Dota Glossary:

by John Candy

These are not in a particular order of importance. You probably know some or most of this or all of this. That isnt the point. The point is these are just things everyone, even me, should be considering.

1. Carry a tp.

2. As a carry try for 50cs/10mins 100cs/20mins

3. As a support remember the important timings. Flying chicken @ 3mins. Observer wards last 6mins. So, around 6 minutes into the game, another set of wards needs to go up. The less time the map is dark the better off all lanes will be.

4. Walking uphill into fog, if you can avoid it, is almost always a bad choice, and will kill you. On your own side of the river, its usually okay, but to walk uphill into enemy fog makes you a sitting duck. Keep this in mind

5. Look at the minimap. Try and locate all the enemy heroes. If you cant see them try and remember where they were or predict where they might be. Are they stacking ancients? Smoke ganking? Pulling?

6. Crossing the river, at any point in the game, or being alone past the river, invites them to kill you. If you are too far forward, and cant see them on the map, you are maybe already dead or soon to be dead. Go back.

7. Dying happens, but try and limit dying where nothing is gained.

8. If the enemy is pushing a tower, and you are on the other side of the map, consider whether the team is even capable of defending the tower. If we cant, and well likely say this because we communicate like bosses Im sure, just split push. Trading objectives is fine.

9. Find farm where you can. If you have the time, kill that jungle camp, or farm one wave. Maybe your carry is jungling and you can get gold and exp from the lane. Thats fine. Farming efficiently and consistently throughout the game, even on support, is important to get those sometimes crucial items that tilt the balance of team fights.

10. Think about Roshan.

11. If wards get countered, dont go place both a sentry and observer to counter their sentry. All theyll do is come back with another sentry and also kill your observer. Put the observer somewhere different.

12.Stack ancients @ approx x:53 whenever you are nearby. Even waiting a bit is fine. They give shitloads of gold and experience.

13. Dont overlap stuns. It doesnt have to be perfect, but let one stun get closeish to ending then cast the other stun.

14. Prioritize heroes to kill. Killing their core heroes is much better than killing their supports.

15. If they have invis heroes, as shitty as it is, just buy truesight right away, pre-emptively, like @ minute zero before game starts. Dont wait for it to become a terrible situation.

16. If a lane is going very badly, let the team know. We can try and do something about it.

17. Control runes. Every two minutes try and be there before the rune spawns, especially at the start of the game. If a support or jungler and a mid go to a rune, you can get kills on opposing mids who go there solo and do things like walk uphill into fog.

18. Carry a tp.

19. Its always easy to think about things teammates did wrongthis is human nature and a reason why team games are toxicbut the way to get better is to think about the things you did wrong. It doesnt matter if you were 20-0 and then died a few times. Think about the deaths.

20. If a fight is going disastrously dont dive in to die out of solidarity. Just go back. Discretion is the better part of valour.

21. If you are a carry or mid or offlaner (or anyone late game) SAVE BUYBACK. No need to buy items component by component.

22. If you know you are dead, buy before you die. Use quickbuy. Youll save tons of gold.

23. There are a crazy amount of scenarios you can just tp out of. If they have no stuns off cooldown, you can just tp. Its pretty powerful.

24. Have flexible item builds. Sometimes the typical item is bad. Sometimes a certain item is insanely effective. Think about their heroes. What damage types are they predominantly dishing out? If its one sided because their drafter is a noob, then itemize accordingly.

25. Mek and pipe win fights.

to be continued.