Average needs help

[pLoLock]

I've been playing DotA and HoN for a while now, and I am not extremely experienced. I know about the basics, as denying/last hitting, specific hero roles, the different strategies during early, mid and late game, and so on.
I feel though, that something I do goes simply wrong quite often.

I deal with creeps in a good fashion, trying to "care" when someone on the opposing team is missing, and sticking with my team during "roaming" mid-game and so on. Also, I feel like I maintain a quite "survivable" early, since I don't feel that I am too agressive, or too passive (to loose experience, and later on gold)

Still, I feel that I often get carried away, and ends up with 1-2/4-5/4+ or such, maybe not feeding, but still not doing quite good enough for my team. It's not about maintaining a high PSR rating, which is nice, but the necessary. Just want to have a good time, and do something great for my team.

I'd really like to figure out what I am doing wrong, to maintain a fun gaming time for myself and the comrades on my team. I would really appreciate if someone would help me out with some tips and tricks, so that I can maintain a useful role in either team I am playing with. Even if it's starting items, beeing too agressive or too passive and so on. Is it me, or is it maybe the people I am playing with? I might be way off here, but just want to have a nice time playing, with considerable skill, winning from time to time with my team. What can I do to perform better?

Flaming is expected, but not appreciated. Thank for help in advance. :>

[dune]

Would have to see how you play in game to really give you decent advice.

[IPlayForKeep]

No one can really just make you good at the game from a post. We would have to play with you in a game, but remember it all takes practice. None of us got good at HoN the day we started (excluding developers) Find a hero role you enjoy playing, carry/tank/support ect. and stick to using that role only until you feel comfortable trying a new role. With practice you will get better. One thing I see new players lacking the most which is a downfall fo rhtem is map awareness, try being aware of your surroundings (anticipating a gank, knowing where the rune spawns is located at the time if informed ect.)

[pLoLock]

IPlayForKeep, i really see that whole situation, and will try to stick with a certain role to see if things change. Thank you for the advice!

[bigmit37]

Which chars are you using?

I realized that you need to use your common sense. If you are item dependent then you are going to need to farm and get last hits. Or make sure you get your ganks.

Unless you are playing with an organized team, then you have to be careful with squishy chars.

Arachna use your special and run....if your team follows through THEN use your slow attack and then run again.


People will ***** at you for running away but from most pub games I am playing they are too aggressive.

Each pub game do what you want to so you learn to better yourself.
Try new things and don't care what people think...you need to just keep learning by trying new things.

Try being aggressive...try to learn to gank..see what you are going wrong...
Any ideas you have just try them out...

Just keep growing.

[pLoLock]

Will do! Thanks

[DenyTheTruth]

I would recommend finding people you can play with regularly. Get a group of friends. Get people with vent. Work toghter.

If all else fails, join the mentor/apprentice program and have someone teach you.

[Frogling]

Everytime i play support i usually stay some levels behind from my team, but i think it's because the way support heros work maybe... (i got many assits but very few kills)... :(

[DenyTheTruth]

Everytime i play support i usually stay some levels behind from my team, but i think it's because the way support heros work maybe... (i got many assits but very few kills)... :(

You should always be within 1 or 2 levels of your team even if you aren't landing kill shots. Everyone can farm creeps. Just stick near the battle and you'll still get the exp. Don't risk dying to get the exp but don't chicken out either.

[pLoLock]

Awsome tips from everyone! I have alot of friends playing at the moment, so I will keep playing with them, and hopefully, some good will come out of it.

I'd rather play a nice support for the rest of team, then getting all the kills and beeing a carry. We'll see how it turns out. Thank you all again! All tips are helpful :>

[DenyTheTruth]

Awsome tips from everyone! I have alot of friends playing at the moment, so I will keep playing with them, and hopefully, some good will come out of it.

I'd rather play a nice support for the rest of team, then getting all the kills and beeing a carry. We'll see how it turns out. Thank you all again! All tips are helpful :>

Just remember that as a support you aren't necessarily going to be leading the pack in levels. It's ok to be behind the leader in levels so long as you're on par with the enemy team. When you're lower level than your enemies, that's when it becomes a problem. I'd say you're doing fine if you aren't dying in every battle but your team manages to kill the other team's heroes.

[kuru1]

I believe you've hit the "intermediate" phase. Everyone goes through this at one point or another, where you're good enough to not feed and to know generally what to do but not confident enough to really take hold of a game.

The biggest problem in this stage is that people will tend to follow other people around, so they feel like they're being productive (rather than the noob who is aimlessly wandering the forest); this leads to them missing out of pushing or farming open lanes.

Once you gain confidence and a sort of awareness of where you ideally should be/how to stay in an open lane till the very last second, you'll go from average to good.

[sam_jackson]

This is one of the biggest parts of this game.
You hit a peak. You then will sometimes spend quite a bit of time at this point.
Then a light goes off in your head, and you start to progress.
Then you hit another peak.
The important part is to not get discouraged when you hit those peaks.

I totally sucked when I first started playing HON(never played DOTA). I've gotten quite a bit better(I know stats don't show that). But it's knowing that I'm going to get out of those non-growth slumps that keeps me going.

[Vinthian]

Best advice is to try to ask these questions in your head in before engaging someone.

- Can we kill someone
- Is anyone missing
- Will I die
- What is our strategy (stun, attack, flank, etc)

This is why wards are vital to HoN, since they can better answer most of these questions by showing where your enemies are.

If you have high doubts you will die, do not go in... just say "b" to let your teammates know too, they'll agree with you if you made the right choice.

Otherwise, if you're not ganking, FARM and keep your eye on the map!

[sam_jackson]

+1 @Vinthian

[HappyCookie]

ALWAYS HAVE A HOMECOMING STONE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ESCAPE MECHANISM.

Also, make sure you can have enough time to use it if the gankers have a stun.

If they do, try to tp sooner.


And for the better players ( I am far from one), how would you effectively lane during midgame/transition to late? Is it ALL about map awareness and wards, or is there some other golden rule to be following? Like, creep movements, densities of creep waves, recent tower downs? I'm usually an initiator or support (not purely by choice, but I do enjoy them mostly), and I often fall behind on either items or levels--leaving the jungle to the carries. Thank you for your time.

::Edit:: I do not play -em.

[Puchi]

Make sure that the ppl you play with understads their role in the match and try to work out some synergy with your spells. A lot of times in pubs you'll see a whole team attacking and everyone will use their stuns on the same target at the same time, that is bad if you are multiple stunner/disablers try to work out a order of stunning in team fights. and make sure your all going for the same target.

The worst thing that can happen is every1 attacking different heroes and you end up killing no1 and half your team is dead.

other good tips are:
1. Carry a homecoming unless you have Post haste
2. Get wards if your a support hero
3. If your close check runes at 2,4,6,8,10 and so on, if its not at your side alert your team that its on the other spot by blinking and typing "rune" or "table" seen some ppl use "PU" for power-up i guess.
4. Call misses and check the map alot..

[pLoLock]

Thanks again for all the support from you guys, it's really helpful.

Homecoming stones are a vital part in my inventory most of the time, and calling misses and trying to stay alive is a rather vital part for me.

Yesterday, however, I played a game when I realized that my team made some very poor choices, compared to myself. The most irritating part, was when it was SO obvious that the team should have been roaming the map and searching for ganks. 3 of us stayed together, while to other 2 thought that they would be better off farming a lane or jungling. This resulted in the other team doing the exact same thing, but they were 5 players, and ganked the 3 of us, before we could say: "miss all, care, b", or something. I guess this was the whole teams fault, and the players that solo'd instead of joining in on our "roaming". Am I completely wrong here, or could this certain situation be a failed ganked because of the 2 other players, or is it something that we did wrong? (despite that we tried to gank with only 3 players, which was a poor choice anyway, excluding details of the whole thing)

[Sinz3r]

I am getting to the same point myself, I am no longer a complete n00b, but I am not good enough to carry a team, kind of a mediocre n00b.

One of the best pieces of advice on this forum I have read is to NEVER EVER auto attack. Every game now, all I try to do is last hit or deny, the only exception I make is when a tower is under extreme threat.

Learn to ignore the retards. Seems to me that every player is a pro on how to play your char. Players seem to spend more time worrying about everyone elses char than simply playing their own. That said I have met lots of good players who were helpful with items to buy and how to use skills.

I think you can look at any situation in the game and try to work out what went wrong. What if the other team had two solos and 3 pushing mid. I generally find though, that past the initial laning phase you should never be more than a few seconds away from your towers if farming in twos or solo. Especially, if you cannot see any of the other team.

One other tip I have eventually found out myself is the power of wards! These things are unreal for farming/safety, I try to take a couple with me to place in the jungle if I want to farm a little solo, it completely destroys any chance of a gank.

If all else fails, simply pick Scout :p

[kuru1]

Also, a big big part is learning what every hero can do. Play every hero at least twice. It helps you make way better decisions and is vital to calculating your odds in a fight when you know what the heroes you're up against are capable of. ALWAYS be map aware and make the right choices - chasing that almost-dead hero across the map when all 4 other heroes are missing is NOT a wise decision. This is a big problem - just remember that ~5 creep kills = 1 hero kill, there is no reason to get super greedy for kills. Take solace in the fact that you made them go back to base, missing out on gold/exp.

Also, know when to flee and when to fight. Too many times I see someone automatically start running if they get ganked when they have the capability to turn that gank around and net a kill or two. This is especially true when against Bloodhunter - a lot of people, when Hemorrhaged and Silenced, just start to panic and run around when some (Scout, Madman, etc) can easily just stand there and fight off Bloodhunter anyways (especially as Bloodhunter is relatively weak without putting his Silence on himself). Sometimes you are going to die inevitably despite anything you can do, in these situations don't pointlessly run towards base but fight a bit and at least try to take off some of the enemy's HP, so that when your team (hopefully) arrives they can mop up.

Don't be one of those people who hits the jungle 24/7; generally speaking, it's always better to farm in a lane than in the jungle. You should only be in the jungle if the lanes are all taken or extremely pushed. Be aware of possible routes to your position, if you are at bottom lane and notice several enemy heroes from mid lane heading towards you at a route that will most likely come between you and your base, head to the side shop and buy a TP and port yourself away.

In the laning phase, don't go back to base unless you absolutely have to. A winged courier is one of the best 400 gold investments you can make, with the ability to ferry consumables and your items to you. NEVER leave your lane just to go pick up your items. In some cases it's better to simply die than walk back to base (preferably to a neutral creep, though).