Dota 2: Guide to play carry rank Immortal, laning like Arteezy, assertive like 23Savage

Here’s a tutorial by xuisoko on Reddit:

We’ve all probably seen the magic clips of Arteezy 1vs5 in Dota 2 and eating rampage. In this post, I’ll go over topics like laning, laning phase when leading, when trailing, farming direction and decision making, as well as macros. You can watch the video tutorial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedtsMN8CJM

Here are the instructions:

1. Lane phase:

There was a match where Arteezy played Weaver against Beastmaster. (This is an easy lane if played correctly). Arteezy hit the creeps right away to get level 2 first. I recognize two approaches that RTZ and 23Savage use in laning phase:

• Method 1: If it’s a hero that’s hard to win lane, exploit creep aggro and tell support to last hit range creeps with skill. And if you have the skill to last hit ranged creeps, use yours. In the video, 23Savage entices the enemy’s tiny offlane to push the wave, by hitting him and breaking the equilibrium with splash damage. Keeping the balance point, tank creeps in front of the turrets (if required) to protect the lane from being pushed away. From there heal and focus on last hits and deny.
• Method 2: If you are a hero that can win lanes, then focus on level 2 first. Heroes like Monkey King can do that by taking the initiative and hitting the hero if the opponent chooses to take the last hit. In this case, MK sacrifices one creep to the enemy and focuses on hitting him 3-4 times. In this situation, you can focus on harassing. Once you’ve chased him away, you can deny any remaining creeps. This is a strength that Weaver can promote (as shown in the video). In this method 2, you protect the creeps with the hero yourself and don’t care as much about the balance as in method 1. Of course, it is more beneficial to keep the balance still good.

2. The basics of recovering a losing lane

If you use method 1, you should know how to build items. When playing the hero can’t win the lane, then go to the jungle and optimize the farm.

Some heroes farm fast with Sobi mask (mana regeneration), while others farm fast with Gloves of Haste. Know how your hero is to adjust accordingly. This is why we see many pro players go to Band of Elvenskin and Gloves of Haste first instead of Boots for carry.

By the time the enemy offlane reaches level 6, you should optimize the item to be able to farm from jungle to mid. (explained below in how to farm).

Ok, if the opponent’s pos 3 is stronger at the moment in the game, what will you do?

If playing carry on Dire, you should slowly farm towards the mid or triangle area, depending on the situation.

Your farm direction should look like this:

On the Radiant side, the farm direction to recover is as follows:

By about 10 minutes, if you lose lane, you should rotate to mid and farm here. In case the team’s offlane is destroying the offlane and destroying the enemy safelane, then you should move there and take the farm.

Do not apply the above if the team’s offlane is heroes like Venomancer or Beastmaster. These are heroes that control the enemy jungle much more effectively than carry.

If the team’s offlaner is Tidehunter, Underlord or any other hero that changes to another lane, the carry should farm as shown below (on Dire’s side):

And if it’s a Radiant carry, it looks like this:

As for the decision to farm mid or the triangle in the case of losing lane, the answer depends on how well your mid hero plays.

If your team’s mid hero is putting pressure on your opponent’s safelane then you can farm mid. If the team has 4 people pushing the turret then you can join, but be careful not to die.

4. Macro Decision

4.1 tier 1 safelane keeper

This is what distinguishes between 8k and 5k gamers. I am still struggling in this area.

Has this ever happened to you: when the enemy pushed the tier 1 safelane tower and you didn’t know whether to defend or not and then ended up dying with the team, losing the game afterwards?

With Arteezy, he only defends if he is in the lead and is with a hero that can fight early. Otherwise, he will apply one of the above farming directions. In the video, he played Weaver 5/0 and farmed well. That’s why he chose the keeper.

4.2 Push the enemy safelane tier 1 turret

Between 12 and 15 minutes, if the team’s mid hero is strong, they will rotate and help push the tower. Support mid if possible, but don’t ‘try too hard’ to avoid becoming ‘too late’. Farm camp is large, while the team starts fighting.

Remember to watch out for when the enemy has wasted all his spells on someone, as this is where you can jump in.

4.3 Controlling tempo

When taking on the carry position, you have to be the one to decide when to fight in the late game.

In the video, I have evidence of the time when the team tried to fight at a disadvantageous combat point. Disadvantage point of combat is where if you lose the teamfight, you will lose rax or roshan.

Instead, I splitpush, forcing combat around me. If you lose, you won’t lose your rax. This forces the opponent to move towards you.

5. Comeback from disaster lane

Ana and 23Savage have very similar gameplay. Both pick heroes that can come back when they’re behind. In the video, I analyze 23Savage’s Specter and Void gameplay. He realized he was leading and the only way to turn 10k gold at a disadvantage was to defend high ground. Understanding this, by playing carry super late, he purposely slows down the game.

5.1 Without Chrono

He doesn’t use Chrono for the first 20 minutes of the game, because he doesn’t want force combat or anything and doesn’t want to use chrono to gank. Instead, he holds Chrono, to prevent the opponent from putting everything on one target.

If you use Chrono, you can kill people, okay. But after that 20 seconds, the enemy will respawn and take the mid tower. Instead of doing so, if not using it, the opponent does not dare to put everything to eat the mid tower. This slows down the game by at least 10 minutes, enough to keep Faceless Void ‘online’.

5.2 Push wave

When you’re behind, focus on the map. Is there a place where you can push the wave? Even though it feels like a loss in gold, since you’re not farm neutral, pushing this wave slows down the game because someone on the opposing team is forced to return and push the wave back.

If you’re trailing, do the above: slow the game down, even though it will cost you gold. Ideally, the team would have a support capable of doing that like KOTL, but in most games this is not possible.

Summary: Watch the video, I’ve tried to sum everything up in this article, but if you missed it, you can watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedtsMN8CJM

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