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First off I want to express a couple of things about myself before we get into some of my thoughts on how to win a pug match.
A) I am not a pro. Probably never will be though on some level I would like to be.
B) I am not perfect but please respond with only constructive criticism.
C) The point of this guide is to give an over all sense of what every individual needs to do to achieve victory in a PUG match. I understand that some of this wont apply to a few circumstances, such as tournament play.
D) this is mostly directed at the people who play all pick though there are elements that apply to captains mode and single draft.
E) Also as a disclaimer I am not an HTML user. Sorry in advance.
1) Team Building
2) Team Work & communication
3) Last hitting & Denying
4) Pushing & Split pushing
5) Ganking
6) Summation
Ok so one of the most important, fundamental and often ignored aspect of this game is building the proper team. It seems like EVERYONE wants to play either a carry or some sort of ganker. 5 carries on a team is a bad idea, there just isn't enough gold in the game to truly support it and often times you will end up lacking the much needed crowd control and despite how much DPS you may have (but probably wont because you will be under fed) the other team with better shut down will win at the end of the day.
How does one battle such a thing? There needs to be some level of cooperation amongst you strangers. There is plenty of time to discuss who is going to play what before everyone gets all button happy and picks what they WANT to play and not what is needed. I think we can all agree that what we all want is to WIN the match. To do that remember what is best for the group is best for your self but what is best for yourself is not always best for the group.
The basic formula for a team should look something like 2 supports (one with a major shut down and one with a minor shut down) 1 pusher with abilities that supports the supports, 1 carry and 1 nuke or 2 carries instead of the nuke. Also while slows are nice in my opinion the supports should be characters that have stuns as their primary shut down, leave the slows to the pushers, carries and nukes.
Obviously this isn't the only working team composition that can work and that takes us to the part about counter picking. Once more before you get all pick happy, try and see what the other team is going to do and counter pick as best you can. This can be a little hard if the other team is doing the same thing. But even if you only get two people that shut down two of there people it is better than nothing.
Team work and communication. This is a big deal folks, most pug matches that I have been in no one is talking to each other. People ping the map and expect the other people to be able to magically read their minds on what they want them to do. GET A MICROPHONE! Talk to your team; if you for some reason are unable to acquire a microphone then use the radial to communicate or type.
Now onto more specifics of team work and communication. It is your responsibility to tell your team mates if someone has gone missing from the lane. If you kill someone in your lane and they do not come back in 20 to 25 seconds after they re-spawn Call missing.
Roles of the different types. This is important to know, every character type (I.E. Support, nuke carry...) has responsibilities in the team. For instance 1 of the supports should buy the courier and the other should buy observer wards. 1 ward goes near one of the rune spots so the mid lane can have better rune control and be able to see people coming up the river to gank. The second ward needs to go into your jungle area to keep an eye out for ganking coming from the jungle for the short lane. Now the person who bought the courier needs to upgrade the courier to a flying courier once they get the money, and I mean as soon as they get the money. It makes a huge difference. The person who bought the wards needs to buy the second set of wards and then if needed the person who bought courier should either have dust of appearance or sentry wards if there are people that go invisible. This way the costs for these small items are split between the two supports and the people who need more items (AKA the carry) are not wasting their money on what the other team members should be doing for them. Wards should be up the entire length of the game; at the very least until you are stomping down their third set of barracks.
The role of the Carry is to make as much money and xp as they can so that when the supports stun some one the Carry has enough fire power to kill them.
The role of the nuke is to soften up the enemy teams hp pool so that there is a considerable dent made making the job of the carry easier.
The role of the pushers is to kill the towers and participate in team fights only when needed. If you are playing natures prophet and 4 of your team is defending a tower you should be down on bottom pushing a tower trying to get ahead int he tower game. The only way to win the game is if either the other team DC's and the game ends or to blow up the ancient. That is it! Push when the time comes and farm or participate in small 2 man ganks if you can help.
The other roles are pretty self explanatory I will make one last remark though. Please for the love of all that is holy don't try and solo the enemy team. It doesn't work. There is a reason that there are 5 people per side, work as a cohesive unit, talk to each other, primary some one and go from there. And when you primary someone make sure it's one of the supports. Kill the enemy teams shut down or healer first. Oh and one more thing! Fight under your towers if at all possible. closer to the creep wage and the extra damage from the tower does make the difference.
Ok so this is one of the most important skills to develop in the game. Not all heroes do it as well as others but that is ok, it is all about knowing how much damage you do per hit, understanding the timing of the character you are playing and recognizing the health bars of the creep you are attacking.
The other part is, if you are a support yes you do need a few last hits to get the scant amount of gear you need to support the team. But for the most part try and feed the carry last hits, and carries let your support you are laning with have at least 1 creep per wave. Mech is nice to have on your side and you probably don't want to carry it. ALSO! To all you *****es that play keeper of the light. Stop stealing the last hits with your horse light wave of doom! Soften the creep wave for the carry don't eat it!
Now onto the benefits of denying a creep from the enemy and why it is such an awesome way to get ahead.
A denied creep divides 18 exp to enemy heroes within 1200 range. A melee\ranged creep would normally give 62\41 exp in 1200 range respectively.
So if you deny a creep the two that you are laning against receives 9 xp each instead of gaining 31 each or 20.5 each. If you are able to do this consistently and land the majority of your last hits you will win your lane. You can only deny a creep once it is at half health. A couple of heroes that are excellent for doing this is lich as he eats a creep to gain mana and clinkz as his ult gives him better damage and health for eating them. Doom also fits into this group and while I am sure there are others I can not think of them off the top of my head. But out side of having a hero that has an ability that allows them to do this it is a skill like last hitting and I highly recommend one person in the lane be the designated last hitter the other focuses on denying the creeps. Mid has to do all of this solo but that is why it is important that the right hero goes mid.
Pushing down towers is what leads to victory. Yes it is fun to kill the other heroes but ultimately the first person to crack the enemy ancient is the winner and that is the short and sweet about it.
What is more difficult is knowing when to push. You do not want to end the laning phase to soon as that will destroy your farm and make out leveling harder. However the general rule is that once you have killed 2 of the heroes the majority of your team (3 or 4) should push down one lane and if you have a good pusher like brood mother, death prophet or even natures prophet you should split push and get two towers at once. Natures prophet is probably my ideal pusher. He gets minions, his ult helps him kill creeps in multiple lanes and he can leave very quickly with his teleport ability.
The time to not push and DIFFIDENTLY NOT split push is when their entire team is alive and able to kill you. What you want to do is have everyone carry a tp scroll and when the enemy team engages one of your towers you need to get into position to whipe them out.
The only time you want to trade a tower for one of theirs is if they are taking out a tear 1 tower and you are getting a tear 2. That puts you ahead in the tower game, other wise protect your towers! They are the key to staying alive.
I have waited until last to talk about ganking because I feel like this is one part of the game most people don't have a problem with initiating. The problem is that people don't know when to gank. You see everything I have talked about before now leads up to being able to gank properly. You have your wards up so you know if they have back up around. You have dust and you have the correct team build to gank. You have vision on the map so that you know if someone is up in top lane solo farming or if he has a buddy in the forest waiting to gank you.
You have your TP scrolls so that if you gank someone and your wards show that someone is coming for you that you can just TP home or if someone starts pushing a tower bottom while you are up top you can get there quickly to save it. Ganking is all about preparation and communication.
To summarize it all, talk to each other, work as a team and know your rolls. If both sides do this it comes down to a game of skill and not having the other side win because no one knows what is going on. Have fun and see you in the lanes!
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