Ability Builds
Dota is a game that offers it's players a great deal of choice when it comes to how to play. One of the more difficult aspects of learning to play Dota is the fact that there are so many different heroes, abilities, and items to learn. One of the most basic decisions a player has to make is which abilities to level, and in what order. Hero specific guides usually provide a recommended skill build, however due to the great variety in Dota games, players can often perform better with a skill build that is customised to the current match. It is important to have an understanding of your own hero, your team composition, and your opponents heroes in order to choose an optimal skill build.
Relative Efficacy
The concept of relative efficacy is an important thing to understand when attempting to make better ability decisions. Relative efficacy is the idea that a skill will have greater, or lesser value based on outside factors. These factors vary from match to match, however there are some generalities that affect almost every game.
The first of which is that nuke spells (spells whose primary effect is to deal damage such as Lina's Dragon Slave) are comparatively stronger when the HP pools of the enemy heroes are lower, and the amount of mitigation they possess is low. This is most often the case in the early game. Simply put, at low levels, the percentage of an enemy hero's total HP that will be removed by a nuke spell is much larger than it will be at later stages of the game. The result of this is that nuke spells are often (but not always) prioritized for skill-ups in the early game.
Secondly, the return on investment of points spent on crowd control spells (spells that serve to inhibit a hero's ability to perform such as Lion's Hex), beyond the first, is variable based on how dangerous enemy heroes are to you and your allies, and how valuable the positional advantage you can create is to your team. There is immense value in putting a point in your crowd control skills early, since having crowd control options will greatly improve your team's chances of scoring hero kills and winning team fights. However, most crowd control spells will primarily provide increased duration when skilled beyond the first point. At early stages of the match, heroes will be less dangerous when compared to the later stages. Therefore, the value of additional CC duration is much lower at early stages of the game, when the extra damage output or mitigation you will receive as a result is much lower than the value you get out of having a more powerful nuke or damage-increasing spell. Conversely, the value of a crowd control skill will be much higher in situations where positioning is more important, regardless of the stage of the game.
Thirdly, the value of buff and debuff spells (spells that improve the power of allied heroes such as Ogre Magi's Bloodlust, or reduce the power of enemy heroes such as Bane's Enfeeble) also varies with external factors. Like crowd control spells, the value of a buff or debuff scales with the power of heroes and often becomes increasingly valuable at later stages of the game.
It would be too lengthy to list every factor that affects the value of particular abilities, but I am mainly trying to get you in the mindset of evaluating the relative value of each point you spend in your skills based on the state of the current match you are in.
Know Yourself
In order to be able to optimize your ability builds, you must first understand the full effect of each ability your hero has, and the benefit they receive when levelled. Unfortunately, the large amount of skills in the game makes it difficult to memorize each one. I recommend trying to familiarize yourself with a hero you do not feel you fully understand before each game you play. If you end up with a hero that you are not familiar with, ask for a quick pause and read through the abilities of the hero.
The main things that you want to identify when you read a hero's skill are as follows.
1. Is the skill passive or active?
2. How much mana does the skill cost to use?
3. What is the cooldown of the skill?
4. What kind of targeting does this skill use? (e.g. target unit, target point, nearby enemies/allies)
5. What is the range of the skill?
6. How much damage does the skill do or provide, and what kind of damage is it (magical, physical, composite, pure)
7. What other effects does the skill have?
8. What is the duration of the skill?
9. What is the value of any buff or debuff the skill provides?
10. Which aspects of this spell scale when additional points are put into it?
Once you have an idea of the effects of each of your skills, you can use this information to help make better decisions about skill priority.
Know Your Allies
Again, this is an area that cannot be fully mastered until you have a knowledge of the capabilities of each hero in the game. In order to make the optimal decision of ability build, you must understand what your allied heroes being to the match. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about each of your allied heroes.
1. What are their strengths?
2. What are their weaknesses?
3. Do they deal primarily physical or magical damage?
4. At what range are they able to be effective?
5. How reliant are they on positioning?
6. What stats will they most benefit from?
7. What items are they building?
8. What skills are they levelling?
9. How has their performance been so far this match?
10. Which of my skills have the most synergy with them?
Being able to answer these questions will aid you in choosing which skills to take.
Know Your Enemy
Along the same lines as knowing your allies, it is important to understand what your opponents bring to the table. Ask yourself all of the same questions that you asked of your allies, with the following change:
10. Which of my skills are most valuable when used against them?
Constant Evaluation
Finally, one of the most important habits to do when playing a Dota match, even beyond the context of choosing abilities, is to constantly evaluate the match. Any time that a tower goes down, a gank or team fight occurs, or whenever you have a free moment, take stock of how things are going. Ask yourself these and other questions constantly:
1. What is the strategy of the enemy team?
2. What is our current strategy and what skills can I take to help execute it?
3. Am I being targeted by the enemy or am I able to execute my abilities?
4. Is my team able to play offensively, or do we need to focus more on defensive play?
The key here is to use the information you gain from constant evaluation of the current state of the match to aid yourself in making better skill build decisions.
Conclusion
All of these questions are aimed at giving you a better idea of what the relative efficacy of each of you skills is. The big question that you use all of this information to answer is as follows:
How does the value I gain from a skill point placed in one ability compare the the value I am forgoing which could be gained from placing it in a different one?
Relative Efficacy
The concept of relative efficacy is an important thing to understand when attempting to make better ability decisions. Relative efficacy is the idea that a skill will have greater, or lesser value based on outside factors. These factors vary from match to match, however there are some generalities that affect almost every game.
The first of which is that nuke spells (spells whose primary effect is to deal damage such as Lina's Dragon Slave) are comparatively stronger when the HP pools of the enemy heroes are lower, and the amount of mitigation they possess is low. This is most often the case in the early game. Simply put, at low levels, the percentage of an enemy hero's total HP that will be removed by a nuke spell is much larger than it will be at later stages of the game. The result of this is that nuke spells are often (but not always) prioritized for skill-ups in the early game.
Secondly, the return on investment of points spent on crowd control spells (spells that serve to inhibit a hero's ability to perform such as Lion's Hex), beyond the first, is variable based on how dangerous enemy heroes are to you and your allies, and how valuable the positional advantage you can create is to your team. There is immense value in putting a point in your crowd control skills early, since having crowd control options will greatly improve your team's chances of scoring hero kills and winning team fights. However, most crowd control spells will primarily provide increased duration when skilled beyond the first point. At early stages of the match, heroes will be less dangerous when compared to the later stages. Therefore, the value of additional CC duration is much lower at early stages of the game, when the extra damage output or mitigation you will receive as a result is much lower than the value you get out of having a more powerful nuke or damage-increasing spell. Conversely, the value of a crowd control skill will be much higher in situations where positioning is more important, regardless of the stage of the game.
Thirdly, the value of buff and debuff spells (spells that improve the power of allied heroes such as Ogre Magi's Bloodlust, or reduce the power of enemy heroes such as Bane's Enfeeble) also varies with external factors. Like crowd control spells, the value of a buff or debuff scales with the power of heroes and often becomes increasingly valuable at later stages of the game.
It would be too lengthy to list every factor that affects the value of particular abilities, but I am mainly trying to get you in the mindset of evaluating the relative value of each point you spend in your skills based on the state of the current match you are in.
Know Yourself
In order to be able to optimize your ability builds, you must first understand the full effect of each ability your hero has, and the benefit they receive when levelled. Unfortunately, the large amount of skills in the game makes it difficult to memorize each one. I recommend trying to familiarize yourself with a hero you do not feel you fully understand before each game you play. If you end up with a hero that you are not familiar with, ask for a quick pause and read through the abilities of the hero.
The main things that you want to identify when you read a hero's skill are as follows.
1. Is the skill passive or active?
2. How much mana does the skill cost to use?
3. What is the cooldown of the skill?
4. What kind of targeting does this skill use? (e.g. target unit, target point, nearby enemies/allies)
5. What is the range of the skill?
6. How much damage does the skill do or provide, and what kind of damage is it (magical, physical, composite, pure)
7. What other effects does the skill have?
8. What is the duration of the skill?
9. What is the value of any buff or debuff the skill provides?
10. Which aspects of this spell scale when additional points are put into it?
Once you have an idea of the effects of each of your skills, you can use this information to help make better decisions about skill priority.
Know Your Allies
Again, this is an area that cannot be fully mastered until you have a knowledge of the capabilities of each hero in the game. In order to make the optimal decision of ability build, you must understand what your allied heroes being to the match. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about each of your allied heroes.
1. What are their strengths?
2. What are their weaknesses?
3. Do they deal primarily physical or magical damage?
4. At what range are they able to be effective?
5. How reliant are they on positioning?
6. What stats will they most benefit from?
7. What items are they building?
8. What skills are they levelling?
9. How has their performance been so far this match?
10. Which of my skills have the most synergy with them?
Being able to answer these questions will aid you in choosing which skills to take.
Know Your Enemy
Along the same lines as knowing your allies, it is important to understand what your opponents bring to the table. Ask yourself all of the same questions that you asked of your allies, with the following change:
10. Which of my skills are most valuable when used against them?
Constant Evaluation
Finally, one of the most important habits to do when playing a Dota match, even beyond the context of choosing abilities, is to constantly evaluate the match. Any time that a tower goes down, a gank or team fight occurs, or whenever you have a free moment, take stock of how things are going. Ask yourself these and other questions constantly:
1. What is the strategy of the enemy team?
2. What is our current strategy and what skills can I take to help execute it?
3. Am I being targeted by the enemy or am I able to execute my abilities?
4. Is my team able to play offensively, or do we need to focus more on defensive play?
The key here is to use the information you gain from constant evaluation of the current state of the match to aid yourself in making better skill build decisions.
Conclusion
All of these questions are aimed at giving you a better idea of what the relative efficacy of each of you skills is. The big question that you use all of this information to answer is as follows:
How does the value I gain from a skill point placed in one ability compare the the value I am forgoing which could be gained from placing it in a different one?
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