Guide to mid Dota 2: Tips I learned from the top 150

Here’s a tutorial by xuisoko on Reddit:

I just interviewed a top 150 mid player who agreed to share some Dota 2 tips. You can watch more videos below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKuFYRW7SQ

I’m not the best mid gamer but got to 6100 mmr by spamming almost exclusively mid hero. These tips I did not know before and only learned after interviewing him.

1. Soul Ring + Magic Wand > Bottle in some situations

Get the first two items if you’re playing a hero that can spam spells, push lanes while jungling with spells, and face off against:

1. Hero melee can’t harass you in mid and you don’t need to restore HP.
2. Hero can cast spells a lot like Batrider, Zeus, Tide, Pango mid.

The reason for the 2 is that if you fight them, you will have a lot of charges from the Magic Wand, making up for the HP loss from the Soul Ring.

Soul Ring has a cooldown of 25 seconds, and gives you a stat that improves your EHP to stay in lane. On average in 2 minutes, you can get 720 mana from Soul Ring, while with Bottle, you only get 180 mana every 2 minutes (if you get runes).

720 mana > 180 mana in this case, because you don’t need to recover HP from the bottle. We simply push the lane and DO NOT TRADE HIT ANYTHING. This makes the Soul Ring very powerful in the situations listed above.

I also share a replay in the video of a top 100 player doing the same: Lina meets Batrider. Over an 8 minute period, deciding on the right item will win the lane, stay in the lane longer and farm 10 cs more than Lina on the bottle (assuming Lina doesn’t die).

2. Wave mid first and level 2

In the video, I have an example of QoP increasing E skill at level 1 when meeting Leshrac. Quinn does the same when meeting melee heroes. If you’re up against a hero who can push lane faster than you, build a spell that allows you to push back and eat creeps at the same rate.

Don’t let yourself be level 1 while the opponent is level 2. In the video, Quinn uses Scream on every creep. As soon as he reaches wave creep at level 1, he casts the spell and then repeats it until it cools down. He didn’t care if the skill hit the enemy Leshrac or not. The goal is to reach level 2 faster or equal to the enemy speed.

2.1 Micro Decisions

Level 2 is quite important. Some heroes are a bit stronger than others. At level 2, if you are only 1% stronger than your opponent, we still want to separate from the creepwave and go ahead with three melee creeps next to the ranged enemy creep, eat it, and then start attacking the enemy.

Of course, there are still some situations where this doesn’t work, and make sure you’re always full when you do it.

1. If the opponent starts to fight back:

• They will take damage from 3 melee creeps while you only take damage from 1 ranged creep.
• They will back off or die

2. If the opponent does not fight back:

3. If the enemy goes through you and tries to eat ranged creeps:

• Your 3 melee creeps will enter the turret and die
• 3 enemy melee creeps will enter your tower and die

During implementation, pay attention to one of the three situations mentioned above to respond appropriately:

1. In the first case, you want to fight the enemy.
2. In field two, harass as much as possible and return to melee enemy creeps.
3. Evaluate if you can kill the enemy, if not, return to creeps.

3. Minute 5, use Siege pressure to ward triangle

Here’s what high level supports do, but mid can still do:

• When the 5th minute Siege shows up and you reach level 6, push the lane, then ward the enemy triangle.
• It will create pressure that makes the enemy mid hero unable to enter the triangle.
• If he enters the triangle, you can kill the opponent. If he doesn’t enter, he will lose in lane.
• The enemy will know about this ward, so be ready to fight to block the deward.

If a support is in there, you can easily kill him. If the enemy mid hero gets harassed and tries to deward alone, he will also die. This puts a lot of pressure on the opposing team as they have to give up a triangle or rotate 2 supports, or 1 support + mid to deward.

In the video, this example is shown most clearly, so be sure to watch it. If support rotates, it will help other lanes create pressure and win lane, while the team doesn’t need to rotate.

4. Rotate while the spell is on cooldown

This doesn’t work on every hero, but I show it with invoker mid W/Q in the video. When casting Tornado, EMP, and Cold Snap is done, you will have nothing but Ghost Walk for 30 seconds in mid. This leaves us vulnerable to ganks and possibly death. Use this time to rotate somewhere. And when you reach this position, you have the spell ready.

This method cannot be applied to every hero, but you can do it when you have no mana and have a clear clarity. Rotate while using clarity, and do the same. (If you are a hero with low cooldown like Lina).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKuFYRW7SQ

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