Introduction to Dota 2 Roles - Mid
Image by DNA Dota
As the world frantically battles against the virus, you’re alone in your room staring at your enemy of quarantine and free time.
That’s kind of what the mid role is like. Eight other players are running around hitting each other while you’re alone in your battle against your enemy.
The mid is also known as the 2 and is arguably the most important role in the game (even though you could say the same thing about every position).
The mid is so important because of math. There are three lanes. There’s the safe lane where you’re expected to win. The off lane where you’re expected to lose. That’s 1-1. What’s left is the mid lane. If you win this, your lane outcome becomes 2-1. If you lose then it becomes 1-2. It’s simple math.
Role Introduction
The mid lane is generally a one on one situation where you send your best fighter to battle against the enemy’s best fighter to try and gain that slight advantage in the uneven lane matchups.
The mid laner is like Gandalf the Grey. He goes off on his own to fight hard battles and then shows up when the fight is darkest, with newfound powers, to destroy the enemy that was about to kill you, boosting your team’s morale and shaking the confidence of your enemy.
This is your role if you choose to play mid. You’re expected to win your lane and then help your team make plays around the map.
The mid laner is often known as the tempo controller. The tempo controller is the strongest player on your team and forces the tempo by making movements across the map. This generally involves hitting timings like reaching a certain level or buying a certain item.
For example, a 
Queen of Pain might have bought an Orchid Malevolence or reached level 6. With this item or her ultimate ability, she can join her team and kill the enemy or force them to retreat, allowing a tower push to happen.
Not every mid player embraces this role. Some choose to play like a position 1 or carry and farm all game while ignoring their team’s needs. This isn’t ideal because if the enemy mid joins their team for plays across the map, you’ll be at a significant disadvantage and over time the map shrinks for you, making it harder to make plays or find farm.
Early game
Early game for mid players can be from minute 0-5 or 0-10. During this time, you are in a one on one battle with the enemy mid. It’s a very tense time where every last hit or deny feels like a massive swing in one direction.
At this stage of the game, you should be focused entirely on maximizing your CS, or creep score. Your team may be dying but there’s not much you can do and staying in your lane is often the best move.
If things are going well for you and you’re getting great CS and even killing your enemy, then great, keep it up!
If things are going awfully, then it may be a better idea to retreat into the jungle and farm there. Even though your enemy gets a free lane, at least you’re not feeding kills or wasting your time. You’ll still be able to find farm safely and one of your supports might be able to rotate to mid and get some decent XP and CS.
Mid game
Mid game can be from 5-20 or 10-30 minutes depending on the game. For mid players, your mid-game role is similar to the carry. You have to find a balance between farming and fighting.
You want to keep your farm up but you also want to make plays with your team since you’re at an advantage because you had a lane to yourself.
In some games, both teams may just farm and never fight. Some games might be a constant brawl. It really depends on the hero match up of both teams to decide which course of action is best for ending the game in a win.
For example, your team may lack late-game carry power but the enemy has great late-game carry power. For this, your team’s best interest is to force fights to push and squeeze the enemy’s space. For the enemy, they want to farm all mid game so they have an advantage late game. If your team decides to allow this to happen and join in on the farming, you’ll probably lose in the late game.
Late game
At this point, everyone is preparing to end the game.
Laneing is mostly a concept for the early game. In the late game, the numerical positions matter more. You’re position 2, so your farm priority is basically the highest on your team. So you need to keep your farm up and get more items but more importantly, you need to coordinate with your team to not get team wiped and to make game winning plays.
Late game is the stage of the game where as a mid player, you’re expected to come “online” like the carry is. Here you’re the star of the game, or at least that’s what you were supposed to be working towards.
Mid heroes
There are many heroes that can play multiple positions but here are some that seem to be designed for the mid role:
Death Prophet, Queen of Pain, 
Invoker, 
Outworld Destroyer, 
Storm Spirit, 
Shadow Fiend, 
Zeus.
Popular mid pros
A great mid match up in the pro scene is always a treat. You get to watch two world-class players duel in the solo lane. Here are a few pro mid players to look out for:
Topson,
No[o]ne-,
AR.Somnus,
Quinn,
Aurora.Armel.
Final thoughts
The mid role is one of the more important roles on the team. If you win your lane, your team should be one up in the lane match up, if you lose, then you’re one down.
This role needs to take command of the game and set the tempo. You should be controlling the map and suffocating the enemy with your team, while also farming for the late game.
Mid is also very hard to play. You have to be amazing at timing your last hits because the enemy mid wants to deny every last hit possible, and you want to do the same.
What are everyone’s thoughts on the mid lane? How can a new player become the next Topson?
"There’s the safe lane where you’re expected to win. The off lane where you’re expected to lose."
As an offlaner, I think it's the other way around. Atleast in my games.
^ weird flex but ok
You should also mention this is the most sensitive player on the team. If he gets one tip after he dies or makes a mistake, he wil either abandon or farm the jungle afk until you lose.
And like Psycho says, I do feel like the safelane isn't the one you're meant to win. You're meant to enable the carry to farm at a decent level, but winning these lanes seems a bit optimistic most times (Ofc depending on the matchup). After all, what can a spectre, void or naga really do? Especially against offlaners like Pit Lord, Timbersaw, LC + Abaddon, Slardar and Lina, SK and Lina, DK and Kotl etc...
^^ exactly
So many issues with this article...
Invoker? OD? SF? Storm? Those are bane of all new player. Reccomend a much easier hero like Viper, Lina and Dragon Knight will help them
isnt TA and SF really strong right now? they don't really want to fight till they hit a power spike which is usually around 15+ mins. farming mids are really good atm. stop influencing new players with the way you think the game should be played
99% comments here are from heralds... Like op wrote above the mid player should be the highest skilled player in team. The real dota in 2-3k braket - mid or safe players are in 99% lowest rank ppl in team. I am winning 80% of my games on offlane to min 10 mark when my briliante cores picking PA vs timber or sniper vs SS etc... losing lane almost everytime... And nothing you can do, because they refuse any advices according to they pick... My beloved game became sht in 2017 after mmr algorithm has been changed. And now is getting worst when old players leaving and new coming. How it can work when 10000 matches player is with the same bracke as 300matches (not smurf)... Pathetic...
lmao crusader 5 is calling everyone here heralds while everyone else is 2 medals above him at least .
The article is full of shit written by a player who doesnt play mid as you can see from profile.
Sorry Yongelee but these comments are all right; this article feels like what I would've written almost 6 years ago when I was new to the game and thought everything like the mid is the tempo controller, the safelane is an instant win, the offlane is expected to lose etc was true. It feels like you're describing a fixed snapshot of an old meta. Dota is flexible and your article is making it sound completely rigid. If these articles are supposed to be introducing people to Dota righting in absolute terms is really unhelpful as people will think there is a fixed way to play the game and we all know that isn't true.
tfw you still suck at dota
This article was meant for a general introduction for new players to get to know the main aspects of being a mid player. I wasn't trying to convey every possible outcome for what mid roles could potentially be in every situation.
Yes Dota 2 is flexible, two games are rarely the same. It's impossible to write an article about the infinite potentials of what a Dota 2 game could evolve into. But the general idea for a mid player is to be the lead player of their team and set the tempo and lead plays for their team. Should a new player learn a different way to play mid?
hmmmmm
It's mostly the other way around for Safelanes and Offlanes. Offlanes pick heroes that tend to be much stronger when 2v2. If it's 1v2 or a completely useless offlane pick, then yeah maybe.
Lol and being a "pos 2" gives highest farm priority? No, that's the carry bro
You're expected to win your safelane, cause usually as carry you'll know the match up and can counter pick their offlane, but usually safe laner will sacrifice early game advantage for a better late game hero, so it depends on the hero, but safe laner should never lose lane and still be capable of farming.
All said apart winning your lane is esential for consistently gaining mmr.
My teammates are virus
Ugh, what a terrible article. Position 2 has a lower farm priority than pos 1. Not only that, pos 2 is not supposed to farm for the late game, as pos 1 does. Pos 2 is supposed to farm up to the point that they can make plays, and then go around making plays, typically during the mid game.
that silly guide can help only 50-games new players, but in future it will make them worse