Dismissing synergies is a game mechanic that you will need to get familiar with and understand in order to progress to and succeed in the high rank lobbies. This guide will explain to you the reasoning behind dismissing as well as give some common examples of bans for the most played builds

As you are learning how to play, you can use these most common bans as a guide, but as you get better at the game, you will also learn that you shouldn’t follow them blindly

When you dismiss a species/class, it simply means that those units won’t be available to you anymore - you will no longer see those units in the shop and they will no longer drop from Pandaren units



For example, banning aqirs means Broodmother, Sand King and Veno will no longer show up
when rolling in the shop. It would also be impossible for any of them or Nyx to drop from Panda if there were one on the board

Dismissing species/classes is an essential part of the game which newer players tend to overlook unless they get the Gaoler’s Key relic. In high level lobbies, players will dismiss 19 games out of 20. It is especially important if you are going for a ‘reroll comp’ - that is to say, you want to 3* multiple 1-3$ units.

By spending money on dismissing before rolling, you are investing gold in the short-term in order to save money in the long-term. For example, you might spend 10 gold dismissing, but if your ban is a good one, seeing more of the units you want in the shop will save you more than 10 gold in the long-term

There are two ways to dismiss:

1) Hit this button and choose what you would like to dismiss from the list:



This will take you to the following menu and you can choose what to dismiss; if the number is in red, it means that you currently don’t have enough money for this ban:



This is the quickest/easiest if you already know what you want to ban

2) Open the list of class/species



This will take you to the following menu and you can choose what to dismiss; if the number is in red, it means that you currently don’t have enough money for this ban:



This option is better for comparing if you are still considering what to ban as you can see how many of each synergy there are for each cost

When to ban is quite simple - when you have decided what build you would like to play and when you can dismiss without going below 40 gold. As a general rule, you can see below when you should decide on what build you are going

There are a number of factors to take into consideration when dismissing:

1. The cost of the units you are rolling for
   
2. The price of the dismiss
   
3. What others are playing
   
4. What others have dismissed

1) The cost of the units you are rolling for

You want to dismiss a synergy that has a high number of units equal to what you are rolling for.

For example, if you are playing a 3$ comp like Meepo/SF, you would usually level to 6 and ban aqirs. This would be around round 15. An aqir ban takes two of the 3$ units out of the pool for only 8 gold and since you will be looking for almost exclusively 3$ units - Meepo/SF/Razor/Undying/Riki - this is a perfect example of an efficient dismissal.

2) The price of the dismissal is important, too.

If you are rolling for Meepo/SF, Elves would be a ‘better’ dismiss since there are 3 units 3$, but you would also have to spend 22 gold, so it is not worth it compared to aqirs

Similarly, sometimes the price of the ban changes according to the legendary pool - an Orc ban can be 8, 10 or 12 gold depending on whether Warlock/Disruptor are in the pool

For late comps, it is most common to ban Ogres/Taurens since they are cheap bans and remove one 4$ unit and (if ET is in the pool) a 5$ unit

3) What others are playing

If someone is rolling for units you probably don’t need to ban them as they won’t show up as frequently for you anyway. For example, if you want to play Faceless 2$, the most common ban is Nagas. If there is a player going for elemental assassins - planning to max Slark and Naga - banning nagas doesn’t make sense since there will be far fewer in the pool anyway

If you think people will go dragons, nagas also becomes less attractive as a ban since you might need them later (thought you can always remove your ban for free later)

4) What others have dismissed

If two other player have dismissed knights, the likelihood of knights showing up in your rolls is much higher, so banning knights - if at all relevant to what you are rolling - would make sense too, even if in another lobby or at another time it would seem a bad ban

2$ Faceless Void Comp

In this build, you are only rolling for 2$ units: Faceless Void, Ogre Magi, Timbersaw, Beastmaster + Morph (sometimes Puck instead of Morphling and you can include Sniper too)

An efficient ban for this is Naga since it takes out two heroes from the pool for 8 or 10 gold (depending if Tide Hunter is in)

In this game from Serbian Butcher, he decides to play 2$ Faceless with march and dismisses nagas immediately on round 12; when he realises he needs to play 6 nagas, he removes the dismissal on round 35


DieLikeZombie uses key to play 2$ Faceless here - dismissing Elves on Round 11:


Troll/Demon Hunters Comp

In this build you are only rolling for 1$ units in the beginning:

Witch Doctor, Shadow Shaman, Dazzle, Anti Mage, Vengeful Spirit - later Naga Siren/Lion/Terrorblade

A good ban for this is Goblins since you remove 3 1$ units and a 2$ unit making finding your units very easy - the ban is expensive, but worth it since you can max your units somewhere between round 14 and 18 and put the rest of your gold into leveling

Check out DieLikeZombie - he dismisses Goblins on round 11:


Or Serbian Butcher dismissing Goblins on round 12 as soon as he can dismiss without going below 40 gold:


Terrorblade Aqirs

In the TB Aqirs build, you are rolling for the following units on 6 or 7 slots:
1$: Enchantress
2$: Furion
3$: Treant, Terrorblade, Venomancer, Sand King (if no Brood)
4$: Brood (if no Sand King), Lone Druid, Monkey King
Here, you have a couple of options:
1) Nagas - an efficent ban since it removes a variety of units and Nagas is a common ban for other builds, so more efficient



2) Priests - similar to Nagas if Tide not in and also potentially a better ban if Dragons are in the pool since you won't need to remove it later



3) Satyr/Kobold (when Arc not in pool) - I don't like this ban since it only removes one unit and you will be rolling hard for units



You can see DLZ dismissing Nagas at round 16 as soon as he has decided what build he wants to go: