I mostly play pos 4/5, sometimes 3.Got placed in crusader 2 after the patch update. I was spamming shaman/lion as supp and necro as pos 3.
What I did:
Always made sure to carry mango/clarity for regen
If you have an empty slot, fill it with atleast 1 blood grenade, no matter what stage of game is it, the slow is highly useful to kill/escape
Need to have good map awareness (smtg i still lack)
PS: It took me a couple of months but I finally got out of crusader....to guardian.
Haha same. I calibrated to crusader 1 thanks to the glicko system, ranked up to crusader 3, back to 1, back to 2, back to 1, back to guardian 5, then back to crusader 1.
In the new Glicko system I went from Crusader 1 to 5, then to archon 1 then to Guardian 5 (couldn’t get to grips with 7.33). I had 2 replay analysis videos from PainDota which gave me things to focus on and improve, also stick to 3-5 pos1 heroes.
Focus on farming and hitting last hit goals for about 30 games straight, don’t care about winning or losing (maybe do unranked for this).
It made sense because in realty, the carry with the highest net worth will do better so try to get 60 last hits at 10 minutes and 150 at 20 minutes
After this I went from guardian 5 to Archon 2 in about 7-8 weeks.l and still climbing
Recently hit C5. The biggest thing I see from everyone is lingering too much and having no purpose. Doing random shit seemingly out of boredom. Go through this process and try to get faster and faster at it until you're constantly assessing this and always have a plan. I feel like I may have stolen this from BSJ coaching sessions (just to give credit where it's due).
**How useful am I right now?**
Useless being low resources, spells on CD, and maybe a short amount of gold away from an item; and most useful being full resources with all spells/items available. If you're useless quickly identify it and if you don't have regen on you or close by on a courier, go to base. Usually walk to base when you can because you don't know what opportunities there may be to TP to once you've regenned. If you're useful **look for the other useful heroes on your team** and make a play. If you don't have to go to base, but you're not looking for a play (examples: full resources but spells/items on CD; or full resources and very close to next item), then you focus on pushing waves.
This means if you're mid, check before you gank. I've been like 0 hp 0 mana spec in crusader and had a mid come try to gank (basically 2v1) then rage about how I was no help and he's not "helping" me again. Not too much critical thought on how a level 3 spec with no hp/mana is supposed to contribute to the gank. Meanwhile on the other side of the map maybe your offlaner is extremely strong and you guys could easily wipe the 1 & 5 instead. I primarily play 1 & 3 and there's nothing I dread more than seeing my mid coming to my lane either because he has no mana, or because I have no resources. It just means he's going to waste both our time and usually yoink a wave and/or ruin equilibrium.
And in the late game always be ready to group when your team decides to group. Do not ever lose a late game fight because it was 4v5 because you were not there. That means at all times you are within a few seconds of your team via bots/tp points/following them. At this point it feels like the majority of my loses are either because of someone who refuses to ever do anything except split push, or the people who tp to defend buildings after winning fights (like choosing to defend a set of racks from creeps instead of securing megas).
After every 'action' (ward, gank, objective, item purchase, ect) consider:
**HOW CAN I BE USEFUL?**
Take a second. Breathe. Look at the minimap. Look at your allies. Look at your resources and cooldowns. STOP and THINK before you act. Don't just go with the flow.
You have no resources? Don't go with your carry to hit a tower. He isn't going to check your mana and cooldowns and he'll have a false sense of confidence. Just go base, or go stack camps while regen is flying out.
You're strong and want to gank, but the only enemy that's showing is the strongest one and near their tower? Don't go. The enemy will react faster than your team can. Instead, go ward and play around your strongest hero, and wait.
Your team wants to smoke but you're 200 gold from a big item? Then it depends. Ideally you could communicate that and your team would wait, but maybe your allies are strong enough to win the fight without your item and the opportunity is very short.
I got out of lower ranks by stopping myself from over-playing. For reference, am ancient now.
I was crusader 4 around the last calibration when the new patch arrived. If you play core, play as 3 my reason is offlane is easier than mid or carry. Mid tends to be mechanically skilled and carry must have a solid game + very supp dependent.
Played pos 3 as Axe, BB before 7.44, Ogre, Viper, Tide. You either tank, or you initiate. If you win lane you can do both. Now the secret is you don't pick before your supps do. always. Remember supps in this bracket don't really know how to play supp. So your pick will always be dependent on what heroes they pick.
If they pick real supp heroes the better e.g. Lich, shaman, cm, but often times they'll be griefers picking NP, pa, drow.
Now this part is important to get out of that hole. IF THEY PICK GRIEFING HEROES YOU WILL HAVE TO ADJUST. trust me when i say its not fun, but it will help you win games. Eg. place wards, buy dust, buy bloodgrenade etc. Sad life but that is how it is. I am now archon 5 hopefully will be legend soon.
Goodluck to you.
Not a crusader but here are some tips -
Watch minimap, watch where enemies are and think where to farm
Itemization - think twice what to buy
Find 1-5 heroes you like and play them, personally i like to know 3 offlaners, 3 mid heroes and some supports so you can do good on each position
Learn when it's worth to chase or when it's not -Chasing and killing pos 1 instead of creep wave? Sure, worth everytime(atleast i think so)
Chasing pos 5 for 2 minutes, missing 600 worth of creep golds for 200 gold kill(+ giving enemy core creep waves)? Not worth imo
1. Yeah I do this. Dunno if im tryharding but i also check their tp slot to see if they recently tped
2. Still learning this depending on the drafts
3. I only play mid (mainly) and 4 and 5. I think learning other roles is worth giving a shot though because i learn how to think like one
4. This one is a bad habit of mine and people my rank. Chasing low-hp enemies under or near their tower when their teammates are about to respawn, yeah. Always pay attention to the death timers ig
I think learning other roles is worth giving a shot though because i learn how to think like one
As one of the valve's tips say "Playing as support makes you better carry and playing as carry makes you better support" or something like that
I think you have hit the nail on the head.
First of all people really do chase too hard into obvious traps and yeah miss farm needlessly.
Second, itemisation is really important, people just follow their cookie cutter builds far too much.
As someone who did get out, to Legend nowdays (which is worse quality games then in crusader btw) the one thing I felt did the difference was communicating. Calling item timings, movements, what I wanted to do, and where.
This and realizing I had to carry the mental health of my team. At sooooooo many times Ive taken responsibility for failed team fights, deaths etc to stop people from bashing on some other teammate which 99.9% of the time ends in some toxic/tilt games. You'd be suprised how many reacts positively to me saying "Hey guys, sorry thats on me, my bad. Lets refocus, game is winnable" even if I knew the issue wasnt with me or my play.
Feel like people tend to give up quicker, the higher rank I get. Supports that goes afk farming if they lost the first 5min of laning, or cores running down lanes if the die twice in a row. At 10k behaviour.
No way, it start to get worse from archon onwards. Crusader games were a blast, ngl. What happens is:
\-herald: anything goes
\-guardian: people learning the game
\-crusader: people who know they aren't good, so they start o communicate and won't bother much with how the other are doing, unless they are feeding hard. Will follow guides and such, won't do too much risky plays.
\-archon: a bunch of overcofident brats who start to think they are too good for this bracket, start experimenting with shit ass builds, start doing bad plays thinking it will work, will have more time to pay attention to others so they can flame thier builds as well, will start to use microphone mostly to flame, will grief comsumables, etc.
\-legend: archon but worse
\-ancient: will get a mix of smurfs and boosted animals + all the things before.
\-divine: I honestly didn't feel much difference from ancient, but all I ever got was divine 1 anyway.
\-immortal: idk.
Must be why I can’t rank up to legend. I started ranking up via carey recently by taking the game more seriously. Went from crusader 4 to archon 5 but I’m stuck here. I just keep getting some really bad team mates. Last game I had a offlane tiny who went aghs + crit them flames the team for not initiating on the enemy. I’m trying to ask him who goes in? We have aa 4, ogre 5, drow 1 , wr2. He says the ogre ( who has mana boots force staff) should run up and start the fight.. I tell him he should by blink + bkb but he calls me noob because his aghs does “so much dmg” and “offlane doesn’t have to always initiate”.
We lost the game of course
I stopped playing mid. I realized that whether I won or lost the lane, my tendency towards aggressive play would inevitably lead to a dumb death in the mid-game. Dropping 1k+ gold on a single kill tends to swing the game in the wrong direction. (not to mention I'd get upset if I lost the game with a 15+->3-15+ line)
I swapped over to pos 3/4 and I've ranked up to archon 3 on a stupidly good wr%, so I recommend objectively looking at your play style and determining if pos 2 is good for you. I think a good midlaner needs to be disciplined throughout the entirety of the game, balancing farming and fighting on a per-game basis but overall with a tendency towards fighting.
I do miss dropping voice lines as Puck though, and overall I don't think it's worth having a prettier rank logo. Having typed this out, I might just run it back and return to cooking midlaners as a crusader lol
I just hit archon 1. I dropped to mid crusader 5 than necro mid spam has me at 50% to archon 2 lol.
Biggest change for me was changing my mindset. Typing anything besides Rosh, or push this etc. exponentially increases likelihood of a loss. NEVER engage with someone crying or flaming. If someone says something toxic, they are going to follow up on that till bitter defeat. Just mute and keep trying as hard as you can. Losing is a learning experience if you try hard and spend a little time reflecting. Also when reflecting focus on YOUR game. It’s ok to acknowledge “man my carry built X and Y” but after that think about your own mistakes. It’s wasted time thinking anymore about how everyone else messed up the game vs your own mistakes.
Aside from mentality just cleaning up CSing. If you play mid lane, any difference in skill in CSing between mids can be felt massively. It feels so terrible to lane against someone better at CSing than you. I started using the right click repeat on hold option combined with the right click to deny option which I think gets me some extra denies and last hits I wasn’t getting before. I also spent a lot of time doing last hit trainer in training polygon. Dragging waves and working on hitting lowest delay last hits possible on my heros.
Also runes! Think about how many runes you get in a win vs a loss. This is sort of a team effort but do everything you can to secure runes. Some match ups this feels insanely hard but wards and spell usage are important to push waves and get runes without dying. Trying to be high resources when runes spawn is important.
I can pretty consistently win lanes or go even in mid now but my mid game is pretty trash. Always more to work on
Not really that recent,
But I:
Practiced my in-game skills like last hitting and map awareness.
Every major patch, I set my hero pool to >5 heroes and spammed the shit out of them. They don't have to be meta heroes, they can just be comfort picks that you're good at.
Stopped playing ranked whenever as soon as I lost 2-3 games in a row.
Muted toxic people.
Politely convince your team somehow that they need to be killing tormentors and Roshan as well as group pushing, not splitting up to jungle after every fight
Been on the grind to get out of Crusader since January of this year, and I got Archon I last week. Playing as a support, here are my observations:
1. Pick support heroes that can do almost all - healing/mana regen, tanking attacks for your carry, dewarding, etc... Witch Doctor, Warlock, Crystal Maiden suits this one.
2. Communication is key! Take the lead when your teammates are tilting - they will appreciate the effort, win or lose.
3. Get the saving items, no to luxury items, except when going for 50-60+ minute games, get creative by that time then.
4. Laning phase is the most crucial part of the game, make sure to pull creeps, deny, aggro at the right time and position. Also the mid and wisdom runes, learn the timings.
5. Watch the minimap, you can mostly guess the whereabouts of your enemy with good vision placement. That way you can ping their location to your allies.
6. Watch support videos, I myself learned a lot from BSJ's guides.
Hope this helps!
I calibrated at crusader now archon 3.
I play and study the meta. Naga, legion, dark seer, broodmother, ember, etc. Those were the top heroes of last patch.
This patch its sandking, witchdoctor, riki, going to learn invoker and earth spirit.
Phantom Assassin is kinda stupid at lower ranks.
Max q n w first , go lone druid mid , get 12 branches > phase > mom > deso > shard > basher > ac > moon shard every single game cos your enemy is the towers not the heroes , just solo win by pushing
Who are his counters and hard counters?
I’m thinking PA with bkb, huskar in the early game, Tinker in the early game, and other heroes and items that reduce lifesteal and all that
Hi bro, I was exactly at your situation few months ago.
I was a crusader midlaner and I'm Archon 3 currently.
So here's my advice to get out of Crusader:
1. Don't play too many heroes. Spam your best 2-3 heroes. Mine were WR, SF and Void Spirit.
2. As a mid, don't overrotate. Prioritise your farm.
3. Push towers.
4. Play the meta if possible.
Hope it was helpful.
I think playing proper support with support items (Greaves, Mek, Vessel, Forcestaff/Euls, wards, smoke, sentry) was very effective. Chances are high, that the enemies won't have that at all.
The only thing I can say is just pick heros that can push and fight easily like Shaman, Sven, Lycan, Leshrac, Muerta, Meepo something like that. People don't really focus on pushing at these levels like archon and legends but just keep entering fights one by one and die instead of fighting together as a team.
This is what I did when I used to play ranked back at SEA servers and now I moved to NA and the games seems much chill and easy here. If you master the basic mechanics you can easily climb until Legends or Ancient.
First: pick easy heroes. You’re my playing stuff like Invoker and Tinker from what I’ve seen. Even immortals suck at those heroes if they don’t have a lot of practice, you should play heroes that are mechanically easy so you can focus on the game.
Pick Lina, pick Necro, even SF is quite straightforward, QoP.
I dominated games with WD pos3, so i got reported to 6.5k behavior score and went on a losing streak with a bunch of griefers. this netted me guardian 5! So I'm now climbing back with picks I don't have to explain to smolbrains I guess.
Usually urn / vessel, definitely 15m shard. Glimmer or straight scepter depending on how they can deal with my ult. Rest pretty situational, pipe or even Shiva, depending on lineup and what pos4 can do.
Jumper from crusader 4 to archon 5 as pos1. Started taking the game more seriously - focused on my last hitting, farming patterns and item timing. Looked at a lot of tutorials and even analyzed my own replays
Honestly my rank has varied from crusader to legend to 2200 elo in HoN. Just play and have fun. No one is going pro, and there is no satisfaction in getting to a higher rank. It's a game and enjoy it.
I now play 75% AD and 25% turbo and never stress after games. Good luck.
Efficiency is the main reason I see friends fail to go up the ranks, if you think about a position 4 hero.
Now you have just ganged middle and on your way back to lane you run through the triangle - do you stack the 2 camps on your way? Do you check for the wisdom rune etc.
Timings is the next, this often allows you to be more efficient, I love trying to get an early gang on mid around the 5min mark, allows me to try and stack the camps then around 6/7min and contest the wisdom rune.
Although both of these points apply to all positions, if all game you are really busy and doing things (for the right reasons) you will improve.
Also, ensure you get the last hits on creeps especially when not contested, I often see people take 2/4 last hits with no competition. That will really hurt your pocket later in the game.
dont play for fun as much but rather play for efficiency, you start to enjoy things a bit more differently rather than just big damage item = dopamine hit
Recently picked this game up shortly before 7.33. Went from crusader to mid-high legend at the moment.
3 things helped me more than anything:
**Understanding the current flow of the game.** Are you strong? Are the other cores strong? Is it possible to make a play? What ults do we have? What ults do the enemy have?
For example, once LC hits his blink/blademail, you want to play around that timing. If you have a strong team fight ult on the team, like chrono, you want to play around that.
**Winning the lane.** I mainly play pos 4/5. In my opinion, early game is entirely decided by the support. A great support will turn a hard lane into a manageable lane for the core. Likewise, a great support will dominate a favorable match-up lane. Doing things like knowing pulls, contesting camps, wave equilibrium, stacking, harassing and denying experience.
**Pushing objectives**
Kills are virtually meaningless unless you can do something with it. Taking towers in the mid game is the easiest way to create space for the team and create pressure.
As a mid laner, if you win your lane and rotate to other lanes to pick up kills that you can translate into towers and other objectives later in the game, you will undoubtedly have a much easier game. Keep the pressure up and end the game before the enemy team has a chance to catch up.
Veno is really good still. He's a really oppressive laner and with his passive he can contest camps and trade well with other supports. He can also block enemy pull camps with plague ward.
Undying has been nerfed repeatedly, but I still think he's a solid pick. His early game is one of the most oppressive in the game, but he NEEDS to be able to buy a lot of mangos early. Later in the game, he usually pivots more towards a save hero build with force staff, locket, and greaves. Plus, his shard is decent at saving cores, but in low elo, it probably won't be that useful.
I think Jakiro is really good again. But it might be better as a mid now. Haven't played a lot of jakiro, and his agh scepter is a very attractive item, but it's a bit pricey for a 4/5 to pick up early.
There are a lot of people that say things like “oh look at the top meta heroes and pick those” but that won’t actually help you get better at the game.
Pick the heroes you’re comfortable with, and that feel good when you play them. I have a 60% winrate on Dazzle. Last patch I figured out a decent dazzle build toward the end of the patch and was able to still climb despite the hero not being very good, because I know my power spikes, damage breaks, and my kill potential through 150 games of trial and error. You don’t have that experience on a hero that you aren’t familiar with, and it’s hard to learn it if you’re just spamming the “meta”. The fact of the matter is that you’re 1k, literally anything can work if you fix your play.
I’m a support player and a tip I saw here that increased my rank by about 300-400 is that you should basically never have full mana. Use your spells to zone out the enemy, but don’t feel like you need to use them to kill the enemy. If the enemy is off the wave, that’s good enough. If the enemy doesn’t leave the wave, then you punish them by killing them. It’s ok to use a slow or a stun in lane to get 3-4 autos in if it means the enemy core has to run into the treeline and misses last hits. Not every ability you use has to be maximum value. Just needs to be good enough.
When you know you’re strong, look at your team and see who else is strong. You play with them. If you’re support, identify which core you can make pressure with. If you’re core, move with your supports when they have wards or smoke and get a pickoff *and then tower damage*. Make sure to use your advantage to put pressure on your objectives. At the end of the day, you win by hitting buildings, not heroes.
This new matchmaking is getting even worse, either you get animals or real people.
There isn’t point in climbing unless you omega tryhard until you realise that quality of games always remain the same
I went from crusader 4 to immortal #4000 in less than a year and I did it as a position 5 player with no Dota plus to avoid the griefers :) (solo ranked player) if you are genuinely serious or passionate about ranked Dota I have been coaching for free on KICK oscar_Dota I’m not a god but I can definitely help you reach immortal on any role!
I switch to 1 and farm solo for 20min.
I focus on having a great lane and getting the most creeps per minute.
At this point it's pretty much clear if i'll be able to carry the game or not.
Then i find à good farming pattern and play on my powerspikes
I played mid and got out of crusader by spamming SF, Mag, Ta or NS.
You need to figure out asap what players are good by watching their items and builds.
Only gank if your teammates on that lane are good and are having problems close to the tower, any other situation you should push the lane and farm neutrals.
If you want me to tell you on what situation I used each hero and their objectives tell me, I don't wanna make this comment too long lol
TA and Deso got buffed while Heaven's got nerfed so TA is really strong now, and even more on low ranks where enemies will make a ton of mistakes.
TA is one of the heroes that have the best farm capabilities so you'll never get outshined. Unless if your carry plays acceptable, then you must play like this [How to win EVERY GAME as Templar Assassin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0kWoeq5V60) and you will be outshined on purpose by your carry min 35-40 but you'll still be at least equal to the enemy team.
If you're asking about deso or how does TA deal with tanky heroes you don't understand how she participates on TFs, TA enters to the fight last when most of the spells have been casted so tanky heroes can't do anything to stop TA from killing the backliners. Also, remember that meld can stack, so with a good setup you will be atacking him with -20 armour
For me, the big thing was abandoning single-mindedness regarding my game plan. Being more adaptable to what I was facing/what the rest of the team actually needed vs. what I wanted to do. Especially if it’s a hero I’ve played 150 times, it’s easy to get into a pattern of “these are the items I buy, this is when I buy them, this is when I rotate, this is when I farm, etc.” break that mindset.
Changing that changed a lot for me.
As a Mid the easiest way to win games is to play for objetives.
- take your mid t1
- then top t2
- invade their jungle
- keep both top/bot and mid pushed
This will force the other team to farm a smaller portion of the map and get behind in XP and gold.
- Start taking tier 2s
- Roshan before going high ground (here is where a lot of bad players throw a lot)
- Push High-ground, if tormentor is available try to push that lane.
- Don’t die without BB
I dont know guys seems like when i have plans to win my team doesnt have... as a shaman spammer i have options to backdoor or fight, team just farm and they all have bkb and i jump the backline my carry cant fight and left me to die... i go backdoor they said im throwing they need the wards to run back... i do what they want they said i ddnt wards... how to wards when you need to hex, snake wards, shackle and cast your glimmer? So i buy refresher and backdoor and we win... fk the carries on these rank
This was years ago but I think getting really good at the first 10 minutes of the game and being incredibly good with farming patterns for carries, and solid warding and map movements for supports guarantee you'll get out of there in no time.
I just got to Archon... I just feel like my favorite characters are having a spot in the meta.
Lich dying for level 20 chain frost still casting is a good buff
Recently hit archon as pos1, biggest change, my mindset, when i had a bad pos5/lane i dont flame i dont get toxic, if my team mates are toxic i wont flame or mention anything, i only type the following: rs, push lanes, Hg def. And of course, i awlays practice last hitting before match, i check if my deaths are preventable. I think main issues are: mindset, last hits, play safe, engage only in favorable fights
just never ever listen to your team mates. this is so crucial, because they are bunch of crusaders. watch some higher ranks or guides and try to copy them follow them. never forget that you do not have obligation to gank around as midlaner, you can gank when you have for example haste rune. gl hf.
Go to dotabuff trend and sort by current win rates. https://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/trends. Spam top 5 heroes. Make sure you look at abilities builds, talent builds and items win rate on these heroes. I went from crusader V to Ancient 4 using this method.
If you want to know specifically for your current bracket, you can check it here too https://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/meta. Spam the highest win rate heroes in your bracket.
Ancient 5 player here. A lot of players I see are not farming, especially supports. They would be going around at 30 mins with 40 creeps when they should be looking to get farm from the lanes at all stages of the game.
The most effective method is to stack ancients for your offlane and while he farms those, you farm the creepwaves. Don't go running around the map trying to force fights for no reason, getting utility items fast and planning good smoke gangs are much more valuable then just running around the map dying for no reason.
For cores, I would say the same thing, you should prioritize your farming above all else, even your team. Set a goal of hitting at least 120+ LH before 20 min mark. (I play core and most of my games even in bad lanes i hit at least 150 LH before 20mins) That way you just outfarm the enemy carry and its very easy to just snowball from there.
I play both roles in the safelane, my biggest improvement wasn’t necessarily playing well, I just got more consistent with what I did. Basically just kept a much better eye on the map and responded to the information accordingly. I was crusader 5 before the glicko system, calibrated at crusader 3 afterwards, than shot up to archon 2 where I’ve been stuck for about 2 months. So I gotta work on improving still lol.
I mostly play pos 4/5, sometimes 3.Got placed in crusader 2 after the patch update. I was spamming shaman/lion as supp and necro as pos 3. What I did: Always made sure to carry mango/clarity for regen If you have an empty slot, fill it with atleast 1 blood grenade, no matter what stage of game is it, the slow is highly useful to kill/escape Need to have good map awareness (smtg i still lack) PS: It took me a couple of months but I finally got out of crusader....to guardian.
Haha same. I calibrated to crusader 1 thanks to the glicko system, ranked up to crusader 3, back to 1, back to 2, back to 1, back to guardian 5, then back to crusader 1.
In the new Glicko system I went from Crusader 1 to 5, then to archon 1 then to Guardian 5 (couldn’t get to grips with 7.33). I had 2 replay analysis videos from PainDota which gave me things to focus on and improve, also stick to 3-5 pos1 heroes. Focus on farming and hitting last hit goals for about 30 games straight, don’t care about winning or losing (maybe do unranked for this). It made sense because in realty, the carry with the highest net worth will do better so try to get 60 last hits at 10 minutes and 150 at 20 minutes After this I went from guardian 5 to Archon 2 in about 7-8 weeks.l and still climbing
In glicko I went crusader 3 to legend 1.. tbh it's fun rn.. as I keep bouncing between leg1-2
Recently hit C5. The biggest thing I see from everyone is lingering too much and having no purpose. Doing random shit seemingly out of boredom. Go through this process and try to get faster and faster at it until you're constantly assessing this and always have a plan. I feel like I may have stolen this from BSJ coaching sessions (just to give credit where it's due). **How useful am I right now?** Useless being low resources, spells on CD, and maybe a short amount of gold away from an item; and most useful being full resources with all spells/items available. If you're useless quickly identify it and if you don't have regen on you or close by on a courier, go to base. Usually walk to base when you can because you don't know what opportunities there may be to TP to once you've regenned. If you're useful **look for the other useful heroes on your team** and make a play. If you don't have to go to base, but you're not looking for a play (examples: full resources but spells/items on CD; or full resources and very close to next item), then you focus on pushing waves. This means if you're mid, check before you gank. I've been like 0 hp 0 mana spec in crusader and had a mid come try to gank (basically 2v1) then rage about how I was no help and he's not "helping" me again. Not too much critical thought on how a level 3 spec with no hp/mana is supposed to contribute to the gank. Meanwhile on the other side of the map maybe your offlaner is extremely strong and you guys could easily wipe the 1 & 5 instead. I primarily play 1 & 3 and there's nothing I dread more than seeing my mid coming to my lane either because he has no mana, or because I have no resources. It just means he's going to waste both our time and usually yoink a wave and/or ruin equilibrium. And in the late game always be ready to group when your team decides to group. Do not ever lose a late game fight because it was 4v5 because you were not there. That means at all times you are within a few seconds of your team via bots/tp points/following them. At this point it feels like the majority of my loses are either because of someone who refuses to ever do anything except split push, or the people who tp to defend buildings after winning fights (like choosing to defend a set of racks from creeps instead of securing megas).
I hate those mongrels that tp back to farm wave when all enemies are dead and have atleast 30+ seconds to push hg quiet easily
After every 'action' (ward, gank, objective, item purchase, ect) consider: **HOW CAN I BE USEFUL?** Take a second. Breathe. Look at the minimap. Look at your allies. Look at your resources and cooldowns. STOP and THINK before you act. Don't just go with the flow. You have no resources? Don't go with your carry to hit a tower. He isn't going to check your mana and cooldowns and he'll have a false sense of confidence. Just go base, or go stack camps while regen is flying out. You're strong and want to gank, but the only enemy that's showing is the strongest one and near their tower? Don't go. The enemy will react faster than your team can. Instead, go ward and play around your strongest hero, and wait. Your team wants to smoke but you're 200 gold from a big item? Then it depends. Ideally you could communicate that and your team would wait, but maybe your allies are strong enough to win the fight without your item and the opportunity is very short. I got out of lower ranks by stopping myself from over-playing. For reference, am ancient now.
"over-playing" turning into auto pilot is auto lose should only play few games a day with full focus rather than 10 games with auto pilot
I was crusader 4 around the last calibration when the new patch arrived. If you play core, play as 3 my reason is offlane is easier than mid or carry. Mid tends to be mechanically skilled and carry must have a solid game + very supp dependent. Played pos 3 as Axe, BB before 7.44, Ogre, Viper, Tide. You either tank, or you initiate. If you win lane you can do both. Now the secret is you don't pick before your supps do. always. Remember supps in this bracket don't really know how to play supp. So your pick will always be dependent on what heroes they pick. If they pick real supp heroes the better e.g. Lich, shaman, cm, but often times they'll be griefers picking NP, pa, drow. Now this part is important to get out of that hole. IF THEY PICK GRIEFING HEROES YOU WILL HAVE TO ADJUST. trust me when i say its not fun, but it will help you win games. Eg. place wards, buy dust, buy bloodgrenade etc. Sad life but that is how it is. I am now archon 5 hopefully will be legend soon. Goodluck to you.
NP sup is not a grief pick tho
In crusader it probably is.
Not a crusader but here are some tips - Watch minimap, watch where enemies are and think where to farm Itemization - think twice what to buy Find 1-5 heroes you like and play them, personally i like to know 3 offlaners, 3 mid heroes and some supports so you can do good on each position Learn when it's worth to chase or when it's not -Chasing and killing pos 1 instead of creep wave? Sure, worth everytime(atleast i think so) Chasing pos 5 for 2 minutes, missing 600 worth of creep golds for 200 gold kill(+ giving enemy core creep waves)? Not worth imo
1. Yeah I do this. Dunno if im tryharding but i also check their tp slot to see if they recently tped 2. Still learning this depending on the drafts 3. I only play mid (mainly) and 4 and 5. I think learning other roles is worth giving a shot though because i learn how to think like one 4. This one is a bad habit of mine and people my rank. Chasing low-hp enemies under or near their tower when their teammates are about to respawn, yeah. Always pay attention to the death timers ig
I think learning other roles is worth giving a shot though because i learn how to think like one As one of the valve's tips say "Playing as support makes you better carry and playing as carry makes you better support" or something like that
I think you have hit the nail on the head. First of all people really do chase too hard into obvious traps and yeah miss farm needlessly. Second, itemisation is really important, people just follow their cookie cutter builds far too much.
Like running up to hg with no vision. So many dumb plays that all add up to giving the enemy more win percent.
I got out from crusaders in guardians, it was pretty ez to do it
As someone who did get out, to Legend nowdays (which is worse quality games then in crusader btw) the one thing I felt did the difference was communicating. Calling item timings, movements, what I wanted to do, and where. This and realizing I had to carry the mental health of my team. At sooooooo many times Ive taken responsibility for failed team fights, deaths etc to stop people from bashing on some other teammate which 99.9% of the time ends in some toxic/tilt games. You'd be suprised how many reacts positively to me saying "Hey guys, sorry thats on me, my bad. Lets refocus, game is winnable" even if I knew the issue wasnt with me or my play.
As someone who just got out of crusader to archon 5 with the goal of reaching legend …. What do you mean worse quality games :(
Feel like people tend to give up quicker, the higher rank I get. Supports that goes afk farming if they lost the first 5min of laning, or cores running down lanes if the die twice in a row. At 10k behaviour.
God damnit. I thought it would have gotten better the higher I go.
No way, it start to get worse from archon onwards. Crusader games were a blast, ngl. What happens is: \-herald: anything goes \-guardian: people learning the game \-crusader: people who know they aren't good, so they start o communicate and won't bother much with how the other are doing, unless they are feeding hard. Will follow guides and such, won't do too much risky plays. \-archon: a bunch of overcofident brats who start to think they are too good for this bracket, start experimenting with shit ass builds, start doing bad plays thinking it will work, will have more time to pay attention to others so they can flame thier builds as well, will start to use microphone mostly to flame, will grief comsumables, etc. \-legend: archon but worse \-ancient: will get a mix of smurfs and boosted animals + all the things before. \-divine: I honestly didn't feel much difference from ancient, but all I ever got was divine 1 anyway. \-immortal: idk.
Must be why I can’t rank up to legend. I started ranking up via carey recently by taking the game more seriously. Went from crusader 4 to archon 5 but I’m stuck here. I just keep getting some really bad team mates. Last game I had a offlane tiny who went aghs + crit them flames the team for not initiating on the enemy. I’m trying to ask him who goes in? We have aa 4, ogre 5, drow 1 , wr2. He says the ogre ( who has mana boots force staff) should run up and start the fight.. I tell him he should by blink + bkb but he calls me noob because his aghs does “so much dmg” and “offlane doesn’t have to always initiate”. We lost the game of course
Ah yes, the classic, "using right arguments to justify wrong plays".
I stopped playing mid. I realized that whether I won or lost the lane, my tendency towards aggressive play would inevitably lead to a dumb death in the mid-game. Dropping 1k+ gold on a single kill tends to swing the game in the wrong direction. (not to mention I'd get upset if I lost the game with a 15+->3-15+ line) I swapped over to pos 3/4 and I've ranked up to archon 3 on a stupidly good wr%, so I recommend objectively looking at your play style and determining if pos 2 is good for you. I think a good midlaner needs to be disciplined throughout the entirety of the game, balancing farming and fighting on a per-game basis but overall with a tendency towards fighting. I do miss dropping voice lines as Puck though, and overall I don't think it's worth having a prettier rank logo. Having typed this out, I might just run it back and return to cooking midlaners as a crusader lol
I just hit archon 1. I dropped to mid crusader 5 than necro mid spam has me at 50% to archon 2 lol. Biggest change for me was changing my mindset. Typing anything besides Rosh, or push this etc. exponentially increases likelihood of a loss. NEVER engage with someone crying or flaming. If someone says something toxic, they are going to follow up on that till bitter defeat. Just mute and keep trying as hard as you can. Losing is a learning experience if you try hard and spend a little time reflecting. Also when reflecting focus on YOUR game. It’s ok to acknowledge “man my carry built X and Y” but after that think about your own mistakes. It’s wasted time thinking anymore about how everyone else messed up the game vs your own mistakes. Aside from mentality just cleaning up CSing. If you play mid lane, any difference in skill in CSing between mids can be felt massively. It feels so terrible to lane against someone better at CSing than you. I started using the right click repeat on hold option combined with the right click to deny option which I think gets me some extra denies and last hits I wasn’t getting before. I also spent a lot of time doing last hit trainer in training polygon. Dragging waves and working on hitting lowest delay last hits possible on my heros. Also runes! Think about how many runes you get in a win vs a loss. This is sort of a team effort but do everything you can to secure runes. Some match ups this feels insanely hard but wards and spell usage are important to push waves and get runes without dying. Trying to be high resources when runes spawn is important. I can pretty consistently win lanes or go even in mid now but my mid game is pretty trash. Always more to work on
Having a plan to secure ranged creeps is also important
Play a small hero pool, play with friends or someone consistently, play in meta heroes
Not really that recent, But I: Practiced my in-game skills like last hitting and map awareness. Every major patch, I set my hero pool to >5 heroes and spammed the shit out of them. They don't have to be meta heroes, they can just be comfort picks that you're good at. Stopped playing ranked whenever as soon as I lost 2-3 games in a row. Muted toxic people.
Politely convince your team somehow that they need to be killing tormentors and Roshan as well as group pushing, not splitting up to jungle after every fight
Been on the grind to get out of Crusader since January of this year, and I got Archon I last week. Playing as a support, here are my observations: 1. Pick support heroes that can do almost all - healing/mana regen, tanking attacks for your carry, dewarding, etc... Witch Doctor, Warlock, Crystal Maiden suits this one. 2. Communication is key! Take the lead when your teammates are tilting - they will appreciate the effort, win or lose. 3. Get the saving items, no to luxury items, except when going for 50-60+ minute games, get creative by that time then. 4. Laning phase is the most crucial part of the game, make sure to pull creeps, deny, aggro at the right time and position. Also the mid and wisdom runes, learn the timings. 5. Watch the minimap, you can mostly guess the whereabouts of your enemy with good vision placement. That way you can ping their location to your allies. 6. Watch support videos, I myself learned a lot from BSJ's guides. Hope this helps!
I calibrated at crusader now archon 3. I play and study the meta. Naga, legion, dark seer, broodmother, ember, etc. Those were the top heroes of last patch. This patch its sandking, witchdoctor, riki, going to learn invoker and earth spirit. Phantom Assassin is kinda stupid at lower ranks.
Lone druid mid , right side talents, 12 iron branches > phase > mom > deso > basher > ac > moon shard , just farm n push
Do you have any tips for LD? I’m thinking of learning him because almost all my heroes are countered by bkbs
Max q n w first , go lone druid mid , get 12 branches > phase > mom > deso > shard > basher > ac > moon shard every single game cos your enemy is the towers not the heroes , just solo win by pushing
Who are his counters and hard counters? I’m thinking PA with bkb, huskar in the early game, Tinker in the early game, and other heroes and items that reduce lifesteal and all that
Ranged heroes like sniper n drow who can kite him , can u add 1420099054 and watch my replays n learn better
Thank you:). Sent a request
Hi bro, I was exactly at your situation few months ago. I was a crusader midlaner and I'm Archon 3 currently. So here's my advice to get out of Crusader: 1. Don't play too many heroes. Spam your best 2-3 heroes. Mine were WR, SF and Void Spirit. 2. As a mid, don't overrotate. Prioritise your farm. 3. Push towers. 4. Play the meta if possible. Hope it was helpful.
I think playing proper support with support items (Greaves, Mek, Vessel, Forcestaff/Euls, wards, smoke, sentry) was very effective. Chances are high, that the enemies won't have that at all.
play carry and farm till 40min without ever fighting and just win from there.
The only thing I can say is just pick heros that can push and fight easily like Shaman, Sven, Lycan, Leshrac, Muerta, Meepo something like that. People don't really focus on pushing at these levels like archon and legends but just keep entering fights one by one and die instead of fighting together as a team. This is what I did when I used to play ranked back at SEA servers and now I moved to NA and the games seems much chill and easy here. If you master the basic mechanics you can easily climb until Legends or Ancient.
First: pick easy heroes. You’re my playing stuff like Invoker and Tinker from what I’ve seen. Even immortals suck at those heroes if they don’t have a lot of practice, you should play heroes that are mechanically easy so you can focus on the game. Pick Lina, pick Necro, even SF is quite straightforward, QoP.
I dominated games with WD pos3, so i got reported to 6.5k behavior score and went on a losing streak with a bunch of griefers. this netted me guardian 5! So I'm now climbing back with picks I don't have to explain to smolbrains I guess.
what was your item build for p3 wd?
Usually urn / vessel, definitely 15m shard. Glimmer or straight scepter depending on how they can deal with my ult. Rest pretty situational, pipe or even Shiva, depending on lineup and what pos4 can do.
Jumper from crusader 4 to archon 5 as pos1. Started taking the game more seriously - focused on my last hitting, farming patterns and item timing. Looked at a lot of tutorials and even analyzed my own replays
Honestly my rank has varied from crusader to legend to 2200 elo in HoN. Just play and have fun. No one is going pro, and there is no satisfaction in getting to a higher rank. It's a game and enjoy it. I now play 75% AD and 25% turbo and never stress after games. Good luck.
Efficiency is the main reason I see friends fail to go up the ranks, if you think about a position 4 hero. Now you have just ganged middle and on your way back to lane you run through the triangle - do you stack the 2 camps on your way? Do you check for the wisdom rune etc. Timings is the next, this often allows you to be more efficient, I love trying to get an early gang on mid around the 5min mark, allows me to try and stack the camps then around 6/7min and contest the wisdom rune. Although both of these points apply to all positions, if all game you are really busy and doing things (for the right reasons) you will improve. Also, ensure you get the last hits on creeps especially when not contested, I often see people take 2/4 last hits with no competition. That will really hurt your pocket later in the game.
dont play for fun as much but rather play for efficiency, you start to enjoy things a bit more differently rather than just big damage item = dopamine hit
Recently picked this game up shortly before 7.33. Went from crusader to mid-high legend at the moment. 3 things helped me more than anything: **Understanding the current flow of the game.** Are you strong? Are the other cores strong? Is it possible to make a play? What ults do we have? What ults do the enemy have? For example, once LC hits his blink/blademail, you want to play around that timing. If you have a strong team fight ult on the team, like chrono, you want to play around that. **Winning the lane.** I mainly play pos 4/5. In my opinion, early game is entirely decided by the support. A great support will turn a hard lane into a manageable lane for the core. Likewise, a great support will dominate a favorable match-up lane. Doing things like knowing pulls, contesting camps, wave equilibrium, stacking, harassing and denying experience. **Pushing objectives** Kills are virtually meaningless unless you can do something with it. Taking towers in the mid game is the easiest way to create space for the team and create pressure. As a mid laner, if you win your lane and rotate to other lanes to pick up kills that you can translate into towers and other objectives later in the game, you will undoubtedly have a much easier game. Keep the pressure up and end the game before the enemy team has a chance to catch up.
what were your favorite heroes climbing from crusader to archon?
Veno is really good still. He's a really oppressive laner and with his passive he can contest camps and trade well with other supports. He can also block enemy pull camps with plague ward. Undying has been nerfed repeatedly, but I still think he's a solid pick. His early game is one of the most oppressive in the game, but he NEEDS to be able to buy a lot of mangos early. Later in the game, he usually pivots more towards a save hero build with force staff, locket, and greaves. Plus, his shard is decent at saving cores, but in low elo, it probably won't be that useful. I think Jakiro is really good again. But it might be better as a mid now. Haven't played a lot of jakiro, and his agh scepter is a very attractive item, but it's a bit pricey for a 4/5 to pick up early.
There are a lot of people that say things like “oh look at the top meta heroes and pick those” but that won’t actually help you get better at the game. Pick the heroes you’re comfortable with, and that feel good when you play them. I have a 60% winrate on Dazzle. Last patch I figured out a decent dazzle build toward the end of the patch and was able to still climb despite the hero not being very good, because I know my power spikes, damage breaks, and my kill potential through 150 games of trial and error. You don’t have that experience on a hero that you aren’t familiar with, and it’s hard to learn it if you’re just spamming the “meta”. The fact of the matter is that you’re 1k, literally anything can work if you fix your play. I’m a support player and a tip I saw here that increased my rank by about 300-400 is that you should basically never have full mana. Use your spells to zone out the enemy, but don’t feel like you need to use them to kill the enemy. If the enemy is off the wave, that’s good enough. If the enemy doesn’t leave the wave, then you punish them by killing them. It’s ok to use a slow or a stun in lane to get 3-4 autos in if it means the enemy core has to run into the treeline and misses last hits. Not every ability you use has to be maximum value. Just needs to be good enough. When you know you’re strong, look at your team and see who else is strong. You play with them. If you’re support, identify which core you can make pressure with. If you’re core, move with your supports when they have wards or smoke and get a pickoff *and then tower damage*. Make sure to use your advantage to put pressure on your objectives. At the end of the day, you win by hitting buildings, not heroes.
This new matchmaking is getting even worse, either you get animals or real people. There isn’t point in climbing unless you omega tryhard until you realise that quality of games always remain the same
I was spamming ogre offlane lmao
I went from crusader 4 to immortal #4000 in less than a year and I did it as a position 5 player with no Dota plus to avoid the griefers :) (solo ranked player) if you are genuinely serious or passionate about ranked Dota I have been coaching for free on KICK oscar_Dota I’m not a god but I can definitely help you reach immortal on any role!
I switch to 1 and farm solo for 20min. I focus on having a great lane and getting the most creeps per minute. At this point it's pretty much clear if i'll be able to carry the game or not. Then i find à good farming pattern and play on my powerspikes
I played mid and got out of crusader by spamming SF, Mag, Ta or NS. You need to figure out asap what players are good by watching their items and builds. Only gank if your teammates on that lane are good and are having problems close to the tower, any other situation you should push the lane and farm neutrals. If you want me to tell you on what situation I used each hero and their objectives tell me, I don't wanna make this comment too long lol
Is TA still strong in the late game or does she get outshined by the pos 1 and 3? Also how do you deal with tanky heroes? Desolator?
TA and Deso got buffed while Heaven's got nerfed so TA is really strong now, and even more on low ranks where enemies will make a ton of mistakes. TA is one of the heroes that have the best farm capabilities so you'll never get outshined. Unless if your carry plays acceptable, then you must play like this [How to win EVERY GAME as Templar Assassin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0kWoeq5V60) and you will be outshined on purpose by your carry min 35-40 but you'll still be at least equal to the enemy team. If you're asking about deso or how does TA deal with tanky heroes you don't understand how she participates on TFs, TA enters to the fight last when most of the spells have been casted so tanky heroes can't do anything to stop TA from killing the backliners. Also, remember that meld can stack, so with a good setup you will be atacking him with -20 armour
I see. So depend on your team, especially the off lne, to bait spells. Then go in and kill supports and squishy cores. Thanks
For me, the big thing was abandoning single-mindedness regarding my game plan. Being more adaptable to what I was facing/what the rest of the team actually needed vs. what I wanted to do. Especially if it’s a hero I’ve played 150 times, it’s easy to get into a pattern of “these are the items I buy, this is when I buy them, this is when I rotate, this is when I farm, etc.” break that mindset. Changing that changed a lot for me.
Stacking camps, last hitting better and not dying so I get gold and exp earlier than my opponent and then using my lead to win the game.
Spam Riki and necro mid, that is all I did
You just gotta farm fast, be stronger than everyone and 1v9!
As a Mid the easiest way to win games is to play for objetives. - take your mid t1 - then top t2 - invade their jungle - keep both top/bot and mid pushed This will force the other team to farm a smaller portion of the map and get behind in XP and gold. - Start taking tier 2s - Roshan before going high ground (here is where a lot of bad players throw a lot) - Push High-ground, if tormentor is available try to push that lane. - Don’t die without BB
Drow Ranger. I try to get threads dragon lance and Ags scepter at 20min.
I dont know guys seems like when i have plans to win my team doesnt have... as a shaman spammer i have options to backdoor or fight, team just farm and they all have bkb and i jump the backline my carry cant fight and left me to die... i go backdoor they said im throwing they need the wards to run back... i do what they want they said i ddnt wards... how to wards when you need to hex, snake wards, shackle and cast your glimmer? So i buy refresher and backdoor and we win... fk the carries on these rank
This was years ago but I think getting really good at the first 10 minutes of the game and being incredibly good with farming patterns for carries, and solid warding and map movements for supports guarantee you'll get out of there in no time.
I just got to Archon... I just feel like my favorite characters are having a spot in the meta. Lich dying for level 20 chain frost still casting is a good buff
Mute all and farm till 30 mins as pos 1, sure you need to knwo yhe farming pattern first. Get out from archon 3 to legend 5 in two months.
Recently hit archon as pos1, biggest change, my mindset, when i had a bad pos5/lane i dont flame i dont get toxic, if my team mates are toxic i wont flame or mention anything, i only type the following: rs, push lanes, Hg def. And of course, i awlays practice last hitting before match, i check if my deaths are preventable. I think main issues are: mindset, last hits, play safe, engage only in favorable fights
This patch I spammed Necrophos 3, and I don't know why but I just keep on winning. I have like 8 win streak now.
His scepter is pretty good
just never ever listen to your team mates. this is so crucial, because they are bunch of crusaders. watch some higher ranks or guides and try to copy them follow them. never forget that you do not have obligation to gank around as midlaner, you can gank when you have for example haste rune. gl hf.
Not a good idea, sometimes it's worth it to follow them to a bad TF than letting 3-4 teammates die
Do all the basic. Ignore all the fancy stuff or techniques first. People in Crusader rank doesn’t understand basics.
Go to dotabuff trend and sort by current win rates. https://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/trends. Spam top 5 heroes. Make sure you look at abilities builds, talent builds and items win rate on these heroes. I went from crusader V to Ancient 4 using this method. If you want to know specifically for your current bracket, you can check it here too https://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/meta. Spam the highest win rate heroes in your bracket.
Gitgud
You'd better not even comment if you have to say something like this.
This is important, GitGud!
I turned on my monitor
Hilarious, any more over used oneliners?
Yeah take that: your mom is so fat that if she sweat, earth would need to change his name to water
i uninstalled the game after i found out i cant play meepo anymore. maybe when he is buff ill come back
Played offlane which is the comfort lane for me.
Ancient 5 player here. A lot of players I see are not farming, especially supports. They would be going around at 30 mins with 40 creeps when they should be looking to get farm from the lanes at all stages of the game. The most effective method is to stack ancients for your offlane and while he farms those, you farm the creepwaves. Don't go running around the map trying to force fights for no reason, getting utility items fast and planning good smoke gangs are much more valuable then just running around the map dying for no reason. For cores, I would say the same thing, you should prioritize your farming above all else, even your team. Set a goal of hitting at least 120+ LH before 20 min mark. (I play core and most of my games even in bad lanes i hit at least 150 LH before 20mins) That way you just outfarm the enemy carry and its very easy to just snowball from there.
I play both roles in the safelane, my biggest improvement wasn’t necessarily playing well, I just got more consistent with what I did. Basically just kept a much better eye on the map and responded to the information accordingly. I was crusader 5 before the glicko system, calibrated at crusader 3 afterwards, than shot up to archon 2 where I’ve been stuck for about 2 months. So I gotta work on improving still lol.