To reiterate, you may want to save your skill points to level up skill when you need them. That’s really all there is to say, but I’ll include a few examples to help flesh out the idea.

First, remember some heroes will almost always take their first skill point in a particular skill, regardless of the particular game scenarios. Luna will often take Lunar Blessing, Shadow Fiend will often take Necromastery, Huskar will often take Burning Spear, etc. Supports will often take their first point in some form of disable. Very rarely will you decide to skill differently on these heroes.

So, when do you decide to skill differently? This is usually when taking a different skill point will change how much control you have in your lane.

Consider Gyrocopter. Rocket Barrage, Homing Missile, and Flak Cannon are all candidates to level up first. To decide on the best option, take a look at your lane and your opponent’s lane. Do you have supports with disables? Is the opposing lane a single, dual, or triple lane? If you are against a single opponent, especially with disabling supports, you’ll probably want Rocket Barrage so that you can burst down your opponent and get a kill. If you’re against a trilane, you’ll probably want Flak Cannon to maximize your harass damage. If (in the rare case) you need to zone or set up a stun, you’ll need Homing Missile.

As another example, consider a solo offlane Mirana. If you’re against a difficult lane, you might need to use Leap to save yourself from dying. However, you might also get a chance to land a surefire Sacred Arrow for an early kill. By saving your skill point, you are delaying your skill decision until you reach the point where it actually matters. Again, remember that it doesn’t matter whether or not you have put any points into an active skill until you actually use that skill.

Hopefully it’s clear that these are cases where saving your first skill point (or any skill point) can be useful. Once again, saving your skill points tends to be more useful in the early game and when you have several active skills into which you can spend those points. It might not seem like a big deal, but sometimes this can be the deciding factor when it comes to winning or losing your lane!