Surviving 3k MMR in DOTA 2: An Introduction to Carrying

Everyone wants to play the 1 position hero: the carry. They are fun, flashy and can win the game for their team in many circumstance. To play this position better, we need  There is spectrum for carries: from farming to fighting. All carries fall somewhere on this spectrum. In my anti-carry series, I use the term anti-carry because, technically, all carries are fighting carries at some point in the game, usually after they get their key items. Consequently, I make the distinction that anti-carries want to hunt down enemy carries and prevent them from farming by killing them rather than try accelerate their farming potential by getting items like battlefurry. Farming carries want to find a place on the map that has free gold and take it. It needs to be a place where it's relatively safe so that the currency acquired with minimal risk of losing it. This is partially why farming carries are picked over fighting carries; the risk of losing gold is less so getting ahead is easier and the enemy has to react to you. Let's explore these ideas further.

On the spectrum of fighting and farming carries, Slardar best represents what makes a fighting carry. His skills are oriented toward chasing and locking down heroes, he has high mobility but takes extra damage so this isn't the best for farming the jungle - especially in the early and into the mid game, his spells don't let him spam out a wave of creeps, and he has some mana issues. All these thing culminate into a hero that isn't suited for afk-style farming because it isn't as efficient as just finding a hero and killing them. 

The other end of the spectrum contains the Antimage. He farms a battlefurry and then uses blink to move from neutral camp to neutral camp to lane creeps and back very quickly. The Antimage relies on using battlefurry to get ahead of the enemy carry in items and then fight them. You don't have to play AM this way, but it is overwhelmingly prefered because of its efficiency. Once the AM gets two or three core items after a battlefurry, he can start to partake in fights.

Recently, pro-players have been changing how they build heroes to keep their opponents off balance or help secure an advantage for their team early. aggresif played Phantom Lancer getting boots of travel (BoT) early during The Internation 2015 in order to farm more efficiently by getting to the gold on the map faster and giving him the option to fight with his team at minimal opportunity cost+. BoT also saves you 75 gold per TP and has a lower cooldown than a TP so you can move around the map more efficiently. Players have also been itemizing traditionally farming heroes into fighting heroes by getting aquilla, drums, magic wand, sange, et al. This way, they can show up with their team and help dish out some damage before going into a more farm heavy build with items like yasha and helm of the dominator. 

As the carry player, you need to identify how much time you can spend farming vs. fighting. This is the most difficult aspect of playing a carry but is quintessential to playing a carry well. If you spend too much time farming creeps instead of heroes, you risk your not having an overall advantage. If a few 3- or 4-man engagements end poorly for your team, they might not be able to contribute much to future fights. Similarly, if you spend too much time fighting the enemy team their carry could get ahead of you and out carry you or, worse, your team could lose fights and fall super far behind. This begs the question, when should you farm creeps vs. heroes? Here are some general tips I follow in my games:

1. you want to play carry enough to know item timings to judge how far behind or ahead you are; a 15 minute battlefurry on PA indicates you're farming well but each minute after that means you are falling behind
2. understand how much of the map is available for you to use without fearing a gank; more map control = you're further ahead
3. how many towers do you have compared with your opponents?
4. what's the kill score?
5. who won the last fight and why?
6. how many core items does the opposing carry have?
7. how many items do the other cores on your team have?
8. have people been asking for you to come join fights?

These are just 8 quick and dirty things to think about when you decide whether to farm or fight. There are many other situational things you need to think about when deciding, like when is my hero supposed to be strong, but those things need their own post.  Let me know in the comments below how you determine when to fight or farm. We are all looking for ways to improve and by sharing what we've learned, we can improve together.

The anti-carry series: Ursa Warrior

The Ursa Warrior has one of the highest win percentages of all heroes at a stunning 55% for the safe lane, according to www.dotabuff.com and even a ~52% win rate for the jungle and offlane. This is no coincidence given the heroes skill set and item choices. Ursa's strength as a hero stems from his high burst damage from enrage, overpower and furryswipes; his tankiness from enrage; and his ability to solo Roshan with a mask of death. These three things allow Ursa to help his team secure an advantage and, more often than not, a victory.
Unfortunately, Ursa isn't picked in the pro scene very much. Even though Vega did play him with success against IG (Match 1843364264) at ESL One recently, he suffers from some weaknesses in a linear approach to itemization and he is easily kited. In the professional scene, Ursa needs a mobility item (shadow blade or blink), usually bkb, lifesteal, and a hard disable (usually Abyssal Blade). That's 5 item slots taken up if you include carrying a TP and 6 with an Aegis. This means getting that getting your top tier item (5k gold and above) won't come until your hard disable and to get another top tier item you have to give up your TP, the Aegis, or get Boots of Travel. In order to make him more viable for professional games without wrecking pubs, Enrage should have some sort of a charge time where there is a window for a second after casting enrage when he will continue to remove applied debuffs. This offers players the chance to make skilled plays by timing when to use enrage and when opponents use disables.
The pub scene is quite different from the professional scene, however, because games are much more like a death match than a coordinate team game. Ursa thrives in this environment because his cooldowns are short and he deals a lot of damage as early as level 7. This makes for a hero geared to play aggressively. Going into the mid game, blink dagger, basher, and desolator make up the key items to keep this hero relevant. As long as the Ursa has continued to accumulate items, he stays relevant but his role may change depending on the itemization. Many tier 3 items (butterfly, abyssal blade, assault cuirass, scythe of vyse, etc.) are viable on ursa but they need to shore up his weaknesses. For example, if you're dealing enough damage to burst someone down but are having trouble staying on that target, then more lock down or movement speed should be the item choice.
Ursa's role will depend what lane he's in and how much farm he has. I have tried many early builds, to include midas, medallion, blink rush, shadow blade, drums, and many more, and, believe or not like Ripley, it's dependent on what your opponents are doing but still fairly linear. To leverage the abilities of Ursa most effectively, you need, as mentioned before, mobility and a disable. Some games you can get away with not getting a bkb, however,the Ursa will be building it more often than not.
Here are some of the rules of thumb for items I've used to pretty great success on the hero:

1. Vlads is good but not necessary because a mask of death more than allows you to take down Roshan. If the Ursa is having mana problems, you're against a heavy physical damage lineup, or you are looking to end the game in the mid-game, this will be a good choice.
2. Buy a desolator if you're snowballing hard. It helps you push, significantly increases your damage and helps you chew through high armor targets.
3. Phase/Treads choice in boots is close. I prefer Treads because of the added attack speed and being able to tread switch to stretch your health and mana pool.
4. Blink is better than shadow blade in most circumstances. The problem is shadow blade (sb)  is that you have to prime your abilities, activate sb, find someone, hit them, ground pound, and hit them some more. Sb can make for some awkward initiations where as blink is much cleaner.
5. The Ursa might be the hero to get a Silver Edge for the team.
6. Try to time your enrage and bkb to get the maximum amount of damage mitigation.
7. When you're getting kited, get an abyssal blade and kill whoever is kiting you. If there's 3 or 4 heroes kiting you on the enemy team, the Mjolnir buff ensures you still do damage during the fight. Mjolnir is a decent item on Ursa because it gives him attack speed when overpower isn't up. The lightning procs also help against high armor targets.
8. Butterfly is key against heroes that want to try to attack you to death. Troll, Alchemist, Lycan, and others will get up in your grill and try to right-click you down but butterfly allows you to mitigate their damage.
9. Assault Cuirass is a great item if team fights are even, you are dying to a PA, or the enemy team has one.
10. Eye of Skadi is super good and should be gotten after blink and bkb if you need a hybrid item that gives you HP, armor, damage, and slow. 
11. Sange and Yasha (SnY) is situationally good. Most of the time you won't want another mid-game fighting item but sometimes you can get it instead of bkb. It synergizes well with drums and phase boots if you want to be able to run fast.

I can't stress how important itemization is, especially for the Ursa. His skill build is pretty linear so it's the items and play style that allow this hero to shine. Let me know what you think about Ursa and what items you like to get in the comment section below.