5 heroes, 3 lanes ( 1 jungle )

• Strong solo
  • Heroes that CAN solo
  • Heroes that SHOULD solo


• Duallane
  • Babysitting
  • Comboing
  • What you shouldn't do (2 melee on one lane, 2 ranged on the other etc)
  • Reference to pulling guide


• Jungle
  • Reference to jungling guide
  • How does it influence your laneup (is this an ok wordplay..?) (2 sololanes)

This guide needs to work hand in hand with other guides (jungling guide, pulling guide, lane control guide, roaming guide (when is it time to leave the lanes etc))



Building lanes, that is the way of splitting up the five heroes on your team onto the three lanes on the map. Right after hero picking and [url=http://linkto.startingitems]buying your starting items[/url] this is the very first strategical step in DotA and one which has a huge impact on the game. Now let's have a look at the possible combinations locations you can go to after picking your hero.

Middle lane

Usually your solo hero goes here. The middle lane offers a lot of safety thanks to the hill and your tower being very close to you. The middle lane also has easy access to both runespots and is able to gank both sidelanes. It is also very hard to get a combo going against you because there is very little room to do so.

Examples for solo heroes
A good solo hero is able to farm in the middle (preferably preventing your enemy from frarming too) thus ranged and capable of ganking both sidelanes. It is also a hero which benefits a lot from the additional experience (mid-lategame heroes). Good examples would be PotM, Shadow Fiend, Lich or Tinker. Bad examples would be Stealth Assassin, Centaur, Spectre or Crystal Maiden.

Short lane (Top for Sentinel / Bottom for Scourge)

The short lane is the lane where the creeps clash far away from your own tower. It's the most dangerous lane for your team because if you have a combo laned against you, it's a long way to safety, also an enemy hero which comes to gank you will be able to approach you from behind, cutting off your escape route. Usually you should put your own combo on this lane, preferably two stunners and at least one ranged. Do not put a solo hero on this lane.

Examples for short lane heroes
Anything that could combo and/or has an escape mechanism. There should also be means to prevent the enemy from farming too much. Worst case scenario is that the enemy carry hero is farming like crazy and you cannot stop it. Do not put dual melee lanes or carry heroes top. Good examples would be SK/Lina, Sven/Lesh or Venge/Lion. Bad examples would be Bristleback/SK (dual melee), Spectre/Invoker (carry) or any solo lane.

Long lane (Bottom for Sentinel / Top for Scourge)

The long lane is the safe, relaxing lane. The creeps are usually close to your own tower, you have plenty of room to combo/gank your enemies and you can [url=http://linkto.pullingguide]pull neutral creeps[/url]. The long lane is the lane where you can place your farmer hero to creep safely. In case there is a jungle hero, this is the lane where the second solo hero should be, because the jungle hero can assist the solo hero and because you absolutely do not want to have your second solo on the short lane.

Examples for long lane heroes
A babysit-lane (a carry and a hero to secure his farm by either harassing the enemies or preventing him from being harassed), a combo lane, your second solo lane.. pretty much anything can be put on the long lane. Good examples would be Warlock/Spectre, Panda/Venge, Meepo/Jakiro or a solo hero. Bad examples are hard to tell because if you have a garbage lane (remember all 5 heroes have to lane somewhere..) that lane should be bottom.

The Jungle
To learn more about jungling, go here. Remember when jungling that this means you have two solo heroes. If you just don't have two solo heroes, don't jungle. This could be a bit less benefical for you, however it will be a lot better for the hero who else would be forced to jungle and ultimately your entire team.

Roaming
A very unique and sometimes risky way of playing. Read more about it here.