Jack Rodriguez
Have you ever wondered what are the edges of top players over you? It's not experience and hardwork alone. You can play for 10 years and not be as good as them if you're not focusing on the right skills to develop. In this post, you're going to learn what are the things you should be considering to play like Pros.
 |
| Na'Vi.Dendi |
This skill is very important in 3 things:
1. Mana cost
2. Estimating damage output
3. Estimating cool downs
Being quick in calculations give you a lot of advantage and safety. Knowing if your mana pool will be enough to execute your combo won't get you in trouble and shout "F*ck! I ran out of Mana!" * then die. Be sure to be quick in calculations because one split unguarded moment can cause you to lose the battle. Damage output should also be considered to know how quick you can kill a hero or if it possible to kill certain heroes with your number. You shouldn't just go into battle without having the clash play in your mind. Cool downs are also important specially if your opponents have deadly ultimate skills. Use the long cool down of opponent's skills to your advantage. You can either initiate a clash or push if their skills aren't available. Doing more calculations than your opponents will give you huge advantages.
#4 Quick Hands
This skill is important in 3 things:
1. Animation Cancelling
2. Doing Combos and Micros
3. Clicking heroes that are hard to click
Animation cancelling is important in playing Dota. There are a lot of heroes that have spells that have prolonged animations. You should cancel them to not waste time. Animation cancelling is also important in harassing heroes. You can move either forward or backward instead of waiting for the attack animation to stop. In this way you can harass more or be evade more damage. Combos require timing and shouldn't be interrupted by just having slow hands. Micro-ing is the term used to describe controlling more units which also requires quick hands. Heroes that are hard to click, like Venomancer, is also countered by having quick hands. You can search for the small icon of the hero in shorter period to be able to hit him thus not letting him escape just because he cannot be clicked.
#3 Quick Plans
"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat'." -Sun Tzu
Planning is essential in Dota as it is in warfares. As soon as the drafting starts until the game ends, several plans should be made. The team who came out to have great plans quicker would surely win.
Plan 4 steps ahead:
1st step: What you're going to do
2nd step: How your opponents will react
3rd step: What will be your response to their actions
4th step: Know who will have the advantage after
#2 Quick Eyes
This skill is very important in 5 things:
1. Map awareness
2. Finding target
3. Distance from team mates
4. Number of opponents
5. Spells used
Map awareness is very important. You shouldn't be prone to gank, you should know if your team mates need you, you should know where opponents are to kill or to be avoided, etc. Finding target in a clash is important. You shouldn't just cast all your spells on a hero you see. Pro players expect the back up. Reserve your spells for better uses. Distance from team mates should be considered.
#1 Quick Reaction
This skill is important in 5 things:
1. Dodging skills
2. Knowing escape Routes
3. Picking targets
4. Knowing when to fight and when not to fight
5. Countering attacks
Dota is a read and react game. You see the situation, then you give your reaction. Winning or losing depends greatly on how many good or bad calls you've made and these are called your reactions. Knowing at once what are the best decisions in almost every situation and executing them perfectly will surely make you are skilled and fearsome player. You just have to watch carefully, analyze critically and practice seriously.
Posted in: Guides
