General DiscussionMMR after calibration

1520 is not bad for fewer than 200 games. I'm at 3k now, which is probably about average or maybe above, but not that high.

If you're new at the game, then it's just natural that you are placed at the bottom of the MMR distribution. There are no shortcuts in dota - you start from the bottom and you slowly progress. Keep playing and learning new things about the game, try to watch videos of pros playing (especially in their perspective) and replays and you'll improve really fast. You should be happy - improving when you're 1.5k MMR is easy. The higher you get, the harder it is.

one thing I would suggest is work on farming efficiently. Improving my farming skills took me from 2.2k to 3k, because a lot of people in pubs can't deal with a really farmed hero early on. The reason that I mention this is that I see you have quite a few games on carries, but relatively few games with most damage items. If you are nearby a jungle camp around 52-53 second mark, pull their aggro so that they follow you to stack the camp. Works with ancients as well. Don't stand near cleared camps around the minute mark. Get lane farm when you can over jungle farm, but only if it is safe to go to the lane. Try to last hit towers. Just some basic farming mechanics that will really increase your gpm

if you can just farm efficiently there is nothing stopping you from 4k mmr, higher than that your decisions and awareness will matter more.

In terms of item choices, dagon is usually not the right call. On some heroes it is good, but rushing a dagon really doesn't help the team much on a hero like lion. Blink dagger is really good on heroes like ursa that need mobility to deal full damage. You can and should disassemble arcane boots to make a bloodstone, rather than buying a new energy booster. Unique attack modifiers don't stack, such as diffusal, desolator, lifesteal, and orb of venom/skadi. The exception is skadi and lifesteal. Always get blink on batrider. If I were you, I would stay away from heroes like antimage that require a lot of farm until you are confident that you can get a sub 20 minute battlefury, and then use it to leverage a lot of farm.

Here's a list of general tips I made for newer players. Hopefully it's helpful. Try ask more specific questions, and I'm sure people will be able to help you.

-Always be doing something. No matter what role, you should always be doing something. Farming, ganking, getting runes, warding, pushing, roshing, healing, baiting, stacking. Literally the only time you should be doing nothing is if your trapped in you base or if you're sitting behind your farmer. There may be a couple more situations, but thats all I can think of.

-Watch replays. You can see if your insticts were corrected. Could you have prevented a death from an obvious gank? Could you have seen the gank on the minimap? Did you need more ward coverage? It's good to know what the fog/day-night effect has. Watch yourself in a team fight from your perspective. Were you tunnel visioned? Should you have gone after another target? Game sense is hard to learn, but it can be reviewed and improved by rewatching fights at all speeds and angles.

-Watch streams, not of the pros though. When pros play pub it's a very different situation. Maybe someone who's 1k higher than your current mmr. Watch how they play, what they're looking at, their item choices, their game decisions, how they farm, how they use their skills.

-Understand the game. Know when to push. Know when to fight. Know when you have to force the game to end. Know when you can stall out and farm. Know when to rosh. It's hard to know what's right, and it's even harder to force teammates to agree with you, but do what you can to force the game it should be played. This is probably the root of why people are so mad at each other, but try to understand what should be accomplished instead of aimlessly going through the motions without knowing whats coming next.

-Never blame your team. Not really, games have definitely been lost because of your teammates. Don't break into the habit of blaming teammates every time you lose. There are almost always something you could have done better yourself, even if you still would have lost. You'll win your share of games because of bad play on the other side as well. Just focus on yourself and what you could have done better to succeed.

btw play riki, drow ranger, wraith king, abbadon, viper, ursa, zeus to get easy wins.
those heroes and maybe some others are pretty newbie friendly, and you will learn the basics of the game while also winning.

I'm by no means pro, or even good (or if you listen to most people on these forums, I'm autistic and pretty much lowest of the low, 3k). However, if you want to stack with me sometime, I'm game. You might get offers to stack from better players than me though

Set a goal for you creep score.
Try to get 50 last hit by 10 mins if you are playing carry.

Thanks for the great help guys! I can definately see theres quite a few things to work on (better farming, better item choices etc etc) and that will really just come down to putting more time into the game.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't play often compared to alot of people (around 20 games/month), mainly because I dont have the time (owning a business, new baby on the way). I could play something like CS:GO where I could put in 10mins here or there, but I'd rather put my time & effort into something where I can actually see my improvement over time, like Dota!

Atleast 1 game a day to keep rustiness away :P

I'm scared to play I don't wanna lose my streak :(

When you'll reach 3k mmr probably you'll have like 60% winrate.

^^ Sooner or later you will fuck it up anyway.

well its too low i think... btw wins doesnt even mater in calibration games... u set a start point based on ur "hidden - unranked mmr" and u got 10 games to perform well and raise it..

dunno how u play but u can climb up to 3k way too easy if u show dedication and improve your overall gameplay.

good luck

Don't worry buddy. Dota takes forever to learn.