Pub Crawl #2: Hard-Laning

Friends, I welcome you back to our DotA2 Pub Crawl, if you missed our first stop, read here for full details.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your Five Carry victory. It's a tough road, even more so at night now that Balanar has taken to the streets. I have to warn you, your tribulations are far from over, chilling in the pub when your teammate musters the audacity to jungle sending you to perilous hard-lane. I beg of you, dismiss your pessimistic demons and take heed, sit tight and sing Gloria Gaynor because, You Will Survive.

Despite the hard-lane also being named 'suicide lane’, you are not required to needlessly throw yourself at the enemy contrary to popular belief. Throughout this edition of the Pub Crawl I will explain various methods you and employ to maximize your ability in the face of adversity.

Itemization

Since your priority is survival, movement speed, health regen and armour are paramount in your item choices. Furthermore your item choices will depend on the Crowd Control available by the opposing lane. A lane with Shadow Demon and Spectre could only hinder your movement not stop it, therefore Boots of Speed would be the most optimal choice. On the flipside, a Shadow Demon and Kunkka would hold you in place therefore a Stout Shield or Ring of Protection would be more efficient to minimise the right-click damage. 

Below are some general hard lane item choices for Windrunner.

Experience Gain

One of the most important factors of the hard lane hero is that they get levels without dying. It is not a good trade off to get a last hit for a death, therefore hanging around the maximum experience range is optimal for this circumstance. 

You can see above the maximum distance for experience gain, this is the same distance as a perfectly targeted Blink Dagger (for more information, click here). Knowing these ranges can give you an advantage as many Pub players will not attempt to be aggressive on a hero who could simply walk away. 

Creep Blocking and Pulling

Heroes such as Clockwerk  have the capability to create impassable terrain delaying or even stopping the creeps in their tracks, this forces the opponents creeps to be closer to your tower and providing safer farm and levels for you. On the Dire side Earthshaker's Fissure can completely block the lane and pull the Ancient Camp towards the creeps denying any exp from your lane opponents. Provides extra experience for you while keeping your opponents wave momentum towards your tower. One downside is that they can simply push the tower in this event as there won't be any creep resistance.

Other heroes like Lone Druid or Natures Prophet have the capability to lure the opponents creeps to their tower via the jungle, skipping the lane entirely and guarenteeing some experience. Using Lone Druid's Spirit Bear or Nature Prophet's Treants to intercept the creeps between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 towers, drawing aggro and luring them towards the Dire tower.

Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

Due to the wonderous nature of DotA you are able to manipulate your surroundings to survive and prosper. One such example is from a StarLadder Match with mousesports going up against Moscow 5. Below you can see Sexybamboe using the trees to facilitate his escape.

There are other examples of this for the Dire hard lane you can destroy one tree to provide yourself safer access to the side shop. With Quelling Blade, Tangoes and a whole host of tree destroying abilities, what is a forest but a possible escape route?