Today, we would like to discuss yet another victim of players adhering to professional builds too much — Venomancer. The hero gained his initial popularity in SEA, but was soon adopted across the regions as one of the more specific offlaners. Recent nerfs do not seem to stop him, yet there are certain habits worth discussing and, perhaps, re-learning.

Last week, we talked about things to consider during the initial laning placement. Today, we are moving forward with our series. Early game is certainly a very broad concept and it will vary from game to game. For the purposes of this article, we are going to discuss the timing between the first time the creeps meet and the end of the laning stage.

Despite the recent nerfs, Dark Seer remains steadfast in his success in both professional and pub scenes. This highly versatile offlaner hero has been absent from the professional meta for a prolonged period, but is now making a comeback. Today, we are going to look into how and why exactly this hero is so good right now.

There are many patch and hero-specific skills to develop in Dota, and they are crucial to a player’s success in the game. However, there is one skill that is possibly the most important of them all: being able to analyze the state of the game and make educated decisions. This is an infinitely wide topic and we can not possibly provide all the answers, but in this series we will try our best to help you develop a framework with which you can develop it further.

Clockwerk is one of the meta-defining heroes in the current patch, at least in the professional scene, but his pub popularity is still pretty low in most skill brackets. Today, we would like to highlight the hero and maybe convince players to try him out, before he most likely gets nerfed.

Spectre is easily the most consistent carry hero in the game right now, and it looks like a lot of players are struggling against her. This tanky, surprisingly high-damage core has a decent laning stage, extremely versatile mid-game, and almost unparalleled late-game potential. So how exactly do you deal with the hero?

The rise of agility-based carries often leads to a much higher emphasis on magic damage output in high-level games. Dealing with a hero with ridiculous amounts of armor can be problematic if your lineup is primarily physical damage, hence several heroes came back to the meta to fill in the gaps. One of those heroes is Zeus and while the hero might look very straightforward on paper, his current professional skill build is anything but.

While every single hero in Dota is unique, they can be broadly categorized by their role in the game. Moreover, within this category, there are sub-categories that share some specific traits. Today, we would like to focus on one such sub-category: illusion heroes.

Doom is currently one of the most contested pick in the professional scene. The hero is extremely versatile, making him an ideal pick in Captains Mode, but is he actually good in pubs, where lane and in-game flexibility are less of a priority? Today, we are going to discuss Doom and how to play him well in pubs.

Undying’s been getting more popular since the beginning of the patch and there are good reasons for it. The hero is finally finding his identity after multiple ultimate reworks and while he is not necessarily stronger, at least he is considerably more consistent in his impact. Today, we are going to discuss how Undying is played at the highest level and the reasons for it.