AOI

[PSA AREA OF INFLUENCE] by FortyeniN

Alright it’s PSA time again and before we begin today I’d like to put in a shameless plug. My best friend IRL Shamewow and I will be casting games very soon (http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nes0j/hide_your_kids_hide_your_wife_hide_yogood_day/ for more details) and we are looking to our community for the replays. It’ll be a great way for me to demonstrate theory in action and have fun with the game we've all grown to love. Right now on with the regularly scheduled PSA.

DotA at the highest levels of play resembles a game of high speed chess more than anything else. Just how chess Grandmasters view the pieces on the board as areas of influence so must the DotA player observe the game. I have mentioned repeatedly on several of my other posts just how important positioning but in order to understand positioning we first need to understand what is known as Area of Influence. Area of Influence represents the maximum range at which your hero can interact with the game. So for instance a hero like Windrunner has an AoI of 1800 emanating from her because of her Powershot ability. Because of this even if Windrunner is at low hp she can still participate in ganks/pushes and teamfights from relative safety. If we purchase a Forcestaff on our Windrunner her AoI now increases to 2400 giving her incredible range to assist in kills (provided of course she lands the powershot). However Powershot will not always be up so Area of Influence breaks down into several levels. At her outermost level you have the range of her Powershot (1800) so provided it is not on cooldown that remains the ‘indirect’ range at which she influences the game. Once that is on cooldown her AoI shrinks to her ‘ideal’ range of 800 (the range of her Shackleshot) where she can disable a hero (or two) for up to four seconds which gives her more time to move into her ‘direct’ range of 600. Because of this a Windrunner player must maximize her AoI to allow herself to contribute to a gank or a teamfight without being in the intersecting AoI’s of the enemy team. Now every hero has a different AoI and this is where things start to get more complicated. A hero like Furion has a global AoI. He can influence the game from any position through his ult or he can teleport there at a moment’s notice to set up a gank or to push down a tower. The biggest barrier to positioning lies firstly in understanding the effective AoI of the enemy.

During the pick phase make it a habit to look at the enemy team and quickly gauge what each heroes AoI is. This is helpful for determining your level of aggression in a lane as if you are against a hero with a low AoI (say Slardar) you can harass him without danger to yourself. However because DotA is a team game you also have to keep an eye on his lane partner. The Slardar in the above example while he possesses a limited AoI on his own, should he be paired with someone like Venomancer (who has an effective AoI of 800) his AoI is misleading as a single Gale followed up with his sprint will let him quickly close the distance. So now you have to constantly keep a tab on Venomancer’s position because if you step into his AoI while Slardar is also nearby you are vulnerable to eating a Gale and then a Slithereen Crush most likely leading to your death. Your position therefore has to be within the fringes of Venomancer’s AoI so that you can quickly step out of the way to avoid a Gale or so that you can run back to buy yourself time before Slardar catches you. Of course unless you are soloing you will also have a laning partner to even the balance. This means that should he not be caught in Gale/Crush (which he really shouldn’t be) he can punish the enemy for going in on you by hitting them and using his abilities. Because Veno has casted his long range spell his AoI shrinks to 450 and Slardar’s remains at 350 it is extremely easy for your lane partner (unless he is melee) to autoattack the enemy and either drive them back or turn around and get a kill. This is crucial, many times when their lane partner is ganked you will see a player break into a full blown panic and run away. Keep in mind that the enemy’s attention is focused on your ally and therefore it is your job to force them into a lose/lose situation. If they divert their attention to you then your ally can escape and they lose momentum in targeting you since Gale is down for at least another 14 seconds and Slardar will barely have enough mana for Crush. If they continue to chase after your ally then you can score a kill on Venomancer or drive him off so that should your ally die you can at least exchange kills.

The laning phase is often entirely determined by which player(s) have the superior positioning. This is the reason why double melee lanes are considered bad; their AoI is limited entirely to their abilities and because of this it is difficult for them to harass. A hero like Tidehunter only has enough mana for one Gush. Once he uses it his AoI is limited to his melee range so he must save his Gush for either kill attempts or to save his laning partner. Whereas Witch Doctor has a 600 autoattack range where he can constantly pound hits into Tidehunter without retaliation. Therefore having a laning partner with a large AoI (say Vengeful Spirit with her 500 range Magic Missile) synergizes effectively with Tidehunter. While VS won’t be able to compete with WD for harass simply because he outranges her, at lvl 3 the combination of Gush and Magic Missile (followed up with Howl) is more than enough to rapidly drop the Witch Doctor. So the TH/VS lane will play passive by staying out of WD’s AoI and moving in only to get last hits or denies, biding their time. The WD must play aggressively in the beginning where a Gush/Magic Missile combo won’t be enough to kill him and keep his position pushed up to drive the VS/TH as far away from the creep wave as possible. During the first three levels he should be situated behind his creep line so that when VS or TH come in for a last hit he can harass them (quick tip: whenever you right click an enemy hero within 400 range of a creep their ‘aggro’ will switch to you. Therefore by right clicking Tide and then immediately pulling back you will draw the creeps over to your side and make it easier for a melee hero to last hit) as WD has the superior AoI at this point of the game. Once both heroes hit 3 his position shifts to be more cautious as he has to stay out of the intersecting AoI of TH and VS so that they don’t combo him. Instead he can focus attacks on the melee Tide who has to come up for last hits and back away as Venge approaches, taking care to stay out of her Magic Missile range. TH and VS at this point can now afford to play more aggressively as the intersect of both their AoI’s is too dangerous for WD to remain in. Now if WD played passively in the beginning and did not harass the VS/TH then he has forfeited his immense advantage against this lane and this lets VS/TH get more creep kills than they should have. This means that WD’s effectiveness in this defensive lane is limited as once TH/VS reach a critical level he becomes a walking bag of money.

AoI has applications in counterganking and avoiding ganks as well. Let’s take Pudge, a common hero that gives newer players hell. His AoI at lvl 7 is 1300. So that means that if a Pudge player is missing you should immediately move your position to 1300 away from the nearest gank paths, staying at the outermost fringes of your lane so that you’re still in exp range. As Pudge has a finite number of angles he can approach from your job is to make it as difficult as possible for him to land a hook by A) flat out staying out of his hook range and/or B) anticipating where the hook will most likely come from and using the ranged creep as a buffer. The further away from his AoI you are the more time you have to dodge his hook. If you do stay out of his maximum hook range then Pudge has to patiently wait or move into range and throw a loaded hook (one where you can see him throw it).

This same theory applies to teamfights, you have to identify the deadliest threats to your hero and position yourself so that they are within your AoI while you are out of theirs. For a melee hero (say Antimage) you must wait for the first salvo of abilities to fly so that the enemies AoI becomes limited to their attack range or to spells that aren’t lethal before blinking in as this maximizes your chances of staying alive so that you can blink out if need be. There is no need to put yourself in more danger than you should be so taking great care to constantly move yourself between ability casts and attacks can let you stay out of the intersecting AoI’s of multiple heroes. However if you see the enemy focusing their attention on one of your allies then you are free to attack them without retaliation (provided you’re not within the aoe of their abilities). Outside of heroes like Gorgon or Gyrocopter who can consistently deal damage in a large AoI around them a hero focusing on another target cannot also damage you meaning that you have a window of opportunity to deal damage to them.

One of the biggest differences between a great player and a good player lies in their ability to constantly analyze the Areas of Influence that every hero have and position themselves accordingly. This allows them to play more intelligently as they understand when they should be aggressive and when they should be defensive, letting them live when they shouldn’t have and deal damage unhindered. DotA is a game that forces you to process information rapidly and to optimize your resources, understanding Area of Influence is the first crucial step for both.