That being said, i have reserved some slots below for areas i haven't touched on yet and if anyone can think of anything that is missing i will add it to the list of 'things to add' and get to it as i can.
The Things You Need To Know To Win
Experience/Levelling
Firstly, some simple terms.
Denying = To kill your own creep in a wave, you can start to hit them once they reach below 50%hp.
LastHit = To land the last hit on a creep and kill it for some $$gold$$
AutoAttacking- Avoid it like the plague. It makes it easier for your enemy to lasthit, pushes a lane towards the enemy tower and is not a good thing.
DENY! - that's it, deny every single thing you can for the first 15 minutes unless you're pushing, it ruins your position or it stops you from getting the last hit on a creep.
Every Deny Nets you: Melee heroes receive 2/3 of the denied creep exp, ranged heroes receive 1/3 of the denied creep exp. This gives melee heroes an advantage in a 1 v 1 if they can deny consistently (middle lane )
If you're a carry, focus on getting last hits. If you're a support, focus on getting denys and harass and those last hits that would be hard for your carry to get to.
Turn on XP indicators. You will learn very quickly just how far you can stand out of range to get XP.
Last hit like a mofo. I mean it, learn to really time it, think about the creeps that are hitting it, how fast its hp is going down, when an attack will land, how fast your projectile speed is, cancel your animation if it will miss, psych out your opponent with animation cancelling, end 4/4 from a creep wave with noone around to stop you.
More on animation cancelling Later.
Opponent missing? First, tell your team. Secondly, kill everything. If they are not in the lane you should not miss a single creep deny/kill.
In special cases (if you think you can do it before they get back) kill that enemy creep wave quickly so that your creeps dive into the enemy tower and die.
A Dead creep wave while your opponent is at base healing is the equivalent of a denied creep wave. Mostly this is useful in mid because it can really punish a solo hero for xp and pushing the lane just puts it right back in the middle of the river again.
Positioning
Move! - KEEP MOVING. Your hero shouldn't be sitting still unless you have a reason to be. A moving target is a hard target.
Following that tip, pick a ranged hero to begin, :fors: are all good.
More on what heroes are beginner friendly way down below.
Always remember where your hero is, where their hero is and where their heroes COULD come from - jungle/fog/uphill/otherside of those trees with a portal key, ETC.
Don't be in the fight for a creep unless you should be - it is NOT worth chasing that one last hit on that last creep as zephyr against elec and pyro.
To put this in context, if i am a melee hero i should not be anywhere near the creep wave until i see that in the time it will take me to run in and hit the creep i will kill it.
While Doing this if it would cause me to get stun locked by the opposing team and have their creep wave come after me it would be wise not to go for it and allow my support hero to do so instead.
Items
:ManaBattery:Mana Battery/Power Supply. It's used a lot by the pros for a reason. It gives you clutch mana and clutch hp at clutch times.
Starting items - Stats are good, regen is GREAT, boots are not a good choice. Try to mix stats and regen - a solid build is 2 x +3primary attribute, one health potion, one runes of blight, 2 minor totems - assuming you're not the guy who *should* be buying the courier.
Wards:WardOfSight:. Are. A. Godsend. There is a reason you can only buy 4.
Make sure that SOMEONE -even if you have to give up a totem and a +3stats- gets a courier at the least, and wards AND a courier for fun times.
:ShrunkenHead: Shrunken head, this item is core on your carry, end of story. You are a carry? Get it. Unless you are facing one stun, get it anyway the +hp and magic immunity it gives is a necessity to being able to wreck teams.
:Bottle:The bottle is a great item, it's not so great if it's your only item. It's even less great if you can't put a rune in it to fill it up. It's even LESS great if you can't fill it with a rune, OR put it on a courier to fly back to base to fill it up. All your money for 3 sips of a bottle? Not a great idea.
:Puzzlebox: PuzzleBox
This item is extremely powerful and has only increased in price since its introduction, two minions who mana burn with attacks, have a movespeed aura, die dealing 400 true damage, have a targettable mana burn and generally kick ass and chew bubblegum and they're all out of bubblegum oh, did i mention it reveals invisibility at lvl 3?
Early on in your hon career it might not seem too good, but once those heroes start harassing you because you've gotten better,:IronBuckler: and his buddy :IronShield: really help to lessen that damage you take. - Combine it with a :Lifetube: and you might just not have to go back to base!
Are you an intelligence hero? Are you mid? If you answered yes to the first and no to the second, you should probably be buying a courier/wards.
Remember, Courier > wards - you can always put some wards on a courier and likely find someone to upgrade it so it flys! (That's important, your mid will NEED those items NOW not 5 minutes from now)
:LoggersHatchet: Hatchet! This item is underrated for its ability to turn a 'okay melee hitter, into a good and some of the better melee into a WOO YEAH THATS MY CREEP WAVE B*TCH particularly heroes like
Heroes
Some "Easier" heroes would include: All of which are straight forward and don't require a great deal of micromanagement or positioning to make effective use of their skills.
This is not to say that they are simply point and click heroes, there are things like orbwalking, denying, and positioning that are important to learn on any hero, they are just LESS important here
Some harder heroes would include: who are all about positioning and timing of their skills.
Some of the Hardest: :chro:
In short, you want to play ranged heroes and stay away from melee. Be sure to play all the heroes though as not knowing what their skills do can really be a handicap.
Laning (0:00 to ~10:00)
Harass the enemy! It's really hard to last hit creeps when that plague rider keeps nuking you and attacking you and eating the creeps for mana. It's also a lot easier for your lane buddy (who might just be a carry) to get some kills.
You Should only be hitting creeps to kill them or deny them - stay back out of the enemy's range the rest of the time.
Fog of war - use it! The simplest example is at the end of your weaker lane (wave closer to their tower) you will be able to move behind the tree line where the creep waves clash and dodge in and out of fog -just one use.
Cut down those trees! Don't let them just jump behind it all game long, eat it if you need a bit of hp, target those trees when you can without too much danger.
Ignore your Stats, they don't matter.(well they do dont go 0-10 every game) Give the carry your kill if you are and just executed the best ever gank the world has seen. He needs it more than your stats need padding. Remember, you're here to win the game, sometimes that means you'll be the 0-4-24 and other times the 24-4-0
DONT GO BACK TO BASE! -unless you have to. Hog that experience, hit those creeps, only go back to the fountain if you must, can a courier do it for you? Then you make him do it! You paid 200g (400g if he flys!) for him, you'd best get your moneys worth.
Lane Control - This is when you control the lane (duh) either through your spells, auto attack harass, or just general threat. A great example is electrician and pyro who both have a strong 'lane presence' where you just KNOW if you do something wrong they'll hold and stun you. The more lane control you have the easier your farming will be.
Lane Presence - Some heroes have more of it than others, a Magebane or Rampage for instance doesn't have much, whereas a Plaguerider sure does. Generally your carry heroes have less presence early game and more late.
Gameplay (0:00 to 60:00)
Got No HP and lots of mana? 9/10 times you should be in that team fight hanging back to throw that stun/nuke/heal/WHATEVER/ just don't ditch your teammates unless it's TOO dangerous (this will take practice to get used to)
Got Lots of HP and No Mana? 9/10 times you should be in that team fight because you deal quite a bit of damage just by hitting people.
Invisible heroes are quite frail. The earlier you get that lvl3 puzzlebox:Puzzlebox:,ward of revelation:WardOfRevelation:,bound eye:BoundEye: or dustustOfRevelation: - The more effective it is at countering the invisible hero. That's right, some items counter heroes.
Don't be THAT guy. You know, the one who's farming the creep wave at the outpost while the entire enemy team is pushing down the middle raxx and the rest of his team is fighting a 5 v 4.
BE THAT GUY if it's your role to do it, it's a good time to do it (not at 50:00), your team thinks they're okay to handle it without you, you could really use that farm for your shrunken head/harkons/game winning item and you think it will help more than the push/defence.
If you can't see that hero in your lane, he's missing. Tell your team, they might not have noticed. Remember, just because you killed them, doesn't mean they're going to come back to YOUR lane.
Look at your minimap regularly. It might just be the difference between you noticing that guy moving up the river to kill you and your getting first-blooded.
Game 'phases'
There are 3 phases, Laning, Ganking and we'll call it Teamfighting phase. You might be able to guess what happens a lot in each of those phases.
Laning - This is where you start, all bright eyed and bushy tailed with 0xp and not a whole lot of hp. This is the time to get that experience/gold/denys/early hero kill for good luck. Normally around the 0:00 to 15:00 mark give or take. It ends when you're either A. capable of a team fight or B. Getting ready to get your gank on.
Ganking - This is where you start chasing those heroes in other lanes, if you're a mid hero you might just be mixing laning and ganking with picking up runes. This is the time to be killing that enemy carry or lane that's been doing too well,it's rarer at early levels without a rune. Be sure to get right back to your lane, you don't want to miss out on that vital laningphase XP.
Teamfighting and beyond - The name says it all, you're all big boys now with big boy items and big boy levels, it's time to start co-ordinating that team because 3/4/5 heroes are a lot more deadly than 2 in a lane.
It's important you note that for different heroes these phases can happen at a different time, the entire team isn't going to suddenly start ganking at 6:00 (unless that's your teams setup - a risky one). Pharoah may find himself ganking continually from the moment he hits lvl 6 and has boots and a bottle. Meanwhile Magebane may find himself laning till his team decides they need him.
Some heroes can even do something special, they just roam the map all game from lvl 1. This is normally someone that is heavily item independent and has a long duration stun or powerful slow.
It's a bit more advanced and if you do it in your average pub game you're likely going to lose a 4 v 5 and get flamed a lot.
The Premise behind it is basically they roam and the experience they would pick up is picked up by their strong solo's and they set up kills that increases the gold/level difference between their team and the enemies so that they are carried through the midgame to victory.
Towers and Diving them
Ever been killed by a nuke from someone while standing on your tower? That's tower diving, at least part of it.
First things first, tower mechanics in basic:
-If you are attacking an enemy hero withing tower range it will stop what it is doing and target you, this (through testing) requires the attack animation to begin, just right clicking them will not make it happen so melee heroes aren't punished while they run all the way over to hit the enemy.
- Towers will target the closest thing to them attacking it.
- Towers will attack the closest thing to them.
- Towers don't attack you if you use an orb such as arachna's web manually cast, or a spell. (orbs manually cast count as spells)
- All of these are listed in order of priority, so the top will always take precedence over the bottom.
Example:From the above you can see that if say ThunderMonkey where in your lane and he is running at you while the tower wails on some creeps it might be best to back off a little, because he CAN spam his spells at you, inside tower range and not be hit by it.
Some Other Applications of Tower AI that while higher risk, can pay high rewards.
If the tower is attacking a creep wave, it is possible to 'run past' the tower to snag that kill on the 10hp hero without drawing any tower aggro.
Running THROUGH an enemy tower's aggro range without taking damage can be a good way to escape if a creep wave is already tanking damage.
Using the above tip to run through and pull the next enemy creep wave into the neutral creeps is a good way to push a tower. Risky though as a teleport or heroes behind out of sight can kill you.
Placing a ward in between towers can help to give you both line of sight for incoming teleports while not there (stopping ganks) and let you see if you can pull off the above little tactics.
The glyph of fortification (shortcut i on keyboard) allows your towers and base to be invulnerable for a short period, this is a good thing to do when a low level hero is trying to tank the tower early in the game to finish it off as it can deal significant damage to them, allowing a teleport + gank, or otherwise gank on them and possibly denying them a tower as well.
Towers hit for 100-120 base damage, this is roughly equivalent to a lvl 10 heroes auto attack. That tower is a lot of damage early game, keep that in mind when taking those one or two shots from it for that creep/hero kill.
Early on you're going to get hit by a lot of stuns, a lot of nukes and a lot of auto attacks. You know why? Because you don't know how far they can reach you with those things.
Learn to estimate the distance they can cast that stun, throw that hammer, nuke with that soul, etc. It's going to save your life.
Many heroes get MUCH MUCH more effective the better you are at your judging distances and positioning yourself correctly. I.e
One hero that is entirely dependent on estimating ranges is his Demon Hands require that you line 2(even 3 at early levels) varying distance nukes up on the creep wave to kill it in seconds and landing all 3 will deal 900 magic damage to a hero - equivalent to pyro's ultimate.
Combine that with SS's small hp pool and you will need to know your way around positioning and juding distances.
Learn just how far you can blink with a portal key. It's quite a distance and can be the difference between you blinking in and blasting someone before they know what's going on or have them run away.
Lanes / Combo Lanes / Choosing a lane
There are 3 lanes, short, middle and long, the short lane the creeps clash near your tower, the long lane away from your tower, and in the middle in the middle. (the top hellbourne is a short lane.)
Some heroes lane together very powerfully, for instance or are mean lanes of high burst damage with little challenge to getting it off. Alternatively / can allow for normally middle heroes to lane sides very effectively.
Some heroes should depending on your team go to certain places, for instance if you have :chro: you would want :chro: to go to the short lane, the long and the mid.
This allows your carry to have an easier farm close to the tower and free from danger as possible while supplying danger for the opposing 'easy lane'.
Something like who can harass and deny without much worry and shutdown that 'carry farm lane'. It is important to be agressive in denys and harass in this kind of lane.
Two melee heroes is a bad idea 9 times out of 10. When laned against a ranged opponent you are likely to get dominated in terms of harass, which will lead to a distinct problem in getting creep kills and staying in lane.
Keep all the above in mind as well as how many heroes in your team can stun/disable enemies.
Hero choice
As a general rule heroes are frowned upon if they don't have a very large 'teamfight' presence or rely on a single oneshot skill with a high cooldown.
Though they do have alternative roles to fill apart from teamfights (anti carry, ganker, etc) and can be highly effective when that 'oneshot' works.
Melee hard carrys :chro: aren't your friend to start with. Don't expect to pick it up and pew pew the enemy team the first time you play one - it will take time.
Some heroes are NICHE - they do one thing, and they do it well. these guys generally take a bit of practice and good knowledge of the game.
Some heroes are just downright difficult to learn to play WELL, are prime examples.
Team Composition
A team that looks like this: is likely to have a very hard time laning against a team that looks like this: .
That's because most harder carry's excel when they get their big ticket items and some levels, at which point the solo the team.
Others excel early and taper off. Also, it's normally a lot easier *read,less dangerous* for a ranged hero to farm early than a melee.
Both those teams are exaggerations, it's quite common to have a mix of ranged and melee (3:2 or more) and a mix of int/agi/str heroes.
When it comes to a mix of heroes for your team, you do not want a large collection of carry heroes. I can't stress this enough, you don't need 4, ever. You won't need 3, almost ever. You will need 2 often, in pub games and 1 can do just fine. Sometimes you don't even need ANY!
The Importance Of H:HomecomingStone:mecoming Stones
Homecoming Stones are THE most purchased item. (about 5million more of it are bought than the next closest item in a week) - make sure you're buying them every single game. After about 10mins you should always have one!
Towers, deny them! If it's under 130hp you should make sure to deny it, because if their carry kills it, he just made 500g to help kill you!
How can you get to that tower to deny it though!? :HomecomingStone: it's your friend! If you teleport to a tower while they run under it to get your teammate you can turn things around! Aren't they useful?
It's a wonderful little tool, not only can you STOP people getting dived at their tower, you can farm your lane all day long AND escape ganks/defend/sneak away from your lane and go gank another all for a measly 135g.
UNLESS! you have a set of these sexy boots ::PostHaste: they allow you to teleport all you like, and even let you teleport TO friendly creeps. -Marvelous for getting to that push when your towers are down or for just bouncing all over the map! Just remember, they share a cooldown with your home coming stone so there's no point having both.
Juking
Juking is essentially using the fog to escape - whether you just run away, or hide in the fog and teleport while they try to find you.
Example:1hp Devourer (slowest guy around) who ducks behind a tree as WitchSlayer raises his gun only to have it not go off because Devo's now fogged.
There are MANY ways to escape someone so they cannot chase you down and kill you, it's not just limited to dodging into the fog.
Slow them down! - If you see your lane partner getting railed by the enemy at lvl2 and you're full of hp with nothing to do, jump in between them, by walking in front of their hero and stopping for a split second you slow them down and help your buddy get away (he'll like you a lot).
Run the other way! - So many times i've rounded a corner into fog, thought to myself 'aha they'll be running to base' only to see them turn around and be running back out past me. -Note, don't try this on 10hp you'll likely get railed.
Learn some of the spots to hide! - Woods behind towers, in the trees along the way, there's places all over the shop to hide (even near the shops!.)
SuperSecret Juke spots - aha that got your attention didn't it?
There are some spots you can juke to that require you to cut down a tree to get to them or cutting down a tree can make a new path for you to run out. Remember if they don't know that juke spot and you do - "hey where'd he go?"
On that note, while not really juking you can cut down trees to create a path to get to or away from your enemies. Some common locations are near the outermost top and bottom towers where a sneakily cut down tree can let you come at your opponent from somewhere they're not likely to expect.
Find more detailed info here (and by playing - because even some of them aren't in there
Middle Lane
Don't go to the middle lane if you're unconfident in your ability.
DO go to the middle lane when you're confident in your ability with a hero - now's your chance to shine!
Make sure you use the bottle - rune control is everything mid.
Rune control! When you're in the middle lane (or even on a side lane like the bottom hellbourne) check that rune or better yet, be at the rune spawn every 0/2/4/6/8:00 of the clock! A full bottle is a good bottle, an empty one is a drain.
Rune control - It is not just your mid's job to be at the rune spawn every 2 minutes, it can be you leaving side lane as valk to throw an arrow at the enemy mid to discourage them going for it, dissapear from victory for a second every 2 mins and watch them retreat away from the rune.
Rune Control - When the clock ticks 1:45 kill the creep wave asap, back up your ramp and check a rune. This will allow you time to run to the rune before the next creep wave spawns, put you in fog of your opponent and forces them to check the rune or kill the creep wave.
Ganking the side lanes - The legion side will normally gank the bottom lane as it is going to be the most 'pushed' to your tower to gank, that being said don't be afraid to gank top if you pick up a good rune, they're out of position, low on hp or you think you can get a kill.
Melee mid!
Melee heroes are at a disadvantage against ranged in that they are more susceptible to harass, however they have an advantage in that they hit harder and gain more benefit from denying than a ranged hero.
It is important to deny early game if you are a melee and to maintain control of the runes ESPECIALLY since you can't afford to be fighting a doubledamaged hasted up invisible illusion using ranged 1 v 1.
Creep Leashing and missing uphill.
Keep the creep wave on your hill by attacking the enemy hero, then running away quickly, this will leash the creeps onto you and they will follow. This allows you to hit from high ground, have vision, and not miss occasionally when hitting uphill.
This is a much better position than sitting in the river away from your tower asking to be ganked/run down by your opponent.
Dual Laning Middle Lane
While uncommon at lower levels of play it is entirely possible to lane two heroes mid to shutdown the farm of your opposing hero.
For instance if you think that :blood: is going to go middle and just wipe the floor, send 2 heroes and have a strong solo play 2 v 1.
This will stop his ability to dominate and allow you to win the lane while allowing you to gank to your new solo side lane.
Every point of STR gives you +19 HP and +0.03 HP/s Regen
Every point of AGI gives you +0.14 Armor and +1 Attack Speed
Every point of INT gives you +13 Mana and +0.04Mana/s Regen
Every point of your Primary Attribute gives you +1 damage.
In the early game characters start with low base stats and gain anywhere from 0.9 to 3.4 of an attribute per level.
For example, arachna gains 3.2 AGI and 1.5 INT per level. While Glacius gains 1.6 AGI and 2.9 INT per level.
It's this relatively small gain in stats across 25 levels that makes a hero powerful
At LVL 1 Scout has Damage 45-59, 530HP, 208Mana
At LVL 25 he has Damage 137-151, 1670HP, 897 Mana.
Purchasing +stat items early in the game equates to a few 'extra levels' in terms of hp/mana/damage.
Stats And Your Starting Items
Stats in your starting items
It is pretty much a requirement. Even if it's just a bunch of :MinorTotem: totems it will make a huge difference.
A single minor totem grants you +19HP +13Mana +.14armor +1AttackSpeed +0.03HP Regen +0.04 Mana Regen for 53gold.
Starting items like :PretendersCrown: :MinorTotem: :RunesOfTheBlight::MinorTotem::ManaPotion: gives you more staying power in the lane and better last hitting from the damage they provide.
To be precise the above grants you +76 hp +52 mana + 4 damage,+ 0.12 HP/s Regen and 0.16 Mana/s Regen as well as +100Mana Regen, and +345 HP Regen, at level 1 for 431 gold.
Don't go overboard though, you don't need 4 :FortifiedBracelet: Bracelets as you won't have any slots left for other things, so keep in mind what you buy can turn into other things.
Some simple tips for conserving slots:
2x :MinorTotem: Totems can be turned into a :PowerSupply: with a :ManaBattery:.
3x :MinorTotem: totems can be turned into the above AND a :RefreshingOrnament:
4x :MinorTotem: totems can be turned into the above and a :Astrolabe:
Starting with a :PretendersCrown: and totems is a good way to leave your options open for a :FortifiedBracelet::TalismanOfExile: :SoulscreamRing: as you need it.
Jungling
Jungling - Some heroes can stay in the neutral creep camps from level 1. These are mostly straightforward but it is important to note that their is 'good jungling' and 'bad jungling'
Good Jungling
-Is stacking the easy creep camp at 0:54 so when you kill both spawns you shoot to lvl 2.
- Is pulling the neutral camp into the lane at :45 if your partner can handle it
- Is cutting down a tree on the legion side to drag another neutral camp into the creep wave right as it kills the first camp
- Is double stacking, warding to stop you getting ganked, and ganking the side/middle lane so your solo doesn't have such a hard time.
The important thing is you need to be a presence in the side lanethat could come out and gank if they step into a bad spot too close to your tower.
Bad Jungling
- Is staying in the jungle for 30 mins while your team fights 4 v 5.
- Is Never ganking the lane,not pulling for your lane, not warding to stop you and your solo getting ganked.
-Is laning till lvl 3 then jungling , this puts your new solo at a severe disadvantage, being lvl 3 against two lvl 3's with no xp advantage
Creep pulling/ Stacking
The creeps in neutral camps respawn at every :00 on the clock, if they are outside of this spawn point come :00 from chasing a hero they will spawn again, creating two camps in the location.
To stack creeps, get aggro between 51 and 57 seconds (it's easier earlier than later) and run away.
I find ~ :53 on the clock is a good time for one camp, 0:51 is a good time to pull two camps - you can even do 3 camps with some practice!
You've heard of pulling creeps into the lane?
What is it? Well you know that creep camp in the woods near your (bottom legion / top hellbourne) lane tower? Try pulling it into the lane at 0:45 to 0:47 and your creep wave will go fight them!
- This deny's your opponents XP by having the creep wave die and lets you kill the camp without taking damage.
- Be careful though, this puts your lane partner at higher risk to get tower dived and they might just come for you while you're doing it.
- Combine with the above steps on stacking camps for maximum results! (two neutral camps will kill a creep wave quick and easy, one not so well)
- This tactic can be countered by placing a:WardOfSight::WardOfRevelation: or :chiprel: in/near the spawn point before the creeps spawn, they will not spawn if something is blocking them.
Ancients
- They're the big dragons/creepy dinosaur things you find in the camps near mid lane that stomp a hole in you early levels.
Stacking these for heroes with a good AOE farming ability can give a significant boost to your gold in a short time.
Be careful though or the enemy team might jack them from you. - Remember to ward.
Map Awareness
Ever been raged at by someone for not teleporting to save them? Ever been yelled at by your team to ult NOW! now? YES NOW!! as If so your map awareness is not so great.
Map awareness is something that seperates the low from the mid, the mid from the high. The better you are at it the better you will be at avoiding ganks, starting ganks, farming, not dying, getting kills, everything.
Map awareness is more than just knowing if a hero is MIA
It's things like: How much hp they're on (roughly), if they can cast a stun, where they are moving towards, WHO is where, what's happening to your teammates, your teammates hp/mana/ability to cast things/come to a gank or fight.
Some heroes have what are termed 'global abilities' - I'm looking at you they can be cast or affect anywhere on the map. A few games as these guys and you will have your map awareness at a whole new level, never missing a chance to ks with a well timed ult again.
The easiest way to increase your map awareness is really :WardOfSight: It's going to show you that enemy hero walking through the jungle a lot faster than someone calling MIA when he appears.
LOOK AT YOUR MINIMAP
I can't stress that enough, a quick glance every couple of seconds is all it takes.
Eventually you'll want to know (either through your teammates, or you looking at it) "Are all the heroes still visible, am i in a position to look over at that lane, should i fire my ult to kill/lower that guys hp, would a rocket be enough to kill that guy, etc"
Map Control
Ever been unable to cross the river for fear of being ganked by 5 of their team? That's map control.
Wards play a big part in map control, being able to see all over the map because you have 3+ wards up is invaluable in being able to farm without fear, gank with ease and have a pretty one sided game all around.
Some Heroes are known for their ability to control the map.
For instance: and the newly buffed all allow for heroes to be moving around the map freely to gank and or ward.
Pushing the Creep Wave!
-This is a big thing when it comes to map control. If you attack the enemy creeps in lane you will push the clashing point of the waves more towards their tower.
-Make sure you don't push the lanes unless you want to (late game you may WANT the lanes pushed - it's easier to get into a base with your creeps than without any creeps.)
-It's important to note that if you slow the creeps on your short lane the enemy wave will die on your tower and the wave will move towads them.
Static Farming Can really help with map control as well. What's that? What is static farming!?
Static Farming
Static Farming is the act of basically sitting at the creep wave, dealing equal damage to both your and the enemy's creeps.
This cancels out any damage and causes the creep wave to stay exactly where it is.
Static Farm when the wave is near your tower! This allows you to hold it just out of range of dying on your tower and lets you quickly run back into relative safety.
To see static farming in action, just start a practice game and don't hit any of the creeps. Marvel as the middle lane stays put in the centre of the river, the top lane stays on the hellbourne tower and the bot on the legion.
The best part is static farming (especially when combined with :WardOfSightstops you being in a bad place to catch a pyro ultimate to the side of the face from the woods and lets you farm without a care.
Combine this with constant mini map checks and map awareness of where heroes are and you will have no problem not getting killed so much.
Wards, warding, counterwarding
Wards:WardOfSight::WardOfRevelation:, are invaluable. So much so they get their own section outside of items.
The average ward :WardOfSight: (2 actually) costs you 200g and will save your life, set up a gank and give you vision of 3 rune spawns.
If that hasn't sold you on it yet i dont know what will.
Did i mention they block creep spawns, show you when people teleport in to gank you and let you farm freely?
I can't stress enough how much wards win games, there is a reason you can only buy 4 at a time and they have a cooldown.
There are MANYplaces to ward, the runes, the creep pull locations (before 0:30), middle ramps, hills, the big statue on the legion side, in the jungle to show movement, even inside the enemy base once you take a barracks/tower.
Always make sure you place them as high as you can (more height = more vision)
Counter-warding
You're not likely to see this in lower level matches but more and more frequently lower level PSR players are warding, so learn the spots, and learn how to counterward them.
It's an invaluable tool to have at your disposal.
These guys: :WardOfRevelation: are an inexpensive way to reveal invisibility (which includes other wards and heroes).
There are places to put these so that you can cover possible locations for wards with maximum effect. (click me)
Lastly, this fellow :BoundEye: and to a lesser extent lvl3:Puzzlebox: can allow you to check for wards. You will still need the ward to be out of the fog so vision from a courier or your own ward will allow you to find them.
Lastly also have abilities to reveal invisible units including wards and can use these skills to act as wards all over the map.[/INDENT]
Animation Cancelling
Animation Cancelling is cancelling spells, attacks, movements, all sorts of things by pressing stop or hold before the animation to perform it completes.
Example: Behemoth's first skill Fissure has a very large mana cost and casting time.
Firing it off and then seeing that your enemy is not going to be there will ruin your day, but if you quickly press stop before it finishes, he will only growl and not fire the fissure.
This can be used to not only stop you casting a spell at a bad time but also to 'psych' your opponent out.
A Valkyrie Javelin that doesn't come the first three times you fake throw it is going to make your opponent more cautious and allow you to lane easier.
Animation Cancelling can also be used on your attack animation to prevent you from hitting the creep when you wouldn't kill it, trick your opponent into hitting it down so you can kill it, and stop your opponent knowing when you are actually swinging.
Binding the stop key (S by default) to your Spacebar can make cancelling much easier.
Attack animations can also be cancelled by issuing another move order before the current animation has finished. This is integral to Orb-Walking.
Orb-Walking
Orb-walking
Once you have cancelling your attack animation downpat you are going to be able to take it to the next level with 'orbwalking'.
'Orb-walk' your hero by attacking, moving, attacking, moving before letting the attack animation complete.
Some hereos such as Thunderbringer and Bubbles have a large excess of animation at the end of their attack that can be cancelled allowing you to fire more attacks in the same time frame if you cancel the 'excess' and land more hits on a running enemy.
Arachna is the go to girl of orbwalking. Her first skill allows you to slow an enemy with your slow 'orb', walk, 'orb', walk, 'orb', walk and never draw creep or tower aggro.
This is because 'orbs' are treated as spells when manually cast and spells don't draw aggro and is the Literal Definition of Orb-Walking.
Vindicator, Arachna, and Kraken are the only heroes capable of doing this yet all heroes, particularly ranged, can benefit from learning how to do it.
Nukes And Killing Creeps/Farming
Some heroes have low(ish) cost spammable nukes they can use to get last hits with.
Others have mid-high cost semi-spammable nukes they can use to kill entire creep waves.
Using nukes to get CK is for those cases where realistically if you go near that creep you will get killed/harassed to hell OR to harass AND get CK at the same time.
These heroes are all common to use their nuke to get creep kills and or harass at the same time
Example: Dark Lady at lvl 1 her slow deals 60 magic damage, more than her base damage and can be cast at a distance for a relatively low mana cost.
See the enemy denying a ranged creep you can't get to? Nuke it, blam, money.
When doing this it is important to remember not to use your skills if there is a chance that you will need it in the foreseeable cooldown future.
There is nothing worse than being jumped right after you have put your skills on cooldown.
Everything here is things i am working on/ to remind me to put in.
Gank sense:
Are you by yourself?
Are you past the river? (or, if your outer towers are down - are you past the first tier of towers?)
God forbid, are you by yourself AND past the river? (may as well take a bathroom break now, as you're about to be waiting on that respawn timer)
How many enemy dots can you see on the minimap (did anyone call mia lately?)
Constantly keeping tabs on these things will allow you to avoid almost all ganks.
Another way to avoid ganks is with homecoming stones. If you're being killed by someone without a stun, simply use your homecoming stone as soon as they jump you - unless they can hack you down in 3 seconds, that 135g HC stone just saved you a death + denied them money, etc. Good Deal. This is especially smart when against or or or to name a few
Micromanagement - learn some of the basic keybindings for buying things will speed up time absurdly.
e.g. Corrupted can simply press, 2,b,r,r,b -bottle on courier shop closed ,e,shift +R,q -bottle to me and return while flying fast,
This becomes second nature once you know that b,r,r is a bottle the moment you have 600g. brt is wards, etc. Knowing these takes no time at all (you play for 40 mins, take 1 to learn what the common things are)
will fix this into something later, so much in the first 3 posts, this is later times.
- remove signature from posts, done
-animation cancelling/ orb walking Done
-Lowcost nukes for CK Done
-Fix/test tower ai aggro Done- animation has to start for tower to hit you.
-Conserving mana early game during laning Sort of done
-Starting item builds? Sort of Done
-Importance Of + Stats early game Done
-Micro and shop shortcuts
-roaming
-gank 'sense'
-shamwow guy
-stuff
IF anyone has any questions regarding something / suggestion at something i have missed by all means post/pm.
Demsham doesnt require micro'ing or proper positioning?! I disagree.
This is not to say that they are simply point and click heroes, there are things like orbwalking, denying, and positioning that are important to learn on any hero, they are just LESS important here
admittedly i was typing that as i added it in so you know, it might not have been that you missed it.
will fix this into something later, so much in the first 3 posts, this is later times.
You don't need a hatchet on pestilence and hatchet doesn't work on heroes. So you're not really hitting like a truck, you're farming a bit better. Pesti's best starting items are:
:PretendersCrown::CrushingClaws::MinorTotem:+regen
From there on you get:
:PowerSupply::FortifiedBracelet::Steamboots:
:Bottle:
Then :Portalkey::ShrunkenHead: and luxury items.
Doing this allows pestilence to have a LOT more lane control and be a lot stronger in ganks/teamfights early on.
You don't need a hatchet on pestilence and hatchet doesn't work on heroes.
Yes, this post is a 'better' way to build pesti.
However what that was quoted out of was a question in regards to how/when to get creep kills as pesti by using his stun, i daresay recommending a hatchet to someone who is having trouble lasthitting as a melee hero is not a bad idea.
It's merely there atm as a reminder to me to include a piece about getting CK by using low mana cost spammable nukes.
Yes your items do give a better build and realistically pesti doesn't need a hatchet as he already hits quite hard, doesn't need the farm as much as other melee's may and could better use the stats from a bracer for additional mana/hp boost given his 10% increased damage from flight.
# they can't get gold from and only receive half EXP.
Melee heroes receive 2/3 of the denied creep exp, ranged heroes receive 1/3 of the denied creep exp. Not sure where the above poster got 50% from.
If you're a support, focus on getting denys and harass and those last hits that would be hard for your carry to get to.
Should also mention you should try to feed your carry as many kills as possible.
If you are attacking a hero a tower will stop what it is doing and target you, this (i'm fairly certain) requires the attack animation to begin, just right clicking them will not make it happen so melee heroes aren't punished too hard?
Right clicking an enemy hero while in tower range will cause the tower to assist. It's quite similar to creeps assisting when an allied hero is hit or about to be hit. Otherwise melee heroes would never be able to pull the enemy creep wave closer to their tower.
Pesti's best starting items are:
:PretendersCrown::CrushingClaws::MinorTotem:+regen
Obviously this depends on the hero match up, but getting a Iron Buckler (60% chance to reduce physical damage taken by 20) will help nullify harass damage more so than stacking stat items early on.
An amazing well written guide! With little improvemnt from feedback this just has to be premium for one good reason:
It atracts people with the tittle.It points directly to PSR! Witch allmost every tipe of player: stuborn kids, russians, brazilians and other bad players to lazy to bother reading a guide because "they have a life".
And on top of that it is a complete excelent guide!
However what that was quoted out of was a question in regards to how/when to get creep kills as pesti by using his stun, i daresay recommending a hatchet to someone who is having trouble lasthitting as a melee hero is not a bad idea.
It's not vital for pesti to get all the last hits. His base tools are good enough. Though general rules about using skills to last hit: don't do it when there's (a chance that) opponents are near you. The cooldown on certain abilities can be small, but any window will prove large enough to get a kill in. If noone is around however, things should be fine. Sometimes getting that extra speed in farming can help getting that homecoming stone to help in the other lane or getting that portal key just a bit sooner. As long as you don't die or give your opponents free farm it's fine.
You should emphasize that this is a team game, and should be played like a team game. Much like pickup games of basketball, you should support your teammates, and be understanding of teammates that aren't as good. Raging at teammates doesn't help anybody.
It's not vital for pesti to get all the last hits. His base tools are good enough.
I think it's important for anyone to get 'all the last hits'.
(assuming that the carry, blah blah blah, the point is, if it helps you get 4 hits you wouldn't otherwise it's paying for itself - particularly to people who may not be so good at hitting with melee)
- unlike in dota, a hatchet also improves your ability to deny. It really isn't just a write off the item it's useless because i'm pro and can last hit without it.
In regards to the using low cost spam spells, i hadn't thought to mention it might not be the best time to use your blink + sonar scream to farm when you could also get jumped seconds later and reminded me about conserving your mana in the early game. Ta.
Originally Posted by Mewtwo
Posting Permissions
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are all good.
All of which are straight forward and don't require a great deal of micromanagement or positioning to make effective use of their skills.
who are all about positioning and timing of their skills.
:chro:
) Give the carry 
your kill if you are 
ustOfRevelation: - The more effective it is at countering the invisible hero. That's right, some items counter heroes.
Monkey where in your lane and he is running at you while the tower wails on some creeps it might be best to back off a little, because he CAN spam his spells at you, inside tower range and not be hit by it.
or 
gains 3.2 AGI and 1.5 INT per level. While 
can stay in the neutral creep camps from level 1. These are mostly straightforward but it is important to note that their is 'good jungling' and 'bad jungling'
