Dota 2 Strategy

Dota2 is a game of skill and strategy. No strategy or line up can be said as the best as all strategy has its pros and cons. However, some of the strategies can be said as more stable simply because they allow more room for mistake. For example, I wouldn't consider a 5 carries line up as a valid strategy because it would be impossible for the team to reach late game since their early game is terrible. Also, I don't like a no carry pusher team because if you fail to take a lane of rax before 20 minutes, you simply lose the game.

So, what is a good strategy? A good strategy simply has room for mistake, or we can say alternative plan. In this meta, many of strategies are viable. In other words, this meta is volatile. I will go through some strategies and explain in details.


Duo Cores (双核)
2 core means double carry, and usually this kind of line-up has 2 main damage dealer. The other 3 usually provide utility and disable in ganking and team fight. Usually this type of strategy has balanced amount of early game and late game which means it has more room for mistake. One of the advantages for this strategy is that when playing from behind, teams can simply switch from 3-protect-2 to 4-protect-1. When it has a great early start, this line up can also take the fight to opponent. This type of line up use the resource in the most reasonable way. This is because in most of the game, only 2 lanes can provide good farm (usually for position 1 and 2). Hence, an additional carry is often not an ideal choice since he won't get enough farm to come online in the mid game. Thus, make the team vulnerable to mid game aggression. However, this type of line up require decent laning phase to take it to the mid game. But, falling slightly behind in early game is still manageable. In this case, the team can try to play 4-protect-1 style to create space for the main carry. Then use the super-farmed 1 position to create space for the rest of the team. However, this is just doable but not ideal. Split pushing ability is important in this kind of line up. Usually, at least one great split pusher is needed in this type of line up. Split pushing is one of the best way to get farm and in the same time, create space for the rest of the team. Lastly, counter initiation is important too. Since the opponents will try to gank the cores, counter initiation can be crucial to survive the gank. This type of style is mostly used by team DK. There is 1 more thing to mention, the carries must be good in the late game or else this strategy will fall apart.

Best Against    : 4-protect-1
Worst Against : none

4-protect-1 and duo cores has almost the same playstyle and both wish to take it late. However, duo cores has better late game due to having 1 more core. Hence, if the game is dragged to very late game, the single core will be out carried by the double cores. This makes the playstyle of 4-protect-1 very ineffective against duo cores. The duo cores has no particularly bad match up because of its sheer versatility. However, it can be caught off guard with intense early game aggression followed by huge pushing power.

Example : 1) Morphling
                2) Viper
                3) Tide Hunter
                4) Minara
                5) Lion
or
                1) Tiny
                2) Puck
                3) Nature's Prophet
                4) Treant Protector
                5) Io


Tri Cores Rush Face(三核冲脸)
Basically, 3 cores itself has 2 styles and both of them are completely different. One of them is focused on mid-game aggression and the other one is considered super greedy late game strategy. Since the former is far more popular, we will only discuss about the mid-game aggression 3 cores. This style is first used by Newbee. I think that this style is actually very flexible and has enough fire power in early, mid and late game. This type of style does not require team to run hard carry. Instead, they run 3 semi carries. Also, at least 2 cores are tanky so that they can act as front line. This type of strategy rely on their support during the early game to make rotation to secure the early advantage. Then, they will force the fight and take down tower by tower. Hence, picking the aggressive support is one of the key to its success. One of the advantages of this strategy is that it is extremely strong in mid game and still can hold its ground in late game. Also, there is almost no boundary between position 1, 2 and 3. Meaning that the 3 cores can exchange their position on farm priority based on the need of the team. This is very different from 4-protect-1 and duo cores where the farm priority is clear. Also, the initiator is extremely important for this strategy. With powerful initiation, they can take the fight to opponent. With tanky core and powerful team fight, they will force the fight with initiation and once they win the fight, they will take down the tower. Lastly, Meka carrier is important in this strategy since they need to group up and fight very early on. Hence, in this type of strategy, the Meka carrier is often given farm in the early game to secure fast Meka timing. However, split push seems to be biggest weakness of this type of strategy. Tanky cores and initiators are usually not mobile and they tend to be bad split pusher. Split pushing can delay their mid game aggression and avoid the fight. Powerful counter initiation can also counter this type of playstyle effectively.

Best Against    : greedy line up with 3 or more cores
Worst Against : split push with good late game

Usually, greedy line up lacks of counter initiation and counter push ability. This makes it weak against the rush face strategy. Also, in the early to mid game, tanky cores with early Meka are very hard to be brought down. Thus, they can group up and push down tower without fear. However, split push is one of the best counter to the rush face strategy.

Example: 1) Viper
               2) Brewmaster
               3) Doom
               4) Enchantress
               5) Rubick
or
               1) Viper
               2) Death Prophet
               3) Tide Hunter
               4) Enchantress
               5) Shadow Shaman


4-Protect-1(四保一)
This used to be the "go to" strategy in TI2. But, with huge amount of changes to the game, this is no longer the case. Nowadays, the 4-protect-1 style no longer has the late game advantage. This is due to the popularity of duo cores and tri cores. These type of strategy can hold their own in the late game against 4-protect-1, and offer much more flexibility. As said by LD, never put all the egg in 1 basket, and this is the story of today. However, this is still doable given in the right situation. This type of style is mainly used by Fnatic and occasionally, team DK. In the early game, 4 players must be able to play 4 v 5 before the carry comes online. Hence, heroes choice is extremely important. Also, the picks must have really good synergy with the carry in order to have good late game. I will not try to explain in a very detailed way since this is considered out-dated and is commonly known by everybody.

Example: 1) Tinker
               2) Brewmaster
               3) Beastmaster
               4) Visage
               5) Treant Protector
or
               1) Naga Siren
               2) Puck
               3) Elder Titan
               4) Lion
               5) Disruptor