Dota 2 Guide: Tactics to Win When You’re Leading

In part two of xuisoko’s Immortal climbing guide, we’ll focus on how to win the game. You can see more in his YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fF_rLULJz4

Dota 2 is the game of Economy, and the team that makes the opponent exhausted first will win. Let’s go deeper into this concept.

In the video above, I go through two matches of OG vs Tundra and show you that no matter which team wins, they all go through the same stages and move around the map. Through this article, hopefully you will know how to travel to a certain point in the game, no matter what position you are playing.

1. Win at least 1 lane (should be Offlane, or Mid)

If you can’t win at least one lane, that means you have to play four or five together on the first push – your opponent’s tier 1 safelane tower (explained below)

If possible, everyone wants the offlane to win the lane. Because this is a quick way to promote the enemy tier 1 safelane tower.

If it is a support, between winning mid lane or safelane, mid is the better choice in patch 7.29, especially with fast farm carry like Luna, Terrorblade, Templar Assassin, Gyro. These are heroes that can “green” again after 10 minutes despite being overwhelmed in the laning phase.

On the other hand, if you play a support with wave clearing potential like KOTL, a tier 1 keeper in the dead lane should be your first priority. This is explained in the YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fF_rLULJz4

2. Push the tier 1 turret in the enemy safelane first

Once the offlaner reaches level 6 and has his first power item (Vanguard, or Helm of the Dominator in patch 7.29), it’s time to destroy the tower, if it still exists.

If the offlane turret has been destroyed, the offlaner should often rotate to the safelane to secure the Tier 1 turret. This will delay the enemy team’s ability to grow. Destroying the enemy’s tier 1 safelane turret generates some very important economic points.

The first team to destroy the opponent’s Safelane Tier 1 turret gains a great advantage because:

• It becomes a dead lane, putting the enemy carry in danger while farming
• Wave takes longer to reach your turret, which means the team carry can farm a few camps before pushing the lane (GPM increase)
• The team’s carry is rotated to the non-turret lane, to farm both lanes: 2 waves + large camp, small camp and triangle area (area with Ancient camp).
• Meanwhile, the enemy carry has to rotate to their triangle.
• If your tier 1 safelane is still standing, the enemy carry at this point will be at a loss to your carry, farming slower, at a 1 creep wave and 2 camp disadvantage.

1 creep wave and 2 camps every 90 seconds make a big difference. In just these 5 minutes, the team’s carry can lead Networth by about 1,500 gold.

3. Push the enemy mid tier 1 turret

Tier 1 mid tower is considered the most important tower in the game. Because it helps control the center of the map, and most importantly, Roshan. The visible Tier 1 mid turret moves and blocks the enemy from freely entering your jungle from mid.

Therefore, taking the mid tower will give you significant map control and allow the team to safely ward in the enemy triangle area.

If possible, arrange for four or the whole team to push this turret, unless your mid hero has already crushed the enemy and destroyed the turret. Once that’s done, let’s move on to the next step.

4. First Roshan

Before winning your first Roshan, make sure you complete the following steps:

• Destroy Tier 1 mid turrets
• Smoke and ward the enemy triangle area. It’s best to have line of sight on one of the Tier 2 turrets in the area (mid turrets and lanes closest to Rosh) – that’s the Outpost on Dire and the top Tier 2 turret on Radiant.
• Once smoked and warded, use the smoke to catch splits, as you can see in the two games in the video.
• Then go eat Roshan

VERY IMPORTANT: You shouldn’t push high ground with top aegis!! I’ve seen a lot of team throw games because they want to end the game at 18 minutes with the first Roshan.

In most of the high tier pub and pro games, they use the early aegis to destroy all the outer turrets (Tier 1 and tier 2) and expand their economic advantage and map control. The second Roshan will be easier to push high ground.

5. Win all Tier 2 and Outpost turrets

Once we’ve got Roshan, we’re now going to destroy Tier 2 turrets. Let’s choose the slowest push lane (ie enemy creeps have advanced far). This prevents the opposing team from splitting-push and taking a turret from the team. If you pick a lane that’s been pushed far and ignore the enemy creeps hitting the team’s turret, the opposing mid/carry hero can sneak in to take the turret.

We don’t want to swap turrets while in the lead, you want your opponent to be economically exhausted.

Once you’ve destroyed the Tier 2 turrets and taken control of the Outpost, plant a ward near Roshan when Aegis’s timer expires. Hold a ward to plant in a deeper position near the enemy triangle.

Your mission is now to control two lanes until Roshan respawns.

6. Eat the second Roshan

The second Roshan is what helps you push the high ground. In this situation, the team should have a net worth lead of at least 2 BKB or 10k gold. This is a huge advantage when it comes to aegis.

If possible, smoke and catch an enemy split-pusher or greedy core. If that’s not possible and the opponent doesn’t have a good high ground defense, start pushing the high ground.

EPILOGUE

Sometimes the game ends here and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the game ends in the first or previous Roshan, depending on how well the team crushes the opponent (or vice versa). The important thing is that you know what to do and when to do it, in what words.

Summary of the movement of each position

• Hero mid: should control the active turret push phase and the enemy farm area
• Hero offlane: should destroy the tier 1 safelane turret, then push the tier 1 mid turret with the team and then defend the team tier 1 safelane.
• Pos 4/5: If you have the gear to protect the tier 1 safelane turret, then defend the turret, until the carry leaves to go to the jungle, or to the offlane. If you don’t have the tools to do that (cleaning the creep wave), pos 4/5 should revolve around the most aggressive hero on the team – usually Mid or offlane.
• Carry: As soon as the enemy safelane tier 1 turret is broken, the carry wants to go to mid, farm in the triangle and grab the offlane where the enemy turrets are gone. This increases farming speed significantly. Carry can also participate in pushing tier 1 mid turrets if possible. (Meta Terrorblade or strong carry early game like Gyro, Juggernaut).

You can Subscribe to xuisoko’s YouTube or follow his Reddit.

You can read the first part of this series:

Also, here’s a related Dota 2 Tutorial: