Duwi Tips #1: Winning with Bad Teams.

[Larold]

A lot of people ask for tips on the forum, so here's a nice fat wall of text of them. During my time in HoN, LoL, and now DotA, I have always searched for ways to make up for bad teammates. As much as people like to deny it, there ARE situations in where you are the only person that can possibly carry your team to victory. It can be quite frustrating when your support isn't buying wards, or your hard carry is ganking instead of farming, or if your Pudge misses every single hook. But don't worry - there are key heroes in the game that, as long as you do YOUR job, can have an impact on the entire team's success even if your teammates don't know what's going on.

Step 1: Do NOT pick a hard carry: A lot of people assume that picking a hard carry ( Anti-Mage for example ) is the best or possibly only way to carry a team. This is wrong. Your four teammates are newbies - they won't be able to win team fights and stall the game long enough for you to farm all your core items and carry the game. They're going to be missing their skill shots, focusing the tank, or walking around invis waiting for the chance to pounce on someone and kill them ( yes, I'm looking at all you Riki users ). They need YOU there - the guy who actually lands his stuns and secures the kills and knows how to prioritize heroes in team fights. If your team didn't ward, buy wards. If your team doesn't push that one tower, go up there and push that one tower. If your teammate is crying about you "stealing" kills, steal them anyway - you're the best player and they suck, you need the gold more than they do. With that said, strength heroes are typically the best carries. The reason being is because they are pretty easy to play - they have early game presence, they do decent damage, they take a lot of damage, and they are the center of attention in team fights which means your teammates who don't know what they're doing will survive longer to at least TRY to do their jobs during ganks. My favorite example is Kunkka - from level 1 to level 25, he is a vital part of every team fight. From his stun and crit passive, to his ultimate and X Marks the Spot, if you still can't win team fights, it's YOUR fault, not your teammates. Kunkka's skills and damage output are more than enough to initiate properly and secure kills even if your Lina missed her stun, or Shadow Shaman didn't Hex.

Step 2: Go mid: Go mid ( unless someone else is standing there and simply refuses to move ). Do you know why Drow wins so often? Because they go mid against a beginner and completely dominate. They get 3 or 4 kills off of your mid, they proceed to gank top and bot getting about 5 more, and the next thing you know, she's got Shadow Blade and she's popping in and out of invisibility pew pewing everything in sight. But, since YOU'RE the pro on the team, YOU are responsible for making sure Drow doesn't get a head start. Going back to the Kunkka example - Kunkka can hold his own very easily against a Drow. Keep dumping skill points into your stun and crit passive, harass Drow, and go in for the kill if she's dumb enough to stand mid with 40% health ( at this point, a well-placed stun followed by a crit should be enough to take her out ). After your easy first blood, proceed to gank the lanes. Ping your teammates and communicate with them. Tell them you're about to pwn those noobs - they'll get excited and ready for action. Remember, they may miss their stuns or simply do nothing at all. Don't rage - you're Kunkka and can kill them anyway. Land your ultimate, your stun, and the crit should finish one ( if not both of them due to your splash damage ) off. Repeat this process until you're fat ( if you don't know what that means, "fat" refers to a player being "fed" or having amassed a lot of wealth and items due to constantly killing other players or farming ).

Step 3: Buy wards: At this point, the enemy Drow is going to try and farm the lanes and her jungle. Again, your teammates are newbies - they don't know what Drow will be up to and they probably don't even care. It is YOUR job, once again, to buy wards and place them around the map. Place one ward in the river ( Kunkka + double damage = GG ), and one or two more in places you know the Drow might be farming. As soon as you see her pop up on the mini map ( she might be farming a neutral camp or something ), ping her and try to get another teammate to follow you. Gank her, congratulate your teammate, and go back to ganking or pushing a lane. Constantly killing the enemy carry delays their core items ( like the Shadow Blade I mentioned earlier ). The more team fights Drow has to be apart of without her precious invisibility, the easier it will be for your team to keep pwning her with little effort.

Step 4: Win the game: Your team doesn't know the importance of pushing lanes. After every kill, ping the lane you're in and tell your teammates to push ( and even if they don't come help you, push it yourself ). A lot of mistakes newbies make is that they group up mid, stand there for like 2 or 3 minutes until someone mans up and initiates, win the team fight, and then go back into the jungle or to the base. This is BAD - if you just earned 3 or more kills on the enemy team, you need to take advantage of the fact that no one is there to defend and take the tower before leaving. Your team also doesn't know about prioritizing heroes. If you know the enemy Drow is the best player on the enemy team, then tell your teammates to take her out FIRST. Walk clean past the tanks and land the ultimate directly on her head. THEN take out the support heroes, and finally, the tank. The only situation when your team should be ganking a tank is if he's all alone, but during team fights, if you focus the Pudge with 2.5k health and a bunch of magic resistance, you're giving Drow more than enough time to pew pew at a safe distance and kill all your teammates. You're also giving the supports ( Dazzle for instance ) enough time to heal and keep people alive with Shallow Grave. Carries and supports are the easiest to kill and need to be dealt with ASAP. Continue the gank and destroy tower process until the game is over ( still maintaining wards and rune control and even killing Roshan if necessary ).

Note that Kunkka isn't the only "carry" - many heroes have huge dominance early game such as Tiny, Bloodseeker, and Queen of Pain. As I said, with these heroes, you should be able to secure kills on your own. If you play one of these heroes and you still wind up with 0-10, your team is not to blame. Kunkka's damage output is ridiculous all throughout the game, and even if your teammates have no idea what to do, you should be able to land the ult, the stun, and your crit and kill SOMETHING. I've come out of games with feeders on my team with scores like 13-2 before, so the excuses stop here.

Let's recap with a TL;DR version: Pick a carry ( not a HARD carry, but someone who has a lot of early game presence and can easily secure kills at level 6 ), go mid, buy wards ( it's not your job, but since "carrying" means leading your team to victory, and warding increases your chances of victory, buying wards IS your job ) participate in as many team fights as possible ( especially against the enemy carry ) and win the game. Even if you lose, following this method should get you out of the majority of your games with a decent score. People should be able to look at the score at the end of the game, point at your hero and say "Well, even though they lost, it seems like this guy knew what he was doing."

More tips coming soon. If anyone disagrees, let me know. Even though I been playing mobas for over a year, I don't know everything and could be wrong, but so far this method has worked for me so I assume it's pretty good.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113990128

[SJAX500]

Good tips, and in particular I like that DotA 2 while has a higher skill ceiling than say League, it's far more easier to come back or make up for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ team in DotA

[Larold]

Originally posted by SiniC:

Good tips, and in particular I like that DotA 2 while has a higher skill ceiling than say League, it's far more easier to come back or make up for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ team in DotA

Yeah, one of my issues with League is that it's a bit easier to feed and for someone to snowball the game away. If you thought Drow was bad, you should see how certain heroes can dominate a game of LoL with very little effort. At least Drow has to shoot you a few times before you die - some heroes in League of Legends can simply jump out the bushes and insta-kill you.

[僕の名前 (仮)]

Always carry TP, don't be stingy.

[Larold]

Yeah that too. You'd be surprised how much carrying a TP can cut down on the amount of deaths you have. It's also very good for counter ganking. If you're standing mid, and you see 3 people bot about to rape your teammates, teleport immediately down there, and turn the fight around. TPs also counter wards. If the enemies have wards, you won't be able to just walk down there and gank them - they will see you coming and back out of the lane every time. To counter this, buy a TP and go back mid. Push the lane ( so that your opponent will stay mid and push the lane back while you gank ) and teleport bot. The average player doesn't call missing as soon as you actually disappear - they wait about 5-10 seconds. This is more than enough time for you to teleport bot and initiate a gank. By the time their mid calls mis, you're already on top of them because you didn't take the river route. Honestly, it's the cheapest items like Magic Wand, Town Scrolls and Wards that make the biggest difference in games.

[Larold]

Bump so noobs can see.

[aftermathattack]

I saw this so i am a noob

[King Nastyboy]

bumping. great post

[76561198069687865]

没有激活码，不能进入游戏。

[krifna - CSGOrulet.com]

NIce job Duwi.

[Larold]

Originally posted by 王小义:

没有激活码，不能进入游戏。

Unfortunately I can't respond to chinese, japanese, or whatever this is!

[XycoxZthron X ;)]

@ screenshot
They are all lvl 2-3 :D
It would be a shame not to own em my friend :)

[King Nastyboy]

Originally posted by Duwi:

Originally posted by 王小义:

没有激活码，不能进入游戏。

Unfortunately I can't respond to chinese, japanese, or whatever this is!

I know some chinese, basically he's saying he doesn't have a key, but i'm not sure what he says after that.

[XycoxZthron X ;)]

Originally posted by Elite| Agent Green:

Originally posted by Duwi:

Originally posted by 王小义:

没有激活码，不能进入游戏。

Unfortunately I can't respond to chinese, japanese, or whatever this is!

I know some chinese, basically he's saying he doesn't have a key, but i'm not sure what he says after that.

I am from Asia.
He sais: Hey man i need a beta key. Can u gift me one?
But I hate all americans :/

[Trancendency]

I played Kunkka just now. 12/18/12 3:00pm and my teammates are spectre jakiro necrolyte and even a meepo against pudge (my lane in mid) enchantress magnus BH and PL. And we won. Pudge was harassed by me in mid, and meepo was also very fed. It's even my first time playing him. haha :D

[DesUxSλsU]

Nice tips :)