Tales from the Brackets that some dont see.

In the great game of Life ...errrr i mean DOTO were all placed in brackets.

some are worse, some are better, some mean your life is doto, others mean your just like the rest of us.

in laymans terms the brackets go like this.

low pri (he he he he) low skill or horrible internet. jks

NORMAL (your skill is equal to the middle 50-60% of doto players)

HIGH (your skill is equal to the top 30-25% of Doto players)

VERY HIGH (your a freaking god lol jks your skill is equal to the top 10-15% of doto players)

MMR is not a direct representative of your skill level since my friend has an MMR of 2.8k yet his games always are in the Very High skill bracket.

now coming from where the rest of us plebs sit (normal) to where i currently have been playing (High) the difference in skill is not so much a casual observation (huh wow that guy is good ) its more like (HOLY FU%$IN SH&^T WTF HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE)

played a game with JO_CHIM on monday night and we were placed in the VERY HIGH SKILL bracket.

afterwards (we got royally rekt in 23 mins) i watched the game back and out of it i picked three things.

CHAIN STUNNING - these guys would chain stun down to the micro second im talking 7 seconds of perma stun on a single target. the knowledge required for such an act and the communication is next lvl.

FOCUSING - every single bloody engagement they had it seemed like they had a plan. even if someone was well in front and an easy kill they would hold back abilities until their chosen target would engage.

point and case:

weaver was out of position dusted and stunned in the midst of 4 of them, they just right clicked him, even though they could have killed him straight away, until the doom blinked in then all of a sudden REFOCUS then swapped targets used each remaining slow disable stun perfectly and netted two kills.

POSITIONING - they all knew where to be at all times. watching there rubick player was a master-class in it. he would sit out of team fights popping fade bolt interrupting channels with tele readjusting his position as the fight went on and waiting for that perfect steal which came in the form of Doom. (seeing doom doomed elicited a slight chuckle)

HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET THIS GOOD??????

i feel im getting a lot better considering i was in the trench tier only a year ago now im heading into the high bracket but still .... wtf

You answered your own question really

Learn to do these things yourself.

Wow, Xyrus.

cheers xyrus that was invaluable advice...

(sarcasm btw)

how about i clear up and rephrase my question to make it a bit more specific.

1). what are some ways to improve positioning?
2). How do you successfully chain stun is it knowledge of heroes or....?
3). What are some ways to improve your awareness in game?
4). when engaging how do you prioritise targets?


i look forward to a more in depth helpful response.

I guess practice and experience?

I've occasionally dropped down a few brackets to play a few games with players I've been coaching, and it has reinforced just what a skill based game Dota is - lanes where you should get wiped, you can win, hero matchups don't matter quite so much.

Tbh it's difficult to answer some of your questions because there isn't a simple right/wrong answer to things like "good positioning" - that all depends on the lane/hero you're in. Same with a lot of things like decision making and target-focusing - situational!

The main thing is to keep trying to play games like this - playing above your level will force you to learn fast. Mistakes will be punished hard, you should pick things up quickly.

1) Positioning. You should always have in mind the relative power balance on the lane - who has the most harass or kill potential? Who has allies nearby or missing from the map? Are you against Pudge or Windranger - if so your creep-relative position should be completely different. Don't get caught out in stupidly exposed positioning by getting caught up farming a lane for too long. (major mistake I see). Take into account your escape, tankiness and what threats the opposition bring.

2) Certain amount of knowledge - some players will use comms which makes it easier, but there's no reason you shouldn't be able to chain stun with anyone who's halfway compotent:

- Longest range reliable stun goes first (have a rough idea how long it lasts 1, 2, 3, 4 seconds etc)

- Count down in your head how long to wait, overlap your stun slightly with the previous one to chain, especially against heroes with strong escapes.

3) Awareness. Look at the mini-map. Like, a lot. And don't just look, see. The mini-map tells you a massive amount of information, but you need to know how to read it. Obviously wards are a huge help too. Remember that pub players are creatures of habit - the "accepted wisdom" is often king, true or not. Learn it first, then learn to how to exploit it. (e.g. common ward positions)

4) Focus the biggest threat you can burst down first. If their initiator and carry are really tanky, take down any halfway threatening supports first. Focus their carry if they are the only real damage dealer. Focus their initiator if you think you can take them down before they use their ability.

Hope this helps.

1) Get vision. If you have vision you know how to position yourself so that enemies can't catch you if you're important initiator, or how to position if you're a bait.

2) Stun with longer range or higher reliability should generally come first when ganking to secure a kill and other stuns.

3) Look at mini map a lot. When you see enemy hero near rune spot check if they don't get any rune (invis, haste), when you see enemy supports missing go under your tower or ask your supports for some help.

4) Depends on enemy team. Usually you want to get initiators or heroes that can secure teamfights for enemy team. Some examples are Omniknight, Enigma.

Okay, okay, I'll be more specific...

I'll start from the easiest to the hardest...

Pretty much, you also need to count exact timings, e.g. 2.5 seconds. I used to play a lot of musical instruments when I was akid, so this has always been easy for me <}3

Since all the Stuns in game can be rounded down to the nearest 0.5, learn to count every half a second...maybe tap your foot or something.

This is something you should try to figure out at the start of the game, as soon as all the Picks are made. It's easier to do Passive/Self-Targetted based Heroes like Viper, Sniper, Drow Ranger, Slark etc.

First of all, identify the biggest threats, who deals the most Damage in a Teamfight at this stage? Who can Initiate/Counter Initiate?

Make sure that when you Initiate, you have some sort of counter-measure to any Counter-Initiation they have, e.g.You can go in with Stampede, but they have Black Hole, a Skill that excels at Counter-Initiation, so you need a Counter-Counter-Initiation in the form of an Ability that can cancel Black Hole, preferably through Magic Immunity, e.g. Lich's Chain Frost (the Mini-Stun goes through Magic Immunity and it will still bounce). If you don't have a solution to Black Hole, you need to make one...or avoid fighting altogether...

Once you've got the idea of who goes in when, you should have figured out when you go in, and who you hold which Abilities for.

Rubick is a good example of this, since he usually has a very narrow window to Spell Steal bigger Spells, to get through that window, he has to know exactly when the Ability he wants is going to be used and Position himself away from the fight, but in a way that he can get in Range to Steal in time.

Play Carry, all they do is hit Creeps, so you have plenty of time to look around 8{3

Seriously though, this comes with experience, but if you want a few tips:-

Start by always Calling Missing for the Heroes in your Lane (whether you call Missing for the Lane, or Alt-Click on the Hero to indicate which one is Missing), I know it sounds like this only helps the other Lanes, but when you call Missing, you naturally start thinking about whether other Lanes are Missing or even where your Missing opponents went to, e.g. they're flanking you by going through the Jungle (this happens a lot to Solo Offlaners)

Keep an eye on your opponent's levels, for example, by the time 2 Heroes in a Dual Lane get to lvl4 (1800 exp), the Solo Mid is probably going to be lvl6 (2000 exp), or close to it and a Tri-Lane could consist of a lvl5 Core and 2 lvl3 Supports (2400 exp - extra exp from Jungle), so keeping an eye on your Laning opponents levels gives you an idea of the lvls in other Lanes. Clicking on your opponents as a Support (while hiding in the Fog) is a good habit to get into, don't forget to warn your Core when the Offlaners have been lvl5 for a while.


This ^ but don't just look at where your opponents are, keep an eye on areas where you think they might go, although, this does require a Support who can Ward, based on where they anticipate enemy movement in the next 6 minutes.

Get a good feel/Visualise for the Range of your Spells and the Spells you're most likely to be hit with (including Blink Dagger Range). Something I see less experienced players struggle with are Heroes that can Blink in and wreck them, e.g. Axe (not sure if this applies to you or not, so gonna assume it does 8{3 ).

Whenever you can't see an opponent who has a Blink Dagger or equivalent, always assume they're hiding in the Fog, about to pounce on you. It's what I do, and it helps...although I still get Blinked on when I can see them! X{D

This^^ ....i do a lot of what you said already, i asked the questions to see if there was anything that i wasnt doing that i could be doing and this ^^ is an example of that. i check my opponents lvls but thats usually more my in lane enemies and seeing if they are 6, so the association between my lanes lvls and other lanes levels to be forewarned of potential ganks even before they leave their lane was something i didnt think of. So this actually is something that i can use so thankyou :)



surprisingly it doesnt. this was one of the first things i picked up playing doto (mostly due to Axe wrecking my face i guess learning the hard way works haha) and the time it took to get mates to spread when pushing was annoying as all hell haha.

but cheers i actually got some good advice and things i can take out of it to improve :D thanks lads.

if you think of anything else LET MEEE KNOOOOWWWWW!!!!!

The other thing I can think to mention is to get used to playing by timings - I guess this is primarily a support skill, but it does have cross-overs with other roles too.

What I mean is, get used to checking the clock and being ready for whatever you need to do at various times, e.g.

- Runes spawning every 2 minutes (check them, ping for mid, take/destroy if necessary, or at least be aware if an enemy gets it so you know what to look out for haste/invis/dd/etc)

- Neutral camps spawning every minute, getting in place to stack them by xx:50. More stacks = more gold for carry later

- Pull timings xx:11 and xx:41, changing by 4-5 seconds after 7 minutes

- First night starts at 4 mins, vision reduced, ganking is easier for both sides (good time to roam, or be more cautious)

- First set of wards will expire at approx 7 minutes, have new ones ready, potentially deward opponent's new set for maximum effect