Becoming an Elite Pub

Getting good at Dota 2 is a process that goes on infinitely. Once you reach 4K rating, you will want 4.1K, then 4.2K and so on and so forth. But in order to win games and increase rating you actually have to improve as a player, not just win more games than you lose. This means taking something away from every game whether it's a loss or a win as well as learning new tips and tricks that separate you as a player. This post is going to be a compilation of little things you can do that can separate you from the average public scum.


How to get good

1.Tread Switching
For those of you that are unaware of what this term means, it means effectively changing the attribute on your power treads depending on the situation to maximize the efficiency of the item. Anyone that has ever played with me knows I am a huge advocate for tread switching and I will always say that effective tread switching is the BIGGEST change you can make to your game that will separate you from pubs. When done effectively this makes power treads pretty much +10 to all stats at all time.
Tread switching is a concept of percentages, Str treads give you bonus 190+ HP and Int treads give you bonus 130+ mana. when switching treads it doesn't just add that flat bonus, the percentage stays the same. So if you are 50% HP on int treads you will stay 50% HP when swapping to Str.
Basic rules to tread switching.....

Always cast on Intelligence boots
When you switch your boots to int boots it adds 130 mana to your max mana pool. Say you are a Sven with a 300 mana pool on strength treads and a 430 mana pool on int treads. If you cast stun(140) on strength this drops your mana pool to 160, leaving you with 53% of your mana pool. However if you switch to int boots and cast stun(140) this drops your mana pool to 290 or 67% of your mana pool. If you then switch back to strength it maintains that 67% which leaves you with 201 mana.

Long story short.....
Casting stun on Strength Treads=160 mana remaining
Casting stun on int treads=201 mana remaining

This is an extreme example because sven has a low mana pool and high mana costs. But no matter what the situation, this will add up and give you way more mana over time and is well worth it. Even on low mana cost spells it is worth it, for example changing boots while casting spines on bristle takes it from costing 35 mana each cast, to 20 mana each cast.

Always take damage on Strength boots
I feel like I don't need another nerdy example here because it works the same way as casting on intelligence boots. Strength treads gives you +190 effective HP.

When regenerating HP(Tango/Health Potion/Heal skill) do so on Agi/Int boots
When on these types you don't have the +190 Hp from str treads so the heals/regen will heal you for a higher % of your HP.

When regenerating Mana(Clarity/arcane boots/Kotl Chakra)do so on Str/Agi boots
Same thing as HP, lower total mana pool when not on int so more effective mana is gained.

From these last two points can we deduce what attribute your boots should be on when using a bottle?
Agility of course! Sipping bottle grants both mana AND health regen and agi boots give neither of these buffs so you get the best of both worlds.

When attacking have your treads on your main attribute
Your main attribute will give you +10 damage, even more important on agility heroes because agility grants +10 damage to you AND +10 attack speed.
Note: be wary doing this in teamfights and switch back to strength when you are taking damage.

These may all seem pretty minuscule but if you do these things 200+ times in a game it really adds up and makes an insane difference.



2. Utilize your hotkeys

I have a lot to say about hotkey utilization so I guess I will start with laying down my hotkey set-up for you .

Skills: Standard QWER for normals. 4/5 for two extra skill slots.
Items: Mousebutton1/F/G/1/2/3
Hold position: Mousebutton2
Courier: ~
Select Hero: C
Control Groups: Z/X/V
Select All Units: D
Quickbuy: 7
Level-up skills: Space+skill button(QWER)
Voice Chat:T
Fortification: I

I think that's all that I have that isn't the standard default hotkey settings.

One of the most important things with hotkeys is to make sure all 6 item slots are in reachable positions. Do what works for you but you should never have to click on an item or stretch your finger too far on the keyboard to TP out of a bad spot quickly.

Hold Position: 
I saw this is a necessity in HoN but it's even more so in Dota 2 due to turn rates. Using hold position in lane to help last hit can make a huge difference instead of just mindlessly clicking your hero in circles in lane because APM =MLGSKILLZGG. I don't mean just standing completely still in lane, just pressing hold position right before you swing for the last hit so you don't have to factor in turn rate when you last hit.

Courier: 
gaining effectiveness with courier is a huge must especially if you are a mid player. You can set your courier hotkeys by going into menu----controls----abilities---courier and UNCHECKING the box that says "Mirror bindings from hero panel" this allows you to use QWER as courier hotkeys as well as your hero. I have the hotkeys bound the same they are in HoN. Q=Speed Burst W=Secret Shop  E=Deliver items R=Return to base.

Control Groups: 
If you bind units to a control group it carries over from game to game for the hero that you play. For example once I bind Spirit Bear to X, I don't have to rebind it every time I play Lone Druid. Controls groups are obviously 100% necessary when playing micro heroes but there are little things you can do with control groups that you wouldn't necessarily think about. You can bind gadgets like Veno/Shadow Shaman/Witch Doctor wards to hotkeys as well! I bet you didn't even know you could actively target who WD ward attacks did ya? For veno wards it's kind of buggy but it usually works out. If you throw out two wards and double click one this does the "Select All" command then set that to a hotkey, that hotkey will always select all wards that you have even if it's more than the 2 you hot-keyed.  Another little thing I have begun to do with hotkeys is whenever I pick up an illusion rune I bind those illusions to X(Unless I have that bound already for the hero, then I go to Z/V). So say I pickup an illusion rune with Lion and bind the illusions to X, now every time I get illusions with Lion in this game and future games I already have them bound to a hotkey! Wow such micro, many illusion. You can also bind Tusk Sigil/Juggernaut ward and pretty much any controllable unit/gadget in the game. Just simply tab microing is for noobs.

Quickbuy:
In addition to efficient/quick courier use, utilizing quickbuy is incredible and makes it so you should never really lose gold before you buy an item. You can put items in your quickbuy by shift clicking them in the store, pressing the quickbuy button simply purchases the item that is in your quickbuy without having to open the shop. Make a habit of always throwing your next item into quickbuy. Going mid and planning on bottle? Put that shit in quick buy before creeps spawn and now you only have to press three buttons(select courier--quickbuy--deliver items) to get your bottle and you don't even have to open the shop.
Level Up Skills: 
This is something that I see alot of people don't have bound to a hotkey and it's a bummer because this is super useful. You shouldn't ever have to take your attention off of your lane to level up a skill. Also if you level up in the middle of a teamfight there is no reason why you should have to wait for the fight to be over to level your skill, that skill point could be the difference between a kill and someone getting away. Another super easy habit to get into that pays big dividends.



3. Watch Your Mini-map

I know this seems like common sense but I mean REALLY watch it. Ask yourself how often do you check your min-map? If your answer is any less frequent than every 3 seconds then you need to work on it. I don't mean study the thing but you should glance at it every 3 seconds to survey for enemy heroes/people missing from lanes. There should never be a time where someone walks past a ward and you don't spot them. 

4. Abusing Creep Aggro

This is the biggest thing that separates a mid player from a pub who likes to play mid heroes. 

Creeps will aggro anyone trying to attack allied hero in a 500 radius. That means if you attack a hero while 501 units away from the nearest creep, the creep will not attack you.

This means a couple things.

1. If you are trying to harass the enemy in lane, don't A-click them unless you are in range of getting an attack off. If you A-click and don't get an attack, you just pull the creeps on to you, take some damage and push the lane without anything gained.

2. This however, can be abused to give yourself a lane advantage.

Say for example you are mid, you got outblocked and the creep wave is at the base of the enemy's hill. Do you just sit there and let him have that advantage? You sure as shit better not! Simply move within 500 units of the creep wave, A-Click the enemy and run back towards your tower. This will draw the creeps to run towards you moving them off of the hill. Do this a couple times until you have optimal lane position at the base of your hill.

This can be seen here 

Another interesting note is that creeps will aggro to you when you A-click a hero even if you aren't in range of the hero. Say the creep wave is at the enemy's hill and he is in the fog so you can't A-click him. You can get within 500 range of the creeps and A-Click a hero in another lane and it will STILL draw aggro!

This is just the beginning of this list and I will probably think of more as I play so I may do a part 2 to this in the future. But for now I will call it a day because nobody loves super duper long posts. I know these all seem really small and tedious but they really do make a difference. Remember, no single snowflake feels responsible for an avalanche. Happy pubbing, go win games!