Table of Contents

• Introduction
  
• Pros
  
• Cons
  
• Heroes That Should Solo Mid
  
• Heroes That Can Solo Mid
  
• Heroes That Should NOT Solo Mid
  
• List Of Heroes
  [hidden]
• Dragon Knight
  
• Gorgon
  
• Lich
  
• Luna
  
• Magnataur
  
• Necrolyte
  
• Priestess Of The Moon
  
• Puck
  
• Pudge
  
• Queen Of Pain
  
• Razor
  
• Shadow Fiend
  
• Sniper
  
• Tinker
  
• Viper
  
• Visage
  
• Warlock
  
• Zeus[/hidden]
  
• Bottle
  
• Runes
  
• Ganking
  
• Replays
  
• Changelog
  

Introduction

One of the biggest choices in DotA is lane choice. Obviously there are some heroes much better at the solo lane. Most people (in higher level games) choose to put their most aggresive laner in solo mid but as i see in most pubs people call solo with pretty much any hero (including mortred) and call only the long lane solo (sent bot scourge top). I hope to change this.

Pros

• Much more exp and gold
  
• Best access to runes
  
• Can freely gank side lanes
  
• Closest lane to base (for fountain trips and using courier)
  
• Best bottle users (aside from the intense bottle crowing that happens in all high level games without cm's brilliance aura =p)
  

Cons

• Most likely to come up against a strong laner
  
• Need to buy (or get team mates to buy) wards for runing and a courier most of the time
  
• Predictable choice (people will expect tinker to solo mid)
  
  

Heroes That Should Solo Mid

Heroes that should solo mid (big priority)



These guys make the most of the extra gold and exp. They also benefit from mid more because they are the most effective at collecting runes and bottling as well as ganking on the side lanes. Very strong laners and candidates for getting FB. The exception is davion because of his carry potential.

Heroes that CAN solo mid (but can also work well in a dual lane)
Gorgon Luna Magnataur Necrolyte Pudge QoP Razor Sniper Warlock Morphling Drow Treant Syllabear Troll

These guys are pretty strong solos and bottle users but dont have the same power in a lane as the guys mentioned above. They should be alternatives or backups...

Heroes the should NOT solo mid
Roamers
Carries that NEED babysitting (void, spectre etc)
Ranged stunners (works much better in a dual lane or trilane with the obvious exception of elune's arrow)
Junglers (naix, lycan, axe... if they can get more exp and gold this way then why not XD)

Bottle
For pretty much every single solo mid bottle should be a core item (with the exception of probably davion cause you need all the moneys for midas lolz). Bottle gives you runewhoring (this helps ganking on side lanes) and is THE BEST ITEM in the game for lanestaying

pic of bottle / crow here

The crow is probably one of the most important assets to your team during early game. With the change to circle of power you can do some stuff differently BUT IceFrog made the courier cheaper =). If you dont understand what bottle crowing is then... you are a knob. Anyway its rather simple, you give your bottle to a crow/vulture simply take it back to the fountain and it fills up your bottle without having to leave your lane =). Each bottle charge gives 135 health and 70 mana. In total that is 405 health and 210 mana. As well as being the fastest form of both mana and health regen and having infinite uses (essentially) AND later - a lot of people don't realise - you can sell it for 300 gold.

Tinker
Tinker is probably the easiest solo mid to get used to. No matter who you are laning against you should be able to rape their last hitting with Laser and he has a fairly good attack animation himself. Some people like to get observer wards on the enemy hill to have extra sight for missiles too. The most important thing about tinker is knowing when to gank on side lanes. He IS the most powerful hero on the map at lv 9 with travels but you can usually gank around lv 5-6 on the side lanes especially if you find a good rune or they have a stray sniper or pugna (food XD).

Zeus
Zeus is the guy who lane against absolutely anyone. If you need proof match Merlini's trilane. However if you aren't that pro like me use arc lightning to control the lane, stopping enemies from coming in while gaining last hits. lightning bolt becomes useful around lv 5 and always remember it givers you vision and truesight. Always use bolt first in ganks for that reason. Once you are lv 6 you should be able to get a few easy kills with lightning bolt - arcing at some point then ulti. Make sure your team knows when you are ganking. I consider Arc and his Ulti AoE skills not just for ksing.

Viper
He is considered the strongest solo of all (at least of the non nuker ones). Soloing with viper against another solo means DOMINATING THE LANE AT LV 1. He is the probably best orb-walker in the game and with corrosive skin he can resist nukes besides Laser and harasses the enemy when they try to harass. The key to his lane control is Poison Attack, an awesome orb for laning, the cd reaches 0 at lv 3. His ultimate makes him an awesome assister and ganker against solo heroes. Once you get orbwalking/animation cancelling you should be able to outlane any other solo with ease. At around lv 6 you should net a couple of kills.

Dragon Knight
He wouldn't seem like a great solo mid, but seeing as he is a carry that can solo, why not? The thing that makes him great is that he can lane against a shadow fiend and basically shrug off harassments. Get one lv in stun of course and then max Dragon's blood as fast as possible. Focus on last hitting to farm up your midas (6-8 minutes) to be as carry as possible by lv 16. If you feel like its necessary get a lv in breath fire to cancel your enemies clarities, but make sure you max dragons blood if you are having a tough time. Once you get lv 1 dragon form you can start pushing towers easily.