DotA The Art of MindGames

The Art of Mindgames v3.0
A guide to a smart and aggressive playing style

Written by Totallnewbie
best viewed in DotA-Allstars Skin and at least 1024x768 screen resolution

Changelog
v2.0 - Completely re-written with new examples and many other additions
v2.1 - Added a new section, and some miscellaneous changes
v2.2 - Added juking spots replay, elaborated some sections, and many grammar fixes
v2.3 - Added 2 new sections: changing your play style, and using observer wards
v2.4 - Added Morphling trick, and elaborated some sections
v2.5 - Some minor revisions and elaborations
v3.0 - Revised for 6.54b

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What are Mindgames?

2a. Baiting the enemy
2b. Predicting your opponents’ actions
2c. Baiting in big team battles
2d. Using the illusion rune
2e. Using certain items

3. Which heroes can play the Mindgames?

3a. Some hero-specific tips and tricks

4. When can you play the Mindgames?

5. Using observer wards

6. Miscellaneous tips that help you improve your game

6a. How to run properly and common juking spots
6b. Turnarounds at low HP
6c. Animation canceling and Orb Walking
6d. Other Tips

7. Mindgame Videos

8. Conclusion

9. Credits


1. Introduction

The goal of this guide is to help people of all skill levels get better in the game. IMO, the things that are mentioned in this guide is what separates the good players from the very good players. Anyone can last hit, deny, learn the skill and item builds, and know what works and what doesn't. However, not a lot of people put in the effort to use their brain when they play. A lot of people play by the book, and seldom take risks. They don't try new things, and they don't use their brain to outplay and outthink their opponents.

Before I go on, I should say that in order to benefit the most from this guide, I highly recommend you read my guide on Using your hero to its full potential. It goes over many things that can make a big difference in battle. It teaches you how to make the most of your hero, and knowing everything in that guide is the basic foundation for mindgames.

However, having this knowledge is not sufficient enough for you to become a better player. Experience will also play a big factor here as well. You will need to think fast in the spur of the moment, strategize proper attacks, assess the situations, and be able to do some quick calculations in your head for determining whether or not you can survive another nuke or attack. A lot of on the spot action is required here. Use your head! This is a team-based strategy game after all.

2. What are Mindgames?

Playing the mindgames is the art of tricking your opponent into doing something that you would like them to do. For example, making your opponents fight a battle where they can't win, or turning around with low HP after they've given up the chase to entice them into coming after you again. Alternatively, it can also mean predicting what your opponent is going to do, allowing you to get the upper hand by responding in the proper manner ahead of time.

2a. Baiting the enemy

The main form of Mindgames takes the form of baiting. Baiting is provoking your opponent to chase or attack you. In early game, if you are at low HP in your lane, most people would opt to go back to base, heal up, and buy items. I believe this to be a very big mistake, as the experience and gold that you lose from killing creeps during the course of these 2-3 minutes is essential early game. By the time you get back, your opponent is 1 or 2 levels ahead of you. Instead, you should stay around for experience and creep kills, but pay extra close attention to what your opponent is doing.

Please keep in mind that there is a fine line between staying around for experience while at low HP, and stupidity. Use your own judgment in deciding when to stay for experience and when to leave. For example, if there is a nuker (Zeus, CM, Lich, etc…) in your lane, check their mana first and if they have enough to constantly nuke, its best to go back to base in this case. If you are up against a hero such as Ursa Warrior or Naix, keep your distance, watch their mana, and you will be fine. Also, make sure to tell your allies to call players that are missing.

You can bait the opponents in almost any situation with any amount of HP. You don't need to be at low HP in order to entice your opponents. For example, you can just run into the vision of 2 heroes with stuns and disables. If they are good players, they will try and land a stun in ASAP and proceed to chain stun and kill you. Once they try to do this, your allies come out from behind you or behind them and take advantage of the situation.


OK, so why should i put my life on the line just to bait?

Smart baiting will pay off; it’s as simple as that. I stress “smart” because if you know when to bait, and know that you will stay alive during the course of it, you will either be getting a lot of hero kills, getting your allies a bunch of kills, or will piss the enemy off by making them return to the fountain instead of you. When they die or go back to heal, they are the ones who lose the potential gold earned and experience, and you’ll be much far ahead of them.

Experience will be a factor here. It might take some time before you know whether or not you will live or die. Occasionally, something unexpected will come out of nowhere (i.e. a hero hiding in the trees, Zeus's ultimate, etc...) and screw you over. However, I believe that it is a risk worth taking. The amount of kills you and your allies receive will greatly outweigh the amount of times you die once you get good at it.


2b. Predicting your opponents’ actions

This component of Mindgames requires some bit of experience. If you have been playing the game long enough, you can foresee some of the things that are going to occur before it even happens. For example, if a Centaur walks up to you, it’s pretty likely that he’ll attempt a stomp. React accordingly by retreating a bit when he walks up. You can also use this to your own advantage. Let’s say you’re a melee hero up against a Centaur. Whenever you start attacking him, chances are he’ll use a stomp. Therefore, vary your last hits and occasionally walk up to him while retreating very shortly after. Chances are, he’ll waste his mana on a stomp that isn’t even close to hitting you.

You can also apply this technique when running away from a blinker. If an AM is chasing you, he’ll be blinking ahead of you once every 7 or 8 seconds. After the initial blink, keep a mental note of how long it’s been, and run in another direction after approximately 6 or 7 seconds. This isn’t guaranteed to work, but it will save you more times than you think.

If you're a decent player, and are facing decent people, you can put yourself in their shoes and know what they will do. For example, let's say a decent player is trying to kill you in your lane. He is 1 or 2 hits away from killing you, but can't seem to catch you yet. You run back to your tower, and he chases a bit and takes 2 tower hits. Good players will retreat right now...so you should immediately turn around at that moment and chase him back. After they realize this, they will try and turnaround and score the last hit. However, knowing that, you turn around immediately to run away again, letting him take 2 more hits from the tower. I like to call this response hacking. You are playing as if you know all of your opponent’s moves before hand, and can respond instantly to his actions.

As you can see, I cannot go into any specific details about predicting your opponent’s actions because it’s very situational and depends upon many factors in the game. Use your own judgment and experience here.


2c. Baiting in big team battles

So the opposing team is pushing middle. Your allies are on the sides, waiting to ambush. You are in the lane, and is the only thing standing in the way (from the opponent's point of view). What do you do to trick your enemies into coming at you?

I would suggest acting a little stupid for once. For example, just stand there and be a little slow to retreat when the creeps come. The enemies will believe they have you outnumbered, and will try to chase in most situations. This is when your allies come from the sides and flank them, hopefully resulting in a won battle for your team. The enemy will be concentrated on killing you, and will not immediately realize that your allies are coming in from the sides.

This tactic has several advantages. Firstly, it's a surprise attack. Second, when the enemy sees people coming from 3 directions (you, and the 2 sides your allies are coming from), it's hard to immediately coordinate their attacks. Mostly likely, they will all cast their spells on different heroes, distributing the damage taken among your allies. They will not get kills when they each go after different heroes. Third, when the enemies chase you, they are probably going in a straight line. Therefore, when your allies flank the heroes at the back, the heroes in front will be a little slow to turn around and help.

The disadvantage to this attack, is that you are more prone to getting killed. If a stun lands, it's hard for you to escape, especially if they have more than one stun or slow.

Please keep in mind that playing smart also applies in this situation. Do not go team baiting if they have a Vengeful Spirit who can swap, a Naga who can net, a Centaur with blink dagger, any hero who has cyclone, etc... Also, if the hero you’re playing is especially fragile (Intelligence heroes and low HP Agility heroes), do not attempt this stunt.

2d. Using the illusion rune

When the majority of people pick up an illusion rune, they either send it somewhere and just forget about it, or they travel with it. The latter of these two options is not as bad as the first one, but isn’t recommended. I prefer using the illusion like a normal hero, controlling it in the lane, while keeping the real hero behind the trees waiting to ambush. Make sure that the illusion doesn’t attack anything so the enemy cannot tell it is a fake. Move it back and forth as if you were controlling a real hero, don’t let it just stand there. This example below demonstrates what I’m talking about.







Another good way to use the illusion rune is to deliberately put it in the forest almost out of the line of sight of the enemy. If they see it, either they will go for after it, or will retreat in fear of a gank. The former benefits you because you can then use the illusion to bait, or just simply let the opponents waste their mana on it. The latter benefits you too because they just lose experience and gold by retreating from their lane.

If you have a blink or you are planning to get it, it is a good idea to uncover the fog of war with your illusion. You cannot blink into areas that are unexplored, so uncovering as much of the fog of war as you can will basically ensure that you will be able to blink when the time calls for it. Furthermore, if your illusion runs into an enemy hero, it is pretty likely that they will engage it and waste some mana on it.

2f. Using certain items

There are some items that help you in tricking your opponents into fighting you. If they don't look in your inventory (or just plain forget), they will miscalculate and might die fighting a battle they think they can win.

Mekansm, Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse, and Armlet of Mordiggan

All of these items have one thing in common. Saving them for usage at the latest possible moment in a battle “forces” your opponent to attack you until the point when you use the item. For example, if you are trading hits with a hero and it is evident that he will win, save your Mekansm/Guinsoo’s/Armlet for the end right before you are about to die. The time that you bought “forcing” him to attack can be enough time for you to do enough damage to kill the opponent. It also stalls time for any spells that you have on cooldown to finish up.

Empty Bottle

This item heals 135HP and 75 Mana in a period of 3 seconds. You can use it to capture runes to refill it. Use this item when you have low HP and an opponent is chasing you. Make sure that he cannot hit you for 3 seconds so the bottle doesn’t dispel. Use a charge and turn around to fight. If your opponent keeps fighting, rinse and repeat. It is also very useful when you run into a place where the fog of war will obscure the enemy's vision (i.e. around a tree or up a hill). Use a charge the instant you enter the fog of war and turn around to fight. Your opponent will still believe that you are running away, and won’t expect a turnaround, let alone a turnaround where you pop out with more HP than the last time he saw you with. This will catch the opponent off guard most of the time, and the element of surprise (and the increase in your HP) may be able to net you or an ally a kill.

Manta Style

Firstly, you can use Manta style to get rid of some buffs such as Haste, Ignite, and Shadow Strike. It can also be used to dodge spells like Storm Bolt or Magic Missile. In a 1v1 situation, you should use Manta Style at around 1/3 HP. It's a decent enough HP for your illusions to survive couple of attacks, and is probably enough to keep your opponent fighting you. Again, this is best used when you run into a place where the fog of war will obscure the enemy's vision. It buys you an extra couple of seconds to do more damage because the opponent will not be able to react in time if they choose to keep chasing.

Another neat trick with Manta Style is when you're trying to run, split into 3, highlight an image, and move it back. Some opponents will think that you are moving the real hero back, and might go after it. This allows you to escape in another direction with the real hero. Personally, I've never actually had the opportunity to use this trick, but it's quite a nice tactic to keep in the back of your head.


3. Which heroes can play the Mindgames?

Every hero in the game is capable of playing the mindgames. However, it is much easier and more effective with heroes who are natural tanks, heroes who have some sort of disable, and heroes who have a ranged slow. My personal favorites are Bristleback, Leviathan, Rhasta, Ogre Magi, and Drow Ranger.

Natural Tanks

These heroes usually have an enormous amount of HP, and are very damn hard to kill. Most of the time, a lot of regen items are gotten on them (Heart of Tarrasque and Hood of Defiance). In addition to their high STR, they will have a lot of regen, enabling them to stay around with even the lowest HP. Since a lot of players have HP bars of heroes and creeps on their display, if they see one of these tanks with a reddish yelloish life bar, their first reaction is to target them as opposed to other heroes with yellowish greenish life bars (thinking that they have less life). However, due to their enormous amount of HP and regen, these tanks can be much harder to kill than they seem.

For example, a Centaur with 3K total HP at 1/3 life will have 1000 HP in addition to massive regen. A Leshrac with a total of 900 HP at full life will have 900 HP in addition to mediocre regen. By looking at the life bars, one would be more inclined to go after the centaur, but we all know that the Leshrac is the easier target here. The point I'm trying to make is that tanks have life bars that can be very deceiving. Use this and your regen to your advantage, stay around with low HP, and lure the opponents to go after you instead of your allies.

Heroes with mass disables

When luring with these heroes, always try to turn around when an ally shows up to help you. Once you disable the chaser, help your allies pound on them. Even if you have just a sliver of life left, an enemy who is disabled cannot do anything to harm you. Just because you're almost dead, doesn't mean you can't turn around and help your allies.

Heroes with ranged slows

When luring your opponents with these heroes, always try to turn around and slow them when they give up chase regardless of your HP. With Drow Ranger and Viper, not only do you slow them, you also damage them as well. Once you start slowing them, they will have two options: keep running, or turn around to fight. If they keep running, just continue to slow and damage them. If they decide to turn around and fight, you can react fast enough and retreat again (since they are slowed) before any harm is done, especially if the chasers are melee. Once they stop giving chase, repeat the cycle over again. Coupled with animation canceling and/or Orb walking, it would be even more effective. See the section entitled "Animation canceling and Orb walking" later on in the guide for a more detailed explanation of what it is, how you do it, and the advantages of it. Basically, it allows you to get in a lot of damage on your opponents, while not taking any damage yourself. This is part of the reason why Drow and Viper are such hard heroes to lane against early on.

Please keep in mind that if your opponent has a nuke that can kill you, be a little more careful and watch their mana. Try and stay out of the range of it, if possible. Play smart, not stupid. Don't go turning around with 100HP to slow a Zeus who has enough mana for a lightning bolt.


3a. Some hero-specific tips and tricks

Anti Mage and Queen of Pain

If you're facing heroes with an AOE skill that needs positioning (i.e., Centaur, Slardar, Ursa, etc...) in your lane, you may want to try and juke them into using their skill and wasting their mana by using a "fake" blink. "Fake" blinking is blinking to a spot, but spamming "S" to cancel it before the hero teleports there. The animation of blink will occur, but your hero will still remain in the same spot. You don't lose any mana when performing this trick, nor do you put blink on cooldown. It doesn’t hurt to do it, as long as you don’t screw it up. It might be helpful to take into account how much delay you have before attempting it.

Morphling

QUOTE

As you probably know, his third skill lets him transfer his agility to strength and vice versa.

Well, something that almost always works is to "surf" in red hp, letting your enemy think he can kill you, while you keep attacking him. Against very experienced players, it is a good idea not to let the skill go at full speed, skipping it on and off, leading them to think you underleveled it (and that thus you are killable) and only activating it constantly at the end of the fight. Against newbies, well, there is no casting animation, nor tooltip, so there is no problem: just right click on the icon and keep bashing, they probably won't even notice that your health is going up instead of down. By the time they realise it, waveform has cooled down and they are dead.

This quote from Tfiws dna eliga pretty much sums it up.

Also, Replicate enables you to bait the enemy with your ally’s image. Use it similarly to the illusion rune. Try and make your opponents waste their spells on it and clean up the mess afterwards.

Pugna

You can fake casting a Nether Blast by running forward as if you're going to do it, and spamming "S" to stop. Pugna will stand still and do nothing, which looks exactly like the casting animation before Nether Blast comes out. You can cause your opponents to retreat a bit from the creep line to deny them of any last hits or denies.

Goblin Techies

Ahh...the I'm-going-to-run-up-to-you-and-make-you-think-I'm-going-to-suicide trick. When the majority of the people see a Techies run up to them, they will retreat in fears of getting blown up. This moves them away from the creep line, which does not enable them to get last hit or denies. It may even move them out the experience range as well. This trick works well early game, and works even better when the opponent knows that you have leveled up suicide, and aren't afraid to use it.

Ogre Magi and Juggernaut

Never run too early when you're playing Ogre Magi and Juggernaut, and when you have the mana for multiple fireblasts or an omnislash. If you have an opponent chasing you alone, Omnislashing a lone hero without the intervention of creeps may very well kill him. Since you are invulnerable when Omnislashing, you don't have to worry about your HP, no matter how low it is. When running away from enemies with Ogre Magi, don't be scared to turn around and stay within the enemy's vision so you can cast repeatedly cast your fireblasts, since it has such a short cooldown. There is a chance that you will get a Multi Cast, and when you do, it may enable you to kill him.

4. When can you play the Mindgames?

The possibilities of Mindgames are endless, and identifying situations where Mindgames are applicable requires some degree of thinking. Some questions that you can ponder about in-game to help identify situations where you can take advantage of the opponent may include the following:
When an enemy is chasing you?

• Is he Ranged or Melee? Is my hero Ranged or Melee?
• How fast is he moving? How fast am I moving?
• Will he be able to get in a couple of hits if I turnaround?
• Does he have mana for any nuke that can potentially kill me?
• Are any of his spells on cooldown?
• How good is my opponent? (if applicable)
• How many creeps do I have? How many does my opponent have?
• Considering all of the above, what is my opponent capable of and what is he most likely to do?
• Do I have nearby allies on their way to help me?
• Do I have enough mana for any stuns or disables?
• Is there any way for me to survive?
• Is there an opportunity for me to help my allies? Will it get me killed if I help them?
• Are there any trees or cliffs nearby so I can take advantage of the fog of war?
• Do I have any items that may help me escape or kill the enemy?
• Is there anything else I should worry about? (i.e. Zeus's ultimate, Windwalkers, Bloodseeker, etc...)

General Questions that you should think over the course of this game

• If I were my opponent, what would I do next?
• How good is my opponent in the lane?
• Is there a way to make my opponent do something I want him to do?
• Are there any enemies missing from the minimap?

Well I hope you get the idea here. You need to try and consider all the variables involved in the given situations. You also need to be willing to think of things you could do instead of just mindlessly farming, denying, and trying to stay alive.


5. Using observer wards

Observer Wards

Observer wards allow you to spy upon a large area for a long time. Early game is probably a time where you will stay around with low HP and try to mindgame the opponent in to chasing you behind your tower. Having observer wards in the forest eliminates the risk of an enemy showing up for a gank. You will be able to see it coming well ahead of time, allowing you to make more accurate calculations about whether or not you can pull off some mindgames. Likewise, it would also help you see whether or not your opponent is trying to play some mindgames on you.

I would say that buying observer wards is totally optional. If you are the type of player that likes that extra sense of security, then go ahead and buy a set. If you are the type of player that is too cheap to pay for it and likes to take risks, don’t buy it. You will still do fine without it as long as you pay attention to the minimap and tell your allies to call missing. One set is all you need early game.

If you do choose to buy observer wards, save them until you have low HP, or when your opponents start to disappear off the minimap (around level 6-8). That way, you are getting the maximum time benefit from the ward. If you place it right in the beginning, chances are you won’t even see anything because everybody will be in their lanes. By placing it much later on when it is likely that people will go ganking, your wards will last you enough time until you decide to move out of your own lane. 2 wards for a combined total of 6 (if you planted both at the same time in different locations) or 12 (if you planted the second one after the first one expires) minutes is more than enough to ensure your safety.

Obviously, when you place the wards, place it in the forest where the enemy is likely to come gank you from. Remember that the primary usage of these wards early on will be to scout for ganks, not for vision of runes, vision of neutral camps, or preventing neutral camp spawns. I am not going to include screenshots of warding spots, as it is basically common sense, and depends on which side you are on and which lane you are in.

Generally speaking, you don’t need any more sets as the game progresses in terms of helping you out with mindgames. You will be moving all over the map instead of just staying in your lane, and would have no idea which spots to ward to enable to know what you can pull off and what you can't. Pulling off mindgames is more of a spur of the moment thing. There isn't a lot preparation involved in it. The key is to be able to identify situations where mindgames are applicable, just go ahead and carry it out.

If you are a support hero that can farm a lot of gold or have a lot of gold to burn, you can spend it on observer wards and ward the river area (which oversee the ramps and rune spawns). This will benefit not only yourself, but your team as well. Most likely, it will be the case that these wards will save somebody’s life. If I were to put a gold value on dying, it would be FAR greater than the 150 gold for 1 ward. You lose gold from dying (which is probably already more than 150), you lose experience, and you lose the time to farm more gold and get more experience.

Another thing you can do is to use your opponent's observer wards against them. If you know where they have planted a ward (sentries of your own, Zeus's lightning bolt, Necronomicon, etc...), you can just bait them to come after you by going into the ward's area of sight. You can just either stand there, or neutral creep. Once they decide to go after you, lure them to your allies.

It may seem like I am discouraging the buying of wards as the game progresses. However, I do not deny the importance of observer wards in games, especially in higher level ones. It is no question that having map awareness and map control in the game could be the key to winning it. This guide focuses on mindgames, and if you're purchasing wards solely for mindgames, there is no need to buy any more as the game progresses. Helping your entire team out and buying wards for map awareness and map control is an entirely different matter and isn't focused on in this guide. Therefore, I do not go into the details of it. For more information regarding this subject matter, I suggest you go read a guide to warding.


6. Miscellaneous tips that help you improve your game

6a. How to run properly and common juking spots

Since you will find yourself in situations where you are running away and luring, you need to know how to do it. It's more complicated than just right-clicking your base and letting your hero move there by themselves.

The golden rules are as follows:

Never ever run in a straight line. Always run up cliffs, around trees, and in an unpredictable path where the fog of war will screw up your enemy's line of sight.

Always carry a Scroll of Town Portal in your inventory.

Remember that the enemy may have some spells that give them vision of you. Some examples include Track, Amplify Damage, Charge of Darkness, Spectral Dagger, Strygwyr’s Thirst, etc… If you’re facing any opponents who possess such a spell, look for any buff icons on your hero so you will know whether or not you are being charged or tracked, for example. If the enemy does have vision of you, it’s best to run in a straight line back towards your base or back to your allies because running through the trees to screw up their vision won’t work. Another alternative is to just TP out right away. It would help against heroes like Bloodseeker and Spiritbreaker if he charged you from a bit further out, for example.

Here are some good and common juking spots where you can totally obscure the enemy's vision:

Area to the left of 3rd Sentinel top tower




Area below 3rd Sentinel middle tower




Area left of 3rd Sentinel bottom tower




Area below 3rd Sentinel bottom tower




Area above the 3rd Scourge top tower




Area to the right of 3rd Scourge middle tower




Area to the right of Scourge secret shop, above the neutral creeps



Since I told you to carry a TP scroll with you at all times, it will help you escape from heroes like viper and spider, or mass ganks with no disables on the enemy team. When being chased by the enemy and there is a high probability of you dying, run to a place where the fog of war will obscure the opponent's vision (i.e., up a hill, around or into trees), and use your TP. Usually, the opponent will not be quick enough to deliver the finishing blow, or to cast their stun. 90%+ of the time, you will get away safely.

It is also handy to know which spells have a mini-stun, or can stop your TP, as it will enable you to know whether or not the enemy is capable of stopping it. Here is a list of spells that stop TP's that some people may not be aware of.

• Zeus's Lightning Bolt
• Naga's Ensnare
• Terrorblade's Sunder
• Lich's Chain Frost (1st hit only)
• Night Stalker's Void
• Lucifer's LVL? Death
• Luna's Lucent Beam
• Bounty Hunter's Shrunken Toss
• Anti-Mage's Mana Void
• Necrolyte's Reaper’s Scythe
• Pudge's Meat Hook
• Geomancer's Earthbind
• Dazzle's Poison Touch
• Juggernaut's Omnislash (1st hit only)

Likewise, be aware of the fog of war and any Scroll of Town Portal's that your opponents may have when you're chasing them. Try not to get screwed over too much when chasing into the fog.

If you are interested in finding out some more common juking spots, I have attached a replay entitled “Common Juking Spots” below. I run/blink around the map, and mark the juking spots with a ward. I then proceed to make a run-though of the spots after I’ve planted the ward. The replay is around 10 minutes long. Knowing all of these spots can definitely help you improve your game.

Common_Juking_Spots.w3g ( 59.47k ) Number of downloads: 184


6b. Turnarounds at low HP

Please, do not retreat halfway back to base the instant you are hit while your allies are still fighting them. Help them out! Go back and cast a spell if you have the mana or use a Cyclone, Hex, Mekansm, or Purge. It could mean the difference between a winning battle and a losing battle. It could also mean baiting the opponent to run after you while your teammates pound on them and hopefully kill them. Personally, I will usually turn around and help my allies the moment the enemy locks onto a different target, or when I’m in a position to constantly screw up his vision by using fog of war to my advantage.

Similarly, if a lone hero is chasing you, run to an ally if possible, and turn it into a 2v1 if you know you aren’t going to die. Don’t just right click the base when you're about to die. Help your ally kill the chaser.

Good places for turnarounds are places where the fog will screw up the enemy's line of sight. All good players should know how to use line of sight to their advantage, whether it is for turnarounds or juking. By turning around in a place where the enemy can't see you, you have bought some extra time for you to get a couple of hits in. If the battle is pretty close, these extra couple of hits could mean the difference between a kill and a death.


6c. Animation canceling and Orb Walking

Animation canceling is issuing a command right after the animation for a spell or an attack comes out. A lot of spells (Frostbite, Hoof Stomp, Nasal Goo, Sprout, Storm Bolt, etc...) and a lot of attack animations (almost every ranged hero and some melee heroes like Magina) have a lag time following it that could be reduced. By issuing a new command (move or attack) immediately after the spell or attack comes out, you reduce the lag time of these spells and attack animations, enabling you to get in more hits or to maintain the distance between yourself and the enemy.

Orb Walking applies to heroes with an orb that can be manually casted or put on autocast (Silencer, Drow Ranger, Viper, Visage, Clinkz, Enchantress, and Harbinger). Basically, it's animation canceling a manually casted orb. By manually casting the orb, you will not draw the fire of creeps or towers, enabling you to harass your opponents without taking any damage from the creeps and towers. By animation canceling it, you do not lose a lot of distance while chasing the hero, which allows you to get in more hits.

These two techniques can be hard to learn and master. It's quite important that you do not waste any time after you cast a spell or attack, especially when you're at low HP. The time you waste could mean the difference between whether or not you live.


6d. Other Tips

Remember to use your items properly, whether it is for helping you escape, or playing the mindgames on the opponent. Countless times I’ve seen people die when they have a lothars that they can use, or when they could have cycloned.

Pay attention to your opponent's playing style. If they do something out of the ordinary (i.e. a passive player suddenly getting very aggressive or an aggressive player staying back all of a sudden), chances are he has an ally coming or is already nearby waiting to gank or something like that. Be more cautious in this case.

Try to play with confidence and courage. Make your opponents aware that you are not afraid to fight, regardless of your HP. This will intimidate your opponent, and chances are, they will start playing more passively against you.

7. Mindgame Videos

I have compiled a total of 8 mindgame videos (7 videos and 1 blooper video), which contains some crazy scenes with a variety of heroes. It's definitely worth the watch if you want to understand mindgames better by looking at some examples. I've also added commentary so you can see what's going through my head and the reasoning behind some of the stunts pulled off in the videos. The thread containing all the Youtube and Filefront links is here:

Mindgame Videos, Volumes 1 - 4 + A blooper video

Volume 5

Volume 6

***Volume 7 Added Oct 2. 2008***

Please note, some of the stunts pulled off in the preceding videos are no longer doable after the nerf to Kelen’s Dagger of Escape in v6.50. Icefrog saw the imbaness and decided to nerf my strategies .

8. Conclusion

Some of you will probably say that luck is a huge factor in playing the Mindgames. I would have to argue the opposite. In my videos, there are many situations where I survived not because I was lucky, but rather because I calculated that I was going to survive. The plans were carefully thought out and carried out. In some situations, quick reflexes and thinking played a critical role in determining whether you live or die. I fought those battles for a good reason you know...

If you die while attempting to play the Mindgames, it is because you didn’t carefully consider the situation, or something hits you by surprise (like a person coming from behind you). Otherwise, if you continue to fail, it’s probably due to lack of experience, not bad luck. A good and experienced player knows when they are defeated, and knows when they can defeat someone.

One last note, make sure you can count on your allies. Don’t play the Mindgames assuming that your godly ally SA (who went lothars and refresher) will cast cloud to help you out during the battle. Play with friends, practice your coordination and timing, and make sure you can count on each other in team battles.

Well that’s about it for this guide. I hope that I have brought to your attention some of the overlooked aspects of this game, and have made you a smarter, more aggressive, and a more team-oriented player. The feeling you get when you successfully pull of something crazy is quite exhilarating. Hope you enjoyed reading my first guide. Now go play some Mindgames…

Comments, feedback, and questions from all people are encouraged and welcomed.


9. Credits

totalchaos2 - For introducing me to DotA and teaching me how to play
chilln_1ce - For reminding me about TP's and how to use them
Letalkid - For his team baiting suggestion
tWiStEdArrOw - For his input on paying attention to your opponent's playing style
Joon- - For his idea of a replay with juking spots, addition of a ward section, and other suggestions
Tfiws dna eliga - For his Morphling trick, and other suggestions
Everyone else who has helped me improve this guide by suggesting new things to put in, or has given some other examples of Mindgames - You know who you are