Dota 2 Role Guide: How to Play Carry/Position One

Let’s take a look at a few tips that you can use whenever you’re playing a carry.

Often referred to as “position one”, a carry is a hero that has a very hard job. As the name of the role suggests, he has to carry his team to victory. However, this is easier said than done in some situations.

Nowadays, it’s safe to say that the position one is the most popular role in Dota 2. You can often find yourself stuck in the role queue whenever you’re trying to find a game if you’ve only selected the safelane role.

Having said that, here are a couple of tips that you can use in order to be a batter carry.

Choose the right hero

Similar to every other core role in Dota 2, choosing the right hero is the most important aspect. This is especially true here because in most cases, every team’s strategy is more or less made around the carry hero.

Choosing the right hero for the game is easy whenever you’re communicating with your team. However, that’s not the case when you’re playing a pub game and no one really cares what you’ll do. So, if you ever find yourself in such a situation, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

• Pick a hero that can survive in the lane
• Choose a hero that can do well on their own

While the first point is self-explaining, the second one might come as a shock to some players. Nevertheless, once you play enough PUB games, you’ll realize why it’s so important. In most cases, your support won’t able to do anything more than leaching your experience or he might even abandon you. That’s why your hero of choice should be able to sustain themself in the lane.

Having said that, if you have normal teammates, you should always try to pick a carry that works well with other heroes. For example, if you have Magnus in your team, carries such as Juggernaut, Anti-Mage and Ember Spirit can be very strong.

Farming vs Fighting – How to decide what to do

This is a dilemma that every carry player has at least a few times during a game. The most important thing that you need to remember here is that you need to make this decision on your own. Do not let the spammings of your teammates determine what to do.

Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer to this question. It all depends on the situation you’re in, what items you have and most importantly – what hero you play. Sometimes, it’s way better to just sit back and farm while you’re team is fighting as four. That said, if you’ve bought items such as Drums of Endurance, Sange and Yasha, etc., it’s probably a way better idea to just join your team during the fights. After all, there is no point in buying fighting items if you’re just going to farm.

On the contrary, if you decide to purchase Battlefury, Maelstorm, or any other farming item, the best thing to do is try and make the most of it. Farm the lane as well as the Neutral camps until you purchase at least one more item.

Early and mid-game

Once you’ve picked the hero, it’s time to start playing. During the laning stage, you have only one job. That’s to secure as many last hits as possible. However, this can be very hard sometimes, especially whenever you have to lane against a strong laner.

Apart from farming, you might also get involved in a few kills, but this largely depends on who’s your support. For example, a Juggernaut and Crystal Maiden lane have a lot more kill potential than Anti-Mage with Dazzle.

While you’re farming the lane, you have to try and secure as many creeps as possible, without pushing the lane. However, if you do end up pushing it, try to make the most out of it and farm the side camps that are close to the lane. This is a great way to earn some extra gold.

Your role during the mid-game will be based entirely on what hero you’re playing with and what items you have. If you had a good laning stage, you should have at least two items by that time, which will allow you to fight effectively. On the contrary, if you were stomped, you wouldn’t really be able to do much.

In that case, the best thing that you can do is to try and delay the game as much as possible. This is a mechanism that in Dota 2 is known as “turtling”. Of course, this is easier said than done because the enemy team will try to win as early as they can.

The late-game

If the game goes for over 45 minutes, it’s safe to say that you’ve made it to the late game. In most cases, this is where your hero has to shine, especially if you’ve picked some of the late-game monsters. This means that every step you make here has to be very precise because even the smallest mistake will have deadly consequences.

During the late game, it’s advisable to move with your team and try to use a Smoke of Deceit. Also, always be sure to have enough gold for Buy Back because this is incredibly important to have. The last thing you want is to get ganked and then die without being able to defend your base.