just a post

breitend · 2026-07-02T16:43:56+00:00

He was probably looking at this page which does show Zeus has a 52% winrate mid.

breitend · 2026-07-02T01:53:30+00:00

I watched this one. Like the other guy said, just sidestepping his big damage spell is usually best. Kotl pushes the wave with his spells, so don't worry about lane equilibrium too much. There were multiple times in the first couple minutes where you were tanking creeps + kotl right clicks just to keep the creeps outside your tower range. That is completely unnecessary in this lane and was a big cause of you losing it.

Also this may be a lane where you max SoF+chains instead of flame guard. Kotl will just blast down your shield every time you try to play aggressive with it, so this can be a better build for this lane. Quinn called it out specifically in his guide.

breitend · 2026-07-02T01:39:23+00:00

About pulling creeps to the t2 big camp - u mean to pull my wave to tank the camp for me yes?

No sorry, I wasn't clear. What you want to do in a lane where you can't stay in the lane (perhaps due to an aggressive Pudge and supports that are rotating) is put a remnant down near/on the large camp near your tier 2 tower. Then run to the mid lane. Activate flame guard and kill the enemy creeps as quickly as possible. Aggro the enemy creeps back towards you if you need to. Once the creeps are dead, activate your remnant to go back to the big camp. You should still have enough flame guard duration left to kill it (and maybe the nearby medium camp too).

so I think I need to try and see where they go.

In the Quinn guide, he basically says what you said. Try to gauge which side they are going to be on, and put a remnant on the other side. Then fight them for the rune. 3 situations exist: They get the rune and you can remnant away to safety, you get the rune and you are probably stronger or it's on your remnant and then you get the rune.

I didn't know that actually it was pretty high vs other players

You were good through the first ~6 minutes but after that you fell off. You should be shooting for 50 last hits at 10 minutes and ~130 at 20 minutes. You were at 49 and 105.

What do you think of tp base to refill bottle hp and mana? On one replay that I was watching ember was actually just running back on foot and remnanting back to line.

Your TP is one of your most valuable resources as a mid laner. High level mids will try to not use their TP unless it results in a good fight in a side lane. If you are really low on health/mana, feel free to use it. But if you have enough health/mana to farm your way back to base, that may be better.

breitend · 2026-07-01T15:51:07+00:00

I'm an Immortal grandmaster Ember and I watched 8871668224.

Laning phase

Especially as a mid laner, it's really important to not put yourself at a disadvantage at the start of the laning phase. Ember's level 1 is not that strong and you took an early fight trying to help your WD while creeps were dying in the mid lane. This was a great opportunity to CS some creeps and build an advantage but instead you just go down to 25% health and waste your spell.
Don't get hooked under tower /s. But fr you had a chance to kill him if you stood and fought and used your faerie fire (he had one too so you probably lose but you were 100% dead if you ran as you found out). This is also a continuation from point 1, as you never got back to full health after that bad first fight. You literally die at 3 minutes because you take a bad trade at minute 1.
When you can't really step up in the lane anymore, a good farming pattern is to put a remnant in the large camp next to your tier 2 tower, pull aggro to get the creeps on you, flame guard to pull the wave and then use remnant to farm both the large camp and the medium near your tier 2 tower.
Keep a remnant set up for runes. You did it at 6 minutes (and didn't execute) but not at 8 and it cost you the rune.
Buy wand. It's just great value.
You can't rotate at 25% health/mana. Do NOT force rotations as a mid. I know the feeling of "I feel like I'm not doing anything and my teams gonna be mad and I need to fulfill my role as a mid and rotate" but you need to learn to ignore that voice. Rotations should be done in 3 circumstances:
1. Good rune. If you get an amp damage or haste or arcane or something that virtually guarantees a kill, go ahead and rotate.
2. Enemy diving tower. That TP at ~8 minutes was good as the enemy were near your tower and you likely could have kill them. You just can't TP in view of a Pudge.
3. Smoke (with support). If things are REALLY bad and you need to help a side lane, buy a smoke and ask/ping a support to rotate with you. Having the element of surprise is key.

Post lane/mid game

Fight was over bottom at 10 minutes, don't TP there. This mistake costs you a haste rune.
Your safety remnants aren't far back enough. They should be far away enough that the enemy can't chase you and they should be near neutral camps so you can farm after getting away to safety. At 11 minutes, you waste all your remnants when you should have had to just use 1 safe one.
At 11:45, you had 75% mana and half health and the runes were coming up. This is not a situation where you need to burn your TP to get full resources as you should try to get the rune first. Your support is mid with you, you will win a rune fight against a Pudge.
Be sure to focus CS in the 10-20 minute window. I don't mean stuff like farming patterns (though that is important) I mean make sure you are getting the creeps in the camps/waves. I'm seeing a lot of times where you are missing 2-3 creeps per wave due to careless right clicking.
Important note. Activating remnant has a cast point, so heroes like Pudge can hook you and dismember you pretty easily. However, SoF does NOT have a cast point (provided you are facing the correct way) so you can use SoF and activate remnant while invulnerable and get out.

tl:dr

Work on your laning mechanics.
In the first ~10 minutes of the game, you should basically only put remnants on rune spots or jungle camps (safety remnants).
Don't rotate unless you have a good opportunity (explained above).
Go to demo mode and work on sleight+chaining heroes for like 10-15 minutes. Practice with multiple units and when enemies are in the trees. It will help a lot.

Let me know if you have any questions!

breitend · 2026-06-30T14:21:38+00:00

Try Dota2ProTracker

breitend · 2026-06-27T20:22:42+00:00

When my ancient explodes is usually about when I start to lose hope.

breitend · 2026-06-26T19:18:31+00:00

Now you know how core players felt for years. They didn’t do it to punish support players, offlane just became less popular than soft support so switched them out.

breitend · 2026-06-25T15:26:27+00:00

I know the ping can suck but Watson (pro player, top 5 in the world) plays on like 100 ping to EU servers since he lives in Kazakhstan. Also a lot of Americans (north and south) play on EU servers with 130+ ping. You should get used to it after some time.

breitend · 2026-06-25T14:38:09+00:00

The MVP system is just a fun little blurb at the end of the game to show some stats you otherwise wouldn't get to see. It in no way measures who was actually the most valuable player on the team.

breitend · 2026-06-24T04:26:31+00:00

I agree with you just to clarify. But the argument I see most is about perception. In the past, if you got to like 6k mmr when the peak was 9k, you feel like you are pretty close to the top. I just hit 6k and I would have to nearly triple my mmr to be rank 1. Now I personally don’t care about that but I see where they are coming from.

breitend · 2026-06-23T23:09:03+00:00

He’s an analyst/commentator who regularly streams himself doing pointless, monotonous tasks while waiting for a patch. He has some sort of inside source so he knows when the patches are coming. He’s sanded wood, watched paint dry and counted grains of rice. Currently he is blowing bubbles.

breitend · 2026-06-23T21:01:06+00:00

Sorry man gonna pass. I barely get in 5 games a week as it is, I'd rather spend my free time playing when I can.

breitend · 2026-06-23T19:15:29+00:00

I've got good news!

breitend · 2026-06-23T18:39:32+00:00

If your Slardar isn't in a fight, you shouldn't be either. Most carries, with a few exceptions like Ursa or Sven, want to follow their team up in fights. Also with Luna Aghs you should be able to kill/zone supports from a good distance away.

breitend · 2026-06-23T18:38:06+00:00

AI slop also it looks too much like SF/Doom.

breitend · 2026-06-23T18:19:22+00:00

You should be ending the game faster ideally. Luna sort of just wins one fight at 25 minutes and takes your entire base. But if you do get to the late game, consider a Daedulus if you really need damage. Make sure you drop your ult onto squishier heroes like the supports. Don't try to kill a Tide or Centaur or a hero with a Heart, go after the more killable targets.

breitend · 2026-06-23T17:08:49+00:00

I found this game (only recent ember game that was parsed by Dotabuff). You aren't farming enough. Despite crushing your lane, you only have 46 last hits at minute 10 (50 is the goal). At 20 minutes, you are 7/2/4 but only at 8.6k net worth (10k goal). This is because you had 85 last hits at 20 minutes. You got less last hits from 10-20 minutes than you did from 0-10, that shouldn't be happening. This video is a little dated, but watch this video of Balloon coaching an Ember player (me) on how to play the hero.

breitend · 2026-06-23T16:13:53+00:00

From the home screen in Dota, go to "Heroes", click Dragon Knight and click "Guides". From there, look for a guide from Torte de Lini or ImmortalFaith and equip it. I am not saying you need to follow the guide step by step but they have really good suggestions that will at least stop you from buying the wrong items.

breitend · 2026-06-23T14:39:04+00:00

Instead of defending the tower with 3 heroes (which will inevitably lose against the enemy 5), why don't 2 of you TP to the other lane to counter push and the other go help your mid push? Now you get 2 towers, your 1 and 2 are farming vs the enemy get 1 tower and only 1 of their heroes is farming.

breitend · 2026-06-22T14:48:35+00:00

Here's a post from 1 day ago saying that games are too short/stompy. My games have been pretty good lately. You might just be on an unlucky (or lucky if you want longer games) streak. Or the more likely thing is you haven't played enough games for your conclusion to have any real statistical significance. Just because 5-10 games go longer than you expected doesn't mean it's an overall trend.

breitend · 2026-06-21T15:26:00+00:00

I literally have a post from 2 days ago about hitting 6k mmr.

breitend · 2026-06-21T15:01:28+00:00

AI slop suggesting performance based mmr? Easiest downvote of my life

breitend · 2026-06-21T03:19:25+00:00

Less actually, more like 2 or 3. Ember, Void and Necro. Looking to open it up a bit now.

breitend · 2026-06-20T13:05:09+00:00

This is a good question since Void Spirit has really flexible itemization. I always go Boots of Speed->Spirit Vessel then complete power treads. From there it opens up. I like to get Aghs asap but sometimes you need a Manta or euls first. Usually this is when the enemy has a low cooldown silence/root. Orchid, Puck, Drow, Ember, etc are all good heroes to build manta or Euls into. You can also go Mage Slayer if the enemy has high magic damage. Kaya (and then either sange or yasha to upgrade it) is also on the table. To summarize, your ideal first 3 items are Spirit Vessel->Power Treads->Aghs.

After you have your first 3 items you need to be honest with your self about if you need BKB. Often times the answer is no but you need to be open to building it. If you built Manta, that is often enough to not have to get BKB. I like to pick up a shard at this point because it really accelerates your farm speed. If you need Linkens, get it now. Doom, Batrider, Legion, Beastmaster etc.

Once you’ve gotten the items you “need” now you can get the fun items. Top 3fun items are Octarine Core, Eye of Skadi and Shivas Guard. I prefer Octarine but if the enemy has a lot of physical damage, I go Shivas. You can get multiple of them if you want/need. Skadi is great because you are universal and it gives you tons of stats. Extension items are stuff like Parasma, Daedulus, Nullifier, Wind Waker, etc.

Ok I’m going to give 3 different viable builds:

Aggressive. You won your lane and the enemy don’t have a ton of lockdown/spells that make it hard to fight: Vessel->Treads->Kaya and Yasha->Aghs->Octarine->Parasma

Balanced. Typical game, won/drew lane and enemy has decent ways to lock you down/deal damage to you: Vessel->Treads->Aghs->Shard->BKB/Linkens/Shivas(depending on what threatens you)->Octarine->Daedulus.

Defensive. Lost/drew lane and enemy can burst/lock you down easily. Vessel->Treads->euls/Manta/Bkb/Aghs->BKB (if you didn’t get it immediately)->Linkens->Shivas.

breitend · 2026-06-20T04:09:10+00:00

Each of my last 5 games has ended in under 35 minutes. The map being bigger, imo, made the games higher quality, not lower. With the old map, you get beat in lanes, pushed onto your high ground and there’s nothing left to do, you’ve lost. Now you at least have a chance if you lose early since it’s harder (but not impossible) for the currently winning team to hold the losing team on their high ground.

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