Main carry of the team, it’s the ultimate arsenal ace card or whatever, in late game. Its farming time spans from early game to mid game, sometimes to late game if used to solo push.
Accurate lasthitting
Hardcarry is often positioned in a trilane with 2 supports, sometimes dual lane with 1 support having a good lane support ability, making farm a lot easier since the lane is evenly balanced / dominated. The standard CS of a Hardcarry should be about 40-60 creep kills in 10 mins and 80-120 in 20 mins.
Lane coordination
When being in trilane, both 2 Supports and Hardcarry should all try hard to scare the enemy hero, as well as to kill when chance comes. With 3 heroes having nukes for damages / disables / slows, the capability to kill is extremely high. i.e. Naga, Leshrac, Earthshaker (LV3 nuke output damage is about 450 + hitting damage of 250, considering all 3 can disable awhile, it’s a 700 damage output!)
Creep control
Being a Hardcarry is not just about good last hitting. Hitting enemy’s creeps continuously will result in self’s creeps pushing forward, thus making the enemy heroes farm easier. Furthermore, it makes their flanks and rear secure, vanishing trilane’s capability to scare / gank the enemy. On the contary, if you manage to draw their creeps closer to your tower, you may have better chance to farm easier and have your supports flank them. So you may like to block your creeps, deny your own half-HP creeps, and last hit whenever the enemy’s creep HP is exactly 1 hit left.
Map awareness
It’s inevitable for a Hardcarry to farm a lot, and risk of being ganked is also present. Always constantly view maps while farming to see whether there are missing heroes. Think about the missing heroes capability to kill you, if you think that they are capable enough, you should back immediately, if not, continue farming. Most Hardcarry will also needed in mid game clashes. Today’s Hardcarries like Chaos Knight or Naga Siren got nukes that will help in ganks / clashes. That’s why full farming the whole game is not really a good option for those heroes, you have to use them to their full potentials, including in ganks. You should be aware of the clashes’ possible positions, and head there without risk of being initiated first.
Semicarry farms early game and roam mid game (since the full potency of a Semicarry can be pulled out in mid game). It is positioned on solo lanes, either mid lane or side lane. A Semicarry needs level more than gold. Level’s necessary to execute ganks in mid game.
Accurate lasthitting
Semicarry is often positioned in a solo lane. When it’s a solo vs solo, you should farm well, since that you are equal in number advantage, compared to your opponent. Should it be a bad matchup against a better solo hero or against trilane, not farming is just fine. It’s better not to farm than dying and making solo lane unstable.
Lane control
Semicarry should be able to dominate the lane, at least when having a bad hero matchup (i.e. facing trilane or stronger solo hero), Semicarry should not be killed for a waste and stable in getting exp. If it’s not possible to stay near creeps, it’s just fine to do tower hug, waiting enemy’s creeps to come to your tower. Lane balance is always the first priority. Farming is just second.
Creep control
Try to draw the enemy’s creeps closer to your tower for easier farm and exp. You may like to block your creeps, deny your own half-HP creeps, and last hit. Mind your creep balance to avoid fogs and uphills.
Map awareness
Remember, a solo has far less backup capability since supports are far away, making Semicarry the most vulnerable role to ganks. Always constantly view maps while farming to see whether there are missing heroes. Think about the missing heroes capability to kill you, if you think that they are capable enough, you should back immediately, if not, continue farming.
Ganking prowess
When you feel that you get a certain level of nukes necessary to gank (usually at level 6), observe and the other lanes. See the opponents who are most prone to ganks. Before going, try to push your lane. Reasons are, you farm faster on that stage, and your move to that other lane can’t be discovered because of the fog.
Support
Supports are used to lane control, ganks, or clash assistance. They buy wards and couriers and do not require much gold to unleash their potentials. Support is commonly placed on trilane. Sometimes, duallane and roaming.
Warding
Wards are supreme in having vast map control. Although it costs gold, it is not that bad of an investment. Think about the ward you buy that will save someone from dying. It prevents the opponent from having 200 gold and your team losing 200 gold. Observer wards off 200 gold with 2 charges traded with a gank prevention which worth 400 gold (assuming you lose 200 gold and opponent gains 200 gold ) is not a bad idea.
The following picture shows you common locations of wards.
I will explain the logic of each ward placement.
- Yellow : Placed on the high elevation land, making the visible area large. It’s used to see whether the neutrals are being farmed, whether someone is out from the bottom lanes and whether someone enters neutrals site from the ward site.
- Brown : Placed on the intersection. Good for observing the neutral site to prevent ganks to lane.
- Blue : Placed on pulling site. Sole purpose is to make the neutrals not showing, so that the opponent can’t pull.
- Purple : Placed on the river end. It provides vision to determine who cross that point of lane.
- Red : Placed on high elevation “island” near the rune site. It provides vision to rune, opponents going in to the neutrals site from the opening and to opponents trying to face Roshan. (Remember, they can blink in or use smoke to avoid you knowing, though)
- Green : About the same like Red, but the vision is more focused to the intersection in Dire’s side.
Quote from JerokPower or 1331 or whatever (he frequently changes his username lol):
“Wards are also used when we are on the offensive and defensive stances.”
When on the offensive, wards should be placed in lanes to determine the positions of opponent’s heroes in a certain lane (called lane warding), so that the push will be easy, knowing that an opponent’s hero is not ready for clash. Plus, your push attempt can’t be ganked from flanks / rear easily with wards around you.
When on the defensive, try to place wards in places that the opponent’s heroes may hide. Especially when defending base, wards are extremely important. Let’s say, opponent got Sand King, ready to cast Epicenter and dagger straight in to the base. If there is no ward, you will get no clue as of when the Sand King will start casting.
Positioning in clash
Supports generally have no escape mechanisms. Plus, they have low HP (i.e. Crystal Maiden or Lich). That’s why correct positioning is highly essential since they got to execute everything almost perfectly. This is even more important for initiator support (i.e. Earthshaker or Tidehunter). The basic way of thought to achieve good positioning is, “Be on the spot where you can have access to nuke the opponent while giving cover the the team is also possible”.
Ganking prowess
Supports normally try to dominate lanes instead of going to other lanes, but it’s OK if the lane is already dominated and the Hardcarry is able to farm with ease. Supports should not be static in mid game. They should actively move across the fogs to gank. Don’t worry about gold, supports don’t need gold.
Lane control
Supports should try to flank opponents from sides or rear. This will scare the opponent not to go further in lane, especially when the opponent is soloing, with no backups available. This will make Hardcarry’s farm easier. When fighting enemy’s solo, the flank may be widen. Supports may hide in the woods to scare the opponent. When fighting enemy’s trilanes, the flank should be limited to the lanes’ right and left sides. Widening the flank just makes the side supports vulnerable to being killed because of low backup capability.
Creep control
As I have mentioned above, creep control is about drawing the enemy’s creeps closer to your tower for Carry’s farming ease. One of the supports, preferably melee one, should pull creeps to maintain creeps balance. Support staying in lane should start hitting self’s creeps which have half HP already, when self’s creeps is too forward. Blocking creeps is also necessary. Of course, not hitting opponent’s creeps continuously is also necessary, unless you are trying to push.
There are 2 types of pulls:
Single Pull
Pulling neutrals from 1 camp only.
Although it may appears as if the opponent’s creeps will be advancing toward your tower, the truth is, the result will be your creeps advancing to their tower.Because of that, it serves as a pre-push setup. If it’s a little hard to comprehend, I think you should try by yourself.
Double Pull (Double Stack)
Pulling neutrals from 2 camps. This will remove 1 of your creeps wave completely. This type of push will result in opponent’s creeps advancing to your towers. This type of pull eases your Carry to farm and cancels your opponent’s heroes in getting exp.
Map awareness
Remember, a Support is the vital source of backups. That’s why you will need a constant TP (Town Portal) in your inventory. You are to get to the positions where and when you are needed in instant. Support should always present in clashes. Having low HP and no escape mechanisms, supports should be smart in hiding and to react fast to circumstances.
