Hey guys - I got into the beta, but have no idea how to play. At all. Is there any good video tutorials on how to get up to speed? I mean specifically for Dota 2... It would be greatly helpful. If you know of any or stuff that would greatly help - perhaps we can make a full list for all noobs. You don't want more "stupid feeder idiots in the wrong lane" right?

I don't have an awnser for you right away.

But looking for heroes of newerth tutorials and dota 1 tutorials should get you on to a good start just for basics.

Now on individual heroes, there should be some written guides around, but once you get the basics you can adapt pretty fast to a hero.

If you join the steam group, i , or some other people wouldn't mind helping out i bet.

Purge's guide as well as the plethora of other guides available on Play DotA. I would also advise people to check out his youtube channel though most of his videos might be a little bit 'over the head' for some new players depending on how much they understand the game. Personally, I think he can be a bit of a dick sometimes, but he knows his shit and he's good at what he does so I guess it's just something you'll have to learn to live with if you watch his videos.

Here's a few tips:
 

• You're gonna to need to play a lot of games, whether it's in Dota 2, LoL, HoN, etc. to understand how the game in general works.
  
• Focus on one hero at a time in matchmaking games (~5 to 10 games in a row), if possible. Doesn't matter which hero you want to focus on as long as you enjoy playing it. Witch Doctor and Lich are pretty easy to pick up.
  
• Follow the recommended items for a while. They're not always the optimal choice but it'll keep you focused on the action.
  
• Try to have a Scroll of Teleportation in your inventory at all times.
  
• Try and watch one game per play session, either from the Directed or Player Perspective camera.
  
• Find other players around your skill level to play / talk about the game with. This is probably the best thing you can do to motivate yourself to improve and have fun.

For guides and tutorials, PurgeGamer's youtube channel is a good place to check out. PlayDotA.com's guides are generally high quality, though some are outdated.

The most beneficial thing I found was to find some other friendly players who don't mind walking you through a few matches. There are steam groups you can join that make this easier.

The most important thing you need to accept, however, is that regardless of how many guides you read, and how much you practice, is that you are going to be a terrible dota player for a long time. I'm only 150 hours deep and I'm still learning. Only.

Also i would recommend watching VOD's. Now keep in mind these are pro teams but with the help of the commentators you can learn strategy pretty quickly. Check out joindota.com and watch some of their previous archived matches.

As others have said, youtube.com/purgegamers is a great place to start. He does a tutorial about purchasing starting items and a tutorial on all the items in the game. Plus he does a game with commentary for all the heros...find the heros you like and watch them. He will explain item builds / skill builds / how to play the hero.

Join the Giantbomb channel in game, we generally have a good amount of people idling in there and they probably would be more then willing to teach / play some games with you.

Some basic tips I would give:

Pick "easy" heros at first. These are heros who can be viable the full game without needing you to rely on getting a ton of farm. If you pick someone like Faceless Void and you do not get 200+ CS, you will be useless and lose the game for your team. So stick with guys who make a major difference in fights based on their abilities not items. Some I would recommend: Lich, Lion, Windrunner, Tidehunter, Shadow Shaman, Venomancer, Vengeful Spirit, and Skeleton King. Once you feel comfortable with positioning / last hitting...then start trying some of the soft carries like Drow Ranger, Mirana, Weaver. Then when you feel like "Wow I am really good at last hitting and usually am around 100 at the 20min mark" then pick up Anti-Mage, Broodmother, Faceless Void.

Items: Generally recommended items will work until you figure out what is best. But try to build items that let you support your team. Stuff such as Mekanism, Drums of Endurance, and Pipe of Insight. All of which make your team better in fights rather then them relying on you to get the kills. All of those heros I mentioned except Tidehunter / Skeleton King (generally build them tanky) should pick up a Mekanism ASAP to heal your team. Say you are playing Lich, you don't need to be super gosu and kill everyone. All you need to do is stay towards the back, slow the enemy team with your Q, pop your ultimate right when the team fight starts, then activate your Mekanism as soon as everyone starts taking damage to heal them all. If you do this, you are instantly MVP on your team because you contributed majorly to the fight.

Dont be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes people think if they go "What should I build on Lich this game?" that their team will just go "LOL NOOB!" If they do, then your team deserves to lose. But most of the time people will be pretty cool and say "Well just worry about purchasing obs wards and build a mek when you can." There have been a ton of games where a new player will not know what to do, then will buy the wrong items, then 45 min into the game they get yelled at for being bad and they say "Well I didnt know!" rather then just asking for some advice.

Another useful guide: http://www.playdota.com/guides/vals-guide-to-every-hero#top. It's a neat quick reference for every dota hero if you ever find yourself in a bit of mid-game confusion.

1. Join the Giant Bomb DOTA 2 Chat Channel

2. Play with [LATIFAH] members.

3. Revel in mediocrity.

4. ??????????????????

5. Profit!

I suck at the game but the only thing I can say is just play and find a kind of character you like to play and stick with it.

@IndieFinch: Hey, I am also new to Dota 2, so I was wondering what you meant by "200+ CS"

@Zor said:

@IndieFinch: Hey, I am also new to Dota 2, so I was wondering what you meant by "200+ CS"

CS stands for Creep Score. It is another way of saying Last Hitting, in which you get the last hit on a minion to get the gold. In the upper right it will show your score kills / deaths / assists. Then below that, it shows creep score / denies (when you deny your own creeps preventing your enemy gold).

My best advice to not completely terrible at the begging is to find a youtube guide for a character (most of them are okay) play 5 matches against bots (I assume it's your first games so you should get a feel for the game and the character) and then play only that character for 5-10 matches, after that it will be easier to learn new characters.

Also let your team know you are new, you will get a lot less hate that way and if you need help with choosing the next item ask them, they will probably know what is best for the situation (although the recommended items will be good enough for most games).

I found this video as a great way to get the basics of the UI and what the hell is going on: