Gaining the Upper Hand: An Analysis of Map Control via Towers

Map control in a traditional RTS game is a key factor in winning a match. Typically various resources are spread across the map and the player that has control of those resources will be able to grow at a faster rate than their opponent. Furthermore, there are key points on the map that will be advantageous to control such as bridges or cliffs that can limit the opponent’s mobility if fortified.

DotA is different from a traditional RTS in that it does not have the player build up armies of units to disperse across the landscape and there are no caches of resources scattered across the map that require secondary bases in order to control (although the jungles on each side of the river are similar). However, map control still plays an important role for some of the same reasons as a traditional RTS, but in a different fashion.

First and foremost towers are static defensive fortifications that will hold both enemy creeps and heroes back. They limit the enemy’s mobility with their powerful attack and range and heroes are at a significant disadvantage fighting under a tower as they can only sustain damage from that tower for a short amount of time. Secondarily, towers provide vision of an area making them a valuable source of information on the enemy’s whereabouts.

If your side has all of its towers and no enemy heroes are seen on the map there are only a limited number of offensive locations where they could be hidden. Finally, towers provide mobility to heroes as they can teleport using a scroll to any tower from any location. This allows for respawned heroes to enter the fray quicker or for farming heroes to enter a fight without losing time walking and risking missing the fight entirely.

For the purpose of this guide I will establish the following naming convention. Odd numbered towers will be tier 1 towers, 1 for safe lane, 3 for mid lane and 5 for hard lane. Even numbers will be for tier 2 towers, 2 for safe lane, 4 for mid lane, and 6 for hard lane. Since the tier 3 towers do not provide much in the way of map control I will leave them out of this guide. R will stand for Radiant and D for Dire. R1 would refer to the tier 1 tower in safe lane on the Radiant side and D6 refers to the tier 2 tower on the Dire side in the hard lane.

Let us take a look at what degree each tower provides us with the three map control factors I outlined. Tower 1 actually does not provide much map control. It does keep the creep wave from advancing towards the base, but this lane is usually controlled by the team’s farm-dependant hero and that hero is actually safer farming creep waves before the bend around the trees in the safe lane. They are less vulnerable to ganks closer to tower 2 and a gank at tower 2 would require the enemy to dive further into the jungle than tower 1.

Tower 1 does give access to the jungle, but tower 2 provides the same. It is very easy to avoid detection from tower 1 in terms of vision as heroes can take shortcuts into the jungle if the entrance is unprotected. The main reason to defend tower 1 and not lose it too early is to keep the enemy team from gaining the advantage in gold that comes from taking down a tower (1000 if destroyed, 500 if denied spread evenly across the team, except if last hit by a player, who then takes a larger portion). It is also important to note that if a team does gain an advantage in downed towers they will be able to continue trading towers and keep their gold advantage.

Tower 5 has a bit more importance than tower 1. Due to the shorter distance between towers 5 and 6 as compared to 1 and 2, keeping the creep wave from being able to push further than the river helps protect tower 6. In terms of vision this tower does not provide too much information as it does not guard any entrances, but it can help identify a route taken by an escaping enemy. This tower does, however, provide a strong teleport point for sieging the safe lane. Tower 6 could still serve this purpose but tower 5 saves a few crucial seconds depending on the situation, especially if the fight is taking place in the enemy jungle.

Tower 3 is arguably the most important tier 1 tower overall. It provides vision of the middle lane and ensures that if a hero wants to cross from one side of the map to the other without being detected they will have to do so on their own side of the river. The tower ensures that the enemy has not grouped up in the dead center of the map and it provides some protection to an easy entrance into the jungle.

When this tower is down it is by far one of the most dangerous places to stand on the map as a hero could be ganked from any direction: forward from the middle lane, from the flanks and also from the rear if the enemy makes use of the shortcuts through the jungle. All the enemy has to do is place a ward over the bridge and easily gank a hero who is either standing there, traversing the map, or farming. This tower is also very useful in terms of mobility because it is a central point on the map. It is a good location to teleport to in order to arrive at a number of destinations. For the Radiant it is the closest tower to Roshan, while the Dire can use D6 if they have lost D3.

Tier two towers are much different in their utility than tier one towers, so I will analyze them differently. Their effectiveness as static vision and mobility is mostly self-explanatory with the exception mentioned before about D6 and Roshan. The importance of tier two towers is that they will require the effort of usually two or more heroes to take down, and those heroes will be vulnerable to attack while taking down the tower, which makes tier two towers great teamfight engagement points since there are multiple routes to set up for an attack. Each tier two tower has at least two routes by which friendly heroes can initiate a teamfight without being seen, assuming no wards have been placed.

D2 has four directions the Dire can use to initiate a teamfight to defend: directly from the base, two points through the jungle, and from the lane itself. It is also dangerous to try to escape on foot after seiging D2 (and R2), so a planned attack on that tower requires either TP scrolls, an escape mechanism such as blink or invis, very high movement speed, or the willingness to go all-in and risk dying.

D4 has fewer routes by which the defending team can initiate without being detected. A proper defense of this tower takes a bit of forethought and preparation. If a team decides to push through the middle lane they will be revealed by the creep wave, which buys the Dire some time to maneuver into position.

The quickest of the surprise locations is from the jungle stairway, or the trees next to it. Entering through the back of the lane to close the team off is much more difficult due to the usual spread of the enemy heroes, so one of the only ways to do this effectively is through the trees neighboring the Roshan pit. Finally there is a point of engagement from the secret shop, but a hero coming from that location can easily be spotted before they are a threat.

D6 has a few viable options: from the Dire base, passing by the secret shop, coming up through the stairway to the east of the Roshan pit, and the lane itself. The most advantageous spot is from the jungle, whether entering from the Roshan pit or the Secret Shop since there is a wide open area where a team can cut off the direct escape route, although this can often take too much time to set up as there are less warnings that heroes are advancing from the lane due to its shorter length.

R2 can be quite difficult to defend as it doesn’t offer many engagement options. Unless the Radiant are close to the jungle already the only option is to defend coming from the Radiant base. Surprise engagements, for this reason, are less common for R2 and typically a team must teleport to R2 in order to be able to defend it.  Oftentimes competitive teams will look to trade R2 for another tower whenever possible due the limited options for engagement.

R4, however, has a number of positions available for surprise initiations. The jungle in the Radiant middle lane has two positions, one that allows for a direct engagement from the rear, and an exit to defend from the tower if that proves too risky. The stairway to the west can hide an entire team, gives great vision of an attack on the middle tower, and allows for very close range initiation. The Dire will usually send a scout up the stairway since they are very vulnerable to attack from that position.

R6 only has one alternate location to engage and that is through jungle passing by the Secret Shop.  In order to attack the tower, heroes will have to run past this point, so it can be used for initiation if the Dire have no vision or hero to scout. However, the island just south of the Radiant Secret Shop can be used by a hero who can easily blink-initiate without being seen if given the proper setup.

Towers are by far the most important feature of the DotA 2 map, and it is easy to overlook their importance. The average DotA player, in my opinion, thinks more of his hero’s abilities rather than his positioning. However, if you watch competitive matches, or even take a look at the pubstompers in your game, you will often see them using the map in creative ways to turn the tide of a battle in their favor. Unlike competitive team composition, the map is static on every level of play, so while you may not be able to co-ordinate the types of plays seen at The International, you will have the upper hand in every fight if you know how to use the map better than your opponent.