Dota 2: Hard Carry for newer players

I figured as a follow-up from the previous guide, I would write a guide about hard carrying and what it means to help your team to victory.

A recap - what is a hard carry? A hard carry is a hero (for example Anti-Mage, Weaver, Spectre) who farms early and mid game, are heavily item dependent and require intense farming in order to be effective late game. During the later stages of the game, a hard carry is powerful - ripping apart your opponents and pushing down lanes easily. 

Most teams use one kind of hard carry, through the traditional strategy, and this guide will be for beginners wanting to learn how to take on this role. 

The guide will be separated into four parts: item builds, creeps, neutrals and gameplay. 

Item Builds

These vary depending on the hero chosen, for example, Weaver, Anti-Mage, Slardar, Doom Bringer are all carries, and different items work differently throughout the entire game. One major component in which all these share is survivability - some sort of surviviability item (i.e. HP booster, armour increase, HP regeneration) is required. 

Vanguard: One of the most used survivability items in the game, it is a great item for its modest price (of approximately 2200 gold). It provides raw hitpoints for staying longer in the team fights, a lot of HP regeneration for farming effectively and a nice damage block passive which blocks 40 damage from opposition heroes. 

Poor Mans Shield: An extremely cheap item which provides stats (agility heroes only) and a small damage block. Used by less heroes nowadays, it is effective to be used if one does not wish to use money on Vanguard (and instead rush other items). 

Hood of Defiance: One of the more expensive items in the "defense" category for early game. really only used by heroes which are HP intensive or heroes who are under constant magic barrage. It blocks out a substantial portion of your opponent's magic damage (nukes) and also provides a lot of HP regeneration (more than Vanguard). Also more expensive than Vanguard. 

The choice of boots by hard carries is more diverse, but what I find is that the majority go for Power Treads, because of the attack speed and the raw stats it provides. 

Most carries also buy up items which greatly improve how they farm. Both are expensive and are usually rushed as early as possible. These include: 

Radiance: Carried often by Doom Bringer, Weaver and Spectre, the Radiance provides a +60 damage boost as well as an AOE damage per second burn which damages both creeps and heroes. This is an effective tool in helping them farm and gain "last-hits". 

Battlefury: Gives ample HP and MP regeneration, a splash damage and raw damage, it is used on melee heroes (such as Anti-Mage). It is effective in all situations, but the cost may make it dismissable by some. 

Other items also deserve a bit of a mention. These are the utility items most people carry afterwards. These include: 

Black King Bar: Commonly abbreviated BKB, it is a survivability item which grants the user magic invulnerability for a few seconds. It is used by many heroes needing some ownage in the team fights which often determine the game. 

Manta Style: Used for the push power during late game, it creates two illusions of yourself which deal less damage and take more. Also gives agility, movement speed and a strength boost in the game. Rather expensive as well. 

Daedelus: Improves the critical strike within the game as well as a damage. An amazing item for some heroes it is less used nowadays, but still used nonetheless. Extremely expensive to buy though. 

Helm of the Dominator: Gives an armor boost as well as a nice lifesteal, used for melee or ranged carries who are rather fragile during team fights and gives the neat lifesteal. Also grants the user to steal a creep or neutral. Solid in price and can lead to a Satanic later on in the game (a super-mega lifesteal machine).

Shivas Guard: Another strong item with an effective ice passive in the game, it ensure that you have the edge in team-fights, as well as giving you intelligence stats (for MP regeneration to spam out those skills) and armour.

Finally, we come down to the luxuries. Some of the most expensive items in the game are here, and really, are bought if you have a whole heap of money to spend. 

Heart of Tarrasque: The mother of all surivivability items, it ensures a fountain-like heal if you have not been damaged by an opposition hero in the last few seconds, amazing stregnth, HP and HP regeneration. Anyone who has this item seriously is hard to kill. 

Butterfly: Evasion, agility, attack speed and damage. The ultimate weapon for all agility carries, it covers a hefty price, but the increase of potency in all aspects of the game are increased. 

Divine Rapier: One of the riskiest items in the game, as if you die, you drop this +300 damage weapon, and could give this to the other team. A great item, but not really worth the price unless you are seriously owning or are in need of some radical damage. 

A special mention goes to Aegis of the Immortal - only attainable by killing Roshan, the strong neutral on the map. Usually a Rapier + Aegis combination is effective in the game, as when you die, you reincarnate once, whilst your opponents don't gain any experience or gold from the death (don't die a second time though). 

Creeps and Last-Hitting

By choosing your lane, you should go with a babysitting hero which will harass your opponents and deny for you, so you can focus on last-hitting. During the first 10 minutes of the game, don't get ganked, so have great map awareness (ensure your support places down wards if necessary).

What I go for is at least 4-5 creep last hits per minute. Use your courier to fly out your items to increase your damage to ease up your last hits. Continue this for the entire early game. Carry a teleport scroll sometimes, so when they put pressure on you (i.e. 3 on 1), you can TP out to another lane or to the neutrals.

Basically,  in any normal game I play a hard carry, aiming for 50 creep kills in the first 10 minutes is optimal, and 100 in the next 10 minutes, and this should carry on regardless It changes on the hero and how much you are winning by, but pushing down towers also gives you fast gold (not to mention easy ganks). 

What if your teammates wish to push your lane, or you are being pushed by a few enemy heroes? Always carry a TP scroll wherever you go. If you have that extra 135 gold, get it. It will save you time walking (which will prevent you from getting that all important farm) and it will also ensure that you get the prime positions to farm ( places with a lot of creeps, openings, etc.) 

When last hitting, it is important to try and get the maximum number of creeps. Use your spells to last hit if you have to, don't worry. Your a hard carry, and you won't be in any major team fights at the moment anyway. Keep pushing those lanes, TPing out to another and eventually get your items up and your levels a well. 

Neutrals

How will neutrals help? Ah, that's a fine question, because if you are in a sticky situation and are somehow losing map control, go into your own jungle and start farming up those Dark Troll Warlords, or Centaurs because before you know it, your going to get a lot of gold and experience from just that. Using skills such as blink or spectral dagger can help greatly with the mobility around the different creep camps. Also, the two ancient creep camps are great for higher leveled carries needed gold and experience - though they take longer to kill and should not be attempted at lower levels, they are extremely useful later on.

Don't forget to make your supports ward up around the jungle, because it is extremely easy to get smoke ganked if your opponents know what you are doing, so some sentries and observers in common places and uncommon places are all extremely helpful. 

Finally, the final neutral - Roshan. How important is the guy? So hard to kill, easy to get ambushed, ksed and team-killed - so many cons. But what are the pros? You get the Aegis, something which reincarnates you. Think, a carry during late game doing so much damage, coming back to life, and doing it all over again? Brilliant. If you are losing, the Aegis can help with the survivability and also with the all-or-nothing push which sometimes does go successfully. 

Gameplay

The gameplay of a carry has basically been outlined throughout the entire guide. It will be farm, farm, farm, farm, destroy your opponents, crush them, then every now and then, farm. This cannot be done without a good team. Therefore, you have to understand that map awareness is crucial to how you play your game and a smart playstyle will really help, so here goes. I will now teach you about some tips in the game for good map awareness. 

Firstly, look at the minimaps. If you are farming on any lane and wards are up, you can see enemy heroes moving or mobilising towards you, you back away immediately. That is the golden rule, so basic, yet so critical. 

Next of all, understand the missing in action calls. If one hero from another lane is missing, the hero on your lane is looking aggressive and all the icons miss from your minimap, you know something is wrong and you back out. No matter how safe you feel, stick to your tower and farm there until you can confirm nobody is out to hunt you down. 

Smoke ganks are hard to avoid, but here's a great tip - invisible units are revealed under towers, so stick to your tower again. Also, if its an entire team chasing after you, juking or hiding in the fog of war is brilliant. Areas in the trees are great for example, going as far in to the trees on the bot or top lane as possible, and carry the TP scroll to TP out whilst they are searching for you. 

When the opposition are all pushed onto one lane, you know that the field is safe for you to farm. Until you see the movement actions of the opposition, you don't know what they are going to do. Instead, if they seem to back towards the river and your farming on the middle lane, you know they are pushing you down or trying to gank you. 

This is just the basics of hard carrying in Dota 2, and there is no definitive way to do so, only I can teach you the basics. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Thanks for reading guys! :)