Welcome back for Part 2 of DotA Techniques, Tips and Guides. In Part 1 I’ve explained about the early part of the game, which are getting a hero, buying items, entering the battlefield like a pro and meeting their hero. Part 2 is the most crucial part of the game, as it separates the pros from the newbies.

Farming Techniques

The ability to farm in any condition is extremely vital in a game of DotA. Not to be able to farm is extremely rare and usually people complain that they are unable to farm because they only click 100 times per game. I think I click more than 1000 times whenever I play a game of DotA, causing my Razer mouse to retire in just 2 years. Anyways back to farming, I will explain a few farming techniques you could use in the game.

Last Hit The Creeps/Tower

Almost 60% of the players I’ve seen do 90% of the damage on the creeps to get 10% of the gold. I on the other hand, do 10% of the damage on the creeps to earn 90% of the gold. Again there is no magic formula to this technique, what you do is …

1. Press alt and monitor the creeps with the lowest HP
2. Stay near to the lowest HP creeps
3. Hit it only when you think the creep’s HP is within the range of your damage and make sure you kill the creep.

This not only gives me more time to capitalize on my lane (I’ll explain more about this later), but also denying creeps and earn gold effectively.

Lure Enemy Creeps

I’m pretty sure you’re thinking about using a melee hero alone with 2 ranged hero. Yes that’s a bit harder but that is not an excuse to not to farm. In fact, given the luck and the chances, you have the upper hand to double kill both their heroes. However we’re talking about farming so we’ll leave killing heroes for later.

So every time you go near to a creep you will get nuked, that’s fine. You don’t go to the creeps, let the creeps come to you instead! To do that, simply click on attack at enemy hero and quickly withdraw from it. The creeps are programmed in such a way that when you target their hero, they will attack you.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to go near their hero because you might get your ass kicked for this. What you are actually doing is taking advantage of the creep system and provoking the creeps to you. This not only allow you to farm as a melee hero, it also draws their creep away from their hero.

AoE Skill Hero Advantage

I’ve seen many people who does not take advantage on the AoE skills during farming, even with heroes like Slayer, Stone Giant, Earthshaker, Invoker and so on that have double AoE skills. They tend to save the MP for their heroes, which I think it’s really unnecessary sometimes.

Have you heard phrases like “Savers are Losers”? Yes this also applies in DotA as well. The more you save your MP, the chances of you losing the game increases. So, spend those AoE skills (even non AoE skills when you’re desperate) on the creeps. Just don’t forget to have extra MP around to help you escape from enemy ambush.

Capitalizing On The Lane

The only way for you to farm stress free is to have control of your lane. This means letting the opponent fear your presence. A few aspects you will need to have control is

1. Control over your HP
2. Control over your opponent’s HP
3. Control over the creeps
4. Control over the environment (Forests, tower, enemy ambush, etc …)
5. Control over your skills
6. Control over your opponent’s skills

If you have control over all these 6 aspects. The lane will definitely be yours and farming any item shouldn’t be a big problem at all. However, it is extremely hard to control all these 6 aspects, even controlling 4 of them is good enough sometimes.

Dealing With Enemy Heroes

During bad times, you might not have control over any of the above aspects I’ve talked about. There are only 2 choices, switch lane with your teammates or deal with it.

I wouldn’t recommend switching lanes because this wastes you and your teammates farming opportunity. Personally I prefer to deal with the problem, unless your weakness is the opponent hero, eg. Meepo vs Lion.

It’s best to keep enemy HP less than 60% all the time. That way ambushing will be much easier if he has less HP and you don’t need to go through all the trouble to chase him. This can be easily done by ranged hero, so what happens if you’re using a melee hero?

You can’t hit the opponent, you can’t even go near them, you might get a few lucky hits that would not do much damage. However, the best thing to do would be to nuke them with your skills.

Dealing with enemy heroes is a really general thing, each player has their own unique style of dealing with this. So I strongly suggest you find your own method (not the suicide one) and stick to it.

Buying Item Guide (Farming Stage)

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, this same phrase applies to DotA as well. If you do not plan to buy your items properly, you will find it difficult to farm for the next item on your buying list.

An example would be, buying items in this order will lead you to no where.

1. Boots of Travel
2. Battlefury
3. Yasha & Sange

This is because Boots of Travel costs 2700 in total, with that extreme amount of gold, you only get an extra 90 movement speed. Movement speed can’t do any damage and does not earn you money. The better method would be

1. Battlefury
2. Yasha & Sange
3. Boots of Travel

Buying Battlefury first gives you Cleaving damage and extra 65 damage. With these amount of damage, you can easily earn your next 7200 either by farming or hero killing for your Yasha & Sange and Boots of Travel. Of course, you might wanna get Boots of Speed first before you get your Battlefury.

During the farming stage, there are buying criterias as well. I would recommend following this criteria according to it’s priority.

1. Damage (Ease of Farming)
2. MP Recovery
3. Movement Speed
4. HP Recovery
5. More Damage (Hero Killing)

Follow this criterias closely and you will find yourself earning money faster than before and farm better items than your solo-ing teammates or enemy.

My HP Is Red, Should I Run Or Should I Give Up And Die?

I’ve seen lots of DotA players that has tonnes of opportunity escaping with under 100 HP end up turning back just to do that 1 last hit before they die. I mean, let’s be really honest here, that’s called stupidity, what can 1 hit do if it does not kill the opponent?

So my answer to the question above would be “Run as intelligently as you can”. This does not ensure 100% success rate in escaping death, however this method definitely confuses the enemy and if you’re lucky you might even cheat death!

Too many times I’ve observe escaping players run straight (either backwards or forwards) to the end of their lives. I don’t run straight unless I have already cheated death. I prefer running up hills so that the fog covers me, or I run into the trees where the fog covers me as well. You will be amazed how funny things turn out when 2 or more enemy entered the same forest, it’s like entering a maze of confusion.

The best thing is if you have a Teleport Scroll or Boots of Travel, you can escape from 5 desperate opponents just by teleporting in the trees. Most of the time they will only found you out just to see the remains of your teleport. That is what I call cheating death.

I guess this is all for Dota Techniques. I hope you guys learned some of the insights from these 2 posts and would make into good use in a game of DotA. My advice would still be the same, do not leave any games. Leavers don’t learn, people who got pawned, called n00b in DotA learn 10 times more than any leavers. Think about how much you have missed leaving a game. Have fun DotA!

Mini DotA Wiki

Farming – A term gamers use to earn in-game money/gold usually by killing monsters or opponents.

HP – Hit Point

MP – Magic Point

Tankers – Heroes that have a nature to withheld a lot of damage in the battlefield.

Deny Creeps – Killing your own creeps so that opponent only earn 50% of the total experience.

Nuked – Damaged by enemy heroes either by magics or pure physical damage.

Defense of the Ancients, also known as DotA is a customized Warcraft III map that is extremely popular amongst players who doesn’t have a high end computer to play new games. Those players include myself, who’s an avid DotA gamer who plays DotA to spend free time.

I’ve been playing DotA since 2004 and I consider myself one of the best players out there. However, this game is all about teamplay and solo-ing in the game meant suicide. However, teamplay starts within every individual. That’s why this post will talk about DotA Techniques, Tips, Guides, Farming Methods and my 5 years of DotA experience and secrets that would enhance your individual DotA experience.

I Got a New Hero, what Should I Do?

New heroes are fun to play, but sometimes it takes awhile to get used to the hotkeys, skills and timing of each hit. However, I would strongly suggest anybody to read the spell description first before attempting to play the hero. Reading the description will allow you to have a thorough understanding over the skills you’re using and how much damage they can make.

After reading the spell descriptions, it’s time to buy your item, try not to level up a skill first (I know it’s tempting but bear with it for a sec).

Buying Item Guide (Early Stage)

Keep in mind that there’s a few criteria to pay attention to when using the first 850 gold.

1. HP Recovery
2. MP Recovery (For Int Hero)
3. Ease of Farming
4. Maximum Slot
5. Value Over Gold

1 = Highest Priority, 5 = Lowest Priority

Many DotA gamers don’t follow this method exactly and they just simply buy an Empty Bottle just to go out to the battle field, spend all three charges and run all the way back to refill it without farming enough money to buy an item. That is what I call wasting time, not playing a game of DotA.

My Item Buying Guide for Strength(STR) Hero

• Ring of Regeneration
• 2 x Gauntlets of Strength
• 3 x Ironwood Branch

My Item Buying Guide Agility(AGI) Hero

• Ring of Regeneration
• 2 x Slippers of Agility
• 3 x Ironwood Branch

My Item Buying Guide Intelligence(INT) Hero

• Ring of Basilius
• 2 x Ancient Tango of Essifation (3 usage each)
• The rest into Ironwood Branch

As you can see, my buying pattern follows all the 5 criteria above. For STR and AGI heroes, there is no need for MP during the early stages of the game, thus I’ll get the HP recovery item such as Ring of Regen, Gauntlets of Str/Slippers of Agi for damage (which equals to ease of farming) then I consider maximum slot and value over gold by buying 3 Ironwood Branches.

All these gives me an extra 9 damage, 3 str, 3 agi, 3 int and 2 hp/s before I even reach the battleground. With this I’ll have a head start over my opponents already.

For INT heroes, I will use lots of MP even in the early stage, that’s why Ring of Basilius is so important. Then I’ll go for HP regen items like Tango, 6 of them is more than enough, I usually use an average of 3 and sell the other 3 which I bought for rainy days. Then the rest into Ironwood Branch, which follows my criteria of “Value over Money”.

These buying methods are used for almost every hero, except for a few like Earthshaker, Beastmaster, Stone Giant, Soul Keeper, Axe, Centaur Warchief, Obsidian Destroyer and Keeper of the Light.

Earthshaker, Beastmaster & Stone Giant

I will go for Arcane Ring items for these 2 heroes because they are heavy users of MP. With these items I only need to farm 1000 gold for the Energy Booster to get Arcane Ring. After that I could just spam skill until I get Battlefury for these heroes.

• Arcane Ring Scroll
• Ring of Protection
• The rest into Ironwood Branches

Soul Keeper

This hero has Soul Steal that sucks HP out of opponent. So the equation is More MP = More HP, that’s why I’ll buy Ring of Basilius for him.

• Ring of Basilius
• 1 x Slipper of Agility
• The rest into Ironwood branch

With this build I can easily fend off 2 opponents in early game even while soloing a lane. There are chances of double killing them as well.

Axe & Centaur Warchief

These heroes are tankers, they need items to fend of attacks or else they wouldn’t stand a chance in the battlefield. Thus …

• Stout Shield
• Ring of Regeneration
• Tango or Ironwood Branch

Obsidian Destroyer & Keeper of the Light

Obsidian Destroyer has to be a farmer early game and Keeper of the Light has Chakra Magic to replenish MP. That’s why they don’t need Ring of Basilius. So I’ll focus more on “HP Regeneration” and “Ease of Farming” criteria.

• Ring of Regeneration
• 2 x Mantle of Intelligence
• The rest into Ironwood Branch

Note that these are just items are learned after years of playing All Random and All Pick games. These builds might have been different when playing a tournament and I don’t play in tournaments since I don’t have many friends who are really good at DotA.

Alright, I’ve done getting all my equipments, it’s time to standby for battle.

Entering The Battlefield

Most players would rush into the “meeting point” right after they bought their items. However, to ensure safer start to the game, I would want my creeps (monsters) to be as close to my tower as possible. This is to prevent ambush by opponents.

There is no method to delay the spawning of the creeps, however there’s the method to block them while they are running towards the meeting point. Sentinel creeps are much easier to block than scourge ones, that’s why scourge would always be at a disadvantage.

As almost every single DotA players would know, there are three routes to the battlefield, usually called Top, Middle and Bottom. Every single one of them has distinctive forests and it is wise to know the inside out of the forests. A really good one would be the furthest sentinal tower at the bottom. There is actually a U shaped route behind the tower lie inside the forest. If a scourge member went into the forest in early game, chances of him dying is almost 90%.

I Met Their Hero

Great, still remember the free skill point earlier where I said not to use it? Use it now depending on your circumstances. During bad days, there’s the chances of bumping into two ranged heroes that are good enough to prevent you from farming. And there are good days where your opponents are melee heroes.  This is where you’ll spend your skill wisely.

An example would be sniper opposing a melee hero. There’s no need to level “Take Aim” when melee opponents can’t even reach you. Level “Headshot” instead and deal more damage.

Another example would be Moonfang. I would usually level “Lunar Blessing” for ease of farming. However if your opponent is a sniper or a far ranged hero. You will not have the chance to use the extra damage. That is when you will level “Lucent Beam” first, to kill creeps or to damage your opponents hoping that they will go back home to give you a break.

This is all for Part 1. In the next part I will talk into more detailed about Farming, Capitalizing your lane and many more. So stay tuned by subscribing to our RSS feed so you won’t miss out.

Before I end here I’d like to give an advice as a veteran DotA player.
Don’t ever leave a game. Leavers are players who don’t improve. Even with 3 lanes broken there are still chances of winning. Play until the Tree of Life or the Throne breaks.

Mini DotA Wiki

Farming – A term gamers use to earn in-game money/gold usually by killing monsters or opponents.

HP – Hit Point

MP – Magic Points

Tankers – Heroes that have a nature to withheld a lot of damage in the battlefield.