you might want to watch somebody play first and you can mimic them later in bots game for a better understanding. Purge's videos are usually good and you can learn a lot from him on youtube. He also explained his actions which are very helpful for new players.
Of course you're fine if you can play 50+ heroes or so, but it's better if you have played other heroes before. After that you can concentrate on a role you like best (mid, offlaner, support, roamers etc) from the list of the heroes that you played. I suggest that you should not just concentrate on carry or mid though, try to learn one of the roles i listed above to avoid conflicts later in pub.
To sum it up, by making your hero pool diverse, you have to play different roles and also acquire new skills such as ganking. Some might even know how to ward effectively from being active on the map and thus also improve their map awareness which is very important in dota. And remember that: a support or mid hero usually need to be skilled and have a very good understanding of the game.
A common mistake that new players usually commit is that they forget that they have this particular skill/item and thus forget to use them in a fight as well. I can list some of them here, including UNDERRATED ITEMS too:
- 
Black King Bar : this item is underrated by some AND many new players also forget to use them in team fight. If you forget, just keep reminding yourself to activate it later. If you rarely consider buying this item and just focus on damage items, remember that: You cannot deal damage if you cannot survive. Buy this item if opponents have a lot of disables/nukes. It will also potentially make you die less.
- 
Soul Ring This item is included in a lot of guides but also one of the items that new players always forget to use it. Again, keep reminding yourself to use this item before casting a spell. You might want to drop other int items (such as arcane's boots for a greater mana boost before using it.
- 
Drum of Endurance This is one of the few items that cannot go wrong on any hero. It gives you 9 stats but cheaper than 
Ultimate Orb by 250 gold and also give you 5% atk speed and movement speed aura, thus this can be purchased on either carries or supports. Don't forget to use its active in a teamfight. Carries such as 
Phantom Assassin, 
Slark or 
Juggernaut can buy this item early game with no problem.
- 
Power Treads This boot is purchased by many but very few new players actually know how to switch tread. Basically:
1. When you are healing your mana, switch it to str/agi, when you heal your hp, switch it to agi/int, when you're healing both hp and mana, switch it to agi (such as 
Bottle charges or 
Magic Stick's charges)
2. When you're running away, switch it to str, when you're farming, switch it to your main attribute for maximum damage.
3. Before you cast a spell, switch it to int, cast your spell then quickly switch back to your main attribute or strength for survivability.
4. If you're a carry in late game, just leave it at strength for maximum survivability.
This can be tedious to learn at first but just keep doing it. After a few games you will get used to it.
- 
Animal Courier and 
Flying Courier. This is a no brainer. However if you're a support you should upgrade your courier by 3-5 mins after the game start. Skip your boot if you have to. Don't let it walk after 10 mins as the chance of it dying is very high if it doesn't fly.
- 
Mekansm This is good and sometimes underrated, but dont buy 2 in a team. DONT FORGET TO USE IT THOUGH OR YOU WILL BE BASHED TILL THE END OF THE GAME. It can be game changing sometimes thus very important in a team fight.
- 
Blink Dagger Without mana cost, now this is the best initiating items you can have for supports or even some carries like Slark, 
Legion Commander and 
Shadow Fiend, even better than 
Force Staff or 
Shadow Blade. So please don't hesitate to buy one if you need to initiate either a gank or a team fight. This can also be used to dodge projectiles which is great.
-
Medallion of Courage This is a very underrated items in low mmr games and also a lot of players forget to use it in a fight. Keep reminding yourself to use it when you encounter an enemy can help you solve the problem. Buy this if enemies have heroes that have high base armor such as 
Terrorblade or orge magi
- Magic Stick A lot of new players skip this item too but this can be a life saver if your opponents have a lot of spells. 15 charges can give you instant 225hp and mana which is as good as a Mekansm
- 
Diffusal Blade Many new players do not know the purge mechanic thus they do not know how to use this effectively. This item can purge ghost form from 
Ghost Scepter or guardian's angel or you can even use on yourself to purge some negative effect (debuffs, mostly slow or poison damages)
- 
Necronomicon usually referred as "book" or "necro book" is also a very underrated item in low mmr games. A level 3 creeps from necronomicon is very strong, gives a nice aura and more importantly, have true sight around them so you can detect invisible units/wards. Buy this items if you need to counter invisibilities or needs to push fast.
For skills, there are not many, but I will list some important ones:
-
Ravage I have seen people not very familiar with its maximum range for ravage. Try to learn its range and your ravage can save a lot of team mates in need, especially when you dont have a Blink Dagger yet.
- 
Song of the Siren you'd better have good communication if not fail team fights will very likely to happen. Talk to your team mates on mic so that you can executes combo perfectly.
- 
Chronosphere Try not to get any of your team mates in here. The first time I used this hero in pubs i got reported for catching my team mates (to ks). Now i'm better but still have to be mindful whenever I use this spell.
- Ghost ship Even if your enemies are getting very near and your boat might not hit, just use it anyway as your team needs the extra speed + damage reduction from your boat.
- 
Toss If you dont want to throw your allies, make sure you don't stand close to them first
- 
Hookshot be mindful of creeps around you and your opponents
- 
Duel do not panic duel, ever -_-
- 
Laser you can save a team mate by blinding someone for 5s with this spell, also nifty if you're running away and they're close. Just use this and continue running.
- 
Shallow Grave Use this mostly on carries, not support unless your carries are definitely safe or not in rage.
- 
Frost Arrows Dont auto cast this if you need life steal cuz they dont stack, best to use it manually.
- 
Meld This can be used to dodge some spells or attack
- Shapeshifting spells such as 
Shapeshift, 
True Form, 
Phantasm or even activating 
Manta Style can dodge some spells or projectiles.
- Some skills can grant temporary invulnerability such as 
Omnislash, 
Waveform or 
Sleight of Fist also can be used to dodge some spells and projectiles.
- Call of the wild (hawk) this is a very important spell, sadly i usually see new players maxing 
Inner Beast without even 1 or 2 points in this spell. This also gives you a chance to learn micro which is good start before you play 
Naga Siren, 
Chen or even 
Meepo. A level 3 or 4 hawk is literally a mobile ward which gives you a lot of map control and can also be used as a target for 
Boots of Travel.
-soul catcher I saw a lot of creeps were affected by this spell as many new players do not know how to place this spell so that only the enemy hero get it. The easiest combo is to use 
Disruption, after that if creeps are around make sure only the edge of -soul catcher is on the disruption ball, so that only the hero inside will be affected.
- 
Nature's Guise this is also underrated as i dont see a lot of low mmr players use this skill to initiate. This is actually why 
Treant Protector can delay his blink a bit later as this skill is perfect for initiation. Use it on yourself and other heroes when the opponents are coming for a surprise gank.
-
Stampede a lot of new players use this to run, but this skills is almost perfect for initiating, dont hesitate if you need to take initiative to start a team fight.
- 
Invoke I dont know how many new invoker players can only use 1 or 2 spells because they always forget to invoke new spells. This comes with practice but you need to keep reminding yourself too. Keep an eye on your spells all the time and keep invoking new spells.
- 
Power Cogs most of the times 
Clockwerk players will try to get his target in the cog. This might not work well in a team fight especially when your team has a lot of melee carries. Try to push your hooked target out using the cog instead to isolate him from his team and also allow your carry to deal damage on him. Sometimes the drain mana from the cog is essential to kill enemies such as 
Storm Spirit or 
Wraith King
Now that we have discussed about the skills you have to learn and the function of items/heroes skills that you have to mind, you can start to try new heroes, from easy to difficult. These heroes that I suggest are fairly easy to play. Remember to watch how pro players play later on youtube so that you can learn more tricks and tips from them.
1. Carry:
- Viper This hero in my opinion, the easiest hero to play in dota. 1 orb (
Poison Attack) that can slow and harass other hero perfectly, 2 passive skills that help you A LOT in last hitting and survive a team fight and a very strong ultimate 
Viper Strike that can even go through Black King Bar. He can also go for damage build or tank builds (tank is usually more useful) which is very versatile. Great hero for new players in general.
- Juggernaut This is another easy hero to play and also very easy to practice last hit skill. His animation and BAT are super great, his bladefury is basically a free Black King Bar and deals a lot of damage early game. Omnislash is also a very strong ultimate, gives you temporary invulnerability and can even strike enemies in Chronosphere and deals massive amount of damage. Be mindful of creeps around the opponents though so that you won't jump on them and waste some slashes.
- Lifestealer He has a very high base damage and decent attack animation, thus also very good at practicing last hitting. His 
Rage is also a free magic immunity, has a good slow and his ultimate even though can be tricky to use, very useful in initiation or escaping regardless.
- Wraith King is another easy hero with 2 passives, 1 target stun and a free aegis as ultimate. His base damage is quite high and with decent attack animation so you should not have any problem with last hitting. Remember to control your mana though and always keep your mana pool enough for 
Reincarnation. If you buy Power Treads, refer to the session above about how to use it to utilize your mana.
- 
Luna To be fair she is quite easy to play, with highest movement speed in the game, high damage early game to last hit, good animation, huge sight at night, moon glaive is very good for pushing and farming, her ultimate is monstrous and very easy to win a 1 vs 2 or 1 vs 3. The only problem is that she is quite squishy which might make new players feed with luna if they lack the ability to read the situation.
- 
Ursa also easy to play, with 1 AOE slow, 1 of the best passive in the game which gives you a high first blood potential early game 
Fury Swipes, good animation and damage. What he lacks is mobility though and most of the times you need a Blink Dagger before 20 minutes mark.
Heroes you can try after learning the heroes above:
Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, 
Weaver, 
Alchemist, Bloodseeker, 
Mirana, 
Medusa, 
Spectre
Most of these are very hard carries and do not have much impact early-mid game thus can be quite boring to play early on.
Heroes you shouldn't practice early:
- Riki, 
Clinkz and Bounty Hunter: You need to learn positioning and map awareness to some extent before you can mess around with invisible heroes.
- Sniper and 
Drow Ranger These are very easy to play actually, however they severely lack escape mechanism and EXTREMELY SQUISHY and thus you need to perfect positioning skills in order to play these effectively (they have to stay behind their team mates to deal damage). Of course it doesn't hurt to try so just go for it if you like, but at your own risk.
- 
Faceless Void Actually the main problem is that you have to place your Chronosphere perfectly so that you won't get any team mates inside or as few as possible, and if your team has a lot of melee you have to get most of your opponents at the edge of your chrono so that your team can deal damage. Practice with bots first before you go in pubs to avoid conflict later.
- Naga Siren First of all you need a microphone to communicate with your team mates, especially when you are going to use Song of the Siren. Secondly you need a very good micro to farm jungles with your illusions. If those 2 are clear you can try in pubs.
2. Supports:
- Lion In my opinion, the easiest and has the most impact hero even if you're new to the game. 1 stun 1 hex, can roam without going back to fountain with your mana drain, a huge nuke as an ultimate, you can hardly go wrong with Lion. Make sure that you time your stun and hex so that you maximise the time of disables on enemy's heroes. And do not use your ulti to kill heroes unless you have to secure it, give the kills to your carry if possible.
-
Shadow Shaman It is another hero that can hardly go wrong as a hard support. He has a good nuke for harassing or even jungling at high level, a free hex and 
Shackles is a very good disable even though you have to channel. His ultimate is good for team fight or pushing. However there is an important advanced skill that you need to learn that is trapping enemy's hero in the middle of your 
Mass Serpent Ward, practice by either 
Hex or Shackles the opponent first before trapping them inside. Dont trap your team mate either by accident or on purpose though if you dont want to get reported later.
-
Ogre Magi he is a very good support with 1 single target stun, 
Ignite can be used as an AOE dps or to farm/push quickly, blood lust is a huge buff on your carry so dont forget to buff them before/during a team fight. Remember that aghanim scepter is a very good pick up on him but not very necessary unless game is long. Prioritize Blink Dagger, Mekansm or 
Pipe of Insight first to support your team.
-
Lich Also very easy to play with a nuke and slow combined, frost armor is great on your tank/carry so dont forget to use it before/in a team fight. sacrifice is a good spell to replenish your mana and also deny your creep. If you want to deny properly then use the skill outside of opponent's exp range in laning stage. And finally 
Chain Frost is a very strong nuke that can break your opponent's formation. Be mindful of the creeps around them though, use 
Frost Blast to quickly kill the creeps if you have to so that your Chain Frost won't bounce on creeps.
-
Bane with 
Brain Sap as a good nuke and heal, good disables 
Nightmare and 
Enfeeble can cripple any carry, 
Fiend's Grip is also a very strong ultimate that can easily disable a core hero with ease, Bane is fairly easy to play. However you will need good positioning for a good Fiend's Grip if not your opponent can gang up on you. Also Nightmare can either be a good initiator spell or can also **** your team mate up so use it wisely, you can practice with its mechanism in bots first.
-
Lina she is one of the most well known nukers in the game. Quite easy to play even though her starting movement speed and attack animation are horrible, as well as her durability. However her stun can be hard to hit and need practice. Also do not use your ultimate on target with 
Blade Mail activated or with 
Nether Ward around. Do not use your ultimate to ks your carry too, unless it's needed to secure a kill.
-
Tidehunter also very easy to play even though you need to be very wary of your surrounding for a good Ravage, and dont use it on opponents with Black King Bar activated. Also positioning is key. Kraken's shell is good for durability as well as 
Anchor Smash, 
Gush is a good slow with armor reduction. Remember that you can easily kill ancient creeps with Anchor Smash when you need some gold for a quick Blink Dagger. Remember to stack them to increase your gold earned potential.
Note that you can go gank with support heroes too so dont forget to practice your ganking skills. Your map awareness and positioning will also improve afterwards.
Other heroes you might want to try afterwards:
Omniknight, 
Jakiro, 
Earthshaker, 
Warlock, 
Crystal Maiden, 
Silencer, 
Keeper of the Light, 
Zeus, 
Witch Doctor
These heroes are the harder ones:
-
Rubick You need to learn by heart almost every spell in the game to use it well, might be confusing to new players
- Chen and 
Enchantress: You need to have a good micro skills + map awareness + positioning to play these heroes, not very suitable for new players.
-
Vengeful Spirit i've seen many players mess up their position with this hero because of the ultimate. Make sure you know your positioning first before you can play this.
-
Io Nein, just nein.
When you have done most of the things here, you still have a long way to go in order to be come a real "good player". But now you should have improved your map awareness, last hits and denies, know how to gank, maybe even camera positions and APM on certain heroes, and better understanding of the game and other roles.
To improve further, you can watch pro plays from either streams or tournaments (many pro players usually troll on their stream though). Try to notice their camera work, and mimic what they do in lane or when they go gank, especially their position, how they pull/stack camp and how they execute a team fight. Of course seeing is one thing and practising is another thing and practice makes perfect so if you really want to improve in dota, don't slack :D
Another note is that dont forget to communicate with your teammates especially when you're ganking or you're using big ultimates like Ravage or 
Black Hole. Dota is a team game and communication is key.
After that you can try other difficult heroes such as 
Invoker, 
Tinker, Naga Siren, 
Brewmaster, 
Visage or even Meepo as these heroes will improve your micro, APM and map awareness greatly.
It's all up to you at this point now and I think my guide can no longer help you further :D. Good luck on your journey to escape hell mmr and strive towards 6k, 7k mmr :D. Please rate this guide if you like it and do check out my other guides :).
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