POTM Single Rax Hunt & DR w/ Dryad Versus DH NAGA Archer Bear:
A lot of people seem to be pretty unfamiliar with the Potm single rax strat. However it is a very strong strat on some maps and you should definitely expect to encounter it at one point or another. In the case above, the game will generally start very basically with a pretty large decision to be made near the start. As the DH user, you need to scout asap and make sure your opponent is going 1 OR 2 raxes. This minor detail will mean ALOT later on in the match. Once you first encounter his POTM thats when u need to figure out what he will be going with. Both ways he will be ahrassing you as much as possible and trying to cause as much trouble as possible. If he is going duel rax you would need to play very passively but if it is single rax than he will not get that many hunts (3-5) Because of this you need to try to keep rpessure on him with your dh hurting the potm as much as possible and your archers trying to get as much dmg done to the hunts as they can without dying. Once t2 hits you should be aware that he will be waiting or haading to the tavern in order to grab a naga or a dr. At this point you will almost always be at a disadvantage because of the archer vs hunt ratio. At this point it is best to go creep light camps while being aware that he may come to your base at any moment. By this point you should know that he will be massing dryad and probably trying to set up an expo. I find the best way to handle this is getting those early 4 or so dryads and with your heros you should try to pressure him. At this point your heros should be stronger than his and you would probably have the upper hand in a battle. At this point you should also be teching for bears asap and make sure you are stalling his expo as long as you can. Once you have your master bears you can either try to creep a huge amount and amass a large army of bears or try to pull him when he has no expo fully kicking in or no huge amount of dryads. These games tend to be quite one sided in your favour or extremely close and loseable for you. The main factors to keep in mind when facing this is:
- Is he expoing and how can i slow it down?
- Is he going to be passive or agressive? if one how should i alter my strategy and creeping patterns to better suite that.
Maps:
Maps are the single most important factor in determining what someone will most likely do vs you in a mirror match. Every single map in the game has its ups and its downs, advantages for you and disadvances. The same principle applies to the different strats you choose to use on the maps. Here i will discuss many individual maps and all that they have to offer- Good or Bad
TM- Pretty much the most basic map out there. All sides are equal with creeps, distances etc. This is probably the most versatile map for Mirror in terms of the different strats used. THis map gives you so many different choices to choose from, just about every common strat out there-
(DH NAGA BEAR / DH Archer Talon/ Potm Hunts/ Potm T2 Hero Dryads)
This map offers you a huge amount of creeps making it an ideal map for dh bears. It also offers very open areas and 2 shops for scrolls, great for mass hunts. It also offers early creeping to be done to an extent, making Archer Talon possible, as well as realitvely close spawns making POTM DR Dryad viable as well. The Map allows so many different strats simply because of all the different options the map provides for you. The key to playing mirror here is to scout efficiently and make sure you know what they are doing early so you can adjust accordingly.
TR- This is probably one of the most in-your-face and attack-friendly maps in elf mirror. The tight paths found nearly everywhere make archers thrive on this map in comparison to bears and hunts. It does however provide a huge amount of very strong creeps making it botha popular bear mirror as well as a popular Archer Talon Push map. However i think Archer Talon is simply the most popular strat used here because of the simplicity of it opposed to bear and the map in general. Close Spawn on this map in particular garentees a large amount of skirmishes to occur and is much more liekly to see archer talon because of the proximity with the opponent, and just being able to be at his base quickly to severely hurt a bear techer.
Home