Focus on about 2-3 heroes that cover you so that you can pick around your team and aren't role/lane confined. Lich is a really good place to start but I would like to offer a couple of suggestions to your hero pool.
New Hero Pool:
Support:
1. Lich, should be your first go to option as the hero is low skill cap, high impact so great at excelling with him.
2. Treant Protector, with the additional Aghanims upgrade this hero is a very choosy pick along with the healing he provides.
3. Abaddon, a very strong support that can sustain players in team fights, and can make "killing the solo support" hard to do.
4. Witch Doctor, is really weak and easy to take down but this also comes with a very good support with massive kill potential.
**Shadow Shaman is quite tricky to pull off effectively and requires decent coordination from the team to not become food for the enemy, if you're going to play this hero effectively you need to learn to utilize blink dagger more. I would not suggest you play windrunner as a support anymore as she doesn't provide enough lane protection though she can provide good harass, but if she goes down at your tower none of your skills lend themselves to protecting anyone other than yourself.
Tank:
1. Undying, not really a tank and you need to understand how to work the hero right. He isn't a tank and is (IMO) almost a dot hero, increasing in durability and weakening the enemies the longer he can stay in the fight but this doesn't mean he is a natural damage shield in the same way Axe or Centaur is. Take my last game with him http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/867600454 pretty much zero damage or spell block but I was still able to utilize my decays and tombstone to keep me alive and killing in fights.
Carry:
1. Void, currently massively strong and even with not so great farm you can still help your team setup kills with chronosphere.
2. Viper, a lot more durable then your average farming carry with the ability to scale well into late game should the early game go good.
3. Juggernaut, once of the best heroes consistently throughout the game and you can start pushing or killing quite early with him.
4. Razor, perhaps a little more tricky but a pretty tough carry who is solid in team fights and pushing. Build like you would Viper.
OD isn't really a good carry hero and relies on the levels he gets from mid to help him, he is a strong hero with high damage output just not really a hero you want sitting in your safelane. Bloodseeker has been buffed and is quite strong but the countless failures I see with this hero at even my level would put me off suggesting you play him as you really have to have your head screwed on right or you can end up just being that carry that took all the farm but did nothing. The same goes for PL really and both him and Bloodseeker are good options with practice from stacking with reliable team mates first who can pick up your slack while you work it out.
.....PA is still an option but I have seen way too many 2K PA's to like where this will lead. Rant #2 over.
So I have heard but the actual use or extent of it is unknown to me so "There are probably better items to get on OD than Sceptre....just a thought." it was more a suggestion as on this I am neither in the know or an OD player but yes I think you may be right that Sceptre has become a decent buy on him.
Pick like 3 heroes to try and get good with. Here are the easiest to play ones in my view, strong guys you can focus on getting good with.
Tiderhunter - good when you need an offlane or team disable. Not good as solo support as he needs to farm blink fast = no warding early. Pretty easy to play cus he is tanky and has and can farm with anchor.
Necrophos - super easy to play, he only has two active skills. Needs farm but not as farm dependant as many carrys. Just getting a mek makes you formidable at min 10. Easy to farm with with sadist and his nuke. Great pick for any team that needs carries or push and already has some disables but watch out for his hard counter in AA.
PA - pretty easy carry. I mean you need farm but all you do in fights is spam dagger and blink strike so mechanically not hard to learn.
In my opinion the best way to main a hero is by first understanding what u r good at (compared to other roles/aspects). Mostly strong solo mid snowballing heroes r trends nowdays and with them u can have a huge enough impact to take over the game or fail trying.
As for me i always played with bad irl friends that usually r in the lower brackets so despite me wanting to play carries/offlanes it came naturally that i wanted a hero who could be strong in all stages of the game so that i could capitalize the win, for me it was QOP and has gonne pretty well so far. IDK some say TA is strong tho i belive she has alot of hole to exploit that will leave her vurnerable. Meepo is a good mmr grinder, TB aswell. Tho all in all is about feeling good with the hero, no matter if he is strong or weak in the paper if u feel good as in feel u can wreck stuff with that hero, than thats the one, and stick to it even on counterpickers u will become proficient enough to keep stayin strong no matter how much they try. And trust me dude theres no better feelin on accomplishment when u win against counterpickers or when u carry ur whole team from the begining to the end.
PA an easy carry? I'd say that while she's conceptually simple there's nothing simple about the way she has to plan her attacks. Most noob players have little clue about this. You can easily spot them, they blink on you and cut you down to half health in a sec. Then you eul them, get some distance, stun/silence/slow and start right-clicking. They start to run away but die in the retreat because they have no friendly close to blink to.
@Havoc Badger After two matches with lich, I realise he is versatile but he can't really fight from behind a deficit.
Last match by the 20th minute I was the only one you hadn't died, others have died 6-9 times, bara was charge wherever there were people, rikki was literally running around invis until he got low-health chaser op, and dragon knight fed like crazy.
If I was WR I could have lured them away with harass and divert attention from the others. lich has no real harass and no disable reliable or otherwise, so how do I fight from behind when enemy heroes aren't grouping together??
as a guy who calibrated super trash at 1650 and currently up to 2800 i know where you are. my advice is don't insta pick anything if you can help it If you insta pick a carry your team will probably pick another 2-3 of them <3
for carries might i suggest Weaver and WK both are hard to kill with the right items and both can be pretty fun. People down ere in trench don't often even try to chain stun they usually throw everything at the first guy they see so as a WK that can benefit your team massively especially with blade mail. Weaver is hard to kill and can hit like a truck once you get linkens or bkb and his ulti means you pretty much get a second life. Also weaver can make a nice offlaner and wk an emergency support if your team screws you over with their pics.
Silencer is also a nice pick as you can fit into various roles depending on what your team picks. You can support with him and if your carry sucks or starts roaming a lot you can just take the farm and turn semi carry with the int gain from enemy deaths (also nothing more satisfying than seeing a void jump into the middle of your 4 team mates then cry as you global silence before he can chrono :D
Edit Also i love WR :D WR is really fun but not so effective as others :(
Hello, i've ranked from 2180 to 3700 and still rising, i started dota 2 some months ago and im far from beeing pro, but i got a very decent winrate (65% in ranked, 57% overall)
For me the trick was picking 4-5 heroes that were strong in the current version and that can handle any situation you get thrown into, but you gotta master those 4-5 heroes and know exactly when to pick who, only then learn other heroes.
I would recommend to pick certain heroes that counter those that will be picked a lot.. think how to counter spectre, pl, omni, etc.. most people see their winrates and start picking them, you gotta be 1 step ahead of them if you want to win.
For example, last version i used lycan to fuck with void, axe to fuck with lycan , necro to fuck axe, omni to fuck necro, and void to kill them all since he was op, unless they picked lycan in wich case -> say hello to axe.
The new version is fresh and im still trying to find a set of heroes that worked like that but in this version.
Lich is a support with little damage outside of his ult, so yes, it is hard to carry a team from behind. What you are trying to do on lich is win the lane by a lot. With sacrifice and limitless Q spam he should really hurt the xp gain of the other team, push them out of lane. Then your carry farms and you go on to win, as well as having really good team fight presence.
For PA, bkb. If you can consistently farm up your boots, dominator/drums and a bkb quickly you will do well. She doesn't need tons of farm if you get those three items to fight early and you'll find her pretty easy. If you suck at last hitting in lane she's probably not for you.
@Dipshit How does perceived irregular movement patterns = Don't use vision ?
Do I need to list absolutely everything that high 2k/low 3k players do/don't do? Was using another example too much for you?
^ You haven't answered my question. What rank are you in? :D
Dude there's this really cool hero called Terrorblade.
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/928124795 There are probably better items to get on OD than Sceptre....just a thought.
Focus on about 2-3 heroes that cover you so that you can pick around your team and aren't role/lane confined. Lich is a really good place to start but I would like to offer a couple of suggestions to your hero pool.
New Hero Pool:
Support:
1. Lich, should be your first go to option as the hero is low skill cap, high impact so great at excelling with him.
2. Treant Protector, with the additional Aghanims upgrade this hero is a very choosy pick along with the healing he provides.
3. Abaddon, a very strong support that can sustain players in team fights, and can make "killing the solo support" hard to do.
4. Witch Doctor, is really weak and easy to take down but this also comes with a very good support with massive kill potential.
**Shadow Shaman is quite tricky to pull off effectively and requires decent coordination from the team to not become food for the enemy, if you're going to play this hero effectively you need to learn to utilize blink dagger more. I would not suggest you play windrunner as a support anymore as she doesn't provide enough lane protection though she can provide good harass, but if she goes down at your tower none of your skills lend themselves to protecting anyone other than yourself.
Tank:
1. Undying, not really a tank and you need to understand how to work the hero right. He isn't a tank and is (IMO) almost a dot hero, increasing in durability and weakening the enemies the longer he can stay in the fight but this doesn't mean he is a natural damage shield in the same way Axe or Centaur is. Take my last game with him http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/867600454 pretty much zero damage or spell block but I was still able to utilize my decays and tombstone to keep me alive and killing in fights.
Carry:
1. Void, currently massively strong and even with not so great farm you can still help your team setup kills with chronosphere.
2. Viper, a lot more durable then your average farming carry with the ability to scale well into late game should the early game go good.
3. Juggernaut, once of the best heroes consistently throughout the game and you can start pushing or killing quite early with him.
4. Razor, perhaps a little more tricky but a pretty tough carry who is solid in team fights and pushing. Build like you would Viper.
OD isn't really a good carry hero and relies on the levels he gets from mid to help him, he is a strong hero with high damage output just not really a hero you want sitting in your safelane. Bloodseeker has been buffed and is quite strong but the countless failures I see with this hero at even my level would put me off suggesting you play him as you really have to have your head screwed on right or you can end up just being that carry that took all the farm but did nothing. The same goes for PL really and both him and Bloodseeker are good options with practice from stacking with reliable team mates first who can pick up your slack while you work it out.
.....PA is still an option but I have seen way too many 2K PA's to like where this will lead. Rant #2 over.
isnt post patch scepter legit
So I have heard but the actual use or extent of it is unknown to me so "There are probably better items to get on OD than Sceptre....just a thought." it was more a suggestion as on this I am neither in the know or an OD player but yes I think you may be right that Sceptre has become a decent buy on him.
Pick like 3 heroes to try and get good with. Here are the easiest to play ones in my view, strong guys you can focus on getting good with.
Tiderhunter - good when you need an offlane or team disable. Not good as solo support as he needs to farm blink fast = no warding early. Pretty easy to play cus he is tanky and has and can farm with anchor.
Necrophos - super easy to play, he only has two active skills. Needs farm but not as farm dependant as many carrys. Just getting a mek makes you formidable at min 10. Easy to farm with with sadist and his nuke. Great pick for any team that needs carries or push and already has some disables but watch out for his hard counter in AA.
PA - pretty easy carry. I mean you need farm but all you do in fights is spam dagger and blink strike so mechanically not hard to learn.
In my opinion the best way to main a hero is by first understanding what u r good at (compared to other roles/aspects). Mostly strong solo mid snowballing heroes r trends nowdays and with them u can have a huge enough impact to take over the game or fail trying.
As for me i always played with bad irl friends that usually r in the lower brackets so despite me wanting to play carries/offlanes it came naturally that i wanted a hero who could be strong in all stages of the game so that i could capitalize the win, for me it was QOP and has gonne pretty well so far. IDK some say TA is strong tho i belive she has alot of hole to exploit that will leave her vurnerable. Meepo is a good mmr grinder, TB aswell. Tho all in all is about feeling good with the hero, no matter if he is strong or weak in the paper if u feel good as in feel u can wreck stuff with that hero, than thats the one, and stick to it even on counterpickers u will become proficient enough to keep stayin strong no matter how much they try. And trust me dude theres no better feelin on accomplishment when u win against counterpickers or when u carry ur whole team from the begining to the end.
My two cents, cheers.
PA an easy carry? I'd say that while she's conceptually simple there's nothing simple about the way she has to plan her attacks. Most noob players have little clue about this. You can easily spot them, they blink on you and cut you down to half health in a sec. Then you eul them, get some distance, stun/silence/slow and start right-clicking. They start to run away but die in the retreat because they have no friendly close to blink to.
@Havoc Badger After two matches with lich, I realise he is versatile but he can't really fight from behind a deficit.
Last match by the 20th minute I was the only one you hadn't died, others have died 6-9 times, bara was charge wherever there were people, rikki was literally running around invis until he got low-health chaser op, and dragon knight fed like crazy.
If I was WR I could have lured them away with harass and divert attention from the others. lich has no real harass and no disable reliable or otherwise, so how do I fight from behind when enemy heroes aren't grouping together??
as a guy who calibrated super trash at 1650 and currently up to 2800 i know where you are. my advice is don't insta pick anything if you can help it If you insta pick a carry your team will probably pick another 2-3 of them <3
for carries might i suggest Weaver and WK both are hard to kill with the right items and both can be pretty fun. People down ere in trench don't often even try to chain stun they usually throw everything at the first guy they see so as a WK that can benefit your team massively especially with blade mail. Weaver is hard to kill and can hit like a truck once you get linkens or bkb and his ulti means you pretty much get a second life. Also weaver can make a nice offlaner and wk an emergency support if your team screws you over with their pics.
Silencer is also a nice pick as you can fit into various roles depending on what your team picks. You can support with him and if your carry sucks or starts roaming a lot you can just take the farm and turn semi carry with the int gain from enemy deaths (also nothing more satisfying than seeing a void jump into the middle of your 4 team mates then cry as you global silence before he can chrono :D
Edit Also i love WR :D WR is really fun but not so effective as others :(
Hello, i've ranked from 2180 to 3700 and still rising, i started dota 2 some months ago and im far from beeing pro, but i got a very decent winrate (65% in ranked, 57% overall)
For me the trick was picking 4-5 heroes that were strong in the current version and that can handle any situation you get thrown into, but you gotta master those 4-5 heroes and know exactly when to pick who, only then learn other heroes.
I would recommend to pick certain heroes that counter those that will be picked a lot.. think how to counter spectre, pl, omni, etc.. most people see their winrates and start picking them, you gotta be 1 step ahead of them if you want to win.
For example, last version i used lycan to fuck with void, axe to fuck with lycan , necro to fuck axe, omni to fuck necro, and void to kill them all since he was op, unless they picked lycan in wich case -> say hello to axe.
The new version is fresh and im still trying to find a set of heroes that worked like that but in this version.
Lich is a support with little damage outside of his ult, so yes, it is hard to carry a team from behind. What you are trying to do on lich is win the lane by a lot. With sacrifice and limitless Q spam he should really hurt the xp gain of the other team, push them out of lane. Then your carry farms and you go on to win, as well as having really good team fight presence.
For PA, bkb. If you can consistently farm up your boots, dominator/drums and a bkb quickly you will do well. She doesn't need tons of farm if you get those three items to fight early and you'll find her pretty easy. If you suck at last hitting in lane she's probably not for you.
@Korrosiv I think omni and necro are still top of the meta