How to Step Up Your Game

[[E]Tripwyr]

The three best pieces of advice are:

1. Realize you're not a good player. Once you understand this, you can work to improve yourself. If you think you're a good player, fault will always fall to your allies instead of where it should be: You.
2. Play the highest level games you can get into. If you're 1409, play 1400+ games. If you're 1653, play (or host) 1650+ games. Do not play 1500+ games as a 1653 player, you won't improve.
3. Find some friends. Playing with other people will help you learn how to play as a team instead of for yourself. Above 1650, most players actually play as a team instead of picking all carries. If you get to this point and have only been playing with yourself, you'll have a hard time when the rest of your team tries to help and you don't let them.

Once you start using those three points, you should find yourself starting to improve. The only real way to improve is to practice; nothing you read here will make you jump 200 points, only practice can do that. If you don't know how to play a particular hero or don't understand a game mechanic, find a guide on Khakhan's CTRL+F Guide.

Honourable mention: Do not play Casual mode. I know it's tempting, but casual mode is not learning mode, don't think that you can start out in casual then make the switch to normal, it doesn't work that way. Start in normal and stay there.

With all of that said, no more general "how can I improve/why am I so bad" posts. We can't help you unless you ask a more specific question.

[obstacle_1]

I'm a good player.

[Nicksan]

We need more 1800+ games, having a really difficult time finding them whenever I search for a game. Always having to settle for 1550 and 1600 games, hopefully more games arise in the future.

[[Toho]Yukari]

Indeed, there seems to be a huge gap between 1650+ and 1817+ games

[[E]Tripwyr]

As implied by the above post, hosting 1817+ games can help. Games are hosted as 1817 because many 1800+ players will filter for games with 17 in the title. This is because 1800+ games are extremely uncommon, so filtering for 17 makes it more likely they will find a game while also searching for 1800+.

This also means that searching for 17 or 1817 is more effective than searching for 1800+.

[[Flag]Decency]

Found this in another forum, one of the best posts I've seen on the topic:

When you're a noob, all you know is your own hero and whatever you can see on your screen at the moment. You also play alongside noobs who will, when the game goes badly, look around at all their teammates to see who has the most deaths, the worst items, and the lowest level, and then proceed to blame the entire game on that player. When you join noob lobbies, everyone checks your kdr to determine if you have any skill and ridicules you if it's low.

If you want to get better, you need to get away from that garbage mentality. Instead of thinking of the game as your hero vs. the enemy team, look at it as 5 heroes on your team. If you are voodoo in lane with a dark lady, pretend you own both heroes, then ask yourself: "Which of these two heroes do I want to put all the money on?" Dark Lady makes infinitely better use of money than Voodoo (she's actually dependent on it). So, the smarter player will say, "I'll use Voodoo to push the other lane back, deny creeps, and pull to keep the lane in a safe place for me to farm up Dark Lady." Now, it's not called babysitting, not because it's a **** job, but because the carry in your lane is a "baby." Nigma said it best in one of his videos: "A carry is a hero that relies on his team to carry him early, but who will carry his team late." So, when you take care of some squishy hard carry like DL, just know that she's going to take care of you later--I mean literally; early game when you throw out that cask to save her low-hp ass from a gank, lategame she'll instagib some enemy chasing you down.

Of course, you don't have to babysit DL. You should only do that if you want PSR. Otherwise, you can just hope the other team is really bad, and play however you want, and just try to get as many kills as possible. And, if in the end, DL ends up with **** farm because she got ganked over and over again 'cause there were never any wards up, you can hide in the well to protect your kdr and allchat about what a lousy player DL is and how she cost you the game. Then when you go to the next game lobby with your lower PSR, you can QQ about all the baddies you get stuck with and say "PSR means nothing, look at my kdr!"

But, fair warning, when you go into a game with people who are used to playing with better players, you might hear some QQ about what a shitty player you are and how you have no clue how to play your hero.

My best advice to new players is to never get caught in that mentality. It's unfortunate that it even needs to be said.

[painkiller`]

...

^^ I approve. It's even linked to in my sig

[[NrW]CyFiN]

The three best pieces of advice are:

1. Realize you're not a good player. Once you understand this, you can work to improve yourself. If you think you're a good player, fault will always fall to your allies instead of where it should be: You.
2. Play the highest level games you can get into. If you're 1409, player 1400+ games. If you're 1653, play (or host) 1650+ games. Do not play 1500+ games as a 1653 player, you won't improve.
3. Find some friends. Playing with other people will help you learn how to play as a team instead of for yourself. Above 1650, most players actually play as a team instead of picking all carries. If you get to this point and have only been playing with yourself, you'll have a hard time when the rest of your team tries to help and you don't let them.

Once you start using those three points, you should find yourself starting to improve. The only real way to improve is to practice; nothing you read here will make you jump 200 points, only practice can do that.

With all of that said, no more general "how can I improve/why am I so bad" posts. We can't help you unless you ask a more specific question.

I've been looking on how to improve (at the moment I'm un-improving, if that's even a word) my game, and you've hit the nail on the head.

[Pwnograhpy]

Gold, just what A LOT of people (including my self) need. I find point 3 especially hard to fulfill.

[razveck]

Someone give Murderbunny a ****ing medal

[[BADS]cute]

The best advice you'll ever get:
You're bad and you won't get better until you accept you're bad and start trying to improve yourself.

[Akibwa]

Thanks i'll use these tips in games tonight.

[[Loli]LuckyStar]

Pwnography and Rien bad

[PH34RST3R]

As implied by the above post, hosting 1817+ games can help. Games are hosted as 1817 because many 1800+ players will filter for games with 17 in the title. This is because 1800+ games are extremely uncommon, so filtering for 17 makes it more likely they will find a game while also searching for 1800+.

This also means that searching for 17 or 1817 is more effective than searching for 1800+.

does this mean if i join a 1817 game as a 1805 fx, it's generally accepted? :O would probaly still be kicked at stats inspection but yeah, just wondering :P

[[Toho]Yukari]

does this mean if i join a 1817 game as a 1805 fx, it's generally accepted? :O would probaly still be kicked at stats inspection but yeah, just wondering :P

1805 should be accepted.

[[UCLA]eraye1]

They seriously need more 1700/1800 games. I can never find any.

[[HYMC]UzuMaK1]

rien, lucky star and ooo bad

and i love decency's post.

[PzKw]

Don't find friends. Once you get to 1650 join some kind of an inhouse environment. You will discover that while you thought you knew how to play HoN/DotA you were actually played it completely wrong and you'll relearn everything... Properly...

[[BUM]Angry_Teabag]

Avoiding tunnelvision is essential, even though it can be difficult when you're trying to lasthit/deny/harass/not get pwned

You need to be on the ball constantly.

[pwn_U_fast]

yeah overall game awareness is something that can always be improved.