Dictating the game through the Offlane

A debate as old as the game itself. Which lane is really the “safe” lane? You’re never really safe during a game of DotA, but each lane has its advantages. In this patch the Offlane is now more important than ever. Mainly responsible for helping to dictate the pace of the game into your team’s favor. As well as dominating the lane in the early game.

Bullying the enemy in lane

With the changes in 7.07 to creeps the focus has moved back into the laning stage. Especially with the new importance of denies. Using these to snowball in the laning stage is an easy way to get ahead in a game. As an offlaner, it’s an incredibly simple way to deny the enemy carry a lot of early gold and XP. Propelling heroes back into the meta that are very tanky in the early game and dominate their lane. Examples of which would be Tidehunter, Brewmaster, and Centaur Warrunner. All of these heroes currently have winrates over 50% according to Dotabuff.

Brewmaster stands out when it comes to lane dominance. Mainly due to the spamability of his “W”. Drunken Haze is one of the best value skill points in the entire game. At level one it slows for 10% and applies a 70% miss chance for 4.5 seconds. While only on an 11 second cooldown. Making Brewmaster an absolute nuisance in the lane as the rest of his skills also provide even more harassment. Using his “W” makes denies even easier as an enemy last hitting with Drunken Haze is going to have a very bad time. Not to mention the manacost of only 25 at all levels. This lane dominance hamstrings the enemy carry in the early game and an early advantage will allow you, as an offlaner, to contribute to support ganks much more efficiently.

(Dotabuff)

Centaur Warrunner’s passive, Return, is another example of an ability that makes for a miserable lane. For a hero with massive strength gain (4.3) it seems OP that the damage returned off his passive is percentage based. But such is the life of a DotA player. With a Stout Shield in the early game Centaur can easily control the lane equilibrium while forcing the enemy carry into a position much more vunerable to ganks from your supports.

It’s not just when you fight but where

In a game full of small details it is hard to be taking every one into consideration at all times. One of the more important ones is dictating where fights happen on the map. It is very hard to lose a game if you never fight on your side of the river. Usually, what this means is that your team is taking the fight to the enemy. Whether using smokes, deep wards, or just game sense. Initiation is key in teamfights. Initiators are most commonly found in this Offlane role due to their farm priority. Driving our favorite watermelon, Tidehunter, back into the meta.

Another hero who’s Dotabuff has him over 50% in winrate. This is not just because of his general tankiness thanks to Kraken Shell. Tidehunters ability to dictate teamfights is unmatched. Obviously a direct result of Ravage:

(Dotabuff)

The cooldown and manacost are certainly not the strongsuits of this spell. A good Ravage can make or brerak a teamfight. It’s almost impossible to miss while also hitting more than one hero as the AoE feels like the entire screen. With this burst damage and a stun of at least 2 seconds, pressing “R” tells your team “OK we are fighting right here and now.” Tide is one of the best heroes for defending towers and turning those defenses into pushes after a great teamfight. At the same time he is extremely tanky during all phases of the game. Never afraid to be on the front lines.

Overall this allows Tidehunter to dictate team’s movements within a game fighting around the ability to take a teamfight whenever this spell is up. All coming out of the Offlane. The game has really turned to Offlaners for intiations. Which is neither good nor bad. Team compositions are best suited if they place this burden on their offlane as their farm priority is then dependent on generating kills and objectives. If your offlane is able to accomplish these, more stars are in your future. Happy pubbing.

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