Help Support Our Growing Community

DOTAFire is a community that lives to help every Dota 2 player take their game to the next level by having open access to all our tools and resources. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting us in your ad blocker!

Want to support DOTAFire with an ad-free experience? You can support us ad-free for less than $1 a month!

Go Ad-Free
Smitefire logo

Join the leading DOTA 2 community.
Create and share Hero Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

how to up solo mmr

Please review our General Rules & Guidelines before posting or commenting anywhere on DOTAFire.

Forum » New Player Help » how to up solo mmr 21 posts - page 2 of 3
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Swixcap » March 19, 2015 1:50pm | Report
Imma let you in on something that I tell all those who asks about this: The BIG secret to raising your MMR is playing better.
(My post is too long, so TL;DR: Play for your team, not just for yourself.)

What a secret, right? You and most players probably already know this to be true, but blaming someone else comes very naturally, huh? The problem is knowing what does play better actually mean. Many seem to think that high KDA ratio = well played and vice versa, which is why you see 6-6-10 Faceless Void and 0-10-20 Crystal Maiden get reported. Ignorant idiots. (Not to mention the report function has no "bad score" option).

DotA is a team game; your contribution is the sum of how much you do for yourself and how much you do for the rest of your team. The importance of each differs between roles: Carries does 80% for themselves, 20% for team; gankers, pushers, utility heroes etc. 40/60; supports 10/90. This is why the support role is so difficult to do well and why "everyone" wants to be a carry - it's a narcissistic role. In a nutshell, "playing well" means facilitating your carry's farm as best you can - they will (generally) be the direct reason why you win or lose. To elaborate, "playing well" means doing these things well (in my mind):

As carry

, pos. 1-2
For yourself (80%):
- Farm, farm, farm (Main task)
- Prioritize farming over fighting
- Take kills
- Sacrifice others to save self

For team (20%):
- Protect and save allies
- Show up for fights

As ganker/pusher/utility

, pos. 2-4
For self (40%)
- Farm for items
- Kill enemies

For team (60%):
- Create space! (Main task)
- Protect allies
- Give kills to carry
- **** up enemy carry
- Buy utility items

As support

, pos. 4-5
For self (10%):
- Seed XP points
- Buy defensive items

For team (90%):
- Buy and use vision items (Wards, dust, smoke) (NOT main task, surprise surprise)
- Create space
- Sacrifice own life
- Scout enemy movement and items
- Maximize your carry's farm by stacking, harassing, ganking, creating space, giving vision etc (Main task)


What many forget is the connection between these points! For a carry to farm safely he needs space and vision - for efficiency he needs stacks and ganks. To gank properly, a ganker needs vision and knowledge of the enemies abilities/items. To ward properly, a support needs space and protection. Help yourself by also helping your team, that is the road to victory. Why is your support feeding? He probably lacks space and protection. Why is your carry not farming well? He probably doesn't feel safe. There are probably some (minor) points I have forgotten above, but in general, if you wish to win more games and raise your MMR, focus on all of the above, not just your own score.

Last but almost as important: Talk to your team! Like SirActionSlacks says so nicely in his great "Guide to escaping MMR hell": You're the captain of SS Dumbass! If you see someone doing something they shouldn't or not doing something they should, tell them! Be the leader! Don't say "carry noob not farming", tell them what they should be doing and why. Lane is open but carry is farming jungle? Tell him that farming the lane is more efficient and tp down to protect him if he needs it. Support wards badly? Them them where to place it. Two gankers stacks stuns and misses a kill? Say who goes first next time. Team backs up after wiping the enemy team? Tell them to go for objective while the enemies are dead. And so on.

This post was too and sort of "ranty", sorry.
Good luck with your games :)


EDIT: One more thing: Encourage your team; don't complain. Better morale = more cooperation and better play.
This is my signature. This is my dotabuff.

Swixcap


Notable (7)
Posts: 116
Steam: Cube
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Blubbles » March 23, 2015 4:36am | Report

Pick snowballing mids which are dependant on outlaning your opponents to snowball, if you truly are better it'll be ez mmr.
P.S I'm 1k mmr myself ;-;


How do you get a more snowballing mid than DP?
Mood of the Day


T_T

Blubbles


Notable (13)
Posts: 933
Steam: Axolotl
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Smuggels » March 23, 2015 4:45am | Report
Storm Spirit
Ember Spirit
Queen of Pain
Shadow Fiend

I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL.... WITH FLUFFY BUNNIES


Smuggels

Awards Showcase
Show more awards

Memorable (82)
Posts: 2138
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Nubtrain » March 23, 2015 6:05am | Report
It doesn't matter what heroes you pick because you'll have the same problems when you hit 2k, 3, 4k ,5k+. The issue of trying to increase your MMR without actually getting better at the game is that you'll hit a brick wall at a certain point then you'll ask the same question again. Much like account buyers who buy 4.5k+ accounts or players who spam one or two heroes that are flavor of the month, they quickly start losing against players who outskill them in every single aspect while you're dragging your team down. There are so many account buyers around my bracket and they're so incredibly easy to point out.

1329985876 This game with the alchemist being 5.1k, I easily spotted him out to be an account buyer. His account had little to no commendations, played so incredibly passive and the only communication he did was to flame our core. Point is, it doesn't matter if you artificially increase your mmr by spamming one hero or buy an account, etc. If your fundamental skills are not up to scruff then you will not stay in that artificial MMR for long. If you've spammed one hero to gain that increase of MMR then once that hero is nerfed then you're in the ****hole, if you've bought your account thinking you're at the minimum 4.5k+ material then you'll lose that mmr and this is all true if your skills are not at that level.

Work on mechanical skills and work on increasing game knowledge/experience. More importantly, how well you execute both mechanical skill and game knowledge together. It doesn't matter if you know this knowledge or that, if you don't have the mechanical skills to execute that knowledge well then you'll only go so far. Same idea applies in reverse, if you're great mechanically but lack game knowledge then you'll only go so far. Watch your replays, especially the ones you've lost. Focus on improving yourself and stop worrying about others, this is a basis for improving in anything you want to do. Only when you have sufficient enough skills is when you CAN worry about another player and I'd put that bar at 3.5k being the bare minimum.

Nubtrain
<Veteran>

Awards Showcase
Show more awards

Memorable (58)
Posts: 1078
Steam: Nubtrain
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by masaaki14 » March 23, 2015 10:41am | Report
Thanks for the advice everyone.

Swixcap, love your advice and have been acrively trying to communicate with my team. But can u ask you something?
Say there is a person continuously making bad plays, and i try and give him advice. There is no reply. I see no improvement for the next 10min and i ask if there is anything wrong. He ignores me again and continues doing what he is doing. What do i do then?

masaaki14


Notable (11)
Posts: 724
Steam: masaaki14
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Sando » March 23, 2015 1:14pm | Report
Nubtrain wrote:

It doesn't matter what heroes you pick because you'll have the same problems when you hit 2k, 3, 4k ,5k+. The issue of trying to increase your MMR without actually getting better at the game is that you'll hit a brick wall at a certain point then you'll ask the same question again. Much like account buyers who buy 4.5k+ accounts or players who spam one or two heroes that are flavor of the month, they quickly start losing against players who outskill them in every single aspect while you're dragging your team down. There are so many account buyers around my bracket and they're so incredibly easy to point out.

1329985876 This game with the alchemist being 5.1k, I easily spotted him out to be an account buyer. His account had little to no commendations, played so incredibly passive and the only communication he did was to flame our core. Point is, it doesn't matter if you artificially increase your mmr by spamming one hero or buy an account, etc. If your fundamental skills are not up to scruff then you will not stay in that artificial MMR for long. If you've spammed one hero to gain that increase of MMR then once that hero is nerfed then you're in the ****hole, if you've bought your account thinking you're at the minimum 4.5k+ material then you'll lose that mmr and this is all true if your skills are not at that level.

Work on mechanical skills and work on increasing game knowledge/experience. More importantly, how well you execute both mechanical skill and game knowledge together. It doesn't matter if you know this knowledge or that, if you don't have the mechanical skills to execute that knowledge well then you'll only go so far. Same idea applies in reverse, if you're great mechanically but lack game knowledge then you'll only go so far. Watch your replays, especially the ones you've lost. Focus on improving yourself and stop worrying about others, this is a basis for improving in anything you want to do. Only when you have sufficient enough skills is when you CAN worry about another player and I'd put that bar at 3.5k being the bare minimum.


<- This.

Even as a support player you can have a pretty big impact on your team's performance, provided you're good enough to do it right.

On the subject of "lost causes" like the guy you mention there (feeding, not responding etc)...there's not a lot you can do in this particular case. HOWEVER, don't let this put you off. There will be occasions where people do respond. Things like MMR and win/loss you have to look at the big picture - getting into good habits is more important than individual situations.

The best analysis I've seen of MMR reckons that about 10-15% of your games are "almost certain losses" (e.g. you have a leaver, feeder, idiot etc), 10-15% are "almost certain wins" (opposition leaver, feeder, idiot etc). That leaves 70-80% that are within your influence to a good degree.

A lot of the players I've done analysis for say "look how well I did in this game" - and it's true, they did...but you look through their list and there's others where they've blown it completely, made stupid mistakes, got frustrated with their team etc.

Going up in MMR means winning more than losing overall - you can usually get the best turnaround by improving your worst performances rather than your good ones. Consistency is probably more important than max performance. E.g. better to go 10-5-5 in 3 games than 30-0-10, 0-8-3, 0-7-2.


Swixcap's points about managing your team are extremely useful too - doesn't always work, but might turn a % of games in your favour.
A full list of my guides is here

Sando
<Veteran>

Awards Showcase
Show more awards

Established (118)
Posts: 1918
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Swixcap » March 23, 2015 1:46pm | Report
masaaki14 wrote:

Swixcap, love your advice and have been acrively trying to communicate with my team. But can u ask you something?
Say there is a person continuously making bad plays, and i try and give him advice. There is no reply. I see no improvement for the next 10min and i ask if there is anything wrong. He ignores me again and continues doing what he is doing. What do i do then?

You're welcome :) Ask away!

If you've given your advice but are ignored, there really isn't much you can do. (Btw, some players might be muted because they've been reported several times and hence cannot answer you). Just try to cooperate with the rest of the team and work around it - it's just one more thing to take into consideration. If his mistakes are movement related, you can always use the ping function (with moderation ofc). If he has improper items, you can't do much but tell him. If someone is playing badly and won't listen, well, you're just in bad luck - it happens.

For example, yesterday I played with a farming Visage who remained silent and ended 0-13 ... We tried to work around it by "split-pushing" the lane he was not "farming" in, which meant that he had space to push and actually got a tower or two. We eventually lost the game unfortunately, after 60 min, so I'd say we made the best out of it. That's all you can do :)

Btw, great responses from the guys above here.
This is my signature. This is my dotabuff.

Swixcap


Notable (7)
Posts: 116
Steam: Cube
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Xyrus » March 23, 2015 2:20pm | Report
Swixcap, Nubtrain and Sando cover this pretty well, but here's my 2p anyway.

For those with short attention spans, the giant paragraph is about how I failed at Last Hitting 1 Creep Wave...people underestimate just how much they to improve upon ._. )
Nubtrain wrote:

Watch your replays, especially the ones you've lost. Focus on improving yourself and stop worrying about others, this is a basis for improving in anything you want to do. Only when you have sufficient enough skills is when you CAN worry about another player and I'd put that bar at 3.5k being the bare minimum.

While the replays you've lost are definitely the most important, start by looking at the replays where you won and feel you had a big impact in the game.

For example: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1341635081

In this game, I managed to rack up 758GPM with a 20 minute Manta Style, 25 minute Black King Bar and 30 minute Eye of Skadi. That means I'm a great Farmer, right? Wrong, there are still several areas where I need to improve, just on my ability to Farm alone (let alone everything else).

I managed to get off to a good start by securing the Top Bounty Rune (wanted to leave it for Axe, but took no chances) as well as an Assist. From there, I head back to Lane and manage to secure 3/4 Last Hits on the 1st Creep Wave as well as a Deny and some Harrass to boot.

(1:15) However, the next Creep Wave, as well as the last Creep from the 1st Wave came under the Tower. I lost 4 out of 5 Last Hits to the Tower, where I should have only lost 2 AT MOST. I lost the 1st Melee Creep because I did not anticipate the Tower switching aggro from 1 Melee Creep to the next, so by the time I reacted, it required 2 Last Hits to finish, but I only had time for 1 Attack. I could have gone for this, but I would have taken a lot of damage fom the Crep Wave to get it, so this is 1 Last Hit I could reasonably lose out on. Melee Creep #2...secured. Ranged Creep #1 was quite far from me, and I did not have time to react once it Aggro'd the Tower. If I had wanted to get it, I would have had to abandon the Last Hit on Melee Creep #2 and land 2 Attacks before the Tower landed its 3rd Attack...this is the only Last Hit so far that I definitely could not have reasonably gotten. With Melee Creep #3, I obviously had no idea which Creep was going to get Focused since the Tower kept switching between Melee and Ranged Creeps. It would have been difficult to get the Melee Creep since the Tower did not damage it enough to bring it into Last Hitting range, but low enough that it would die to the next Tower Attack. Instead of going for this Creep, I should have attacked the Ranged Creep and ended up losing it, because I didn't.

Creep Wave #3, and I screw up yet again, focusing on Auto-Attacking my own Creeps to bring them into Deny Range, missing a Last Hit in the process. Always prioritise Last Hitting over Denying.

That's enough about Last Hitting for now, let's move onto my biggest mistake so far...not helping out in the fight at the Small Camp. I noticed that Vengeful Spirit was getting chased, but just assumed that she would get away and that would be the end of it, so I decided to continue Last Hitting. MISTAKE. Axe managed to Berserker's Call while Aggroing the Small Camp and Spin the Tide down to quite Low HP. I should have immediately ran through the Jungle as soon as I saw Venge in trouble, as I could have secured the Kill on the Tide with Lucent Beam which is worth missing out on 1 or 2 Last Hits.




I'll leave it there, but it just goes to show, I had good Farm in this game, but I made so many Farming related mistakes in just the first 2 minutes.

Xyrus
<Moderator>

Awards Showcase
Show more awards

Established (104)
Posts: 2429
Steam: Xyrus
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by KoDyAbAbA » March 23, 2015 2:27pm | Report
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1341911287

pick anti-mage.

learn how to farm.

ez mmr.

commend me for ****post + classic rat AM.

KoDyAbAbA


Memorable (65)
Posts: 2366
Steam: Sir Rat-A-Lot
View My Blog
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Terathiel » March 28, 2015 11:21pm | Report
So what I did, and it's damn well working, was ignore ranked for a good 6-12 months, and then go and stomp your way up, since your skills are so much more improved than when you calibrated. You can easily win 70% of your ranked games (bar one game where my internet decided to kill itself in the middle of laning... I'd be on a 12-game ranked win streak...).

Then, pick Heroes who can have a big impact. Not necessarily cores, playmaker supports like Shadow Demon can work. Mix this in with Troll Warlord picks at every opportunity. The problem I'm finding is that I am the master of throwing :)
There are two kinds of people in the world; those who can count, and those who can't.

Meme central please give me ad revenue

Terathiel
<Veteran>

Awards Showcase
Show more awards

Remarkable (49)
Posts: 1415
Steam: Save me from this meme hell
View My Blog

Quick Reply

Please log in or sign up to post!

DOTAFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite DotA hero’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 DOTAFire | All Rights Reserved