Entering the world of Dota 2 : Part 7

                          Entering the world of Dota 2 : Part 7

                                    

Welcome back to part 7 of Entering the world of Dota 2. Again sorry for not updating much but exams are finally over and I only have two projects left to deal with. This part is totally dedicated to surviving the hard lane. Now Hard lane doesn't mean you will always be facing a three man lane but it also means sometimes your up against a solo hero so it can also work like solo mid but except without runes. First off let's look at why a hero can solo the hard lane. A hero who can solo the hard lane usually needs a farming ability, an escape mechanism, or an ability that allows them to safely farm from afar. A good example of heroes who can survive the hard lane is mirana or what most people referred to as PotM. She has starfall which she can use to farm and harass, she has leap which is a good escape mechanism. She's got 600 range which means she can safely farm from afar. She is indeed my most successful hero and usually I have no problem farming hard lanes which a set of wards. The only problem I encounter is when up against heroes with silences. Bloodseeker is a good example of a hero who would wreck havoc on hard lane heroes, due to a simple 6 second silence. Your hero will not be able to use any skill. Thus you can't escape, so if you get stunned your automatically dead. If this happens its better to go an all out offensive trilane where you put three heroes into their easy lane. And put your hard lane hero in your easy lane. A list of good hard lane heroes are as follows. PotM,Windrunner,Darkseer,Puck,Beastmaster,clockwerk. As you can see each heroes have either an escape mech, a longrange nuke, or both. Now say I'm playing clockwerk how do I safely farm? Clockwerk has cog which isolates him from other heroes, and he has rocket flare which can be sent to any part of the map thus. He can safely use it to farm from afar. Cog also mana burns enemies who gets close to it. Now wards are very important in a hard lane where you have to fend off three heroes. 

This is an old picture but it shows where to ward if you want to survive this lane. However most experienced   babysitters (supports) will usually carry a sentry ward and they know that this is a classic spot to ward thus they can just easily de ward this spot and you will be left in the dark. There is no way of stopping this so sometimes its better to not ward this spot yet and let them waste their sentries. 

This is an example of warding the radiant's creep camps so that the enemy can't pull. This camps has to be warded if you want to easily farm. Or else the enemy supports can pull this and pull other creep camps towards your creeps thus denying you of the money and experience which you could have gotten from these creeps. Once you have wards down your ready to face the hard lane. There not much to it. Map awareness is your friend always have your eyes on the map while focusing on last hitting and denying. Try to last hit as much as possible because its not easy to last hits especially when you can barely walk near your creeps. If necessary attack the creeps so their hp is even and then use a skill to clear them up. This is an easy tactic though it is mana consuming you will be able to farm. Grab a ring of basilius early because you will need that little mana regen to be able to use your skills when you need to. You can disassemble it into a boots of tranquil to so that you won't have to waste gold on salves and then disassemble it back to ring of basilius. Boots of tranquil is a very good item for heroes who have to hard lane unless your bottle crowing. Which is good since you will be able to continuously spam your skills. Your positioning is very important to surviving a hard lane. Move pass the river only if your sure there aren't any supports hiding behind the bushes if there are quickly go back. Do not use your escape mech if its not needed only use it when you really need it because the 20 seconds on your escape mech can means death for you. Surviving hard lanes can be frustrating just remember to not die, get some gold, and get some levels. If you can't do both and your hero can neutral go for it. Its better to give em free last hits and take down towers then to waste time staying there and dying. Getting around 30 + creep kills in 10 minutes is good enough for a hard lane hero. The more the better though. So that concludes my short guide to solo hard lanes. The rest is up to you to practice. Just takes time to learn and get used to. Don't cry if you get kill you will get better as  you practice. My next blog will be talking about the actual game play experience and your first Dota 2 game.