yiff's 3.1b guide to 1v1 games

1v1 guide for 3.1b
*note several of these comments are opinion based and are just what happen to work for me I’m not saying they will work for you or that I have all the information you will ever need or this is the only way to think about 1v1 games im just giving what is my opinion on several aspects of the 1v1 game
Feel free to correct me on anything you see as a mistake (I know you will anyway)

Important
Items – memorize every one and know where they are and what they can lead to.
Skills – learn what everyone does and what they look like you need to be able to spot them at a glance
Hotkeys- seconds can make all the difference in a game and often do learn to use them the letters for skills and the number pad for items (if you use usable items such as potions mastery of the ring or staffs)
Ganks – while making a build based on them is (almost) always a bad idea in high level 1v1 play they do come up often you must be able to deal with them and know when it’s ok to try to gank
Modes
Often is played with no modes on (that means all modes including fast spawning creeps auto heal and unlim are untouched)
While other settings are sometimes used for “fun” games the standard is nothing at all is on

Technical
In the game menu under options game play settings there is an option to have health bars always on I usually like to have this checked
There are a bunch of options next to the mini map set the terrain to off so it’s easier to see their dot set the colors so your green and there red (this technically isn’t needed but I find it helps)
Once again hot keys learn them now

Creep spawns

--------5-------------------------7
------------------------------------
-------------- 2-----1------4
-------------------------------------
------------3------------------8
-------------------------------------
---------------------6

I numbered them based on the left spawn

1- This is the most important spawn in most 1v1 games the 2 spawns next to your bases are often given that you will control most of the game
As stated somewhere else on this forum the middle often decides games because the travel distance between 2 , 1 and 4 is so much smaller than the spawns on the bottom this spawn is often the deciding factor in a close game

2- This is most often the first spawn you kill when you leave your base it is next to spawn 1 and is often involved in your creep rotation

3- This is another spawn right next to your base

4- Another spawn right next to one your opponent will often be in here during the game watch that red dot for movement to guard against ganks

5- The corner spawn leveled every now and then for easy $ and exp (remember you gain more exp for creeps when you’re at a higher level then them)

6- The middle spawn often used in place of 1 when your opponent is able to control 1

7- Your opponents corner (see note for your corner) also note the teleport for rag on this side sends you (not your opponent) to the middle (the flag can sometimes be a factor here but not often)

8- A spawn next to your opponents base
Creep rotation
Creeps don’t spawn fast enough for you to keep up with just one or two spawns often three spawns is the right number
I usually try to rotate between 1, 2, and 3 leveling 4 every now and then if he isn’t clearing it enough

Healing cycles
Often I see guides list like this
List of items
-duel-
List of items
-duel-
List of items
and so on

at first it surprised me but I think I understand the general mindset
When making a build I suggest against thinking like this
For team games that’s fine you have to share spawns and can’t judge exactly what you’re going to have with each heal but for 1v1 games you should have much more control over what spawns your leveling and how quickly you can level them
When you are playing you don’t just go back to your base for duels you also heal in-between (usually anyway) when you are coming up with your item order sometimes it can be worth it to just go for the long run however when I test builds for item orders I usually start with optimizing each healing cycle for both short run and long run (remember you can sell items if they become useless later in the game)

this is one of the biggest differences in 1v1 play from team games that i know of and yet i hear very little of it from other players (i might be overvalueing this)

Pushing the gap in levels
In 1v1s often the first to get a sizeable gap in levels wins there aren’t as many come from behinds because camping and harassing become easier when there is only one person on their side learning when and how to punish your opponent for giving this opening is often just learned through experience though learning when to back off and just leveling to further the gap can sometimes be just as or more effective

-Items-
I have stated above that you must know every item in the game ahead of time.
There are a few that I want to point out as more effective than in team games (several of which are pointed out on other parts of this forum however I felt they all deserve mentioning here)
Ice staff – castable stun and chance to bash this is amazing
Ice orb – slows and ups your atk speed
Healing potions
Any item that gives you regen and/or armor when providing ok stats (remember even if your dps or a caster your still the tank)
The 250 to two stat items often I find myself stacking as many of these as I can carry then tomeing while my opponent blindly tries to go for immortal items just assuming there his best option
Immortals shield- boatload of stats and armor often worth it to get at least one
Tomes - as I have said above I often use these instead of filling my item slots with immortal items (though I must warn this can be a mistake if used too early or against the wrong person/build)
Spell reduction – it can hurt a lot of build and once again you are the tank

Hero
*Note if your just playing random pubs skip this part
For most players you can learn their habits and tells from many games of playing with them
For many builds your hero will not matter much (obviously I’m talking about those that require some in all stats a plain ordinary hero kind of build) for those I like to have one agi one str and one int I’m used to using set aside for them
For me I like to start out every build by trying to make it work on Farseer just because when I pick that hero I want my opponent to have no idea what I’m going to do
Countering their build
This takes a lot of skill and can really backfire if you make a mistake or they just happen to have another build they want to use I would suggest not trying this until you know your opponents very well and are sure you can predict there builds perfectly

Skills
Avatar- this can wreck a lot of build
Holy light- it’s the defensive skill that heals it can mess with your opponent’s gank math and once again even if you’re not a tank you’re the teams tank
Rejuve- once again you’re the tank even if your not a tank
Banish- this is a disable it takes your opponent out of the fight and slows them it doesn’t just buff your spell dmg

Point skills- many skills will be worth it for early game if you just put a single point into them (disables and skills with things like 20+ 5 in there description often fall into this category)

In game
Things to always be watching in game
There items – at any point in the game you should be able to rattle off what items they have and what items there going for based on that

Them – where they are on the mini map and what they’re doing watch them for any opening to gank. Look for when they move to gank you. Watch them early to find out there skills. Watch them midgame for when they try to get elementals/archons.
Hot key 1 and 2
Often I set them to my hero and peon so I don’t have to drag my screen to them or click on them in the mini map


im sure there are things im forgeting (or cant quite put into words without writting the equivalent of a book) my biggest advice is not all things can be learned by just playing you have to actualy look for them

Very good post; and I fear only a few people still know how to 1v1. Hopefully people read this and learn how to 1v1; especially since the same basic rules carry over to the new edit. Gonna link people here to teach them to play ^_^

make this a sticky, this is a very good post for anyone pros and noobs alike

idk how u people take the time to type all this
but good job yiff this should help

it was done over several weeks while waiting for ppl to show up (no one ever seems to be on in the mornings)

great guide yiff, i look forward to trying these tips

Well this is nice thanks Bro.

NICE NECROMANCING

it is a good guid.. shouldent you put the pros and cons of stat like str int and agi that way we can under stand it even better and be able to pick how you can run that hero you want on that stat and such

old guide back then every non int hero i tried i was basically trying to re-invent the game (or was just slapping an int build on a str hero for more endgame potential) if u look closely a few of these things are outdated (spawns in wrong places me tanking like i actually know what im doing those sort of things)

though a few things hold true u should still be able to tell what items they have and what they are building into even if u cant see the actual item

though once again many things have changed...

messing /w your opponents spawns have become more popular even though there are MORE spawns to go around

If I remember right this was written back when we had the code geass Rag portals. The hero reading is not as easy to do as it was back then. Creep positioning aside this is still a good read. The only thing missing I can think is of mana saving. The most common mistake which leads to having to go home early is leveling up your ability when its lower level was enough to suffice.

ya then you got the problem of over lvling a skill to were u dont have the mana you need. good EX: main lvling a high mana skill like death coil or so other skill that does big dmg. the time it takes for you to get that mana u needed for it and the time it take to kill the monsters for the item/lvl will throw off your plan to win early unless you know what you need how to make it and your about 1-3 lvls higher then your oppent. that still leaves some one at a huge disadvantage because of their oppent. they could know what they are gonna do and be hopen that you screwed up early for the first like 2 duels.

the only thing you can do is hope they end up messing up at mid game so big enough that you get the item/items u needed and then win but by then the game could be 1-3 duels from them winning and depending on the hero/oppent they can turn it around EZLY with a few spells or just for the waste of it bombs. Bombs from the shop arnt SPELL they are phisical so ams wont be useful but it will lower the dmg some do to the explosion it does wich is spell dmg. the only counter i see if ur running a int build on a str or agi is get ams and mana shield your mana wont be eaten from the ams pot because the shield eats first but if they use somthing like mana vort or drian then ur screwed in the end.

the best thing to do is run agenst a firend and find out combos that you can run easly and that works and try it in a public and run it there. i'v done this tons of times and it works but some combos wont work at all.