Introduction
Ever thought to yourself: "I wish somebody had simply written down 5 good Dota gameplay ideas that I could apply to start playing better in all my matches" ? Well, even if you hadn't, now you have - and this article is the answer to all your questions.
I'm SlashStrike, I've been playing Dota for 16 years, competed with and against TI winners, and over the last several years I've personally coached more than 1000 Dota players and teams ranging from 0 to 9000 MMR.
Playing, watching and discussing Dota with people from all skill brackets and regions of the world has given me a wide perspective on the most common difficulties and mistakes that players face.
This article compiles the most impactful and important lessons into five easily digestible concepts that will teach you how to outperform the average Dota player.
I. Bad fast decisions always beat slow decisions
Your carry Faceless Void just finished his BKB and has his Chronosphere ready, so you figure it's a good time to make a move. You buy a smoke and send it out on the courier, running bottom towards Void. You ask your team to come, but Storm on the top lane wants to take another wave.
"Fine, we can smoke towards him" you figure.
But what's that? Your offlane Axe is also not coming - he's walking towards an ancient camp, pinging that he's out of mana.
Sitting behind your tier 2 tower mid, you start thinking:
You have Arcane Boots and two Mangoes, do you run towards Axe to give him mana and smoke him? Or do you smoke the Void and run towards Storm together? If you do smoke with Axe, do you guys then run towards Void or Storm? What would be a better position for a fight? Is it maybe better to wait and not smoke yet after all?
Five seconds later your doubting is interrupted by the enemy team - they ganked Void and killed him. Storm teleported and jumped in, dying after Void.
"Gg, my supports are afk" says Void.
Dota requires you to make decisions every second, and if you ever slow down and fall behind with your decision making, the enemy team will swiftly punish that (and your own team will punish it too, most likely). What's the lesson here?
There's no such thing as a good slow decision.
The image below shows exactly why:
Always make decisions fast - you can worry about whether they're right or wrong later, after the game.
Following up the example above, the question of "Which of my three cores should I smoke with, and where should we go after we smoke?" has 10+ potential answers, and the best one cannot be determined without the full context of the game. We would need to know our team's full lineup, the enemy team's full lineup, what the minute is, what each hero's net worth is, their items, etc.
That's all good when you're analyzing your replay, since you can spend as long as you like, carefully looking at these things and weighing all the options.
But while you're playing, you don't have half an hour to think about this, you only have a couple of seconds at most. That's why you need to trust your gut and go with whatever decision feels right - it may not be the best, but at least you'll execute it quickly and properly. Even if your decision was wrong on paper, it may still work out if it catches the enemy off guard!
After the game you'll have time to think about whether your choice was correct.
It helps to make a clear distinction between the following in your mind:
Get comfortable with both approaches and, more importantly, get comfortable with making a hard switch in your mind every time you queue for a game and finish a game.
II. Be aggressive without committing
Play safe, stick to your side of the map and farm until you get your items and levels. Once you have them, group up and try to fight the enemy. Sound familiar?
What if I told you that you have more than two options?
It's not only A: farming passively, or B: looking for a full on fight.
There is a C, a third option - an option that you need to learn and start defaulting to as soon as possible.
Most players only ever go to one extreme end or the other; the in-between state simply does not exist for them. Ironically, it is exactly this in-between state that the majority of your game should be played in.
So what does it mean exactly, forcing reactions and being aggressive without committing?
This is a complex topic that requires its own entire article full of examples, but at its core it can be explained in the following way:
Committing means using everything you have - not committing means leaving some in the tank. Consider heroes with mobility spells; If you use your mobility spell to jump on an enemy, you have no way out and are therefore committed. If another enemy shows up, you'll probably die.
If you walk up instead (and save your mobility spell), you will probably deal less damage to your target. In fact, you may end up not reaching them at all, if they run away. That's still a win, though, because then you've forced a reaction.
This allows your creepwave to advance further if the situation takes place on a lane, for example.
Because your mobility spell was not on cooldown at any point, you were able to escape at any point and therefore not vulnerable - thanks to not fully committing.
Example of fully committing
Playing Queen of Pain around minute 15 with no defensive items yet
Seeing an enemy on the lane -> blinking in -> using Scream of Pain -> using Shadow Strike
Example of not fully committing
Playing Queen of Pain around minute 15 with no defensive items yet
Seeing an enemy on the lane -> walking up to them -> using Shadow Strike -> using Scream of Pain
Now, how far can you push low-commitment aggression before you get punished by the enemy and end up dying? The answer will be different every game, because it depends on both teams' lineups.
Situation where you cannot do much without committing:
If you're playing Lina versus a Spirit Breaker + Spectre + Nature's Prophet lineup, you have to be extremely careful since the moment you show yourself anywhere on the map, 3 enemies can globally reach you.
Still, you can safely nuke creepwaves from the trees without showing yourself, which will force reactions.
Situation where you can do a lot without committing:
Playing Ember versus the same lineup? You're not threatened at all, because you have your own incredible mobility and escape mechanism. As long as you have a Fire Remnant in a defensive spot, you can even farm between the enemy tier 2 and 3 and still be safe.
Dealing damage or getting an enemy to low hp is already a win - even if you never kill them.
*Of course, a slight exception should be made for some heroes with heavy regeneration, such as Huskar and Necrophos
The fact is that most players refuse to deal damage to an enemy unless they have a chance of killing them, and this is incredibly wrong. So what if your 2 short cd spell combo only brings the enemy down to 70% hp? Use it! 15 seconds later, if the enemy is still there, you can use it again - this time you'll bring them down to 40%. Sooner or later you'll have forced them to back off, because if they are STILL there with low hp, then you're actually close to being able to kill them.
III. What can this (...) do that other (...) cannot?
You're about to read two questions in this section. If you want to improve your decision making, you should memorize them and start asking them to yourself every game.
One will help you understand heroes while the other will help you understand items.
Every single time you're picking a hero, see an allied hero choice, or see an enemy hero chosen, ask yourself the following:
What can this hero do that (most) other heroes cannot?
Almost every hero has a nuke, more than half the hero pool has a slow, and everybody does damage in one form or another. If you want to understand the nuances of a draft, you need to filter out all that noise and focus on what matters. You do this by asking yourself the question above: "What can this hero do that most other heroes cannot?"
The answer to this question is what makes them unique. Once you know what the unique aspect is of each hero it's easier to understand in what situations that hero is good or bad. Take a look at the examples below:
Based on his unique ability, we can tell that Silencer is
Effective versus enemies that heavily rely on spells, such as mobile cores (Storm Spirit, Puck), most supports, and especially saving supports (Oracle, Shadow Demon) as well as heroes with channeling spells (Bane, Enigma)
Effective with allies that can jump and quickly burst an enemy during the Global Silence duration (Legion Commander, Ursa, Storm Spirit)
Ineffective versus enemies that rely mostly on passives (Huskar, Lone Druid, Wraith King)
Ineffective with allies that prefer slow fights and lack burst damage (Bristleback, Medusa, Venomancer)
For further examples, refer to my comprehensive guide to drafting here
Now, what does the question look like when it comes to items? Every single time you're about to purchase an item, ask yourself the following:
What can I do with this item that I cannot do without it?
Item choices cannot be deemed good or bad in a vacuum. Battlefury is a farming item. If you buy it and start running into fights, it's clearly a terrible item choice - something like a Sange & Yasha may have been better.
But if you pick up that Sange & Yasha and keep farming the jungle for another 10 minutes, you should've obviously bought a Battlefury instead.
That's why when you want to understand whether an item choice is good or not, you should ask yourself the question above: "What can I do with this item that I cannot do without it?"
After that, also think about whether that is what you're actually planning on doing once you have the item. Keep in mind that answers such as "be tankier" or "deal more damage" aren't proper answers.
Try to phrase them specifically, like for example "be tanky enough to survive Chronosphere", or "deal enough damage to kill the enemy Puck during my allied Lion's disables". You'll notice that you often do have specific purposes for each item that you buy.
Let's take Blink Dagger, for example. People often justify the pick-up saying it lets move between camps and therefore farm faster or that it lets them escape, but there are much more effective items for both of these purposes.
Many people also say they pick it up just because they always get it on a certain hero, and then there's those who are usually accurate by saying they buy it in order to jump on their enemies.
But imagine the enemy team consists of a carry Spectre, mid Necrophos, offlane Underlord, and a Spirit Breaker & Undying support duo.
Who exactly are you going to jump with the Blink Dagger? None of these heroes are trying to sit back and you certainly don't need a dagger in order to reach them, so it would be a waste of gold in most cases. Even on heroes like Legion Commander and Axe who normally always purchase it, it still should most likely be pushed back to 3rd item, instead of 1st or 2nd.
If you want to improve as a player you need to eventually stop auto-piloting when it comes to your item build, and consciously make a choice for every single item.
Aether Lens is another great example. Seeing as plenty of other items increase mana pool and mana regeneration, the one single unique benefit here is clear: 225 bonus cast range. According to Dotabuff, it is the 4th most commonly purchased item costing over 2k gold (preceded only by Aghanim's Scepter, Blink Dagger and Black King Bar - in that order).
And yet, most people don't understand on which heroes it's a good choice, and on which heroes it's pointless. Two quick examples:
Shadow Shaman is a great Aether Lens user - his Hex has 500 cast range and his Shackles have 450 cast range. Increasing those to 725 and 675 respectively is a big deal, considering that most heroes have a night vision of 800 and smoke breaks at 1025 range.
It is therefore safe to say that Shadow Shaman with Aether Lens can reach and disable enemies that he wouldn't be able to reach without the item.
Disruptor is a terrible Aether Lens user - his shortest range spells have a cast range of 800 and his longest range spell, Glimpse, has a cast range of 1800. Going from 800 to 1025 is irrelevant (especially considering the radiuses of Kinetic Field & Static Storm), and going from 1800 to 2025 is obviously not even noticeable in 99% of situations, considering that almost every hero's day time vision is 1800.
It is therefore safe to say that in almost every case a Disruptor with Aether Lens is not going to do anything that he couldn't have also done without the item.
When you remember that he has one of the best Aghanim's Scepter upgrades in the game, you'll realize that getting an Aether Lens before that is always a horrible choice.
IV. Think objectives not kills
"M-m-m-m-monster kil- GODLIKE!" "Holy shit!" "Doubl- Triple kill!"
And what do you hear when somebody takes a tower? Crumbling stones? Not nearly as exciting, is it?
The game's feedback rewards hero kills far more than anything else. Next on the list are probably creep kills; hearing the coin sound and watching your golden number racking up is incredibly satisfying as well.
Objectives, though? Towers, barracks and Roshans taken are nowhere to be seen or noticed on the entire scoreboard, even though they are far more important.
Contrary to popular belief, the enemy throne does not explode once you reach a certain KDA or large amount of net worth. It explodes only if you destroy it, which you cannot do until you've taken the necessary objectives.
Prioritizing objectives means many things, but perhaps most of all it means striving to play on the enemy side of the map. Most people think that close to your base = safe, close to the enemy base = dangerous, but once again, this is a massive misconception. The picture below shows that:
As the image above shows, you can either win or lose a fight on your side of the map, or you can win or lose a fight on the enemy side of the map. The only truly good outcome of a fight is taking objectives afterwards.
When fighting on your side of the map, you'll either have a mediocre or a bad outcome, because there is no way you're taking enemy objectives after winning a fight in your base.
When fighting on the enemy side of the map, you'll either have a good or a mediocre outcome, because even if you lose the fight, you probably won't be losing objectives.
Keep in mind that in order to take anything other than a tier 1 tower, you'll need to deal with backdoor protection by having your creeps around. That means that fighting at an enemy tower is still pointless if you haven't pushed the creepwave first.
Of course, things change once you get to the very late game, because as both lineups progress, the time they need to take objectives decreases, while the time they need to respawn increases.
This is the reason that the later the game goes, the more volatile and less predictable it becomes.
Still, the above concept holds true for the majority of the game - generally the first 40 minutes at least. To summarise, if you follow the four guidelines below you will ensure that you're playing for objectives and not kills:
Don't take fights near your objectives
Take fights near enemy objectives
Don't take fights without pushing your creepwave first
If you're not sure what to do, push the nearest empty lane (walk there - you need to save your TP so that you can TP back if necessary)
V. Make the enemy react to you
The most important of the five concepts is saved for last. If there is only one thing you'll remember from this whole article, it should be the following:
Always make the enemy react to you, instead of you reacting to the enemy
This is more than just a concept, it is the way you should look at the game - the goal that you should keep in mind during every decision you make.
What does it mean, exactly, making the enemy react to you? And why should you be doing that instead of reacting? The following examples will clarify both the concept itself as well as why it is so crucial when it comes to playing good Dota.
The first and most obvious example of how to apply this concept is: timings.
Do you want to fight the enemy when your carry is 700 gold away from their BKB, or when they have just completed it? Obviously, the latter.
Naturally, the same goes for the enemy team. This means that if you play reactively - if you wait for the enemy team to make a move and essentially decide when they're going to fight you - you will only be fighting them when they have hit their timings and gotten their crucial items & levels.
If you want to bring the fight to the enemy Phantom Assassin while she's still vulnerable before she has her BKB ready, then it is you who needs to make the move - you need to make the enemy react and force them to fight you somehow. Generally, this simply means grouping up to take objectives. The enemy can then choose one of two options:
Give up the objective and avoid fighting until their PA finishes her BKB
Defend and fight 4v5 without their PA
Defend and fight 5v5 with a PA that has no BKB yet and is therefore weak
In this situation, all three scenarios are in your favour. However, this situation will only occur if you make it happen. If you're too scared to make a move and just wait for the enemy team to make a move, this situation will never occur. Now, what are some of the reactions that you're looking to force?
Examples of forced enemy reactions
Forcing the opponent(s) to stop shoving a lane and back off
Forcing the opponent(s) to use a long cooldown spell or item
Forcing the opponent(s) to use their TP in order to defend
Any of these is a win - you may not hear the announcer or see any scores go up when you do this, but if you are constantly forcing enemies to TP back to respond to you (and you stay alive in the process), you are massively helping your team win the game.
Lastly, how do you avoid reacting to the enemy, and what does it mean?
Examples of not reacting to the enemy
If an ally gets caught out, don't TP or run over to help - chances are the fight will start off 4v5 and you will lose it.
If the enemy surprises you with a smoke gank on your side of the map, cut your losses and push other lanes - don't take a fight where they have the element of surprise
When you see the enemy grouping up on a lane, it probably means they're going to push. Try to be faster and push a different lane so that they are the ones who have to TP back to defend, not you.
What's next?
You have finished the article and are already likely to see an improvement in your gameplay and MMR - but make sure to also share it with your friends so that you can play better Dota together!
If you want to improve further, I can offer the following:
Read my other articles here (if there is any topic you'd like to see, please join my discord and tell me there!)
I hope you found this guide informative and I look forward to hearing your feedback! Unfortunately this platform requires you to sign up in order to like & leave a comment, which of course is a hassle, but I would still appreciate it big time!
Thanks for getting this far, and remember:
Always make the enemy react to you, instead of you reacting to the enemy!