How to get better at Dota 2, as explained by esports experts

If you are looking to get your MMR up in Dota 2, you need to take advantage of the many tips and tricks fellow players are using to improve at the game.

Here are some excellent tips to get better at Dota 2, from popular options to more niche alternatives for getting better at Valve’s popular game.

Dota 2 – explaining the basics

Dota 2, or Defense of the Ancients, is a long-running MOBA based on an original Warcraft 3 mod, developed into a standalone game by Valve, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. This multiplayer online battle arena is among the most popular esports in the competitive gaming landscape, and its standout tournament, The International, is synonymous with gaming excellence.

Much like League of Legends, Dota 2 also features a 5-vs-5 team-based battle on a map with five lanes and a jungle separating them, with neutral objectives scattered throughout the field of battle. Player characters grow and scale in power over time as they battle the creeps, the bosses, and each other, mixing well-timed ganks with teamfights in a bid for supremacy and the ultimate triumph: taking down the enemy Ancient.

With 125 heroes and countless items available, the possibilities in Dota 2 are well and truly endless – so it can be quite challenging to get ahead of the curve and improve at the game faster than the rest of the player base does. Here are some surefire methods to do so.

How to get better at Dota 2? Here are the top tips

Learn and study all the updates

Imagine the following scenario: you hop back into your favorite multiplayer game after taking an extended period of time off, and you are not up-to-date on the many changes that have been made since your last play session. And suddenly, everything feels off. Items do different things than what you remember, ability ranges and cooldowns have been marginally adjusted, the OP hero everyone used to draft is no longer even picked by anyone. We’ve all been there before. And more often than not, we ended up getting trounced in the process.

It is simply just a fact of modern live service video games that the patch notes and the content releases make for required reading, as changes made even just for changes’ sake are a key part of what keeps people hooked and coming back.

So if you are not just a casual player and you have designs for improving at Dota 2, you need to carefully consider and digest all the information available in the patch notes. Better still, you can check out some of the great content creators and their preview and analysis videos to get an even better idea of how the changes will shake out, hopefully getting an edge on your competitors by picking up the key nuances earlier than they would.

Follow and bet on Dota 2 esports

Competitive Dota 2 offers the best the game has to offer, and paying close attention to it will skyrocket your understanding of the MOBA. This is an underrated and underappreciated method of getting better at your favorite title: watching the greatest players battling it out amidst the highest possible stakes will show you the absolute peak of Dota 2 gaming, with many useful lessons to learn that you will also be able to apply at your level of play. It is also some of the best action that esports as a whole can bring to you – there is a reason why The International is such a well-known and beloved competition all across the gaming world.

But you can also take this a step further, and this is the advantage not every esports enthusiast or audience member ends up picking up – you can bet on Dota 2 esports, too, further incentivizing yourself to make the most accurate predictions possible, analyzing the games and matchups in greater detail in search of a tangible reward. And all that insight and understanding you will gain trying to forecast a tournament outcome will trickle down into your individual play as well, making this a very beneficial activity if you are trying to get better at Dota 2.

And luckily for you, Bitsler just so happens to be the best place for the Dota 2 betting enthusiast. We have been tirelessly working to provide esports and gaming fans with the best possible experience for almost a decade, headlining fair and fun crypto betting since 2015. With instant deposits and withdrawals of a wide range of cryptocurrencies, a massive selection of markets for regular and esports, plus dedicated casino games, Bitsler is the place to be for all your betting action. If you’re looking for the special sauce, we’ve also got you covered – in-play betting and live cashout, a fantastic VIP program, and our very own developed games: it’s non-stop action at Bitsler for the Dota 2 enthusiast.

What are the Dota 2 positions and roles? All explained

Playing your positions right and understanding what the different ones mean – not to mention the types of heroes you select in each – can greatly contribute to your understanding of Dota 2, and indeed, this is a big part of what getting involved with Dota 2 esports can help you figure out in better detail. While these factors are also super important in solo matchmaking play, it’s really the elite where you can see the impact of a strong team composition.

The Dota 2 team positions are numbered from one to five, each with a specific name so you can always know what the commentators are referring to. Here is what they are and how you should play each of them, and some of the heroes that excel at the particular roles.

Position 1: the (hard) carry

As a rule of thumb, position 1 in Dota 2 is the player the team is looking to eventually dominate the opposition in the late game. They have priority in farming, and they aim to collect as much gold as possible early on, limiting teamfights and other engagements so they can be in the strongest possible position later on in the match, becoming strong enough to warp the game around themselves with powerful equipment and late game abilities as the fighting goes on over time. In most cases, they are assisted by two other players to aid their gold farming. Just as the name implies, the team will put a lot of resources into setting up their carry for the late game, where they are indeed expected to carry their side to victory.

For position 1, the safe lane, some of the best heroes are Leoric, Ursa, and Juggernaut.

Position 2: mid – the ganker

The role of the position 2 player in Dota 2 2 (also referred to as “mid”) is more versatile, but you will most likely find them playing solo in the mid lane, fighting a pitched battle against their direct counterpart. It’s perhaps the most mechanically challenging role, with tons of split-second decisions requiring precise execution, coupled with a constant juggling of responsibilities as to how much you can push out of your lane to gank other opposing heroes and to assist your teammates along the way.

For the mid position, you should consider picking Zeus, Void Spirit, or Shadow Fiend.

Position 3: the offlaner

The offlaner position is sometimes also referred to as the “suicide solo,” which should tell you everything you need to know about what it’s like to play as one in the early parts of a game of Dota 2. With most of the attention focused on the teams’ respective carries, the offlaners are tasked with the fairly thankless objective of going up against the other team’s position one player and its two supports.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, their main goal early on is simply to not die – and it’s no surprise the heroes selected for this are tough to kill either because of their tanky nature or how slippery they are, thanks to their abilities. Blink Dagger is a must. Position 3 players in Dota 2 are tasked with denying the opponent’s carry as much as possible and farming whenever possible, aiming to scale later in the game.

For an offlane role, Sand King, Legion Commander, and Axe are excellent choices, just to name a few.

Position 4: the (soft) support

Also known as “the roamer”, position 4 in Dota 2 is all about finding the weak spots and anticipating what comes next, relying on disables and stuns to have the largest possible impact. They’re either one of the players tasked with supporting your carry early on or, more likely, someone tasked with roaming around and between the lanes to support specific teamfights despite the limited farm opportunities.

Shadow Shaman, Oracle, and Venomancer are just three of the many excellent support heroes in Dota 2.

Position 5: the hard support

If there’s ever a role that requires smarts and selfishness, it’s position 5 in Dota 2. Also known as “the babysitter,” it is by far the least farm-dependent role on the team – which is a nice way of saying that you will have very little gold to work with –  as the player focuses on purchasing consumables, wards, and other resources for the carries of the team, and in general to maintain team cohesion and focus on the big picture. It is almost always the team captain who takes on this responsibility as it is the last micro-intensive role on a Dota 2 team and allows them to strategize and make the important calls even in the middle of teamfights.

For position 5, you should consider drafting the same set of heroes as you would for a soft support role.

Practice, practice, and practice some more

At the end of the day, there is really no substitute for actually playing a game if you want to get better at it. But still, you should try to find sessions that you treat as tangible and purposeful practice. This is an oddly difficult endeavor when it comes to many live service video games, but if you think about it, it is part and parcel of sports or any general improvements of skills.

It’s perfectly normal to see a tennis player dedicate a training session strictly to their serves or for a chess player to specifically practice openings, tactics, or endgames. If you are looking to take your Dota 2 improvement seriously, you need to do the same with your gameplay session, even if the matchmaking system doesn’t necessarily facilitate that.

Create dedicated opportunities for yourself to improve on specific aspects of your play. Play with unusual heroes and unfamiliar positions for a given day, or make your goal to improve your farming in a set of given matches instead of focusing on the result. (In fact, not being results-oriented is a key part of making the most out of any practice session in general.)

Only play when you can fully concentrate

Again, we’ve all been there – the 3am benders, the just-one-more-game promises, the desperate attempts to claw back all that lost MMR. Well, as it turns out, not losing a game is worth just as much as winning one – so if you simply listen to your body and realize when you’re better off resting and recuperating rather than playing a super subpar game of Dota 2, you can easily eliminate the bottom 10 percentile of your games, which is a huge improvement in and of itself without any other significant change to your gameplay.

The five top tips to get better at Dota 2, summarized

Once more, with feeling – here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of how you can get better at Dota 2:

Study the patch notes. Every new update and content release makes a huge difference in terms of the optimal Dota 2 strategies, and you would be remiss if you didn’t pay close attention to them, including what the best players and content creators have to say about the changes.

Bet on Dota 2 esports. Playing with the pros might not be on the cards, but playing like the pros certainly is – and there is no better way to understand and to properly study the esports action than to bet on Dota 2.

Learn the hero positions. Dota 2 is very different as a hard carry and as a soft support, and knowing full well what’s going on from positions one to five will make you a much better player.

Practice makes perfect. Trying new things and practicing important skills will have a short-term negative effect on your win rate and MMR, but the effort will be more than worthwhile later down the line.

Only play when you really feel like it. If you are tired, tilted, or struggling to focus on the game, the only winning move is not to play. Your MMR will thank you tomorrow.