Teamwork

I was reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu and I came across this line which I think is the best way to describe the term 'teamwork' in DotA.

"There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard." - Art of War, 5:7

A very heart warming line. Anyway, as all of you know, DotA is all about teamwork and it's one of the factors that separate the winners and the losers.

Teamwork can be determined by:
 * Communication
 * Trust & Understanding
 * Role & Responsibility
 * Leader

Communication
There are only two forms of communication in DotA. One is through text chatting and the other one is through voice communication program. Overall, using voice communication is the better way to communicate when playing this game rather than text because it saves time and it's much fast.

Personally, I don't type that much anymore ever since I started using a voice communication program called, TeamSpeak. Currently, there are two commonly used program for voice communication in serious gaming. TeamSpeak and Ventrillo. I personally suggest TeamSpeak because it's easy to setup but it's also convenient to use. It does the job well with simple interface. So far, I have no problem with it. Not even once.

We have a server of our own for our family members to hangout and play DotA with. Setting up the server was easy as hell. All you have to do is download and install the server and know something about port forwarding if you have a router and you're set. You could also have a dynamic domain account (ie. no-ip.com) if you're planning on making your server 24/7 just like mine.

To be honest, I think typing is just crap. Just ask anyone who uses typing as a way of communication and they'll tell you that they have died before while in the middle of sending the text. It happens to everyone who uses text, but not those who uses voice-comm.

Trust & Understanding
Still, even with the most advance communication technology around, it is not the most effective way to attain good teamwork. The key to great teamwork relies on how well the teammates know each other. How well is their bond and how long they have been playing with each other so that they have better understanding and readings on what each of them will do next.

This is one of the reason why most of the top clans nowadays consist of friends who played with each other for a period of time. The ability to trust each other and making their words accountable is what makes the family powerful.

Now this not just only applies to clan but can also be used in pubs. Mostly in pubs we have to team with strangers but this can also be a personal technique. From my own experience, whenever I play pubs, I rarely type much to my team except for when I'm trying to flame but when it comes down to teamwork, I use this strategy.

What I do was I study my teammates playstyle and cope with him. If he's playing too aggressively, I would try to support him if I have the ability to do so but if I can't for example, I'm playing Lycanthrope, I would tell him to play passively until I can shapeshift then we'll hunt together.

The trick here is to stick with your teammate on a safe distance but not too far so that whenever he needs you, you can help him or when it's danger for both of you, you could save your own ass.

Role & Responsibility
A team consist of 5 players and it is important for each of the player to know what's their role to play in their part so that everything runs smoothly in the team on the road to victory.

The roles we have are:

Gankers
Mostly the role of a ganker is running around the map and gank everyone. So the most important thing to remember is mobility, which is why Teleport is an important skill. It is recommended to load teleport scroll whenever needs to and when the game progresses, Boots of Travel. Support observer ward, running around the whole map and stay out of sight and juking in the fog of war. Other than that, ganker should shout a lot. He should be the one doing all the shouting and commanding the players on his team and organizing ganks, like when to charge and when to pull the creeps. That's what a ganker should do. Eg. Vengeful Spirit, Queen of Pain.

Initiator/Combo
Initiator or combo heroes usually have powerful ultimate that could destroy the entire team so the most important thing to remember for the player playing the initiator role is the stay alive. Because if the initiator dies, the whole team combo is disrupted. Besides that, positioning is also important. Which is usually why it's bread and butter for most initiator to have Kelen's Dagger so that he can have element of surprise and starts the combo first. The third crucial aspect is timing and awareness. The team initiator would have to always keep a safe distance between him and the enemy so that he could blink in and play his part whenever the opportunity comes. Besides that, he would also able to communicate well with his teammate to know when he's going to blink in because nothing is a waste more than blinking in doing all those combos without any of your teammates present to backup and die afterwards. A great initiator can bring his team to victory and a bad one would lead the fall. Initiator usually is the key player. Eg. Enigma, Earthshaker, Silencer, Sand King, Queen of Pain, Warlock.

Disabler
The role of a disabler is very easy. That is to screw up the opposing team's combo. But as easy as it sounds, not everyone are able to do it. Why? Because most disablers are low on HP and surviving is really an issue. That is why it is recommended that any disabler stays behind the battle all the time. The only time a disabler charge up front is when one of the enemy charge up front to attack his enemy, then run back again for safety. Besides that, a disable has to be fast on micro like using 3 disables on 3 heroes in 1 seconds. My own tips here is to use the hotkey for the item inventory using the Numpad. It's much faster than clicking and selecting. If your Numpads have a floating thingy on the Numpad 5 just like the key F and J, it would make it even easier just by feeling it. Eg. Lion, Rhasta, Bane Elemental, Silencer.

Tanker
Believe me when I say that there is no such thing as pure tank. Because no smart player in this world would hit a 3k+ HP hero. But tanker exists though. To be a tank, not only you have to have HP and armor but also damage. Like I said, no one would hit a 3k+ HP hero unless he's a threat to the team. So it is always common nowadays that we see people buy Radiance along with a Heart of Tarrasque, because Immolation synergises well with survival. The role of a tanker is to enter the battle first and get as much focus fire as possible so that the rest of his teammate can do their job. So optimizing the damage taken is very important for a tanker. Not only a tanker needs to know how to endure pain, but also know how to cause pain. Some tanker would just enters a battle and die and that's it for them. A great tanker would not only die but also deal as much pain as possible before he dies. Now that is what I call a great tanker. Eg. Sven, Bristleback and Axe.

Caster/Nuker/Killer
Well these 3 types usually have better early lane control than anyone else because they only have one purpose, which is to cause pain and nothing else. Well, there is nothing much I can say about this role because it's a no-brainer except for cooldown. Mostly these kind of heroes have short cooldowns so that they're able to nuke again so if you're in a position that you're able to kill on the next nuke, chase your enemy. Also, you have to communicate well with the gankers. Nuke first, then the ganker will enter and do their parts. If you're lucky enough and your cooldown finishes, nuke the second time and you might just have the kill. The motto is to keep spamming. Eg. Zues, Queen of Pain, Tormented Soul, Lich and Death Prophet.

Pusher
The job of a pusher is pretty straight forward. Clear creeps and get towers. Their role is to input pressure on enemy's lane as much as possible and get early towers so that their team have the early gold advantage. The pressure that I'm talking about is making your enemy defend their lane. For example, let's say that 5 enemies are pushing mid into your base, if you one person could push faster than 5 of them and make it to their tower at the same time/earlier, continue to input pressure so that it'll force them to trade rax with rax or they'll have to split up and defend. If one of them teleports back to face you, you do the same by teleport back to your mid lane because it would be 5 of you versus 4 of them. Besides that, you could also use this pressure to split them up to make them easier to gank. Mekansm is an item to consider, to increase creeps armor and heal them. Eg. Furion, Keeper of the Light, Death Prophet, Warlock, Lina, Tormented Soul.

Supporter
Supporter is the role that people usually doesn't give much credit to but a great supporter could also lead a team to victory. One of the important thing to know when playing the supporter role is to have a lot of mana regeneration and mana capacity. Most of the time a supporter fails his job due to limited amount of mana. Besides that, it is also recommended that supporter stay during major team clashes because with that, he can use all his spells on his teammates instead of using them to save himself. Mekansm is an item to consider, to heal teammates and increase their armor. Eg. Omniknight, Treant Protector, Necrolyte, Lich, Keeper of the Light, Warlock.

DPS/Carry
Carrying is a very popular build back when the days where Aegis of the Immortal can still be bought. Divine-Aegis + attack speed would take down tower in seconds. But then all changed when Aegis can only be dropped after killing Roshan, so that makes the Divine-Aegis build no more viable. But that didn't destroy the carry role in DotA. After that, people come up with Monkey King Bar + The Butterfly for maximum DPS output to carry down the tower. It's not as good as the good old Divine-Aegis build but it's the most optimised way to pure DPS. Basically, the role of a carry is much like the role of a pusher. Applying pressure to side lanes and farm as much as possible early game. A carry must be very good at last hitting and also have a great sense of map awareness. Besides that, a carry also needs to know target priority, like knowing when to focus on taking the tower and raxes instead of killing the heroes. Other than that, a carry also needs to know about farming/helping weightage. Like placing how much time between farming and helping your teammates out. Eg. Phantom Assassin, Chaos Knight, Troll Warlord.

Leader
Every clan needs a leader. A leader must have the qualities like maturity, discipline, integrity, credibility, experience and be able to think rationally.

There is no such thing as a full democratic family because during tight situation, you need someone rational and be able to keep their head to call the shots. There would be no time for discussion or even voting on what to do. Every team clash happens very fast and you can't really predict what might go wrong, so you need a person to make the decision, a person with a lot of experience enough that everyone else is be willing to follow his orders. But of course, during pre-battles the family can carry out discussion on what to do and who should go first, etc.

Besides that, a leader must be able to be the bad guy of the team — a common enemy. He must be able to criticize critically and discipline or even scold his teammates based on real facts and not according to emotion. Showing maturity.

On the contrast, a leader must be able to motivate his own team — to a common goal. Occasionally, throw in a few compliments for every nice moves that the teammates have made or making an improvement.

Other than that, a leader needs to know when to make jokes and when not to. For that, it will affect the credibility and integrity of his words and commands.

Summary
In conclusion, these are the points that you learnt throughout the entire article.


 * DotA is a team game.
 * Use voice communication program to communicate instead of using text.
 * Play with people you know to have better understanding of each other.
 * Study your teammates move and always focus on collaborating each other.
 * Know your role in your team and stick with it.
 * Always have someone to lead and make the calls.
 * A leader have to be mature, discipline, integrity, credibility, experience and be able to think rationally.