If you have all the lanes pushed at the enemy T3s (tier 3 towers) and you are farming the entire map and are even able to take Roshan then you have beat the enemy, now just don't blow it yourself. If its still dangerous to finish off the T3 because you are taking a lot of damage from the enemy while you chip away at the T3 then play safe. Farm up your next big item. Get something to either turn a team fight in your favor or to make those T3s melt.
Desolator and Shiva's Guard are both good items on almost any type of hero. Shiva's active ability will certainly give your team a big advantage in team fights as well as great stats for the hero who carries it while Desolator will make those T3s melt after your hard hitting heroes hack at them. These items are not necessary to take down the T3s but are nice and there are other good items as well. Whatever you go with make sure that it always at least either makes your hero more dangerous either by becoming harder to kill or easier to get kills with.
Once that first tier 3 goes down make sure everyone available focuses on the melee barracks (rax for short) first. Its far most important to take down the melee rax than the ranged rax. If you can take them both in one go, go for it. If you have to back after taking the melee rax or even just after taking the T3 then go ahead and do that. The goal at this point is not to try to end the game within some time limit, just play safe and secure your lead and get your win.
Often times you'll hear the enemy call gg (good game, meaning they are saying the game is over) or ff (finish fast, meaning they want you to finish the game fast). You may even hear them say they will just stay in the fountain so you can end the game quicker. Don't get ahead of yourself. Always assume that they are lying and will pounce on you when they see you out of position.
Its quite difficult to know exactly how far ahead of your opponent you are and it could be that a team wipe on their end is enough to wipe away the lead you had and either extend the game to great length or even put the win within their grasp. This can not be stressed enough, play hard until the ancients are completely destroyed. Even if your own team says not to worry, play safe and secure yourself that win.
You may get flamed (by BOTH teams) but you shouldn't worry about that. Nothing is worse than giving up a sure win so just ignore whatever abuse is dealt to you and systemically destroy the enemy base. Remember, you need to take out the T3, melee rax and then ranged rax. Then its best to rotate to another T3 tower and take that down. Again you'll want to take the rax down and in the same order.
Always take down the melee rax before the ranged rax. Most of the time a wave of creeps contains 3 melee creeps and one ranged creep. If you take down the melee rax in a lane you get super melee creeps which will give that a huge push as all three melee creeps get buffed. If you take down the ranged rax its only the one ranged creep that gets buffed. Go For Melee Rax!
Pro Tip: The melee rax passively regens hp but the ranged rax does not so make sure to have everyone focus on that melee rax. There is no point in taking them down at the same time, just try with everyone you have to take down the melee rax. The advantage to taking down a melee rax is almost as good as having taken down both. If you take down a melee rax and there is another melee rax exposed (exposed meaning the tier 3 tower guarding it has already been destroyed) you may want to just leave the ranged rax be and rotate to focus down the melee rax in the other lane. Being up 2 melee rax is far better than being up both rax in the same lane.
Once you've taken down the third T3 and final set of rax your creeps will be able to easily tank the T4 and you can finish it off along with the ancients. There is almost no point in the game where taking down a tower is worth your life. You'll see it often, "Well I died but at least I almost got the tower down!". This is terrible, even if the tower went down its probably not a good trade.
During all of this make sure to play safe. If you need to head back to heal or replenish mana then go ahead. If the entire enemy team is dead and will not respawn for some time and you don't see them buying back then hit away at whatever buildings you can while they have not respawned.
One important thing to always keep in mind is that the game is NOT about kills. You don't ever take those with you. The only important stat at the end is whether you won or lost. So do not ever camp the enemy fountain. Even if they were very rude, mean or even cruel the best revenge is to simply win with a commanding victory. If you were to die just once after slaughtering their entire team there are still many players who will take that as a small victory in itself.
So do not camp the fountain, do not dive the fountain. You have very little if anything to gain and you can have everything if you simply push to win the game.
Get Your Farm!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
How To Better Take Down That Tier 3 Tower
One thing you should always keep in mind is that its much easier to take a tier 1 than a tier 2 tower and its much easier to take a tier 2 than a tier 3 tower. And yet, they will all give your entire team gold when destroyed. This gold will help you eventually take out those tier 3 towers so its always better to make sure all the tier 1 and tier 2 towers are destroyed before you try to destroy a tier 3 tower.
Pro Tip: Try to get the last hit on a tower if there are no enemy heroes around. This will give you the same amount of reliable gold that all members of your team usually earns plus a bonus ~150 gold to you specifically for the last hit. Keep in mind that rax only give a bounty if you last hit.
Something I see quite often when my team is ahead and wants to take the tier 3 is that they are all grouped up in front of the tower just out of its attack range waiting for the next creep wave to tank the tower.
Now its definitely a good idea to wait for the creeps as the tower will passively regen if you attack it with none of your creeps around and while you might be able to overcome that regen with massive damage you'll be tanking the tower yourself and it'll probably be an inefficient trade of your hp for the tower hp.
If you've already taken down all the tier 1 towers and all the tier 2 towers but you are just chipping away at a single tier 3 tower you should push all the other lanes so that the creeps are pushing the enemy tier 3 tower in every single lane. Far too often I've seen enemy creeps alone take down one of our own towers as our team desperately chips away at a tier 3 before the entire enemy team pounces to defend.
This is a huge mistake. We made it this far in the game and are knocking at their base because of our level and gold advantage. If we are losing towers while simply chipping away at a tier 3 we are giving up our gold advantage and allowing the enemy to better defend their base. If any of the lanes are pushed close to any of our towers a single hero could push the lane out and against the enemy base. This protects our towers, secures our map control AND that hero is racking up creep waves of gold and experience to tack onto our advantage.
If all three lanes are pushed against the enemy base and we can still not do significant damage to any tier 3 tower in a decent amount of time then we've probably won but just haven't farmed enough. At this point we could be farming our own jungle, the enemy jungle and each of the three lanes. There is easily enough farm for all of our heroes in this case. In this scenario you really have already won the game, its just a matter of time before the game officially ends.
If all three lanes are pushed and you're able to farm the jungles well and the tier 3 tower is not coming down fast then you should definitely try to kill Roshan if he is available. The aegis of immortality is a great boon and may be just what's needed to effectively take the high ground. If nothing else it is better to have than just leave be.
Do not suicide with the Aegis but do try to bait out enemy nukes and stuns while within a one or a maximum of two screens distance from the rest of your team. If the enemy was able to focus down your team mate and burn the Aegis your team should still be able to jump in and take the on as their most valuable abilities will be on cooldown.
Get Your Farm!
Pro Tip: Try to get the last hit on a tower if there are no enemy heroes around. This will give you the same amount of reliable gold that all members of your team usually earns plus a bonus ~150 gold to you specifically for the last hit. Keep in mind that rax only give a bounty if you last hit.
Something I see quite often when my team is ahead and wants to take the tier 3 is that they are all grouped up in front of the tower just out of its attack range waiting for the next creep wave to tank the tower.
Now its definitely a good idea to wait for the creeps as the tower will passively regen if you attack it with none of your creeps around and while you might be able to overcome that regen with massive damage you'll be tanking the tower yourself and it'll probably be an inefficient trade of your hp for the tower hp.
If you've already taken down all the tier 1 towers and all the tier 2 towers but you are just chipping away at a single tier 3 tower you should push all the other lanes so that the creeps are pushing the enemy tier 3 tower in every single lane. Far too often I've seen enemy creeps alone take down one of our own towers as our team desperately chips away at a tier 3 before the entire enemy team pounces to defend.
This is a huge mistake. We made it this far in the game and are knocking at their base because of our level and gold advantage. If we are losing towers while simply chipping away at a tier 3 we are giving up our gold advantage and allowing the enemy to better defend their base. If any of the lanes are pushed close to any of our towers a single hero could push the lane out and against the enemy base. This protects our towers, secures our map control AND that hero is racking up creep waves of gold and experience to tack onto our advantage.
If all three lanes are pushed against the enemy base and we can still not do significant damage to any tier 3 tower in a decent amount of time then we've probably won but just haven't farmed enough. At this point we could be farming our own jungle, the enemy jungle and each of the three lanes. There is easily enough farm for all of our heroes in this case. In this scenario you really have already won the game, its just a matter of time before the game officially ends.
If all three lanes are pushed and you're able to farm the jungles well and the tier 3 tower is not coming down fast then you should definitely try to kill Roshan if he is available. The aegis of immortality is a great boon and may be just what's needed to effectively take the high ground. If nothing else it is better to have than just leave be.
Do not suicide with the Aegis but do try to bait out enemy nukes and stuns while within a one or a maximum of two screens distance from the rest of your team. If the enemy was able to focus down your team mate and burn the Aegis your team should still be able to jump in and take the on as their most valuable abilities will be on cooldown.
Get Your Farm!
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Defend Your Ancients And Destory The Enemy Ancients
One thing to always keep in mind is that you are supposed to destroy the enemy ancient and not let yours get destroyed. By far the most difficult part of this is taking the high ground at the tier 3 towers. Once you've done this the game becomes much easier to win. At the same time, you definitely do not want to ever lose the high ground at your base, your defeat is right around the corner from there.
If you don't understand any of this so far, you'll be fine. Just keep in mind that everything you do should be towards getting farm so that you can more easily take the tier 3 tower and you should always defend any of your tier 3 towers. The only reason you would not immediately drop whatever you are doing to protect a tier 3 tower is if you are already attacking the enemy ancients.
So why do you need farm to do this? Its the nature of how the tier 3 works. Its uphill, its powerful and its very close to then enemy base so if they get hurt they can fairly quickly be at full hp again. Remember, there is a 25% miss chance when attacking uphill. So to take that tier 3 tower you must have quite a large advantage over the enemy as they have the tower, the extra durability from your miss chance and a fountain close by.
One form of advantage is a level advantage and while a level advantage is great for hero kills, it does not do much against a tower. You will need items to be able to take down that tier 3 and you must buy items with gold you've accumulated up to this point. Just for future reference, the single best type of item you could have would be something that would lowers the armor of the tower and both desolator and assault cuirass can lower the armor on buildings, including that tier 3 tower.
Still, any item that is good for your hero will probably help you eventually take down that tier 3 tower. You should be more focused on simply getting a gold (and by extension item) advantage over the enemy. Just getting beefier and hitting harder will go a ways with fighting the enemy under that tier 3 tower.
Get Your Farm!
If you don't understand any of this so far, you'll be fine. Just keep in mind that everything you do should be towards getting farm so that you can more easily take the tier 3 tower and you should always defend any of your tier 3 towers. The only reason you would not immediately drop whatever you are doing to protect a tier 3 tower is if you are already attacking the enemy ancients.
So why do you need farm to do this? Its the nature of how the tier 3 works. Its uphill, its powerful and its very close to then enemy base so if they get hurt they can fairly quickly be at full hp again. Remember, there is a 25% miss chance when attacking uphill. So to take that tier 3 tower you must have quite a large advantage over the enemy as they have the tower, the extra durability from your miss chance and a fountain close by.
One form of advantage is a level advantage and while a level advantage is great for hero kills, it does not do much against a tower. You will need items to be able to take down that tier 3 and you must buy items with gold you've accumulated up to this point. Just for future reference, the single best type of item you could have would be something that would lowers the armor of the tower and both desolator and assault cuirass can lower the armor on buildings, including that tier 3 tower.
Still, any item that is good for your hero will probably help you eventually take down that tier 3 tower. You should be more focused on simply getting a gold (and by extension item) advantage over the enemy. Just getting beefier and hitting harder will go a ways with fighting the enemy under that tier 3 tower.
Get Your Farm!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Game Is Hard So Learn And Play Better
You need a decent idea of the relative strengths and weaknesses of over 110 heroes and over 120 items before you start to feel comfortable in games but at this point you will still be terrible, you'll just be able to understand what exactly is happening around you. The goal of l2play is to help get you going sooner. Anywhere else, you'll hear a lot of people answer questions with something along the lines of "its situational". Not here, just keep in mind that EVERYTHING IS SITUATIONAL (first and last time I say it) but anything shared here should be taken as a hard rule until you've gained enough experience to to know what to do on your own.
You won't learn everything you need to here but you'll be able to follow a broad sort of formula to help you get better down the road. You'll also learn some tips and tricks that you can immediately apply to your games to get that win rate in the black.
l2play is directed towards lower tier players who want to contribute more to their teams and are willing to practice to get better. This game is quite difficult and I do not believe you can get any better by just playing more games or watching others play. You need to learn, practice and constantly analyze each area of play.
It sounds like more work than play but there is no sweeter feeling than knowing you won because you simply outplayed your opponent. Where other games are like playing and winning at blackjack, DOTA 2 is like playing and winning at chess. While blackjack still requires some strategy, its far more fulfilling to win a well played game of chess. Like chess, you must study the game. You need to know at least the pieces, the moves and all the openings, mid games and end games you can cram into your brain. You still won't be a pro but if you practice like one you'll get better faster than the average player you meet.
Most important key to winning games:
Get Your Farm!
You won't learn everything you need to here but you'll be able to follow a broad sort of formula to help you get better down the road. You'll also learn some tips and tricks that you can immediately apply to your games to get that win rate in the black.
l2play is directed towards lower tier players who want to contribute more to their teams and are willing to practice to get better. This game is quite difficult and I do not believe you can get any better by just playing more games or watching others play. You need to learn, practice and constantly analyze each area of play.
It sounds like more work than play but there is no sweeter feeling than knowing you won because you simply outplayed your opponent. Where other games are like playing and winning at blackjack, DOTA 2 is like playing and winning at chess. While blackjack still requires some strategy, its far more fulfilling to win a well played game of chess. Like chess, you must study the game. You need to know at least the pieces, the moves and all the openings, mid games and end games you can cram into your brain. You still won't be a pro but if you practice like one you'll get better faster than the average player you meet.
Most important key to winning games:
Get Your Farm!
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