Why players get stuck at Herald
Typical reasons that keep players on the Herald rank (a low behavior score and ending up with equally toxic teammates only make them worse):
- Too few last-hits: you lack the gold for key items and fall behind in power.
- Playing "blind" — you rarely look at the minimap and get ganked regularly.
- No grasp of roles: everyone goes core and the lanes fall apart.
- Frequent pointless deaths feed the enemy gold and experience.
A plan to climb to Guardian
A checklist that actually moves your rating up from Herald:
- Practice last-hitting: aim for 40–50 creeps killed by the 10th minute.
- Glance at the minimap every few seconds — it saves you from ganks.
- Settle on a role and don't fight your teammates over the lane.
- Buy consumables and at least one or two wards per game.
- Don't die "out of nowhere": a living hero is worth more than a dead one with an item.
Rating grows from your win rate over the long run, not the number of games. It's better to play fewer matches, but focused and on your role, than to grind "on autopilot". A detailed breakdown of climbing is in the guide on how to raise MMR.
Which heroes to climb on
At Herald, pick simple heroes without complex micro-control — it's easier to focus on farming and the map that way. Don't spread yourself across the whole hero pool: a small set of practiced picks for your role gives a more predictable result than "a hero for every game".
Which heroes are strong right now and carry games most easily — see the tier list of heroes for MMR boosting. And for the breakdown of roles and what to do on each position — the guide to roles and positions.
How much MMR to Guardian
One rank in Dota 2 is about 770 MMR, and a win brings roughly +25. So to get out of Herald into Guardian you need around 31 net wins (counting losses, it'll be more matches). At low MMR the system is less sure of your level, so a win often brings more — up to +40 — and the climb frequently goes faster than this estimate: see how MMR is calculated. After that the algorithm is the same — the next step is covered in the guide on how to get out of Guardian.
The medal thresholds here are the last ones Valve published before the MMR squish of 31 July 2026; no new boundaries have been announced since. That does not change the plan — medals, stars and the order of ranks were left alone. Treat the “this many wins to the next medal” maths as a guide, not a promise: it is counted on the old scale.
| Star | From MMR |
|---|---|
| Herald 1 | 0 |
| Herald 2 | 154 |
| Herald 3 | 308 |
| Herald 4 | 462 |
| Herald 5 | 616 |
| Guardian 1 — the next medal | 770 |
Where exactly the boundaries of every medal fall — in the Dota 2 rank table.
If you want it faster
Climbing out of Herald on your own means dozens of games and time. If you don't have it (or you're sick of toxic matches and want to stop tilting), your rating can be raised by top‑1000 EU boosters: by solo boost or in coaching mode, where you play yourself and a coach points out mistakes along the way — that's closer to coaching.
Whether it's safe for your account and whether a ban is coming — an honest breakdown in the guide on whether MMR boosting is safe. Over 5 years and 8,228 orders we've had 0 bans.
