Beginner Tips to Winning Your Lane in DOTA 2

DOTA 2 is one of the largest free-to-play MOBA games. Anyone who knows a bit about gaming has heard of or has played DOTA 2 at least once. In fact, several people have spent years grinding and improving their skills in Valve’s award-winning game.

DOTA 2 has a very high skill ceiling which overwhelms newbies when they first boot up the game. People need to learn fundamental concepts like laning and stacking. Understanding these concepts is very important if you want to win your lane in DOTA 2.

So, here we are to help you out. This article will help you understand the basics of laning and other concepts. We will also talk about other tips and tricks to help you win your lane as a beginner in DOTA 2.

Brief Idea About Laning

Laning is the phase of the game where all your heroes go to kill creeps and minions to farm gold and exp. It is the initial phase of the game. Learning about laning is crucial to winning your lane in DOTA 2, as it can make or break your game.

This period lasts about 10-15 minutes, and it is the decision-making period of the game. You can set your heroes’ farming choices, item collection, etc. Your true skill is displayed when you make the right decision during the laning process.

The ideal laning is to kill all the minions and creeps present in the initial lanes. Then you need to dominate your enemies in the mid and top lanes. If you can get kills when laning or ensure that your enemy is denied minions and creeps, that means you are winning your lane.

Tip 1: Choose the Strong Laners to Win the Initial Phase

Choosing the strong laners is a good strategy. Here is how you can determine which character is a strong laner:

1. The hero is tanky (has good defence and HP and can take a lot of hits) and has good base damage.
2. Heroes with long rage attacks with excellent attack animations.
3. Heroes with spammable skills.

Some heroes that have good tank damage are:

1. Slardar
2. Brewmaster
3. Nightstalker

Some heroes with good attack animations and long-range attacks are:

1. Dazzle
2. Drow Ranger
3. Invoker
4. Sniper

Heroes with abusable skills:

1. KOTL
2. Batrider

Tip 2: Choosing the Meta Characters to Win Initial Matches

Each hero present in the game has its own abilities that you can use perfectly to win a game. Now, as a beginner, it is hard to get a grasp of each hero’s abilities. In such cases, choosing the meta characters will allow you to win your first few games and get an understanding of the fundamentals.

Veena, Storm, Ember, and Void Spirit are some of the best meta-heroes in the game. They have good stats with excellent mobility.

Tip 3: Understand Your Role in the Lane

There are two different ways in which you can fight in your lane. The first is to play aggressively to kill minions and enemies. The second is to play passively and exploit your enemies’ mistakes.

Your role in the lane entirely depends on the killing potential of your hero. For example, if your hero has a weak laner like Phantom Assassin, then you can exploit your enemy’s mistakes to reduce their mobility.

Tip 4: Keep an Eye on the Bounty and Power-up Runes

In every DOTA 2 match, four bounty runes pop up every five minutes. These runes will help your team get extra gold. In an ideal scenario, you should capture at least two of them, but if you take more, that’s your benefit.

Even if you cannot get a bounty rune, you can use that situation to your advantage. You can put pressure on your enemies’ laning partner to hinder their progress.

Next comes the power-up runes. They spawn in the game every two minutes. Grabbing the right runes and using them at the right time can change the tide of the game, especially during the mid-lane matchup.

There are different types of runes, like haste, double damage, etc. Use them at the right opportunity to kill strong enemies in the lanes.

Tip 5: Understand When to Stack

Stacking is another gameplay strategy in DOTA 2, where you pull a creep camp before other neutral creep camps get the chance to spawn. This way, you stack your creeps together.

Knowing when to stack and when to pull is an excellent strategy for winning your lane in DOTA 2. If you are near your tower, avoid stacking or pulling your creeps. If you do so, enemy creeps will go under your tower and tank the damage, which will allow your opponents to attack your carry in the lane.

If you intend to push any of the towers, then the better option would be to pull without stacking.

Some More Tips

Here are a few more quick tips that will help you on the battlefield.

1. Keep an eye on your inventory. This way, you can keep your eye on smokes, bottled runes, clarity, etc. Keeping an eye on your inventory and using them at the right time can save your team from getting killed.
2. You should decide when to take a tower or leave it. If you are in need of farming, it is better to keep the towers so that you can kill creeps.
3. You can always request a lane change if you are not getting any advantage in your lane. While most opponents in public lobbies will reject your offer, it is still worth a try.

Wrapping Up

So, these are the beginner tips to winning your lane in DOTA 2. While laning can be a fundamental concept, you cannot just play and get better at it. If you see that you are messing up in the initial phases, looking at guides and watching others play is the best way to learn and improve.

You can re-read this article or watch pros play the game. You can see their replays where they play using the heroes you like. Some pros even teach fundamentals. Either that or get some in-game currencies with some Steam Wallet Codes from OffGamers here.

So, get your pen and paper ready and start learning to win your lane in DOTA 2!