Raising your MatchMaking Ranking (MMR) can be quite challenging as you are but one person in a 10 person match. That isn’t to say that it is impossible, and much of the time just requires some solid dedication, knowledge and skill in the game, and a good mental attitude to see it through. In this article, we will cover the top 10 ways and tips and tricks you can use in your local matchmaking games to boost your chances on the ladder and increase your likelihood of raising your MMR.
10. Understand the heroes
If you are a new player to the game, it is important to understand all the heroes Dota 2 has to offer. It is important to know every hero to its full extent, what their capabilities and abilities are, and how to build certain heroes. There are currently a total of 123 heroes in the game, each with their unique set of abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Even by playing the first 100 hours of the game, players will struggle to understand all 123 of the heroes being offered.
Many times, new players just jump into games blind without knowing what certain heroes do, and consequently pay the price. They do not understand that some heroes are just more powerful as solo gankers while others excel in team fights. Other heroes are able to be played as strong support heroes while others can only be played exclusively in the carry role. Building the right items on heroes is also extremely important and a poor item choice can sometimes make or break the game.
Knowing your heroes and what they can do and can not do is the basic foundation to being a great player and the more time and effort you spend getting to know all the heroes of Dota, the better chance you have against your adversary.
9. Understand your roles
Even up in the higher ranks in Legend and Ancient, players still do not fully understand their role in the game when they have chosen it. As a short introduction into the roles, each team in Dota consists of 5 roles. These roles are; Hard Support, Soft Support, Offlaner, Semi-carry and Hard Carry. Each person is in charge of a specific role and has certain responsibilities they need to perform to produce the most impact for their team. As an example, the responsibility of the Offlaner is to usually initiate and provide vision for the rest of their team in team fights, tanking as much as they can and being used as a meat shield for their team. They are usually strongest in the early to mid game and should abuse their power spike to enable space for his other two cores during this time.
Many times, players fail to understand their duty that is carried over from their role, making themselves more of a liability than an asset to the rest of their team. On the other hand, players that understand their role and perform it accordingly have a higher chance of success, synergizing better and offering more value to their team.
For more details about roles and how they should be played properly, take a look at our other article here at: https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/dota-2-roles
8. Be Flexible with your roles
Dota 2 is a team game, and being a team game, you need to understand not only your own role, but the roles of others. To get this fine tuned understanding of the roles, you will need to learn by doing and in this case, try out other roles.
Many players, even those in the higher brackets tend to think that sticking to one role for the entirety of your gameplay experience will make it easier for you to climb the ladder. The truth of the matter is that if you ask any professional Dota 2 player to play a different role other than the one they are generally accustomed to, they will be able to play it with no problem within their league.
So don’t be afraid of experimenting with other roles in the game. The more you know about the game in its entirety, the easier it will be for you to leverage your skill and knowledge to gain the edge in your climb of the ladder.
7. Be Flexible with your hero choices
This goes hand in hand with playing and experiencing other roles. In order to achieve great understanding of the game, it is important that you do not tunnel vision into specific heroes that you play. Sure it is a good idea to abuse the meta and play the strongest heroes of the patch, but there will come a time when the hero does get nerfed or banned from your playlist.
Either way, it is important that you are able to play multiple heroes such that when the situation arises, you will be able to pick the best hero for that kind of match. For example, if your main is Bristleback and you can only play that hero and the opposing team has already picked some viable counters such as Legion Commander and Viper, then it would be good to have other choices that you can rely on rather than trying to brute force through a game which usually can have some dire consequences.
6. Master your Technical ability
As with most things in life, knowledge can only get you so far. To exceed in the game and to improve your chances in ranking up, you will need to have strong technical abilities as well. This means:
- Being a strong last hitter
- Strong lane control and lane equilibrium understanding
- Having strong map awareness
- Using abilities well to both secure creeps and assert your dominance in the lane
- Having purposeful actions such as lane pushing or stacking when required
- Strong mana management
- Precise positioning and actions
5. Stay Objective focused
Many players, especially those in the lower ranks, become overconfident after taking a few kills. Time and time again, we see players that are far ahead, throw their lead by diving further than they should, taking engagements when they shouldn’t, and not pushing towers and taking objectives like outposts and Roshan. If you have taken a good team fight, do not waste time on farm. Go push some objectives and hit some towers. Remember, shorter successful games mean that you can scale the ladder at a faster pace.
4. Hero Choices matter
When picking your heroes, have an idea what your teammates are picking and what sort of choices they go for. Certain heroes work incredibly well together as opposed to other combinations. If you are laning with another lane partner in a duo lane, pick heroes that can synergize well together or for the rest of the team. For example, if your partner picks a Grimstroke support for the offlane, consider picking heroes that synergize well with the hero such as Primal Beast or even Centaur Warruner. Winning your lanes usually makes it a lot easier for your team and yourself to have a higher gold advantage, leading to an increased chance that you will win the game.
3. Keep it simple Stupid
A lot of the time players pick higher skill heroes in favor of lower skilled ones either because they want to impress others in the match or have seen professionals dominate with the hero. They go for interesting item choices or skill the hero differently as they may have seen it work in the past or with others.
As an example, Topson has recently dominated with Sniper by going for up to four Wraith Bands as part of his build. Other professionals have also executed remarkable plays with Earth Spirit or crushed games exclusively with Meepo. However, what players fail to realize is that sometimes professional builds and choices should sometimes be left to the professionals. It is far more effective and easier to dominate the game with a Viper or Bristleback as opposed to picking Tinker and then being Mediocre at it.
We have compiled a list below of some of the most effective pub stomping heroes that are great pick ups in many lineups and are simple enough to play:
- Wraith King
- Bristleback
- Jakiro
- Crystal Maiden
- Ogre Magi
- Tidehunter
- Dragon Knight
- Lich
2. Have positivity and good team work
At the end of the day, Dota 2 is a team game and you can only do so much by yourself. As such, having good communication skills, positive energy and a desire to do good is one of the most important things to keep in mind when playing ranked matchmaking.
This means, letting your carry know when you are going to pull the lane, advising your team if you are coming to gank as the mid laner, suggesting item choices for your teammates in a friendly manner and offering positive encouragement. There are already plenty of enemies on the opposing team, you don’t want to make even more within your own team. Having some good behavior and a positive mental attitude goes a long way and more often than not, gives you and your team the best chance of winning.
1. Learn from the professionals
The final and one of the best tips we have for you in this article for you to climb your ranked match games is to look at how the professionals play and to learn from them. A lot of the time, there is a meta and many heroes get chosen based on how powerful they are in the game within the current patch. Watch tournament games and check multiple other professionals that are using the same hero to understand what their item builds are and how they approach the game.Often, professionals like to commentate their decision making process and this can be useful to bring into your own ranked games.
Hopefully, with these ten tips, you are equipped with a better strategy to tackle your ranked Dota 2 games. As with most things, the most important thing is to keep practicing and keep building your skills and knowledge. Stay on top of the latest metas and patches Dota has to offer. Then, maybe one day, I will get to see you on the ladder and we will have a great game of Dota 2 no matter our siding!
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