u/External-Cheetah-216

Hi. I am currently sitting in the ~2k bracket. I mostly play midlane necrophos (other Heroes I Play mid are OD, Zeus and DK), but since I am back to Dota after years, I try other roles as well with different results. I have 58,5% win rate on necro mid in 65 games so far, and much lower for these other heroes, so its definitely my best hero. The problem I find is I rarely lose mid or die to the enemy, and I analysed my recent games on necro, and I've found I mostly dominate my opponents. Therefore I think I should capitilize my advantage into much higher winrate. This is my last laning stages of the games, the net worth difference between me and my opponent at 12 minutes, and the outcome (all played as necro mid):

- vs QoP (+1300 gold advantage), game lost, (but we had a carry leaver, so really hard to win 4v5)

- vs. Arc Warren (+2000), win

- vs. Weaver (+1700), win

- vs. Ogre Magi (+1600), win

- vs. Invoker (+1400), lose

- vs. Sniper (+200), win

- vs Zeus (+2000), win

- vs QotL (+3800), win

- vs. Invoker (+1300), win

- vs Viper (+1700), lose

- vs. Zeus (+600), lose

- vs. Rubick (+2300), win

- vs. OD (+200), win

- vs. Venge (1700), win

- vs. KotL (-400 disadvantage), lose

- Snapfire (+500), lose

- lina (-100), lose

- vs Zeus (+600), lose

- vs. Silencer (+2000), win

- vs Skywrath (+2800), win

- vs. SF (-700), lose

I think my win rate on this hero with this laning potential I provide in my games is unacceptable, and I should be winning 70-80% of these games. But for some reason I can't, although I try to do my best to:

- use my ult off cool down to help sidelanes;

- shove the lanes and farm their jungle;

- pressure the midlaner and carry so they won't have easy time farming

- push towers after fights and calling for a smoke for pickoffs

If it comes to itemization, I aim to get radiance most games by 13-15 minute, then go often consecrated wraps and shard. But if they have very high magical burst, I go Consecrated wraps first, then radiance. Sometimes Eul's as second Item, sometimes bkb after CW needed, or linkens vs LC. Of course wand early on as well. HoT and Shiva's are my Items to go pretty always. Also situationally Kaya&Sange, Hex or Agha.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi. I'm mostly necro player nie, but I enjoy playing OD as well. The problem is, I have only 35% win rate with him in 20 games at 2k mmr, do I probably suck, even though I do huge DMG in these games. I know his weakness is 0 tower pressure potential, but what should I do as OD? The items seems problematic as well. Should I go witch blade every game as first Item? When to buy hurricane pike, and when to buy blink? When hex or orchid?

Who should I prioritize to kill and use astral on? Can astral be used on initiation on Heroes with disables so I can kill others more safely? And how to deal in the late game when anyone has bkb and I can orb them to death do easily?

I am back to Dota after some years and currently stuck in somewhere between 1,7-2k mmr and I recently play mostly support roles. I find it difficult to get better at this game since I started ranked matches. What I find myself often is to end up in 2 scenarios:

1. We have advantage until 20-30 min and win teamfights, but then the enemies start to turtle the game so it can last 40-60 minutes. Especially if they have highly scaling into the late game carry. Last game we were ahead, desroying 2 tier 3 towers with racks after 30 mins. For some reason, we started to lose fights soon and they had Spectre, which had his farmspeed boosted. Eventually we ended up winning, but this took over an hour to happen. I don't really feel I can do much to prevent their carry from going into the late game and catch up even if we are ahead.

2. We are losing. And after 20-30 minutes, when all tier 2 towers are gone, I feel like I am trapped into my base for the rest of the game - can't shove lanes, can't deward on my own, can't make smoke kills, because enemies have high map control. These games are lost in 90% cases.

The other problem I see in my games as support, is I am often underleveled, 2-3 lvls lower than enemy supports. I play slow farming Heroes as pos 5 (venge, lion, aa), but I think this might be due to me being often out of the xp range, because I pull or stack. But I think there must be other issues for being low lvl.

Also, when should I stack camps for my carry to farm? Often if I pull near our T1 tower or ancients, when we lose tower, enemies contest and do my stacks, so I find it risky to stack. And I am not getting xp from the lane if I go for stacks.

Are pulls very important for safelane support? Or is blocking hard camp more important for me? When to do stackpull? And should I leave the lane if I feel we can kill midlaner or carry, if I am not lvl 6 yet? Or should I get to my lvl 6 before doing so, or never leave my carry and keep tower alive for as long as I can?

I would be very thankful for any insight from more experienced players!