As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[DotA 2]You have triggered a hidden mine!
milski
Poyo!Registered User regular
Poyo!Registered User regular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSFPIwMEq4What is this Dota you speak of?
Defense of the Ancents was originally created in Warcraft 3 by the mapmaker Eul, and was based off of the Starcraft custom game Aeon of Strife. When WC3: The Frozen Throne was released Eul stopped updating the map, which then caused a flood of different varients to appear across battle.net. Among them was DotA Allstars, which was created by Guinsoo, which became main version that we have today. During Guinsoos time, Pendragon came along and made dota-allstars.com in reponse to the need for a main dedicated website for the growing community. With version 6.01, Guinsoo passed authorship off to Icefrog, who started adding new heroes, items, mechanics and fixes, and still runs the game to this day.
Guinsoo and Pendragon would later go on to work at Riot and help create League of Legends, while Icefrog and Eul would go on to work at Valve and are now working on Dota 2.
Dota 2 is the sequel to that popular Warcraft 3 custom game that has since spawned an entire genre with the likes of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. If you have played either of those games then you have a basic idea of how things work.
Gameplay remains true to the original Dota, but takes advantage of everything the source engine and Steam have to offer. Besides better graphics, this means things like reconnecting, being able to spectate any match currently in progress even while waiting in que for matchmaking, and no longer having this happen to you
New to the game and want to learn? The following links will get you started. Dota has a massive learning curve, so you wont learn everything here, but it should be enough to get you on your feet.
(Credit for this list actually goes to Gully State over on Gaf.)
First
First Watch 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akUNmFAzS98
Map Guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QaEuQHSHk
Then read http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akUNmFAzS98Map Guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QaEuQHSHkThen read http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck
Second (Warning, these are long.)
How to spend starting gold 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6XM4MlYts&feature=relmfu
Laning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54g5ej4NAek
Item Summary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9-qHJGIUvU
Warding for map vision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgNHEEUmQYI&list=FLj7gHItNuttevJnGS6YSQuQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6XM4MlYts&feature=relmfuLaning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54g5ej4NAekItem Summary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9-qHJGIUvUWarding for map vision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgNHEEUmQYI&list=FLj7gHItNuttevJnGS6YSQuQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video"Hey, I'm freaking amazing at LoL so I should be good at this too, right?"
Not exactly. While at their core they are similar, there are some some key differences that make the meta/feel/pace different. Some of these include things like the way carry heroes work, denying, gold loss on death, towers behaving differently, runes, a larger map, a str/agi/int based stat system, more active/useable items, and more.
Heroes & Items
There are currently 112 heroes in Dota, with 105 of the heroes playable in DotA 2. There is little indication of what new heroes will be released and when, but all heroes are intended to be ported to DotA 2 at some point.
Current hero pool: http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Heroes
Items: http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Items
Curious what heroes are on their way? http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Unreleased_Content
Other Useful Links
http://blog.dota2.com
http://www.joindota.com/en/start
Announcement art (also in the valve store as posters)
OP originally by Skab.
I ate an engineer
milski on
+3
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Steam: adamjnet
Steam: adamjnet
Steam: adamjnet
In general realize you will be broke, a lot. Good games like my last one you will be smothered in cash but don't go crazy till you have your basic support goods.
1.Courier, if you are buying tell your team. By 3 minutes you should have enough gold through the normal tick up to get the flying courier if no one else has.
2.My lion tends to start with 1xward, 1xcourier, 1xironwood branch, 1xtango and 1xsalve. Ward the rune for your lane(top or bot). I prefer going bottom, the ward there can be double or triple duty for protecting from ganks. Learning ward placement takes time, watch purger's video and some pros if you want.
3.First on purchase list is just brown boots. If you are getting kills, and you can with Lion, you can get your treads up early otherwise gold goes to a mek and wards after brown boots.
4.Watch the map. Keep at least river around your carry warded. Don't steal farm. Deny for your carry so he can focus on last hitting and go ahead and annoying the enemy. A few right clicks can push back most pubs.
5.Watch where you are, you die fast. Supports are squishy early and even late.
Other supports I like are CM and Dazzle. CM has a nice stun and Dazzle is my bro. I also have a deep love for Shadow Shaman. He can set up and perform ganks on his own with his disable and wards. As Lion and SS I have shut down tons of carries because they didn't get their bkb to stop my hex. This works really well against bad Ursas and Lycans.
Other thing is don't freak if you die in team fights. Better you are dead than that anti-mage that just disintergrated three people and you kept up by the mek.
Here is probably one of my best lion games to date. I actually warded. But we also blew the crap out of the enemy.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/459672927
I have a 2 hour flight (each way) to and from work every week. I would live to watch some replays of pro games on my iPad air on the plane.
Does anyone know of a way to download those replays and store then locally on my iPad to watch?
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
This looks like a nonshady way to download twitch VoDs, but I've never used it myself, so I can't speak for it's legitimacy.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
You are going to be broke, and for the most part, unappreciated. Until you start getting higher in skill level, you're going to need to be the guy that carries EVERYTHING. Enemy team has riki, bh or clinkz - you'll probably need to be the guy that buys dust because no one else will. Once you get 6, or your ganker gets 6, try and roam around with the ganker if your safe lane thinks he'll be safe enough for you to do so. You, as the support, need to be involved in as many ganks as you can imo so you can get money for other items. If you happen to have the stun or buffs Venge/Ogre have, then it makes it all that much better.
Don't be upset if you die in team fights, but at the same time, don't die and then shrug it off as "I'm a support, I can die it doesn't matter".
Supporting in 4 or 5 slot is my favorite role in games. It just sucks when your carries or gankers can't get the job done.
Said it before but : Good supports win games, bad carries lose them.
Playing supports in pubs is the worst . The average player spams - We need wards- all game, bitches that you are not carrying dust/smoke/tp's/Mek's/smoke by the +/- 10 minute mark (after buying and upgrading courier, of course) and god forbid you ever take a last hit (even if there is no way the could make the hit) . If you are in lane you should have been stacking/pulling. If you are stacking/pulling, you should have been in lane to give the carry room. You lose the game? Prepare to be blamed because you are 2-12 and 7 levels behind everyone.
I heap praise on even mediocre support because it's a thankless role. And I am terrible at it.
And Rupture is glorious: enemy low on HP and trying to get away? Rupture! Melee hero chasing you down? Rupture! There were so many times last night when I'd swoop down on an enemy and be like, "Yeah, get ruptured, bitch!"
So awesome.
My favorite moment last night was when a Pudge rolled up on me while I had about 25% health: he came out of nowhere, and I really wasn't ready for him. I hit him with a Rupture, which took him down below 50%, granting me enough of a movement speed bonus to get away from him. Then I remembered he could Meat Hook me back toward him, so I turned and hit him with Bloodrage to lock him out of his spells for a few seconds. Totally saved my ass.
He's about as bad at jungling as a hero can be while still doing it in any capacity. He's very slow compared to a true jungler and very weak while he's doing it, leaving you highly vulnerable to enemies invading your jungle and killing you.
If you really want to jungle and then transition into semi-carry, Enchantress is a great jungle starter and Lifestealer can do it pretty well. Lone Druid can also jungle (although his lane presence is so good it's almost a crime to relegate him to jungle).
I will say this: I think jungling when you first start playing the game is a mistake. I started out doing this and the result was that it took me a long time to get comfortable in lane and my instincts were really under-developed for how many games I had played. I think you're much better out starting off laning and eventually starting to jungle once you have a better developed sense of the game.
But that aside, hooray! I'm so glad you are enjoying this fine game
e: Also Enigma, who requires a tadddd bit of micro to force Edalon splits, but overall is fun to play and powerful having a game changer ult.
I keep seeing this. Is Moment of Courage really that good for jungling?
Yes. It is really good. So is Press the Attack (which is actually the first point you should take).
For pubs, early on in your dota career, you can play just about anything and make it work. If you're having fun with it and being successful, than go with it. Bloodseeker can work in the jungle and in new pub games, being hyper efficient in there isn't necessary.
@ Milk, just be aware that you probably want to transition to other jungle heroes as you move up the skill bracket. Bloodseeker is always viable, but if you play him more you'll notice there's a big gaping problem in his kit.
Do you start with clarities on her, then? Or get like early jungle bottle or something similar to keep up with the mana cost of Press the Attack?
I'll definitely check out other heroes. I like jungling a lot. I'm just surprised to hear that everyone thinks Bloodseeker's bad; I feel like he has everything I'd ever want in a hero -- movement speed (if there are multiple heroes below 50% on the map, he moves about as quickly as I can scroll the screen along), lifeleech (on kills and through items), a means to buff his damage or deny enemies from using their abilities, and rupture, which is ... honestly, everything I'd ever want in an ability, lol.
if you haven't played the dota2support RPG you are missing out:
http://www.mittsies.pensandtales.com/mitt_tumblr/DOTARPG.swf
This. Carry a tp scroll pre-skull basher and he has no way to prevent you form tp'ing and usually does not have the mojo to kill you in the 3 second's it take to get away. Don't get me wrong, he is a good hero and can chase like a mofo but rupture really loses most of it's effectiveness when people realize they just have to stop moving and learn positioning.
Speedy Gonzales bloodseaker is hilarious though. Try playing him mid. Against most mid's that lack a strong nuke he can just last hit away and can't be harassed out of lane. A quick tip : do not silence enemy right clickers like Phantom Assassin. I found that out the hard way!
The problem with LC jungling is that you're still reasonably vulnerable if you get interrupted, you're somewhat-significantly RNG dependent, and the "fast six" you get is barely faster than if you were in a duo lane, while throwing an entire lane to the wolves and having the worst possible skill build for ganking (any points in E besides the first one are worse for duel DPS than a point in stats unless you have more than 100 damage).
If LC could jungle while still taking Q, she might be alright, but the skills you have to put points in to jungle sustainably are not the ones that make her a ganking terror.
As for BS: He's a hero that relies almost entirely on ignorance of how his kit works to be successful. Once you know how his skills work, really only his silence is the only skill he can make use of without easy counters. Bloodbath punishes low pressure lanes but if he's first pointed it there's no reason you can't easily trade hits with him, his E punishes people being dumb enough to sit so low the lane should probably kill them anyway, and his ult has easy counters in "TP out" and "just don't move because BS isn't going to kill you with AAs anyway."
Tiny + Veno
Tiny + anything with a slow or stun really.
*edit* As we speak, I am about to start laning with 'NiggaKing'. But hey, at least he bought wards.
Steam: adamjnet
Steam: adamjnet
Are people juggling him still or laning? He felt pretty weak in the jungle at least u til like 8 or so.
Thanks, man. I've been meaning to give Venomancer a try, anyway.
It is partially the team aspect. Leads to raging. Plus the old WC3 community being full of what you are describing.
Do your part, report geese and judicial use of the mute button.
Feel free to add my to play games, btw. I actually really, really suck but I at least buy wards and don't do dicks on the map.
Steam - Minty D. Vision!
Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision
Steam: adamjnet
I feel you. Just got out of a game as magnus. We were rolling early game, our SF wracking up kills. I decide I'll split push to help end it. Nope, team wants to dive against a warlock and dark seer. They wipe. It's my fault I wasn't there to wipe with them. Next team fight I go with them. Blink in, charge, ult, SF comes too, everyone is getting low. Disruptor puts his ult and cage down well outside of anything and gets dueled by LC, who has a bkb up. Repeat that exact same situation a couple more times. "gg report magnus" calls and yelling in spanish over the mic from disruptor, I guess it's my fault he sucks? Other team mounts a massive comeback almost exclusively on the back of legion getting fat off duel wins with disruptor. I guess I should get ready for low-prio queuing though, cause he was with his friends.
You won't get low-pri'ed for people reporting you for being "bad".