If you’ve ever watched a professional players livestream and looked at their keybinds and why their game is so smooth, that’s because they’ve tinkered with their settings. Having the right settings is crucial to help you react faster and reduce clutter on your screen. In this guide, we’ll break down the best Dota 2 settings for low-end PCs and other essentials you should know.
When playing Dota 2, it’s worth noting that you don’t necessarily need to be extremely precise with your mouse, like you would have to be in FPS games such as Counter-Strike. That way, you don’t need to play on extremely low sensitivity for utmost precision.
Instead, Dota 2 gameplay requires a lot of mouse movements to move around and move your camera to check other lanes on the map. This is why the best Dota 2 players generally use higher mouse DPI, typically between 800 and 1600.
Still, you should find what’s comfortable for you. Mouse Settings are the least important Dota 2 pro settings to copy.
It’s important to sit down and assess your hotkeys at some point, as these will play a crucial role in how quickly and efficiently you can react to or make plays. Generally, you want most of your essential keybinds set on the same side of the keyboard – most often the left side.
For ability hotkeys, it’s best to leave them as they are. But, default item hotkeys can be pretty inefficient since the “B” and N” keys are far from the left side, forcing you to reach your thumb out.
If you want to step into some Dota 2 pro settings, remember you can use keys like “SPACE,” “TAB,” or “CAPSLOCK” for item hotkeys, too. One trick we recommend is using “Alt” plus any key, like “Alt” + “Q” or “Alt” + “W”.
Apart from ability and item hotkeys, there are also several binds we suggest assigning a hotkey to:
Here are Hero-related settings we recommend setting a keybind for:
Dota 2 gameplay revolves around your hero, so we highly recommend setting a hotkey for “Select Hero.” Typically, professional players use “1” or “F1”. Tapping the assigned key twice will bring your camera back to your hero.
The other two settings are mainly for controlling other units, such as illusions or creeps.
Here are Courier-related settings we recommend setting a keybind for:
You’re going to use the Courier dozens of times throughout a game, so we also suggest setting hotkeys for it. The “Select Courier” button allows you to select it and choose actions, like sending it back to base, delivering your items, or making it go to the Secret Shop.
If you simply want your courier to deliver your item to you, you can use the “Courier Deliver Items” hotkey.
Here are Shop-related settings we recommend setting a keybind for:
Opening the Shop is a given – you do this on any hero, and you’ll be opening it a lot. We advise you to set a keybind to open and close the shop with ease.
The “Purchase Quickbuy” hotkey is also vital – it allows you to buy whatever items are on your quickbuy menu, which is useful when you’re trying to spend as much gold as possible right before dying.
Just like with LoL pro settings, you’re free to mess around with your game options and advanced options, but here are some of the most essential settings you should turn on:
Dota 2 is a relatively old game, meaning you don’t need the strongest computer to run it. However, it is worth noting that performance tends to drop when you’re in the middle of a chaotic teamfight where 10 heroes are casting their ultimates, even if you’re one of the top Dota streamers with a strong PC.
So, it’s still important to have balanced video settings that ensure your computer will perform well. Here are some Dota 2 settings for the best performance:
In the Resolution Settings, we recommend turning on “Use advanced settings.” Then, it really comes down to what your monitor offers. Typically, we recommend:
In the Rendering Settings, Dota 2 makes it easier by providing a slider under Basic Settings. Here, you can drag the slider between “Fastest” and “Best Looking” based on what you think your computer can run.
Overall, none of the advanced settings are useful in Dota 2 gameplay, so if you’re on a lower-end PC, consider turning everything off.
However, one option we’ll note is “Game Screen Render Quality.” You can save a lot of FPS by turning it down, but for every percentage you reduce, your graphics settings will start looking blurrier.
Of course, if you think your computer can handle some settings, you’re free to select which details you’d like to enable. World Lighting, Tree Wind, and High Quality Water are some we recommend.
Images: Dota 2 / Valve
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