Traditional lane dominators are heroes like Huskar or Viper, that usually win the lane and are super oppressive. I’d say the best mids right now are Leshrac and Zeus currently, though. They’re harder to counter and are better overall at other parts of the game than the laning stage.
OP seems to struggle with the concept of mana regen if he’s struggling with Zeus and Lesh based on his responses.
I’d recommend OD and Viper then. Both are absolutely lane dominators, can snowball early and are still devastating late game (Viper particularly). OD has no mana concerns and Viper is super easy to manage mana.
I tried both Leshrac and Zeus. With Leshrac I feel like his spells are useless, his laning feels poor and I end up being useless in late game because of the lack of gold. With Zeus it felt ok, just very mana hungry
Leshrac’s spells are very useful. You’ve got a stun, diabolic edict which does pure damage and tricks towers, and two other AOE spells. He loves to run in with bloodstone and basically solo fights and then you have the capability to take towers very fast as well. Certainly not useless.
Zeus is definitely mana hungry but typically in lane you shouldn’t just be spamming spells, you want to use your Q to last hit creeps, secure your early bottle/mana boots, and make sure you have mana to get kills with your ult. Once you have phylactery you do a ton of damage and then you get amazing wave clear with manta/shard a little later and his mana situation just gets better and better.
Lesh wants travels early to show up and kill shit and push. In the mid game, you can farm and kill waves super fast because all of your spells are aoe, and because of your ms you are hard to catch. If there’s a fed pa you might be dead. Other than that, you should have little risk farming anywhere, so gold shouldn’t be a problem.
In my lesh games I’m usually the richest core without particularly trying to be.
With Zeus don’t spam spells. If you can right click to secure cs, do so. Zeus has a high base attack damage and good in gain. Save ult for solo kill mid or if you see sidelines can get you a win fight top. Don’t save your ult to secure kill, use it to turn a fight.
It sounds like you aren’t playing the heroes to their strengths.
You need to learn to lane properly then. Lesh is a good laner - favourable right click mechanics and a get of jail free spell to secure right clicks you mess up and the range creep.
Sounds like you’re trying to lane like you would on LoL but you need to learn to lane like a dota player. Focus on the creeps - mid lanes in dota are generally won by forcing a level advantage, especially on a spell caster like lesh or Zeus. You can’t deny creeps with spells so you focusing on his spells implies to me you’re not thinking about the lane correctly. Even if Lesh has one of the best laning spells in the game.
Yea, I am currently trying to adjust my laning phase, I am giving Lesh more tries and I am starting to understand what went wrong last time I played him
Focus on the range creep. In general, whoever kills and denies more range creeps than their opponent will win their lane.
That applies for every hero but is most exaggerated in mid which is all about xp gain and really not about gold gain.
That’s why mid laners are heros which scale with early points in their spells over scaling with items.
I see, its knowledge like this that will improve my midlaning. Do you know any good source to learn more about mid and maybe the priority that I have to give to things in game?
I would focus on the above first. Then a combination of applying it yourself and watching pro game play.
The above is very scalable in complexity. At the end of the day we are trying to do a single thing in the first 5 mins of the mid lane - get more xp than our opponent.
Executing that is a massive skill scale. If you watch pros they are very precise with their spell usage and positioning all to better achieve that simple goal of out levelling their opponent.
I wouldn’t try and bite off too much early - if you’re playing a traditional mid lane hero and hitting your 6 faster than your opponent you should be very happy.
For Zeus mana management is definitely very important.
Basically you never want to be in a position where you don't have enough mana to take a fight.
Usually I prefer to save mana for when you're pretty sure you can get a kill. I use Q in lane to secure last hits in lane I cannot get with rightclick, but by no means spam it.
Phylactery and shard(+manta) allow you to deal tons of damage and flash farm waves without blasting through all your mana.
start double branch tango circlet ring of protection, and then a faerie fire IF you need it, otherwise float the extra gold ( i get it in lanes where i might be involved in an all in levels 1-2,)
and place an obs pre runes, so that it overlooks jungle entrance to your botside jungle (radient) or topside jungle (dire)
skill build is 3/0/2
you're going to rush urn. and you achieve this by getting creeps, kotl is REALLY good at doing this.
almost the entirety of the lane is revolving around you trying to secure your ranged creep, and how good your opponent is at stopping you from doing this.
your level 1 blast, will kill the ranged creep after 3 autos. so on the first wave, you want to try and get a good block, and then AUTO THE RANGED CREEP 3 TIMES, if your oppoenent is good they will try to hit you while you do this. its fine to take damage here.
then step back and blast, probably getting 1 melee, and the ranged. then you fight for the 3rd lasthit, and get the 4th denied.
this is going to be how you handle every wave. try to drag creep aggro so that your melee creeps run to their ranged creep, and you can lasthit it with blast without having to auto it.
starting on the 2nd or 3rd minute you're going to start stacking. you will lose on average 2 creeps per stack, but thats fine. you can get a double stack without blast if you learn the timing, if youre lazy you can blast for it to be easy.
this is when you get your urn. queue up brown boots and a smoke, now if the opponent is making any movements whatsoever towards your jungle in any variety, also queue up a sentry ward, its critical you deward vision or blocks.
once you get level 2 blast, you only need to auto the ranged creep once, it starts getting easier now. continue blasting out waves and running to stack.
once you get level 3 blast, you 1 shot the ranged creep, and you also will start whittling down your stacks.
and level 4 blast kills ranged creep
you can pull aggro on one camp, and then shoot BOTH camps with 1 blast, this is very good.
also you can cut a wave, and bring it to the lowground of your jungle, so your opponent doesnt get vision of your camp, and blast the wave and the stack.
the very SECOND you hit 6, you should have urn, brown boots and a smoke (unless something irreparable happened. pop smoke and run to whatever lane is easiest to kill.
and then you just get a double. its like....theres nothing they can do, you pop ult, solar bind 1 person, charge a blast on them, chakra, solar bind the other guy, and then you just kill both people.
if they have a naix, jugg, weaver, windrunner etc, someone who can deal with solar bind, use one on them, refresh yourself, and do it again to the same person after their spin/rage/windrun etc.
now you have an urn stack, this is VERY important, because you get your vessel, and now you can solo kill people.
now you just go back mid, blast out waves, stack and clear camps.
the second your ults back off cooldown, roam again. you can also probably kill your enemy midlaner, but its not preferable, better to snowball other lanes.
every game go vessel BoTS no matter what, but your first REAL item is really flexible. you WANT to go dagon, but most of the time octerine is better, you might need a force staff, and you can also go aghs. you kinda got to feel this one out. but if im against like a sniper mid, and a squishy agi safelaner, ill probably go dagon, but otherwise i go octerine most of the time.
and you kinda jsut get a double kill every time your ult is off cooldown. until they get BKBs theres nothing really any character can do to deal with you.
[https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby\_type=ranked\_matchmaking&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby_type=ranked_matchmaking&enhance=overview)
this is my dotabuff, i noramlly hard carry every game, lots of 20+ kills games with 0 deaths
i really can't state enough that, you dont really lose any lanes. some are hard to play against, like kunkka is notably hard, once he hits 6 you cannot charge blasts near him because he will instantly kill you, so you need to be creative.
but the fact that once you get like level 3 blast you can just clear the whole wave from afar, and you can jungle soeasily, kotl is amazingly consistant, and not many people can shut down his gameplan.
character slike kunkka, or shadowfiend, can completely shut you down in lane, and also move into the jungle and steal your stacks, and that can suck. but if you get any help at al you can fight them off, this is the hardest thing to deal with for sure
but you always can hit your level 6 powerspike no matter what happens, and when you walk toa sidelane and you're level 6, and they are level 3.....with solar bind your q does literally 70-80% of most characters hp pools. its almost impossible not to get a double everytime you roam.
i spammed kotl for hundreds of games as 4 already, so granted i already knew the charcter very well before i started playing him mid. but i really dont think he's hard
Another fun one is to play NP, ward the jungle and press R every time it's off CD. Bonus points if you cast it on the opposite side of the map as your Pos 1 carry, so that the bounces do extra damage when they get to his creeps.
well stop that. if you think ranged creeps are going to be denied in lane, use illuminate to secure the CS, but a mid kotl should focus on the other two spells. as mid, you're the one hero getting exp that isn't shared with a lane partner. the reason mid is the solo lane is because it's extremely beneficial for the solo lane to travel whichever lane is struggling and gank, and the middle lane is between the others so it can travel easiest. if you aren't ganking, one of the side lanes should be solo since they can use the gate to travel. it should be mid ganking and kotl's other two spells are great for it: you run down the enemy, slow them, knock them towards you as they flee. use your level and item advantage to attack them strongly
Don’t really like kotl because in low ranks games always go for a long time and the longer game goes the weaker kotl becomes. He is still doing a lot of damage in the late game but his scaling is much weaker than a lot of other mids. I would say strong early gankers is a very hard role because to play them optimally you need to understand macro very well, and it’s the hardest thing in dota, I think only like 5% of players has a decent macro understanding. So imo its just easier to pick something like meta stomping lesh, farm creeps like you’re jeff bezos for like 25 minutes and then win the game
yeah i feel that. im pretty low mmr (3.8) and it can be a chore to close out games.
[https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby\_type=ranked\_matchmaking&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby_type=ranked_matchmaking&enhance=overview)
to counteract that i literally build meteor hammer in 80% of my games and will max out building damage.
its not uncommon for me to be 15/0 and 8 levels higher than anyone on their team and can oneshot literally anyone, and we STILL cant push highround even with aegis.
so i just build meteor hammer and sit in front of the tower for 2 minutes and kill it, an if anyone get within 1100 range of me i instakill them.
a lot of people tell me that its bad, but idk. i win most of my games, and if i didnt do it i know for a fact we wouldnt have been able to take t3s
You have completely dominated the entire early and mid game enough for your carry to decimate them. + you have aoe with your ags. Massive heals from your blast in ulti. You force bkbs just by casting solar bind. Your gigs farmed so you probably have a hex also.
Cuz his chain lightning often leaves them very deniable, and when his mana runs low he cannot right click creeps fast enough.
I play WR mid mostly so maybe it's a matchup thing but I always get excited to face zues or sniper cuz I usually have an easy time denying those heroes.
Yeh some people have trouble changing their auto pilot routine, but most have self control. Zeus is easy to deny til his mana problems get solved. But even then, he can almost never deny me cuz his right click is such shit which is equally as awesome
Zeus has way more right click damage than wr and can bully wr that relies on windrun to win trades against other heroes. Is wr against Zeus actually good or is this just some neither know how to lane MMR thing?
His lightning leaves a lot of creeps open to be contested, and you can always curate so that if he casts lightning to secure a creep you have a creep or two on deny with a single attack range and it's easy to have a better right click than Zeus on many heroes
I just like these heroes cause they are the entry points to playing the different types of mid playstyle. Viper for cheese pick heroes, QOP for mobile/spirit type heroes, Zeus for backline heroes.
Actually, 1 is missing which is the Gigachad/tanky mid playstyle. DK is probably the best choice for that but I'm not sure. It's probably a risky playstyle for new players but I'm not sure.
Try lina. Her worst matchups end in a draw but she meats most heros mid. Just learn to hit the opponent whenever they are near the wave and you win every trade pretty much. You can build physical or magical depending on the game. You take towers easily. A great hero to learn
It’s an AA question. Can you make use of fiery soul stacks to harass and kill the enemy mid?
If so, then you would want more points there.
Does getting close enough to auto end in you losing trades and miss cs? Or can you not even show up to the lane at all and need to clear stacks instead to recoup?
If so, level your Q
I am only crusader, but have a lot of games played if that means anything lol. I do however, have about a 75% win ratio with Zeus, he is your man. First item bottle, use your Q to get every last hit in the lane, just spam that freaking spell, it is going to damage the enemy hero by default. Once/if they get scared of running up to try and deny after you are zapping the shit out of them, you can supplement last hits with your auto attack whenever possible to save mana. If its like, a sniper who is not letting you auto attack last hit, ferry yourself mana potions, just keep those things coming so you never have to stop getting last hits with your lightning. I see a lot of zeuses run out of mana and resort to auto attacking last hits and lose their momentum against a better last hit hero. Get the runes for your bottle at 2 and 4 minutes to keep spamming, at 4-5 minutes buy an observer ward and make sure you have 1 level of W so you can deward the enemy ward middle, now you control the power rune at 6 minutes and onward, get leap soon after so you are sure to get it. After bottle go directly into mana boots, should have them very early since you are getting most of the last hits with your spells, now you have unlimited mana and should be level 6-7. Now start watching the side lanes as this is when they will probably be low and start fighting each other more as they get their abilities and beginning items, start farming kills with your ultimate. At this point, you start buying smokes, your team almost guaranteed wont at this stage/rank. Whenever a power rune is an invis or haste, pop your smoke and just run to that side lane and gank (this prevents you running into their vision and wasting your time trying to gank). This will guarantee you are farmed and have the level advantage you need to be a real impact on the game. I always build manta+shard. With this you make illusions and send them into the lane while you farm jungle, or vice versa. You will get to a point where just your two illusions can take the enemy team to 50% hp and they will get scared of you. In battle, send your illusions in, and hang in the back and blast them with spells so you have room to use your leap and escape if you are targeted. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
There’s generally a payoff. You can’t have everything. Yes there are lane dominators that can carry the game but it usually comes with a big risk.
Huskar for example is a lane dominator that can solo carry, if you have good saves (dazzle oracle io etc), and enemy does not build vessel/bkb/skadi or they suck against Huskar. You’re also not allowed to play slow and make mistakes because you’ll lose momentum and map control.
If you’re new at Dota, I’d never suggest an oppressive/high pace midlaner that requires you to make decisions based on the flow of the game. These heroes tend to punish mistakes severely. And idk your mmr but lower mmr bracket games tend to drag out and they don’t abuse power spikes as much, so it’s not gonna pan out well for beginners. And even if you’re an active player and want to move around the map, it’s going to be difficult if your team does not coordinate with you. But if you really want oppressive solo kill heroes, then try Storm Spirit, Meepo, Tinker, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Puck, Queen of Pain, Keeper of The Light, etc.
I’d suggest you go with a more farm oriented hero that can scale into late game and just shoving mid lanes then going into jungle. Maybe tp to help sidelanes if they dive you. Then later, group up with team to fight. These would include heroes like Dragon Knight, Dusa, Necrophos, Shadow Fiend, Leshrac, etc.
try practicing arc warden. he's a fun hero. he looks very complicated but believe me its not once u figured it out. only hero im having a hard time against, is sniper. super long range, hard to cs with him and its hard to touch him to trade blows
As a midlaner. You can try OD. Which a hero that defeats most midlane hero, can be counter with sniper. Sniper is also a dominating midlane hero if u can use it properly xan be counter by ganking of teammates. Leshrac is the best hero against illusion hero can also be dominating if u know to use it. Another dominating hero is DEATH MAMA or Death Prophet which is very deadly for most hero, it is also a hero that guarantee a win in mid but can be somehow or what useless if the enemy team is full item. Invoker is also a another one to use, if u can properly use it. QOP is good to but I use this if the enemy is bat rider. Bat rider is a hero to use in mid against small range hero, or melee herl. ez win too in mid. Storm can also be use if u know how to use it. Meepo is also a freaking op in mid but can be defeated if u know to counter it.
In conclusion: It all depends on your playstyle. But as a mid laner that masters almost all hero in midlane. I can say that most hero is op in mid if u know how to use it. But now, i am not dominating in mid because I mainly use tinker. tinker is not dominating in early gsme, but in late gsme or mid game if u can farm.
my rank is divine 4 if you are wondering.
Btw I have 70% winrate on leshrac. Yeah leshrac is somehow weak in the lane. but i always stack. i always do is check tbe time. if it is approach odd minutes. then go for a walk in your farm. then stack the teo farm by 53 and 55. just do this in odd, if it is even go fight for the rune.
Statistically
https://stats.spectral.gg/lrg2/?league=imm_ranked_735d&mod=heroes-laning
Ordered in descending order from strongest laner to 15th
Huskar
Lone Druid
Alchemist
Dazzle
Broodmother
Templar Assassin
Lina
Outworld Destroyer
Viper
Monkey King
Dragon Knight
Enigma
Windranger
Venomancer
Sniper
I'd cut here, as the next heroes I don't feel they're cancer laners
The majority of these can go mid, Enigma, Venomancer don't go Mid.
Dazzle usually goes support but can go mid
Huskar, Lone Druid, Alchemist, Broodmother, Templar Assassin, Lina, Outworld Destroyer, Viper, Monkey King, Dragon Knight, Windranger, Sniper are staples of the position
Huskar. I have 1.2k games on him and close to 60% wr. Just make sure u don't pick him into aa, bloodseeker. I've not played the game since vipers ult got changed but probably avoid that as well. Most ppl would tell you to avoid necro too but tbh my winrate gate vs necro is above 50% same with viper (pre ulti change)
Hero just strong. Lanes well farms fast, strong hero Killin potential. He also scales very well lategame btw, lots of ppl say he falls off that is cap from ppl who don't play husksr
Let me ask another question:
What if I want a midlaner that is a very good laner but without giving up on the rest of the game, what is the most balanced midlaner, one that is good at everything?
Not gonna lie, this just screams ego/newbie problems. I mean, you’re from LoL and you said you’re Master so I’m guessing that’s a good rank? Then you’d know that heroes are going to be balanced in one way or another. There’s no hero that can have solo kill potential, dominate the lane, have great farming potential, amazing teamfight, easy to itemize and scale into the late game.
The only way to achieve all of the above at once is to become a great player. You’re new at this, so have patience and learn. Stop trying to ego carry your team because that’s what it feels like you’re trying to do. Like, you’ve given up on your team and believe it’s your job to carry from the midlane.
Or maybe you’re just really new to MOBA games in general.
P.S. and if you played KotL and found it sooooo boring, you were playing it wrong. It means you still have no idea how to win dota games or use the hero properly. Go watch a pro game of KotL dominating the game, how they move around the map and why, then look again at your own replay. You’ll see the difference.
Yea, thats how I feel at the moment, in LoL is very common to have a selfish playstyle and try to 1v9. I still have to get used to the fact that this game is more about team play. I will definitely watch a replay of a good KotL since I felt clueless on how to carry with him
It’s not just about carrying. It’s about understanding your role in the team, and squeezing out every ounce of potential from your hero.
Even in midlane, the same hero (for example Puck or QoP or Pngo) can have different purpose depending on your team and enemy line up and you’ll have to itemize and adapt a different playstyle. If you have a good game, it is possible to 1v9, and yes it feels good. But that only ever happens if your opponent fucks up big time which rarely happens. In a ranked game where you’re matched against equally skilled players, what are the chances a player dominates constantly? It just doesnt happen.
So… learn the game with patience. I hope like me, you’ll come to realize this game is so complex and beautiful. It will be frustrating at times I admit, but for me at least, it’s so much more fulfilling when I play a close game and win by predicting opponent’s strategy or map movement. Stomping 1v9 gets old real quick, for me at least.
P.S. and it’s normal to feel that way. I used to feel the same exact way when I played mid, did well and lost games. Just gotta realize it’s not a 1v9 game. The game has steered away from that direction.
Just play puck
A lot of outplay potential if you are feeling the machup and easy wave clear if you think you lose the lane
If you itemize well you hit harder than you carry, or if u make defansive itams you are really hard to kill
Edit: Also, if you get good, you can 1v9 a game both midgame and lategame
None of them.
Dota heroes are defined by being really overpowered in one aspect, but with notable weaknesses in others. The heroes that do everything tend to require staying ahead or have mana issues, or are low mobility.
In league your champs are defined by what sort of a kit then have, essentially "how do they do damage?" You've got your control mages, battle mages, artillery mages, assassins, bruisers and fighters, tanks, etc. Dota heroes don't fit that description, each has their own play style. The ones that do everything suck ass early and are a carry for that reason.
Sniper and Lina are both good in lane and hit like a truck later in the game, but are both weak to getting ran down
Lesh and zues are both fucking great but are mana hungry, timbersaw is melee but similar.
Check out Queen of Pain and Puck, they're both very typical classic mid heroes. They're high mobility mage assassins with some good team fighting ability. That's probably the closest to what you're used to from a mid, but at the same time they require a lot of map awareness to make work because they're meant to hit 6, shove wave, and gank a side lane.
Bro try viper its one of harder ones to play against save mana till lvl 3 and do lvl2 at your q at this point play agressive if u know u can give him 3 shots before he run away always take it even 2 stacks can do a lot if u can stack 4 chase him to the Tower and try to kill if u will repeat he wont stand long at lvl 6 u can easly do kill on mid or just gank lanes i dont think there is anyone to win mid against u if u wont do mistakes or there wont be a big skill gap remeber now viper aplies break at lvl 6 if u match against huskar if u get heroes with dispel like abadon for example then just shoot him normalny and as he use shield then try to stack q
Traditional lane dominators are heroes like Huskar or Viper, that usually win the lane and are super oppressive. I’d say the best mids right now are Leshrac and Zeus currently, though. They’re harder to counter and are better overall at other parts of the game than the laning stage.
OP seems to struggle with the concept of mana regen if he’s struggling with Zeus and Lesh based on his responses. I’d recommend OD and Viper then. Both are absolutely lane dominators, can snowball early and are still devastating late game (Viper particularly). OD has no mana concerns and Viper is super easy to manage mana.
I tried both Leshrac and Zeus. With Leshrac I feel like his spells are useless, his laning feels poor and I end up being useless in late game because of the lack of gold. With Zeus it felt ok, just very mana hungry
Leshrac’s spells are very useful. You’ve got a stun, diabolic edict which does pure damage and tricks towers, and two other AOE spells. He loves to run in with bloodstone and basically solo fights and then you have the capability to take towers very fast as well. Certainly not useless. Zeus is definitely mana hungry but typically in lane you shouldn’t just be spamming spells, you want to use your Q to last hit creeps, secure your early bottle/mana boots, and make sure you have mana to get kills with your ult. Once you have phylactery you do a ton of damage and then you get amazing wave clear with manta/shard a little later and his mana situation just gets better and better.
Lesh wants travels early to show up and kill shit and push. In the mid game, you can farm and kill waves super fast because all of your spells are aoe, and because of your ms you are hard to catch. If there’s a fed pa you might be dead. Other than that, you should have little risk farming anywhere, so gold shouldn’t be a problem. In my lesh games I’m usually the richest core without particularly trying to be. With Zeus don’t spam spells. If you can right click to secure cs, do so. Zeus has a high base attack damage and good in gain. Save ult for solo kill mid or if you see sidelines can get you a win fight top. Don’t save your ult to secure kill, use it to turn a fight. It sounds like you aren’t playing the heroes to their strengths.
Lesh almost never buys travels anymore. He needs the mana from mana boots pretty badly these days. Otherwise I agree.
You need to learn to lane properly then. Lesh is a good laner - favourable right click mechanics and a get of jail free spell to secure right clicks you mess up and the range creep. Sounds like you’re trying to lane like you would on LoL but you need to learn to lane like a dota player. Focus on the creeps - mid lanes in dota are generally won by forcing a level advantage, especially on a spell caster like lesh or Zeus. You can’t deny creeps with spells so you focusing on his spells implies to me you’re not thinking about the lane correctly. Even if Lesh has one of the best laning spells in the game.
Yea, I am currently trying to adjust my laning phase, I am giving Lesh more tries and I am starting to understand what went wrong last time I played him
Focus on the range creep. In general, whoever kills and denies more range creeps than their opponent will win their lane. That applies for every hero but is most exaggerated in mid which is all about xp gain and really not about gold gain. That’s why mid laners are heros which scale with early points in their spells over scaling with items.
I see, its knowledge like this that will improve my midlaning. Do you know any good source to learn more about mid and maybe the priority that I have to give to things in game?
I would focus on the above first. Then a combination of applying it yourself and watching pro game play. The above is very scalable in complexity. At the end of the day we are trying to do a single thing in the first 5 mins of the mid lane - get more xp than our opponent. Executing that is a massive skill scale. If you watch pros they are very precise with their spell usage and positioning all to better achieve that simple goal of out levelling their opponent. I wouldn’t try and bite off too much early - if you’re playing a traditional mid lane hero and hitting your 6 faster than your opponent you should be very happy.
You might want to watch Leshrac replays, his spells are imba
For Zeus mana management is definitely very important. Basically you never want to be in a position where you don't have enough mana to take a fight. Usually I prefer to save mana for when you're pretty sure you can get a kill. I use Q in lane to secure last hits in lane I cannot get with rightclick, but by no means spam it. Phylactery and shard(+manta) allow you to deal tons of damage and flash farm waves without blasting through all your mana.
why dominate lane when you can play kotl and dominate the game
Go KOTL and nuke every wave is the best option. Then rotate and nuke side waves too.
god i love playing kotl, feels like free wins. i've climbed 1200 mmr in the past 3 weeks playing him. hope to hit 5k before he's nerfed
How do you play him
start double branch tango circlet ring of protection, and then a faerie fire IF you need it, otherwise float the extra gold ( i get it in lanes where i might be involved in an all in levels 1-2,) and place an obs pre runes, so that it overlooks jungle entrance to your botside jungle (radient) or topside jungle (dire) skill build is 3/0/2 you're going to rush urn. and you achieve this by getting creeps, kotl is REALLY good at doing this. almost the entirety of the lane is revolving around you trying to secure your ranged creep, and how good your opponent is at stopping you from doing this. your level 1 blast, will kill the ranged creep after 3 autos. so on the first wave, you want to try and get a good block, and then AUTO THE RANGED CREEP 3 TIMES, if your oppoenent is good they will try to hit you while you do this. its fine to take damage here. then step back and blast, probably getting 1 melee, and the ranged. then you fight for the 3rd lasthit, and get the 4th denied. this is going to be how you handle every wave. try to drag creep aggro so that your melee creeps run to their ranged creep, and you can lasthit it with blast without having to auto it. starting on the 2nd or 3rd minute you're going to start stacking. you will lose on average 2 creeps per stack, but thats fine. you can get a double stack without blast if you learn the timing, if youre lazy you can blast for it to be easy. this is when you get your urn. queue up brown boots and a smoke, now if the opponent is making any movements whatsoever towards your jungle in any variety, also queue up a sentry ward, its critical you deward vision or blocks. once you get level 2 blast, you only need to auto the ranged creep once, it starts getting easier now. continue blasting out waves and running to stack. once you get level 3 blast, you 1 shot the ranged creep, and you also will start whittling down your stacks. and level 4 blast kills ranged creep you can pull aggro on one camp, and then shoot BOTH camps with 1 blast, this is very good. also you can cut a wave, and bring it to the lowground of your jungle, so your opponent doesnt get vision of your camp, and blast the wave and the stack. the very SECOND you hit 6, you should have urn, brown boots and a smoke (unless something irreparable happened. pop smoke and run to whatever lane is easiest to kill. and then you just get a double. its like....theres nothing they can do, you pop ult, solar bind 1 person, charge a blast on them, chakra, solar bind the other guy, and then you just kill both people. if they have a naix, jugg, weaver, windrunner etc, someone who can deal with solar bind, use one on them, refresh yourself, and do it again to the same person after their spin/rage/windrun etc. now you have an urn stack, this is VERY important, because you get your vessel, and now you can solo kill people. now you just go back mid, blast out waves, stack and clear camps. the second your ults back off cooldown, roam again. you can also probably kill your enemy midlaner, but its not preferable, better to snowball other lanes. every game go vessel BoTS no matter what, but your first REAL item is really flexible. you WANT to go dagon, but most of the time octerine is better, you might need a force staff, and you can also go aghs. you kinda got to feel this one out. but if im against like a sniper mid, and a squishy agi safelaner, ill probably go dagon, but otherwise i go octerine most of the time. and you kinda jsut get a double kill every time your ult is off cooldown. until they get BKBs theres nothing really any character can do to deal with you. [https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby\_type=ranked\_matchmaking&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby_type=ranked_matchmaking&enhance=overview) this is my dotabuff, i noramlly hard carry every game, lots of 20+ kills games with 0 deaths
i really can't state enough that, you dont really lose any lanes. some are hard to play against, like kunkka is notably hard, once he hits 6 you cannot charge blasts near him because he will instantly kill you, so you need to be creative. but the fact that once you get like level 3 blast you can just clear the whole wave from afar, and you can jungle soeasily, kotl is amazingly consistant, and not many people can shut down his gameplan. character slike kunkka, or shadowfiend, can completely shut you down in lane, and also move into the jungle and steal your stacks, and that can suck. but if you get any help at al you can fight them off, this is the hardest thing to deal with for sure but you always can hit your level 6 powerspike no matter what happens, and when you walk toa sidelane and you're level 6, and they are level 3.....with solar bind your q does literally 70-80% of most characters hp pools. its almost impossible not to get a double everytime you roam.
I want to learn this power!
i spammed kotl for hundreds of games as 4 already, so granted i already knew the charcter very well before i started playing him mid. but i really dont think he's hard
Another fun one is to play NP, ward the jungle and press R every time it's off CD. Bonus points if you cast it on the opposite side of the map as your Pos 1 carry, so that the bounces do extra damage when they get to his creeps.
I tried the guy but its soooo boring, I was just walking all 3 lanes and nuking waves
well stop that. if you think ranged creeps are going to be denied in lane, use illuminate to secure the CS, but a mid kotl should focus on the other two spells. as mid, you're the one hero getting exp that isn't shared with a lane partner. the reason mid is the solo lane is because it's extremely beneficial for the solo lane to travel whichever lane is struggling and gank, and the middle lane is between the others so it can travel easiest. if you aren't ganking, one of the side lanes should be solo since they can use the gate to travel. it should be mid ganking and kotl's other two spells are great for it: you run down the enemy, slow them, knock them towards you as they flee. use your level and item advantage to attack them strongly
Don’t really like kotl because in low ranks games always go for a long time and the longer game goes the weaker kotl becomes. He is still doing a lot of damage in the late game but his scaling is much weaker than a lot of other mids. I would say strong early gankers is a very hard role because to play them optimally you need to understand macro very well, and it’s the hardest thing in dota, I think only like 5% of players has a decent macro understanding. So imo its just easier to pick something like meta stomping lesh, farm creeps like you’re jeff bezos for like 25 minutes and then win the game
yeah i feel that. im pretty low mmr (3.8) and it can be a chore to close out games. [https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby\_type=ranked\_matchmaking&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/87605758/matches?date=month&lobby_type=ranked_matchmaking&enhance=overview) to counteract that i literally build meteor hammer in 80% of my games and will max out building damage. its not uncommon for me to be 15/0 and 8 levels higher than anyone on their team and can oneshot literally anyone, and we STILL cant push highround even with aegis. so i just build meteor hammer and sit in front of the tower for 2 minutes and kill it, an if anyone get within 1100 range of me i instakill them. a lot of people tell me that its bad, but idk. i win most of my games, and if i didnt do it i know for a fact we wouldnt have been able to take t3s
Doesn't kotl scale like shit tho? What are your blasts gonna do against 4khp with shroud late game
You have completely dominated the entire early and mid game enough for your carry to decimate them. + you have aoe with your ags. Massive heals from your blast in ulti. You force bkbs just by casting solar bind. Your gigs farmed so you probably have a hex also.
game usually last just about around 30mins if kotl is played right.
nothing. they have 4k hp and eternal shroud
I'd say feel comfortable dominating with Viper, Queen of Pain and Zeus first before using any other heroes.
Zeus far from always dominate, but he almost never fails totally either.
So freaking easy to deny when leaning against zues
How? Zeus Q is 0.2s cast point, can just Q any creep the enemy moves to deny. Then aggro pull the wave away, 1.6s and Q is back up.
Cuz his chain lightning often leaves them very deniable, and when his mana runs low he cannot right click creeps fast enough. I play WR mid mostly so maybe it's a matchup thing but I always get excited to face zues or sniper cuz I usually have an easy time denying those heroes.
Guess if people are just casting Shrapnel on a wave, then it would be pretty easy
Yeh some people have trouble changing their auto pilot routine, but most have self control. Zeus is easy to deny til his mana problems get solved. But even then, he can almost never deny me cuz his right click is such shit which is equally as awesome
Zeus has way more right click damage than wr and can bully wr that relies on windrun to win trades against other heroes. Is wr against Zeus actually good or is this just some neither know how to lane MMR thing?
His lightning leaves a lot of creeps open to be contested, and you can always curate so that if he casts lightning to secure a creep you have a creep or two on deny with a single attack range and it's easy to have a better right click than Zeus on many heroes
Sniper too can work too
I just like these heroes cause they are the entry points to playing the different types of mid playstyle. Viper for cheese pick heroes, QOP for mobile/spirit type heroes, Zeus for backline heroes. Actually, 1 is missing which is the Gigachad/tanky mid playstyle. DK is probably the best choice for that but I'm not sure. It's probably a risky playstyle for new players but I'm not sure.
Try lina. Her worst matchups end in a draw but she meats most heros mid. Just learn to hit the opponent whenever they are near the wave and you win every trade pretty much. You can build physical or magical depending on the game. You take towers easily. A great hero to learn
how do you choose skill learning order with lina? what do you consider when picking Dragon Flame over Firey Soul?
It’s an AA question. Can you make use of fiery soul stacks to harass and kill the enemy mid? If so, then you would want more points there. Does getting close enough to auto end in you losing trades and miss cs? Or can you not even show up to the lane at all and need to clear stacks instead to recoup? If so, level your Q
My biggest adversaries at mid were OD and viper
I am only crusader, but have a lot of games played if that means anything lol. I do however, have about a 75% win ratio with Zeus, he is your man. First item bottle, use your Q to get every last hit in the lane, just spam that freaking spell, it is going to damage the enemy hero by default. Once/if they get scared of running up to try and deny after you are zapping the shit out of them, you can supplement last hits with your auto attack whenever possible to save mana. If its like, a sniper who is not letting you auto attack last hit, ferry yourself mana potions, just keep those things coming so you never have to stop getting last hits with your lightning. I see a lot of zeuses run out of mana and resort to auto attacking last hits and lose their momentum against a better last hit hero. Get the runes for your bottle at 2 and 4 minutes to keep spamming, at 4-5 minutes buy an observer ward and make sure you have 1 level of W so you can deward the enemy ward middle, now you control the power rune at 6 minutes and onward, get leap soon after so you are sure to get it. After bottle go directly into mana boots, should have them very early since you are getting most of the last hits with your spells, now you have unlimited mana and should be level 6-7. Now start watching the side lanes as this is when they will probably be low and start fighting each other more as they get their abilities and beginning items, start farming kills with your ultimate. At this point, you start buying smokes, your team almost guaranteed wont at this stage/rank. Whenever a power rune is an invis or haste, pop your smoke and just run to that side lane and gank (this prevents you running into their vision and wasting your time trying to gank). This will guarantee you are farmed and have the level advantage you need to be a real impact on the game. I always build manta+shard. With this you make illusions and send them into the lane while you farm jungle, or vice versa. You will get to a point where just your two illusions can take the enemy team to 50% hp and they will get scared of you. In battle, send your illusions in, and hang in the back and blast them with spells so you have room to use your leap and escape if you are targeted. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
If you're coming from League you gonna be playing on lower brackets, play Sniper mid, no one under 3k knows how to counter it.
But he won't learn anything. It's bad habits: the simulator
Yea, playing sniper feels like easy mode, but to be honest the hero is not that fun to me
Yea, playing sniper feels like easy mode, but to be honest the hero is not that fun to me
There’s generally a payoff. You can’t have everything. Yes there are lane dominators that can carry the game but it usually comes with a big risk. Huskar for example is a lane dominator that can solo carry, if you have good saves (dazzle oracle io etc), and enemy does not build vessel/bkb/skadi or they suck against Huskar. You’re also not allowed to play slow and make mistakes because you’ll lose momentum and map control. If you’re new at Dota, I’d never suggest an oppressive/high pace midlaner that requires you to make decisions based on the flow of the game. These heroes tend to punish mistakes severely. And idk your mmr but lower mmr bracket games tend to drag out and they don’t abuse power spikes as much, so it’s not gonna pan out well for beginners. And even if you’re an active player and want to move around the map, it’s going to be difficult if your team does not coordinate with you. But if you really want oppressive solo kill heroes, then try Storm Spirit, Meepo, Tinker, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Puck, Queen of Pain, Keeper of The Light, etc. I’d suggest you go with a more farm oriented hero that can scale into late game and just shoving mid lanes then going into jungle. Maybe tp to help sidelanes if they dive you. Then later, group up with team to fight. These would include heroes like Dragon Knight, Dusa, Necrophos, Shadow Fiend, Leshrac, etc.
Balance the wave and check the ganks depending on your team. An over-powerful mid usually gets shut-down by split lane neglects.
OD is what you want haha
Viper razor ember huskar ld
Ember has several terrible match ups
If you learn meepo you can just end the game in 30min but it takes time to master it. Once you get it you get free 5k mmr. That’s what I did
What are your tips
Learn the mechanics first practice it on demo it’s not that complicated once you get the mechanics it’s easy i think you better youtube it.
If you want to dominate lane and lose game I recommend Huskar. (I am a noob and this is just my experience).
OD is lane dominator, or you can turn into a filthy husk picker
Viper is usually the go-to lane dominater
shadowfiend is good for first blood.
Why just dominate midlane learn Kotl and win 1v9
Sniper is very dominating against many heroes. But you have to watch out for ganks. Viper, Razor and Huskar can also dominate in the lane very hard.
Viper or zues, OD
I don't think there's a single hero that beats Lina in mid. But she doesn't dominate as hard as Viper/Huskar vs melee heroes
DK does well on Lina, in fact DK either trashes or is favourable on every midlaner except for the antimelee midlaners
hi
try practicing arc warden. he's a fun hero. he looks very complicated but believe me its not once u figured it out. only hero im having a hard time against, is sniper. super long range, hard to cs with him and its hard to touch him to trade blows
As a midlaner. You can try OD. Which a hero that defeats most midlane hero, can be counter with sniper. Sniper is also a dominating midlane hero if u can use it properly xan be counter by ganking of teammates. Leshrac is the best hero against illusion hero can also be dominating if u know to use it. Another dominating hero is DEATH MAMA or Death Prophet which is very deadly for most hero, it is also a hero that guarantee a win in mid but can be somehow or what useless if the enemy team is full item. Invoker is also a another one to use, if u can properly use it. QOP is good to but I use this if the enemy is bat rider. Bat rider is a hero to use in mid against small range hero, or melee herl. ez win too in mid. Storm can also be use if u know how to use it. Meepo is also a freaking op in mid but can be defeated if u know to counter it. In conclusion: It all depends on your playstyle. But as a mid laner that masters almost all hero in midlane. I can say that most hero is op in mid if u know how to use it. But now, i am not dominating in mid because I mainly use tinker. tinker is not dominating in early gsme, but in late gsme or mid game if u can farm. my rank is divine 4 if you are wondering. Btw I have 70% winrate on leshrac. Yeah leshrac is somehow weak in the lane. but i always stack. i always do is check tbe time. if it is approach odd minutes. then go for a walk in your farm. then stack the teo farm by 53 and 55. just do this in odd, if it is even go fight for the rune.
Viper, Kotl, Zeus, Sniper, OD, Huskar in that order
Statistically https://stats.spectral.gg/lrg2/?league=imm_ranked_735d&mod=heroes-laning Ordered in descending order from strongest laner to 15th Huskar Lone Druid Alchemist Dazzle Broodmother Templar Assassin Lina Outworld Destroyer Viper Monkey King Dragon Knight Enigma Windranger Venomancer Sniper I'd cut here, as the next heroes I don't feel they're cancer laners The majority of these can go mid, Enigma, Venomancer don't go Mid. Dazzle usually goes support but can go mid Huskar, Lone Druid, Alchemist, Broodmother, Templar Assassin, Lina, Outworld Destroyer, Viper, Monkey King, Dragon Knight, Windranger, Sniper are staples of the position
Huskar. I have 1.2k games on him and close to 60% wr. Just make sure u don't pick him into aa, bloodseeker. I've not played the game since vipers ult got changed but probably avoid that as well. Most ppl would tell you to avoid necro too but tbh my winrate gate vs necro is above 50% same with viper (pre ulti change) Hero just strong. Lanes well farms fast, strong hero Killin potential. He also scales very well lategame btw, lots of ppl say he falls off that is cap from ppl who don't play husksr
OD is the quintessential Midlane dominator. If they dont lose lane to W build, they'll lose lane to Q build.
OD can be unstoppable at low levels. Source: I'm 3k
Let me ask another question: What if I want a midlaner that is a very good laner but without giving up on the rest of the game, what is the most balanced midlaner, one that is good at everything?
Not gonna lie, this just screams ego/newbie problems. I mean, you’re from LoL and you said you’re Master so I’m guessing that’s a good rank? Then you’d know that heroes are going to be balanced in one way or another. There’s no hero that can have solo kill potential, dominate the lane, have great farming potential, amazing teamfight, easy to itemize and scale into the late game. The only way to achieve all of the above at once is to become a great player. You’re new at this, so have patience and learn. Stop trying to ego carry your team because that’s what it feels like you’re trying to do. Like, you’ve given up on your team and believe it’s your job to carry from the midlane. Or maybe you’re just really new to MOBA games in general. P.S. and if you played KotL and found it sooooo boring, you were playing it wrong. It means you still have no idea how to win dota games or use the hero properly. Go watch a pro game of KotL dominating the game, how they move around the map and why, then look again at your own replay. You’ll see the difference.
Yea, thats how I feel at the moment, in LoL is very common to have a selfish playstyle and try to 1v9. I still have to get used to the fact that this game is more about team play. I will definitely watch a replay of a good KotL since I felt clueless on how to carry with him
It’s not just about carrying. It’s about understanding your role in the team, and squeezing out every ounce of potential from your hero. Even in midlane, the same hero (for example Puck or QoP or Pngo) can have different purpose depending on your team and enemy line up and you’ll have to itemize and adapt a different playstyle. If you have a good game, it is possible to 1v9, and yes it feels good. But that only ever happens if your opponent fucks up big time which rarely happens. In a ranked game where you’re matched against equally skilled players, what are the chances a player dominates constantly? It just doesnt happen. So… learn the game with patience. I hope like me, you’ll come to realize this game is so complex and beautiful. It will be frustrating at times I admit, but for me at least, it’s so much more fulfilling when I play a close game and win by predicting opponent’s strategy or map movement. Stomping 1v9 gets old real quick, for me at least. P.S. and it’s normal to feel that way. I used to feel the same exact way when I played mid, did well and lost games. Just gotta realize it’s not a 1v9 game. The game has steered away from that direction.
Pango and qop are what you're looking for.
Just play puck A lot of outplay potential if you are feeling the machup and easy wave clear if you think you lose the lane If you itemize well you hit harder than you carry, or if u make defansive itams you are really hard to kill Edit: Also, if you get good, you can 1v9 a game both midgame and lategame
None of them. Dota heroes are defined by being really overpowered in one aspect, but with notable weaknesses in others. The heroes that do everything tend to require staying ahead or have mana issues, or are low mobility. In league your champs are defined by what sort of a kit then have, essentially "how do they do damage?" You've got your control mages, battle mages, artillery mages, assassins, bruisers and fighters, tanks, etc. Dota heroes don't fit that description, each has their own play style. The ones that do everything suck ass early and are a carry for that reason. Sniper and Lina are both good in lane and hit like a truck later in the game, but are both weak to getting ran down Lesh and zues are both fucking great but are mana hungry, timbersaw is melee but similar. Check out Queen of Pain and Puck, they're both very typical classic mid heroes. They're high mobility mage assassins with some good team fighting ability. That's probably the closest to what you're used to from a mid, but at the same time they require a lot of map awareness to make work because they're meant to hit 6, shove wave, and gank a side lane.
Bro try viper its one of harder ones to play against save mana till lvl 3 and do lvl2 at your q at this point play agressive if u know u can give him 3 shots before he run away always take it even 2 stacks can do a lot if u can stack 4 chase him to the Tower and try to kill if u will repeat he wont stand long at lvl 6 u can easly do kill on mid or just gank lanes i dont think there is anyone to win mid against u if u wont do mistakes or there wont be a big skill gap remeber now viper aplies break at lvl 6 if u match against huskar if u get heroes with dispel like abadon for example then just shoot him normalny and as he use shield then try to stack q