5punky omgnoob's guide to Dota 2

[Dog Pants]

I don't understand why people like that even play the tutorial. By definition people playing it should be new. I hope you reported the cock.

Unfortunately you don't see chat while observing. If you did you'd have seen me challenging the other team in that game I played solo for the last 20 mins.

[Joose]

I don't understand why people like that even play the tutorial. By definition people playing it should be new. I hope you reported the cock.

I did indeed. I suspect they may be playing that bit in the hope of "pwning noobs" not considering the fact that 45% of the games noobs will be on their team. When someone is complaining that people playing in the tutorial games are not experts I don't think you should credit them with much capacity for rational thought.

[Roman Totale]

I always report twats - hopefully enough people do it and they suffer for it. Also, when playing real peoples, we should commend each other.

[Roman Totale]

Jungling

Do not spend the entire match sat in jungle battering neutral creeps - it might get you levels and gold, but ultimately it does nothing to help your team. I was in a game the other night where two people on my team jungled from the get go. One of them, Medusa, didn't leave the jungle until the enemy had taken 5 of our towers.

Perseverance

Never say die! Often you might feel like giving up - you've died a lot and the enemy are in your base. Don't be a pussy! Continue to fight and try to turn things around. I've had several games where it looked like were about to lose but, despite people on the team wanting to wave the white flag, we fought back and won. And don't abandon games.

[Dog Pants]

I once fought on when I was the only player left, against a full team of five. And just when I thought it was all over I lost.

[Joose]

I once fought on when I was the only player left, against a full team of five. And just when I thought it was all over I lost.

I watched. It was epic.

[bomberesque]

I'm enjoying this game, thanks for the guide . slightly more commitment required than I'm used to putting in... nice touch that you can't pause even the tutorial games. Mrs Bomber doesn't really get the explanation, but then she's a puzzle hound who hasn't got over the idea that games are for kids yet (half her 11 year old class are already playing GTAV)

hi btw

/goes back in box

[Mr. Johnson]

Hey bomberesque! Just so you know, we usually have games of dota on Friday night.

[Dog Pants]

Hi Bomber!

Glad you like the guide. We usually play later on Friday/Saturday nights if you're interested in (and can make) 5punky games. You're right though, it takes a good hour of complete concentration to play. Hard work to be that tied to the game, but for me it's just a matter of timing.

[bomberesque]

fridays are usually fer drinkin'

but anything is possible

Still going through the tutorials (half way through mid lane tut)

I see what people mean about sniper, he's the only one I've been able to finish the mid lane tut without losing a life so far

[Dr. kitteny berk]

You can pause with F9, but anyone can unpause to avoid abuse.

[Roman Totale]

A brief note on the types of games you'll probably play, and how you progress through playing the game after the tutorial.

Practise vs Bots

Click a button and you're off in a game of bots. This is a really good introduction to a full game and lets you utilise the skills you learned in the tutorial. The enemy is all bots, and your other team members are bots. Generally, as long as you don't over extend, you're fairly safe for the first few levels so you can concentrate on killing creeps, practising getting 'last hits', and building up your hero. Around level 6 bots will start to do more than just lane - you'll find roamers, gankers, and concentrated pushes on your towers. The same will also be true of your own team. More often than not bot teams will move as one straight down the middle for a quick win.

I would advise against just playing against bots - it becomes predictable and stale.

Co-op match vs Bots

Similar to the above, except this time your team will be made up of real life meat people. The enemy team will still be all bots. This mode introduces the vital human element to Dota - people are unpredictable and you need to keep an eye on what your team are doing. Work together and don't try and do everything on your own. This mode is good for the experience of team playing with the ease of playing against bots, however as noted above it can also become stale as your enemy can be quite predictable.

Meat vs Meat

This is it - the pinnacle of the Dota experience. Everyone is now an in real life real person. No bots. People are generally a lot more aggressive than bots - you won't necessarily be able to sit back and level early game. You will be harassed and everyone will be looking for first blood. Everything is taken up a level from fights vs bots. Although more difficult I think these games are much more rewarding due to the challenge you will face. A good lesson to note is that although you may be fantastic with one hero against bots, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll fare as well vs people - they will know your weaknesses and how to counter them.

Unfortunately this is where you most likely encounter the legendary Dota trolling. Reading some of the posts here it seems that a lot of people have been very fortunate not to encounter any, however I've now played around 70 matches (mostly Meat vs Meat) and I reckon I see twats 1 out of 5 games. Sometimes they'll ruin the game, sometimes you can just ignore them, but always try to report them so as to improve the community.



In terms of game modes, I highly recommend 'Single Draft'. In this mode you only get to pick from a pool of 3 random heroes. I've found this a huge help in getting to understand the game, as you learn different play types and also recognise how to play against those heroes in other matches. It's good to have a favourite, but it's even better to have fun playing a wide pool of characters. You may even surprise yourself with some of the picks. I know I have been - my most successful character to play is now Omniknight, a pure support character that went against my type of sneaky murder bastards.

[buzzmong]

Don't forget

5punkers vs 5punkers

Common phrases are "[insert random 5punker], you bastard!" and more often than not an angered cry of "BIIIIIIITS!"

[shot2bits]

big ass patch was released on monday, probably worth skimming over the general section at the top and then having a look at whats been tweaked on your favorite heroes, axe is now manlier than ever

[Dog Pants]

Broodmother has had a lot of love.

[Mr. Johnson]

axe is now manlier than ever

aaaaaw yeaaaah.

[Joose]

Broodmother has had a lot of love.

The fact that you now unstealth the second you leave your webs is going to take a bit of getting used to, but the fact you can now use the webs to go up and down cliffs and wander across the tops of trees could make her *terrifying*. Especially to melee types.

[Dog Pants]

A side effect of 5punkers being so lovely is that we don't like to point out when someone is making mistakes, and that doesn't help them get better at this game. Which in turn can lead to that person thinking the game sucks because they lose all the time, and that's a shame. These guides are designed to prevent exactly that. Despite the name, they're very friendly and light hearted. I think most of us who play on Frigaems will be past the first one, and I certainly have a lot to learn from the third one. So well worth watching, even if it's just to think "cool, I don't do any of those things."

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzyYKUzxO-M[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ltT4IvAwro[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6MHwfQa6bc[/media]

[FatherJack]

I've played I think five games now, albeit two in complete darkness with some weird bug with the 'fog' option - lost every one and not gotten a single kill, sorry team(s). Previously I'd barely managed to get through the sniper middle lane tutorial - that was a torturously tedious crawl where I inched to eventual victory on about the third attempt which almost turned me off the game entirely. As a result I have a few questions, chief among which is "why am I so fucking ineffectually shit?" but I'll try to formulate more specific queries.

I've watched every video and read every guide posted here twice, but both quickly seem to leap into areas beyond my ken.

As I've learned, I try to keep close behind the creeps (is that the right word?), and only attack the ones about to die. I save my magicks for opportunistic hits on enemy players. I stay clear of the enemy towers and let the creeps attack them. I try to leg it as soon as an enemy player starts hurting me, but they always seem to be much harder than me and kill me as I flee - which only gets worse further into the game, so I just sit in the base and sulk rather than giving them any more free money.

Now, I know this flies in the face of advice previously given, but I'm always gonna random when it comes to character selection. It's just how I am - I don't care if I fail, and I hope my teammates aren't too upset either, but the real delight is in finding something new, which I would not get if I stuck to a recommended character list. I realise this might seem the polar opposite of my Counterstrike playstyle, where I just pick the deagle every time - but that's a deliberate choice to favour accuracy and power over rate of fire or clip size - and actually is itself the result of many years of randoming weapons in that game before I settled on it. Maybe in time I'll find my DOTA deagle - but I want to try all the heroes at some point.

I had a lot of fun with Rubick tonight, with his enemy-power-nicking skill, at first confusing DP and later apeing Mr J's lazors, but I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing.

Oh, I guess I should start phrasing these thoughts as actual questions as promised.

I haven't tried the recommended build thingy aforementioned in these posts, so will have to look out for that next time - I just click randomly on a power upgrade. Where is the option to upgrade your 'stats' though?

As Mr B noted, I don't spend my gold. What the shit do I spend my gold on though? I've bought the six newbie items recommended (and of course never bothered using them because they're all shit anyway and I didn't really pay that much attention to what they did) but then what? I have all six slots filled, so I can't buy anything else can I?

A lot of the guides talk about about knowing what your role is. Um, how? Is it like Pokémon where you basically have to learn what type each hero is by reading up on them, or is there some visual indicator? I get what the roles are, support, damage and so on - but didn't spot anything that tells me what I should be doing.

The GUI perplexes me. Can you see what level other people are, or even what hero they are? On your own team only or both, or do you have to learn the pictures? What information is available through it, do the colours under the pictures mean anything?

Bali mentioned something someone had 'said' (typed) in our last game. I didn't see it. I couldn't see any text window or chat log - where is it? Perhaps I don't need to know that and can remain blissfully unaware of any insults directed at me.

[Grimmie]

Hail, fellow night owl. Let me address a few of those.

I haven't tried the recommended build thingy aforementioned in these posts, so will have to look out for that next time - I just click randomly on a power upgrade. Where is the option to upgrade your 'stats' though?

The build guides basically highlight which skill you should level up next, usually with emphasis on getting you something worthwhile to use at early levels and then something big and shiny at later ones. You upgrade your strength, agility and intelligence by clicking the little red, green and blue circles directly to the left of the skills - but don't worry, the guides highlight those too. Well written guides often give a little bit of advice when you hover over your skills in white text, to tell you when/how best to use it. Access the guides by clicking the little book in the top left, accessing community guides and checking the one you want. Don't forget to press OK to apply it. Do this first, and if that guide was crappy or didn't provide enough information, try a different one next time, as they persist across games if you get the same character again..

As Mr B noted, I don't spend my gold. What the shit do I spend my gold on though? I've bought the six newbie items recommended (and of course never bothered using them because they're all shit anyway and I didn't really pay that much attention to what they did) but then what? I have all six slots filled, so I can't buy anything else can I?

Spending gold's pretty integral. You may have noticed I like to stick with Death Prophet a lot, and some of that is because the guide I chose early on gives pretty detailed explainations on what items you should buy in which order, and how they benefit me. Not all guides are written that way sadly, but almost all of them suggest items for you to buy. Left click the shop dude at base and grab all the "starting items" listed on the left with a quick right click on each one when you begin. They're designed to get you off the ground and spend your initial lot of gold.

As you get more gold you can afford better items, but fortunately you can "build" these better items out of cheaper ones. Left clicking on items in the shop lets you see upgrade options in the form of a pyramid, a bit like:

Code: Select all

Shiny Hatcape
  /     \
Hat    Cape

So let's say you already have Hat, buying Cape while you're by the shop guy, or having the courier deliver it to you (button in the lower right) will automagically upgrade it to Shiny Hatcape. Often the stuff you buy as starting items eventually build into core items (listed further down the left hand side of the shop). Left click on items, play around and see how the better ones are built. Consider nabbing the cheaper components to build into the better ones, because a) It uses your gold up, meaning you lose less when you die, and b) you also get some bonuses for the teeny items still. You'll free up inventory slots as you upgrade the cheaper ones into more expensive ones.

You should also read the item tooltips, some of them are just passive improvements (you run faster with these shoes), some offer passive and active benefits (You run faster and your mana is improved. Click on the shoe to get a quick mana boost), some toggle (these boots let you improve your strength, agility or intelligence if you cycle through toggle states), and some are purely active (click this berry, then click a tree and you'll gain health). Often the items built out of smaller items offer the same benefit plus a bit extra.

A lot of the guides talk about about knowing what your role is. Um, how? Is it like Pokémon where you basically have to learn what type each hero is by reading up on them, or is there some visual indicator? I get what the roles are, support, damage and so on - but didn't spot anything that tells me what I should be doing.

I've only discovered what the roles /do/ by asking 5punkers. They'll be able to explain them better than I can. When you're picking heros you can either felcher them with dropdown menus at the top of the screen, or on their hero card they'll have little circular icons on the right edge. Hover over these and it'll say things like "Carry, Harass, Nuker, Flower arranger" etc. It gives you an idea of what you're meant to do. I like Death Prophet's Nuker/Pusher combo, which means I can spit out lots of damage quickly in focused bursts (nuking) and move strongly against enemy towers (pushing).

The GUI perplexes me. Can you see what level other people are, or even what hero they are? On your own team only or both, or do you have to learn the pictures? What information is available through it, do the colours under the pictures mean anything?

There's a little icon in the top left that looks like three horizontal stacked lines, click that and you get the DOTA equivalent of holding TAB in Counterstrike. You can see people's Kill/Death/Support scores, their hero and their currently held items. The guys on your team are circles on the minimap, the bad guys are crosses. You can also hover your cursor over people on screen and it should pop up with a little tooltip giving you quick information on what level they are.

Bali mentioned something someone had 'said' (typed) in our last game. I didn't see it. I couldn't see any text window or chat log - where is it? Perhaps I don't need to know that and can remain blissfully unaware of any insults directed at me.

It's [Enter] to type to your team and bring up recently transmitted messages, and [Shift] + [Enter] for global chat. I think there's also a chat log button somewhere, but I don't remember specifically.

Persevere, hopefully you'll find your DOTA Death Prophet/Deagle soon enough.