Easytouch1500 Profile Joined July 2011 United States 3 Posts #1



1. Treads switching

It pains me to see a player who keeps their treads on one stat attribute all game. In the early game, treads switching is a vital and important thing to do to decrease mana cost of all your spells and to get more out of regen.

You should switch treads in 3 scenarios.

A.. You need more damage against creeps (change to the dominant attribute of your hero).

If you are jungling you should switch your treads to whatever form gives you the most damage. But don't forget to switch them back to strength before an engagement!

B. You are about to use a bottle or some other form of mana/hp regen

When you switch treads between stats your percentage of total HP and total Mana stays constant, however if your HP will rise if you switch your stats to strength because of the fact that you are increasing your total HP pool. So your total mana/hp gain is the HP/Mana you gain from treads *the percentage of current hp/mana you have.

When you are about to use a bottle (or other form of regen) switch your treads to agi. This way, you lower your total HP/Mana and when you use your bottle charge it will heal a greater percentage of your HP/Mana pool (because bottle's regen is always constant). Now when you switch back to str treads you will have a higher HP than if you used bottle while in str treads!

C. You are about to use a spell

I would summarize this, but Luminous already did it for me. Check out this important video.

Dota PSA - Switching Treads



2. Tower Aggro

The folks on r/dota2 have helped me out with this one.



There are some important things that this picture did not stress enough though.

If you are pushing a tower, and do not wish to take tower damage, then do not attack the tower while the creeps fight the other creeps. The tower will shift its aggro to you because you are the only target currently attacking it. Instead, dispatch of the enemy wave as fast as possible then go back to whacking on the tower with your creeps.



3.Disassembling Items

Disassembling items, and which items are able to be disassembled are important to know if you want to optimize your item builds. Many early game items can be disassembled and then later be built into larger items. Examples of this are tranquil boots being built into vlads or mek. Arcane Boots being built into bloodstones and etc.

Following items can be dissesembled

Arcane Boots * Sange and Yasha * Helm of the Dominator * Manta Style * Ethereal Blade * Ring of Basilius * Perseverance * Ring of Aquila * Tranquil Boots



4. Try to restrict your movement when the enemy team has more stunners. This is because stunners can punish you much harder for being out of position. If they lack stunners/slowers you have a lot more freedom to position yourself before a teamfight.



5. MKB is a great situational pickup for the evasion negation if you are playing a semi-carry or hard carry. While the mini-stun is nice if your team lacks disables and the other team has scary channeling ultimates (black hole etc), the primary reason of picking up an MKB is if you need to stop missing your attacks. This could occur if you are facing against a riki (no more miss chance in smoke cloud!), PA, a good tinker (laser miss chance), Brewmaster (drunken haze), Nightstalker (his silence) and many other heroes that also make you miss your abilities. However, if you aren't facing these heroes on the other team and you have the disables necessary to interrupt channeling abilities you should get a Daedelus over an MKB as the critical strike buffs all your damage by 31%.

I would like to preface this thread by saying that most of these "tips" are already well known by experienced players. Even intermediate players will probably still know many of these things, however I hope some of you gleam useful information for this thread. Though brief, I just wanted to make this thread to populate the dota 2 strategy forum, which I hope blooms into something equivalent to the amazing sc2 strategy forum.1. Treads switchingIt pains me to see a player who keeps their treads on one stat attribute all game. In the early game, treads switching is a vital and important thing to do to decrease mana cost of all your spells and to get more out of regen.You should switch treads in 3 scenarios.A.. You need more damage against creeps (change to the dominant attribute of your hero).If you are jungling you should switch your treads to whatever form gives you the most damage. But don't forget to switch them back to strength before an engagement!B. You are about to use a bottle or some other form of mana/hp regenWhen you switch treads between stats your percentage of total HP and total Mana stays constant, however if your HP will rise if you switch your stats to strength because of the fact that you are increasing your total HP pool. So your total mana/hp gain is the HP/Mana you gain from treads *the percentage of current hp/mana you have.When you are about to use a bottle (or other form of regen) switch your treads to agi. This way, you lower your total HP/Mana and when you use your bottle charge it will heal a greater percentage of your HP/Mana pool (because bottle's regen is always constant). Now when you switch back to str treads you will have a higher HP than if you used bottle while in str treads!C. You are about to use a spellI would summarize this, but Luminous already did it for me. Check out this important video.2. Tower AggroThe folks on r/dota2 have helped me out with this one.There are some important things that this picture did not stress enough though.If you are pushing a tower, and do not wish to take tower damage, then do not attack the tower while the creeps fight the other creeps. The tower will shift its aggro to you because you are the only target currently attacking it. Instead, dispatch of the enemy wave as fast as possible then go back to whacking on the tower with your creeps.3.Disassembling ItemsDisassembling items, and which items are able to be disassembled are important to know if you want to optimize your item builds. Many early game items can be disassembled and then later be built into larger items. Examples of this are tranquil boots being built into vlads or mek. Arcane Boots being built into bloodstones and etc.Following items can be dissesembledArcane Boots * Sange and Yasha * Helm of the Dominator * Manta Style * Ethereal Blade * Ring of Basilius * Perseverance * Ring of Aquila * Tranquil Boots4. Try to restrict your movement when the enemy team has more stunners. This is because stunners can punish you much harder for being out of position. If they lack stunners/slowers you have a lot more freedom to position yourself before a teamfight.5. MKB is a great situational pickup for the evasion negation if you are playing a semi-carry or hard carry. While the mini-stun is nice if your team lacks disables and the other team has scary channeling ultimates (black hole etc), the primary reason of picking up an MKB is if you need to stop missing your attacks. This could occur if you are facing against a riki (no more miss chance in smoke cloud!), PA, a good tinker (laser miss chance), Brewmaster (drunken haze), Nightstalker (his silence) and many other heroes that also make you miss your abilities. However, if you aren't facing these heroes on the other team and you have the disables necessary to interrupt channeling abilities you should get a Daedelus over an MKB as the critical strike buffs all your damage by 31%. "He sees my 8 stalkers and my giant e-penis, and he's gonna make sentries" -Alejandrisha

sunnybias Profile Joined August 2012 United States 1 Post #2 Great break down of basic mechanics for new players. Will link this article to friends getting into Dota.

Duckvillelol Profile Joined July 2009 Australia 19 Posts #3 Tower mechanics are a very important part of playing I think; if you master how they work early it'll help in learning more of the game, given how important pushing lanes are. Know when to attack it and when not to, to save yourself from that big damage hit they do (early/mid)! Former SC2 commentator: facebook.com/duckville.casting || youtube.com/duckvillelol || twitter.com/duckvillelol

aintz Profile Joined August 2010 Canada 1849 Posts #4 this is a great thread for new players, though #4 is kinda dopey lol.

synapse Profile Joined January 2009 China 4966 Posts #5 I was mindblown when I found that you can kill tower aggro by attacking one of your creeps when I first started.



Something I found useful is that you can enable right-click to deny (normally you have to a-click) through console. :)

exarchrum Profile Joined August 2010 United States 13 Posts #6 Another tip that has dramatically helped me is to always carry a TP scroll (town portal scroll, aka teleport).



It can get you out of a precarious situation and can help your allies in danger. A tower-diving-gank can turn into a successful counter-gank with well timed TP scrolls.



When you use your TP scroll make sure to buy a new one! If you are TPing out of base always buy another immediately. If you are pushing a side lane, make sure to pick one up at the side shop if you don't already have one.



Also don't think you have too many items for a TP scroll. In most cases, saving an item slot for a TP is essential. Exceptions are when you have the aegis, or you have godly items in every slot. justin.tv/exarch watch me play!

Burns Profile Joined December 2010 United States 528 Posts #7 its always nice to see these posts come up, it makes you think about the basics which are the most important part ofthe game

it also helps newer players out What do you mean you heard me during the night, these are quiet pants!

Q.ex- Profile Joined August 2012 Germany 6 Posts #8 i think that this thread does not only help new players, also progressing players.

you always forget some mechanical parts and its always nice to know where exactly to find the answer

Dankleteer Profile Joined July 2010 United States 731 Posts #9 The tower aggro is essential, saved my ass so many times when before I wouldn't go near the tower before I had about 1500 hp lol



Another tip I wold throw in is if you find yourself near a creep camp towards teh end of a minute, pull it at xx:53 to stack the camp. You're creating more potential farm at no cost to yourself, when it becomes a habit the little advantages it brings can be clutch. fresh chops

kdgns Profile Joined May 2009 United States 748 Posts #10 When you disassemble arcane boots, the energy booster is always on your right, so when going arcane->bloodstone, you don't have to hover over the items on the ground to avoid remaking arcane after disassembling

Audax Profile Joined April 2003 United States 2 Posts #11 One thing that blew my mind was watching a streamer and how he used the bottle. The bottle recharges when it gets to the fountain, so when a courier comes by to give you items you can throw your bottle on the courier and have it recharge the bottle at base for you and bring it back. I did not think to do that by myself at all.



I've started using this and it's helped out tremendously. You can't use it all the time, but if you're in a rough spot it's a cool little tip.

drew-chan Profile Joined July 2009 Malaysia 728 Posts #12 On August 31 2012 10:34 Audax wrote:

One thing that blew my mind was watching a streamer and how he used the bottle. The bottle recharges when it gets to the fountain, so when a courier comes by to give you items you can throw your bottle on the courier and have it recharge the bottle at base for you and bring it back. I did not think to do that by myself at all.



I've started using this and it's helped out tremendously. You can't use it all the time, but if you're in a rough spot it's a cool little tip.



The Pinoys love it so much that I have seen progames with 3 couriers, 1 for each lane to bottle crow. The Pinoys love it so much that I have seen progames with 3 couriers, 1 for each lane to bottle crow. ...

Sindriss Profile Joined May 2010 Denmark 32 Posts #13 Are you sure about no5? I seem to recall it is more complicated than that and that what deals most damage is based on a number of factors.

Zariel Profile Joined December 2010 Australia 46 Posts #14 5 Mana off a Blink/WW or a stun? Switch to Intel Treads!! sup

galtdunn Profile Joined March 2011 United States 178 Posts #15 Definitely always carry a TP scroll. Currently editing items in the DotA 2 wiki. PM for questions/suggestions.

Easytouch1500 Profile Joined July 2011 United States 3 Posts #16 On August 31 2012 12:19 Sindriss wrote:

Are you sure about no5? I seem to recall it is more complicated than that and that what deals most damage is based on a number of factors.



Are you talking about the damage increase % that I said? Daedalus gives a 25% chance to make your hits hit 2.5x harder. Thus it gives you a 25% chance to do an extra 1.5x damage, roughly 37.5% (I gave the wrong figure before). MKB gives you a 35% chance to ministun and do 100 extra damage, giving you an extra 35 damage on average, mkb also gives 7 more damage than Daedalus. In total lets say 42 more damage as opposed to Daedalus's 37.5% dmg increase. Also, mkb gives you +15 IAS, there is no easy way to calculate the dps increase that IAS will give you though as it is dependent on alot of factors. So for the ease of math lets just say you have the perfect ratio of IAS and DMG, thus i'll put another 15 points in dmg for MKB.

So lets say MKB gives you +57 "damage per second points" (42 dmg+15 IAS). The only way this would be more dmg than a Daedalus is if your DMG is under 152. Which is extremely unlikely at the point of the game at which you would get Daedelus, seeing as Daedelus itself gives 81 dmg. Thus the point at which Daedalus would give less dmg is 71 base damage. Very, very low. I Think even if you rushed Daedelus first Item it would still give your more damage than MKB on most heroes. Of course, if a hero has low attack speed, the point at which Daedelus will give more dmg than MKB will be a bit higher, but not by that much.



TLDR; If you already do higher 71 dmg when you get Daedelus, Daedelus will do more dmg than MKB. Are you talking about the damage increase % that I said? Daedalus gives a 25% chance to make your hits hit 2.5x harder. Thus it gives you a 25% chance to do an extra 1.5x damage, roughly 37.5% (I gave the wrong figure before). MKB gives you a 35% chance to ministun and do 100 extra damage, giving you an extra 35 damage on average, mkb also gives 7 more damage than Daedalus. In total lets say 42 more damage as opposed to Daedalus's 37.5% dmg increase. Also, mkb gives you +15 IAS, there is no easy way to calculate the dps increase that IAS will give you though as it is dependent on alot of factors. So for the ease of math lets just say you have the perfect ratio of IAS and DMG, thus i'll put another 15 points in dmg for MKB.So lets say MKB gives you +57 "damage per second points" (42 dmg+15 IAS). The only way this would be more dmg than a Daedalus is if your DMG is under 152. Which is extremely unlikely at the point of the game at which you would get Daedelus, seeing as Daedelus itself gives 81 dmg. Thus the point at which Daedalus would give less dmg is 71 base damage. Very, very low. I Think even if you rushed Daedelus first Item it would still give your more damage than MKB on most heroes. Of course, if a hero has low attack speed, the point at which Daedelus will give more dmg than MKB will be a bit higher, but not by that much.TLDR; If you already do higher 71 dmg when you get Daedelus, Daedelus will do more dmg than MKB. "He sees my 8 stalkers and my giant e-penis, and he's gonna make sentries" -Alejandrisha

Firebolt145 Profile Joined May 2010 Lalalaland 11998 Posts #17 On August 31 2012 10:28 kdgns wrote:

When you disassemble arcane boots, the energy booster is always on your right, so when going arcane->bloodstone, you don't have to hover over the items on the ground to avoid remaking arcane after disassembling

Oh wow really? Never knew this haha. Oh wow really? Never knew this haha. Moderator

Clerseri Profile Joined June 2010 Australia 1 Post #18 One thing that made my play a hell of a lot better was using the range creep's attack as a timer for last hits. If you watch their projectile, you'll notice it does more damage and is nicely obvious compared to the melee creeps' attacks. This means both that the creep it's attacking is also likely to be the next creep to die (the best one to last hit) and that it is more obvious when its health will get into range for your attack.



When timing your last hit, aim for your attack to do damage directly after the range creep's projectile hits to take the creep into farmable/deniable range.



Fantasy will be the next big thing in SC2.

Spiffeh Profile Joined May 2010 United States 47 Posts #19 The tower aggro tips are really great for new players from LoL.



Good post. Thanks.

tauon Profile Joined January 2012 Australia 699 Posts Last Edited: 2012-08-31 07:51:30 #20 I'm not sure if this is true but I remember reading it somewhere: towers have a 2 second cool down on their agro test.



Can someone confirm this? Road to 6sange

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