A beginner's guide to carry role in Dota 2

Dota 2 is a team game. Therefore, understanding each role and its contribution to each match is crucial for the team's victory. There are five roles or positions in Dota 2, and the carry is arguably the most important one.

Each role in Dota 2 has a specific purpose. As a carry, your only goal is to farm as efficiently as possible to secure your items and become the strongest hero on the map, and as your role says, to carry your team to victory. There are two types of carry heroes: hard carries and semi carries, and each has a different playstyle or approach to the game.

Before we delve into those, we should mention that a game of Dota 2 has three stages: early stage, or laning stage (up to the 15-minute mark), mid stage (15 to 30 minutes), and late game (past the 30-minute mark).

Dota 2 carry types

Hard carry heroes are those who will focus on farming until the late game stage, where they should be true monsters, shining at dishing out damage and surviving the team fights. Usually, these are Agility heroes such as Phantom Assassin, Anti-Mage, Terrorblade, Drow Ranger, Morphling, Medusa, but of course, there are plenty of Strength heroes that fit in this category too.

Semi carry heroes are supposed to fight in the mid game stage and snowball to victory before the enemy carry is ready to fight with his team. Usually, some of these heroes have a strong survivability spell or mechanic and can start fighting with just one or two key items. Examples of heroes that fit this category are Slark, Ursa, Sven, Juggernaut, Lifestealer.

Of course, with each major patch, the heroes suffer major changes to their talents, facets, sometimes even abilities and their window to shine in a game changes too. Sometimes, the changes are so dramatic that even the roles can get swapped. For instance, in the current 7.38c patch, Templar Assassin and even Beastmaster are played as semi carries while in the 7.37 patch, heroes such Lina, Windranger and Mirana were ruling the semi carry category and dominated the pubs and the competitive scene as well.

Last hitting

As a carry, your main priority is to farm and buy the correct items for when the time comes to join the team fights. The laning stage is the most important for you, and the most important mechanic that you need to possess is last hitting. To have a good laning stage, you need to be able to quickly assess what is the situation in your lane and act accordingly.

You cannot afford to die in the first minutes of the game, and you cannot afford to sit and watch the enemy offlane harassing you. You need to be last hitting all lane creeps, and most importantly, to last hit the ranged creep, which gives more gold and experience.

At the 2-minute mark, one of the melee creeps will be replaced with a Flagbearer creep, which is also extremely important to last hit because it gives gold to its enemy heroes in a 1200 radius, hence you also help your support. The Flagbearer creep will spawn every 60 seconds.

At the same time, you should be focusing on denying your ranged creep to slow down the enemy offlane hero’s progress.

If the enemy offlane is too aggressive and you cannot last hit, there are a couple of options. First, your support should pull the lane creeps into the neutral creep camps positioned near your lane. Don’t be shy to suggest your support to do so if you see him not doing it. If that doesn’t stabilise the lane and the enemy is diving you under the tower, then it’s time for you to go to the jungle and farm there.

As a carry, you should also develop a habit of checking the minimap. Every few creeps, or ideally every creep wave, you should keep an eye on the mini map to see if there is any gank coming your way. The mini-map checking should be your second nature, regardless of which game stage you are in.

Common mistakes for carry players

• Join fights too early
• Push lanes alone or without vision
• Not saving gold for buyback
• Not communicating with the team

Laning stage items

The laning stage items are commonly known as starting items and, in almost all cases, are quite the same for all carry heroes. Your starting items should be a regen item, either a stack of Tangoes or a Faerie Fire, 2 to 3 Iron Branches, and a Circlet, which, depending on your main attribute (Agility, Strength or Universal), will be used to build either a Wraith Band or Bracer or a Null Talisman. If you feel like you are struggling with last hitting, you can sacrifice the regen items and rely on your support for those and buy a Quelling Blade.

Through the entire laning stage, you should not spend gold on consumables of any kind and ask your support to give you regen items and if needed, even pull a Clarity on you. Your support should also try to secure the Healing Lotuses while you focus on farming the creeps.

Fairly early in the laning stage, through the first couple of minutes, you should aim to already have your Wraith Band, Bracer or Null Talisman completed, and around the 7-minute mark, you should also have Power Treads or Phase Boots completed.

Past the 15-minute mark, you are in the mid stage, and the game complicates for you and the entire team, regardless of whether you are a hard or a semi carry. This is the time when you are the most susceptible to being ganked; thus, if you are not supposed to start fighting early, or if you are not ready with your first key item, you should move and farm in the jungle. Keep in mind that the Observer Wards are free of charge, and if your support didn’t ward the jungle, you can do it yourself to farm more safely.

Carry hero itemisation

Battle Fury or not?

Carry heroes in Dota 2 are also split into Battle Furry and non-Battle Fury heroes.

Examples of heroes that build Battle Fury: Phantom Assassin, Anti-Mage, Ursa, Kez, Juggernaut, Troll Warlord, Faceless Void, Monkey King.

Non-Battle Fury heroes: Sven, Medusa, Templar Assassin, Luna. Usually heroes that already have a cleave or AoE farming ability.

Those who are farm dependent on Battle Fury, will prioritise it as their first big item. The other ones will go for what makes more sense for their objective in the game. A hero like Slark, Monkey King or Phantom Lancer will opt for Diffusal Blade, while Sven, Sniper, Luna would consider Mask of Madness.

Manta Style or not?

There are also carry heroes that will not opt for either Battle Fury or Diffusal. Nor will they go for a Mask of Madness. Usually, the late game carries, but not exclusively, heroes such as Terrorblade, Anti-Mage, Morphling, Medusa, or Spectre are the most suited to opt for Manta as the first big item.

There are also meta flavour heroes, such Tiny or Slardar in the current 7.38c patch, which will build Echo Sabre before anything else.

Black King Bar or not?

Black King Bar is iconic for Dota 2, and it used to be the second item built by all core heroes. However, in the new dawn of Dota 2, where BkB got nerfed through multiple patches and is not granting full spell immunity anymore, the item is rather circumstantial and, in many cases, it is not prioritised anymore. Still, it’s the best option for magic resistance and immunity against pure and reflected damage.

An early BkB is most needed when you find yourself up against a team with plenty of stuns and disables, or if you have to fight against pure damage and reflected damage. In most games, there will come a time when you will need to buy a BkB, so the faster you can understand what the parameters are for each game, the better you will assess when you should buy the BkB.

Mid and late game stages

Game sense is something you will have to develop to succeed. It will help you decide which items you need for mid and late game stages. The options are overwhelming for any newcomer to Dota 2, so for a starting point, you can pick up an in-game guide and follow it, but soon enough, you will realise that each game is different and following guides blindly will not help you. A better way to do it is to learn the major items built by carry heroes and make your own decision of what is better suited for each situation you are in.

Conclusion

Position 1, or the carry role in Dota 2 is hard to master, but also the most satisfying one. You will need to learn how to balance farming time with fighting, to learn farming patterns in the jungle to maximise your gold per minute (GPM) and when it’s time to start carrying your team to victory. While generally, the carry heroes have less active abilities than the rest, your attention should be on last hitting and the mini map so you can be aware of what’s going on in the game and if the area where you are farming is safe or not.

Don’t forget that communication is key in Dota 2, and if you ever feel lost or can’t decide which item you should build next, you can always ask your team for suggestions.