General Discussionhow to improve my game

judging by your stats, you're a carry player
as you already said, "fuck it I want this kill" sometimes is not worth it, trading a carry for a sup is not a good idea

Generally, anything you can do to help your team be more cohesive will make you a better player. You have four teammates, but there is only one of you. If you can slightly improve the quality of your team play, it will be stronger than a large increase in your own "ability to play your hero" skill level.

There is a common attitude in pubs of "Let me play my own hero". This is destructive to a team, since co-ordination is everything. Communicate early and often about items, how you want engagements to go, who should farm and where.

Another simple thing is to be polite and be positive. Both of these will have a strong impact on your ability to not lose games which are winnable. You know those games where everything seemed lost, but you pulled it together and won? Those games are much more common when you have a communicative and supportive team. If someone trolls your teammates, try to moderate the trolling with some positive comments. What your teammates say and do affects you.

I guess both of you are right in many ways. I hate to say this but I really need more specific advise like you could win the lane if you salve even though the salve will only heal 300hp or even though u made a kill this was very risky as you don't know if the rubick is rotating to mid at this very moment. I say this because your advises are really general, but still much appreciated.

I would like to give you specifics, but I am on a boat, and unable to download a large patch.

The reason why I talked about the general things is because your earlier post seemed hyper-focused on what I'll call "craft", when you're asking how to raise your "skill". To know how to raise your skill you need to know what skill is, and the way you asked your question leads me to believe you're focusing on the wrong aspects of winning.

Your skill level is how much you are able to affect the outcome of a game.

I've played with many players who are better than me at "craft", and don't understand how we can be in the same "skill" bracket. How much you die, your kills/deaths, your farm, ext don't matter at all. The only thing that matters is can you win games. Your skill level is only really based on one thing, and that is how able are you to affect the outcome of a game.

The easiest way to change the outcome of a game is proper tactics and good team coordination.

Improving your "craft" is relatively easy. Every time you play a hero you get better. If you watch pro games, they have the "craft" of Dota nearly perfected.

Improving your "skill" is harder, because it's difficult to know when you've been successful. Some games will be lost, it is inevitable, and sometimes there will be nothing you can do. But in most games there is a way to win, and you need to find it. In games where you are winning you need to secure the win, games which you are losing you need to organize a turnaround.

Sorry I can't be more specific about your ability to play certain heroes. Just remember that winning your lane is different than winning the game.

I wrote an essay on winning at Dota 2. It was mostly uncompleted, but I feel like there is a lot of strategy written for meta-game, and very little written about pub play: Here is a section of the essay which may help improve your ability to teamwork with bad teammates. Feel free not to read it, it's fairly long.

Chapter 2: Teamworking with Jerks

Every once in a while in public games you get teamed up with someone who is a terrible teammate. There are many different types of terrible teammates, and if you want to be a “Dota Pub Pro”, you have to learn how to deal with them to maximize your chance of putting up the big W (win). The main key is to be respectful, and don’t harass your teammates without a clear objective.

If you’ve played enough games, you’ve been all of the players below at one time or another. I try to explain the psychology that causes people to fall into these roles, and then propose a few ideas on how to deal with them. A large number of these problems are caused by “tunnel vision”, not seeing the game as it truly is, but a distorted view of your teams position and chance of winning.

Most of these problem teammates will disappear, or become much more reasonable as your skill level goes up and you are matched against better players. Unfortunately you will have to wade through this filth to get to the top.

The Feeder:
If a player is doing very poorly, absolutely do not harass them. Everyone has had bad games, try to figure out why that player is having trouble, and come up with a solution to allow them to be successful or at the very least mitigate their failing.

Be positive, and be sure to inform them the game isn’t necessarily “GG”. If they disengage from the game through leaving, feeding, or despondency (not teamworking) your chances of winning go down precipitously. If another teammate is harassing them, try to deflect that criticism and shut it down. Picking on the weakest members of your team is the easiest way to lose a game, even if your team had a fair shot of winning.

All players, to some extent, have tunnel vision. You see the game from the perspective of your hero, and if you’re dying a lot it may feel like your team is losing, even if the numbers don’t back that up. If you harass a teammate who feels like the game is already lost, you may end up causing them to throw the game. As bad as someone is doing, they can always do worse if they try.

Switch the feeder’s lane up or have him jungle, and PREVENT HUNTING. The enemy team will often target your weak player for ganks. Be sure your feeder is well warded, and watch out for ganks on him. If they don’t have good map awareness, you need to be their map awareness.
If you absolutely cannot stop the guy from dying with the above changes, it is time for FIVE MAN DOTA. Get five, and try to catch them off guard. As a general rule, you can’t outfarm fed. By that I mean that regardless of how well you’re farming, if they are farming just as well while also being fed by one of your teammates, they are going to out gold and out xp you.

The Farmer:
This guy won’t stop farming. You’re losing towers, teamfights, maybe even a Rax, and this dude is just farming away in the jungle. His priorities are screwed up, but he’s pretty sure that if he can just get that radiance, everything is going to be different and he can turn this one around. Or maybe your team is in a dominant position, and your farmer is scrapping your chance of ending the game while you are. It could be that you just wiped their team and instead of getting the Rax he runs off into the jungle to kill a few Saytrs so he can get the Yasha he truly needs. He is a munchkin, all about his items, his build. His priority isn’t the win, it is leveling up and acquiring sweet items. This might be the hardest teammate to work with, because he’s usually too busy farming to communicate. If you steal that Wildkin from him in the jungle he may just leave.

With this teammate, you have three options:

1. The easiest is to let him farm, and have the rest of the team try to hold down the fort and play ultra-defensive. If he’s a good farmer, maybe he’ll be a better teamworker later in the game and you can win off the strength of his farm. This is only a good option if your team has better late game than them.

2. Verbally harass him into getting with the team. This can backfire, and cause you to lose. If you’re going to lose anyway without him, it may be worth the coinflip. Take into account his player name. Farmers are very often Chinese or Brazilian. If they don’t speak English they aren’t going to know what a “Douchebag” is.

3. Follow them. Literally put your hero to follow them around wherever they go. Try to convince the rest of the team to follow you. The theory behind this being: “if you can’t get him to join the team, get the team to join him”. Call it the “pwn train”, and say “all aboard the pwn train!” This can generate excitement for teamwork.

“Big Man Syndrome”: This dude is 15-3, he’s got sick farm., but he’s got the Big Man Syndrome. He can’t understand why everyone else on the team sucks. Can’t you tell he is the best?! He’s got the most kills for deaths, which is the only possible metric of a players worth. You need to let him know this isn’t Quake: Deathmatch.

Players who are doing well have a tendency towards recklessness. This is due to success, which breeds unnecessary risk taking.

One of the only times I advocate harassing a teammate is one who is doing so well that their tunnel vision tells them the game is won. Since they feel like the game is already in hand, they don’t mind taking stupid risks. It is important to inform these people that the game is not won, and to let them know that the team can and will lose if they continue their reckless behavior. Sometimes putting them on follow, like you would do to The Farmer can work, but it is unlikely. Someone with Big Man Syndrome is going to lead the team into very disadvantageous combats. They’ll dive towers, blink strike way ahead of everyone and get pwnt, or some other nonsense.

It’s usually best to try to convince them to wait until the team gets in a fight, and then they come in after. Tell them it is because we need them to survive the combat, which will play to their ego.

“Big Man Syndrome” in cinema: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q86Rn4jETVk

The Bitch: Your team wants to push and your Centaur is hiding behind Witch Doctor. Witch Doctor backs up to position himself behind Centaur, and Centaur then also backs up to go behind WD again. You’ve got a The Bitch on your team!

Boom, Warlock drops the ulti, Axe blinks in and berserker's call. Your Drow shadow blades and runs away. Oh no, what can we do with The Bitch?

The problem with this player, is that they aren’t fulfilling the role of the hero they are playing. It is most often displayed in tanks and carries, who aren’t used to playing such heroes. It can also be seen in lane supports who don’t assert their early strength and allow their carry lane partner to have a chance of farming. They show a chronic lack of aggression that costs your team big.
You need to honestly and sincerely tell them that they need to step up their aggression. They’re generally rational, and not necessarily doing poorly. They may have had a weak early game, but if you can show them some success with a good gank or teamfight, they might just grow a pair of balls.

Mr. Doomsday:
He’s 0-3 at 4 minutes and he’s saying “GG”, their team is too fed. Maybe he scrubbed out last game, and he’s bringing that negativity through to this game. You try to explain that no game is “GG” in 4 minutes, it isn’t necessarily over, to no avail.

Try addressing his concerns:

“This PL is getting to FAT”. He might be right, gank that PL.

“This lane is bonkers, I’m getting hosed” Re-arranging the lanes can create better matchups, create gank opportunities, and throw the other team out of the routine they are in. Different lane composition is generally going to have to cause the enemy team to change their strategy. If they can’t organize that change they may end up falling flat on their faces.

“My lane partners is a total nub”. Sometimes two decent players won’t have any synergy. Maybe one is slightly over aggressive and one is slightly under aggressive. If they were matched with players with a similar play style, they would be stronger in lane. Re-arranging the lanes can do more than fix bad enemy hero matchups, it can create better player matchups on your team.

“We’re going to lose”. Try to give them an accurate statement of how your team is doing. Explain that another lane is winning with your hard carry in it, or that you have better late game, or that you have better teamfight. Lay out your plan for how your team is going to win, and try to implement it.

“Mr. Doomsday” in cinema: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgq0ecMHfzc

The Kid:
This person is probably 12 years old, and you’re not sure exactly why they are upset, but now they are deliberately feeding because of some transgression against them. There is virtually no way to deal with this person. Sometimes you just got to let it go and report them. Maybe try to five man on them, telling them they’re the team leader. If everyone follows what they say, it may pull them back into the fold. If someone else made the perceived indefensible transgression, usually a kill steal or something stupid, then tell them not to ruin the game for you, who hasn’t done anything wrong. The Kid is the antithesis of reason, so trying discuss options with them may be an irrelevant exercise.

quit dota 2
become very high bracket in real life

I'm in the top 10% of real life, but I'm starting to think the game is rigged ;)

pretty long read, but informative. anyway lately I got carried by my teammates. damn it feels bad

The bitch player is by far the worst

Very nice essay T.B. Well written, concise, smart psychology, all content, all correct. I could not have done better.

Relentless hater :D

Great post very informative. There is probably nothing more satisfying than winning a game with Mr. Doomsday :D ( or being mr. doomsday feelsbadman)