Hello guys, this is a guide that will try to improve your game play. Its an extensive guide and I’m Brazilian, so, if you can’t stand English poorly written, stop reading now.

So, whats the differences between noob<expert<pro, and how to improve yourself and own your games.  Lets go guys, things will get interesting. Remember, a lot of things will be simplified, much like a ceteris paribus situation, otherwise discussion becomes very problematic.

First and foremost, know your items, know their items, know all items. You can copy a build over the strat forum of the ranked 1 player and he will be better than you with the same build because of ITEMS (not only that, but mainly). Well, actually, start by copying some builds over the strat forums (link), chose a DG you like, play him a lot, than move to the next DG, learn, and move on. Later on, adapt those builds to your play stile.

So, about Items. Items are offensive oriented and counter oriented. What I want to say is:

Offensive oriented: The game is tied and you buy an item that will give you an edge, forcing your opponent to counter your tactic. (Sigil of Vitality is an offensive oriented if you buy and use earlier than your enemy).

Counter oriented: Your enemy does something and you buy an item to counter his movement. (sigil of vitality is a counter oriented item if you buy it later than your enemy, and the game will be tied again).

A noob wont know what items do and will lose, miserably.

An expert will know most of the items, and be able to be offensive oriented.

A pro will know all the items, and be able to be offensive and counter oriented.

Items, what you have to know about items? Everything. But for now, here is a list of very important items you have to learn how to use effectively.

Sigil of Vitality (if you don’t even know what this item does, rush brother, this is one of the OP items)

Universal Gadget

Teleport Scroll

I believe those items are the most basic important ones. Lets get more specific into them.

Sigil of Vitality: +50% HP for 20 seconds. INSTANT CAST. Usually you have 3000-6000 HP. So its an instant boost of 1500-3000 Hp that will be affected by “monk idols”, I mean, their heal is proportional to your total HP pool, so, the larger your pool, the larger is the heal you receive from them, cool eh? But remember, you can’t use to early on the fight if you are a real tanker, the sigil might wears off b4 the fight is over and you are VERY screwed if that happens if you have low health at the particular time. And the instant cast means its never a wasted item, you will use it exactly when you want to, you wont be interrupted.

Universal Gadget: Man, I used this item in so many different ways, its awesome. I even used this item with a m8 to get a kill in 30 seconds or less, just for shits and giggles. This item is UNIVERSAL, it heals you, or your m8, or your crippling tower, or the citadel, or delivers a killing blow that you wouldn’t have otherwise. It has a casting time lower than a large health potion with the result being the same, that is, you out live your opposition. The lower cast time lowers the possibility of an enemy interrupt as well. Its THAT awesome.

Teleport Scroll: If you have a TS on your slots you should be using for: getting kills (TS transforms you into a ganking machine, it is true, you can believe me, trust me, ganking machine); saving m8s; saving portals from being captured, as well as important flags; going back to the shop or crystal faster, so you can XP and get gold faster.

These 3 items must be mastered if you intend to be good. Oh, I haven’t mentioned Flag Locks, please tell me you know how to use them :-]. There are other posts that covers this already, search the forums brother, go ahead, it will do you good if you don’t know how and when to lock a flag.

Map strategy. Man, learn the flags of the map you are playing. Which are the important ones? The crucial? The neglectables ones? I will only cover this of the maps I think I mastered this concept, that is, prison, cataract and crucible. Covering some flag locks as well. Later on I will talk about “playing the game on your terms”, its an advanced concept that will expand this section.

Prison: there are 3 neutral flags without stuff defending it. There is the XP flag (the worst one), the CD flag (the playing the game on your terms flag, and important flag), and the Gold flag (the most important flag, overall). You want to control the gold flag at all times, and with that flag being neutral the citadel upgrade “currency”, becomes much more important, leading to a very discrepancy in gold income, and ultimately to winning the match on the map.

Cataract:  This is an usual lane map. Usually played in 3x3. You have 3 neutral flags, Mana Flag (important early game), XP flag (important mid-late game), HP flag (important all the time). Usually double the HP flag, single lane the mana flag, and have some1 wandering around to recap middle. Communicate with your team to have the better chance of capping right and left lane, don’t be afraid to ask for a lane switch, it’s a multiplayer game, adapt to your opponent. This map has controlled Gold Flag and CD flags (both are incredibly important). Gold flags can be captured from a safe distance and the CD ones, cannot, capturing those flags and locking them has to be part of your strat (gold ones), and defend them always.

Crucible:  3 Neutral Flags. Gold (as important as in prison), CD (as important as in prison), XP (as important as in prison and cataract). Nothing much left to say.

On top of that, just something quick, always aim to have at least 2 flags for you, at least, of the neutral flags.

Lets go to “playing the game on your terms”.

            Basically I will talk about prison, more than enough for you to expand to other maps as it fits better.

            What does it means “playing the game on your terms”, you might be wondering. Well, it means that you will engage your enemy when you want and they will try to engage you when they want, considering pro game play. Deeper, ok. Lets recall the flags concept I presented earlier. I want to fight my opponent when I have gold flag and the CD flag, he can have the XP flag. On top of that, I want to engage a couple of yards closer to my towers or creeps.

            If the opposing team engage me on those circumstances they will be playing the game on my terms. If they don’t engage we will “negotiate terms”. He might accept that I have those 2 flags but the fight will be closer to their towers and creeps, or he might accept to fight closer to my creeps if he has gold and XP. You got the point? Answering the question: You want to fight only, and only when you accept the terms of the fight. Maybe you accept to fight closer to their towers and with they controlling all the 3 flags because you know you have a guaranteed wipe, but its usually not the case. So you want advantage, positioning or war rank or both, whatever your opponent accepts.

            And you have to be greedy and patient. This is a strategy game, you have to make your enemy to break under pressure, to commit mistakes for being really upset against you. It’s a matter to see who breaks first and accept a fight “against the odds”. Course, sometimes you have to go against the odds, but you have to work hard to put yourself in a position so your negotiation terms are better, and that’s an advanced strat, practice, do it with conscious.

            And why CD and Gold flags. Well, the CD flag will give advantage over the course of the battle, and the gold flag will be “locked”, the fight will take time and its as locked and producing for you. On top of that, you have 2 flags and they have 1, more war rank advantage. Good terms eh?

            So play the game on your terms, on every map, all the time.

Yomi, the mind game: Well, this is something presented by Sirlin over his webpage. Check it out (Yomi Sirlin Link), I will describe it here on my words. Lets go.

            The game, any game, is about countering, its about making your opponent thinks he has the upper hand when you know he doesn’t, its about reading your opponents mind and countering b4 he even makes his first move. I will give a real example:

            I was playing 2x2 over prison, I was UB and my m8 was Sedna, against a mirror. I was facing sedna 1x1 on the right lane and my m8 began to walk on my direction. I said to him on vent (don’t come, I have her). Well, I knew I would be low on health and she would be low on health, if my m8 came closer Sedna would run away to soon, I didn’t want that. So I stayed exchanging white-hits and she was poucing and healing. On my inventory I had 1 Gadget and 1 Sigil. If she ran to early I would have map control, if she ran to late I would try my trick. If I used Gadget or Sigil on the lane, she would run to soon, and I would waste gold, and waste is never good.

            Well, she ran when I expected her to run, she had something like 1.600 health, and I had something like the same. She was faster than me, but not so fast she was out of my ooze damage, she ran correctly closer to the towers (with archer already), and I was counting her to do it. I chased her and if she went to the crystal she would live and I would have to run back to crystal, and she would have time advantage due to map distances. BUT, well, mind trick for the win. I walked close to the tower and she turned to face me. I knew she was low on mana, when she turned I hit Sigil immediately, spited on her, than she turned back to run, but not b4 I could cast my Gadget. I got a kill, expensive kill, that gave me map control (she was dead for 30 seconds) and gold, a little at least.

            You will, with time, know what your enemy is capable of, force him to think he has you. My best advice with this, that got me innumerous “first blood” is this one, pay attention, its HUGE :-] : U decided you will get BotF, so, why on earth you will get your BotF early, at the shop? WHY on earth, why? I really don’t know, and I will tell you why.

            BotF is a 750 instant cast health potion, lure your opponent to a no escape position, get the kill. Understand what I just said? Buy BotF to get a kill, not at the shop when your opponent will know what you’re doing. Ok? Good.

            There are innumerous mind tricks in this game, “fog walking” is one of them. Learn and improve, its awesome to ninja mind trick your enemy, its very rewarding to out play your opponent.

Section: Know your power.

            I’m a very good player, I tell you that. BUT, not with every DG, not on every map, not on all game modes, not on every XvX games. I’m a pro 2x2 and 3x3 player on prison, crucible and cataract. I’m a pro with UB, Oak, LE and TB. So, if I enter a “Pro PuG” game I will chose something I’m a Pro at. I wont join a Pro 4x4 PuG game at Zikurat and chose to play Rook (my worst DG, I envy you all that knows how to play him, he is so cool… yeah, I’m talking to you obscenitor, pacov, zyvvrict, bastards ), I’ll make my team curse my future generations.

            Adding to this. Sorry to tell you: All Random is the ultimate Pro challenge. Playing All Random means you know how to play every DG, knows shit loads of builds and counters. Sorry, its true, don’t try to convince me on the contrary. I had various AR games that some1 said “this is my first time playing DG X” and I though “Why da fucking hell you are playing AR than”, never wrote publicly, but now I’m. Sorry, its elitist, but its true.

Section: Have friends… explaining the metaphor… have a premade

            Have some1 to play with regularly. If you find some1 playing at your lvl on a PuG, tell you will add him to your friends list for future plays, see if he wants that, exchange Vent info’s, and have lots of fun playing with some1 you like to play with.

            About becoming a Pro Premade. Trust your friend. That’s it. There is not much time for discussion. If some1 calls something, do it, and do it fast, no question asked. Simple rule of thumb. You will have bad calls, course, it happens, don’t get mad, every1 make mistakes. In the end, it’s a game, have fun. (this section could be much more extended, but I don’t want to ).

            There is a lot of more things I didn’t cover, like lane control, crystal walking, suicidal kills, damn, at lot of stuff, but I think I showed you some really nice stuff. I hope you have enjoyed to read.

            More about the same: another posts of mine about improving your game play experience.

Ub + Sedna at prison

350ms ping is Ok

Noob?

            Gl all, have fun, enjoy.