Gaming
Custom Dota modes aren’t all fun and games, but they're a great way to practice without getting bored.
Now that Dota's game client has been reborn into a shiny new Source 2-powered beast, players are aching to jump over and join the future. Sadly, it turns out remaking an entire game in a new engine with as many technical facets as Dota 2 means it's prone to a lot of bugs. But fear not, as one feature of the new client is intentionally supposed to be rife with oddities and quirks.
Custom games bring a storied history of modding back to Dota, which itself was born of a WarCraft 3 mod played on a custom StarCraft map. The mod-makers, long banished to backwater forums, tweaking .vpk files and hacking together bizarre, broken worlds are now free to flourish with the beta's workshop tools.
Some of their creations are just for fun, to blow off steam after a few bad games of real Dota, but others can be used to hone hero-specific skills, and the way you think about other aspects of the fight. These are the best custom games to sharpen your game, so you can get back to boosting your MMR.
Overthrow
Valve's own offering for custom games is a good benchmark for the community to live up to. Working as a Deathmatch free-for-all compared to the main game's team-based objective approach, Overthrow is aimed more squarely at teaching you how to fight. Sticking around in the middle of the map is advised, as the flash Kobold Foreman on the throne likes to make it rain with 300 gold coins every few seconds. Problem is, everyone has the same idea, so it all quickly descends into a reenactment of the Cornucopia scene from The Hunger Games.
As a result, in either a solo, duo or trio team arrangement, you're going to have to learn to get good at fighting. The duo option is particularly good for finding lane arrangements that could benefit you in the main game. Try playing with a pal and one of you going support to synergise with your carry. Or just pick Huskar and watch everyone call GG before the opening horn.
Grand Magus
This is the Arms Race to CS:GO's main game. You are Rubick. You are given three stolen spells and all the mobility you could need (Eul's, Force Staff, Blink). You earn a new spell every time you kill a hero with one of your stolen spells. There are a set order of 15 spells to get through. Everyone else is a Rubick too.
On top of teaching you the core gameplay loop of the kleptomaniac mage, you'll also need to learn to adapt very quickly. Given your unique set of skills is always randomised and ever-changing, it's one of the best ways to become proficient in what every spell does. In addition, you'll also need to try and keep track of what your fellow clones have in their current repertoire to avoid getting caught out. The massive amount of analysis, reacting and improvisation is perfect training for becoming a good Rubick player.
Pudge Wars
Though similar in concept to Grand Magus, Pudge Wars doesn't actually teach you how best to play its titular character. Both teams, full of Pudges, stand on opposite sides of an impassable river, trying to hook each other across and finish them off. Sounds like a standard Pudge mid, but the hooks are modified to behave far differently to the real deal. Long, slow, snaky paths make them slightly easier to predict than the relatively fast hook from Pudge au naturel.
But what Pudge Wars does excel in teaching you is communication. Both teams have the same weapons, the same skillset. The only advantage you have (early on, before buying ridiculous boons from the shop) is your ability to work together. Get grabbed by a rival Pudge? Co-ordinate your own help. Ask a friend to pull you back over, or tell them you're bringing them to join the party. See a friend getting hooked to the other side? Try hooking their captor and make a daisy chain which will end up pulling your team-mate to safety too. If you can keep up that level of frantic planning in a real game, maybe that last team fight might have gone your way.
Skillshot Wars
Now, if you were looking for something that did make you a better Pudge, this is more likely than the previous. It'll also make you a better Mirana, Clockwerk and Invoker too, by virtue of the same reasoning. You're given four of the most difficult but most rewarding skillshots in Dota: Sacred Arrow, Meat Hook, Hookshot and Sun Strike. Again, everyone's in the same boat, so the key is to not miss any of your non-targetable spells.
For some, like Sacred Arrow, the distance you land shots from adds to the effectiveness of them, so learning to take that snap decision long-range snipe is worth the misses in training, which is effectively what this mode is. Once you land half of your skills (both the hooks) you don't really have the prerequisite follow-ups to do much more, so it's as much a training sandbox as it is an all-out war. But that's just what you were looking for, right?
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