Dota 2 Sleepy Death Strategy (Naga + AOE COMBO)

1. Goal of the
Sleepy Death Strategy:

The power of this strategy lies in the AOE effects and ultimates of the combined heroes.

Naga Siren will most likely be the engager to sleep all enemies with her ultimate. Afterwards, Darkseer is preparing to gather all enemies, before the rest of the team hits in! 😉 That means the full strength can be released in mid and lategame 5 vs 5 teamfights.

The tactic is quite cheesy, a specific scenario has to be created to perform the combo of spells. The expected result depends a lot on the smartness of the enemy, but also on the baiting skills of the own team.

For high level players I have added a chaos-bonus part to make the tactic even stronger.

3. Executing the Strategy:

Now let’s get ready for the game, what’s the gameplan and how should you lane?

Laning Distribution:

I do not have much to say about the laning: There are no limits or rules, of course, Tidehunter or Darkseer should take the offlane. While Magnus can easily play mid, the safelane can be taken by Naga Siren to secure the Radiance farm. Enigma can go to the jungle or join the offlane. It’s quite easy to win with this lineup, if you experience outpicks or problems, adjust the heroes with variations in chapter 5.

The Gameplan in the Early, Mid and Lategame:

The Sleepy Naga Death Tactic requires all team members to have their ultimate up.

The focus on the early game is clearly about surviving and trying to be equally farmed compared to the enemy. Just make sure to keep the death count low and to play defensively. Tidehunter has high sustainability and Darkseer can escape easily.

Modern Team Layout: The full team needs to commit about having not playing with a hard support. One can definitely be the hard support but it’s not required, the positions 1-5 are not as fixed as it normally would be.
How great is that? Every single Dota 2 matchup is limited to the five positions, but with a full team of 5 players, you have the ability to break this pattern and reinvent how Dota can be played: Everyone can come up with wards, at the moment they are free, who knows what the new patches will change. 😉 But with free wards, everyone can take the time to place the wards, the players with the highest mobility should be those who plant the most.

Be Ready for Defensive Moves:As soon as the mid-game is reached, you can start thinking about possible team fights. On the one hand from now on you should be prepared for a defensive counter move. When the enemy team is pushing or diving a tower, be ready to hit with your full power. The tactical maneuver of the tactic can be released! Find the tactical maneuver below.

Ready to start being Offensive? It’s a good starting moment when Naga Siren reaches Radiance. If you are not going for Radiance, you can commit to a specific time frame (for example minute 22) or when any other specific item is reached. But always commit to one starting point before you even start the game.

When this point is reached, it’s time to shine, ladies! 😀 Baiting can start, but also simple pushing execution is key to gather all 5 enemies into one area. It’s not important how you get the enemies to one area, but you have to do it.

Outsmart the Enemy: A typical bait can be that the team is hiding in the trees and Naga Siren is diving or overcommiting, the enemies greed will grow and they will try to bring her down. Even if she nearly dies, she can hit the ult button before dying and then the team has time to join.

If the game goes on the enemies get smarter and get smell what’s happening from miles away, but for that, they have to split. It’s still nice if you take out 2 or 3. The opponent’s team has to come up with a smart plan to counter this, but it’s extremely hard for them if you all got the ultimates up. 😉 It’s not unbeatable, but single timings and reactions can decide between a loss and a win.

Typical Attack Scenario of the Sleepy Naga Death Tactic:

All enemies are gathered in one area?

Naga Siren can just move to the middle and press the ultimate button to sleep them all. Now it’s time for the rest of the team to get in position and to prepare their items and spells.

Now you probably wonder “What about the BKB’s?” right? It is a counter, but it’s not stopping the tactic. If an enemy used BKB before Naga sleeps the team, the full team can attack the BKB guy and bring him down. Naga Siren’s sleep has a duration of 7 seconds, but can be stopped at any time.

The 7 seconds might be enough to bring him down or make him low, but it will also make him run out of BKB very soon (max 10s). This will make him vulnerable for the upcoming spells very soon. 😉 The opponents who use BKB right after the sleep will be prepared to fight, but the enemy team won’t have 5 BKB’s. For now, just care for the guys without BKB and take them out.

Right after the Naga Siren ultimate, Darkseer can vacuum the opponents to one spot. If enough enemies without BKB are gathered any ally can start the fun: Magnus, Tide or Enigma can simply use their ultimate. Whenever one spell is about to finish, the next spell can be added to prolong the stun duration. Together will all spells from all heroes, this will end up in a total disaster for the enemy team…

Its’ just about one thing: How many enemies will you be able to gather? 😉 Identify the possible counters in the enemy team, who can disable, hex, silence or bash your and stop an ultimate spell? Be prepared and always bring sentries to the party!

5. Item and Hero Variations:

You can change any hero, in my opinion Naga Siren and Darkseer are required and the rest is replaceable. Just make sure to pick a hero that has high AOE damage. You can find a list of all Dota 2 AOE spells here.

Top Variations: Mars, Phoenix, Warlock.

Other Variations: Earthshaker, Sandking, Underlord, Jakiro, Leshrac, Ancient Apparition, Venomancer.

Adding more Depth: The Chaos Factor:

If you think this is just too cheesy and too predictable, think about adding a chaos factor. You think the enemies are too smart to get baited? Then replace Tide, Engima or Magnus with a hero that can make trouble alone. 😉 These are some heroes that can potentially make a lot of trouble behind the enemy lines. This gives you different opportunities. On the one hand it’s another great bait hero, the enemy team has to defend to not get pushed down, on the other hand it’s the perfect scenario to splitpush: One hero one the one lane, all four on the other, ready to right…

6. Counterpicks

• Always ban Silencer.
• Ban all bashers like Void and Ursa.
• More bans could be heroes like Lion, Mars or Earthshaker.

Get good at Drafting to Boost the Winrate of this Tactic:

But when I managed to get a full team up, it was a tactic with a high win potential, the enemies were always able to see what was coming, but they were not able to find the right solution against it.

It has a lot to do with picks and counterpicks.
To get better at drafting, also checkout the extensive Dota 2 drafting guide.
Detailled Drafting Guide