Some advice for new and newish players joining DoTa2

St3baS

St3baS

New member
(I made this same post on the myBroadband forum but I thought its relevant here as well)

Hi Guys,

I've been seeing a lot of new people joining in the awesomeness which is Dota 2 and I'd just like to give some advice for all the beginners and mediocre players out there.

First of all, Use this website : http://dota2alttab.com/ It will give you a major edge over other players that might be following the in game recommended items which in my opinion are a bit weird at times... Also this site has short guides about how each of the heroes should be played as well as giving you the skill set you should be using.

This is by no means the absolute best way in which a hero should be played but its a great starting point and I always use it with heroes I don't play often. Follow the guides and you will be a better player already.

A good read for someone new to the game is http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck ... It has all the information about how you need to approach this game and begin your journey to Dota greatness. This game can be intimidating and you may be discouraged by other players flaming you for your noobiness but the simple solution is to mute them immediately... Having said that, advice and criticism may seem like someone is bitching and moaning at you but they may very well have a valid point. Take the advice, learn from mistakes and you will become a better player much faster.

Beginners are always falling far behind in levels and as a result they get annihilated later on in the game... To stop this from happening always ALWAYS use Town portal scrolls... If you've got the 135gold to spend on it... spend it... Its literally 3 creep last hits and you've made your money back and the experience that you didn't miss out on because you were smart enough to TP back to the lane is invaluable.

This site http://skyride.org/dota-2-config-generator/ will generate a config for you that will give you some extra help and customization to your game. Some of these are really useful when starting out like the "Hero Range Indicator" ( if you set it to 1200 then a circle is drawn around your hero which will indicate the range for which you will get XP from creep deaths) and the "Show spell range" ( This will draw a line to your cursor that will indicate if you're in range to cast the spell or not ). There is an example of each of the commands on the page.

I hope this helps and I cant wait to see more South Africans in game

Represent SA: http://i.imgur.com/xgqY6.jpg
 
I've been meaning to join in but haven't even downloaded it.... I've read that "welcome to dota you suck" twice and I understand a few of the game mechanics.... As for the intimidating pro's. I'd really want to play with oke's on this forum maybe I'll join insanity and crusader :p
 
Noob question about the Town Portal scroll. How do you use it, I did buy it but then clicking on it did nothing.
 
czc said:
Noob question about the Town Portal scroll. How do you use it, I did buy it but then clicking on it did nothing.
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Haha I hope you're not trolling :) buuuut...

Click it once and then click on a building you want to TP to, you can use the minimap to make it easier. Also try get out of the habit of using your mouse to use your inventory items , rather bind your inventory to keys... I user QWER for spells and then for inventory items i use CTRL+Q CTRL+W CTRL+E for the top row and CTRL+A CTRL+S CTRL+D for the bottom row of inventory...

Also in the dota 2 options you can enable double-tap self cast so if you need to quickly townportal to your fountain or cast a healing spell on your self you just double tap the relevant key. So say you're playing dazzle and you need to quickly cast Shallow grave on your self you just need to push W W and its done.
 
JP'S said:
I've been meaning to join in but haven't even downloaded it.... I've read that "welcome to dota you suck" twice and I understand a few of the game mechanics.... As for the intimidating pro's. I'd really want to play with oke's on this forum maybe I'll join insanity and crusader :p
Click to expand...

Download, and try it out. My advice is play a couple games then go read a guide after, I found I didn't always understand what they were talking about. Also just ignore guys who tell you are are useless and stop playing (They are generally less polite about it). Screw them, if they don't want to help teach people how to play, maybe they shouldn't be queueing for a random match up?
 
Gir said:
Download, and try it out. My advice is play a couple games then go read a guide after, I found I didn't always understand what they were talking about. Also just ignore guys who tell you are are useless and stop playing (They are generally less polite about it). Screw them, if they don't want to help teach people how to play, maybe they shouldn't be queueing for a random match up?
Click to expand...

Yeah there was a few things I didn't understand..... And hence the reason why I want to play with guys from the forum most of them are good oke's. Not keyboard warriors from what I've seen
 
Also, don't just play a few games and then give up. The game only starts becoming rewarding and fun when you really start learning how it works. Dota is quite a crazy game..also, you'd think that when a game carries on for more than 60 minutes, it will become one sided and you just start pawning everybody and end the game. It actually gets even MORE intense.

Had a 102 minute game the other day where it was so tense, if any one in the team made one mistake it would be all over.

There's an insane amount of hero combos in this game and that's what makes it so difficult for new players to learn and understand the game.

Just my 2c here, but here's a few things I think all new players overlook. Things that are really, really important. And you can't blame them, because I mean, how the hell should they know all this? These things really are not apparent when you first start playing the game. There are so many set "rules" if you will, that you get used to over the years, but start taking for granted and expect everyone to know.

1) Learn what type of role your hero is. Don't just expect to play every hero like a carry. A carry is usually a high damage hero that can focus on heroes on the other team to kill them quickly while the rest of their team is distracted. There are carries, pushers, support heroes, and gankers. Play your hero role. If you have a support hero, go lane with a tank or a carry hero and let them take the farm. Don't take the farm and focus on yourself, because you're not the one that's going to be doing the killing in the late game.

2) Last hits. I see most new players go into a lane and just start auto-attacking creeps in the hopes of getting a creep kill. You have to last-hit only. The reason for this is that you don't want to creeps to push the lanes too quickly. If you auto attack the enemy creeps, you kill them quicker than the enemy kills your and the lane will push towards their tower quicker, making it easier for them to farm since the creep line will be closer to their tower. And the other reason is, the further you are from your tower in the early game, the easier it is for the enemy team to gang up on you from behind the bushes.

3) Lane calling is really important as well. You will often see people calling missing in a lane. That is to help the people in the lanes to know when the enemy heroes are missing from their lanes, on the way to go help their teammates in another lane to gang up on you. So when someone calls missing, keep your eye on the mini-map and watch out for gangbangs. If you're playing a hero that has no easy means to escape a gang, just go back to your tower and wait for all the enemy heroes to be accounted for before being brave again.

That is also why the hero going mid will usually be a carry or a ganker. They will frequently go to the rune spots to pick up the double-damage, haste or illusion runes and head to the top or bottom lane for a gang. So when mid is called missing, watch the mini-map and be sure to ward the rune spots if you're playing a support hero. Which bring me to my next point:


4) Warding. There are 2 main spots on the map where sentry wards should be placed permanently. Those 2 spots will be where the runes respawn. If you place visibility wards in that area, you will be able to see when someone is heading your way to gang up on you, and it will GREATLY help your teammate middle to know when the other hero middle is going to pick up a rune or when the enemies from the top and/or bottom lane is heading middle to take him out.

5) TP scrolls are one of the very important items in the game. Try to ALWAYS have a TP scroll on your hero. It comes in handy in many situations.

- You can use it to quickly get to a tower when the laning phase ends and the enemy team starts teamfighting. What will usually happen is people will start sticking together at about 10 mins into the game and pushing towers together. So if you're still in the top lane busy farming and see the enemy heroes dissappear and reappear middle as a team to push the tower, you can quickly TP there and help your team out.

- When your team pushes the middle lane (generally the first lane to be pushed to the base since it's the shortest lane), you can push all the way and then quickly TP back to one of the other lanes to farm a fat bunch of creeps or get to that tower just in time to deny it before the enemy creeps destroy it.

- It can be used to get away from an imminent gangbang. Say you're farming top farm from your territory and all of a sudden you see 5 guys heading your way, huffing and puffing and drooling about the fantasy of making you pop with 5 ulties, you can quickly run into the bush and TP back to your base before they reach you.

- TP scrolls can be used to TP back to the base quickly in late to defend anywhere on the map when shit gets real. Take note that you can only teleport to friendly structures, anywhere on the map. TP boots allows you to TP to any friendly unit or structure on the map, but generally only certain heroes, mainly lane pushers, end with TP boots unless the late game situation requires otherwise.

6) Couriers. You MUST have a courier in every game. Couriers are really important as they let you stay in your lane for much longer. There are certain early game items that you can buy in the side-shops in the lanes, but many items and item recipe scrolls need to be bought in the base. That's what the courier is for, to bring them to you while you can stay in the lane and continue gaining experience and getting gold from creep kills. Support heroes should always buy a courier, doesn't matter what support hero you play, always buy a courier and upgrade it to a flying courier as soon as possible because it really goes a long way. Flying couriers can fly over forest etc, effectively bringing your items to you quicker as it takes a direct path from the base to your hero. PS. Don't get your courier killed, in other words, don't leave it around anywhere besides in your fountain as it's very easy to kill and grants the entire enemy team a fat gold bonus for killing it, in addition to you having to wait more than 2 minutes to use it again or retrieve your items it was carrying when it died. There's nothing worse than your courier bringing your Black King Bar recipe to you that you desperately need to turn the tide, and then having it die.

There's a million other small things that you learn from experience, but I'm not going to go into all of them in detail right now. :D

Hope it's informative and not TLDR! :P
 
Thanks for the tips tooks... Now if I played the game I would understand half of it :P so guys if you're willing to help noobs like me pm me your steam username and I'll add you :) I'll probably be up for a few games this weekeend. AND can someone create a mygaming dota group?
 
St3baS said:
Haha I hope you're not trolling :) buuuut...

Click it once and then click on a building you want to TP to, you can use the minimap to make it easier.
Click to expand...

No trolling. :)

All I did was click the portal scroll I thought it would take me to the starting place. So I have to click a building after OK thanks.

Oh and two times I've played the Coop Bot games three people have dropped out.
 
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to0kenZA said:
Also, don't just play a few games and then give up. The game only starts becoming rewarding and fun when you really start learning how it works. Dota is quite a crazy game..also, you'd think that when a game carries on for more than 60 minutes, it will become one sided and you just start pawning everybody and end the game. It actually gets even MORE intense.

Had a 102 minute game the other day where it was so tense, if any one in the team made one mistake it would be all over.

There's an insane amount of hero combos in this game and that's what makes it so difficult for new players to learn and understand the game.

Just my 2c here, but here's a few things I think all new players overlook. Things that are really, really important. And you can't blame them, because I mean, how the hell should they know all this? These things really are not apparent when you first start playing the game. There are so many set "rules" if you will, that you get used to over the years, but start taking for granted and expect everyone to know.

1) Learn what type of role your hero is. Don't just expect to play every hero like a carry. A carry is usually a high damage hero that can focus on heroes on the other team to kill them quickly while the rest of their team is distracted. There are carries, pushers, support heroes, and gankers. Play your hero role. If you have a support hero, go lane with a tank or a carry hero and let them take the farm. Don't take the farm and focus on yourself, because you're not the one that's going to be doing the killing in the late game.

2) Last hits. I see most new players go into a lane and just start auto-attacking creeps in the hopes of getting a creep kill. You have to last-hit only. The reason for this is that you don't want to creeps to push the lanes too quickly. If you auto attack the enemy creeps, you kill them quicker than the enemy kills your and the lane will push towards their tower quicker, making it easier for them to farm since the creep line will be closer to their tower. And the other reason is, the further you are from your tower in the early game, the easier it is for the enemy team to gang up on you from behind the bushes.

3) Lane calling is really important as well. You will often see people calling missing in a lane. That is to help the people in the lanes to know when the enemy heroes are missing from their lanes, on the way to go help their teammates in another lane to gang up on you. So when someone calls missing, keep your eye on the mini-map and watch out for gangbangs. If you're playing a hero that has no easy means to escape a gang, just go back to your tower and wait for all the enemy heroes to be accounted for before being brave again.

That is also why the hero going mid will usually be a carry or a ganker. They will frequently go to the rune spots to pick up the double-damage, haste or illusion runes and head to the top or bottom lane for a gang. So when mid is called missing, watch the mini-map and be sure to ward the rune spots if you're playing a support hero. Which bring me to my next point:


4) Warding. There are 2 main spots on the map where sentry wards should be placed permanently. Those 2 spots will be where the runes respawn. If you place visibility wards in that area, you will be able to see when someone is heading your way to gang up on you, and it will GREATLY help your teammate middle to know when the other hero middle is going to pick up a rune or when the enemies from the top and/or bottom lane is heading middle to take him out.

5) TP scrolls are one of the very important items in the game. Try to ALWAYS have a TP scroll on your hero. It comes in handy in many situations.

- You can use it to quickly get to a tower when the laning phase ends and the enemy team starts teamfighting. What will usually happen is people will start sticking together at about 10 mins into the game and pushing towers together. So if you're still in the top lane busy farming and see the enemy heroes dissappear and reappear middle as a team to push the tower, you can quickly TP there and help your team out.

- When your team pushes the middle lane (generally the first lane to be pushed to the base since it's the shortest lane), you can push all the way and then quickly TP back to one of the other lanes to farm a fat bunch of creeps or get to that tower just in time to deny it before the enemy creeps destroy it.

- It can be used to get away from an imminent gangbang. Say you're farming top farm from your territory and all of a sudden you see 5 guys heading your way, huffing and puffing and drooling about the fantasy of making you pop with 5 ulties, you can quickly run into the bush and TP back to your base before they reach you.

- TP scrolls can be used to TP back to the base quickly in late to defend anywhere on the map when shit gets real. Take note that you can only teleport to friendly structures, anywhere on the map. TP boots allows you to TP to any friendly unit or structure on the map, but generally only certain heroes, mainly lane pushers, end with TP boots unless the late game situation requires otherwise.

6) Couriers. You MUST have a courier in every game. Couriers are really important as they let you stay in your lane for much longer. There are certain early game items that you can buy in the side-shops in the lanes, but many items and item recipe scrolls need to be bought in the base. That's what the courier is for, to bring them to you while you can stay in the lane and continue gaining experience and getting gold from creep kills. Support heroes should always buy a courier, doesn't matter what support hero you play, always buy a courier and upgrade it to a flying courier as soon as possible because it really goes a long way. Flying couriers can fly over forest etc, effectively bringing your items to you quicker as it takes a direct path from the base to your hero. PS. Don't get your courier killed, in other words, don't leave it around anywhere besides in your fountain as it's very easy to kill and grants the entire enemy team a fat gold bonus for killing it, in addition to you having to wait more than 2 minutes to use it again or retrieve your items it was carrying when it died. There's nothing worse than your courier bringing your Black King Bar recipe to you that you desperately need to turn the tide, and then having it die.

There's a million other small things that you learn from experience, but I'm not going to go into all of them in detail right now. :D

Hope it's informative and not TLDR! :P
Click to expand...

Tsk tsk sky....After reading your bio, still cant believe you left this humorous thing.
Raging creep, even vets of dota sometimes forget that if you attack a hero, the enemy creep will attack you immediately, Creep base damages are pretty huge compared to your lvl 1 hero.

So many times I have seen the auto attack type players stop their auto attack and jump to the enemy hero and get pooned by the creep, remember there are 4 melee creep that do tons of damage and a ranged one that does alot of damage too.

Players should honestly only engage(Except Axe, having raged creeps is an advantage) the enemy team if they have successfully got out of range of the creep as to prevent raging creeps.
 
ArchieChoke said:
Tsk tsk sky....After reading your bio, still cant believe you left this humorous thing.
Raging creep, even vets of dota sometimes forget that if you attack a hero, the enemy creep will attack you immediately, Creep base damages are pretty huge compared to your lvl 1 hero.

So many times I have seen the auto attack type players stop their auto attack and jump to the enemy hero and get pooned by the creep, remember there are 4 melee creep that do tons of damage and a ranged one that does alot of damage too.

Players should honestly only engage(Except Axe, having raged creeps is an advantage) the enemy team if they have successfully got out of range of the creep as to prevent raging creeps.
Click to expand...

Also aggro'ing the creep means that your creeps hit their creeps more then they're hitting yours, meaning that you're gonna push the lane.

If you push the lane, you're gonna have a baaaad time.
 
to0kenZA said:
Also, don't just play a few games and then give up.
Click to expand...

This! I'm not very good but at the start it was a nightmare, once you get the basics its loads of fun.

I think the most fundamental thing is don't feed! Which is basically, don't die often, this is not death match where dying is just a point for the other team, it impacts hugely how much gold the other team has and how much you don't have. When starting out, its better to hold back and not get killed than push to hard in trying to get last hits (You still get exp if you close enough to enemy creeps being killed). Just feel it out until you feel comfortable.
 
I played the original DOTA for a long time and then moved over to HON. I tried DOTA2 but if feels so slow. It feels like they made it more the speed of LOL so it caters for wider range of people. Think I will stick to HON for now.
 
Yeah, just a few extra points on what was said after my initial post:

Being close to the enemy creeps and then attacking the enemy heroes will initiate "creep aggro" which means they will attack you. Even if you just right click or attack move and click on the enemy without even hitting them once already, they will start attacking you. This could be used to your advantage though by causing the creeps to follow you back a bit, pushing through your line of creeps. Rinse and repeat and you can pull them back.

Forest pulling is another story though, but that can be taught easier over TS.

Some heroes have activated attacks like Drow's frost arrow. If you right click on her frost arrow ability (active attack), she automatically shoots only frost arrows. But you can also press Q once and left click on the enemy hero to shoot one targeted frost arrow for instance. Now, harassing heroes like this, in other words, shooting them with frost arrows won't cause creep aggro so that's a really awesome way to harass without getting hit by the creeps and causing creep aggro.

Other heroes with activated attacks for example is Silencer, Obsidian Destroyer, Clinkz, Enchantress (Ulti Lvl 6) and many more, but you will notice which ranged heroes have activated attacks as you learn the game :).

Also, czc, if you double click the TP scroll, it will automatically TP you back the fountain. :)

Othello said:
I played the original DOTA for a long time and then moved over to HON. I tried DOTA2 but if feels so slow. It feels like they made it more the speed of LOL so it caters for wider range of people. Think I will stick to HON for now.
Click to expand...

Well, DotA has always been like it is now. It was the original DotA game and Hon and LoL are noth based on Dota, but modified versions of it. HoN is more arcady and faster. And also looks like shit compared to Dota 2 :P.

So in the end it depends on you which brand of Dota you like. Personally I like DotA more than the others because it's much more tactical and depends quite heavily on your decisions, unlike where in HoN you can get owned hard in the beginning but still make a comeback. Way too arcady for me :P.
 
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to0kenZA said:
Well, DotA has always been like it is now. It was the original DotA game and Hon and LoL are noth based on Dota, but modified versions of it. HoN is more arcady and faster. And also looks like shit compared to Dota 2 :P.

So in the end it depends on you which brand of Dota you like. Personally I like DotA more than the others because it's much more tactical and depends quite heavily on your decisions, unlike where in HoN you can get owned hard in the beginning but still make a comeback. Way too arcady for me :P.
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Yes it feels more arcady but you definitly cant make a comeback once you stuffed up. :)
Not if you playing against guys who know what they doing. I think I like HON because it is more the speed of the original DOTA which also has an arcady feel to it.
 
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