The Ins -n- Outs of Split Pushing (Rat Dota)

Heros that I believe do this well:  Tinker, Terrorblade, Nature's Prophet, Lycanthrope, Anti-Mage, Morphling, Spectre, Broodmother

This is what I am thinking when I split-push.

1. Is it night time / day time (vision for enemies)
2. Are enemy heros on map / do I have ward cover
3. Should I farm the jungle once I feel I've reached too far
4. Do they have any heros that can burst me down + silence
5. What is my team doing in the meantime
6. What towers do we have, incase I need to Town Portal back.

Would like some more input


The thing people often forget when it comes to split-pushing is that it doesn't really achieve anything by itself - what makes it strong is when you put the enemy team in a position where they have to choose between stopping your push and contesting another objective.

For example, you push a tower while the rest of your team pushes another. The enemy has three choices:

• Defend against your team, letting you take a free tower.
• Defend against you, letting your team take a free tower.
• Split up and try to defend both, giving your team a favourable teamfight against whoever stays.

Which ever lane(s) they do defend, it's important that whoever is pushing that lane can still extract safely if they can't win the fight there - killing a tower with your split pusher is not worth it if you lose your other 4 heroes elsewhere. Force the enemy team to choose, and then press the lane that they leave weak.

Similarly you can split-push a lane (ideally top) while the rest of your team gets ready to Roshan. If they send someone to stop you, they no longer have everyone around to contest Roshan. Particularly good with Nature's Prophet, since you can quickly Teleportation to join a Roshan fight once they come to defend.

You can also use it to stop them pushing your own towers, forcing them to Town Portal back and defend.

Later in the game, it's important to keep all three lanes pushed out as much as possible - this significantly cuts down the time between you Town Portal to a lane and you starting to pressure the enemy barracks. If you can do this effectively, you can make it pretty much impossible for the enemy to take teamfight away from their base without potentially losing a rax.