roaming... how effective is it? and when should you do it?

hi all

over the past three days me and my team have been running a line up and strategy that seems to just ... own.

Mirana
Lina
Bane
Windranger
Necrophos

with Mirana lvl one Sacred Arrow, Lina Light Strike Array, Bane Nightmare and Necrophos Death Pulse and Windranger Shackleshot ... all decent stuns or disables with damage ...

from the get go we roam catch top as they get to there lane then go mid and then bot then we lane for 5 mins then we roam again ganking as a three or a 2 with the other two laning then at 20 min mark we start pushing towers with Wind's ulti which ag's is insane. then by the 30 min mark its usually GG.

first game.
we went 11-0 in 8 mins. final score 60-29. 44 min total.
second game.
14-4 in 10 mins. 38min total. final score 55-20.
third game.
(we pushed towers harder in this one and earlier)
7-0 in 10 mins. 28 min total. 37-12 final score.

with the disables we had from lvl one they couldnt do anything and since there was only ever 2-3 people in lane against our 4-5 we always survived and got the double kill-triple kill.

why is a roaming strategy so effective?
why not play it all the time?
what are the negatives of it if kills are secured consistently?

roaming is good in low levels but in high level games where supports ward and stuff,it becomes a bit harder with you having to purchase smoke for ganks and where dumb carries with no escapes like bloodseeker and drow are less picked.

roaming strategy is effective because when one hero is added to a lane equation,temporarily,the advantages for the team are immense as it does not dilute the exp gain of the lane because the heros are there for a short period of time and there is an element of surprise which is very hard to counter.

roaming can become a burden if the enemy team is very well co-ordinated,calling missing heroes and warding the clutch positions where one might rotate through,or better still, use a smoke.If one does not get kills via roaming,his exp and gold gain becomes worse than a solo offlaner against an abusive combo.

no specific negatives of constant killing seen by me :P

There is always the case that the enemy wards, dewards, and that certain players "cough" newbies "cough" dont purchase smoke for ganks.

In such an event your roam is unsuccessful, not only do the duo waste time and exp and money, the guy that they originally laned against gets free farm and uncontested exp gain.

Against a lycan or ursa, you might as well have lost a tower.

hmm well we always smoked up before any gank (if you dont your an idiot) and we carried tp scrolls always and most ganks took 3 mins max.

basically we would buy 2 scrolls, tp in behind tower (6 secs) move to gank spot (10 sec)

bane would nightmare then id arrow from distance and then light strike array and some auto attacks would secure kill and if shackleshot landed it would be a double kill ( 20-30 seconds) then push lane until tower (20-30 seconds) then scrolls would be up and we would tp back top ... total time usually around 2 mins 3 if we pushed the tower harder.

the amount of lvl one stuns and disables was insane. and the time from lane meant that we were in fact in front in lvls and farm.

i can see the arguments against though cause game 2 they tp'd out when bane gave away our position top and they were able to push down mid tower and get a kill bottom. we caught them on the retreat though (blind arrow from me for the full 5 seconds woop woop haha).
but if they continued using the transitions they might have got us .. hmm i see your point ...what about a 5th man maybe a durable hero with maybe an AoE lockdown that could defend towers.. hmm or infact how about natures prophet? he could tp to tower and use treelings to defend? and since he would receive higher farm and xp he could transition into mid game split push quicker?

i can understand the higher lvl of skill argument (as in it wouldnt work at high MMR, which i am definitely not at) but the thing is as a four man we could dive towers and stay under for a time to get the kills and still survive as death pulse helped and most people still dont understand tower aggro swap (seriously hit your own creep gawd haha)

but in saying that has anyone else tried this strat?

3-4 man roaming, if so did it work? what hero's did you use? thoughts?

thoughts: ganking may be ineffective if the team has split pushers (NP or Tinker) who can take advantage of your heroes not being in lane,unless you are ganking them themselves

I think you dont NEED to roam with 3-4 players.
When you start roaming with more then 2 people it means that that lane is empty and all those creeps are going to waste. And an empty lane is pretty suspicious.
Most of the time you only need the 2 supports + the hero in that lane, so i think it is overkill.

The only main exeption i see is when an offlaner like clockwerk, nyx, batrider or centaur hits level 6 and wants to assist using his ultimate.
Or sometimes the mid hero.

I'm more of a Tri-Lane vs Tri-Lane kinda guy than a Ganker, but they're both strats that focus on shutting down the other Team right from the get-go, so I know how fun it is. <}3

Hmm...Tim makes a good point here, there's little benefit to shutting down a Hard Carry in the Early Game, if their Mid and Offlane are getting enough Free-Farm to control the Mid-Game.

Nightmare + Sacred Arrow + maaaaaaybe Light Strike Array should be enough for the Kill, save Shackle Shot for if they try to fight back.

Maybe replace Necrophos, he's fairly immobile and doesn't provide much other than a costly Heal and an Ult. Something Global would suit the lineup well imo, since you'd have to worry less about Wards.

For example, a Nature's Prophet can let you turn a successful Gank into an easy Push, and you don't have to worry about him getting spotted by Wards. People often think of him as a Late Game Rat, but he can provide a lot of Pushing power early on thanks to Treants. Either they tank the Tower, or they aggro the Creep Wave so that you can just keep smacking away at the Tower.

Ill add that i really like ganking in pubs, usually what you see from supports is that they just sit in lane next to the carry doing very little. That is one of the things that pubs need to learn from pro's is to gank as supports.
A lot of the time i will leave my lane partner alone if i feel i can do more elsewhere.
Especially in low level pubs people expect ganks from the mid player, while the mid needs an item fast like a puck wanting blink. They then expect the mid to win their lanes for them, while its much better to gank the midlane yourself, so he gets a good start and can setup kills for the team with blink initiations.

Supports should gank if they can, and the mid should gank when thy have a good rune.
There are exeptions ofc, KOTL ganking is not effective and a pudge should gank early, but dont expect the mid invoker to gank and win YOUR lane.

You shouldn't need to take such a big group to go ganking with...more than 2 heroes is overkill usually. The main idea of early roaming is to let three heroes get solo EXP and farm, while your farm-independent supports establish map control (warding/counterwarding) and look for opportunities to get a kill or at least force enemies to sit under tower.

Roaming as a big group tends to fail hard the moment you start dealing with opponents who have map awareness. Even if they just camp their tower they're outfarming you (you're not farming either, but you're also burning gold on smokes and TP's).

As said before, roaming with two Heroes (the supports) in the laning phase is usually enough. I love getting a good support duo in pubs ( Dazzle and Shadow Demon is the last combination I tried, it's awesome), going for a safe trilane and then doing 4 minute smoke ganks in the mid lane; you get so much gold and exp. Chen or Enchantress-based ganks are the most satisfying though, you just have to pair with a setup Hero (SD, Bane, Veno etc.) to get the kill and push the lane.


So true. I'm pretty sure pub supports just stick to the lane because they don't want to stay underlevelled, as in low level pubs "noob" teammates care so much about levels it becomes an obsession. When I started playing Dota a bit more seriously watching competitive games helped me a lot, as competitive supports put so much effort into babysitting their carries. Pulling doesn't seem to do much, but leaving all the lane experience to your carry and getting a level 2 before the 3 minute mark is all you need to do in the early game.