Diretide 2022 Tips and Tricks

Dota 2’s classic event game, Diretide was released as part of the 2022 Battle Pass and it got fans hooked once again. If you need a Diretide guide, we have prepared a list of tips and tricks that will certainly help you dominate some games.

Before we jump into the list, here is a brief explanation of how Diretide works. This 5 vs 5 game mode centralizes around Taffies, wells, and a hungry, sweet tooth Roshan. Players have to first collect Taffies (also called candies) by attacking a group of Greevils, which walks around the Roshan pit. While doing so, both sides often clash in teamfights.

Players then have to score the Taffies into the enemy’s well and when the timer runs out, Roshan will destroy the well with the most Taffies. There are a total of 4 wells on each side. The side that loses all their wells loses the game.

Diretide end screen.

But of course, the game isn’t very simple. And these Diretide tips and tricks are here to help you understand more.

1. Choose mounts wisely

The first Diretide tip is regarding mounts. Before the game begins, players have to choose a mount that can’t be changed after. These mounts have different benefits and disadvantages.

Four mounts in Diretide.

Penguin: Super fast and agile, but any damage taken will knock you off the mount.Ogre Seal: Launches forward down cliffs and through trees but you can’t turn.Snowball: Can stun enemy on impact but slow to turn and accelerate.Frosted toad: Can hop over cliffs and trees but can’t turn and hop at the same time.

The Frosted Toad is hands-down the best mount to use. You basically get free pathing which makes it easy to maneuver around the map. You can hop in and out of the enemy’s territory to scout for their position. Moreover, only stuns can interrupt your movement on the Toad, so you have plenty of opportunity to move freely without getting caught.

Let me insert a cheesy tip here. While playing Pudge, you can toggle your Rot ability and hop near enemies.

The Penguin mount is the next best, however, you need to carefully move as stumbling into cliffs and obstacles can massively delay your movement. This mount is great for quickly sneaking to wells or making immediate initiations. Do note that ANY damage taken will knock you off your Penguin mount.

2. Pick Diretide meta heroes

Five heroes with the highest win rate in Diretide.
Source: STRATZ

Pick heroes that are most suitable for this game mode. Heroes that perform well consist of heroes that have powerful Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades and heroes with a great deal of sustain.

In Diretide, the gold flows in QUICK. Due to this, heroes with farming mechanics like Sven and Meepo lose value. Instead, heroes that can’t farm very well but gain a huge power spike with items have the most advantage in Diretide. A couple of heroes that fit these criteria are Spectre and Wraith King.

Support heroes often have great Aghs Scepter upgrades but couldn’t accumulate enough gold to buy them. In this game mode, you can finish Aghanim’s Scepter (plus a ton of other items) in the blink of an eye. Examples of support heroes with strong Aghs upgrades are Dark Willow, Ancient Apparition, and Silencer. Meanwhile, heroes with sustain include Abaddon and Omniknight.

Here is a tip to find out the best heroes for Diretide. Check their win rates here.

3. Apply ‘Rat Dota’ in Diretide

Diretide minimap shows two ‘ratting’ in action.

The next tip is asking you to be a pesky rodent.

One of the best ways to win rounds is by sneaking to the enemy’s wells to score in Taffies. Those with a lot of Taffies in their inventory should prioritize scoring them. They should also play safely around the map and avoid death so the Taffies do not fall into the hands of enemies.

The best time to rat is when the players are clashing and a major teamfight is ongoing. If the enemy is charging your high ground and you have a strong defensive lineup, you can also attempt to sneak some Taffies into the enemy’s wells.

4. Must. Have. Stuns.

Ogre Magi interrupts Queen of Pain from scoring Taffies with its stun.

Just like your average Dota 2 pub game, Diretide without stuns is miserable to play. Firstly, if your enemy uses the Frost Toad mount, which is an incredibly popular pick, you can’t knock them off. They can just hop away from fights and move freely throughout the game.

Besides that, stuns are crucial to defending your wells. Without stuns, there is no way to interrupt the enemy while they deposit Taffies. And the longer the Taffies are channeled, the faster they are deposited. Having no stuns is basically a recipe for disaster.

In Diretide, AoE stuns are even more valuable as they can interrupt more enemies from depositing Taffies. Simply put, the more stuns, the better.

5. Mobility is a big advantage in Diretide

Storm Spirit zaps into the enemy well area.

Heroes with built-in mobility are incredibly good in this game mode. They can jump in and out of the well area and become a nuisance to the enemy team. They can also become great ratting heroes where they quickly sneak to the wells, score Taffies, and run.

Heroes such as Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain, and Anti-Mage can be great for this role. Another example is Underlord, which has the global portal ultimate which makes not only him but also his team to be mobile. However, it has a pretty high cooldown and if not used properly can be a painful waste.

6. Don’t blindly attack any Greevil

Every round, the Greevils (the little grinning goblins) spawn around the Roshan pit and circle the area. By attacking the group of Greevils you can collect not only Taffies but gold, XP, health treats, and more.

A group of Greevils can be seen walking around the Roshan pit.

Players often randomly attack Greevils as they starve for more Taffies. But they don’t realize that these Greevils have different colors which also differentiate what they drop. Some can give you helpful consumables but some can harm you. So be aware of what Greevils to attack and strategize around what you need at a certain time.

Good Greevils:

Green: Drops Health Treats which will restore a large portion of your HP.Silver: Drops Tome of Knowledge that can boost your XP.Yellow: Drops gold coins.Charcoal: Drops neutral items.Purple: Drops a bunch of Taffies.Biggest Greevil: Unkillable and only drops Taffies

Bad Greevils:

Red: Burst into a large number of creeps giving AoE damage. You can easily kill these creeps and get extra gold. However, be careful not to attack the red Greevil when you have low HP.Orange: Burst into Lava.

7. Don’t overscore wells

Zeus overscoring one well, leading to his team’s demise.

Flash news, Taffies are limited. If you are dominating one round, don’t dump all your Taffies into one well. The satisfaction of scoring 50 Taffies into a well won’t be worth the regret of losing another round, all because you decided to waste them.

What you should do is score a decent amount of Taffies into one well that can guarantee you the lead for the round. Then, proceed to score the rest of your Taffies in the other well. This way, you can kickstart a lead for the next round and snowball to victory.

For example, this Riki deposited up to 26 Taffies into the well. He then kept 28 more in his inventory for another well.

Riki holds on to more Taffies, allowing his team to snowball in the next round.

8. Focus on killing well Guardians

This is a well-known tip among Diretide players, however, some still fail to abide by this principle. Even constant players are guilty of ignoring the well Guardians because admit it, most of us are obsessed with trying to score Taffies.

Dodge the Guardian’s fear ability to score Taffies efficiently.

In the early stages when the timer is short, you should prioritize scoring a couple of Taffies instead of dealing with the Guardian. When playing around the Guardian, be alert to its low-cooldown ‘fear’ ability. Read the timing for when it channels the ‘fear’ and you can easily dodge it.

Moving ahead from the early stage, it is better to eliminate the Guardian first. Even though the Guardians grow stronger, you’ll also have sufficient items to take them out. With the Guardian out of the way, there is one less annoying creature defending the well.

9. Plant wards! They are free

Just like any other Dota 2 game, vision is extremely crucial in Diretide. The Roshan pit area which is the center of the map provides multiple ward cliffs that you can use to your advantage. At the same time, you must constantly check if the enemy has vision.

During the final stages when you move nearer to the enemy’s base, it is important to plant a ward to see the enemy’s high ground.

Tricky ward spot in Diretide.

Here’s a warding tip for Diretide. You can plant a ward in the enemy’s base itself so you can see their movement as soon as they respawn. This is a ridiculous spot that gives you extreme advantages when scoring Taffies.

10. Don’t forget neutral items

Neutral items in Diretide are just as important.

This isn’t a very strong Diretide tip however, there have been way too many instances of players forgetting the existence of neutral items. Of course, in the midst of all the Taffy chaos, who would bother hitting a couple of jungle creeps for item drops? But these can be extremely advantageous for the team, especially with high-tier item drops.

Enjoy Diretide until January 12th

That wraps up our Diretide guide! Hopefully, with these ten tips and tricks, you can soon become a Taffy master. The game mode closes on January 12th, so enjoy Diretide while it lasts!

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