Guide and Analysis on Hero Picks/Tiers/Lanes in High-Level Gaming

There are different types of way how a team is composed of:

Gank Lineup
Push Lineup
Turtle Lineup
AoE Lineup

What is a ganking lineup? Gank Lineup mostly consists of heavy nukers and spells that consists of short cooldowns. The basic idea of this idea is to outplay the opponents. The pros of ganking lineup is that the team who successfully pulls it off would have a great map control, for they would do some offensive warding and gank them. The cons of a gank lineup is that they can be easily countered by an AoE + "heal" lineup or Push + Aoe lineup. Ganking lineup focuses on nukes and individual spells that burst damage. Thus, they cannot take down a whole team when the other "whole team" sticks together.

What is a pushing lineup? Push Lineup mostly consists of heroes who rise during early to mid game. This means that they will greatly lose their potential late game. Push Lineup generally consists of some AoE because they need to get rid of the creep waves asap. The pros of pushing lineup is that they can counter ganking lineup. However, the cons of pushing lineup is that they can be rendered obsolete in late game by the turtling lineup.

What is a turtling lineup? A turtling lineup is one that tries to defend their towers as they can and essentially "stay inside a turtle's shell". The idea of turtle lineup is for the carry of the team to fully develop by mass farming. The pros of turtling lineup is that as long as the team is able to stay up to lategame, they are set. The cons of turtle lineup is that once the momentum of the other team continues and they keep pushing, the turtle strategy is destroyed because the carry would not be able to farm under the team's defense. Mid-Tier teams generally use this strategy.

What is an AoE Lineup? An AoE lineup is one that involves heroes that can dish out "AoE" damage. Newly developing team has a tendency to follow the AoE lineup because it does some serious "AoE" damage. Though there isn't an actual motif behind the AoE lineup, they can be easily countered with vision or anticipation.
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The following list shows lane partners, which in the past experience had been extremely successful.

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[Gank Oriented]:

Magmus[SK] + Pyromancer[LINA]
-Burst Damage and relatively short cd + ganking potentials
-Magmus initiates with stun; Pyromancer stuns while Magmus auto attacks; Pyromancer does his other nuke.
2:46 The Perfect Magmus + Pyromancer Combo (In terms of DotA)

Succubus[BaneElemental] + Valkyrie[POTM]
-Valkyrie roams and distances herself from Succubus. Succubus then initiates with nightmare->arrow
-This is one of the BEST combos in DotA and still currently used by high level gaming.
*Just a Nightmare + Arrow + "Rightclick"/"AutoAttack" is instant death.
-can be used to firstblood in rune checks, ganking etc.

Behemoth[ES] + Valkyrie[POTM]
-Behemoth/ES setups stun for potm
-Behemoth/ES blocks + "right click" auto attack -> Early Kills
or...
Behemoth[ES]
-Roams around the map with Mana Battery[Magic Stick] and Mana Potions[Clarity]
-idea is to get early kills with Behemoth blocking roads.

Pharoah[CW] Solos or ...
-Pharoah/CW solos to gank lanes because his "Battery Assault" dish out lots of damage.

Pharoah[cw] + Glacius[Crystal Maiden]
-The Concept behind is a very aggressive lane + spamming:
-e.g. Immoblize by Glacius -> Pharoah "Battery Assaults" -> Nova [Level 1 Preferably]
*slow for Glacius's novas for all level are the same.
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[Aggressive Lanes + Lane Control + Competent Amount of Farm]:

Legionnaire[axe] + Glacius[Crystal Maiden]
-(Same concept as above): Aggressive Lane + early Axe kills and farms/ if all goes well.
- How it is typically played:
*Glacius Initiates like above.
*Legionnaire uses Berserker Call and procs his spins.
-Glacius can meanwhile stack neutrals for Legionnaire and etc.

Swiftblade[Jugg] + Glacius[CM]
- Same concept as above.
- Glacius initiates with the "stun". Swiftblade goes in and whirlwinds. While Whirlwinding, Glacius can throw in a slow.
- Not only its a really aggressive lane, it guarantees lots of kills for Swiftblade early game.

Devourer[Pudge] + [Glacius[CM]/Demented Shaman[Dazzle]/Jereziah[Omni]]
-Aggressive Lane with rot + slow + heal;
-Invulnerability by Demented Shaman [Dazzle] adding approx. 300~400 dmg from rot and autoattack
- or... Repel from Jereziah[Omni] + Rot from Devourer : Immunity to Rot.

*Arachna[Viper/Drow] + Accursed[Abbadon] or ...
*Accursed[Abbadaon] + Soul Reaper[Necrolyte]
[This is one of the best lanes in DotA right now]
-Basically the way how this is done mostly involves towerdiving plays.
-Arachna can orbwalk their opponent towards the tower and dive in with Accursed's shield.
- or ... Soul Reaper kites his opponent towards tower and can heal himself while damaging opponent.

Legionnaire[Axe]-Accursed[Abba]-Glacius[CM]
*I remember this trilane used to take out DTS by Ks.int within 20-30 minutes of the game.
*The Legionnaire would go behind the tower top/bot for sentinel/scourge respectively.
*Legionnaire makes fast money supported by Accursed and Glacius. Result: Early Godly Tank.


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[Defensive/Fast Farm/Carry Oriented]:

Pestilence[SG] + Demented Shaman[Dazzle] / The Dark Lady + Demented Shaman[Dazzle]
-The best support for Pestilence + some good number of early kills.
-Demented Shaman entangles; Pest. approaches with stun; DS heals etc.
-Justification to why Pest+Dement: Both heroes have the ability to reduce enemies armor and
in lategame, both their ults can do some serious damage.
*I have seen some substitutes for this: Predator+Demented Shaman or even MageBane + Demented Shaman (However in DotA).
-With the recent buff on Dark Lady, she can rip any opponent with her charge + silence. In addition to charging, with proper initiation from either DS or TDL, with the slows, charge+heal does fairly lots of damage even in the early phase of the game.

Armadon[BB] + Glacius[CM]/Demented Shaman[Dazzle]
-Armadon or "Bristleback" was used as a serious tank until Slardar "Pestilence" was chosen to counter him
*Idea is that Glacius should lane with him so that he gains the benefits from the aura and will be able to spam his quills.
*Another idea is that Demented Shaman[Dazzle] can give him some serious armor later on when he basically tanks the whole team like Zephyr and etc.
*An Armadon with Mock of Brilliance + Headdress of Shaman can do more damage and tankability than Zephyr
*IMO: Armadon>Zephyr anyday.
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[Team Oriented]:

Tempest[Enigma] + Magmus[SK]
-[Self Explanatory]:The "Classic" Combo that everyone knows of.
*This can be easily countered by Hellbringer's[Warlock] Ult.

Tempest[Enigma] + SoulStealer[SF]
-Basically the same idea as above but even better! :
*Tempest Ults and SoulStealer Ults.
-2:08 SK.Loda SF Ult + "Black Hole"

Thunderbringer[Zeus] + Slither[Veno] + Blood Hunter[BloodSeeker]
-Though this may sound weak, it is an effective Blood Hunter Global Strat.
-Slither initiates the fight with his ult. Thunderbringer ults approximately 15 seconds in.
-Blood Hunter does most of the cleanup.
-This is a Global Strategy for Blood Hunter as the carry.
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Individual Hero Picks with Justifications:

Glacius:
-First of all, I think Glacius is one of the best supports in the game and if not perhaps a first pick material (I know that this is highly debatable).
- If heroes like Tempest, Jereziah, Succubus, Magmus, Behemoth gets banned most of the game, the idea of picking Glacius is mostly for the aura and the benefit he can bring.
-The Aura not only is global, but also is useful for a ganking team that spams their mana and a spamming oriented team.
*Hero that synergies well from this is:
Wretched Hag: with the short cooldowns she has, she can get great potential though she isn't considered "top tier"
Magmus + Pyromancer: (explained above)
Armaddon, Torturer (for push team), and the list goes on ...

Moon Queen[Luna]:
*Should meet the core items: Shrunken Head
-Although this may seem obvious, the way she is played is that her ult needs to go in after the creep wave is cleared.
-When team uses her for carry/dishing nukes, the team using her needs to initiate by nuking/clearing the wave of creeps first and then going in with her ult.
-Most teams do not use Moon Queen and fail with her because they get initiated "on"
-Until there are more heroes, she can be extremely dangerous.
*Should be picked when heroes like Tempest, Magmus, Behemoths, Defilier are banned and a team needs an aoe badly.

Thunderbringer[Zeus]:
-Thunderbringer is mostly picked in a ganking oriented team because he can dish out ~500 damage per every 10 seconds with the thunderbolt + chain lightning combo.
-Not only he is a great solo by utilizing his chain lightning, but in teamfights, he can do some major damage to their intels and stop initiations by heroes such as Behemoth or even Tempest if his team has visions/wards.

Accursed[Abba]:
-IMO, I think this guy is better than Jereziah.
One: He cannot be countered easily e.g. Repel countered with Nullfire Blade
Two: He can cancel disables. YES. Accursed is the perfect counter to heroes like Succubus. In games where Jereziah gets banned all the time, Accursed is the perfect candidate.
Three: Aggressive plays that he can pull off with a help of a teammate: e.g. Accursed/Arachna, Accursed/Soul Reaper, and (read above ...)

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General Relative Hero Tiers:

Tier One:

Tempest:
- Why is tempest tier one? His ultimate can basically be the clutch of the game and if used properly, can destroy and annihilate an entire team.
- Tempest has can enable two heroes to solo by jungling with his summons.
- Tempest has the ability to stun and stop channeling spells.

Jereziah:
- Jereziah has the ability to give heroes immunity when entering battle. E.g. Repelling Defiler when she uses her ultimate
- Jereziah has also the ability to heal and his spells aren’t heavily item depended. A mana battery would basically make up for his mana because his cooldowns relative to the mana battery charge is almost synonymous.

Behemoth:
- Behemoth is a Great Initiator: He Can rip apart the team with a blink ult.
- Behemoth can roam around the map and gank with path blocks.
- He can basically create two solos like Tempest as he roams around and gank during early phase of the game.

Succubus:
- She has the ability to disable two people from the other team. She can basically shut down two of their disablers down during a teamfight or aline two heroes disabled next to each other to setup an AOE gank.
- She can stay in the lane for a long time with her lifesteal and can setup amazing ganks.
e.g. Succubus + Potm : Sleep + Arrow

Glacius:
- Though this might create some arguments …
[explained above]

Thunderbringer:
[explained above]

Magmus:
- Magmus’s ultimate, like Behemoth’s. can also rip apart a team in all three levels.
- Magmus is not only a good initiator with his stun, but also can be a great ganker.
- He has the ability to hide from his opponents.


Tier Two:

Defiler:
- Defiler has the potential to wreck out towers and tank the tower.
- She is not tier one, but rather tier two because of some of the nerfs and changes of the items such as Behemoth’s Heart and Sacrificial Stone.
1.Behemoth’s Heart is not changed for all classes so intels cannot get the huge hp recovery.
2.The Sacrificial Stone charges does not heal her as much
- She is an awesome hero because her silence just fucks up everyone.

Soul Reaper:
- Bascially the same reason for Defiler in terms of item nerfs.
- Why Tier two? 1. His ultimate is so powerful that it wrecks the opponent. 2. His heal cooldown is relatively short. Thus, he can stay and heal his teammate in the lane while he regains mana from items such as the sacrificial stone.

Pestilence:
- Pestilence’s ultimate makes any tanks or intels into butter.
- Pestilence not only has a stun but also has the ability to run and sprint away from his opponent.
- He can tank from the opponent and bash his opponent at the same time.

Hellbringer:
- Similar to Warlock, he is picked for his ultimate (which stuns in a huge radius); e.g. Counter to Tempest's Ult
- Hellbringer can lower enemies’ magic resistance and has the ability to slow not only their movement speed but also attack speed

Pharoah:
- “Simply one of the best gankers in the game” His hellfire can be used to scout for ganks, runes, counter blinkers, and anti-gank.
- Pharoah has the ability to initiate gank with his ultimate and can basically pick off one of his opponents before a fight starts. The idea of picking pharaoh for one part is ganking; the other part of picking him is to pick off his opponents and start/provoke a major fight such as one that involves pushing.

Demented Shaman:
-Simply one of the best babysitters because of his ability to slow, heal, and make his allies immune for certain duration of time (which in some instances can be a clutch-save)
-His ultimate can basically give team sort of immunity from dps and make enemies practically into butter.
- [explained above]

Valkyrie:
-IMO, one of the best ganker in the game if used properly.
- for those who enjoy throwing her arrows, she can be godly and also be a semi-carry late game. She is mostly chosen for her ability to gank with the arrow.
- E.g. Valkyrie + Succubus [Explained in great detail above]

Ophelia:
- Though people tend to not think of Ophelia as not a tier two hero, IMO, she certainly is one
- Ophelia has the ability to gank the side lanes from early as level 1 and has the ability to push and take lots of towers in mid game with her creeps.
- Ophelia’s global heal is just insane and becomes more insane with staff.

Accursed:
- [Explained Above]
- One of best supports in teamfight.

Madman:
- Madman is flexible in all ways: he can be carry with his crit and a ganker with his skill-intensive moves.
- Madman cannot be easily ganked.

Dark Lady
-Basically the rework on her made her tier two material.
-Her charge + silence does so much damage; Dark Lady paired with Demented Shaman is win.
-[Explained above...]

Nymphoria:
- Nymphoria's Heal, stun, and global transportation is just OP. She resembles Ezalor in a way.
- However, her drawback is the lack of offensive in a lane. This means that when you use your first skill, enemies will purposely avoid so that they would avoid being damaged. Second, her base attack is weak and her base strength is low so thus she would hurt herself more when she tries to harass her while her opponents retaliate.

Kraken
-Kraken has one of the best clutch ultiamtes in the game with his whirlpool.
-Otherwise, he is a bad laner, which accounts for him being in second tier.

Tier Three:

Legionnaire:
-He is third tier because his spins do not proc as much as it does in DotA.
- Though he really has a great tankablility, the fact that his spin does not proc as much hurts him badly as an aggressive tank.

Electrician:
- Electrician has great flexibility with his purge which can be used in both offensive or defensive ways.
- Reason why he isn't a tier two: though he is both a great tank and a ganker, he is a mana intensive hero because can easily lose his mana and his tankability once he “tanks” a bit.

Pollywog:
- Though Rhasta was a top tier on dota, Pollywog’s wards do not do much damage as compared to that of DotA.
- The real drawback for Pollywog, although he has great disable skills, is the fact that his wards are weaker and aren’t as strong.

Pyromancer:
- Pyromancer/Lina would always stay in this tier and would never improve though he/she has great nukes and can do burst damage.

Plague Rider:
- Even if Plague Rider has a great ultimate, there are far better supporters than him. E.g. Glacius.
- Plague Rider is considered third tier because he cannot benefit his team more than heroes like Ophelia or Glacius, who can benefit the team. Though Plague Rider may seem offensively appealing and better, heroes like Ophelia and Glacius are far better in the long run and the immediate success.

Moon Queen:
-[Explained Above]

Torturer:
- Torturer a.k.a. Leshrac will be third tier due to the nerfs of items such as the Behemoth’s Heart and Sacrificial Stone.
- Although Torturer is used as a tank that can do some serious aoe, he cannot survive well in the fights.

Arachna:
-Her inability to sustain long in a lane makes her a third tier class. Even if Arachna has slow and can dish out lots of DPS in the latephase of the game, if Arachna is matched up in a dual competent lane, she has no match for them.

Hammerstorm:
-Hammerstorm is extremely strong and can dish out massive DPS.
-Hammerstorm has the ability to do an AoE stun and can farm easily with his cleave.
-Not only he can benefit himself, he has the ability to make him and his teammates receive more armor and movement speed
-Hammerstorm's ultimate drawback is the problem with his manapool.

Wretched Hag:
- Wretched Hag is classified as third class because she is very flimsy and dies easily.
- Similar to Plague Rider, her squishiness makes her less of a priority and picking her is very situational. She is basically picked against a non-nuking-intensive lineup, which is virtually impossible.

Andromeda:
-Andromeda a.k.a. Vengeful Spirit will always be played the same way and classified as third class, for she will be the warder the whole time.
- The drawback of Andromeda is her inability to do some AOE in a teamfight.

Soul Stealer:
- Soul Stealer can not only farm fast but do burst damage with his nukes.
- Soul Stealer can outcarry his opponents with his soul steal
- However, he is rendered tier three because he is very flimsy though he gets a blink dagger and Shrunken Head. He dies too easily.

Bloodhunter:
- Though Bloodhunter probably can stay in lane forever and has the capability to do silence and get his base damage relatively high, Bloodhunter can become destroyed with couple nukes.
- Though if he avoids the laning and decides to solo, he is item dependent hero and there are far better candidates out there than him.
- However, there is a way to maximize and ultilize Bloodhunter's potential as [explained above...].

Puppet Master:
- Though this might sound controversial, his pin move is actually not effective because the enemies can move and actually dodge.
- For his second skill, though it may sound good, the positioning of the enemy hero matters most.
- His whiplash skill makes him a carry; though some may play him as a carry, it’s a no-no because his base strength gain is so low that he dies in couple nukes.
- Though ultimate can dish out major damage, it has a longass cooldown.

Night Hound:
- Why Night Hound of all heroes? Well, his passive ability just makes him a strong carry in addition to his invisibility.
- More importantly, Night Hound is another good candidate to wield a Nullfire Blade because if the enemies decide to choose Valkyrie and Hellbringer so that your team cannot “counter” the Hellbringer with a good hero, then there you: Night Hound. He also can be used to counter Jereziah’s repel.

Predator:
-Predator is basically like Naix who can slow and become magic immune.
-Predator belongs to third class because his magic immunity does not give him the attackspeed he got from DotA.
-Predator's slow is slower than the usual slow from Naix.

Tier Four:

Keeper of the Forest:
-Though this may sound so awkward as to why he isn’t considered a S-Class hero but a tier four hero, his ultimate actually sucks. There are many ways to counter his ultimate. E.G.: Heartstone (In addition, his ultimate cooldown is relatively long).
- He may have the global control of the map, but it is too time consuming.

Voodoo Jester:
- His heal isn’t that great as well has his disable. Though his curse may sound great, there are great other alternatives and heroes who can dish out and do burst damage rather than Voodoo Jester who does not have the capability to dish and burst out damage.
- To maximize his potential, he probably needs a Shrunken Head, but that needs some amount of farming to do, which can hurt his role if he decides to farm.

Zephyr:
- His tornados does not last forever and he needs them running for team fight.
- Melee heroes like Pestilence can crush him anyday though Zephyr may seem to be tanky. Though he gains more armor since he switched from intelligence to agility, the change is infact considered negligible if he is matched up by a melee carry.

Slither:
-Slither is used for roaming/ganking and for slow; the fact that he does not have a burst damage but a “DOT” really makes the hero not as effective than others.
-Slither has his “+’s” when he is extremely synchronized with Thunderbringer + Blood Hunter.

Swift Blade:
- Though Swift Blade has one of the best early game, his role primarily becomes Farmer Joe and basically loses his role in the game until he gets fed up. Swift Blade, item-heavy hero, loses his potential in midgame as a carry unless he farmed extremely well in the early phase of the game.

Maliken:
- Reason that he is tier four is that the nerf on his slow really essentially made him useless. Two, Maliken is a really item depended hero and there are far better hard carries than Maliken though his ultimate is an eye candy.

Pebbles:
- One of the best gankers in the early phase of the game, Pebbles can probably two shot any intels with his combo.
- The drawback to Pebbles is that he maintains this average damage he deals with from early game, which is carried on to late game. Though he might dominate in an early game, he loses his potential lategame when heroes have higher hitpoints and etc.

Blacksmith:
- He fits in a lower tier because he mostly has to rely on statistics and luck. Blacksmith’s stuns and multicasts all varies, which renderes him as tier four class.

Devourer:
-Devourer aka Pudge =P. He really loses his ability in the game by simple visions from wards. End of Story.

Wild Soul
-Though Wild Soul can be devastating in early to midphase (push phase) of the game, his ability to carry a team is far inferior than other heroes; other heroes are better candidates for him as a carry.
-Wild Soul has the ability to go Jungle at level one, but that would also wreck his time to get items faster.
-To maximize his potentials, there needs to be more pushing tanking heroes in the pool for him to be well synchronized and maximumly utilized: e.g. Visage and Dirge with combination Wild Soul is really dangerous for those who understand this concept.

Mage Bane
-Mage Bane is squishy in the early game and very item-intensive.
-He belongs in tier 4 rather than tier 5 because he has the ability to blink away from his opponents.
-In addition to blinking away, he has a spell shield that reduces spells, thus bolstering is ability to survive in the lane.

Tier Five:

Armaddon
-He becomes easily countered by the enemies purchase of mana battery.
-Picks like Pestilence or Demented Shaman screws him over badly.

Chronos
-He may seem to do major damage lategame, but his ult disables his allies as well.
-His is too squishy early game and dies from nuke/aoe quickly.

War Beast
-Mostly a jungler who can get outcarried easily.

Scout
-Though he may sound like an amazing ganker, he is infact not.
-Scout has a low hp pool and his combo only works on who does not have map awareness.
-Scout literally windwalks successively from another windwalk after he hits between the first windwalk.