Analyzing Game State — Midgame
We are continuing our series on Analyzing Game State, arriving at the midgame, probably the most important period of the game. This is when your team composition usually has the means to start executing the plan for the game and this is when the vast majority of games are decided. So what do you keep an eye on and what sort of thing should you think about during the midgame?
Understanding Power Levels
Many years ago we made a post about Power Levels and while the details in this post might be outdated, the general principles behind it certainly are not. During the midgame, you should always have a general idea of the threat certain enemy heroes represent and act accordingly.
The first thing to always think of is “can our team realistically break even in a fight?”. Dota is a strategy game first and foremost, and no matter how ahead the enemy is in general or at a specific timing, there are options.
The enemy team is five-man pushing your Tier Two? If you understand you can’t fight them — Do Not. You can split-push to get extra resources: a solo split-pusher will usually start closing the XP and gold gap against a winning team because they are grouped up and share the resources from a lane. You can try to cut waves or farm up in the jungle if you are afraid of enemy retaliation. There are almost always better options than going for a suicidal teamfight.
This is a very dynamic system, with a lot of adjustments. Big enemy cooldowns are another important aspect. Fighting into a Tidehunter with and without Ravage are two completely different things. Even if you are losing economically, there are usually going to be openings where an enemy with a higher theoretical power level is weaker than you.
In short: keep an eye on enemy levels and items to understand whether it is a good idea to fight at the time, and keep an eye on enemy cooldowns to understand when the enemy is not at full capacity and can be engaged into.
Plan your engagements beforehand
As someone who cast both Tier 1 and very, very Tier 2 Dota, I was surprised to find the job being easier in the former case. Better teams plan their engagements better and because of this, their fights are usually cleaner, more concentrated in a single location, and as such, much easier to understand.
The biggest reason for this is that their attacks and defenses are typically pre-planned. No one is winging it: they know exactly what kind of threat each enemy hero represents and have a list of priorities for every fight, instead of just attacking and bursting the closest target.
You need to learn to do the same, at least to a certain extent, since no one expects players to be infallible in pubs. Thinking of different kills you can make, and what that leads to in a teamfight is the easiest approach.
The enemy is relying on a Terrorblade for the majority of their damage? Plan on how you are dealing with the hero beforehand. They also have an Oracle? Incorporate the hero in your thought process, knowing that you will have to either zone them out or kill them, before actually committing to Terrorblade. Enemy offlaner also has a Force Staff? Make a mental check of it, so it doesn’t come as a surprise.
Pulling on every thread of this incredibly messy yarn will create questions you will need to find an answer to and think about before the actual engagement starts. Do share that with your teammates as well: while making a full pre-battle speech is probably going to be counter-productive, a gentle push for your mobile hero to concentrate on enemy save-heroes at the back, while your frontliner is keeping the enemy front line engaged and you supports are keeping their distance can make a huge difference.
Closing Thoughts
Midgame is the most important timing in the game, at least in the current patch. It is when teams already have their full arsenal of abilities and their smart utilization can make or break the game. It is also the time where most cores realistically have means of getting their next item and this arms race is what constantly flips the balance of power on the battlefield.
Understand what each enemy hero represents for your lineup. Figure out what you need to purchase to gain an advantage and what the enemy team might want to buy and act accordingly. As long as neither side is outright dominating after too successful of a laning stage, the team that can dictate the flow of the game is going to switch back and forth.
Know when to strike and when to bide your time, and you will see your win rate and, more importantly, your enjoyment of the game increase.
first oya
agree with the splitpushing one, its still very underutilized in pubs. the meta is still too fast imo, it supposed to be dota and the devs want it to be heroes of the storm brawl mode or something. theres almost never comebacks unless one team throws hard
I have two big questions after reading this.
1.) "they know exactly what kind of threat each enemy hero represents and have a list of priorities for every fight, instead of just attacking and bursting the closest target... You need to learn to do the same." How can we improve at this, at recognizing what you need to do in a given situation? How can we read a situation and understand whether it's Terrorblade pulling their teamfighting weight, or if it's, say, their storm spirit who's consistently diving the backline? Even if the terrorblade's the bigger priority, is it still worth going for him with storm in the position he consistently puts himself in? Or to use the same example as in the article, what if Oracle's enabling of terrorblade is what's actually allowing him to carry the teamfight? How do we figure these kinds of things out? it feels like it's just some intuition that you can only gain from experience and mental application, but if there's a consistent, training-friendly alternative, I'd love to hear it.
2.) "The enemy team is five-man pushing your Tier Two? If you understand you can’t fight them — Do Not." I agree that this is correct, but where does the line get drawn where you NEED to take a bad fight? a t2's obviously not important enough, but what if they see that your team is spread out over the map and decide to continue their push into the t3, where (in this scenario) they'll still have a significant advantage even when factoring in that they're pushing highground? Do you sacrifice the t3, maybe even the rax(es), as well? the line obviously gets drawn when they start targeting your ancient, but how much farther out does that line go?
Idk if you can reply to someone but this is for Talenheim
1. I think watching pro matches can help. Their drafts usually make sense and are built with and around win conditions. Sometimes, the casters may basically break down what they have to do to win (the game or the fight) but there is a big part of subtle decisions that would take a lot of time to explain and that you have to figure out. It's not easy in the beginning but you get used to it. And also remind yourself that there isn't always one good choice and one bad choice : sometimes they are both wrong and sometimes both right.
2.If you "need" to take a bad fight, or you're too far behind in the game and you might not win this one, or your team doesn't have the tools to defend your tower and the issue there was the draft. You might have picked completely stupi heroes or their strength isn't in teamfights
Yeah but have you tried blink dagger Pos 3 ET
Talenheim I think the number of factors that play into a given situation is too astounding for any single answer and you're right about, "intuition" being your strongest asset to recognizing opportunity. Pros build all this based on shared experience. They communicate but they're also on the same page by virtue of attrition. There only seems to be one way of gaining good game sense, good practice. If you thinking about the game tactically and try to recognize these opportunities then eventually you'll get better at it. Watch your own replays, especially your losses, and try to figure out what you could have done to win the game. That's why I respect Kawaiisocks's analysis so much, the guy thinks about the game at an incredibly high level which I think in a tactical game like dota carries more impact than a number. There's no panacea my dude, game is hard.
What would you guys say is the most surefire way to defensive farm after losing the early game?
@KawaiiSocks. Who can I reach out to be on the blog writing team for dotabuff? I've reached out to Elo Entertainment haven't gotten a reply I thought it would be easier to speak with you directly.
Snow why do you think you would be qualified to be a writer for dotabuff?
Strong counterpoint to the split pushing option is that in pubs, getting 5 people to just stick together and fight is a lot simpler than doing a 3-1-1 properly. While in theory, split pushing is the correct play, the difficulty of execution usually means that if you do it, the big group will get caught mid and die, and then you lose the game.
It's why teamfight and early push heroes are disproportionately good in pubs. It's easier to get 5 monkeys to "group up and run at them" than anything else, and coordinating anything more complex with people you might not even speak the same language as is unlikely to work.
An organized team can definitely follow a lot of the advice in this post, but there is a "complexity" element that is being ignored.