Archon 3 to legend in a week (80% winrate, 45 games – and how i did it)

23 games with lone druid (74% winrate)

16 games with new broken tanky atos viper (87% winrate)

So how did i do it?

A month ago (I was approx 1800mmr, 40% winrate) I committed to improving my DOTA experience. I created a google doc and started to document everything. I watched replays, wrote down what I should improve on, wrote down YouTube coaches tips etc. So I’ve been watching A LOT of BSJ on YouTube. Probably 15-20 hours in total, and I’ve learned a ton from him. This month i have 62% win rate instead of 40%. I will try to make a list of stuff i changed in my game play that made me improve. In no particular order I guess.

I play strictly ranked roles mid, so this information is aimed at that, but most applies to all other roles as well

This information is general and there will always be exceptions

1. You should backpack your items when taking shrine / healing salve / mango (you get a lot more value)
2. Map awareness is insane, and you should practice it big time. I got help from GOSU.AI with this, after the game it sends you a match report, showing you how many times you checked the map during early – mid – late game.
3. I became aware of how you’re supposed to win games, and this might shock you. You focus objectives, not killing heroes. That’s why lone druid was a great hero. You stay mid until tower is dead. Then you move to THEIR SAFE LANE and push that tower. Then the last tier 1 tower. You’re supposed to APPLY PRESSURE as much as you possibly can – while you do this, map awareness is key. You hit the tower, and you watch the other heroes, see if they go missing, if they TP etc. You don’t even watch the tower you’re hitting, you watch the map. Before all this, you think about who can actually kill you. If your LD and dazzle teleport, what’s he gonna do? You need to make up your mind before hitting the tower how long you should be able to stand there, then you back away when conditions are met. Don’t be surprised when you die at their Tier 2 with all heroes missing. Put yourself in their shoes. If you are fed, they really want to kill you, and will jump at any chance they get. Push a bit, TP away. Its not worth taking the tower if you die. The tower wont go anywhere, get back later and take it. You have already managed to put PRESSURE, and people have started rotating your way. Creating space for you team, and less farm for your enemies. A tower is much more valuable than a kill. By taking a tower you make it harder for the enemy to farm and TP GANK while creating more space for your team to farm. This sounds obvious, but try to keep it in mind. Objectives > kills. That enemy jugg might have free farm and completely crushes the lane and you (as mid) might not be able to kill him. What do you do? You push the other lanes! Either you get a bunch of towers or the jugg is forced to tp (you back away, and their jugg is wasting time + farm). Now go push that tower jugg has been holding because he cant TP for 80 seconds.
4. Never over extend, and focus objectives. I see in literally every game 1-2 people chasing the supports into the base while the rest is trying to kill the barracks after a team fight. While this guy chases, the others cant really hit barracks either because they are running back and forth wondering what to do and if they should save the guy. YOU WIN BY TAKING OBJECTIVES, NOT KILLING DAZZLE. Dazzle will just save time for the team to come back.
5. Jungle is at the very bottom of the list. If you are not safe ANYWHERE else, you go jungle. Otherwise, push out lanes and apply pressure.
6. Learn countering heroes (sounds stupid coming from me spamming 2 heroes but well). Every game i google “phantom assassin counter”, “chaos knight counter”. You learn SO MUCH by doing this. How to itemize, what their weak spot is etc. Viper is great against PA. You remove his passive evasion. while LD is very bad, because PA one shots your bear. Knowing what counters your hero allows you to pick whatever is fitting even if you only play a few. http://howdoiplay.com is a great site to look up tips and tricks about all heroes. How to counter them and how to play them.
7. Before playing a hero, start by watching a quick YouTube guide to get the basics (you will always learn something). And then go to dotabuff, look up the hero, and find a top player that has played that hero recently (this patch) and watch how he does it. You will learn so so much it’s beyond incredible. Did you know that you can casually stack a camp with your spell? To cut down that tree to maximize farm? When does this hero start joining team fights? When is he strong? After X item? List goes on forever really. EDIT: You start by watching the basic YouTube guide – otherwise you will have a hard time seeing/understanding why the pro player does what he does. For example i recently learned that necros W amplifies his regen by a ton, so its often really good to use after you get a kill in a team fight (aggressively), rather than to use it solely to escape. Stuff like this could be hard to understand from a replay if you don’t know the basics. Also dotabuff is great to check itemization. Look at what items the pro player is buying against what heroes and so on. Try to understand why the itemization differentiates so much between the games.
8. At the start of games, while waiting for those bounties and everything else. Think about how you should itemize this game. Do they have a lot of physical damage? Magic? Do we have enough catch/stun? As ursa maybe you dont need blink dagger as early if you have great stuns in your team. Pick vlads before, for example. This stuff is important to consider. Don’t blindly follow torte guides.
9. Check map during downtime (taking shrine, jungling, etc). You want to check position and enemy/teammates items. This prevents double radiance, double greaves, double vlads, etc. And you can buy MKB against that jugg that just started building his butterfly.
10. Finally, perhaps the hardest one. Never tilt. We’re in this for the mmr, and we learn by mistakes. It’s all good, make the best of every game. If you bash someone, they will play MUCH worse. And you will too, if you get upset. The entire team will play worse by only 2 people arguing. We want to maximize our win rate here, tilting and being unfriendly to others does exactly nothing to improve it. If you have a player on your team that is toxic, you either have to be a super human that is completely unaffected by it or mute them. Even if you think you can handle it, you still get a little upset, and you will play worse. Mute them, and use pings to communicate. A toxic player will never give you any useful information – you’re not missing out.
11. Use smoke. Apparently you’re not detected by sentries lol.
12. Abuse currently OP heroes / items, check dotabuff win rates, then guide, then pro-player game play.
13. That’s all i can think of right now. Hope this will be helpful to someone. AMA. Sorry for spelling mistakes etc
14. More stuff (mid specific). Never stand around with half health, send salves and mangoes to keep the agression up.
15. Never gank a lane which is ungankable, you’re just wasting time. Before ganking, you look at the lane and picture the scenario in your head. Is void level 6 and has ult ready? Do they have enough mana for spells? Is it possible? If the answer is an obvious yes. Do it, and get back asap. You don’t want linger in the lane and lose mid because you’re suddenly giving your mid opponent free farm.
16. Do your absolute best to save your towers. Before ganking (if possible) push out the lane, so you have time to gank and get back before the creep wave is hitting your tower.
17. Buy your own wards if the supports doesn’t do as you wish, it’s worth it. And if you know for sure where the enemy put a ward, you wont even lose any money by dewarding. (And it helps you a lot)

PS. There is no trench. Every single excuse you have about bad teammates and all that, the enemy has those problems as well. If YOU play better, your team has a bigger chance of winning. You will lose games where you played flawlessly, but come on. In the long run, you come out on top. Instead of being pissed at that guy that made you lose. Think about what YOU could have done different to win the game. That’s all that matters.