Suggest: 4K Carry Heroes to Spam

So I got out of Low Priority last night - 4 victories out of 7 matches. I'm pretty sure I won't hit this trench anymore for quite sometime.

As I have said in my previous post, I will focus on playing the carry role in my main account. I'm currently thinking of maybe spamming 3-4 carry heroes and choose whoever best fits a particular situation. Since there's a big possibility that my allies will pick carry heroes before me, one of these heroes should be a Jungler-Type.

Can you guys recommend which heroes are good in this meta in 4K SEA?

As per Dotabuff's 4-5K MMR Hero Win Rate:

Drow and Luna tops the carry hero list with 55.73% and 54.57% win rates respectively.

It is then populated by non carry heroes who are either 1 of these:

1. Heroes who are easy to play but makes huge impact: 
• Zeus, Lich, Ogre Magi, Warlock, Silencer
2. Defensive Heroes who have an entire skill set to keep teammates alive: 
• Omniknight, Abaddon, Necrophos
3. Aggressive Heroes who are "subjectively" hard to counter: 
• Spiritbreaker, Riki

If I scroll down past the initial list, the carry heroes next in line would be Mirana (52.37%), Sven (52.30%), Wraith King (52.21%), Spectre (51.85%) and Ursa (51.32%).

Interestingly enough, my favorite hero Spectre has fell down a lot. As a Spectre spammer, I feel that this is largely caused by the change in meta more than the nerfs she received.

Certainly, I would still pick her if the situation permits. But I think she is more situational now compared to maybe earlier this year. To be more factual, tet's take a look at my personal stats on Spectre:

Timeline	Win Rate	# of Matches	KDA	Match Duration	Remarks
Last 3 months	50.85%	59	4.66	41:36	The difference between this stat line compared to below was more personal rather than game-related (I tanked 500 MMR and dropped to 4K rating) The odd thing though is that the matches were a minute longer. Either the agility nerfs or the meta changes has impacted the ability of Spectre to get kills, thus a huge drop in the KDA. Theoretically, this should be addressed by a more safer playstyle or more active participation in teamfights.
Last 6 months	47.44%	78	4.57	40:05	Clearly, the nerfs and the changes in meta has destroyed this once wonderful hero, dropping more than 10% win rate
Last 12 months	58.67%	271	5.6	40:22	Easily, the golden days of Spectre, this is when I reached Top 100 in Dotabuff's list

It's in my best interests to rediscover this hero once more. I still believe that her core skill set is still very powerful. Might be just some tweak in the approach, game play and itemization.

For now, the question is which heroes should I spam in my current MMR tier?

So statistically, Dotabuff is telling me to focus on:

1. Drow Ranger
2. Luna 
3. Mirana
4. Sven
5. Wraith King
6. Spectre
7. Ursa

Out of these heroes, I have spammed/practiced below as safe lane hard carries.

1. Spectre (61.97% win rate, 760 matches in total, spammed ~forever)
2. Luna (49.25% win rate, 67 matches in total, spammed last Dec 24 2013 - Jan 25 2013)
3. Sven (48.15$ win rate, 54 matches in total, spammed last Apr 12 2014 - May 3 2014)
4. Mirana (50.47% win rate, 107 matches in total, spammed last  Jan 26 2014 - Feb 1 2014)
5. Wraith King (47.27% win rate, 55 matches in total, spammed last Aug 21 2015 - Aug 30 2015)

What do you think guys? Which heroes would be best to play in this current meta to help me climb the MMR ladder?

Feel free to post your comments, suggestions and feedbacks!

Out and Back Again

^ Got out of Low Priority last night, but after just a couple of games, I'm back to hell, this time needing 5 victories! #shakingmyhead

But this led me into settling with a new approach:
1. I will play Carry Roles only - using my BlackXargon account, currently @ 4139 MMR
2. And I will play to win - using my alternate BlackXargon_ account, currently @ 3710 MMR

Sad to say, even this account is in Low Priority :(

With this, every time I feel I want to play proper and play to win, I will switch to my alternate account. Else, I will try developing my carry skills using my main account.

Of course, in both cases having the same mindset of reaching 6K MMR.

I Woke Up Like This

So after publishing my first blog post late last night, I woke up this morning and decided to play some Dota. I wasn't feeling fresh, didn't take any breakfast nor coffee nor water but still I played and guess what happened?...

-100 MMR just like that!

I'm now enduring the deep trenches of Low Priority and need 3 more wins to rehabilitate my approach to this game. Which path should I take?


1. Play proper a-la Legions of Dota - basically, play last pick - always choose last hero and fill in the required synergies and counters

2. Play carry - choose a select pool of carry heroes more than just Spectre alone. This would require me to choose within the 1st 3 picks.

Season 1 - Episode 1: Double Jungling with Crystal Maiden (Midas as 1st item!)

Drafting Phase

Our team started by choosing all cores in Ember Spirit, Mirana and Dark Seer while the enemy team started with Storm, Anti-Mage and Lion.

It was followed by our jungle Legion Commander and a Broodmother Dire. I closed it with a Crystal Maiden as the Dire picked Sven. The latter being unusual since they already have a safe lane Anti-Mage.

Had it not been an LC pick, I would have actually went jungle Bloodseeker. But we needed a hard support so I chose Crystal Maiden. 

Why Crystal Maiden?

Her skills are so fitting in this game - primarily the Frostbite which is an underrated but very good skill to disable the right clicks of Sven and Anti-Mage and help keep them in place for Legion Commander, Mirana and Ember to attack them. The mana regeneration from Arcane Aura also helps Ember, Mirana and Dark Seer (thanks for the correction Haffy@Dotabuff ^^) spam their skills. And lastly, Crystal Nova to ensure chase potential during ganks and enemy escapes.

Special Note: At Max Level 4, it's a 3-second disable which a not-so-tanky Anti-Mage has to endure against a right clicking Legion Commander.

Game Play

Although I bought wards and courier for the team, I wouldn't brag that this is the proper way to play support. I actually went for the infamous "double jungler" strat while helping Mirana secure the runes. To add more appreciation and sarcasm, I even went 1st item midas (@8-min mark), before concerning myself with upgrading the courier or planting more wards.

Why did I go for a jungle maiden?

We see a lot of rants whenever players go jungling, and most of the time it is correct. The primary sign if you're doing a bad job as a "jungler" is when your teammates flame you for doing it.  When this stuff happens, you have to understand them past the "flaming", "shouting", and "ranting" - the real message that they want to convey is "they need help" or "you can be of more help if you just go lane". Other than Mirana nagging me about upgrading the courier, nobody bothered me about what I was doing. Why is this so? Very important to understand is the lineup composition and the match-ups, let's have a quick look.

Dire Line-Up:

Anti-Mage - safe play-style until Battle Fury, Vlads and Manta.

Storm Spirit - neutral play-style until level 6 with a good rune or 2nd item Orchid/Bloodstone

Broodmother - aggressive but focuses on lane dominance

Lion & Sven - now this is something else; prior to 0:00, I scouted the Dire Jungle to get lane information. Sven caught me and started hitting me. 

Here, I noticed that he 1st skilled cleave.

This alone gave me critical information that he will actual go "jungling". This point, I have decided that I can also jungle with Maiden because this means there will be very little success for a Dire aggression since it's only Lion who will be capable of doing it, let alone Mirana having an escape mechanism. The only vulnerable target would be Ember Spirit but since he's is solo-ing the lane, he would get quick levels and have Fire Remnant escape mechanism before Lion decides to gank and leave his safe lane carry Anti-Mage, who's getting harassed by Dark Seer ion shells.

Item Choice - why greedy Midas Maiden?

There are only 2 ways to do this, either I go standard Tranquil + Urn build and start roaming (or sap lane experience) or go greedy. Why did I choose the latter? Again, let's go through the options..

Broodmother - to successfully gank her, I need to buy dust/sentry but being the squishy hero that I am, there's also that risk that I might die to her broodlings in return . Also, with her lifesteal, I'm not sure Ember Spirit will be able to deal enough DPS to bring her down.

Storm Spirit - easy ult escape

Anti-Mage - no kill potential if partnered with Dark Seer alone

The only probable success of a gank is if I do it together with Mirana + Moonlight shadow.

Considering all these options, I was convinced that without my aggression, skirmishes will only start by mid game when people have some levels and early game items. Hence, getting midas was greedy but not lethal.

Team Fight/Clashes

And as it turns out, a simple 2-minute DD-rune secure combined with a no-vision/unaware Storm Spirit still got me a 1st blood and 418 gold $$$ as I rotated for a kill in the middle lane.

LC's dagger also put us in the offensive side with a 12-8 score. This was very critical considering that our Tier 1 towers in the top and bottom lane were gone by the 15th minute. I also made sure that we have advanced wards deep in their middle lane and jungle camps as we strongly transitioned to the mid game.

Side note, this is how I actually think a successful LC should play - with early aggression, he needs to be killing people as soon as possible for him to be effective. Finding the proper timing is the key. The sweet spot should be between 12-17 minutes. You have to start aggression during this timing,

By the 24th minute, we took down the middle lane raxes after a series of skirmishes where Anti-Mage and Sven got caught. Sven's God's Strength + Blink + MOM combo actually caught 2 of my allies, but a well positioned and well-timed Frostbite had him disarmed and stuck.

Anti-Mage being very careless as he farmed even we're around.

Sven's God's Strenght + Blink + MOM combo actually caught 2 of my allies, but a well positioned and well-timed Frostbite had him disarmed and stuck.

Couple of minutes later, we got careless and lost 4 heroes in exchange for an Sven.

This was followed by another careless attempt as Legion Commander and myself died to Anti-Mage.

and led them to secure Roshan @ minute 31.

It was clear at this point that in-spite of our rax advantage, that Anti-Mage has caught up with his items and that the Dire is on the brink of a turnaround.

Anti-Mage with Linken's as he tries to negate the initiation of Legion Commander.

We lost 3 heroes as Lion and Storm Spirit counter initiated on us.

At this point though, in-spite of losing the clash, I knew that my BKB will eventually payoff primarily because of the nature of the team clash. Sven, Anti-Mage, Broodmother and Storm Spirit will all be coming and bursting in 1 go.

Right after we re-spawned, I called for a 3-man smoke gank and we were able to remove Storm Spirit's Aegis.

This time, I made sure to fully utilize my 10-second BKB with the 10-second Freezing Field, from Anti-Mage,

to Storm Spirit...

to Storm Spirit and Broodmother

Winning this clash led to us getting Mega Creeps...

of course, game is not complete without my traditional words of encouragement ^^

I had a higher GPM than Storm, Sven and Legion Commander...

Thanks for reading my 1st entry, I hope you got entertained or have learned something. 
Feel free to provide comments, feedbacks and suggestions.
If you're in SEA and we're in the same MMR range, add me up in Steam: BlackXargon

"I kill noobs, I kill pros, I kill you! Behold, BlackXargon owns you!"
- BlackXargon

[MMR Update] Solo: 4234 Party: 3963

Welcome!

Dear Fellow Dota 2 Player,

Thanks for taking time to visit my blog called "A Day in the Life of a 4K MMR Dota 2 Player". This blog is targeted for those Dota 2 players who are neither Professional nor Casual. Those players who are very passionate and serious and spends a huge amount of time in playing the game just because he LOVES it.

I would actually like to call ourselves "Dota 2 addicts" - we're so invested into playing this game and yet we don't really gain a lot benefits from it other than the "subjective fun" it gives us.


What this blog will contain?
- Daily episodes in playing Dota 2. I will detail out the events that happened in each game and provide my findings, learning and recommendations.
- I will also prove to you that playing Dota 2 "casually" in the solo queue is more than just skill by telling you the story of how I dropped from 4.5K MMR to 3.1K MMR and back to 4.5K MMR again.
- I also want to help 2K and 3K MMR players in reaching 4K MMR because personally, as long as you're "into this" I believe anyone can achieve whatever MMR it is that they want.

My goal in Dota 2 is to reach 6K MMR and my goal in this blog is to capture the story behind it.
Will it be in 6 months or 6 years? I don't know, but I'll cherish the journey and I hope so do you.

Thanks and looking forward to see you here.

Yours truly,
BlackXargon








P.S. To avoid confusion, my current ratings are 4183/3963 respectively. The 4.5k to 3k to 4.5k is a different story altogether.