Setting goals based on match time

General Rules of Thumb

At Mid

• Bottle in < 2 minutes ==> need it by rune time
• TIP: general "Bottle Rush" build is Tangos + 3x Iron Branches, which puts you half way to Bottle with remaining gold (this won't make sense for every matchup and hero though)

Support

• Upgrade Flying Courier in < 2 minutes ==> for mid Bottle delivery / avoid courier sniping
• Town Portal Scroll  in < 4 minutes ==> this is one of my personal rules of thumb, basically just to help out against early roams

Carry

Farming Items

• Hand of Midas: (a) at most in < 8 min or so (for games that will be more late-game oriented / less early pressure), (b) ideally in 4-6 mins
• Battle Fury: (a) at most in < 15 min, (b) ideally in < 12 min or so

Note: @12 mins would put you around 360 GPM most likely

Aggressive Trilanes

These present a different case because you're putting more emphasis on things like survival, regen, and getting kills.

• Magic Stick - get this ASAP because in 3v3 there are lots of spells being cast
• One of you will probably want an early Ring of Basilius / Ring of Aquila (depending on your lineup) so that you have the regen and armor aura

Last Hits

This is going to vary a lot based on lineups.

When you have uncontested farm, you have the potential to get around 80 last hits in 10 minutes. But realistically, that doesn't happen.
If you're carrying and can get 400+ GPM in the first 10 minutes through farming/killing, you're probably doing just fine.
In a contested lane (heavy harass, going 3v3, etc.) you'll have to lower your expectations a bit.

Getting Underfarmed

The reason this happens can come from a number of things, but overall it's usually some form of mismanaged time.

You basically want to be farming unless you're specifically doing something. This can get tough to judge sometimes if you're a carry or mid. Players have trouble discerning between an opportunity and a lost cause / a waste of time.

For instance, let's say a battle breaks out and you're carrying. You need to be able to make the call of whether or not to go.

• You want to go if (a) you'll make a difference, and (b) you'll get kills / reliable gold.
• You don't want to go if (1) your team can handle itself and you'll get more gold farming, (2) you don't have enough levels/farm to actually do anything impactful, (3) your team won't win that fight

The same thing happens a lot as a mid player. You can't just gank when your team whines about it. You go when there is an opportunity to get a kill or make a difference. Any time you spend out of lane is going to impact your GPM and XPM. You gank when the opponent is overextended, you get a rune, they won't expect it, etc.

Supports

Getting underfarmed on supports is very easy to do. A lot of this comes from miscommunication and not knowing what you're supposed to do.

As a support in a defensive trilane, you want to get some farm by stacking and pulling. However, don't forget that looking to set up kills is another huge part of your responsibility. You need to watch the offlaner (and mid) and figure out trends and such. Then you can go set up a kill when you know they are vulnerable.

In any other time, you want to be stacking and pulling (or double pulling by pulling a 2nd camp into your pull camp when the time is right). This is where you get your farm and levels. In turn, your carry should push the lane out a bit so that when you go for a pull, the opposing creeps won't hit against the tower immediately (putting the carry in a vulnerable position).

Other than that, you need to watch your time spent out of lane. You'll naturally have less GPM/XPM than other heroes, but you shouldn't be severely gimped by it. You can utilize Town Portal Scroll, Smoke of Deceit, etc. to move around quickly.

During the first 20 min or so, you are most active in looking for kills and such. But again, you go when there is opportunity. Also remember, opportunity can arise from your carry really not needing you in the lane. This frees you up to put more pressure on mid and the other lane. This usually happens when things like the carrying gaining a significant level advantage over the offlaner occurs, or the lane is uncontested.

Items

It's important to keep in mind that item choice changes every game.

Let's say Item XYZ is a recommended item for your hero and people say you should get it by at most 20 minutes. However, you might need to take into account that Item XYZ is a mid-game all-in item, and your team is looking to turtle into the late game where it won't provide any use. Or maybe Item XYZ is something you only get against a handful of heroes or certain compositions.

Hand of Midas is a good example of an item like that. Even if you can buy it by 4 minutes, it may not be the best choice. If the other team is doing something where they want to win early, now you're stuck with an item that doesn't really do much and takes time to pay itself off. In contrast, perhaps buying something like Drum of Endurance or Armlet of Mordiggian, both items that allow you to be more aggressive in mid game, could have been a better choice.