In Valve’s ever-popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), Dota 2, the offlane role is arguably the most difficult of positions to master. After all, it is called the “hard lane” by the community for a reason!
To help you climb the Dota 2 ranks and increase your MMR as an offlane player, we’ll provide beginners with 10 crucial tips and discuss the best heroes to use. Let’s purchase a Blink Dagger and jump in!
Dota 2 Offlane Guide
10 Tips For Offlane (PO3) in Dota 2
With our tips for becoming a great offlane player, you’ll increase your skill level and develop a deeper understanding of the Position 3 (PO3) role.
1. Stay Alive
You’ll need to channel the iconic music group Bee Gees and their hit song, “Stayin’ Alive,” to survive the early game in the offlane. We can’t stress enough how much pressure a dual lane with a carry and strong support can put on one hero, especially if there’s a roaming jungler on the enemy team.
In the first 10 to 15 minutes of play, your main goal is to avoid dying often. Soak up experience from a distance, and do not over-extend. If your team’s safe lane is secure and you are under a lot of pressure, stay at the tower and call for help from the hard support or midlaner.
2. Join Team Fights & Ganks
Many of the best offlane heroes shine in team fights. We suggest joining as many team fights as possible as you enter the midgame. Offlane players are generally initiators, which means you jump in first. For example, playing as a Tidehunter, you will want to get a Blink Dagger and use your ultimate (Ravage) to stun as many enemies as possible at the start of a fight. This will give your team members free rein for a few seconds.
The same goes for ganks, where you group up to take out a high-value target enemy such as the carry. Offlane players can call for ganks in the enemy safe lane or join a gank attempt in another lane via a quick teleport to a friendly structure. Remember to avoid enemy detection when attempting a gank!
3. Communicate Consistently
You are the keeper of the offlane, the solo hero keeping tabs on both a hard support and the enemy carry player. That’s a lot of responsibility and the main reason you should communicate with your team consistently. It’s essential to communicate when enemy heroes in the offlane are missing in action.
There are other pieces of information you must relay to your team. For example, if there’s an Axe farming in the enemy jungle, check when the Axe player gets a Blink Dagger because this will signify an imminent grouping of enemy players for a teamfight or gank on your carry.
Keeping track of the enemy carry player’s items, the support’s warding patterns, and Rune availability in your lane can also provide vital information for your in-game leader. We suggest purchasing and placing wards and even asking your support heroes for help with ward placement.
4. Punish Overextensions
If the enemy carry or support player overextends even for a moment, punish them! When enemy players get too comfortable as you hug your tower for some XP and gold, they may take chances.
If a player gets too close to your tower, stun them, dish out damage, and do whatever you can to punish their hubris. For example, a Dark Seer can pull an enemy closer to a tower with Vacuum and use the Wall of Replica to inflict a ton of damage. Just remember that punishing overextension goes both ways. If you run up to an enemy hero with Axe and try to Berserker’s Call them, consider your current health pool and their damage output potential.
5. Creep Pulls & Wave Cutting
You’ll find that your creep waves get too close to the enemy tower most of the time in the offlane because a dual or trilane setup will dominate the lane and deny you from getting XP. You can pull neutral creeps from a nearby camp to your next wave of creeps, thereby cutting the wave and allowing you to get some XP and gold. While wave cutting is an advanced tactic, practicing its pull timings for both the Radiant and Dire sides can prove advantageous.
6. Best Items For Position 3
The best item build for the PO3 offlane role depends on your hero. For the most part, offlane players become the initiators in the mid-to-late game, resulting in one of the most popular items being a Blink Dagger, which can prove invaluable. For example, Team Spirit reverse-swept Virtus.pro at The International 2023 following an early Blink Dagger pickup with their Tidehunter in the third match of the upper bracket quarterfinals.
Dota 2 players in the offlane position also purchase wards to keep an eye on the enemy carry and hard support players. You’ll often see the offlane hero pick up an item that bolsters their team’s fighting or pushing ability, too, like a Pipe of Insight or Shiva’s Guard. The latter has become very popular with its Arctic Blast ability and Freezing Aura passive, making it perfect for initiating a teamfight and adding survivability and damage output to your team.
7. Beware The Trilane
We suggest staying as far back as possible if you face a trilane setup consisting of two supports and the enemy carry. They will likely kill you as soon as you move past the river. In the case of a trilane setup, your only realistic, achievable goal is to soak up XP and call out missing players in the early game. Hug your tower and stay put, not giving away free kills to the enemy.
8. Deny The Carry
You should deny the enemy carry player of gold and XP whenever you can. Players can deny creeps (last-hitting your own creep) and towers, putting a dent in the enemy carry’s farming process. Delaying the timing of an essential item, such as a BKB, can prove critical to your team’s success.
9. Contest Bounty Runes
The offlane role is about helping your team succeed and sometimes even sacrificing yourself for the greater good. That’s why we suggest learning the timings of Bounty Runes that spawn in the jungle and fight for them, as they provide additional gold for your entire team.
Don’t just throw away your life, but at least let the enemy know you are contesting for one, constantly putting pressure on the enemy team. The Bounty Runes spawn at the start of the game (00:00) and every three minutes thereafter.
10. Practice With Three Offlane Heroes
In competitive Dota 2, it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan. During the draft phase, your favorite offlane hero can get banned. To circumvent this possible issue, we suggest you practice with at least three heroes, which brings us to the next section of this guide.
20 Best Dota 2 Heroes For Offlane
Some heroes are mainstays in the offlane position, while others rotate in and out based on the current meta. Considering meta changes with each gameplay balance update, we’ve compiled a list of the 20 best Dota 2 heroes for the offlane.
- Centaur Warrunner
- Mars
- Tidehunter
- Underlord
- Dark Seer
- Bristleback
- Slardar
- Axe
- Night Stalker
- Dawnbreaker
- Timbersaw
- Primal Beast
- Beastmaster
- Doom
- Brewmaster
- Vengeful Spirit
- Enigma
- Windranger
- Clockwerk
- Legion Commander
Tanky heroes work best because survivability is essential. The most successful offlane heroes also boast high impact in a teamfight. For example, Tidehunter’s ultimate, Ravage, can turn the tide of battle, disabling all enemy heroes it hits. We suggest avoiding hero picks such as Shadowfiend, Anti-Mage, Sniper, Drow, or any with low survivability that focus primarily on damage.
Off To The Races With Dota 2
Gamers should now understand how the offlane role functions in Dota 2 and the right hero to pick to start winning matches. Just remember that it will take practice and patience to perfect your playstyle in this very challenging role, but it’s worth it if you prefer this style of play.
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