Can somebody explain the meta/lane compositions?

[Razaq Mzale]

I played Dota 2 a while back. I quit it after my comp kept crashing mid game. Now I've got a new comp so I can play again. I am still just level 12 but before I played Dota 2 I played a lot of LoL. The meta is painfully simple in that game and eventually I found it boring so I dropped it and am now sticking to Dota 2.

Now am back to playing Dota 2, really enjoying it.

However, I really want to know if there is a meta to this game? One thing I am particularly confused about is the jungling, since there arent any buffs, what's the point of having a jungler? Also, I noticed a lot of carries in the mid lane, is this normal or is it just because I'm still in low levels? Don't carries need a babysitter/support? And what is an "offlane"? I tried google but the answers were a bit complex.

Normally I main support so I just follow whoever is going in a duo lane. But if I want to play other roles I'd appreciate some advice on where each one fits best (I understand there are a looot of roles in this game, I'm speaking generally here).

TL;DR is there a specific meta on what roles go to what lanes in this game? And if so, what is the most generally acceptable?

If you want more specifics, here are the heroes I've grown a liking to and would like to know what lanes they fit best in:

Windrunner
Legion Commander
Lina
Luna
Storm Spirit
Mirana
Abaddon
Phoenix
Dazzle

Thanks

[Pambtumaca]

well i don't have much expirience in the game, still i just played for 500 hours :D But what I can tell you is to whatch competitive games and listent carefully. I learned lots of things about roles doing that.

Also i think i can answer some of the questions, but it's a "noob" opinion. First of all, the mid role. The mid, is a core player, not a support or a carry. The carry is on the safelane, farming. The mid is a hero that is good on ganking and has a good killing potencial, or at least someone you really benefits from fast leveling up. So, if you pick the correct hero and get a fast bottle, you don't need support, so you can pick """"a carry"""" for mid.

Also, whats the point of jungling? Well, normally i don't go to the jungle all the game. I use it to farm specific items during mid game, when t1 (first tower) is lost. Or i go with especific heroes so i can let my teamlane farm a bit. Some heroes like Doom, batrider or enigma goes to the jungle from minut 0:00. That can be a good thing, as your teammate doing the sololane is gonna get the 100% exp from the lane. If he is a hero that fits well sololane, having a jungler is good. If he is not, he is gonna feed the lane, so carefull about going full jungle.

And you asked what's an offlaner. You know the offlane is top for the radient, and bot for the dire. These are the lanes where you send your teammates to die, some people say. Because it's easier for your enemys to gank your offlane if you push to much. An offlaner is a hero that defends these lanes alone. These are heroes like centaur, tidehunter, broodmother, clinkz, etc. Heroes that are tanky or hard to catch, and takes lot of advantege from fast levels. And they're not support or carrys. Tecnically they are a core role. Core players are the hard carry, the mid and the offlaner. Then you have the two supports in the safelane helping your void, your pa, your troll, etc.

Dunno if I was helpfull, at least I tried D: (Excuse my english)

[Secret Monkey]

A team has 5 heroes, and we will order them on how much farm they need.
1. Carry
This person needs the most farm to be effective, you want this person to be protected so he can farm well. This person also needs some levels, but not quite as much as he needs gold. This person goes in the safelane. The safelane is the lane closest to your own jungle, for radiant bottom, and for dire top. This is called the safelane because its a safer lane to farm, because of a trick called 'pulling the creepwave'. If you dont know this trick, google "Stacking and Pulling Dota 2" and im sure you'll find a decent explanation.

2. Semi-Carry
This person needs a bit of farm and levels to have the most impact midgame, and can grow out to be a full carry. Since this person needs farm and levels, he is preferably solo in his lane, so he wont have to share xp with a support. He also needs gold, so he cant go up against 2 or 3 people. This is why your position 2 hero goes to the midlane.

3 Offlaner.
This person mostly needs levels and can use some farm. We talked about the safelane, this is the opposite lane, top for radiant and bot for dire.The offlane hero will be up against the safelane hero of the enemy, the position 1. The position 1 usually has some protection from the supports, so the offlane will often be 1v2, or 1v3. Therefor, in this lane it is hard to farm and hard to stay alive, thats why most offlane heros have escape mechanisms or are tanky. The goal of the offlaner will mostly be getting some levels to roam around midgame.

4. Semi- Support/ Jungler
The dota map has 3 lanes to farm, and we have assigned a hero to each of the lanes. There is no longer any space to farm. So the last 2 heroes are heroes that dont need farm, called supports. The 4 position is the greedy support, a support that usually requires one item, like a blink dagger or aganhims scepter. The job of the semi support is to help the team if needed. Does the carry have trouble farming? Go harras the enemy offlaner! Does the midlaner get zoned out of his lane? Go gank the enemy midlaner! If the team doesnt really need the supporting, the 4 position can try and farm the jungle and get some levels and gold.

A particular greedy type of 4 position is the jungler. In picking a jungler, the team gives up some early game presence, since the 4 position support wont always be ready to help, but gains some lategame presence, since the 4 position has way more farm. The jungler cant go jungle for 15 minutes without helping his teammates if they are in trouble, because he still remains that 4 postion supporting player. Make sure your team can handle the early game befor picking a jungler!

5 Hard support
This person gives his all to the team. The 5 position doesnt need much gold, and can be helpfull even without much levels. Because of this, the hard support does the teams dirty work. His main job is to keep the carry safe, babysitting if he must. He and the 4 position often team up to go roam and gank. The hard support will try to get some gold here and a level there, but never prioritises farming over helping the team. His main source of gold and xp should be assisting in kills and farming the pull camp.

These are the general guidelines of what every position should be doing. As seen with the 4 position, there is some leighway in how greedy you can be, or how fast you can be taking towers and getting kills. This is also true for every other position. Your team can have a carry that gets his core items, or as its called "comes online", after 25 minutes of farming, or after 60 minutes. Your midlaner can be a glorified support only in the midlane to get a fast level 6 and start to roam, or a more carry like hero, that focussus on getting as much gold as possible....

This is what a pro game or a high skill level game should look like. A farmer in every lane and 2 supports being wherever they are needed, which is usually somewhere around the carry with the occasional gank to mid. The average pub game however is a bit diferent.
Instead of having an offlaner who can solo, mostly a greedy carry is picked, and a support is put in lane with him. Now the team has 2 carries, shifting the power from the early game to the lategame, and usually prolonging games. The midlaner now can not be a greedy semi- carry, but has to make up for the lost early game power and will be required to gank and roam a lot, sacrificing his own farm. Also the power of the supports goes down, as they are now both required to go to seperate lanes and babysit their carries, instead of going around as a two-man-killing-machine...

Now lets get some examples in:

Windrunner:
Windrunner has a stun, a nuke, an escape mechanism, and an ability that scales with some farm.
From this we can take that she could use some farm, but it wont be absolute nescissary, since she can always stun and nuke some people. Windrunner has a bit of everything and therefor can be played at almost any position. She can be a support since she has a stun and a nuke, but the item and skill build will have to adapt to her not having fast levels or farm. She can be an offlaner since she has an escape mechanism. The faster levels will really boost up her impact in the midgame, and her skill and item build should adapt. She can be played in the midlame, further boosting her impact in the midgame. Now she has fast levels and a decent bit of farm. Her skillset now is quite good for roaming and ganking, and the skill and item build should be accustomed to do that. To be farming in lane would be a waste in this position. Lastly she could even be run as a 1 position carry, really focussing on some damage output to quickly blow up whoever she decides to use her ult on. Windrunner can do every position, but her skill and item build will have to be different for every position and situation.
Recomended position: 2/3/4

Legion commander:
Legion commander has a nuke, a buff, an ability that scales with farm, and a lockdown/ability that scales with farm
Lets go over the options again. Legion commander could be played as a support since she has a nuke and a buff, and her ult locks an enemy hero in place for a decent duration. Both her passive and ult however scale with some farm, so she would probably need a bit more farm than being a support. She can be an offlaner since her buff is an escape mechanism, and the quick levels will really boost up the potential to get some kills in the midgame and snowball from there. She can be played in the 1 or 2 position because she scales with farm, but she doesnt scale that well. Her farm will go into becoming more tanky and try to get damage from duels.
Recomended position: 3

Lina:
Lina has a nuke, a stun, an ability that scales a tiny bit with farm, and another nuke
Since lina has a lot of nuking power and a stun on top of that, lina doesnt need gold to do well in the early game. That is why she can be run as a support. The offlane position will probably not work out very well, since lina is neither tanky nor has an escape mechanism, and will in all likelyhood end up in her dying. The midposition is a decent place for lina to be, since the extra levels and gold will make sure by the time the midgame starts she can quickly burst down every hero. I would not recommend the 1 position, since she has virtually no skills that scale with items
Recomended position: 2/4/5

Luna:
Luna has a small nuke, a skill that scales well with items, a passive for extra damage and a teamfight ability
Since luna lacks stunns or slows and only has a small nuke, she does need some farm and therefor wont be a decent support. As the same with lina, luna misses the needed tankyness/escapes to be an offlaner. Luna can be ran as a mid, but she will be on the greedy side of the spectrum, only able to have kill potential with her ult up. I would recomend luna to be the carry 1 position, since her bouncing glaves scale so well with damage items.
Recomended position: 1

Storm Spirit:
Storm spirit is a very mana intensive hero and will need gold to get mana regen items. Storm spirits skillset is also very suited to be ganking consantly during the midgame, if he can get some fast levels. Storm spirit is usually seen in the midlane, since the midlane provides both good farm as well as quick levels.
Recomended position: 2

Mirana:
Mirana has a nuke, a stun, an escape mechanism, and a teamfight initiation ult.
Mirana is much like windranger, she has a bit of all things. She can be ran as a support, focussing on early ganking with her arrow. She can be ran as an offlaner since her leap will allow her to stay alive, and the levels will help her get that nuke damage up. In comparison to windranger though, she does scale a bit less into the lategame, so she doesnt need that much more farm.
Recomended position: 3/4/5

Abbadon:
Abbadon has a heal, a shield, a small slow from melee range, and a tanky ult
Abbadon is fun, abbadon can do whatever he wants. Go support and heal+shield everybody.
Go to the offlane (shield=tanky) and be a pain in the teamfights where they wont be able to kill you due to your ult. Go mid to become even more tanky, but he is pretty bad at ganking. Go to the safelane and become an unkillable machine that even starts to do some real damage. Everything is possible. Looking at his skillset, everything should be possible.
Recomended position: 1/3/4/5

Phoenix:
Phoenix is relatively new so people havent yet dicided what would be the best position.
He doesnt really need farm so he can be a support, but lacks disables appart from his ult. His ult is great in a teamfight and getting to level 6 quick in the offlane would be good, allowing him to not die because of icarus dive. A mid position would also work, now getting a bit more gold for some usefull items. He doesnt have an ability that scales really well with items, so a 1 position would not be recomended
Recomended position: 2/3


As you can see, a lot of heroes are quite flexible in what they can do. In one of your games, a support might go mid and a mid hero goes to the offlane... If you have picked a hero you wanted to take mid, but another player from your team insists on mid, see if you can go to the offlane or the safelane and addapt your item and skillbuild.

TL;DR
1 position: lots of farm, 25+ minutes of farming, has help from supports early, no quick levels
2 position: good farm and good levels, can become a carry or can go ganking fast (low level pubs=ganking)
3 position: no farm, decent levels, get levels you need and start roaming/jungling (low level pubs= non excistent)
4 position: Support or jungler, low farm low levels if support, decent farm decent levels if jungler
5 position: no farm no levels, give your all to the team

I know its a bit of a long story, i hope this covers what you wanted to read. Im not a pro player or anything (not even high level) so there might be some mistakes i made. If you are a higher level player feel free to comment and let me know what i can improve

[Evald]

1) Uninstall dota2 pls

[Razaq Mzale]

Thanks for the replies guys! I've taken note. This should definitely help me improve my game.