indiefinch

Read through this thread - http://www.giantbomb.com/dota-2/61-32887/the-i-am-new-to-dota-beginners-guide/35-570903/#54

A lot of good discussion about ways to get started in Dota. The best advice I can give you is go into Dota thinking "This is a whole new game." Things in LoL that are considered good, are bad habits in Dota. You should pick things up quickly and feel free to message me if you have any questions.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

No, only the first person who leaves (or is afk for 5 min) gets an abandon after that everyone else can leave without getting an abandon.

This is correct. Once one person gets an abandon, the game is free to leave for everyone without penalty. If the game goes past the 10 min mark, then someone abandons...it still counts as a win or loss. If someone abandons before the 10 min mark, the game doesn't count for anything no matter who stays / leaves.

@thabigred: Stick with the suggested items until you begin to learn things. As far as the roles, look on Purge's guide and start with the suggested heros. Also join the GiantBomb chat channel in game to try and find people. If you don't see people there, come over to the DotaInsight chat channel and find me. DotaInsight is the dota podcast I do and most of the people apart of our community are generally nice / will be willing to assist new players. You will figure it out, I promise! Just try to have fun, find a few easy heros you enjoy, and just focus on trying to become a better player yourself.

@Rowr: Well LoL and Dota are completely different games. LoL takes the basics of Dota, then distills them down to a simplier formula. Pendragon and Guisnoo were two of the main Dota developers, both work for Riot now (Eul and Icefrog were also Dota developers, both work for Valve now). Basically LoL removed a lot of the tough aspects of Dota, things such as Denying, losing gold when dying, purchasing teleportation scrolls..etc. Then they built a very specific meta game in which 95% of the players understand. (something like you put your AD carry and support bot to be close to dragon). These changes all fall right into line with their overall business model, one specific hero cannot hard counter another...there are basic cookie cutter shapes that supports, ad carry, ap carry..etc all fit within. I am not bashing LoL or anything, I have at least 800 games played of LoL, its just that the set out to make a simpler version of Dota and it is wildly successful. Valve and Icefrog are just trying to recreate Dota 1, but on its own platform with proper skill matchmaking. Changing anything from Dota 1 is a massive mistake, there is a reason the game has been so popular as a mod for a decade. I can guarantee that anything what feels like "fat" is actually put in the game for a specific reason. For example, you cannot see enemies mana bars. Some people say this is a bad thing, however it rewards players who take the time to check the enemies mana. Say I am fighting Earthshaker, normally he can use his stun and kill me...but since I did a quick mana check I can see he will not have a stun, therefore he will not be able to kill me. A less experienced player will not do a mana check, will run away from him when they could have picked up an easy kill.

As far as investing the time, the matchmaking should be good enough to match you with people equal to your skill. I have 1100 hours in Dota 2, I should never be placed against someone who is new to the game...because just based on time invested I would crush them in the laning phase. It is just a weird disagreement to have...I play mostly Dota and Starcraft, though I enjoy fighting games quite a bit. However when I play Street Fighter, Persona 4 Arena, Skullgirls...etc online I just get demolished. It isn't the games fault, its because I am not sinking the same amount of time as other people.

@Rowr: There is already one that deviated and made it simple, its called League of Legends. Yes the game is incredible deep and difficult, but that shouldn't hinder your fun. You wont be competing in tournaments or playing competitively. Just utilize the vast amount of threads out there (I made one on here a ton of people contributed info to) and learn the basics. All you really need to know is the roles of heros, basic team compositions, then learn a few heros you enjoy. Then just have a good time.

If you don't like the idea of a game that requires you concentrate, then maybe this isn't the genre for you. No sense to bash it, personally I only play games like SC2 / Dota 2...if they made it easy and can figure it out in 10 min, I probably wouldn't play it.

@Cheesebob said:

@IndieFinch: Yeah it was, I ment that OD is a intelligent type character...which is what everyone apart from me took

Well stat attributes have nothing to do with the heros role. OD is an Int based carry. Batrider is a Int based initatior. Vengeful Spirit is an Agility based support. Wisp is a strength based support.

@Cheesebob said:

How about this, how do you deal with a terrible hero selection? I played a game and EVERYONE apart from me chose support style characters (and not awesome ones like Outworld Destoryer, shit like Warlock)...whilst the other team calmly took all heavy tanks and hard carries.

40 mins of nonsense later we lost 50-23.

I hope that was a misstype...OD is one of the strongest carries in the game. His problem is he is a glass cannon who just dies instantly if he is out of position. But mid game before bkbs come out he can just steamroll people with his damage output.

Should be a lot of fun, thanks for taking the time to put everything together.

I don't think this will happen, though if it did I would be really happy. I purchased a Vita and a 3DS so I don't really mind where MH4 is, at this point I just have to pray they release it in the west. Though it would be interesting if Capcom suddenly had a change of heart with Nintendo. It seems like after MH3U for Wii U and MH3 coming to 3DS in the west, that Capcom was going all in with Nintendo platforms. Perhaps some of the lack luster Wii U sales are causing them to consider putting MH4 on different platforms? Who knows, but I still have a hard time believing they would put it out on Vita the same day.

I am actually decently excited about this. The short time I spent in Tera, I loved. It is just hard to pay monthly for multiple MMOs when I don't have the time I used to. I would love to be able to play WoW, Tera, and Rift all at the same time by only paying for WoW.