new to dota

[LozB]

how exactly does one get into playing dota and learn / progess? to me it seems to be impossible and at the same time demoralising.

i did play 1 game @ i27 which i found out the following

1) noobs arent really ideal
2) your team yells @ you a lot for doing things wrong
3) your team doesnt actuallty tell u what you doing wrong
4) u become a victim / target for the other team
5) u slagged of rotten on Teamspeak.
6) u get kicked from the lobby 99% of the time when your not known.

perhaps theres someway that there can be a noob friendly game with help from someone who can guide / watch over your shoulder for a few games?

advise plz.

and dont bother trolling the thread with crappy dota replies like dont play etc...

[Boffykins]

DotA is a **** game don't play it^W^W^W^W^W^W^W^Wnm

[Screwball]

best thing to do is that talk in mpuk irc channel where theres always a game happening and what they would do is even the teams out so mixed n00bs and pr0's or if ur the only new 1 u could start with a good char to get used to it while the others help u, but they normally paly deathmatch :S

[Jingles]

Join #mpukdota on Quakenet and join some games.

Yes, at first it won't be particularly enjoyable because you are playing against and with better players.
Dota has a fairly steep learning curve, but once youve got up it, its great fun.

The key tips I'd give are:

- Don't try to be a hero (no pun intended) - pair up with another hero (middle lane always good for this) and try to keep back, staying near the fight but not getting killed.
- For any hero you play, ask your team what a good build might be. The main thing to ask is if your hero needs intelligence items, damage items, agility items or strength items. From that, you can at least be heading in the right direction with items you buy.
- Take some time outside of a game to have a look at the items in the shops (yes, there is more than one!) so you know what they do and what's available. You want to be saving up for items rather than just going to the shop thinking 'I've got 700g to spend, what is there'
- If you're pushing a lane beyond the river, you're in danger. DotA players develop a 'sixth sense' of paranoia in these situations - if you push too far chances are 3 of the other team will turn up behind you and you're screwed.
- Finally, keep an eye on the minimap (I like to turn on team colours) so you can see where your team is, and where the enemy is. If you notice NO red dots on the minimap, that means the enemy is almost certainly upto something. No red dots and you're in their territory? You're screwed! :)

Whilst some people are bitchy and impatient, there are others who actually play for fun and are happy to help you learn.

Look forward to some games with you,

Jingles

[LozB]

thanks for the advice. perhaps the iseries isnt the best place to learn to play. i will try and get online and play.

[Dr_Dunce]

Originally posted by LozB
thanks for the advice. perhaps the iseries isnt the best place to learn to play. i will try and get online and play.
imo its the best place to learn...
you can 'get the hang' of dota in a matter of 30 mins to an hour.. to become a master.. well, I wouldnt know.. but quite a while :D

[Afty]

DONT DIE.

Play safe. Always.

You don't have to kill creep, you don't have to make money and you DEFINITELY do not have to kill the opposing heroes. If you're a new player in an MPUK game of dota, try to stay close to combat so you are gaining experience all the time (to stay at the same/higher level than your opponent) but do not take risks, do not "attack". Don't even compromise 10% of your health, because as soon as heroes get damaged, they become more likely to be targetted for a "gank" by the opposing team. There are plenty of heroes out there who can kill a hero on 50% health in just 2 seconds... so stay on full health, stay near combat and listen to team mates...

If you reach the late game (30 mins or so) without dying, and are at the same level as most of your opponents you have done VERY well - and you can then take part in the most fun bit of DOTA, where it all starts getting sneaky and ganky :)

[LozB]

Originally posted by Dr_Dunce
imo its the best place to learn...
you can 'get the hang' of dota in a matter of 30 mins to an hour.. to become a master.. well, I wouldnt know.. but quite a while :D

sorry Dave. i dont agree @ i27 99% of the games i tried to join kicked me for being a noob or an unknown. it was only through dae's intervention that i stayed on the game. its either very clicky or just not noob friendly.

[Joey]

the best place to learn is at a LAN, but rather than playing you should spend a couple of games watching an experienced player - most of the "pros" can maintain a conversation about what they're currently up to and planning at the same time as actually executing it

all of the advice on here is good - the single most important thing is not to end up getting killed. although you respawn pretty quickly you lose a lot of gold and (potential) experience versus the other hero(es) in the lane.

for at least one of the stratlans a while back we were operating a tiering system where we played an all pick game so the new players could take one hero (preferably a caster or a ranged agility hero) and get familiar with him/her, then the mid-range players would do -random and the skilled set would do -random -repick to force a random hero and less starting money, this worked pretty well as a training system to get people familiar with the gameplay before dropping them in to -dm -ar games!

the best thing to do is to check the website to learn about the items and the different heroes, try to work out for yourself which items would be suitable on which hero and which heroes can be used to tank the lanes and which heroes you should be more sneaky with


it should be stressed though, particularly at LANs, there's a fairly large group of players and as such the spaces are quite limited - there's a high chance that you'll get kicked in favour of one of the crew unless you make the effort to pop down and say hello before you start. if you're "hanging with the cool kids" you'll get the benefit of their knowledge and wisdom as well as a reserved space!

[Afty]

Yeah, that's the people, not the game :)

Think about it from a sporting perspective - if ten guys turn up to play football regularly and know each other well, and enjoy close, well-fought games and they turn up in the park, lay out their jumpers as goalposts and some stranger who has NEVER kicked a ball in his life walks over and says "can I play" - most of the time they will say no (especially when many games are organised and teams chosen before the games goes up) because there's no way they can have a fun while one team has a guy who can't kick a ball.

That's not to say the guy can't learn, but it's a good illustration of why unknowns aren't welcome in "any old game" - if you're new the best bet is to ask someone who plays for advice, and if they known of a newbie friendly game starting soon.

In addition, the new player will learn NOTHING except how to get frustrated in a game populated by experienced players unless he has one sat near him... imagine Will Ferrell in Elf attempting to play 5 a side in the beach with the Brazilian Soccer Team - he won't get a kick of the ball, and he won't learn anything...

[LozB]

apart from learing that its a bad idea to attempt to learn? ;)

no seriously i do understand what you mean afty.

im learning a lot from playing against the AI at the moment..

i.e dont attempt to kill other heroes and dont attack the towers. infact just skulk in the middle channel and sit behind the team creep wave. its only when i try and be heroic that i hed my head pwned..

[Screwball]

how about we all have a game tonite?

[Lucifa]

There are hundreds of dota games on at any time on battlenet, and some will even be "noobs only" games.
Log on to battlenet, create an account, then press the Custom Games button at the top, then just keep refreshing the list and search for a suitable dota game.

Also, get the latest dota map from www.getdota.com and stick that into your \warcraft iii\maps\download directory.
You can download just by joining a game, but most dota hosters will kick you pretty much straight away - there is very much a policy of "no downloaders".

[Quietus]

Sorry, noobs only games are guaranteed to get at least one bored person who's really good in there. You're best off playing any game you can find.

The modes running in the game very much affect your play. Initially, I would recommend playing AP (all pick) games so that you can choose a hero, stick with them through the game and get an idea of how they work. Then go on to AR (all random) games so that you can try different heroes and see more of the game. SM (short mode) causes all the towers to have less health and heros gain experience faster. This is generally very bad if you're a new player as being pushed out of lane has a huge impact on you (due to losing levels) and because the towers go down faster, you lose that protection earlier in the game.

It is HIGHLY advisable to run the map in single player mode and go through all the items available and work out their purpose. Most important is an understanding of the items built through recipes as they are more powerful in the main.

[Dr_Dunce]

Best way to learn is go to a smaller lan which is a 'dota lan' - i.e. slan/fbl
Harass a nearby dota player & give them some loving [I know Joey is always game].. You'll get the hang of it quite quickly!

[Joey]

Originally posted by Dr_Dunce
give them some loving [I know Joey is always game]..
and you might get a game of DotA once we're done :)

[LozB]

Originally posted by Dr_Dunce
Best way to learn is go to a smaller lan which is a 'dota lan' - i.e. slan/fbl
Harass a nearby dota player & give them some loving [I know Joey is always game].. You'll get the hang of it quite quickly!

tried @ FBL. just didnt happen. no one wanted noobs in game.:(

[Joey]

i strongly recommend the next stratlan then - we'll make a point of having some training games

but seriously, #mpukdota on irc is a good place to idle

[Screwball]

i think im ganna make it to the next stratlan!

[Lucifa]

Originally posted by Quietus
Sorry, noobs only games are guaranteed to get at least one bored person who's really good in there. You're best off playing any game you can find.


Who shouldn't join a game called "noob only" in the first place?

If you want to test out the items, start a single player game > custom game, select dota and start.
Then when it's started and you have your hero, type in chat "greedisgood 50000"* that will give you 50k gold and you can buy anything you want.


*Might be moneyfornothing - I forget.

[Pengwhine]

Who shouldn't join a game called "noob only" in the first place?

If you want to test out the items, start a single player game > custom game, select dota and start.
Then when it's started and you have your hero, type in chat "greedisgood 50000"* that will give you 50k gold and you can buy anything you want.


*Might be moneyfornothing - I forget.

greedisgood is wood and gold, theres individual ones for wood / gold which i cant remember as well.

[DaeMord]

Lucifa, they shouldnt but the fact is they do, i know, because i have.

few things that i always recomend to people new

1) Always try learning with ranged hero's first idealy one with an escape system like blink or wind walk of some nature

2) Never go infront of your own creep wave

3) Never go to attack an enemy tower before lvl 11

4) Never cross the river by yourself

5) once the "ganking" period starts, never be alone

this is one thats difficult to tell, but if your on TS and people are shouting alot for pointless things that you dont understand, your in the ganking period dont be alone

Finally the problem of games at lans, and i dunno if slan is different but im sorry to say alot of the people who i saw playing at lans, im sorry but your a bunch of stupid gits when it comes to lan based dota, NOT per say for kicking people who are new, but i didnt see a single game that was not stacked to hell and back, no fun for new people and they dont learn anything.

Recently after the last slan we apear to have had an influx of alot of relatively new people playing in #mpukdota so if your wanting to join in NOW really is the time.

Fact is the best end result a new guy can have is about 0/5 try to keep your deaths below 10 when you get to a 0/0 game your doing well.

Killing is a matter of experience and is NOT needed to win games.
I myself has won games by getting next to no hero kills at all just by bullying them away all the time.

I play nearly every single night, were always on IRC and always sat in TS, come join us, you will find people willing to help, and you will also find me whining about balancing teams (its my favorite whine)

[Jingles]

and you will also find me whining about balancing teams (its my favorite whine)

He's right you know :)

[maximumweasel]

If you want to be good at dota you need a few things:

1)Experience
2)Paranoia
3)Fanatical dedication to the Pope.

There is no way a new person stands a chance in dota if he doesn't know the one million and one different spells, abilities and combinations that Dota contains within.

You can 'learn' through reading but until you've used them all and been on the receiving end of them all you're at a major disadvantage.

My advice is to find people who don't mind you're new and play until your head explodes. Getting to grip with the WC3 engine helps, learning the weapons helps and learning who's a complete get so you can avoid them helps.

Most people will give you extensive training. Others will give you too much..
:)

TBH though it's just a question of experience backed up with little bits of advice. I say little; there's a lot of it about, and if you get it all at once it does more harm than good. There's a lot of opinion floating about in DOTA, and a lot of it is contradictory.
Just to make your life eaiser.

And if people shout at you don't play with them. You're supposed to be having fun right?
Like most people here, I'm more than happy to give you a hand.