The flexibility and inflexibility of heroes in lanes
Dota is such a versatile game. You want to play a support 
Faceless Void? Some people will figure out a way to do so. With 110 heroes to choose from, many with interchangable lanes and roles, Dota has a level of strategy and replayability that has enticed a worldwide audience for over a decade.
Some heroes are in fact very flexible. Pick Earthshaker and you can roam your safe or mid lane, or instead just sit in the offlane. Let’s take a look at some of these and see what makes them so viable and if it’s successful or not.
The flexible cores
Windranger
Her popularity is something that we can’t ignore and her skillset makes it so that she is viable in more than just the midlane. In fact, across all skill brackets, she is picked more often in the offlane than the midlane. It may only be a small difference (15.49% pickrate in offlane, 15.44% in mid), but it still shows how popular the hero is, no matter the lane. That said, her winrate in the offlane is quite lower (47% compared to almost 50% in midlane). Why is that?
Windranger relies a lot on a few core items in order to excel. 
Aghanim's Scepter is vital for her to become a killing machine, while a constant level progression is just as important. In the offlane, she becomes more of a utility hero, that often doesn’t even build into Aghanim’s. You’ll see mobility items such as 
Blink Dagger or 
Force Staff that transition into a more flexible build, whereas mid is a usually stricter path (Aghanim’s into Blink). Levels are especially important on Windranger, because an upgraded Focus Fire eventually reaches 0% damage reduction.
She may win less games in the 5k+ MMR range, but she certainly is favored as a midlaner. Almost 18% of the matches will have a midlane Windranger, while only 9.5% will see an offlane version of her.
Ember Spirit
Unlike Windranger, 
Ember Spirit is actually played in both safe and midlane in the competitive scene as well. The hero relies on farm in the early stages of the game. Similarly to 
Anti-Mage, he requires to get a timely 
Battle Fury in order to keep his farmrate and deal significant damage in teamfights. Unlike Anti-Mage however, you’ll often see Ember Spirits build other items before that, such as 
Drum of Endurance or 
Boots of Travel, meaning his Battle Fury timing will be delayed.
As a midlaner, Ember is able to push out the lane, pose a threat to the enemy midlaner and can utilize runes to threaten other lanes as well effectively. His Flame Guard makes it difficult to gank him early on without reliable lockdown and once he reaches level 6, it becomes even more difficult.
The fact that Ember Spirit can win his lane and can be more impactful on the map by starting out in the midlane, seems to work out for the hero. He boasts a 50% winrate in mid, while only winning 46% of his matches as a safelane farmer. And this is true for all brackets. No matter the MMR bracket, Ember is always more successful in mid, yet he’s much more popular as a safelaner. He’s played as a safelaner in 16% of 5k+ matches, while only appearing in the mid in 7% of the matches.
Heroes with only one home
So let’s look at some of the heroes with basically only one destination.
Anti-Mage has little to offer outside of the safelane. He has no stuns or nukes to speak of and cannot utilize the runes as efficiently as other heroes. He sees a bit of playtime in the offlane (1.6% across all brackets, 3.8% in <2k matches), most likely due to his Blink and the fact that in lower ranked games, more carries are picked. He hardly has success with it though (39% winrate in <2k matches as offlaner).
Anti-Mage needs farm, and he needs it consistently. He requires a Battle Fury and without it you’d have to build him very fighting orientated, where he just doesn’t shine. AM needs to be ahead of the opposing carries in terms of networth to win, as he otherwise can be outcarried in the lategame. Thus, the only position where he can really work in is the safelane.
Broodmother is somewhat of the opposite of Anti-Mage. She usually is only run in the offlane, as she thrives in harrassing the enemy safelaner and taking over the enemy jungle. That said, competitive play has seen her much more flexible than that, with the occasional safelane or mid Brood to throw the enemy off guard. Utilizing her potential on the offlane already seems like quite the task for many, as the hero in general is neither popular (3% pickrate) nor necessarily successful (42% winrate). So, if you do run into a Broodmother in your pubs, she’s most likely situated in the offlane.
The other lone wolf in this category is
Nature's Prophet. Despite being mostly played in the offlane in the pro scene, pub players still, almost exclusively, utilize him as a jungler. However, he is not your typical offlaner. He is not tanky, he has no good escape and he certainly does not scale well with only levels. That’s why the jungle seems rather perfect for him, in the landscape of the pub scene anyway. It’s a safer place to farm and he can still have a global presence with Teleportation - granted your pub teammate actually uses it.
You’ll see a jungle Prophet in roughly 8% of your pubs, but that’s across all brackets. Interestingly enough, despite offlane Prophet being more of a pro-scene thing, 5k+ MMR players do not seem to adapt it. Instead, they, if at all rely solely on a jungle Prophet (4.36%).
Coordination wins lanes and games
Dual lanes in mid are by no means a new concept to Dota, but they require communication and coordination, something you don't always see in your pubs. However, if you look towards pro games, you'll see how often they have a dedicated support for the midlaner, even if it's just for the first 2 minutes. The name "babysitter" is a perfect word to describe the tasks of said support, making sure that the ever so important mid gets a head start.
It requires a lot of communication though to pull it off - you gain less XP, last hitting/denying have to be in-sync to ensure maximized farm and lane dominance. If it doesn't work, you'll end up giving the opposing mid a head start. This - and the fact that the lower the skill, the less likle you think of strategic laning positions like this - make dual lanes in mid very rare.
That said, looking at the most successful heroes in 5k+ pubs, it becomes apparent that dual lanes in mid can secure you the win. The same applies to roamers such as 
Bounty Hunter or 
Spirit Breaker that spend a lot of their time in the midlane. Applying pressure early on can force the opposing mid, especially if it's a farm reliant hero like 
Shadow Fiend or 
Windranger, to fall back and instead farm slower through the jungle. Of course, the added bonus of potentiall grabbing a kill helps a lot.
So what’s the lesson of all of this?
Generally speaking, the higher the MMR, the stricter the lanes are. You see less out of the box scenarios and laning stages, rather more typical and meta like picks and compositions. People are more likely to care about winning/climbing the MMR ladder, while also knowing better what works and what doesn't. It becomes very strict. Try playing a 5k game and suggest an offlane Anti-Mage, that should be a fun experience.
That said, every skill bracket has a different meta and a different approach to how things go. Find out what works against enemies of your skill, instead of sticking purely to the meta of the pros.
Note: Differences in laning pick/winrates in individual MMR brackets is a Plus feature.
1st comment, I want to thank my mom and dad for their support and you, my younger bro, for being tard and make me laugh all the time
Since i saw 'faceless void as support' i was saying: this post is fucked up
^No really, there was a trend where jugger played support in the international.
It depends on the composition of the team, skills and their teamwork.
Btw good post , good explanation on the statistic.
Slahser once did a void support .
well, FV has no support skiLLs tho.. one slow which unreliable due to short range in low lvls wont do much help.. but a jungle or a safelaner would be possible.. jungling and buying wards are still possible tho.. in high teamwork or good composition draft what FV needs is just an aghs and timely chrono... like the OP said, people wiLL find a way to do so..
i play spectre as support
pretty useless articles tbh....more of fact stating than any knowledge or fun piece
zzz
i think the most flexible heroes is lina, like he can support nuke on low lvl and farm fast to excel his item in late game.
!!!!!!!
Wow you guys rock. I never have seen such detailed statistics from dota2 matches. I think the most important fact is shutting down the enemy midlane=higher chances to win the game. I laugh so hard when you gank 2 times their mid and then he rage quit.
Totally dissagree with antimage having to build battlefury. Why farm 5k gold on an item that only helps you farm more? Why not an urn and manta?
@Doofy this article is far from useless. It's exposing a lot of information and explaining what it means to players; information I'm sure you were oblivious to, prior.
@Keestered battlefury easily pays for itself even if you're just a mediocre farmer. It accelerates anti-mage's farm to keep him ahead of the other team's carry since he has no innate farm accelerator like cleave, moon glaives, aoe nuke, etc.
@spaceman it takes a good antimage 15-20 minutes to farm a battlefury, that is an early game team with only four players. Sure they will have lategame, but what if the other team has a lot of early game? Look at slahser's antimage, its the build and playstyle I use for my antimage. This current meta isn't geared for farmers, it's geared towards kills and being able to get them.
in the 3k bracket, many players don't like how I play Gyro as utility/support(tranquil, Eul's & mek carrier, missile and barrage only)...
it actually works very well against offlaners though..it is weird but it can work and well at that too
I also play Tiny as support/semi jungler (arcane blink only)
(toss creep stack to mid via Toss)
once again in 3k, many not fond of it although in 4k which i had a brief time spent it was appreciated
Lich & Axe mid was an experimental theory crafting dual lane I did with a friend and it works well against zeus, qop and SF somehow
but that was lower 3k bracket
there was a time offlane tusk as mek carrier wasn't accepted ya know
Or hell
SF/RAZOR/VIPER mek wasn't even a thing in DOTA 1 back then
overall, since DOTA 1 that I've been playing
from experience many heroes are flexible and are not restricted to a single lane except for a few
(offlane FV wasn't a thing until after TI3 pros did it)
but it seems the community needs the meta to dictate if a hero not seen before as a support is accepted
(like a pos 4 NS or roaming Mirana or mek/greaves BH)
this is the beauty of DOTA though! Possibilities and change! Embrace it!
FLEXIBLE HEROES FTW!
(SPECIAL MENTION TO TUSK! BEST FIRST PICK IN CAPTAIN'S MODE AND RANKED PUB IMO, TOO FLEXIBLE OF A PICK!)
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 36.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
My support void in ranked games win 3 out of 4 games.
And yes by now you should all know Dotabuff articals are just stated facts. They are ThE besteht stats site for dota 2 and Statistik never lies.
But can always be misinterpretated and can hardly lead to a simple direct answer. It's like looking in the bible whether God exists :)
I PLAY TINKER AS COURIER SO WHAT? I DO WHAT I WANT TO DO, I AM 3 DIGIT MMR FIGHTER
@Carbuncle so much for 3 digit, all ur match Very High Skill... =.=
"People are more likely to care about winning/climbing the MMR"
This. There's such a huge variety of heroes, it's so painful to watch only so few of them.
Rly its the players versatility and flexibility. I play (successfully) many supps as carries, and grab items based on whats effective against my enemies, switchin from an item from brain-built build (can be quite weird yet good. includes dagon for wr to finish heroes off when they are free again, core for axe to heal whenever i spin, and more dagons for intel heroes for reasons, oh and i cant forget the stackin of stackable sources like cleave: bf for sven, and crit: dae for pa) to an item good against certain heroes, silver e. for bb, mkb for pa, bkb for spell heroes, etc)
Got to love the people who diss anything different and aren't willing to even try it out. Fucking pansies, Dota2 is a game of endless possibilities if you are willing to try them out. "Hurr durr I cannot ever buy Halberd or Orchid on Tinker because the pros never do it", for example, is a bad way of thinking, IMO.
That being said, please do not do stuff like support Void in ranked if you have no idea what you are doing. I think in unranked you can do whatever you want as long as you don't steal something from others (AKA don't go carry CM if your team has picked a carry) or grief. In ranked do whatever you are good at. Support Void is not optimal by any means, but it can work if the person knows what they are doing and the team plays around it. In Lumi's old pubcast some ~5k player went Wisp jungle carry and kicked ass. That is even more evidence for the versatility Dota2 can offer, as long as people know what they are doing.
Players just don't get the flexibility of different heroes, many of them have never heard of such a thing as 'offlane np'.You pick him, you call offlane, you see a guy who's aggressivey shouts that np is strictly jungling hero
Хуйня ебаная
Whaaaat?? My great kunnka..not even close ro 10!!!!
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