DOTA 2: Disbanded or Terrible Associations 2: In Loving Memory of PGG

[Tensei]

I've been playing since early november (and played HoN for like a year before that) so I like to think I'm pretty good at this. My tip for this game is not to jump right into matchmaking but to make a private bot game to familiarize yourself with the different heroes. The bots are surprisingly tough, and better than human players in some aspects. It also helps that they won't yell at you if you do badly .

Feel free to add me on steam, I'm always looking for more people to play and I don't mind showing newbies the ropes. http://steamcommunity.com/id/princesstensei

Oh, if you DO go into matchmaking, be sure to tell people on your team that you're basically completely new to the game (even if you think you're a pro at league of legends), I find that it affects peoples attitudes towards you a lot (in a positive way), and it might even bring a few people out of the woodwork willing to help you.

Also, DON'T worry about denying. Denying is something that only has a very slight impact on the game (similar to having runes that boost your xp gain in LoL), and on lower levels barely anyone will be doing it anyway. It's worth learning when you start getting better because the earlygame is really all about racking up the slight advantages that will put you ahead, but the main priority for a new player is to not die.

[Hanky Panky]

Got an invite today.
I'll play some time with you guys.

[MESIAS_ROCKET]

How do you exactly get an invite for DOTA2?

[The Daltony]

Just got my invite. Boy howdy, how different is this from LoL because that's all I've played. Never even played Warcraft or Starcraft either one at all. Oh well, guess I'll find out.

Just uninstalled it. Nevermind.

lol, talk about a waste of an invite. Congrats on being bad.

Also, this a pretty good guide for all you recent invitees.

http://welcometodota2.blogspot.com/2...noobs-aka.html

[Softspoken]

lol, talk about a waste of an invite. Congrats on being bad.

Keepin' it classy as hell in here DOTA community.

[RedMage]

apparently I got an invite shortly after being invited for the steam mobile thing. Neato.

can someone point me to whatever hero resembles Tristana (or if there isn't whoever works as a ranged carry)?

How do you exactly get an invite for DOTA2?

You need to have a steam account (derp) then go to the DOTA2 blog and find the application for an invite.
You'll then be given a survey about your past DOTA experience (i.e. how long you've played it, favorite heroes, any other MOBA experience), and they'll give you an invite whenever they feel like it.

[zeratuljo1291]

write up on SHADOW SHAMAN (as i play them)

pros:
+ excellent pushing power and tower destroyer with his ether shock nuke and his mass wards.
+ 2 excellant disables that fit either to punish bad positioning or to dissuade counterattack or to removal
+ not item dependent

cons:
-squishy as heck
-no real means of escape or initations without needing to get blink dagger or force staves.
-level dependent
-sloooowwww


shadow shamans needs levels. plain and simple. once he gets all this skills up and his mass wards, you can start pushing and ganking extremely well.
best place to gain levels fast would be solo mid, but dual lane support or trilane support can work too, but you need to get lvl 6 fast if you are going for a push strategy.

starting out:

if solomid: regen items and some gauntlets of strength.
if supporting: grab chicken or grab wards and regen items.

solomid: starting out, you want to grab money and levels quickly. turn those gauntlets into bracers with your first 500 gold for some easy survivability. you can also go for bottle if you want to help with rune control and winning your lane, but shadow shaman doesnt burn through mana like storm spirit or queen of pain. at this point, you are too slow to get any good ganks off in either top or bottom lane, so stay in lane as long as you can to get up gold and exp. the time to roam is lvl 6 or 7, when you get that ultimate up and your nuke, ether shock maxed. you'll want to get boots after getting bracers. here is where you can diverge however you like: mana boots if your team is low on mana almost all the time, phase boots if you need to keep up, or treads if you want to have more control over your stats. i personally like to mana boots to keep up my mana and my teammates. phase boots are great for getting places much quicker, which is a plus considering his slow base movespeed. the next item you should get will depend on your farm. if you are lacking in farm, but your team is pushing ahead for teamfights, you might want to consider getting a drum of endurance from your bracer. if you are doing specatular with your farm, but your team needs to start pushing or get some ganks going for the snowball, consider grabbing a blink dagger for the sudden wardtrap/shackle combo. if your team needs more disables, grab a euls scepter. its really up to you.

if you are supporting shaman:

courier/wards and regen. keep up the denys. remember, all you really need is EXP to set up kills. difference from the solomid leveling is that you want to level shackles first, rather than ether shock. a level 3 shackles at level 5 keeps your victim there for 4 seconds, plenty of time for your friend or carry or whatever to get in tons of damage. keep up warding if you are the ward shaman or go for some support items, like mekanism or pipe. if you'd rather save up instead of getting those support items because your team already has it, consider getting an aghanims for the increased mass wards.


save your hex for those annoying initiators or major damage dealers rather than on your single target.
shackles are your main disable and what allows you to set up kills
ether shock is your nuke and creep wave clearer.
mass wards should be saved for pushes. they dont really work in major teamfights as they have a limited range and time. put them under a tower just to see how much damage they can do :3


but really, item builds on shadow shaman reflect how the team is going. in general, you want to have boots, a str related item to make up for your horrible str gain, and a survability item , be BKB or blink dagger or force staff.

im not the best player around but this is how i build it. welcome to debate though.


@redmage: the closest hero to tristana would be someone who can blink in for sudden tons of damage and then get out easily. only carry i know who can do that kind of burst dps is URSA, although others may come to mind later. TINY is also has that kind of tactic especially if he gets up his blink dagger early, because avalanche and toss combos are devestating on single targets.

[SquirrelPants]

There's really no hero all that much like Tristana that I can think of off the top of my head, but Drow Ranger is a lot like Ashe if I remember LoL right. Personally, my starter hero was Puck, she's pretty easy to get used to, is capable of doing lots of damage quick, and can make or break a teamfight. Still pretty much my favourite thus far, and really easy to get into.

EDIT: also FFFFFFFF redmage you're in the Steam mobile beta? Lucky. ;_; I want it so bad.

[Hanky Panky]

I played one round of Dota 2 today and I was playing as Morphling because he looked cool. Not the easiest champion to get used to, but I was playing with 9 other bots so people wouldn't laugh at me. I ended the round at something like 3/9.

[Warriorccc0]

Got into the beta yesterday and finished downloading today.

Did a random game and on a whim chose Sand King, who I did surprisingly good and I think I like him now.

[Tensei]

can someone point me to whatever hero resembles Tristana (or if there isn't whoever works as a ranged carry)?

Depends, actually. If you like Tristana for her gun aesthetic and the fact that her attack range keeps on increasing, you could check out Sniper. If it's because of her mobility, you should take a look at Weaver or Morphling.


Hands down the easiest starting heroes are Lich and Tidehunter though. The former because he has a skill that basically grant him infinite mana, and the latter because he's massively tanky with a gamebreaking ultimate. Neither of them really needs farm too so it's alright if you die with them a lot.

[MESIAS_ROCKET]

You need to have a steam account (derp) then go to the DOTA2 blog and find the application for an invite.
You'll then be given a survey about your past DOTA experience (i.e. how long you've played it, favorite heroes, any other MOBA experience), and they'll give you an invite whenever they feel like it.

Thanks!
I went into the international and applied for the beta, though I haven't received any survey yet.

[zeratuljo1291]

ok so discussion time:

dont you wish you could grab blink dagger on pudge or vengeful spirit?

[Drakester]

Hows everyone feeling about this game?

Favorite Heroes?

my thoughts so far are pretty good about it. It's fast and competitive with enough items and heroes so far that each games different.

Id still like to see though if valve would be able to make a new map that will see competitive play though the current one does well.

for those of you curious about it/wanting to learn about a few heroes i have a few games up on youtube (shameless plug) at http://www.youtube.com/user/Dota2Theatre

[Rognarb]

Well I got into the beta like 2 months ago and this is kinda cool. I mean, I actually got into a Valve's closed beta and that is really neat.\fanboy

I usually play against bots as Clinkz but I started playing real games here and there and I'm not loosing that much so its a good sign.

But yeah the main difference that I dont like between Dota 2 and LoL (used to play alot) is that Heroes and all bloody squishy as fuck. Everyone cast 1 spell and you die. There is some tanks in dota but that would qualify as "heroes that can survive Lina's combo" but they are so few. Also, LoL champs are more built around movement and placement and combos. There is a tangible synergy when you're playing and getting better with a champ. In dota 2, most spell are plain "mana => damage" spells, with so stunts. There is no real variety of power between most heroes and there is some (yes, you king leoric) that are just boring to play.

[forkinyoureye]

Started playing this again on bot matches and I really like Clockwerk. Shooting flares all over the map's pretty damn fun, even if I find myself sucking in any combat whatsoever.

I'll try out the lich sometime soon.

[Tensei]

Well I got into the beta like 2 months ago and this is kinda cool. I mean, I actually got into a Valve's closed beta and that is really neat.\fanboy

I usually play against bots as Clinkz but I started playing real games here and there and I'm not loosing that much so its a good sign.

But yeah the main difference that I dont like between Dota 2 and LoL (used to play alot) is that Heroes and all bloody squishy as fuck. Everyone cast 1 spell and you die. There is some tanks in dota but that would qualify as "heroes that can survive Lina's combo" but they are so few. Also, LoL champs are more built around movement and placement and combos. There is a tangible synergy when you're playing and getting better with a champ. In dota 2, most spell are plain "mana => damage" spells, with so stunts. There is no real variety of power between most heroes and there is some (yes, you king leoric) that are just boring to play.

I disagree so hard on calling Skeleton King boring.
He is functionally simple but there is some depth to him (don't spam your stun too much or you can't revive), and his core items (Power Treads, Soul Ring, Force Staff and Armlet) are all very skill-based actives so you're still basically pressing a lot of buttons.

The tank role is something that LoL introduced to the genre, Dota 2 does not really have heroes that are intended to tank all the damage from the enemy team. I personally prefer the fast engagements in Dota over the 30-second slugfests and pokes you have in LoL (I think it was in the Volibear spotlight where they had Shyvana 1v1ing Volibear and the fight took literally more than 30 seconds because all their skills seemed to deal minuscule damage)

Regarding skill synergy, I think dota handles it a lot better, though it depends on the time during which the hero was introduced to the game. If you take a look at a heroes like Lina or Sven, they have been around for like 8 years, and are basically considered 'classic', so completely reworking them would cause a lot of outrage with the fans. It's not really fair to call those heroes boring IMO (though I think both of those are still a lot of fun to play even though their skills are extremely basic).

Compare that to newer heroes like Shadow Demon or Ancient Apparition who have some very interesting synergy and bring some unique concepts to the table with their skills. (AAs ult increases the 'death threshold' of a hero for example, so they die when their health is brought down to like 10% of its maximum)

[zeratuljo1291]

so some tournament updates:


Asian Dota Masters. This is the first DOTA2 tournament since the International and WDC (i think thats what its called) that Asian teams like LGD, PANDA, DK, Mineski are coming out in full force.

as well as

The JoinDota Asian Masters Cup which is a similar concept.

im excited.

[zeratuljo1291]

if you have a free hour and a half, this is a game to watch. really intense stuff

[Tensei]

Oh god yes, I can totally recommend watching that video, even to people that don't really play this game. Tobi does a great job of hyping everything up, but this match is genuinely exciting.

[MESIAS_ROCKET]

...and I got my beta invitation for DOTA 2.
Yaaaaay!
Now, what to do?

[zeratuljo1291]

...and I got my beta invitation for DOTA 2.
Yaaaaay!
Now, what to do?

i just took an hour to myself, loaded up a bot game and just played all the heroes at least once to understand them. then i just looked over the items as well.

then you play.

you play some more dota.

[SquirrelPants]

We're sittan here in vent-a, just playin' a little dota~

Yeah, um. You basically just play. I would also recommend starting with lots of bot games(I played close to 50 of them with friends before we were brave enough to join the queue), and look up some top-rated guides for items and sort-of general skill builds--the recommended item builds aren't great in the game.

[chimaeraUndying]

Got invite, need friends who play DotA 2.

Anyone up for some rounds? I'm functionally still a total newbie to this particular game, although I'm fairly familiar with the mechanics of this genre.

Steam account is in my sig, or here.

[zeratuljo1291]

updated OP for list of players currently in DOTA2. feel free to friend and play with us?

perhaps we should create a steam group to organize shenaningans?