General DiscussionPlaying a different hero every game vs. focusing on one/few

Look at Bulldog. perfect example.

it all depends if u alrdy know perfectly the others heroes :)
if not just keep playin random

I think it's better to play all heroes in the game evenly. I wouldn't recommend only playing support or focusing one hero, especially if you're new to DotA 2.

depends the aim that you want in dota
if you can master these heroes let's just assume you know most of the skill required in dota2

mid: storm spirit/tinker/TA/invoker
carry: morphling/spectre/meepo/faceless void
support: chen

you don't really need to play all heroes

You should play every single hero at least once, then focus on heroes that suit your playstyle. I like aggressive ganking or teamfight heroes that are good at all stages in the game such as Tiny, Gyrocopter, Luna, Carry Lina, etc... Try the A-Z challenge or something, once you finish that odds are you will have improved quite a lot.

If you want to be prepared to play against every hero, the only way to really have a kinesthetic sense of the limits of the range of their abilities is to play them all. So a certain number of games played with every hero can be helpful. It is also much easier to cooperate with allies if you know what their hero can do. You need to have a sense of allies hero's movespeed and range to coordinate.

But because there are so many heroes it is not humanely possible to become excellent at the mechanics of all heroes at the same time. Even pro players can't do it. So instead to reach your full potential on a hero you need to have a lot of practice using it and a fair amount of practice recently. Sometimes you will see a pro player try to use a hero they have not played at the pro level in months... or ever. There will be a marked change in their play throughout the first game, and they improve a lot more the 2nd and 3rd game if the are given that same hero again.

I think for an outstanding player who has plenty previous practice with a hero, but is out of recent practice... about the 5th game they really get comfortable with it and have precise, masterful control over everything. The point is you just can't play all the heroes well. You will do best if you focus on a few and if those few are heroes that fill the same role.

To master a new hero that you have played little takes many games. Maybe 20 if you are Dendi... maybe 100 if you are an average player. The heroes I play best I used hundreds of times in dota 1. The very best players of certain heroes that I know also focused 100+ games on that hero. Some have played 1000s of games on their best hero. It is best to do this playing the hero in straight games, rather than randomly overtime.

This is because you are trying to train muscle memory. You want the control to be so well established that it goes into reaction time so decisions are actually made by motor neurons before your brain is even notified. You want to make the electronic representations in that game like an extension of your body, as easy as walking and talking... you do not spend anytime thinking about how to do things, only what to do... and eventually not even that. You just do it. That takes lots of practice, motor neurons are not that smart. They will get confused if you keep switching heroes. No matter what your e-peen would like to believe no one is good at all the heroes. So pick a favorite core group and focus on those with a few games of all random thrown in for fun.

When I was a child I dribbled a basketball to school everyday to make it part of me. This was copying Pistol Pete Maravich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Maravich
He was an obsessive practitioner and had fantastically perfect basketball mechanics. That is how he got his name, his shot was as reliable as a revolver. This is training muscle memory.

different heroes boorat some of them arent even fun somethmes when i solo que and i random some booring hero i just feed on purpose cuz that hero is just no fun to play with no fun = no will to win that game

I prefer playing different heroes, because it's funner. As in, I just play whatever I feel like that fits the team, which is why I don't play Single Draft anymore.

Random Match player (Practice with other role and other hero)
That's make me more to know how to play a role and how to use that hero

@Yfay
add mirana to the list
u need skillshots

The thing about dota is that there are 50.000 billion linuips of different 5 vs 5 heroes so playing 1 hero a time is bad and makes your skill improvement low as you will only hav practiced vs that specific lineup of 9 heroes.

People tend to think its booring to play one hero in a row which objectivly is the lesser choice.

Math

I have some heroes that I pick when it's possible. These are sf, od, ta, tinker, qop. As you can see These are all mid heroes. It really helps to Play the same position with a few heroes. 95% of the time I win my lane

For me mid is my favourite Position and I prefer heroes with an agressive playstyle

playing a single hero is good. sometimes better. Cuz it narrows the chance of wierd thing happening each game. For example my nightstalker is 60% winrate. I can own noobs and win more all the way until i hit high or very high level. Then people wil 5 man and buy wards and I will be 50%. Some people have a very high skill on drow or troll. Can can just play 1 hero all the way to top 10% of VH level. So yea sometimes it pays to play OP/Broken heroes like Slark, drow, troll etc.. it's easy way people get into higher brackets and known for awhile. Hence u see alot of these,

"Need party to stack" I'm elite player
reply: Dude you are 50% drow picker tryhard

I dont know, i always play with Bane because i know with him, i played 105 battles of 129. Maybe i will try with phantom assassin to play. But i prefer playing with one hero, you can then focus playing with him only.

@Darkness
arrow = low cd, low mana, fast travel, 3000 range at lv 1
invoker's tornado, meteor = high cd, high mana, slow travel, only travel at 800 range at lv 1
doesn't need farm as him, and the others i mention except chen
escape mechanism that can jump through cliff, invoker left trace
if you died who cares, you don't need farm
Mirana support = viable
Invoker support = fked

Skynet: I noticed you keep crying over Drow, Slark and Troll. OP? Seriously??? If drow is OP any single hero is OP....

Well. I think its necessary to know what all heroes can do, and have an idea about cooldowns etc. But I dont think its necessary to play them all a lot.

I like heroes in periods, like I did not player weaver at all for a long long time, then suddenly I felt "in love" with the hero and now it's one of my best / most winning heroes.

Watching competitive games is a good way to learn more about the game. The casters' analysis are really helpful for new players, rather than them just repeatedly playing a role and still not knowing what to do after tens or hundreds of games. Being able to see how pro players use a hero's skills/combos etc to it's fullest potential teaches more in one game than a player would learn by himself in 10 games.

ive been focusing on one hero since i started 0.0 i think its not that bad

I play pretty much any role/hero focusing on support or mid moreso and the skill transfer from those roles to others makes me able to play anything. I have certain heroes i feel i could focus solely on but it's more fun for me to get a pick that fits our team.

Most people want me to play different heroes because they think it would be more fun for me. Maybe they are right, but I only play heroes that I enjoy playing, and there are not many of them.

It doesn't matter to be honest. The vast majority of players aren't going to be pros or anywhere near that level so as long as your competent with the picks you make play whatever is fun. Play different heroes, play the same, it's all good. Is there a prize for winning pub matches? Nope, point is to enjoy yourself.