General Discussionterrible losing streak

im just a high bracket player but pick fit with your team not just carry.
p/s: i notice that storm game, your item build should orchid not that blood stone

Well theres the thing, I'm not playing public games just to win. I'm wanting to practice specific heroes that would be beneficial to the current teams I am a part of. Usually I'll play several bots games with a hero first, but they really aren't very challenging. At least in public games I can't always predict what players are going to do.

As for storm, I'll go orchid first if they have some serious casters or escapers, but otherwise I think bloodstone and/or linkens offer utility and keep me on the map / in the game longer.

Please don't turn this thread into something I did not intend. If you want to discuss the strategy of a hero, go somewhere else.

watch pro stream and learn from them, my fastest way :)

Yeah, I have done some of that. However, my free time is limited and playing games is more fun =/. I can read guides and forums and such at work, but can't watch videos.

trust me, watch pro player stream help you improve alot, you can watch vod anytimes you want. read guide and forum doesnt help you much.

The reason why you have a losing streak is because you are playing in the normal bracket which is filled with total retards.

You'll probably go on a 4-5 game win streak soon, it just happens sometimes. I've lost 8 in a row before.

@bad to the bone - So by your reasoning, if I created a smurf account and got into the hard bracket my games would have less 'retards'?

@Mark - yeah I know, but losing 13 out of 14 is plain ridiculous. Man would I love to have a 13 game win streak haha.

Let me explain something.

Very High Skill Bracket = 99% retards 1% good players
High Skill Bracket = 99% retards 1% of good players who got dropped down because of god knows what reason
Normal Bracket 100% retards

Now to win games in the Normal bracket you should choose such heroes so that you can win the game by yourself by snowballing hard. In my opinion there is no better hero to do that than shadow fiend. In the normal bracket people don't carry dust or anything so as long as you know how to play the hero - you can carry the game by yourself easily.

Storm spirit is also good for this purpose but bloodstone is a shitty first item. I don't usually even get it as the second item. Orchid and hex all the way.

dude, sf is the most easiest hero to gank in early. pretty much 1 stun or slow then he dead, hes desperately need ward for rune control and crow for bottle charge. In normal they dont ward that much im telling you

People are more likely to gank mid in the very high bracket. Besides that's not the problem really as long as you watch the minimap for missing heroes.

The issue is laning mid against heroes like od, invoker or batrider etc. That's when you get walked all over. But that's why sf is amazing - you could die 2-3 times but still you should have 100 creeps by 20th minute and should get that shdow blade by 15th-16th minute.

In the normal bracket if you are a decent player you should shit all over your opponent in the mid lane, get shadow blade around 14th minute and after that you snowball hard.

you won't win games in the normal bracket when you are playing solo by playing heroes like timbersaw, bloodseeker, etc.. slark - maybe but the items you are getting for him are all wrong and slark's weakest point is that it's a melee hero and even if you do snowball - it is hard to push/kill towers and enter high ground

Keep playing the core heroes you want to use for team games and don't worry about winrates or Normal/High bracket. You will do much better in the long run focusing on a few heroes and a single role.

But those heroes you are picking are not carry heroes. They are ganking heroes. I think you might be confused about the terms. Maybe other people are confused about the terminology also so I will explain. A carry hero is one that cannot do much early game but can be very powerful if they get a lot of items. Such heroes should stay in a lane and farm as much as possible relying on their team to protect them and do the fighting until the carry hero has farmed at least 1 and usually 2 major items before the carry begins fighting.

Anyway, your top 9 most played heroes all work best as ganking heroes and I suspect you are playing them that way. That is 60% of your games on just those heroes. You have played very few games of carry type heroes.

On the other hand...judging by the picks of this team http://dotabuff.com/teams/779851 ...maybe you guys have been trying to play Slark as a carry? He is not very good as a carry. He does best fighting early and often and fighting heroes instead of creeps. Anyway, picking Slark is fine. Just be sure you get kills early and keep snowballing. Slark can't keep up if he tries to just outfarm the enemy carries.

for me exactly same thing happens at 54%. Personally I think its just have to do with how well you play, i.e your skill. I moved from 50 to 54% by learning good positioning and habits, so try improving on that.

In normal bracket, if you're an actual decent player, you can literally pick any hero mid and do well against them unless they're a smurf.

I noticed that most players in this bracket tend to play very selfishly and think its a solo game. Whoever has the best score wins whether you're a support or carry.

Thanks everyone, I'll take the suggestions on storm into consideration. I'll probably give sf a try as well.

@ Relentless - So is it your suggestion that such ganking heroes (ss, slark) cannot function as the carry? There *has* to be a typical hard carry farming the easy lane for 20 minutes in a successful team? Some games I go with heroes like Troll/PL/CK, who I think are more in line with your thinking. They often want me to go slark just because they know I usually do pretty well with him.

I'm pretty new with ss, but I am very proven with slark. I'll farm the easy lane until level 6, then rotate lanes for ganks when the opportunity arises. Following a gank I'll farm the nearest lane until another opportunity, and tp in for the gank, and so forth. In this manner I maintain reasonable farm, while still being involved in most ganks. As for my item build on slark, I know its not standard, but very rarely do I lose to a hard carry. With comparable farm, if the hard carry doesn't have sentries, he usually doesn't stand a chance (with exceptions of course). When I lose public games its usually due to the other team ganking more successfully as a team. Most times, their hard carry actually does the poorest.

You don't have to have a hard carry. Lots of teams can win without one. I'm just saying slark is not very good if played as a hard carry. What you are describing is a good way to play Slark...its just not correct to call it "carrying".

In public games you can work on the challenge of spending even more time ganking, and doing it earlier with fewer items. This will require more skill using Slark but it is possible for him to get a lot done with almost no items. It will make you even better for the games where you do have some help. Slark is one of those heroes that can get an early tp scroll...see a gank, port in and turn it around. Try learning to do this. It is hard to notice these things in time, but it makes a huge difference if you can. There is always an opportunity when the enemy just used their spells to attack. The trick to learn is...to get the timing right you really need to tp as they cast the first spell or just before. That's why its hard, you have to anticipate what will happen in other lanes.

It's funny that you said you go "CK" as a farming hero, when his role is very similar to slarks (gank heavy, hero killing). Also in regards to Slark, you're pretty much describing one of my games (it was all random) where the Slark tried to outfarm the AM/LD thinking that was the way to win.

@Relentless - I see what you're saying, but I usually refer to any player/hero that significantly leads the team in kills/pushing as the carry - assuming this carries over into a strong late game as well. I also tend to think of certain heroes as mid game carries (clinks, viper) and late game carries (troll, void, pl).

Is CK not considered a hard carry? Those images hit really hard all game, especially with bufs from team.

Yes, AM is one of the carries I struggle against as slark, simply because hes so elusive and I can't stop his farm. We usually ban him when I go slark. I can't say I've ever had problems with an LD though.

He's a carry (I don't know if I'd call him a hard like pl, spectre, am) but he farms heroes moreso than farming creeps. Which was why Io/CK (and the whole tether thing) was/is strong. He has very poor farming capabilities though compared to hard carries in the strictest sense of the word (free farmers).

Man what this guy said above me I respond too slow, lol <3, too busy watching starladder.

Bloodseeker is a great example as well. He can jungle, not that well, but a little, and a lot of new players are tempted to afk farm with him. I know I used to lol and we always lost. Cus he's just not that strong late. His strength is ganking pure and simple, gank their carries, make them lose gold, snowball. Otherwise you won't win.

On the flip side, certain heroes are hard carries you can pull off huge come from behind wins by just keeping your farm up, like skeleton king and anti mage. Playing those heroes it's less about early kills and pushing and just about sustaining your gpm until you're ready to team fight.

comparing skeleton king to anti mage in terms of carry just says that you have brain damage.

If you don't counter him with some mana drain he's a stomper.