Dota 2: Are all towers created equal?

I'm not going to leave you in suspense here the answer is, no. Not all towers are created equal. Simply clicking on them reveals this. Tier 1, 2, 3, and 4 towers all have different stats. Here's the comparison:

Stat	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Attack Damage	100-120	120-140	122-182	122-182
Armor	20	20	25	30
Bounty (Team Total)	1320	1560	1790	2025

 

Ok, so anyone can figure that out in seconds by clicking on the towers themselves and paying attention when a tower dies. Why make an article about it? Well, those are just the intrinsic properties of the towers. We're mainly going to focus on the extrinsic properties, and for our purposes, that means what map control they provide.

Each tower's position on the map gives it different strategic importance. Some Tier 1 towers are arguably even more important than tier two towers. Each tower provides a certain amount of security on the map through the constant vision provided and it's own attacks, but most important of all is the ability to teleport to them.

As our main example, let's take a look at what the Radiant Tier 1 middle tower. Radiant Tier 1 mid is arguably the most important tower on the map for Radiant. A bold statement for sure, but it is by far the closest access Radiant team has to Roshan. A hero moving at a standard of 355ms (300 base + Power Treads) arrives to the inside of the Roshan pit in 15 seconds. T2 mid, T1/2 bot are all within 19-20 seconds. It doesn't seem like a lot, but then again, remember the last time you got hit by a stun and you felt like an eternity passed? 5 seconds can be a LONG time in a game of Dota 2. Also, there's a subtle difference between "five seconds" and the actuality of 15 vs 20 seconds of time for the enemy team to position and kill Roshan.

The vision this Radiant Tier 1 mid provides is also very important. Its vision along with a standard ward in the bottom river means that aside from invisibility or the ability to traverse cliffs, Radiant jungle is mostly secure. The only access in such a scenario is the entrances near the bottom Dire Tier 1. Once Tier 1 middle falls, the enemy can push up past the river and enter from the entrance near the small camp without being seen. It also provides the fastest route for Radiant to access the majority of Dire's jungle for ganking or farming purposes. 

 

 Now, let's compare Dire Tier 1 middle tower. Dire Tier 1 Roshan response time is 8 seconds from the tower to the pit, however, the Tier 1 and Tier 2 bottom tower provide an 11 second route on what is often a better approach to the pit for Dire team (the threat of having to chase up the ramp into the fog of war is always a deterrent for Radiant aggression.) The Tier 1 middle for Dire also doesn't provide nearly as much useful vision as Radiant's tower, as it provides no direct line of sight to any enemy entrance into Dire's jungle. The access to the Radiant jungle it provides is also inferior to Dire's bottom Tier 1, being only 3 seconds faster to the ramp into the jungle at tradeoff of not having a faster, safer alternate access through the bottom lane jungle, since the river ramp is so often warded.

I'm not going to go into the specifics for every tower on the map and tell you why one is better than the other and give you some kind of magical list as to what tower is most important to you. First of all, I doubt anyone would finish the article, second, it would be complete crap. Instead I'm going to ask you to think about some of this on your own and weigh what is important to your team each game. If for some reason nobody on your team is making any use of the jungle, how important is map control where your jungle is concerned? Before you have your next tower race with an enemy, think about what you're gaining and what you're losing. Learning to evaluate and make smart decisions on your own is key to becoming the best player you can be.