Old habits you should give up in 7.31

With prize money up to millions of dollars, it is obvious that the top Dota 2 teams are always striving to perfect their gameplay. While the basic principles of Dota 2 remain the same, some old habits are deeply ingrained in the game’s blood that need to change over time if you really want to play better.

Here is a list of some old habits to quit in 7.31 today:

LANE MID IS NOT A 1V1 WAR

Gone are the days when the mid lane was a 1v1 fight, where higher skill always dominated. This does not mean that the mid lane does not need skills, but the skill required to take on this position has decreased compared to before. Part of that is due to the presence of a small camp near the mid lane and the increased importance of support rotations.

Runes now have a big impact on the tempo of the game and allow the mid hero to gain the advantage more easily over the two adjacent lanes. High ranked players have realized this and now they often bring one or sometimes both supports to win runes for mid players at 2, 4, 6 and 8 minutes.

Securing the team’s mid hero is so important that support players are willing to swarm out of the fountain just to refill mid’s bottle – even if that means carrying a 30 second or more loss. If you complain about losing lane because support saves mid, you should change that mindset.

SUPPORT: DON’T WANT TO DIE AND HAVE TO BUYBACK AT THE EARLY GAME

Buying back before 30 minutes has been considered a disaster in the past. What about now? Support ready to die and then buyback back into combat.

That doesn’t mean the support has to die, but if it can lure the enemy into killing the support, then the support can buyback, tp back into combat, and kill the enemy team, then it’s totally worth it.

This technique is useful in most games where the team has heroes with strong teamfight abilities, but has difficulty being the first to enter the teamfight. Some examples of these heroes include Magnus with Reverse Polarity, and Faceless with Chronosphere.

SUPPORT DOESN’T MEAN POOR

There was a time when the support inventory at 20 minutes was only: normal shoes, Magic Stick, 1 Obsever Ward and 4 Sentry Ward. Current support gamers have learned to optimize more, while the game no longer eats away support gold as much as before.

Support has more gold because Obsever wards don’t cost money, chickens don’t cost to raise and Sentry Ward costs are halved. Possessing a Glimmer Cape or a Force Staff can make the difference between winning and losing a teamfight. Not playing core doesn’t mean you can ignore your inventory!

‘4 PROTECTION 1’ TARGET IS OUT OF TIME

We sometimes see Invoker Quas-Wex mid prioritizing team carry buffs, but the ‘4 protect 1’ (4-protect-1) strategy is no longer popular. The professional Draft Dota 2 gave up on four heroes who only fight without farming or prolong the match to wait for the greedy carry on the team to go ‘online’ after 30 minutes.

This style of play has been outdated for a few years, when it lags behind teams that have a lot of cores, can farm and reach their peak power early. Teams of 4 defending 1 are too slow to beat teams that make good use of carry capable of early game fighting.

While the professional Dota 2 arena used to have super farm carries like Anti-Mage and Faceless Void, now we’re seeing more carry like Chaos Knight and Nature’s Prophet. These are carries that can contribute to the game earlier.

EAT MOON SHARD END OF GAME IS A GOLD WASTE ACT

It used to be seen as a must-have luxury in the late game, but pro games are VERY rare to eat the Moon Shard.

Making sure you have the best 6 items you can in your inventory to fulfill your role is more important than spending 4000 gold for 60 attack speed and 200 night vision range.

Replacing the item farming or countering the enemy hero with another item is always a priority for top carries, rather than eating the Moon Shard. Does the opposing team have evasion? Replace one of the items with Monkey King Bar or Bloodthorn. You get caught and die before you can turn on the Blang King Bar. Maybe you need to replace an item with a Linken’s Sphere or an HP item to help you stay alive in combat. Go to the Refresher Orb (even if it’s in your backpack) to make sure you can use spells and items to continue in teamfight, or go to Boots of Travel 2 to resist being pushed, see a better way to play.

EPILOGUE

While the above doesn’t apply to every game, the trends are growing significantly in high-ranking games. Dota is a game that is constantly changing, so adapt your way of thinking to ensure you stay at the top of the meta game.

According to dotabuff

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