Dealing with Split-Push
There are countless ways to win a game of Dota, yet there are even more ways to lose it. Even when economically ahead and with a firm grasp on the map, it can be sometimes tricky to destroy the enemy ancient. It gets even harder if the enemy team has a dedicated split-pushing hero, who constantly forces you to go back or take unfavorable trades. This process is excruciatingly frustrating and frequently results in game-losing mistakes, even by experienced players. Understanding and avoiding these mistakes is necessary in order to claim deserved victory.
What is Split-Pushing?
Split-Push or “Rat” Dota is a macro strategy which involves safely pushing out the lanes to force a reaction from the enemy. Most commonly it is associated with mobile or elusive heroes who excel at clearing creep wavesand are strong in 1v1 situations. These heroes may also be good at pushing towers, though this is optional.
For example, 
Tinker is notoriously known for being elusive and constantly forcing the enemy team back, however he does not take towers on his own very well. In comparison, a late-game 
Anti-Mage is not only exceptionally good at clearing waves, but can also pose a significant threat to structures. Depending on how threatening the enemy split-pusher is, it is possible to calculate the outcome of most trades.
Split-Pushing can be a stalling mechanism or it can be a win condition on its own. These options are not mutually exclusive and understanding the level of threat coming from the enemy split-pushing hero is crucial.
Early Game Strategy
Split-push rarely manifests itself until the later stages of the game, but depending on the draft it might be a good idea to commit extra resources to shutting down the potentially annoying hero. This will provide your team with some breathing room in the mid-game, decreasing the threat level to your towers and potentially allowing you to avoid dealing with split-push altogether.
If the circumstances do not allow for early-game roaming or an aggressive laning, it is a good idea to be over-protective with allied structures. Compared to situations when facing a strong pushing lineup, the outer towers in all lanes are considerably more important.
Not only do split-pushing lineups typically fight worse in the early-game, making defending towers a possibility, but these extra layers of protection can come in handy when the later-game trades occur. For similar reasons, taking enemy towers early can also be beneficial.
Being too passive in the early game is probably the most common mistake—if there is a way for your team to apply pressure and gain economic advantage and map control in the process, it should be exploited.
Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses of the Match-up
Every Dota hero is unique and in this patch most of them are viable. As such, it is impossible to come up with a catch-all way of dealing with split-pushing heroes, since they will have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are a couple of key similarities, however, which apply to most split-pushers.
- Most split-pushing heroes are extremely greedy
The typical “carry” split-pushers are usually susceptible to early aggression and do not like being pressured. Their skillset does not allow them to come online early, which frequently forces their team to dedicate several heroes for their protection. Heroes like 
Naga Siren and Anti-Mage might be late-game powerhouses, but they are very reliant on a good early-game.
More proactive split-pushers might not be as reliant on their early game, but they are similarly greedy in the later stages. Having a natural way of taking out creeps makes all split-pushing heroes excellent farmers, but it often leaves their teammates underfarmed and underleveled. The gold and experience inequality makes the enemy team extremely reliant on this single hero, making teamfights in their absence very easy.
- They are frequently alone
In the mid-game, split-pushing heroes tend to be alone. It makes smoke-ganking them a good option if and only if your team can predict where this hero is going to appear.
Relatively static farmers, such as Anti-Mage and Broodmother, generally enter a “farming loop”, where they appear in the lane, take a creepwave or two and retreat to the jungle to take out the neutral creeps. It makes them predictable and unless your team telegraphs their intention too obviously, smoke-ganking should be possible.
Try to gank these heroes with as little heroes as possible required to net a kill—if your whole team suddenly disappears from the map most enemy players will retreat to complete safety. Using the offensive “Scan” when nearing the potential enemy location is also advised.
Heroes like Tinker and 
Nature's Prophet are much harder to deal with. They will usually switch the lanes, potentially wasting a lot of time for your team when trying to gank them. They also tend to itemise in a way that makes them extremely elusive, so even if your team can predict where they are going to appear, they have high chances of escaping.
Instead of trying to catch them proactively, it is better to set up a trap with ample vision. This method requires a great deal of patience and generally only works once in a given location, but it is often the only way to catch the enemy.
Ganking and killing these heroes provides a window of opportunity for your team to take advantage of. It will also net a lot of gold, especially to your supports, since the Net Worth difference is going to be massive, even given equal Net Worth of the teams.
Mid Game Options
The strategy in the mid-game is very dependent on the match-up, farm levels and variety of other factors. Options include passive farming, ganking, dedicated pushing and split-pushing yourselves.
Farming
Passive farming is usually the worst option. To be efficient it usually requires your team to split, which makes defending objectives much harder and riskier. It is generally only worth it if you have high mobility heroes which can scale exceptionally well (e.g. Spectre).
If your team is split, at the very least ensure that there is a hero close to each lane. When the enemy push is approaching it is advised to react to it preemptively, with at least one rotation coming not to the objective itself, but the next closest one. This will increase the chance of successful defense by a lot, since the heroes teleporting to the objective itself will not take as long and will have some initial backup. Teleporting the whole team to a single tower will more than likely result in a feed conveyor.
Dedicated Push
Dedicated pushing in the mid-game against a split-pusher can be a decent or a very bad idea depending on the match-up. It very much depends on how fast your team can push as five vs. four compared to zero vs. one of the enemy.
It is worth noting that some split-pushing heroes can transition between split-push and defense very fast, hence caution is advised. In most cases you will trade evenly, which might not be favorable to your team in the long run. Worst case scenario—the enemy will deal structural damage and will be back to defend and zone you out, effectively wasting your time.
If your team is attempting to dedicate themselves to pushing, it is advised to at least outpush the lanes and ensure that the creep momentum is going your way. It will give your team some breathing room when pushing and provides some time to react if the enemy is threatening to split-push.
Objective Ganking
For reasons discussed previously, ganking is usually the best course of action. If it is successful it is best to capitalise on the provided opening and try to take an objective or force a buyback.
Often, even if your team does not manage to find the primary target of the gank, it can still translate into taking the objectives, but once again, it will depend on your own and the enemy’s lineups. If the enemy still has some form of outpush and you are being splitted by Lycan with Necronomicon III, it might be better to regroup and attempt the gank again.
It is also easy to get baited into thinking that the enemy primary target is alone. Not seeing any other enemy heroes farming on the map is usually a good indicator of whether or not they are setting up a trap. This is why pushing out the lanes is very important. If nobody responds to creep waves hitting structures, odds are they are waiting for your team to overcommit and make a mistake.
Late Game
It is best to not let the enemy get to this stage. At this point the big con of split-pushers—underfarmed teammates, becomes less of a factor. They might still be behind compared to your team, but the effect is much smaller percentage-wise.
Moreover, the efficiency with which the enemy will push lanes will be at an all-time high, potentially preventing you from ever leaving your base.
It can also get hard to defend several lanes at the same time. Since most split-pushers are extremely good in 1v1 fights (e.g. Blink+Hex on TInker/Furion or an Abyssal Blade on Anti-Mage), even your base is no longer safe. Some heroes can obliterate even the tankiest of cores in a matter of seconds leaving very little time to react.
In this scenario the best course of action generally is playing extremely safe. Have your cores backed up with supports, who can save them and try to stay close to each other. Wait for the enemy to make a mistake or overcommit and punish it. Losing a lane of barracks in the late-game is better than losing a fight.
If you manage to win a fight, try to push several lanes at the same time, but make sure that none of your heroes can be picked off. Only attempt to push the enemy objectives when other lanes are outpushed enough, otherwise you can unnecessarily lose your objectives to a buyback.
If the enemy bought back, depending on the power level it might or might not be a good idea to take a fight. If it is not, retreating and repeating the previous steps is a better option.
Finally, taking the barracks is completely optional. If your team has managed to win two fights in a row and the enemy buybacks are on cooldown it might be better to push for the ancient directly. Wasting time and taking all sets of barracks in an attempt to equalise against split-pushing heroes can give the enemy team enough time to respawn and fight you. If you can win the game right there and now, do it.
And as a visual guide on the aforementioned mistakes even an experienced team can make against a strong split-push it is almost mandatory to link what is widely considered to be the best game of Dota to date:
SPLOT PISH!
SECOND
informative, thanks
rat dota
it's good and all, but sadly almost impossible to make a team to do smth like smoke gank splitpushing hero even on 5.5+
not good idea
fuck my lifw i hate techis
Another good article, you guys are on a roll :D. Thanks. Would have liked more discussion of the Clinkz, like the lead photo, but that may just be me.
rat doto best doto
FUCKING VALVE SHIT MATCH MAKING!i lost too many game because of noobs what happned with this shit?D whats wrong with me?I LOVE UR WIFE GABEN!
bad idea
When the enemy team let's your broodmother take a lane of racks at 20 minutes because no one bothered to stop her. Feels good
The counter to rat dota is to defend your base at all cost
All your base are belong to us.
Clinkz?
but u can't stop bulldog
Very detailed and thought out guide, thank you.
Nightstalkers agahnim , beastmaster & batrider rekts splitpushers.
what is Split push? you mean push with the illusions? lol why not just PUSH
great guide. best part?? alliance vs navi. greatest game of all time
Pick Spirit Breaker for roam = Profit.
The best way to deal with split pushers in my experience is to counter push the lane they push, then start split pushing yourself and have a hero or heroes who can very quickly clear waves/units very quickly.
Heroes like timbersaw can clear waves in a blink of an eye, ember can very quickly clear waves and then return to what ever lane we was in, there's also jakiro, bat rider is ok, Sven, orge magi with veil or shiva's, LC's overwhelming odds is ridiculous at the moment also she can also try kill who ever is pushing, tiny with aghs, zues, invoker, Mirana with aghs, Winter wyven makes their units work against their master and can also deal with waves.
So in summery, take team fights/get kills, push back lanes, and split push yourself in order to keep the lanes pushed out.
Tip for 3k doto LMFAO
Jakiro is hilarious for stopping Nature's Prophet, since his treants are almost wiped out by Dual Breath + Liquid Fire (base 520 damage, treants have 550 HP). You can just pick each one off with a right click, use Ice Path for +50 damage, get an aether lens, or hit 92+ Int to finish them off entirely (creeps will also maybe smack them, but creeps are agents of chaos and can't be trusted).
Against other split pushers tho he's kinda ineffective.
Good post, made me watch the entire Ti3 game 5...
Again.
best ti ever by alliance navi
fird :)
@Gate 8-1-8 Yeah, man! That's why these articles seem all so lame. The best way to counter the other team from winning is to win yourself. And that's so clear to all infants all around the world, It makes all us dumb.
@ANIMAL: It's splitpush because you split up your team; you don't push with 5 heroes, but have 4 heroes defending and 1 hero pushing or 3 heroes pushing 1 lane and 2 other heroes pushing the other 2 lanes etc.
In general, you need waveclear vs splitpushing. You cannot defend your towers with Omniknight, Spectre or Bane etc., you need long ranged aoe dmg spells like WW's Splinter Blast or Kotl's Illuminate. Without several heroes who can push out waves quickly, you will be playing with your back against a wall all the time.
With that ingredient, you need to make sure that you have all lanes pushed out before you start something (push, smoke, Rosh,..); send your Ember to push out bot a bit, your Timber to push out top and then let them teleport onto Mid to the rest of the team.
Besides that, always weigh out your chances: Is your team taking the rax faster than the enemy, can you teleport back in time? Can you finish the throne before they do? Who has TPs - both on your team and on their team?
If you are behind, taking an even rax trade is usually really good for you, which obviously makes it bad for you if you are ahead. Better teleport, defend, kill everyone and THEN push without taking any losses.
Tinker, Furion, just... what the fuck. Sometimes it annoying if everybody is go clash and the one of shitpusher rekt the other lane.
I used to pick Spiritbreaker to anticipate it. Bounty hunter is good to deal with Tinker too. Track, Orchid, Teamwork, ez.
Just got rekt by a split pushing core Meepo. Our NP and Tinker couldn't keep up in the rat and waveclear race when Meepo could BoT everywhere and ate up any attempted gank.
Thanks for the article! I'll translate this article for russian users on dota2.ru, hope to see more articles from you soon, they're very interesting to read.
A guide about splitpush and no mention of Lycan.
Also you should do a guide about teamfighting next time.
dealing with riki!
Not mentioning ember as a split pusher. DansGame
"There are countless ways to win a game of Dota, yet there are even more ways to lose it."
This is logically false. The number of ways of winning and losing are exacly equal, since a way for one team to win is a way for the other team to lose.
^ maybe or maybe not. Making mistakes is a way to lose a game; waiting opponents to make a huge mistake can be counted as a way to win game?
DEAR ADMIN PLZ TELL PPL TO DONT GO OUT OF ROSH PIT WHEN WE ROSH THEY CAN SCAN THE RIVER TO SEE IF ANYONE THERE. AND OFC PPL IN RUSS MMR ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO THINK THEY CAN SCAN ROSH PIT... MEH.
picture of clinkz yet not mentioning the Bone Fletcher One of the best split pusher Can take down towers so fast even with BD protection
Beautiful Girls 2016-07-05
what is Split push? you mean push with the illusions? lol why not just PUSH
Lol seriously?? xD
Just played a miserable ranked game (https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3628455858) and lost. We had a good early game and Nyx and I got several successful ganks against the Tinker. We were ahead for most of the game, but the gradual erosion from Tinker and NP just gradually whittled down our towers. It was near-impossible for our Pugna or PA to split push themselves because they had an SB in addition to Tinker/NP. I was playing support and I felt like I had to be everywhere. Our PA was more interested in getting kills than keeping lanes pushed, and our Weaver DC'd.
It's such a frustrating way of losing. In a pub game it's difficult to properly coordinate smoke ganks or decide whether to counter-push or defend. Either way, they could always react quicker than us because of their heroes. I could probably have itemised better, but even so I'm not sure what else I could do.