How to Be The Best Midlaner in Dota 2

Midlaner is supposed to be the strongest, richest, and most combat-capable early game hero of their team. And despite what the memes might have told you, this is usually the case. However, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Keep reading our guide to discover how to be the best midlaner in Dota 2 and contribute to your team’s victory.

The Role of a Midlaner in Dota 2

You might be surprised, but midlaner starts the game in the mid lane. Shocking, we know. Midlaner is the only team member who fights solo for the large part of the match, which is the reason this hero gets more gold and experience than their buddies.

The role requires you to have decent game skills and reaction time. Your key responsibilities as a midlaner include:

1. Realizing your hero’s potential: You should try to get the sixth level and purchase artifacts ASAP.
2. Destroying enemy T1: Destroying the first tower on the mid lane gives your team better map control.
3. Ganking: After reaching the sixth level, midlaner should roam to other lanes and help their team.
4. Rune control: It’s crucial to pick up the Power Runes before your enemy does, as the power boosts they provide can turn the tide of an entire match.

With such a long list of duties, you should definitely pick the right hero for the job. The list of meta heroes is not a 100% reliable tool, but it can still give you some insights if you’re only starting to learn the role. As for the 7.39 patch, the most successful midlaners are Earthshaker, Nature’s Prophet, and Invoker.

Essential Skills Every Midlaner Needs

A midlaner should have a decent understanding of both the tricks specific to the role and Dota’s main mechanics in general. Let’s talk about how to win the mid lane in Dota 2.

Farming

Your farming efficiency determines how fast you can reach level six and start purchasing powerful items. Here are the three core mechanics you'll need to master:

1. Last hitting: Lane creeps are the only source of income and XP for your hero in the early game. Your task is to be the one who deals the killing blow to each creep (otherwise, you won’t get any gold).
2. Denying: Killing your own creeps when their health falls below 50% prevents your enemies from getting gold and reduces their XP gain by 50%.
3. Controlling creep waves: It’s difficult to kill enemy creeps when they are on the opponent’s high ground near the T1. You can slow down your troops by stopping right in front of the first soldier in line, or even control where the creeps will fight.

Keep an eye on your creep score in the upper right corner of the screen. Ideally, you need to kill 5-6 enemy units per minute.

Rune Control

There are two spots on the map where Water and Power runes spawn. At the 2:00 and 4:00 minute mark, the Water runes will appear on both of them. Each of these boosters restores 40 health and 80 mana when used. After the sixth minute, a power rune will appear randomly every two minutes on one of the spots.

Harassment and Trading

To establish lane dominance, you need to strike the perfect balance between farming and denying creeps. Plus, don’t rush in as soon as you see an opening to kill your lane opponents. Stay patient and plan your actions to ensure the enemy can’t escape using nearby creeps and T1. Also, when in doubt whether to kill an enemy creep or deny your own, always choose the first option.

Map Awareness

Warding is vital for midlaners as it allows them to keep an eye on the runes and the enemy high ground. Besides that, a couple of properly placed Observers will enable you to spot the opponents from the hard or easy lane coming to help their mid teammate eliminate you.

Overall map awareness is also important if you want to be a successful midlaner. Monitor your teammates and once you notice a moment to attack, teleport to their lane, start the fight, and wipe your enemies from the face of the map.

Best Heroes for Mid Lane

Here, we’ll discuss the best mid heroes Dota 2 list according to the statistics of the 7.39d patch. Just keep in mind that your choices aren’t limited to just these characters.

Icon	Name	Reasons to Choose
	Earthshaker	- Good damage and great mobility - Strong ganking potential with Fissure and Echo Slam - Excellent performance even in the late game
	Nature’s Prophet	- Teleportation ensures efficient farming and ganking - Summons creeps for early tower pushes and can apply pressure to several lanes simultaneously - Keeps his high potential even in the late game
	Invoker	- Can adapt to any in-game situation and enemy - A variety of disabling spells to keep the enemy in place - Great pushing and farming

Mid Game Rotations and Map Impact

There is no rule of thumb regarding when exactly you should start ganking. Nonetheless, it’s not recommended to leave your position until your hero is at least two levels above the enemies you want to kill. And don’t forget to ask your teammates whether they need your help before committing to any rotations.

Make sure that your character has enough mana and health to use all their abilities and survive the fight. Remember that a good gank should end with at least one kill or a destroyed tower.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to watch the pros play to learn from the best. You can get a lot of insights by simply analyzing the games of Nisha, No[o]ne-, and Miracle.

Item Progression for Mid Heroes

A proper item build is yet another crucial part of the midlaner role in Dota 2. However, your choice of artifacts in the mid and late game depends on your hero’s abilities and the opponents you face. However, there are the utilities that you’ll buy in 8 out of 10 cases once the match begins:

Icon	Name	Reasons to Buy
	Magic Wand	Gets 1 charge every time your enemy uses a spell. Upon reaching 20 charges can immediately restore 300 health and mana.
	Bottle	Allows you to store a rune for later use. Drinking from the Bottle also restores 110 HP and 60 mana over 2.7 seconds.
	Town Portal Scroll	Never forget to purchase portals, as those are extremely helpful in ganks.

Common Mistakes Midlaners Make

A role as important as this leaves you little room for error, as a single misplay can put your team’s entire game plan in jeopardy. With this in mind, we’ve prepared a short list of the common midlaners’ “sins” for you to avoid:

1. Ignoring your teammate's request for help and prioritizing farming instead.
2. Trying to kill an enemy without analysing the game state.
3. Forgetting to stop your creeps and deny them.
4. Playing without proper vision.

Pro Tips to Become the Best Midlaner

Now you know what you should do to never again get the humiliating “GG EAZY MID” messages from your opponents. But what about the ways to improve your performance? Here are some time-tested Dota 2 mid lane tips to follow:

1. Regularly watch professional midlaners to copy their builds, problem-solving, and rotation tactics.
2. Practice mid matchups in 1VS1 Mid Only mode with your friends.
3. Adjust the hotkeys to improve your reaction time.
4. Always take into account your opponent’s heroes when choosing your character and item build.

Conclusion

Follow the pro tips from our midlane guide for Dota 2, improve your farming skills, and develop map awareness to become an irreplaceable member of your team. Although going mid feels extremely challenging at first, it is an incredibly rewarding part of the game. Just go there and play, and you’ll see your skills improve in no time at all!

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