How to get good at Dota 2

If you want to improve quickly, you should focus on one hero in one role. This will allow you to get good at the hero, so you can then focus on getting good at the game. If you don't want to only play one hero, feel free to approach this in a way that makes you happy. I think it's important to enjoy the improvement process, so if you hate hero spamming, you'll need to adjust. Try to keep to as few heroes as you are willing to though.
A shorter, written version can be found here: / improvement_plan_and_m...
Timestamps:
0:29 - Three principles
1:09 - Grinding games is slow to improve
1:43 - One role, one hero
3:48 - Why hero spamming works
7:08 - Hero puddle to hero pool
10:29 - Hero puddle homework
16:21 - Homework example
18:50 - Playing to improve
25:02 - Mentality tips
31:55 - General improvement
35:33 - Summary - The freedom and confidence of hero spamming
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Follow me at:
Twitch - / zquixotix
Discord - / discord
Twitter - / zquixotix

[@AlexanderCoccia]

Zach mentions me there in the video and I can attest to the fact that this works 100%. This strategy works for gaining MMR and for improving as a player. I have felt significant improvements as I've implemented these strategies into my gameplay and it shows in my MMR gains and in my ability to carry games that would have otherwise have been losses. Trust the process and see for yourself!

[@ZQuixotix]

A completely real and not paid for, happy customer review!

[@majorgustavo1696]

InstaBlaster.

[@zakaryhoage5770]

I just jumped into the world of Dota 2, literally last night, and both of you have been wonderful content creators, both teaching me so much already!❤️💯💪🏼😊

[@justinjames7618]

Im a casual noob dota player for about 2 years now. Not really a gamer I just play for the love of dota. Your videos help me a lot. You’re a blessing to the dota community. Keep up the good wok man and thank you

[@gilangignasraharjo6138]

Thanks man... I have the "It's ok to lose, long as I learn" mentality, but the team mates are more result oriented and it kinda makes me unsure if I should continue playin... this video kinda give me the piece of mind that everyone sucks lmao

[@Meatstorm]

I've been inspired by your content and was already trying some of the detailed tips. Keep up the good work!

[@DEVILFISHrsl]

amazing content , you feel very comfortable and simple at same time. it s apleasure to watching you vids. keep going

[@josephb1884]

Sage advice! Everything you said is applicable. I have a shallow pool of characters that I am decent at and I practice with them a lot. A personal high-point for me was bullying and killing Troll Warlord and Alchemist with Dazzle in the laning stage, but it took a lot of practice and understanding of the character to get to that place. Also, what you said in the Mentality section about experimenting is very true. I've gotten much better on defense simply because I have been forced into that situation so many times. Every once in a while now, I am able to help turn around the game and win rather than waiting for someone to assume that role. Of course, watching your videos has helped immensely. Thank you!

[@pluckyleon6640]

Man your guides and presentation is really funny, keep up the good work. Criminally Underrated Channel.

[@danielle_does]

Thanks for the video, I will be sure to implement this!

[@JediRastafari]

Great video. Your other videos are also real good, you just got a new subscriber. Lots of great advice here. I really should make it a point to get better acquainted with the Dota Wiki, like you say. There's just so much that I feel I still don't know and I've been playing this game for years.

[@SK3564]

This is actually exactly what I'm doing, except for the win mmr part xD I love how you explained things. Your attitude is amazing. I'm definitely gonna do the "watch replays figure out what I'm missing" part. Hope I figure it out!

[@ZQuixotix]

Thank you! You've got this!

[@therewronill]

while going back to dota 2 it feels like im very noob at the game right now, but in this content I learned a lot. This channel will be my go-to while having a work listening. and I subscribe by the way. ✨ Thanks mate.

[@Aliisgoingsomewhere]

Really awesome, thanks to you and Alex for making this great videos

[@tekudiv]

Making notes in a doc to improve in video games is TIGHT! - Rayan :D

[@GoznerPeter]

To someone who has been playing for just a couple days, your videos are amazing!

[@begliamanov7276]

Hi Zach, you would often hear phrases like: your channel is underrated, or you deserve much more subscribers aso. But this time this more than just true. You're a great teacher and I think you're a Kind person. Your videos are useful, informative and with such a adorable sense of humor. It is a pure pleasure to watch them. I do thank you for All your efforts and time. Please keep going and we will try to expres our gratitude for that! P.S. First channel ever I've clicked this Bell icon!

[@carlhiltbrunner5858]

Can't wait to be a Wisp spammer now.

[@a.39886]

I`m a new sub I found your channel and I`m in love with it. I was stuck on 4k for a long time and was tired of the game because before overwatch you got report for making mistakes sadly people on high ancient believe they are better than everyone and are really toxic and if you played bad, make a bad decision or you just didnt get dust o a centry you deserve a report and your Behavior score starts going downhill and games just worse and worse in a spiral out of control, this happens even if you never flame or pin and you played your best and try to win.

[@a.39886]

Anyway after overwatch you can`t get reported for making mistakes so I came back I focus on playing just 1-3 heroes in positions 5 and 4 and I`m proud to say that I`m 5.4k mmr at divine 5 I`m so close to Immortal but I can`t find more knowledge for this role almost all dota channels focus on cores until I find you :) If you maybe have so spare time I would like to ask some questions about position 5 in a coach if you are so kind my best regards Diego

[@nudl4668]

I kinda figured this strategy on my own. I used to struggle in Archon 2 and games felt sometimes unwinnable, but with some research and sticking to 3 heropicks i got to Legend 2 in 2-3 weeks. Honestly some games just feel free and i'm even winning the unwinnable games. I feel like i can stretch my MMR even higher if i just focus on looking at map more into my muscle memory.

[@ZQuixotix]

Nice! Map awareness is forever a challenge haha. I'm working on improving my own as well

[@icanfishalltheday6907]

Thank you so much for this content it really helped me to still enjoy dota, cause lately i was frustrated staying at my 1k bracket.

[@mr.crosby8207]

I like how you calmly and simply try to explain things, thanks!

[@tapioperala3010]

Very good point on the average player winning 50/50, as yesterday I had a bad game with Dragon Knight (haven't played DK in a long time, and actually I've been focusing more on ranged heroes lately, especially Jakiro with Rizpol meta :D ), and while we did have a pretty good start in the end, our team lost. We had a fairly lousy pick, and things just happened. The other team played really well, and thumbed them all up for not giving up at 15 mins when we were pushing through crosses. In any case, the point I'm trying to make is that especially kids nowadays (I'm 39 yo) typically do not understand that 50 / 50 is average, that that's not even the baseline in many cases. Therefore learning and improving, like everything, is a process that takes time.

[@BS-si6pj]

Good advice, climbed from legend to ancient spamming SF

[@corrbo1236]

nice guy, really good content!

[@amazinghumans2359]

Keep on making videos sir. Big up!

[@darthbinks5987]

A long time ago I did somewhat like it unconsciously. I used to be really bad with omniknight, (about 30 games with only 2 wins) but I liked the way he looks and how his spells work. So I kept playing and after some amount of games I stopped losing that often. The way I loved to play omniknight resulted into me having 5-6 pages of match history with him only. The fact that no one else was playing him helped a bit. After 300+ games I've noticed that item builds and spells you need to level, as well as general stuff you're supposed to do comes naturally. That works even without watching content or replays and the main things you need is consistency, attention and interest. In order to spam something you should love it.

[@Matt_Silverwolf]

Great content!

[@romasliv]

Best explanation so far

[@nico-cy3jq]

awesome analysis, you’ve got some talent for coaching

[@mikkeedamo5458]

What I am doing right now is watching all your videos. Its like a netflix series haha

[@sunbreeze8365]

Solid video!

[@14Blackspirit]

I tried it and I must say it works wonder how much I improved. The only step I didn't do is playing the game ... well ... maybe next year. Need to learn everything new!

[@stonnger540]

Hello thank for the video... I like this game from long time ago but today is my first time played it...

[@leventoztulumbaci]

nice guy! keep it up

[@levanbernard1483]

Hey bro, I love your content. I'm a 5 player myself and I got a question. In Div games, do you recommend playing normal ranked games or role ranked? Thanks :D

[@ZQuixotix]

Thanks! I am a big fan of ranked roles. It lets you guarantee a bunch of consecutive games in the same role (and potentially same hero). I think the consecutive aspect is really important too. It's like if you were practicing how to kick a football but in-between every kick you do something else. You won't remember what you were doing last time or what small changes you needed to make. But playing the same role every time for a bit will let you notice the differences between each game. Plus I personally found that ranked roles was less toxic which was a big plus

[@levanbernard1483]

@@ZQuixotix thanks for your answer Zach, from now on I'll queue in ranked roles ;) Keep it up bro, I love what you're doing!

[@xcurry6664]

I'm spamming lich xD I'm currently 2980 MMR. Ur videos are super helpful.

[@KidTrigger]

That’s pretty high mmr keep it up bro

[@mydufan]

Ty

[@Viral-Videos337]

This is true i applied same thing before watching this video but i know he is telling truth

[@rumbleshakes]

I will say if you want higher MMR to pick a core (safe, off, or mid carry) because carries win games, HOWEVER, supports amplify the carry potential. Unfortunately when you are solo queuing like I do 99.99% of the time I play support and amplifying bad carries. Play a carry that you're good with by knowing how to play, what counters it, how to counter the counters, and which lane they can be in.

[@viniciusrodrigues2930]

One of the best videos about rising mmr!

[@abhinav1282]

Hey Zach, I have a question. I had followed this advice and I have 500+ games on Axe and 140 on Necrophos. I'm still stuck in the guardian bracket, because I just can't carry certain games. Should I switch to playing mid? Maybe pick up some ultra-snoballing heroes like OD, Huskar, Tinker ?

[@raviatal6237]

Nice content again Any video which compiles all possible support itemization

[@ZQuixotix]

I briefly went over most items in the hard support guide, but it doesn't include the newly added patch items. Plus some of them have changed a little bit. Otherwise I do not yet have a general video that quickly covers all items

[@raviatal6237]

@@ZQuixotix Yes, I am going through the playlist of itemization one by one. Hopefully, that would help in formulating a strategy.

[@hashtagBTT]

hi, i want to say thank you. i tried to fix my mistakes with your advice. and worked perfectly on 2 out of 3 tries. But i still have to try to build up my hero pool.

[@deitylink1]

@27:30 min Sort've. I can identify all I want where the enemy is, and where our initiator should be standing. But if I "just do it" as a support, at best I get killed (and get called a "out of position feeder"), at worst I get killed and we lose a big teamfight. You're idea is very helpful though - if your team doesn't respond to asking for things its just "tough luck" and YOU have to adjust to the idiocy. If your support isn't pulling and it is required, you need to. But also, if you SHOULD be trying to get 3 people and smoke gank the carry, but the other 2 flat won't move with you... well you do the next best thing. Maybe stacking, or just farming whatever you need while waiting on your team to change their mind.

[@ZQuixotix]

True, I should have added the qualifier that it's something you have to be able to do. So any hero can place a ward, any hero can pull a camp. But a backline Oracle support cannot be the front liner. If it ends up being a critical job that you can't do, at least it's a good learning experience. If you notice a certain type of job is always missing (like having stuns), then that could affect your hero picks in future games so that you have a hero that can do those jobs.

[@sondertt2220]

Hey dude, I like that you're going for this more generic content that applies more concepts. Quick question though, is it normal for a pos5 to be lv4 at like.. 8-9 minutes? I've seen this in some replays. A CM might be lv3 at 9 minutes, and things just... work out? Usually I might get lv6 at 10 minutes with the outpost, sometimes even before that. Could you explain this a little? Whats the payoff?

[@nudl4668]

Yes, sorta. It's ok because you're giving away xp to your core, which in the long run will give xp back in the form of kills. So let's say you have a Void, that when he becomes lvl 6 the offlaners suddenly have to leave or they get chronoed. Which means either you get xp of the kills from the chrono or void starts jungling and you can farm the lane for xp/gold. There's also the tome of xp which should always go to the hsup/support with the lowest xp. Your team will probably grief you from having it in 1-3k. games though. It's also about looking for opportunities to gain xp. For example if you have a core is "safe" then you can TP to midlane when your mid goes to gank or jungle.

[@ZQuixotix]

Yes, but it'll depend on what heroes are in the game and how it's going. A general rule of thumb is that if you are hitting level 6 at 10 minutes (with the outposts), you are probably doing pretty well that game. If you are ALWAYS hitting 6 by 10 minutes though, you might be sapping too much XP from the lanes. I would say 50% of the time, I hit 6 with the Tome at 10 minutes (or whenever the tome gets to you). 40% I am around level 5 with or without the tome. 10% I am level 4 or lower. If you are level 4 at 8-9 minutes and you can get the Tome, you're probably doing fine. Just be a little careful, sometimes your position 4 needs the tome, so you shouldn't always expect to get it. After 10 minutes, if you aren't 6 (with or without the tome), you're immediate goal is to find XP to get to 6 for almost every support hero. If you are level 6 by 12 minutes (tome or not), it's probably okay. Some games are going to take longer, but you want those to be the exception, not the norm.

[@nudl4668]

​@@ZQuixotix One tip i can share for Legend and below is to stash tab the tome and get used to spamclicking it. Because teamates will frequently grief you even if you are level 4-5.

[@vivi52]

Should I play ranked games while learning or normal games?

[@canesvenatici9588]

I have a somewhat different situation. I can only play a single hero he has around 2000 matches Other than that hero I would be completely garbage. I can somewhat play 2 other heroes but still it feels like a medal away in terms of skill compared to my main. Recently after making Smurf account and spamming those 2 new heroes I'm trying to be good at because I don't want to grief in my main account I got tempted and succumbed playing with my main hero quite a few times when playing against smurfs too.

[@josephwozniak157]

New player here. Love your videos but i have a NOOB question. What is MMR?

[@ZQuixotix]

Thank you! MMR stands for Match Making Rating. It's an estimation of your skill. Your MMR goes up or down when you win or lose ranked games. Medals are attached to certain MMR milestones

[@leoline748]

Thank you for content so it helped me so much now i'm offline spammer

[@YY-mk4ti]

When you used these tricks already before watching it. Still great stuffs though, thanks.

[@pixelotix]

I’ve been learning with some friends lately. Is it worth it to play bot games or should we just cannonball into pubs?

[@GokulAnanth]

Play against bots to learn the hero skills. Once you learn, you definitely need to play against people to combine the skills with strategy.

[@MannBilimoria]

You got some motivation for me to pick the same hero more than 3 times in a row? xd I always get bored of playing the same hero again and again. In around October or so i came up with an idea to keep a rotating hero pool of 3 heroes every week. Overall, I wanted to be decent at quite a bit of heroes so thought that it might help. However, after three weeks of doing that, i probably did an okayish job but had to abandon my idea since university stuff kicks in and that's more important! So, now I'm back to the old position of picking in something different just because I don't want to play the same hero more than thrice. However, I do love playing Grim and Willow at p5/4. Grim got some very QoL buffs, which make the hero even more fun now! I feel his spellkit is kind of unique as it is not too focused on himself and rather completely works with his teammates.

[@ZQuixotix]

I can understand not wanting to spam heroes because you find it boring. I'm sure it depends on everyone, but for myself, I also used to like picking different heroes very frequently. Different roles and heroes. I had to make myself pick Jakiro every time and then just deal with it. I told myself that improving was meant to be a bit of work and not all fun. Getting to know that hero really well helped me build an appreciation for it and now I enjoy playing some of the same heroes a lot. It makes me feel like I'm playing the GAME (which is different every time) rather than just playing different heroes. And for what it's worth, a little tangent. I remember reading about someone talk about passion. There's two kinds of passion. There's the kind most of us think about, something we naturally enjoy and are very excited about. But then there's the kind of passion that you develop. It can be something you hate, but you become extremely familiar with the subject. You keep working at it and you develop an appreciation for it, even if you don't enjoy it initially. It's a passion that comes from labor. At the end of the day, Dota is just a game so you don't have to go so far with it lol. But hero spamming became the second type of passion for me after making myself do it for awhile.

[@nudl4668]

I feel it personally helps to experiment each hero's kit. For example i always thought Lina was boring, but i discovered she has some neat tricks. For example the stun can be used to remove trees and enable new ward positions. I can remove ancient trees, making a x4 stack easier. Against Pudge or Mirana i can deforest the lane so they can't abuse trees as a blindzone. It's finding these small discoveries that made her fun to spam because now i have the kit for every situation and i can just focus on the game.

[@ZQuixotix]

True, trying out different heroes will help you learn about the game and pick out heroes you enjoy

[@ilisati]

I only play singe draft of agility draft

[@magorovthegreat6801]

Well this is just great. You tell me to spam my best hero until Im good at plaing it, but my main hero is AM and he is banned in 60 % of my games. (And in the rest of them Im up against legion slardar). What do I do? Spam someone other, or spam AM whenever hes not banned?

[@ZQuixotix]

This is where having a hero pool of like 3 will be really helpful. I know it sucks to have your favorite hero banned all the time, but there's a couple goals here. 1) Be good enough at AM that the counters don't mean as much. This allows you to pick your favorite hero more often (while of course making you better at the hero). You might lose a bit to the counters, but eventually you learn to deal with them which, at least for me, makes me feel good. 2) Only pick AM in the good games (or when he's not banned). If he's your best hero, that means you should have a decent win rate with him. So any game you play him should help your MMR go up over time. 3) Work on your 2nd or 3rd favorite hero that you pick when AM is banned or not a good pick. Don't care about the win rate of these heroes as much to start. The goal is to get good enough at them that your win rate approaches over 50%. To climb MMR, you really just need above a 50% win rate. Even 50.1% climbs over time, but of course it will be a faster climb the higher that is. So when the stars align and AM is not banned/it's a good AM game, those should be "free" wins. I hesitate to say free since it's never that easy, but this is where carry players are a bit different from support players. It's easier for a support player to have a small hero pool since we just first pick yolo and that's that. For carry players, you want a wider hero pool to pick according to what you see. So you spam out a hero like AM, don't care about the win rate originally and just get good enough so that when you get a good AM game, that's a "free" win. For you, when it's not AM, work on a general hero. You'll learn that hero well enough that you start to identify the "free" wins for that hero. Now you have AM and a 2nd hero that gives you "free" wins. Start on a third generic hero. Repeat as much as you personally feel you need to (because you like playing different heroes or not). If you just like AM and want to brute force it no matter the draft, that's fine, you can still climb.

[@magorovthegreat6801]

@@ZQuixotix ok, thanks for great advice, Ill try it out! :)

[@afrowbros]

Mann I’m so tired of being hard stuck at the same rank & as soon as I make progress I just end up losing it all sooner or later. Idk..

[@P7ART]

Great content! Just wondering, but why not spam/practice the hero in unranked before going ranked?

[@ZQuixotix]

You definitely can (and probably should), especially if you've never tried a hero. I personally find that unranked is a bit different from ranked, so I like to just practice in the real environment, but I have played every hero at least a couple times in unranked games. I open bot games to warm up last hits, spell combos, all of that. I study some replays. That process works for me so I tend to just go with ranked, but there's a lot of merit to playing unranked first!

[@willmoorby9781]

Is there more value in watching pro-level pubs instead of pro-level games (such as ESL, or Majors)?

[@ZQuixotix]

I like to watch both. Pro games to see what they think is the best of the best ideas in the game, but not all might be applicable to our games. And then pro level pubs to see what they think is a little more realistic when not playing in a coordinated 5 stack (which honestly still not might be completely applicable to our pubs)

[@willmoorby9781]

@@ZQuixotix That makes sense. I understand some stuff wouldn't work within given MMR brackets, but its good to see what the best players think are the best moves, and then to absorb that mentality.

[@Joeyblannn]

i really dont know why ur not famous

[@user-yk7jk4lh9p]

small tip here, if u choose a hero to be good at dont go for invo or earth spirit) They are a bit too hard))))

[@itzjaysee]

I am starting a new acc because I haven’t played dota in a year. I am in herald rank. I play way too many hero’s. I will stick to 1 hero for 100 games and get back to you.

[@QuitRage]

Be careful guys. You can climb MMR by focusing on 1 role and 1,2,3 Heroes BUT its nearly impossible to switch to play other roles / heroes. Even unranked will put you in your bracket somehow. If you want to tryhard focus on getting MMR its fine but it will force you to smurf if you want to try new things. Be aware of that.

[@WayneHaworth]

Just to add that of course it isn’t impossible to switch heroes, just that you will lose games until you increase skill in the new hero. The video talks about gradually adding heroes to your main pool - you will take some MMR hits as you do this.

[@Childofthegrave94]

My biggest thing is I let other players get to me. I know I suck, but damn they like to remind me lol

[@terpekiseo8748]

Damn im a new player with 10 games only jesus.

[@knosje]

DIFFERENT ARMOR TYPES?! WHAT

[@LordoveBravo]

15 million combos XD

[@pritchell4506]

Commenting for algo

[@ivanchuabh]

how about adults of all ages?

[@samuelmontenegroserniotti7146]

11:26 as an Axe main, I hate you lmao

[@motchness]

your pudge offlane missing every hook DID lose that game for you, no question, but that pudge offlane missing every hook from that one particular game ISNT the reason you arent gaining mmr

[@GadBoDag]

"Real players are better than the bots" You overestimate me, sir ;)

[@mynameisnotyours]

How to Get Good at [Your Actual Job]

[@manzxfus9469]

Man I don't like all people in Dota they will toxic at me and blame that I'm new to the game. I don't like it it hurts my feeling a lot as a new player.

[@blueworker3399]

who's cuddle?

[@Sherudons]

I find not playing dota drunk works best for me... I lost I think 6-7 games yesterday on drunk me?, after a 1000 mmr climb off sober me, makes me want a drink thinking about that...

[@bruhmoment6493]

Just a PSA you can't actually improve at techies this way so dont spam them....

[@montanaapproves1044]

I was about to sleep man fuck

[@ZQuixotix]

lol my b

[@Bossing.Sa.Kalsada]

is this for beginners?

[@ZQuixotix]

It's certainly an approach beginners can take to improve quickly, but they don't have to. I feel like beginners typically need to start by just getting a feel for the game, which they don't have to have such a strict approach to do so. I think this plan is good for people who have been playing for awhile climbing MMR and really want to start improving.

[@TheBugB]

I think I’ve only played 30 games total haha

[@TheBugB]

The way to go I did it is I think I’ve won like 6 of them and I got on honorable mention on Trent Protector in one of them so that was cool.. but with being that new I don’t expect to win any games so any win is a happy day

[@mondubam4453]

Hi man, happy new year! Can you do a quick review on how I played my Nyx 4 game? I feel like I did well and made the right plays/calls except for a few hiccups, but I notice that I struggle with levels in most games as 4 which shouldn't be the case right? Thanks so much bro! 5768210453 Nyx Assassin

[@ZQuixotix]

Happy New Year! I'll take a look at the game!

[@mondubam4453]

@@ZQuixotix Huge thanks my man this is going to be the third replay analysis from you you've been really helpful! From archon 4 I got to legend 4 but kinda stagnated. Hoping for the best!

[@ZQuixotix]

I took a look at your game, and decided to use it for the Why Did I Lose series (#13). Mainly it's a lot of little cases where you miss out on XP that builds up. It's natural for that to happen a few times in most games, but if it happens too much, you end up underleveled. I tried to highlight a couple examples in the video, hope it helps!

[@leonardreder9412]

If i had to play a single hero in a single role every game to have an imaginary number rise by a few hundred points, id not play this game ever again. How fucking boring. Id rather queue up my pubs with my mates, filling in the gaps wherever im needed, and have fun with the 100+ characters that are offered. I may never be higher than legend, but im OK with that. I despise OTPs, doing the same shit each game is just laughable to me to be frank, and i never understood how people dont get sick of it after 5 games

[@harveydeclaro1288]

dota is dead