Solo Mid Dota 2 Guide by ChaQ’s

Part 1. Introduction

1.1 Standard question: who are you?

I am a 20-year-old student from Poland with 7 years of DotA experience. It all started with games with friends. Then I went a long way through the W3 platform:

battle.net ->garena -> Iccup -> RGC – > dotalicious – > DotA 2

I got the Dota 2 beta very early – one of the first to win a key.

As a player who has spent 1000 hours in pubs, I decided to try playing in a more competitive environment. I went through a couple of local leagues and finally decided to play in a team. Since the Polish teams are extremely unstable, I have been in several of them, mostly playing 1 role.

After 1-2 years, I became interested in the second role – midder. I began to take only mid-heroes in pubs, trying to learn the subtleties and tricks of this role.

One day I came across EternalEnvy ‘s stream where he was training the mid-lane with Arteezy. For someone like me, it was a goldmine – they covered all aspects related to creep control, last hit, lane position. Once Arteezy joined Kaipi, I could watch him in matches and analyze his actions. As it turned out, I knew very little about the solo-mid role.

It may sound like a fan, but in terms of skill, they surpass any of the players I know. He has a special hello. His games helped me create this guide.

1.2 Tell us about your experience on the professional stage.

My win rate has increased significantly and I’m playing well enough to find a high-skill team that will allow me to develop further.

The opportunity came sooner than I thought. One Polish friend of mine (whom I met in a pub) was friends with one of the best Polish players – sasu. When he was putting together a new team, I was recommended to him as a really good player, and so I became the mid-laner of the QWERT1234 team – probably the only Polish team known to Europe. And this is where the sad (for me) story begins. A top pub player without much competitive experience turns out to be pretty mediocre for the serious semi-pro DotA scene.

As you may have guessed, I was inefficient – a huge difference in skill level. Soon, after playing for a short time against some good teams, I was very disappointed. However, now I am satisfied with this experience. Playing against the best solo mid players taught me a lot.

Ironically, encouraged by this adventure, I began to practice more to achieve skills acceptable for a high level of play. To date, my skills and experience are not even close to those that I had a few months ago.

But due to the volatility of Polish DotA and my ever-changing mood (sometimes very interesting, sometimes boring to play), I am currently without a team, playing IXDL-Invite most of the time.

1.3 Why are you writing this guide?

Since I do not plan to play in any team in the near future, I decided to share my knowledge with others. Someone might hate me because I show all these tricks to other players, but hey! – DotA is developing – the knowledge of the “elite” is becoming public, come up with something new! I guess I just enjoy making people play better by showing them different tricks and letting everyone try them in the game.

1.4 Who is this guide for?

Well, it’s not really for beginners. When I started writing it, I decided that it would include advanced and obscure tactics. If you’re having trouble last hitting or don’t know which hero to go mid, this is probably not the best guide for you.

1.5 Pros and cons of the mid-player:

Pros :

– You play the most interesting (in my opinion) heroes, such as Invoker  , Puck  or Queen of Pain  .

– You have an advantage – experience, and gold.

– Playing 1v1 is really fun. There is nothing better than soloing a good mid-laner.

– You are not so dependent on the team. It is easier to train the mid in public than, for example, the heavy lane.

Cons :

– The midder needs to do a lot of tasks: use a courier, avoid ganks, keep a balance in the lane, harass, the last hit, and finally control the runes.

– You have to gank, react quickly. You are the one who sets the pace of the game. – Since you have the strongest early game hero, you can make a lot of mistakes. – If you lose the lane, the enemy gets a huge advantage, which most often gives him victory. – This role requires a lot of practice and experience, the difference between a competitive experienced mid-player and an average pubber is incredibly huge. should not go mid and why. I want to highlight certain details and talk about each of them separately.

Part 2. Everything you need to know about blocking creeps

What I start the main part of my guide with is probably one of the most important things in the solo-mid game – namely, blocking creeps. More experienced players and pros know the importance of a good block, especially when it comes to melee position against ranged creeps.

2.1 An example of a perfect creep block:

Note that enemy creeps can’t see you, and allied creeps can’t see you in the high ground. This means that the opponent does not see where you stand and can safely harass him.

2.2 what this creep block gives you:

– High grain harass (enemy can’t trade effectively because it has a 25% miss chance).

– If you control creeps well and hold the lane, then the enemy farms badly.

– The enemy can hardly see you.

– If he gets too close, you can use your spells on him.

2.3 How do I get the perfect creep block?

There are a few little tricks that will allow you to do this better than the average mid player.

LIGHT

The so-called RTZ block: your hero should stand approximately in this area:

When the counter at the top shows 0:00, you should start walking forward. If you do everything right, you will notice that one of the creeps went to your right instead of running around the tower. This will simply allow you to start blocking creeps a little earlier, without waiting for one of the creeps to approach all the others:

DARK

There are no special tricks here. To effectively block creeps, you just need to stand on the steps here, because. all creeps will spawn just above you:

What is the best way to block creeps? Run in front of them or press the “stop” button all the time?

To be honest, for me and for pro players, both methods are good. In this video, you can see how pro players do it: some of them set up a tracking camera for their hero, Dendi moves the camera with the mouse, and Arteezy uses the hero select key.

2.4 Skip a ranged creep forward – when needed and not needed.

I have noticed that many players like to range creep forward and then block the rest of the creep melee. I myself have tried to do this and was convinced that it does more harm than good. Now I will explain why:

– You open up to harassment! If the enemy sees that you have one less creep in the lane (the one that deals the most damage), he will simply start hitting you, taking much less damage from the creeps than he could.

– You can have double creep kidney – I’ll talk about that later.

– You will lose your bearings in the last hit. As a rule, your time and last hit the creep after the ranged attack. By losing this landmark, you give the enemy more opportunity to hit the creep.

There are a few cases where it is desirable to range a creep forward! – When you know that in the beginning, you have an attack from your hand that deals more damage, and you are sure that you can last hit the creep (for example, with your ) – When you are standing against a hero who has low damage in the beginning (for example, , ). – When you block creeps better and release a ranged creep in the last seconds. – When you know that this hero will be hard to stand against it will be easier for you to last hit under the tower.

2.5 Practice Remember that it is quite easy to train a creep block in a single-player game. You need to create a lobby, enable cheats, and occupy one slot. When the game starts, take, write down the mode – wtf and take a stand. To make the creeps go, write the command in the chat – start game. After a successful/unsuccessful creep block, blink back and start again. Repeat this over and over until you are happy with your result.

Part 3: Starting the game

First hits, moves, and decisions tell so much about a player’s level that sometimes I can predict how easy or hard a game will be. Denying the first creeps + a good last hit can undermine the confidence of some opponents, giving you an advantage.

3.1 There are 3 main situations that happen after a creep block:

To help you understand this graph, I made a video showcasing some of the best in the world  [+me].

Why this hero and why only this hero? In my opinion, he has everything a mid-player needs: you have silence, control, you are mobile, have decent damage for the last hit, and you are hard to gank. Also, your first spell gives you the vision and partially replaces your  . In other words, this hero has a lot more options than the rest. I wanted to show my own playstyle so that I can be compared to other players, but it’s quite difficult if they play different heroes.

PS: If you’re interested in taking a look at the crypostat, take a look at the top left, not the bottom right. the score at the bottom right is wrong, it’s a bug.

Part 4. All about “agro”

“What is this chapter about?” – you ask. I will answer: if you have studied and mastered all the rules of creep aggro, your skill will rise noticeably. To be honest, after analyzing Arteezy ‘s games, I think that this is the secret of his dominance in the lane. I don’t even know if the well-known “mid gods” Dendi and Ferrari use these tricks.

Here are some useful facts you need to know:

– Creeps will aggro anyone who attacks an enemy hero within a 500 radius. This means that if you hit an enemy within the 501 range of the creeps, they won’t aggro you.

– Agra creeps have a cooldown of 2 seconds. In this chapter, I will tell you how to abuse it.

– It doesn’t matter where the hero you hit is standing. As long as you are within 500 radius of the nearest enemy creep, the creeps will still aggro you.

Now that you know these basic things, let’s move on. A skilled player will be able to turn this creep aggro into a strong weapon that can be used in many different ways.

4.1 Aggro tricks – guaranteed last hit

Let’s take this situation:

You are more or less further than your opponent from enemy creeps. Here, the one who finishes the creep will take damage. Note that the damage you deal is random. As a good player, you don’t want to rely on luck, you want to use a strategy that will help you outdo the enemy at that moment. This is where knowledge about creep aggro comes in handy. As soon as the creep’s health is low, hit the enemy hero with the A button and immediately move away, you will aggro the creep closer to you and avoid harassment. Let’s say the creep was within a 500 radius of both players. After using this trick, the creep is already within 200 radius of you, and within 800 radius! from the enemy.

Pay attention to the circle around the hero, it shows a radius of 500. Right now you can only use this command in a private lobby with cheats enabled, but if you have the opportunity to practice with friends, be sure to use it so that you can apply this knowledge in your games later. The most important thing in this strategy is to stand up so that. When you hit an enemy with A, only 1 creep is aggroed on you. This way you will push the lane less than if you aggro all the creeps on yourself.

Take a look at this video: Arteezy has memorized a 500 radius circle, so every time he attacks an enemy, he will only aggro the one creep he needs:

As you perfect this trick more and more, you will realize that this tactic is only limited by your imagination. In this picture you can see the fight for 2 last hits:

Most players just accept the fact that you can’t land 2 attacks at the same time – meaning you can only last hit or deny. But with knowledge of creep aggro, you can land both attacks. Just repeat the normal attack through A + move away, but instead of last hitting the creep, first hit your own, then last hit the enemy.

You will see that he will be attacked by a ranged creep, so if you time it right, you can both deny and last hit, leaving the enemy confused. This experience comes with time, but if you practice enough, you will soon surprise yourself.

4.2 Aggro tricks – how to make the enemy miss the last hit

The tactic described above can also be used to confuse the enemy and let him miss the creeps:

As you can see in the picture, one green creep is hit by most of the enemy ones. When the creeps have 2 hits left to finish him off, you need to stand in the radius of most of the creeps and click on the enemy hero through A. Obviously, the creeps will immediately change their target and if you did everything right, the opponent will be forced to hit the creep, leaving you with the opportunity to deny him. Remember that creep aggro radius is 500!

4.3 Aggro tricks – if you don’t block creeps Yes, this happens even to the best players, so there is nothing to be ashamed of. There is a very simple solution – get close to the creeps as soon as the enemy shows up and click on him through A, then move back a bit. At least a few creeps will crawl down to the river where you can last hit them without a miss chance. If your opponent is playing very passively and doesn’t harass you, you probably won’t see him much. In this case, you again click on the enemy through A on the opposite line. Ideally, you want to lure the enemy creeps so that they start hitting your ranged creep, so the lane will push towards your tower.

4.4 Aggro tricks – how to attack the enemy without aggroing creeps This is quite possible and in fact not as difficult as many might think. You may have even done it before but didn’t pay attention. If you’re wondering how some players pull this off, this item is for you. For starters, it works best against melee heroes and heroes with small attack ranges. Here’s a short video that might help you understand what it’s all about:As you may have noticed, even though I was within a 500 radius of the creeps, the creeps didn’t attack me. It’s pretty simple: attack the hero outside the 500 radius, then, without giving other commands, run towards him and beat him. What happened after the first attack. The creeps want to aggro you, but they can’t because you were out of range. Your first attack triggers a 2-second cooldown, so you have 2 seconds to calmly hit the enemy and not get hit by creeps. The number of attacks depends on your level and artifacts – most heroes with the main attribute “intelligence” manage to land only 1 hit, sometimes 2. You can use this tactic at the very beginning: as soon as you get close to the first creep wave. Attack your opponent with an A outside of range500 from creeps and land 1-2 hits on the enemy. He will not be able to profitably exchange blows, because. aggro self creeps.

Part 5. How to avoid ganks under smoke

You’ve probably come across the most obnoxious midder nightmare, smoke gangs. They keep you on your toes and you can’t fully concentrate on laning well.

What should you do against roaming supports that appear out of nowhere?

5.1 No move method

If you want to win mid by picking a hero that is easy to gank and you know the enemies will give you the sweet life: pick an aggressive trilane against them. This will force them to stay in the lane and fight back, plus they will be in the line of sight, and if the supports leave, your teammate will let you know. Remember that as soon as the game starts, while the enemies are not visible on the map, you are not safe, you should not take risky actions.

5.2 Color method

This method works mostly in pubs where supports don’t disappear as often from the map as they do in serious games. You just need to remember the color of the players who can easily gank you.

In this game, I chose  , as the hero with the most ganking potential. If the orange dot disappears from the map and the enemy carry doesn’t farm under the tower (because  it doesn’t pull), I’ll have to play a lot more carefully.

5.3 Carry Score and Position Tracking Method

You are required to constantly check the score in the game and monitor the level of support. If you think they can gank you at level 1 and they are still level 1 when they should have already pulled creeps and leveled up, then you really need to be wary of ganking. Another way to find out where an enemy’s support is is to see if their carry is farming under the tower: if so, then the supports are most likely to pull creeps, if not, it’s time to worry. This method is not as efficient as they can smoke immediately after the pool and by the time you see the creeps coming back to the safe lane you will be dead.

5.4 The observer + sentry method

Here it all depends on whether your support have  also placed  on the points from which they can gank you. Although you may not see that gank on the minimap. You need to constantly check these points by moving the camera there because smoked heroes are not shown on the minimap. Even if you have them, they are still not easy to spot. 

Part 6. Rune Control

Like it or not, runes and their randomness often win or lose games. Rune control is incredibly important in the mid-lane. You probably know the basic rule “start pushing the lane 10-15 seconds before the rune spawns”, so I won’t even go into details. Instead, I would like to talk about what to do if the enemy receives a rune and what opportunities it gives.

6.1 Bottle abuse, use of courier

The solution to almost all problems on mid: abuse  . This has already been nerfed in one of the latest patches in DotA, however it is still relevant in cases where you are unlucky with runes or just a melee hero with a spamming nuke.

A few tips for bottle abuse:

1. The only significant thing that this fix brought was that the courier flies slower with an empty bottle. Do not boost the courier until there is a bottle in it, and then boldly press it.

2. If you suspect that an enemy hardliner or support is going to take the rune, send a courier to your place in advance, abuse the bottle, don’t waste time checking the rune.

3. You need to be especially careful. If the enemies in the team have  or  . They love to kill couriers. For gold, killing a courier is almost like killing a tower.

4. Use hotkeys when buying items. This makes the buying process faster and helps save your courier. If, for example, an enemy  jumped on your ungreased courier, use the hotkey to quickly open the store, then warm up the courier with the hotkey – mine is N and 8. If you are lucky, you will exchange 220 gold for your opponent.

5. You need to put the courier on a hotkey and also bind all his possible actions. This saves a lot of time and sometimes even saves your life.

6.2 Use of runes

– Haste: If you have the opportunity, then gank the enemy in the safe lane with this rune, or you can just nuke your opponent in the mid lane well, forcing him to move away from the creeps due to the threat of life. In the early game, it is most useful to do this 10 seconds before the next rune appears so that you can also pick it up for sure.

– Double damage: “Mid auto-win” rune. If you got it, you should maximize your advantage: drive away from the enemy, hit all your creeps, and finish off all the enemy ones.

– Invisibility: Up to level 6-7 is not so useful, because you can’t gank anyone, and enemy supports always have sentries. Remember that you can use the bottle once after activating the rune without breaking the invisibility.

– Illusion: Players usually activate it and right-click illusions on the enemy while watching them die. By the way, this rune has more uses: you can double spawn jungle creeps at the same time, check and deny the next rune, block an enemy to kill one or send illusions to the high ground that they gave you vision. – Regeneration : Be very are aggressive, spend all your mana, and then activate it. There is one very common mistake – it is reckless to spend all the mana, and then die humiliatingly. Do not do this. You are welcome.

Part 7. To gank or not to gank?

You may be asking yourself this question often.

Should I listen to my teammate? He feeds and says he can’t do anything in the lane, but I’m only level 3…

The answer is NO. Never listen to whining hardliners about how hard it is on the lane. If they ask you to gank before level 5/6, it means he doesn’t understand anything about this game.

7.1 It’s easier to list times when you should leave the lane and gank than the other way around:

– When you don’t have level 6 yet, but you have a good rune, like Haste, you see that the enemy has little hp left, and he won’t have time to leave.

– When you are level 6 or higher and you see that the enemies are crushing your team under the tower. Always carry with you  after reaching level 6 for such cases. A successful TP resulting in a double or triple kill is of great importance in the early game.

– When there is a fight near your lane and you are sure that you will get some experience and gold for killing/rescuing an ally.

– When your supports dewar and you are confident. That no one sees you go.

7.2 Why is level 6 so important?

Usually, the midder gets to level 6-7 before nightfall, and the first ones  disappear. Ganging enemies early, hoping they don’t have  ,  is very risky. If you take risks and lose, you lose time, experience, and money, while your opponent, on the contrary, gets it all. In the worst case, the enemy tri-lane will see you approaching the rune, set up an ambush, and even kill you.

If you get to level 6, gank successfully without using your ult yet – go back to the fountain, regen mana, then activate  and go back to kill the enemy carry again.

Part 8. Doublewaving, what is it, and how to use it?

Double wave is a strategy against melee heroes, low attack range heroes, and heroes that can be aggressive in the early game. Such a strategy can prove useful if you get to level 2 before your opponent.

For example:  vs

 It is usually assumed that  . By using this trick, you can get a significant advantage and even win a lane. By getting level 2 while  still level 1, you can run under the tower without the risk of taking damage, as well as avoiding harass easily.

So what is the essence of this strategy and how to use it?

When they say “double-wave” – ​​it means to accumulate a lot of creeps in your lane and start pushing the tower. At this time, you can safely harass the enemy, applying all the “aggro tricks” that you have learned (yes, they work on towers too) and denying your creeps while they are tanking the tower. Here is a video where I demonstrate this strategy with my friend:

There are a few things to keep in mind when doing this trick:

– Never give two ranged creeps to the enemy, in general, the first creep you killed should be the ranged creep – the lane no longer pushes and it’s easier for you to harass the enemy.

– Focus more on harassing the enemy than on getting last hits on the first pack of creeps. Then you can skip the timing.

– Use spells! Spells like  /  /  deal more damage to creeps compared to 4-5 hits from your hand. – Don’t push the lane too fast! If you kill the first pack of creeps before the second one arrives, you will just give the enemy a bunch of last hits and your plan will fail.

Part 9. Heavy matchup and what to do with them

If the heroes you get caught against in lane make you want to get out of the game. Remember that any hero can be killed “They took the OD. He is not countered by anything!”. From now on, this is not the case.

9.1 Play against

There are several strategies against  . One of the most impressive I’ve seen from Arteezy was when I played a  beater with a treant  hanging  from it.

Arteezy uses all the tricks he can to get his opponent out of the lane. His last hit under the tower is also flawless in this game. Despite the fact that he does not receive runes, he presses very well  and even got a frag with the help of a forest  .

9.2 Play against 

Against this hero, it is disgusting to stand against almost any midder. If you are not  ,  or  , there is not much you can do after he reaches level 3. When playing against  , don’t focus on farming. Your main goal is experience and rune control. Once you miraculously reach level 6, go gank and adjust to the current situation in the game. I suggest maxing out nukes that will help you last hit against him.

PS: if all else fails, there is always a good old gank to mid.

9.3 Playing against His is one of the nastiest spells in the game. You’re incredibly slow to turn, easy to harass, and constantly in the line of sight. I may not say anything new, but getting , every time you try to turn around, you get another 3-4 stacks at least. One of the biggest advantages of the lane is its animation speed. A good one last hits absolutely all creeps, but obviously doesn’t work on his allied creeps, so you have a chance to farm a bit. If you don’t give in to him in the lane, it will already be a good achievement for the team. Heroes that are pretty good against are , , and… !

Part 10: Everything you need to know to be a good midder

This chapter is devoted to little things that are too insignificant to be given a separate chapter for them. However, all together, they will give you a ton of knowledge that will come in handy.

10.1 Damage you can deal at level 6/7

For many, this may seem like overkill, but I have seen some pro players check the amount of hp before going to kill the enemy. It’s always better to know for sure than not to know.

Please note that only spell damage is calculated below. You can always add 1-4 auto attacks, which will add another 50-200 damage.

–  lvl 6: 432 dmg, lvl 7: 488 dmg (без  )

–  lvl 6 : 285 dmg ( +75 ), lvl 7 : 338 dmg ( +75 ) ( 75 – damage dealt  if torn apart).

–  lvl 6 : 439 dmg, lvl 7 : 495 dmg (not including  [ 40-120 dmg])

–  lvl 6: 312 dmg, lvl 7: 368 dmg

–  (  ,  , no boost  ) lvl 6 : 428 dmg, lvl 7 : 508 dmg

10.2 Dodging  with  /

When I died from not being able to wave, I decided to learn how to dodge each of the ticks  . One method is to count to three and Shift every time you’re about to take damage. But this way is not very good.

I memorized the icon  , also the status where each tick goes, and then went to  , right before the damage was supposed to be done. Here is a picture with lines showing when to use  to avoid damage.

10.3 Dodging  with  /  /  etc.

Also, as I described above, watch the icon to determine when you should blink or use the right item to evade. No matter where it is  , this will work:

 fires a bullet at the moment shown in the picture. Pay attention to the icon. Use your spell or  right at this moment to avoid damage.

10.4 Teleport from  without taking damage

Sometimes you have no chance of surviving combo  +  +  + auto-attack, especially if you broke the link in  .  breaks the coil even when you are already at the fountain, so this is not the best option. Or the best? If you wait until it  passes ½ (on the icon), you can safely TP to the fountain without taking additional damage. Everything from what  lasts 6 seconds, and TP takes 3 seconds.

10.5 Positioning the courier closer to mid

In DotA, every second counts. Sometimes the smallest things can win or lose a game, like a bottle arriving 0.5 seconds faster. I remember a puja killing me once, simply because my bottle arrived a quarter of a second later than it was supposed to. You can avoid these situations by placing the courier as close to the line as possible, while still keeping him within the radius of the store. Here’s what it looks like:

LIGHT

DARK

IMPORTANT NOTE!

So it is not recommended to set a career if there is a  . Sometimes they just TP on your fountain in the hope that you put the courier that way. Never take a courier outside the fountain, play against this hero!

10.6 Hotkeys for camera control

Camera control hotkeys help you check runes faster. In DotA 2, the console will allow you to bind the desired keys once and for all. To bind the camera to runes, you need to write the following commands in the console:

“bind “F5″ “dota_camera_setpos -2273.898682 1232.745483 982.072876” (Upper Rune)

“bind “F5″ “dota_camera_setpos 3035.773438 -2972.680176 966.072937” (Lower Rune)

10.7 Random Useful Facts

DotA is a complex game with some pretty complex mechanics, so even some DotA veterans might be surprised by their discoveries.

I have prepared a small list of random facts that you may find useful when you are solo mid:

1. Casting  at full strength requires only a 70% draw ( 0.7 s)

2. You need level 2 or more  to knock down  y  by placing  .  does not knock down her shield.

3. If someone is standing within 450 radius of your hero, you can hit them with all three coils

4. If it is problematic for you to determine when it  cancels the animation  , and when exactly it casts, buy it  . Every time he replenishes, you can be sure that he will accurately cast it.

5.  Gives a missed chance after a short amount of time. You can afflict it (not damage!) by using  or  immediately after taking damage.

6.  can be avoided. Use this to make First Blood (FB).

7. You can use  and  during  levels 1-3.

Part 11. Practice – how and why?

Support players say these two roles require the most practice. People who play hardliners and carries say the same thing about their roles. Not surprisingly, midders consider their role to be the most difficult, which requires experience. So how and with whom did I practice?

11.1 How to practice the mid-lane.

Create a lobby with who you will train with, enable cheats, only mid-mod, and start the game. It all depends on what you want to practice specifically:

– bottle abuse, no runes: in this case you should focus on using spells to farm;

– with runes, without bottle abuse: you train rune control, but your luck often matters here;

– with runes, with bottle abuse: luck does not mean so much anymore.

If you want, you can use cheats to give yourself 220 gold ( -gold 220 ) for. Some players like to practice with [item= Tango ] and  : type -gold 190 to start the game with a damage buy. Type –start game when both of you are ready so you don’t have to wait for the creeps to come.

11.2 Most common/interesting matchups:

1.  vs 

2.  vs 

3.  vs 

4.  vs 

5.  vs 

6.  vs 

7.  vs 

8.  vs 

9.  vs 

10.  vs 

11.3 What will practice the mid lane give you:

– You will master all the “aggro” skills that you read in this guide.

– You will become better at last hitting and “feeling” your hero. – It will be much easier and easier for you to abuse the bottle and control the runes. will play better than you.