Dota 2 new players thread!

I've been listening to Brad talk about it, and I checked out the Compendium, now I'm watching the Internationals... It seems pretty cool, but I'm still mildly confused.

I'll join the steam group, hopefully things will make more sense.

@theegravedigger: Read this and play a few bot matches. It should start to make more sense after you beat down some bots. Also @lordxavierbritish posted a bunch of great Dota 2 resources on this thread that's worth checking out.

Just started giving it a try, I can sort of see the appeal but I suck big time even against bots (which I'm only playing right now). I couldn't even get in one kill, towards the end the moment I was spotted they attacked me with all sorts and BAM! I'm dead... again.

I'm going to start watching Brad and the others play, along with reading up on some stuff to figure this all out. Think I'm okay early on but it's the end where I suck big time. That said, the player guide implementation is fantastic, knowing where to spend your points and what items to pick up is great. Fantastic feature.

Thanks Spectre_Sigma and lordxavierbritish for the links. Will check them out.

steam ID: BoomShanka Foo

really want to get into the game, but non of my friends are really that interested even though I (forcefully) handed them free keys. done a few bot matches on my own but that isn't helping me at all.

Man I haven't played in a couple of weeks due to finals and work but finally started playing again. I had a decent game with Windrunner. I think I like playing with her so I'm gonna keep on playing with her for a while. I've been playing her as support and its been working out well so far.

Yeah, DotaFire has some amazing guides as well, don't give up and try different heroes and see which fits best with your play style.

So lately I got into a couple of public matches in which my team quickly surrendered, like 10 deaths behind and between the 15-20 minute mark, as soon as the enemy team made it to our 3rd tier tower the other guys just wouldn't leave the fountain. This wasn't about regrouping, they were just throwing the towel. I found this particularly annoying as I've been to matches where we managed to come back from similar situations or at least recovered a bit and lose with some dignity. I can enjoy and learn from matches in which I'm losing but I guess it must be pretty frustrating for some people. Is there some widely accepted protocol here? should I just join them in the fountain and let the game be over?

I'm relatively new to the game myself. Been watching a ton of it for the last couple of months, and doing plenty of reading up on different heros and whatnot, but I only have a few games under my belt. I'd love to have more people to play with, since I really don't know many who do.

Steam : http://steamcommunity.com/id/Ruaniamh/

Feel free to add me (just mention Giant Bomb and DotA 2 at some point)

GooieGreen

I've watched some pro matches and Brad's daily dotas. I'm getting ok at beating up bots but I'm not sure if I'd be able to hold up my end in an actual PvP team match. Looking forward to learning more.

Steam: mcaradon

I just installed it, I've watched quite a few videos, half read some guides.

Steam: Osaladin

Checking out the guides that were posted.

I tried getting into this a while ago, I really really want to get into it but I haven't put the time in yet. I think it's time though. I think it's time.

Thanks Brad.

Steam: pinoybuddy if anyone would like to help me learn or learn up with me, always lookin' for more buddies :)

I played 3 matches against bots and I definitely feel more knowledgeable than when I started. My first match was with Drow Ranger, who I later found out is a pretty popular beginner hero but I was mostly running around having no clue what I was doing. The second game I found my bearings a bit more playing Nature's Prophet. I really liked his root ability and his ability to teleport anywhere on the map. But I really didn't understand his ultimate and never felt like I was using it effectively. And in my third game, I played as Io, which was a huge mistake. I knew from watching Patrick play him during his first game on Unprofessional Fridays that he was different but I didn't realize how different. His tether ability was really confusing and I never felt I was using it right at all and his ultimate seemed mostly useless, outside of one instant where I used it to avoid a death that I'm pretty proud of.

Overall, though, I feel like I have a better understanding of the game but the thought of going up against real people is still pretty terrifying.

Hey everybody; I've just started a couple of bot matches and have watched some of Brad's Daily DOTAs and a couple tournament matches. I get some of the basics, but still totally suck. I'll read up on the guide, but feel free to add.

Steam ID: smacketh

Edit: I've added everyone's ID that Steam felt like finding from this thread.

Steam ID : DiveBomb, looking forward to learning the game in a friendly enviroment

@milkman said:

Man, I've played 10 hours of the game, and I can hold my own against medium/hard bots, but I still fear playing against real people.

@jacdg: Don't fear real matches. You will be matched with people just as bad as you are.

I am 160 games in and I still see people making rudimentary mistakes. What I am trying to say is, you have plenty of room to be awful before people start looking at you funny.

Thanks to @cloudenvy, I will be available to feed for all starting tomorrow-ish.

My steam id is basically the same as my username here. I apologize in advance, and, uh, it's all Cloudenvy's fault!

One actual, real match under my belt so far, looking to play with some duders!

I'm pretty bad but I think I'm getting the jist of it. Played a few bot matches and then jumped into an online game in less than ideal circumstances. One guy died loads and then disconnected and another spent most of his time standing in the spawn doing nothing. Considering I was on my own most of the time and we were trampled I think I held my own despite dying way more than I would have liked.

As you can tell, we had no answer for Chaos Knight, lol.

Steam ID is: ElectricBoogaloo

I've been playing some matches tonight vs bots with some duders, lots of fun. thought I did ok with my witch doctor support first match, went dazzle second time and stank the place up to high heavens.

This is the real reason why I think people should just ultimately say fuck playing a thousand bot games before playing someone for reals. You're gonna get fucked up games like that which you can't do much about. So why not take th plunge early and play the dame game instead of always wondering about pissing others off.

@staticfalconar said:

I tend to agree. Not only are you going to get a bunch of people in your first 25-50 matches that just don't care about leaving/disconnecting/abandoning/whatever (so some of your games are going to be fucked out of the gate), but playing against bots doesn't teach you how to play against people. I've played something like 2500-3000 games of DotA/HoN/Dota 2 and I find it significantly easier to play against real people than to play against bots.

A simple rule in DOTA that is great for a newcomer is to pretty much just stay alive. You may suck at last hitting or are not sure which items to get first or haven't gotten a kill but as long as no one is killing you and you are staying alive by not being too head strong or over reaching in a lane (i.e. being too far from a tower) or being too greedy to get a kill, and also just being aware on what skills you have (e.g. a stun, or slow, etc.) and by playing conservatively, you are able to learn a lot better and also you won't be considered a feeder because you're getting killed a lot. Self-preservation is key. If you learn how to survive then everything else will follow.

I'm Bass, and I am new to Dota 2.

My steam id is EroticDolphin. please feel free to add me. I'll be going through and adding other people from this thread.

Hi!

I've played a few bot games, read a bunch of tutorials, joined the Giant Bomb steam group. I think I am about ready to take the plunge.

Steam name is IronSouls. Please have mercy...

ID: blocko7899

So I've played about 7 hours of dota 2 just strictly in bot matches and I've got a handle on the basics, and I'd like to step it up to the big time. But I'm far too terrified to play against pubs. Maybe some of you fellow duders would like to help me out with understanding some more of the nuance of the game like what constitutes early, mid, late game, team compliments, when to do what and why. and generally help me get to a state where I could play random draft and find one or two heroes I could play with some success.

Question about the Dota 2 community (away from the GB community on there). How is it? I played both League of Legends and Heroes of Newearth a while back with a friend and found the communities of both games to be rude, obnoxious and so very unwelcoming, it's what made me not care to ever touch a moba game again. Steam/Valve seem to have implemented some neat features to help highlight good players and I'm sure there's some bad eggs in Dota 2 like any other gaming communities but I'd be interested to know what it's like in general.

Right now I'm playing against bots but discovered that the co-op against bots mode which seems like the next step. Been using mainly Ogre Magi (because Nolan North of course) and Sniper (because he's range and that suits my awfulness at this game. Guess I need to start experimenting.

I also started recently but I played about 25 public matches, a third of that on the South American server and the rest either on US East, US West and Eu West. I can tell you the community is ok, but you'll run into those types every now and then. At least a first as you'll be placed in the lowest brackets you'll be matched with a lot of people like you (us, really), people trying to learn. There's always some annoying self appointed expert but I just mute them and report if needed. Go ahead and try some publich matches againts bots.

Steam ID: MrOldboy

Haven't played any Dota 2 yet and haven't played any moba since WC3. But its free so why not give it a shot. If anyone is in a similar situation hit me up. Going to go through the expected learning path of guides and bot games for now.

Steam ID: saitanmar

For those interested. Haven't played against fellow human folks yet but will eventually.

Long time LoL player, since closed beta actually. Finally attempting to make the switch into Dota, but just not sure who to play and where. Hopefully going to find some people here that are helpful in that regard. I'm familiar with the mechanics obviously, last hitting and calling mias and the pace of the game, it's just making the transition is hard with people who are expecting perfection. Steam name is Dirty Olive.

Steam ID: .kemp

Played HoN 1-2 years ago and now want to get started in Dota 2. Will appriciate any kind of help that i can get on the way! :)

Steam ID: jakhicks

Played lots of bot matches.. lost two matches today against real humans!! Any help would be great :)

Steam ID: Archie Bonkers

I've played bot matches. I've also played one real match and lost at the very end. I'm really excited to learn how to truly play this game and not just push random buttons and hope for the best.

The Easy level bots are actually harder to fight than new people starting out. Easy bots can actually coordinate attacks and after a certain point (around lv 10) they'll group up in a 5 man gank train and take out your team.

Once you have the basics down of fighting practice matches you go into co-op bot matches. After a few more there you jump into match making and you'll see a lot of people running around randomly since they don't have the experience that comes from bot matches and you can easily clean up.

I just finished my frist three games with a friend of mine, really really fun.

If any duders want to add me:

wwferrisd-shows up as Anthony Walkens

After about a week of trying to learn, having my ups and downs and now sitting with an eerie sensation of "there's something wrong with me, why am I going back this?", there's really one thing about the game that sorta ruins it. The fact that it's impossible (as far as I can tell) to send private messages to people either during or after a match makes it insanely hard to learn. Asking the right people what you did wrong, how you could improve etc is sorta essential to a game that is all about coop and if you don't have a friend that can audit your games you're pretty much shit out of luck.

I do realize though that considering the amount of hate I've seen just for doing small mistakes it's just a big can of worms of verbal abuse etc, which is really quite unfortunate. I do wonder though why almost every game I play contains at least 2-3 of these elitist people that seem to know everything even when I'm basically MMing with less than 10 games under my belt.

I just wanted to thank all the duders out in Dota Land who have been so awesome. Everyone has been super supportive , nice and do not get mad when I drag the rest of the team down :P. I cannot wait to play more games now that I am getting a bit braver doing public and not just bot games. I am going to keep practicing and hopefully I will be able to get at least decent at it. I wish I had more time to research but with work, friends and family at times make it difficult. But I am really surprised how into this I am getting for my first "Moba". Anyone I just wanted to pop in this message and I hope to see you all later.

If you aren't already hanging out in the GB ingame chat channel, do that. You'll find a plethora of people ranging from newbies to veterans there. There are almost constantly people looking for stacks for newbie matchmaking, and you might even be able to find people in there willing to look at your replays or spectate your matchmaking to give you some pointers.

So I spent last night playing bot matches and trying to figure out just what was going on.

So is the next step to just jump in with the guys in the gb chat channel who are wanting low level or newbie matches?

Of the guys I played I liked Lion and Axe the best, but if i understand correctly going axe isn't a wise move if I don't know how to solo?

I jump on every now and then but my steam id is Jnal. Still bad but trying to get better.

Got my first drop, one of those mushroom chests. Though I'm fighting the temptation to buy a key for it.

Right now I'm playing mostly co-op bot matches, trouble is I think I'm to eager at the start so keep trying to start off fights and always end up dying way to much. Just had a match where the one player got real upset because I wasn't following his order to engage every second, when I did he would get hit slightly and run away, for me to take the hits and die. Right now enjoying Riki, Jikaro and Venomancer. Also I hate Sniper :D

I've played a handful of solo bot matches and had a lot of fun, looking for some co-op bot matches to start getting used to working with a team and actually coordinating (bots are terrible at it).

Like I said, I've only played a few matches but I've watched all of Brad's "Daily Dota"s and a few other games but still very much learning the ropes, so someone who knows what they're doing and can give a few pointers would be appreciated.

Also I'm UK based if that makes a difference for you.

steam ID: benwiles

Hey guys, I've watched every daily Dota (I understand the quality is not pro), read the purge guide/seen a few Purge plays, am very eager to learn..... But I am brand new to the game, and will actually be running it on a wineskin until mid-late june.

My current steam name is DogsWithHats, so feel free to add me if you want to watch someone be completely inept but be so sincere.

Hey everyone,

Been watching the daily DOTA's and been watching some other players on Twitch and what not get into it and am incredibly intrigued. I did a lot of reading on low level stuff and whatnot and started to get into some bot matches and I would love to get some friends to play this game with against bots to start or just to get a helping hand to navigate this massive game.

Steam ID:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Bloodwall/

Friend me, please. I'd love to play some time and start to really get into this. :)

So I'll bite. I'm not only green to Dota2, but MOBA and ARTS in general, so this is going to be pretty fun. I've played a few solo bot matches and it seems like I could get a grasp of it, I guess this is the next logical step?

ID: Lyfeforce

Been watching the daily dota so i decided to give it a go to,i've read alot of guides and stuff but i've only played a couple solo bot matches, but i want to get into to this fully, so i guess this is as good a place to start.

steam ID: wildebeast

http://steamcommunity.com/id/wildebeast

feel free to friend me, im free to learn and play most whenever.

Had my first nasty experience playing Dota 2 yesterday in a co-op bot match. Dude basically lost his temper and started calling us all sorts of names because we weren't exactly experts at playing the random heroes that were picked... isn't that the whole point of co-op bot matches? To learn the heroes better. He was just being a total twat to be honest and eventually disconnected to never return again, speaking of which how do you report someone? That hasn't appeared obvious from the UI.

That said, that's been the first real nasty experience I've had, which is certainly more than I can say for LoL which in one night was a nightmare. Still sticking to co-op bot matches, scared to let a team down in public MM :D

@machofantastico said:

Click their name on the scoreboard and then click Report Player. You should be able to do it from your previous games section as well.

Sooo...I think I'm gonna stick to just watching Daily DOTA.

Last week, after playing some bot matches, I decided to finally jump into a real game. I queued up for solo matchmaking and randomed Tiny (I figured I had no idea how to play anyone so might as well random). It took awhile to get the hang of things but we ended up winning pretty easily and I went like 3/6 or something like that. I certainly wasn't doing great but I wasn't dying or sabotaging the team at all. For game number two, I decided to party up with some Giant Bomb dudes. This time, we played single draft and Tiny ended up being one of more choices so I played him again. Again, we pretty much dominated and I ended up with TEN (!!) kills. I had 10 deaths as well but whatever, I was pretty damn happy with that performance. And all the GB dudes I played with were super nice.

I didn't have a chance to play again until tonight annnd...let's say, things went less well. I decided to try to party up in the GB chat again and ended up with a couple of other dudes. I made it clear that I was extremely new and one of the guys in the party seemed very willing to help, explained all the abilities of the hero I was playing (Magnus), told me where to lane, all that stuff. About 2 or 3 minutes into the game, I stupidly got killed with some generally poor play and the guy who was just so helpful (who died with me) IMMEDIATELY rage quit. I don't know if it was just because it was clear that I REALLY wasn't kidding about being new or if it was the two non-GB guys on our team with matching Justin Bieber usernames who didn't seem very willing to cooperate. Either way, I stuck around for the 4 on 5 for a while, generally embarrassing myself until I finally quit after an awesome 1/10 performance. It sucked to say the least but I knew I was going to have a game like this eventually.

So, I decided to play one more game in a solo queue. This did not go any better. I played as Pudge this time. I took mid and was opposed by a Viper, who made it absolutely impossible to get anything going. I couldn't get in for ANY (and I mean, any, I think I finished with like 6) last hits because every time I got anywhere close to this Viper, he would shoot the shit out of me, either causing me to retreat or just die. I had no idea what I was suppose to do in this situation or how to counteract this so I spent much of the early game trying to stay just in range for XP and not too close that this Viper would kill me. Needless to say, we lost and I ended up an almost impressively horrendous 0/9/1. On top of my awful last hitting, I didn't really understand my Hook ability until near the end of the match. I wasn't realizing that the hook just grabbed whoever was in front of me indiscriminately so I definitely fucked up my share of team fights grabbing my teammates or creeps instead of the person I was actually aiming for. I have to give my team a lot of credit for not just telling me to go fuck myself until the very end at least when one particularly astute player on my team said "pudge is a scrub." Yeah, no shit.

I'm probably done with DOTA for at least a little while. Both of these games were supremely discouraging and I feel I'd rather just watch some #bigplays then make the plays myself at this point.