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Hey, I'm Sam, and this is my first Dota 2 guide. Hope you enjoy it!
Okay, so it's happened to everyone. It's 10-15 mins, and you're not doing so well. Your team mates are on your back for feeding, the enemy are focusing you down and banking you at every second and you're not sure what to do. I was playing a game, k/d/a ratio of 1-5-2. Not abysmal, but at that point, you need to get your act together to avoid some serious failing. Here is how I turned it around.
At this point, the absolute LAST thing you want to do is die. So here are some tips on 'playing it safe'. I'll go into more detail of these tips during the guide. Also, if you are a squishy support, it may be worth purchasing a gauntlet for that extra 57hp.
Never Be Alone
Okay, this may be quite obvious, but it's a crucial one if you want to turn things around. You should stick with someone who's doing at least relatively well. I was a Lion, who became ganking partners with a Juggernaut. I literally stalked him until he just sort of accepted me and continued ganking. Surprisingly, with Lion's stun and Jugger's spinny thing, it worked quite well. If you can't find someone to partner up with this brings us on to my next point.
Safety and Positioning Is Key
If you do end up leaning and farming alone, the chances you will get ganked or attacked is very high. This means you need to be extremely tactical, positioning is key, it could be the difference between life or death. Okay, so firstly, you need to alert your team in the chat that you could be in danger of being attacked. Then, maybe if you are going to be there for a while, you could ward the forest around you so that you have a few seconds notice if you're about to be attacked. Now, you are ready to farm some creeps and sort of get your gold back a bit. Position yourself behind the creep-wave, as far away as you can possibly get while still being able to hit the creeps. You should be safe-ish, as long as you don't do anything stupid.
The Worst Has Happened
Okay, so you're in the above situation, and two enemies catch you off guard and begin a gank. The first thing to remember is to stay calm. Firstly, see if there is any way you can escape. If not, then at least try to get a kill out of this encounter. Firstly, look at the weaker of the two. Use all of your damage abilities or items on them, then just right click. Remember, this tactic is only if there is no possibility of escaping. If there is a friendly tower nearby, have a little 'ring a ring a roses' around it. Just make them take as much damage as possible. Also, use creeps to your advantage, attempt to block them by pulling creeps. This is very hard to pull off, but if it works, it could just save your live.
This is possibly the hardest way of pulling back, but if you feel confident enough, then fine, you can try. You basically need to either kill-steal (which I do NOT recommend) or stick together with some teammates and put equal amounts of work into the kill. Here are some tips for getting kills when under-fed.
The 'Overkill'
Now this tactic is more of a last resort. You use this if you have no other way. The 'Overkill' is known to save people, but is also known to mess them up completely. The basic idea is that if someone is on, say, 100ish health, and you have a 500 damage ability, you use it as a cheap kill steal. I know, it's a petty last resort, but it's better than nothing. It's a last resort as it can sometimes screw up a game for a carry who needs farm, or just make your teammates want to sabotage your every move. Kill stealing or 'overkill' is an ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT.
Trio-Ganks
This is a tactic which is proven to work, just not always to YOUR personal advantage. Basic idea: there's three of you. Find a low-health single target and go in for the kill. In this situation, overkill is a good tactic at getting a kill, as long as you put in as much work as your teammates. Because if you overkill in this situation, it cannot be classed as a kill steal. This isn't always necessary though, fatal ganking heroes like lion and Lina could probably 1 on 1 most people in a gank at this stage.
Now this tactic is my favourite, mainly because it's just a very easy way of getting back on your feet. This doesn't really require any explaining, you stick with a ganker, you do a bit of damage to ensure the kill, then sit back and watch your assist ratio go up. Using my example of a k/d/a ratio of 1-5-2, all you need is 12 assists. Sounds like a lot, but if you pick up the odd kill here and there, you are pretty much there. A little know fact is that (and this has been tested several times by me and some friends) a regular kill is equal to about 2-3 assists. Therefore, it is possible to become fed, purely on assists. This is a great tactic which can work with any hero, anytime in the game (unless they have a k/d/a ratio of 1-21-1 in which case they should not be playing dota!).
Now this tactic only works if your character is a jungler, or even remotely good at farming. This is the easiest tactic. You jungle. Ward around you just incase you get a little surprise attacks, and jungle until you get a build on par with someone who has a decent k/d/a ratio. Simple as that. Here are some tips.
Warding is CRUCIAL
To jungle effectively with a roaming enemy team, the position of wards that you place is absolutely crucial. I cannot stress this point enough, it ensures your safety while farming, please, oh please, just ward around the jungle and stick to your side. Don't go roaming off around the enemy jungle unless you have it safely warded.
Don't Overdo It
If you aren't a natural jungling character, don't go overboard and start fighting the ultimate camp on low health. Just take it easy and try to get as much gold as you can without going on low health. Also, a little tip for jungling, always carry tangos or a salve on you, just in case you get low.
Check Out A Jungling Guide
Always make sure you at least know basic jungling skills before entering the jungle ;).
If the worst comes to the worst, you've tried everything, nothing works, then you only have one choice. Act as bait. This is the only way you can be helpful to your team. For instance, in team fights, make sure the enemy team focus on you to give your team some time to use some AOEs to do some damage. When your team are ganking, act as a bait. Pull the old "I'm just a poor little under levelled hero on low health and mana, kill me, kill me!" Any carry in their right mind would think "weak enemy, low health = KILL," the next thing you know, boom. The carry has been killed and that's a bit more of an advantage to your team. So even if you're a bit of a dead weight, you're not completely useless.
Thanks for reading my guide, feel free to give me a vote or leave a comment with any feedback, please don't be afraid to criticise me, I'm open to any suggestions or comments. Remember, in these situations, stay optimistic and hope for the best.
Thanks,
-Sam
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