Well, if you're not picking first. Look for what the enemy is picking. Magic heavy, right click heavy etc. Then look for heroes that are naturaly robust against those things, or that build items to make them so. It takes time to understand all heroes. But if you play dota frequently enough you should have a general idea of what is good in what situation, but thats kind of your issue I guess? I don't really know much video's regarding that topic. But in my eyes it should be rather obvious if you know what each hero does.
Picking heroes and adjusting to meta changes are two different things.
Keeping up with the Meta just includes reading patch notes, and keeping an open mind with builds. For example, magic damage Ember Spirit. In 2k MMR, you wont see this hero ANYWHERE - because Meta doesn't exist down there. Why? Because people don't have open minds and aren't ballsy enough to try things new to them. You also have to keep in mind what makes a hero "metta." For example, Slardar didn't get a whole lot of love in recent patches, yet he is a monster pick - due to the high tempo playstyle that favors his mobility and that he can be a greedy support.
Picking the right hero is often to do with supports - imo; I can't honestly tell you many heroes that can singlehandedly fix a bad draft. Picking and counterpicking in a draft is one of my greatest strengths - which allows me to keep up with my 4k teammates despite being 2-3k myself.
As far as who counters who, that is something you come by with experience, and watching/reading guides. And you don't always need a specific hero for something. I hear everyone say "Pick Necro against Slark!" You don't have to. Any heroes with great AoE stuns - spells will work well (and Axe actually gets the biggest counter-slark award imo).
Gl, and I hope better players post good adivce.
4th pick huskar, last pick techies the other team. I went last pick for our team with axe. https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3072981819
DONT BE LIKE THAT FUCKTARD. You know what he said? Huskar imba counters everyone. He wanted to go mid. The disruptor and silencer supported him. PLS dont tell me you think huskar is good there. The fucktard waited for 4th pick to pick that shit and autocounter himself. I had marked carry, picked woods instead got sile to go mid after flaming 24/7 since the moment he picked that shit.
why
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give me spacing between paragraphs!!!
On the topic. Just use your head, not that hard. Identify the hero you need to control, check if your team already can handle him. If yes, try to get an advantage somewhere else, if not, then handle it yourself. It's all about playstyle, rarely it ends up coming down to heroes. Some may say bloodseeker is good vs slark but that's easier for pubs, I don't see many pros going bs and pulling it off against a slark in pro games. So everything depends and more than counter heroes it's playstyles and timings. If by a certain time you calculate certain hero will have that and that and be able to do shit then you have to have a plan prepared for that shit. You cant pick a hero that will counter him in 60 min when you will lose in 20-25.
Thank you very much for the responses. Sorry if my post was rough, I typed it out fast at work. And yeah I know some counters in terms of hero to hero, but when I am last picking my hero I struggle with countering/synergizing. Despite playing for years I am still learning. Btw jsut for background I calibrated at about 3.3, dropped to like 2.8, and after some up and down climbing and nearly hitting 4k. i began dropping again and stopped playing around 3.6k, and have not played ranked MMR in well over a year (I took a dota break).
Also being around 3k (I am pretty sure my unranked MMR has dropped I have been playing with 2ks more than 3ks when I am solo, sometimes I really struggle with hero decision...I feel I struggle to win games as supports. I actually prefer to gank/play support than play carry, but sometimes picking a support feels risky, even though I am aware supports determine a lot of the early game. I guess it goes back to picking right. THanks again guys will read responses when I am not so busy at work.
I am trying to look through some old games so I can ask for examples. This might not be the best example, but this game for instance. I was 4th pick I believe.
https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3059416007
I am not blaming the other players for this game, but our carry last picked a safelane tiny. I am not sure if this was a good pick or not, but regardless he played the hero poorly and missed a lot of skillshots. Again I am not blaming the tiny, I probably could have picked stronger. I just felt like dazzle might help offset the enemy venge minus armor. They ended up last picking axe which didn't help.
The venge actually ended up ****ing me over the most. It was an offlane core venge, he would stun me and auto attack me from lothars, and kill me before the stun was over, I could not even grave myself. And if I did grave myself axe would just ult me.
I already know dazzle probably wasnt the best pick, but I feel this was a tough game either way. We played against 5 cores, even the tree and venge played as cores. What would have been a better pick there?
1. Venge -armor in itself is not something you have to draft around.
2. Looks like a core venge anyways - which you can't really draft around when they are showing 2 other cores and a Tree at that point.
Personally, if I had to support that game, I would have picked KotL. Mana Leak is great against several of their heroes, synergizes well with BS, and you can screw the Axe Call + Treant Ult with Blind.
TBH, I can't imagine your team winning any lane that game. Most of the picks on your team were terrible.
Actually, scratch that first sentence. Your team should have ran over them early. You had a much greater advantage with burst damage + team fight - and that is something you should have taken advantage of early. I would have spammed ">PUSH NOW" In all chat and hope your team would gather around towers, hit them, and win fights with all that burst.
Thank you very very much Snu, your posts are really giving me a lot to think about. I do not play a lot of keeper but I have been interested in playing him more for mana leak and his pushing power/flying vision/etc.
I am nervous about going back to playing ranked though, I have heard the average MMR is much lower now and the mid-3k range is tougher than it used to be.
edit: also thanks, I guess it was dumb to try to draft around vengeful spirit's minus armor. I suppose dazzle was a bit of a panick pick. I might have actually randomed him now that I think on it...but not sure.
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First off hello everyone, this is my first post on here (I think). My apologies if there is another board for this type of question, but this was the one I saw.
I have been playing dota on and off for a long time. I started around 2012 (maybe earlier maybe later)? And I used to play wacraft 3 ROC dota, but very casually.
I consider myself an average dota player, I like to think I am above average with certain heroes and roles. One thing I have always struggled with is picking heroes and adjusting to meta changes...I feel like one of my biggest weaknesses is not picking/counter picking correctly and going to comfort picks, and lately it has ended up in losing. I gave up taking dota super seriously (as far as ranked MMR goes), though I have been considering trying again. At one point I was using a dota hero picker app. I was not using this app to just pick a good hero, but as a learning tool. It showed hero counters and synergy picks I never would have thought of before. But the problem was I didnt alwayhs understand why heroes were good picks.
I guess my question is, can anyone reference some specific videos/reading material on improving hero selections/drafting/countering? I know some basic counters like most people do...Axe counters a lot of melee carries early game (and squishy heroes in general as an iniator), cleave/AOE damage heroes counter illusion heroes, pugna counters nukers, pudge (can) counter afk right click heroes...I know those are just a few basic ones, but my problem is I struggle to figure out these counters by myself. Also I struggle with countering entire compostions, and synergizing my picks. Any advice or reference