im stubbornmule and im making this guide because between the people i randomly get stuck with in pubs, to some of my guys i play with consistently. I almost always see BIG mistakes made that are easily avoidable.. and end up causing a lost team fight, then eventually the game. i hope i made this as easy to read as possible while still getting the right points across.. and hopefully help some scrubs learn a thing or two.. but regardless! i hope this helps some people to just start to think a little bit differently.. and also think ahead a bit more.. but anyways without further ado.. i give you your golden ticket to dps success.

Please note most of this guide is geared towards ranged dps, but the ideals behind it will still apply for melee. ill try to add as i get more time.. just excited to put this up now. enjoy

-thumbs up if this helped a little bit, or minimally entertained =)-

1. About me
2. Contents
3. Placement
4. targeting
5. your job
6. common mistakes

Okay so your getting a knight camp with your whole team after a less than successful temple capture.. and the enemy team wants to be aggressive and show thier dominance some more.. luckily their tassadar presses his lovely D ( no pun intended) and notices you going for those knights.. so they all come piling thru like a horde of savage goats waiting to see you beckon to their feet so they can siiz all over you.. you almost took the last knight out. what happens now... ( we will assume every one is 75% health) , well first off.. your the dps, your the valla in this case.. so WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE THEY CAME IN??? DEE DUH DEEE you were at the top right by the bush but not in to to get vision? well.. theres strike one mister.. now your the first one they get to jump on.. strike two mister... and boom your dead, strike three.. before you even have time to wrap your little learning brain around the fact that the enemy team is there, they just raped you a new one! hell.. two new ones with that easy access to you don't be the insecure college girl that just lets that kinda thing happen and then say well that sucked but oh well!...so from this more than short but not so long paragraph i want you to start PRE PLANNING like all hell is about to break loose.. have a plan for every scenario all the time! always be thinking ahead, what if they come through this way.. which way am i going to go... PRE PLAN PRE PLAN PRE PLAN.

and the story continues..
ok..so now we are into the teamfight.. your chen karate kicks the living hell out of the enemy jaina (who is safely hidden in the middle of their team, spits all over everybody and lights em up before giving them his D to soak some blows with (again no pun intended.) so... where are you? oh ya.. your already dead from your last screw up.. but.. for educational purposes i will make an exception.. lets say you didn't just derp for the lose.. instead you were in the middle of everybody as you should of been.. now.. chen is gone and in the middle of them.. which means you only have 1 friendly hero in betweeen you and the whole enemy team, who most likely is going to ignore chen if they have half a brain, or stun him if they have the other half. so chens life is ticking away quickly.. what do you do? you have choices... some are better than others and some are highly situational. But... knowing what you know, i want you to make a decision before reading on.. think about it.. picture in your head exactly what you would do.. most say, well.. SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIE! ..... no typo.. i know its friend.. but you just died while trying to say that because you just got so focused on right clicking the right hero to shoot and lost track of where you are.. also known as TUNNLE VISION, so now you just stood in malfurions roots and jaina gave you a nice cold bufu.....i mean but whooping(hehe kid friendly material only!).. so lets rewind that.. and try again.

your chen just lui kanged the snot out of jainas cold nose and shes about to start singing let it go while releasing all hell on you.. what do you do.. first off, your going to back up a little bit, they are moving forward on you, and you only have 1 person in between you.. your the pearl of the team.. the creme de la creme. you got to stay protected. so why not use a couple skills while your backing to start some dps? lets say valla for instance, how about a nice multishot and hungering arrow right before or after vaulting backwards depending how quick you can get them off? ok.. so now your behind your team a little bit better and the enemy team is now around 55 % hp because of your awesome aoe skills and chens crazy panda ways. but even better is that jaina who got hit with the kick and burn, then your 2 skills, is already below half hp and steps back some more because she just got a chunk of her hp drained in less than a second. and you haven't taken anything yet. so, now what? well.. its hard to write and make a full friendly and enemy team comp, and say what each person does.. because it will vary. BUT what do you do you fine pupil? i will tell you grasshopper, the one secret to being a good dps.. ready..? this is it.. the behemoth of advice.. the monster of monsters, the dragonknight of dragons, the Prince of Persia wait.. doesn't even make sense.. eh.. w.e so the one advice.. i want you to take from this.. is STAY ALIVE, so your frustrated because with my advice the only dps you did was 2 skills and u can't aa because their zoning you out. my guide sucks huh... well lemme let you in on a little secret, a DEAD DPS IS NO DPS. 2 skills is WAY MORE.. Like 10000000000000000 times more dps than 0! plus you still have your ult, unless you positioned that good to before vaulting back (because you had enough time without becoming vulnerable) and stunned everybody as well. regardless, what im trying to say is STOP OPENING YOURSELF UP. as you play more and more you will see more and more opportunities to go in and get some shots off. for instance.. lets say they have a muradin, u notice he uses his moon shoes to jump into battle while hitting our lili with his hammer... of stuns! of stuns.. (pun intended at this point) all while using his ult to become.. muradin.. TIMES 100!!!! so now you know.. he has nothing but a AA dmg soaker.. so running by him or having him near you isn't much of a threat during his cooldown time.. thats just one example.. so what to take from that? start looking for your moments to go in, but if in doubt, go out. period. if you don't know what they can do, or your about to get hit with something, go out. dead dps 0 dps, remember that.

now, to play the other side of the thought proceess.. so i say a dead dps is 0 dps right? well... a moving dps is 0 dps as well for the most part.. you have to be still to dish your dmg out(even using skills your still for a split second).. so.. if you thought my other section was hard to judge.. think again.. backing out some is cake compared to knowing when to stay in, when to just sit their and shoot their jaina with your x bow like daryl would shoot a walker.. now.. the problem is i can't teach you when.. i can't say everytime X happens you will do this, and boom profit.. no.. but.. what i can say is things to look for, signs. for example how passive are they playing? are the being super aggressive and getting all up in your grill? thats probably a good time to reposition.. or are they just kinda poking.. maybe their muradin has just jumped in.. but he isn't to much of a threat because he used his stun already right? so in that case it wouldn't be a bad idea to sit their and pop some shots off on him until his back up gets in range of you and then you can start unloading combos on their dps/support.. so now hopefully you have a decent understanding of the mentality you need to start trying to have while playing dps as regards to positioning...

Ok so now comes a even more tricky part.. (and you thought dps just stands there and gets to unload on the enemy team without contest hah we have much to learn..) well.. its not that easy.. so lets assume your placement is good, and your positioning is around par.. meaning your not dead.. so what does one sub par player such as yourself do in this engagement.. well you target whoever you can safely.. is the simplest way to put it. without putting yourself in harms way or using your escape to get the hits (such as vaulting towards the enemy team for example) you want to get as many hits off as you can. now.. if your team has good zoning and they are making the enemy dps in range for you to hit, that's your number 1 priority target. always go for their dps if you can.. here is a general list in order of your targets..
1. DPS
2. Heals
3. Support/Zoners
4. Tanks

i made this small chapter.. to make sure you understand your job, so that if you don't take anything from this poorly written sub par guide full of awful jokes and even worse puns. You will still know that your job above all else is to not die.. a dead dps is 0 dps. PERIOD. play safe and shoot on.

Okay this is going to be just random bulletpoint style points to try and avoid doing... i will add these as maybe people comment and remind me of what i missed, and may even teach me things i never would of thought of..

-After a successful teamfight happens, and your chasing down the enemy team.. DONT BE IN FRONT, stay behind at least somebody, because if they enemy turns and engages real quick for a burst, your dead. (think ahead)

-Don't sit still.. ever

-MINIMAP AWARENESS.. being aggressive in lane is actually really beneficial if you can keep them zoned out of xp.. but in doing so your vulnerable to a gank.. so PAY ATTENSION to your map!

-Read up on the dps you want to play, guides and info is everywhere.. soak it.. become the sponge you always wanted to be. just don't buy a pineapple house and we will be okay.
to be continued...