Since I am completely new to the game and total noob, I made myself watch several videos on playing along with go through the whole tutorial. Twice on a few of the lessons. I learned all I could. Thinking I was prepared to play this game with real people was a huge mistake. There is no communication between anyone and when I start playing the game, everyone on my fucking team decides to just bash me instead of help me and teach me shit to do. When people start playing Dota 2, are they already born with knowledge of the game that they didn't need to be taught anything? Jesus fucking Christ, I don't think I want to even play the fucking game with real people since they don't even make it fun for shit. I'll play next time with people I know and on or around the same skill level as me.

This turned into a rant more than anything. But for sake of this discussion, how did Dota 2 start for you? Did you get a lot of shit for being new and still learning? If you feel like becoming a team, my steam account is Lord_Xp

What you are going through now, I went through in Dota Allstars. I would recommend ignoring the haters and doing you.

Do some bot matches. Co-op matchmaking or with just a few friends. Super useful for learning the more archaic mechanics.

And, yeah, you get a lot of shit in the beginning, especially if you're up against actual people. Just take your time learning all the intricacies and remember that you're being matched with people at similar skill levels. If they're giving you shit, they may not know what they're talking about.

I don't remember necessarily having a bad time when I started playing the game. I mean, I probably did have a shitty time, but I honestly don't remember lol. I've met my fair share of assholes in the game though. That doesn't change whether you've played 1 match of whether you've played 1000 matches. Everyone thinks they're playing right, but everyone else thinks that same person playing wrong. It's a cycle of disgusting idiocy that never ends. best thing to do is mute the assholes, report them, and get your game on.

Try to get an invite to the GB guild in-game. There are people of all skill levels in there so you should be able to find a group of good people to play with.

I've only played a few matches with live people. Most have been co op bot matches with other players. You should join the giantbomb dota group. They are usually pretty friendly and helpful. That's who I played my first match with and even though I was terrible, the guys were nice and helpful. I'll add you on steam and maybe we'll play sometime. I'm having a hard time finding time right now with work and school so its been awhile for me.

I don't know about dota but when I started playing LoL there were surprisingly few assholes. I dunno if the community is better or I was picking it up quick enough or I just got lucky.

Watching vids online is a good idea though, for me I picked a champ (garen) watched a few vids, researched some builds and played some bot matches till I was comfy with his kit. I do the same for every new champ I try and it's going pretty well. I'm not great by any means but I've gotten way better and never been yelled at.

Just don't die. Whatever you do don't die that seems to be the biggest tip for beginners. Way better to retreat and let a guy get away then dive and get killed.

Went through it in WC3 DotA so it was just me having thick skin and learning from mistakes. Dota 2 came after DotA and many, many, many games of HoN so it was literally not different.

If you aren't used to the game yet, you should definitely play through the new tutorial stuff, and then definitely spend some time playing against bots.

@gogosox82: I added you. I don't have all the time in the world either due to work and a gf.

Why didn't I think of this first. I didn't even think of Co-op bot matches.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've been mentally unstable the passed week so everything has been making me more angry than I usually am.

I need to be invited to the Dota guild! I don't know how to get in it.

I think you got the wrong mentality going in this. playing dota is like a real life thing: much like playing street fighter in the arcades when it first came out, or playing pee wee sports programs of whatever sport you like, to going out on a date with people for the first time.

The tutorials, and self help books as well as any advice you get can only take you so far. Experience is what really matters since the game has like over a hundred characters and the combination 5v5 makes for too many combinations that even half decent players know they have to play it by ear and make changes to whatever original plans they had just going in the game.

My only real advice is go back and see the replay of your game. Maybe the mistakes that were made were actually small, and your team was just a bunch of whiny people. Or maybe you really did some face palming plays in the game, but you never fully know unless you look at your own games and try to compare them to the tutorial vids and stuff for reference.

point is, if you want to get better at the game, why are you focusing on a bunch of nobodies calling you names, when you should be focusing on your own game and your own mistakes. Its be great if people made a post that consisted of: "So I finally played this dota thing and I kept getting killed by this cloaked motherfucker. How the hell do I handle that shit?"

That appears to be the universal welcome wagon for DOTA or League of Legends. I tried to get into League of Legends and the community was fucking awful. I'd just mute the other players in the game chat and play in peace.

@lord_xp: Those people suck, ignore them. Or if they are really bad do everybody a favor and report them. Valve actually has been surprisingly proactive in disciplining abusive players.

I've been playing since 2005 (2004?) or so, So DOTA 2 was fine for me the little I've played so far. Can't say I'm good or even great at the game, but I enjoy it. If anything I've been very impressed with how civil it has been, especially compared to the old Mod. I do think matchmaking does need to be improved for newer and casual players, but it is what it is.

and yes Co-op bot matches are a great way to start. The people playing those usually are experimenting or learning new heroes, so they tend to be more tolerant of mistakes. The tutorial is helpful too, but it's a major timesink to do all of it.

If you're unsure what heroes to start out with, I think there have been some good threads on here on easy players to start with.

Also keep in mind the match-making system needs to see 20-25 matches from you before it can really gauge your skill level.

I spent several hours watching video tutorials and reading newbie guides, then played bot matches with a friend for another few hours. After that we went into our first game against real people and beat them with 63:3 kills with two of our teammates abandoning early because our opponents were.. less prepared.

Dota has been around long enough that there's more than enough teaching material to get you through the basics of laning at least without fucking up. After that just play more dota and ignore asshats or report them when they step way over the line. I still suck at many things but I've never head any one ranting at me in early games.

Score of 63:3 says you need to finish games or the other team just kept running into and you were playing people that didnt have ANY training.
Dont know about LoL but noticed that playing early Dota 2 can put you against beginners because of the free to play high player numbers especially with the game released noticed a jump from 3 to 4 million playing. Try to practice at the main hours and you will get into beginner games at your level, if your playing at 3am it kinda makes sense you get the hardcore and not the kids playing a free to play on their dads work pc.
Also bots are up to par to pratice your basic laning (starting phase) and after that make just stick to other players and move with the team.

Welcome to Moba games.

Open the scoreboard, mute all players.
It mutes Voice and Chat and would solved all your problems.

I started against bots. On easy. Someone gave me shit in chat in the first minute. I never played the game again.

If the people playing against bots on easy care that much about winning, I really don't care to see what the community is like at higher levels.

@vestigial_man said:

Significantly better, actually. The people in the beginning brackets are the people who aren't invested in the game at all; the equivalent of whatever 12 year olds you'd find on the flavor of the month shooter on XBL.

There are jerks, there are people that don't talk, there are those that expect everyone on the team to know what they are doing, to an unreasonable extent, to a psychic powers extent. There are those that pay no attention to team composition then complain about it when they are losing. Esspecially those that random pick, they're the great ones.

There is a lot of just what your team mates do and say, that makes the game nightmarish to start out. There is no getting round it easily. But, once you do, once you know what you're doing to a degree. It is fun. Just play against some bots, then do some co-op bot matches. You'll find some nice players... hopefully.

I'll admit that I have run into my fair share of assholes in Dota 2 and a good chunk of them have been people from the Giantbomb community. Really though this has been my experience with every mulitplayer game I have played online. I thought I would be safe on the huge field of Planetside 2 but alas it only took 10 minutes before I was being called a noob. I try and teach people that are new as much as I can but to often they either don't care, don't listen, or never respond so I have no idea if they even speak English. I am no where never great at this game but I like playing with people who communicate and work together. Anybody wants to play add me on steam, same name.

I am a big proponent of "Use Bots to Practice". If there is a hero I am trying to get practice on like "hit timing" or "initiating" or even just plan out buy/build order then bots are great. Although you can outsmart them they do keep the pressure on and are very accurate on timing and ranging.

You just had an unlucky first impression. I'm 200+ games in now and I still get games with people who blames everyone else quite often. Sure, you probably get it more if you're new and make bigger mistakes, but you will also often get some sympathy and help if you actually make it clear that you are new. It also helps to play characters you are comfortable with. I play a lot of SD myself, and every time I get heroes I know I suck with I just put on my fireproof vest =)

If there's one thing I've learned over everything else about Dota it's that it's a mixed bag, which is why I'm quite certain I'm far from the only one that have a very extreme love/hate-relationship with it.

Exactly, they kept pushing lanes and giving us free kills from minute 1, that's my point. It was our first game against human opponents and it probably was one of their first games against humans as well but there's some legwork you can do to give yourself an edge in noob games and not get horribly flamed to death every time. There's more than enough digestible info readily available after >10 years of dota.

I hope you give the game another chance. In my experience on DOTA 2 I've only had to deal with jerks around 5% of the time.

And this is why I'll never get into MOBA games. Seriously, they're not considered the worst online communities for nothing.

I just started too but I'm doing the bot matches at the moment. I figure once I can actually kill bots and not be killed by them 20 times per game then I can jump into the actual multiplayer...

I'd like to make the argument that is cause of the game, the information you get and the implications. Put those in any other game and you will get the same thing.

@vestigial_man It actually gets better the higher up you go. I wouldn't say it ever gets completely fixed but still.

Who cares. I have thick skin about this stuff and don't really care if I do shit while learning a game. I was horrible at Street Fighter for a long time, as I was on LoL and currently am on DOTA.

It's a waste of time for people to "teach" you how to play during a game. Even if they tell you what to buy and what skills to learn you still lack map awareness, knowing when to attack and back off, chase, etc.

Find a friend who knows how to play so he can baby-sit you and explain stuff to you on voice chat.

It's the reason I uninstalled Dota 2 and won't be installing it again.

Im still pretty new to the game as well so when I start I tell people even before the pick that I am new and I probably wont be very good and ask them for help. Usually I get a pretty good response out of that so maybe try doing that, it may help. :)

First time i played Dota 2 i warned everyone in my team that i was new and that i had no idea what i was doing.
that led to some helpful tips and others telling me what to do and then 10 or so games in i had picked up on so much that i was more of a asset to my team than most other players.
I faced one or two assholes in the start but when they start calling you shitty names that's the time you should start to play as shitty as they think you are.. Its always fun to have team mates insult you to the point that you go into enemies because you want your team to lose. (might be a bad way to handle it but hell the reactions are always fun)