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![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/disciple/Dota/TH_copy.jpg)
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It's been awesome to read Flamewheel and Bumblebee's Dota2 blogs, but there's one problem. I don't understand half of it. Prior to getting a beta key from Heyoka with a promise to blog about it, I had never played a single game of Dota. My entire experience with the game—and the genre as a whole—was watching The Invitational and ESWC, and talking with some more experienced friends about it.
My first and only hero so far has been Nature's Prophet. Immediately, Bumblebee let me know that this was a poor choice; Nature's Prophet is considered among the harder heroes to learn at the beginning. But Nature's Prophet appeals to me for two reasons, first, he's a tree hugger, and second he left a strong impression on me in The Invitational, as iceiceice seemed to dominate with him in an overall losing effort. Many dota heroes look like they take themselves too seriously, but Nature's Prophet just looks like he doesn't give a damn.
![[image loading]](/staff/treehugger/DOTA2NaturesProphet.jpg)
My first few games were custom games, first with no computer heroes, and then with full computer heroes once I figured out how to add them in. After playing a bunch of those games, I finally was brave enough to try the custom games. My first four times, we lost, but in the fifth, I played decently, and had the fortune of excellent allies. Our team dominated, losing only one tower and securing my first ever dota2 victory.
This blog is a strategy guide, but it's for people who are new to the game, who perhaps know how dota works in general terms (for some more help, check out Bumblebee's basics blog), but have no idea of how to really play it. It addresses five really important—but by no means intuitive—concepts that I've learned in playing my handful of custom games and ranked matches. But I think this might also be a good read for more experienced players. To the outsider, Dota2 looks impossibly hard. There are infinity heroes, infinity items for those heroes, infinity random stats, and a notoriously angry and noob-unfriendly community. For a new Sc2 player, you have Day9, the TL strategy forum, and bronze league. In Dota2, it's impossible to know where to begin. That's where veterans need to come in to create that content. But sometimes when you're on the inside, it's hard to know what is and isn't apparent to a new player. And that's where this blog might be helpful.
Oh, and I have a key to give out. See the end of the thread for details!
Here's what I've learned so far:
#1. You don't want your creep to "win"
#2. Spending your money well is important
#3. The minimap is your friend
#4. Pay attention to the chat... sometimes
#5. HOLY FUCK DON'T DIE
#1. You don't want your creep to "win"
In my first custom game without computers, I charged out of the gate with my Nature's Prophet, picked a lane, and started killing stuff. It took a couple waves, but we overcame the first tier one tower and started pushing to the tier two tower. We killed that and then I ported to a different lane and repeated the process. After all the towers were down, I wasted no time in charging into the opponent's base and attacking those towers. And eventually, piece by piece, I led my swarming creep minions to victory.
Sadly for me, that's not really how dota works. One important thing I didn't realize for a long time was that it's never important for the minions ("creeps") in your part of the map ("lane") to win their little battle. In fact, you'd much prefer them to draw. That's because early game, it's much more important that you use the opening skirmishes to gain experience and gold, not to kill a tower. The faster and more efficiently you gain experience and gold from these battles, the stronger you'll become in a shorter amount of time, and the faster the opponents towers will fall in the long run.
What that means, is disabling auto-attack in your settings, and instead just sitting behind creep battles doing nothing. The important thing that I didn't realize was that the only hit that counts on an enemy unit is the last hit. It's much better to wait around until an enemy unit gets low, and then to time it so that your blow is the killing one. If you auto-attack or do damage outside of the final hit, than your minions will win the battle more decisively, run forward, and get slaughtered by the enemy tower and the next group of creep from the opponent. When you add the enemy heroes into the equation, the importance is obvious. If you stray too far from the safety of your own tower and begin to push into your opponent's territory, than you stand a much greater chance of being surprised and killed off.
A second thing to mention, something that really drives this point home, is the idea of denying creep. Your opponent is also hoping to get experience and gold by killing your creeps. So because you basically have no sympathy for your own troops, it's a clever trick to make sure to get the last hit on your own minions as well. Doing this denies (that's what it's called) your opponent from getting the gold and experience they need. Therefore, playing effectively in a lane means more than just finishing off your opponent's minions, it also means cruelly killing your own to deny them to the enemy.
In my first custom game without computers, I charged out of the gate with my Nature's Prophet, picked a lane, and started killing stuff. It took a couple waves, but we overcame the first tier one tower and started pushing to the tier two tower. We killed that and then I ported to a different lane and repeated the process. After all the towers were down, I wasted no time in charging into the opponent's base and attacking those towers. And eventually, piece by piece, I led my swarming creep minions to victory.
Sadly for me, that's not really how dota works. One important thing I didn't realize for a long time was that it's never important for the minions ("creeps") in your part of the map ("lane") to win their little battle. In fact, you'd much prefer them to draw. That's because early game, it's much more important that you use the opening skirmishes to gain experience and gold, not to kill a tower. The faster and more efficiently you gain experience and gold from these battles, the stronger you'll become in a shorter amount of time, and the faster the opponents towers will fall in the long run.
What that means, is disabling auto-attack in your settings, and instead just sitting behind creep battles doing nothing. The important thing that I didn't realize was that the only hit that counts on an enemy unit is the last hit. It's much better to wait around until an enemy unit gets low, and then to time it so that your blow is the killing one. If you auto-attack or do damage outside of the final hit, than your minions will win the battle more decisively, run forward, and get slaughtered by the enemy tower and the next group of creep from the opponent. When you add the enemy heroes into the equation, the importance is obvious. If you stray too far from the safety of your own tower and begin to push into your opponent's territory, than you stand a much greater chance of being surprised and killed off.
A second thing to mention, something that really drives this point home, is the idea of denying creep. Your opponent is also hoping to get experience and gold by killing your creeps. So because you basically have no sympathy for your own troops, it's a clever trick to make sure to get the last hit on your own minions as well. Doing this denies (that's what it's called) your opponent from getting the gold and experience they need. Therefore, playing effectively in a lane means more than just finishing off your opponent's minions, it also means cruelly killing your own to deny them to the enemy.
#2. Spending your money properly is really important
In starcraft, the best way to improve your game, almost no matter what level you play at, is to spend your money better. In my first few games of dota, I had no idea of what items to buy, and so I just bought random ones, or else saved up absurd amounts of gold for a cool looking item I had spotted in the shop. This strategy lead me to being terribly equipped at some stage of the game; either in the beginning if I was saving, or in the end if I had bought too much.
In dota, item purchases are similar to a build order in starcraft. There's at least a loose progression that needs to be followed, and not doing so will give you issues. These builds are not things you'll find on your own, find someone who knows what they're talking about and consult them about this. Dota2 has a recommended items feature, accessed by clicking the side-ways question mark when you open the shop, but that can only get you so far. Guides like Flamewheel's are particularly useful in that regard. But in general in the early game, you need to be buying items so that you can keep pace and collect more gold in the late game, and then buy the better items.
It took me a while to get into the mindset of even remembering my gold. I would get caught up in running around the map killing stuff, that I wouldn't usually remember to check how much gold I had. The same is often true of beginners in starcraft. But with dota, I had to retrain the mentality that I was getting gold to buy a specific thing, and then to remember to buy that thing the moment I had the right amount.
One final note is about town portal scrolls. Playing NP, I don't really need a TP scroll. But if you don't play NP, I understand these are pretty important! Mobility is always a good thing to have. Plan on spending at least some of your early game money on health and mana regen items, and then remember to buy TP scrolls in the midgame.
In starcraft, the best way to improve your game, almost no matter what level you play at, is to spend your money better. In my first few games of dota, I had no idea of what items to buy, and so I just bought random ones, or else saved up absurd amounts of gold for a cool looking item I had spotted in the shop. This strategy lead me to being terribly equipped at some stage of the game; either in the beginning if I was saving, or in the end if I had bought too much.
In dota, item purchases are similar to a build order in starcraft. There's at least a loose progression that needs to be followed, and not doing so will give you issues. These builds are not things you'll find on your own, find someone who knows what they're talking about and consult them about this. Dota2 has a recommended items feature, accessed by clicking the side-ways question mark when you open the shop, but that can only get you so far. Guides like Flamewheel's are particularly useful in that regard. But in general in the early game, you need to be buying items so that you can keep pace and collect more gold in the late game, and then buy the better items.
It took me a while to get into the mindset of even remembering my gold. I would get caught up in running around the map killing stuff, that I wouldn't usually remember to check how much gold I had. The same is often true of beginners in starcraft. But with dota, I had to retrain the mentality that I was getting gold to buy a specific thing, and then to remember to buy that thing the moment I had the right amount.
One final note is about town portal scrolls. Playing NP, I don't really need a TP scroll. But if you don't play NP, I understand these are pretty important! Mobility is always a good thing to have. Plan on spending at least some of your early game money on health and mana regen items, and then remember to buy TP scrolls in the midgame.
#3. The minimap is your friend
Another starcraft skill that needs to be remembered in dota is paying close attention to the minimap. In my first couple games, I didn't really have a use for the minimap. Dota2 can often feel more like an individual game. When you're focusing on doing your little thing on your part of the map, casting spells and killing creep, earning gold and leveling up, it's not obvious that you need to be also paying attention to your faraway teammates.
But because dota is a team game, the minimap is your connection to your team. It's constantly telling you important details like how different lanes are doing, which enemy heroes your team can see, and the placement of your own team. Keeping an eye on the minimap will let you know when you need to be worried about getting ambushed ("ganked") because the opposing heroes are gone from the map. It lets you know if and where your teammates are gathering, or whether they're pushing a lane, killing randomly generated creeps in the forest ("jungle"), purchasing items and recouping health back home, or attempting to gank an opposing player.
It's also really important to be aware when a player pings a place on the map. This is done by holding down Alt and Left Clicking a location on the map or the minimap. When you do this, it makes a sound for your teammates and calls attention to the pinged area with a little exclamation point graphic. Usually, allies ping places to point out lanes of yours that are losing badly, or to point out that Roshan (see Bumblebee's blog) should be killed, or might be in the process of being killed by the opposing side.
Finally, the minimap is useful to move around. Dota is played on a large map, and to navigate your camera around it, it's necessary to use the minimap. I've found it useful to remember to take a second to check out what the minimap is telling me every time I use it to teleport somewhere or move to a far away location.
Another starcraft skill that needs to be remembered in dota is paying close attention to the minimap. In my first couple games, I didn't really have a use for the minimap. Dota2 can often feel more like an individual game. When you're focusing on doing your little thing on your part of the map, casting spells and killing creep, earning gold and leveling up, it's not obvious that you need to be also paying attention to your faraway teammates.
But because dota is a team game, the minimap is your connection to your team. It's constantly telling you important details like how different lanes are doing, which enemy heroes your team can see, and the placement of your own team. Keeping an eye on the minimap will let you know when you need to be worried about getting ambushed ("ganked") because the opposing heroes are gone from the map. It lets you know if and where your teammates are gathering, or whether they're pushing a lane, killing randomly generated creeps in the forest ("jungle"), purchasing items and recouping health back home, or attempting to gank an opposing player.
It's also really important to be aware when a player pings a place on the map. This is done by holding down Alt and Left Clicking a location on the map or the minimap. When you do this, it makes a sound for your teammates and calls attention to the pinged area with a little exclamation point graphic. Usually, allies ping places to point out lanes of yours that are losing badly, or to point out that Roshan (see Bumblebee's blog) should be killed, or might be in the process of being killed by the opposing side.
Finally, the minimap is useful to move around. Dota is played on a large map, and to navigate your camera around it, it's necessary to use the minimap. I've found it useful to remember to take a second to check out what the minimap is telling me every time I use it to teleport somewhere or move to a far away location.
#4. Pay attention to the chat... sometimes
When I played my first ranked matches, I was oddly nervous about the reaction I would get. I knew I would not play well; I had no build, no real idea what other heroes did, and no sense of how to play my character. I mentioned before that the dota community is somewhat infamous for being unwelcoming and cranky. So my resolution was to simply ignore the chat entirely, not to read the comments or respond to them. I quickly discovered that this was a smart decision, but it did have it's disadvantages which caused me to modify my perspective. Chat is just as important as the minimap in communicating with your teammates. If you're not part of an established team talking over the internet, it's important to be in touch about basic things.
The two chat messages I came across immediately were "b" and "ss", neither of which made any sense to me at first. But after asking around, and seeing them multiple times in context, both became clear. "b" is shorthand for "back", as in "run away from the fight". It could mean that the other team has more heroes close by, or that your team has accomplished all it can and to press on would be a big risk. For a new player, it's useful to treat this message as a command, because the player who says it is likely to know something you don't. But for most players, it's an important warning to heed, because it means that at the very least that the player who called "b" is retreating, and thus you can't count on his support.
The other mysterious chat message; "ss" is shorthand for "missing", as in "a lane is missing a player". This goes two ways, and it's important to make sure you know which one it is. If one of the opposing heroes is pushing a lane uncontested, than someone who notices this might type "ss" as a reminder to the player who has that lane as their responsibility. But if an opposing hero is noticeably missing from their lane, someone might also type "ss" to alert the team that there is an un-accounted for hero. The other hero might simply be back at their base, or they might be setting up a gank. This is another chat warning you need to act on. Especially as NP, I can potentially fill the gap caused by the other player if it's convenient. I can also teleport quickly to someone's aid if necessary. But also, that missing player could be me, or could be coming after me, and if you've left your lane for whatever reason, or are all alone and not in the safety of your own tower, this is something to be aware of. These two messages test your situational awareness, and force you to look at the bigger picture.
All of this said, it's also really useful to filter out any messages longer than a few letters. There doesn't seem to be a large community of players interested in giving constructive advice in dota, even in a closed beta where your ranking is really pretty meaningless. I've found dota to be a fun game to play and lose, as well as a fun game to play and win. When players BM you, it definitely takes away from that experience, and it's worthwhile to remember that the simple negative thought that leads to BM has already taken away from their experience. Don't feed the haters by responding, or even reading what they right. Focus on your own game and at getting better instead.
There's one more piece of advice I have. Ask for advice. Dota2 really is insanely complex, if these really important parts of the game weren't obvious to a new player, than the pros and cons of one pair of boots over another will be even more obtuse. Find a friend who has more dota experience than you, and ask questions. Get them to give you early item builds, explain the mentality of certain characters, and get them to show some of what they mean in games. Read the blogs that've been posted on TL. You can't learn dota on your own.
Now about that beta key. I want to give this beta key to someone who is new to dota. I have no real way to figure out if you are or aren't, but hopefully the honor system is good enough. If you're new to dota, just reply in this thread that you'd like to be considered for the beta key. If you have a friend who's new to dota, point them to this blog and get them to reply! After a couple days, I'll pick a winner!
Thanks for reading!
When I played my first ranked matches, I was oddly nervous about the reaction I would get. I knew I would not play well; I had no build, no real idea what other heroes did, and no sense of how to play my character. I mentioned before that the dota community is somewhat infamous for being unwelcoming and cranky. So my resolution was to simply ignore the chat entirely, not to read the comments or respond to them. I quickly discovered that this was a smart decision, but it did have it's disadvantages which caused me to modify my perspective. Chat is just as important as the minimap in communicating with your teammates. If you're not part of an established team talking over the internet, it's important to be in touch about basic things.
The two chat messages I came across immediately were "b" and "ss", neither of which made any sense to me at first. But after asking around, and seeing them multiple times in context, both became clear. "b" is shorthand for "back", as in "run away from the fight". It could mean that the other team has more heroes close by, or that your team has accomplished all it can and to press on would be a big risk. For a new player, it's useful to treat this message as a command, because the player who says it is likely to know something you don't. But for most players, it's an important warning to heed, because it means that at the very least that the player who called "b" is retreating, and thus you can't count on his support.
The other mysterious chat message; "ss" is shorthand for "missing", as in "a lane is missing a player". This goes two ways, and it's important to make sure you know which one it is. If one of the opposing heroes is pushing a lane uncontested, than someone who notices this might type "ss" as a reminder to the player who has that lane as their responsibility. But if an opposing hero is noticeably missing from their lane, someone might also type "ss" to alert the team that there is an un-accounted for hero. The other hero might simply be back at their base, or they might be setting up a gank. This is another chat warning you need to act on. Especially as NP, I can potentially fill the gap caused by the other player if it's convenient. I can also teleport quickly to someone's aid if necessary. But also, that missing player could be me, or could be coming after me, and if you've left your lane for whatever reason, or are all alone and not in the safety of your own tower, this is something to be aware of. These two messages test your situational awareness, and force you to look at the bigger picture.
All of this said, it's also really useful to filter out any messages longer than a few letters. There doesn't seem to be a large community of players interested in giving constructive advice in dota, even in a closed beta where your ranking is really pretty meaningless. I've found dota to be a fun game to play and lose, as well as a fun game to play and win. When players BM you, it definitely takes away from that experience, and it's worthwhile to remember that the simple negative thought that leads to BM has already taken away from their experience. Don't feed the haters by responding, or even reading what they right. Focus on your own game and at getting better instead.
#5. DON'T DIE
This, it turns out, is the real art of dota. You can forget all of that pushing lanes, farming the jungle, leveling up, and buying items nonsense, because the main point of dota is to not die. In my first couple games it wasn't obvious to me what distinguished me as a new player; were people checking my items, where they seeing how poorly I was spending my money, were they seeing that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Maybe all of these things, but above all, I was dying way too much. In watching the best dota players on stream, I had completely missed one of the signature features of those games, which is narrow escapes. The players on Na'Vi, or EHOME, or the other top teams have escaping narrowly down to a science. I've gotten much better at this in just five games. In my first ever win, I died only twice, and one of those was after the game was essentially over.
I've learned a few crucial things about not dying. The first is that there's no shame in running away. If you're on low health, or if the other team has several heroes chasing you, don't try to be cute. Just book it away. You do more harm to your team by dying than you do taking a risk and trying to get an extra kill or finishing off a tower. This even includes running away from team fights, which is something I had problems with before. If my allies got into combat somewhere on the map, I'd immediately teleport in, usually without assessing whether the battle was winnable, or whether my allies were fighting or running away. Some thing happened to me on multiple occasions was that I would teleport in to help two allies under attack, only to die myself and have them somehow live. By in large, unless you're playing certain heroes, you and you alone are responsible for your safety, nor are you responsible for the safety of others. It's great if you can help on in that regard, but it is by no means your responsibility.
Dying is bad because it loses you gold and takes you out of the game for a long time; time that could be used to keep farming. It also gives your opponents gold, and a lot of experience. The time that your team is shorthanded because of your death is time that they cannot farm as effectively. It's hard to put this any other way. Don't die.
No seriously, don't die.
This, it turns out, is the real art of dota. You can forget all of that pushing lanes, farming the jungle, leveling up, and buying items nonsense, because the main point of dota is to not die. In my first couple games it wasn't obvious to me what distinguished me as a new player; were people checking my items, where they seeing how poorly I was spending my money, were they seeing that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Maybe all of these things, but above all, I was dying way too much. In watching the best dota players on stream, I had completely missed one of the signature features of those games, which is narrow escapes. The players on Na'Vi, or EHOME, or the other top teams have escaping narrowly down to a science. I've gotten much better at this in just five games. In my first ever win, I died only twice, and one of those was after the game was essentially over.
I've learned a few crucial things about not dying. The first is that there's no shame in running away. If you're on low health, or if the other team has several heroes chasing you, don't try to be cute. Just book it away. You do more harm to your team by dying than you do taking a risk and trying to get an extra kill or finishing off a tower. This even includes running away from team fights, which is something I had problems with before. If my allies got into combat somewhere on the map, I'd immediately teleport in, usually without assessing whether the battle was winnable, or whether my allies were fighting or running away. Some thing happened to me on multiple occasions was that I would teleport in to help two allies under attack, only to die myself and have them somehow live. By in large, unless you're playing certain heroes, you and you alone are responsible for your safety, nor are you responsible for the safety of others. It's great if you can help on in that regard, but it is by no means your responsibility.
Dying is bad because it loses you gold and takes you out of the game for a long time; time that could be used to keep farming. It also gives your opponents gold, and a lot of experience. The time that your team is shorthanded because of your death is time that they cannot farm as effectively. It's hard to put this any other way. Don't die.
No seriously, don't die.
There's one more piece of advice I have. Ask for advice. Dota2 really is insanely complex, if these really important parts of the game weren't obvious to a new player, than the pros and cons of one pair of boots over another will be even more obtuse. Find a friend who has more dota experience than you, and ask questions. Get them to give you early item builds, explain the mentality of certain characters, and get them to show some of what they mean in games. Read the blogs that've been posted on TL. You can't learn dota on your own.
Now about that beta key. I want to give this beta key to someone who is new to dota. I have no real way to figure out if you are or aren't, but hopefully the honor system is good enough. If you're new to dota, just reply in this thread that you'd like to be considered for the beta key. If you have a friend who's new to dota, point them to this blog and get them to reply! After a couple days, I'll pick a winner!
Thanks for reading!
(Have also read through the playdota.com/heroes a hundred times, so I know every hero, I suppose that means I'm not new. :3) Good article! :D
