range vs melee hero in a lane

[TrixRabbit]

so I was wondering, if I am a melee hero and I go up against a ranged hero in a lane, whats the best thing for me to do, should i stay back and get a few kills, or should i rush in and attack the hero? or should i do something totally different :P

[Hossius]

You normally want to stay back and only come in to get the last-hit on creeps, then go back out of his range again. If you stay up close he's going to harass you all day, and that's no good.

[TrixRabbit]

kk ty :D, that's what i have been doing but it seemed like it wasn't very effective.

[Droggeltasse]

It realy depends on the hero you are playing.
In general always move. A creep gets low, than go in kill it and go back out of range again.

If you should atack the enemy realy depends on your hero. If you have some ranged nuke to harras like pharao use it otherwise you should just go in when you think you will get the kill sure.
Some hereos are so good at that that they are often used mid vs ranged hereos.

Like :dead::bloo::phar:
:dead:and:phar: can lasthit creeps very well and both have nukes and skills that can kills squishy ranged hereos very good if they get into range once.
:bloo: has a good skill that gives him hp for every lasthit and a silence to prevent nukes. This allows him to lasthit every creep with a hatchet and heal faster than the enemy can kill him.

And last but not least you need some items:
Never start with boots and never ever ever ever ever against a ranged hero. A shield and a hatchet are good to get alot of creep kills and regen items are important cause you cant avoid to get damaged and need to heal to stay in the lane.

[awayish`]

should stock up on regen, get a shield+hatchet, and deny hard. ranged heroes might have you low at first, but they will be severely hurt by the denying and can't do anything at the later levels if you've denied a lot.

[TrixRabbit]

ok thanks for the advice

[RafSimons]

I will tell you more of the mechanics of the game that can help you.

If you are versus a VERY DANGEROUS lane, vs a double lane (with 1 or more being ranged)

play passively and snag the last 2 or 3 creeps after you have more creeps in lane than him, otherwise try be patient and farm at your tower.

If you are solo melee vs a lane, you can generally play more aggressive and closer to the creep line, try to snag creeps early and deny him as the melee animation and base damage generally is better than the ranged one (should be easy if you have a logger's hatchet or some decent stat items).

If you are versus forsaken archer or a very difficult ranged hero to deal with you probably need to do the best you can but focus more on HP conservation and farm at your tower.

It is important to conserve HP generally and try to farm at tower.

One technique that is popular amongst top dota players (its not quite as effective in hon) is what I term the cancel-walk. You spam click walk forward while spamming stop simulatneously (the frequency for which you spam the stop command controls your speed). This allows you to move to a creep slower or faster based on your needs (e.g. how fast the creep is losing hp).


Another important thing is that if you have spells you can try farming with an aggressive spell. In the very beginning of the game (levels 1-4/5) if you are melee you will have a hard time killing w/o people assisting you in ganks your opponent solo if he is ranged. This means you can try using your spells to farm to burst farm a faster item (e.g. pharaoh for fast bottle/boots) to help you tank or help you kill (bottle for regen or boots for speed or stat items for increased base attack/hp). So don't conserve your spells unless you know your team is going to gank for you constantly.

There are heroes like deadwood and blood hunter for which laning solo vs any ranged is a tough for most ranged heroes.

That being said, the forsaken archer is probably the best counter to any melee solo

[COOLFACEBRO]

With the new creep aggro mechanics it's a lot tough laning melee vs. ranged. Just deny everything you can, if they don't harass you much then take what last hits you can. If they have a heavy stun/slow/nuke combo then just make sure you stay in XP range.

[TrixRabbit]

how do you deny something?

Pull the creepwave towards you ( and tower ) by aggroing the ranged enemy Hero (try to do it without taking damage. stout shield is very helpful ). It's fairly easy with melee hero. This way you can turtle at the tower and get much more last hits while being in the safe-zone at the same time.
But the main thing is: You should never go 1vs2 with a melee hero. Armadon might be the only semi-good hero for doing this (farm wise). Nevertheless, some melee heroes still are very capable on going solo versus a solo ranged hero.

[derylO]

it is really anoying having 2 ranged enemies when beeing melee, the worst that can happen beeing harrassed all the time ... i ****ing hate it :D

[Droggeltasse]

how do you deny something?

press ctr+a or strg+a or......depens on your keyboard layout and click on your own creep

you will atack the creep and when you last hit it you will see a bubble and "denied". This will cause the enemy gets less xp from the creep. Ranged hereos get less xp from denied creeps than melee hereos. This way you can outlevel your enemy.

Edit: You can only atack allied creeps if they have low hp. So when you test it dont try full hp creeps. *g*

[TheGrizzle]

it is really anoying having 2 ranged enemies when beeing melee, the worst that can happen beeing harrassed all the time ... i ****ing hate it :D

call for a lane change in these situations, a ranged teammate will have an easier time

its worth the hassle of changing lanes trust me, especially if you move lanes first and try to get a gank in early (3v2 in the lane you just moved or teleported to)

[alliednoob]

how do you deny something?

when one of ur creeps is in the red, press "A" and a targeting cursor will come up, then click on the creep with want to deny with it, your hero will auto attack the creep and kill it (which denies it).