How To Lock Camera In Dota 2

Due to the nature of Dota 2 being a MOBA game, players are normally expected to control their own cameras, as there are more things to look at apart from what is directly in front of you, such as other heroes or lanes in the game. 

However, controlling the camera manually can be quite a daunting task for new players who aren’t used to the complexity of Dota 2 yet. Fortunately, there is a camera control method for beginners to use their camera efficiently, the camera lock, which can guide them through the early learning curves of the game

If you’ve seen professional Dota 2 players on their live streams, you might notice that they are clicking all over their screens and looking at different lanes in a matter of a second. This can be quite confusing for a new player, which is why the camera lock method is preferred. 

As the method’s name suggests, the camera lock allows players to lock their in-game cameras on their heroes, ensuring their screen always follows the path of their own hero. This system allows new players to focus on what is at hand, and not worry about additional mouse movements solely for controlling the camera.

Dota 2 is widely considered one of the hardest competitive games to learn and get into, as there is an abundance of mechanics new players must familiarize themselves with. With such a steep learning curve, it is best for new players to have some mechanics removed from their plate.

Controlling the camera can be quite difficult for newer players to get used to, as it will take up focus. Therefore, not having to manually control your camera will simplify the game and reduce cognitive load, allowing players to easily track their hero’s positions while navigating the map. 

Overall, the camera lock method allows new players to become comfortable with their hero’s movements and helps with the ease of learning

There are three ways to lock your Dota 2 camera on your hero. Let’s go over all the methods.

You can click on this hero portrait twice, and the game will lock the camera on your hero. However, if your cursor moves out of your camera lock range, the locking will end, and you’ll have to double-click your hero portrait again. This method is easy, but quite unreliable.

If you want a more reliable method of camera locking, you can tweak your in-game settings. We’re going to mess with two things.

First, we must ensure we have a hotkey set for the “Select Hero” action:

1. Open your Dota 2 settings, and go to the “Hotkeys” section.
2. Under “Unit Actions” look for the “Select Hero” action.
3. Ensure you have a hotkey set to this action.

Normally, players will use F1 or 1 key for this action. 

Now that the hotkey is set and ready, we’re going to change our camera options:

1. In your Dota 2 settings page, go to the “Options” section.
2. Under the “Camera” settings, remove “Edge Pan” and check the “Hold Select Hero to Follow” option.

Doing the second step will disable edge panning, meaning your camera lock will not break if your cursor goes to the edge of your screen. This means your camera lock will be very consistent and will not break.

The third step isn’t the most popular one, but is also something you can try out. However, the steps for it are a little more complicated, so bear with us. Just like Counter-Strike, Dota 2 also allows its players to open the developer console and enter certain commands. There is a command that will help us with the camera locking option, so we’re going to use that. 

First, we must enable the console. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Exit Dota 2 and open your Steam Library.
2. Right-click Dota 2 and click the “Properties” button.
3. In the “General” section, look for “Launch Options”.
4. In the box under “Launch Options,” type in “-console”.
5. Once you have completed the steps, you may exit the menu and relaunch Dota 2.

Now that the console is enabled, we can run the game client and input the camera lock command:

1. Open your developer console by clicking the “\” key. 
2. Enter the command “bind [KEY] toggle dota_camera_lock”
3. You can set the key to whichever keyboard button you find comfortable.

Once you have set the bind, you can toggle camera lock on and off by pressing the assigned hotkey. This allows you to quickly lock your camera when you want it to follow your hero, and unlock it to see other parts of the map.

In conclusion, we highly recommend camera lock as your primary way of controlling the camera in your early Dota 2 days. However, you must eventually use other camera control methods such as edge panning or scroll wheel clicking.