Hey Giantbombers, I am starting up a new video series that is directed at brand new players coming into the world of Dota 2. The goal of the series is to start at the very basic level, then slowly give you the foundations to at least jump into some games of Dota 2 and not feel completely overwhelmed...all while keeping the videos as short and sweet as possible.

Dota for Dummies is an extension of the usually shenanigans I do for Dota Insight as well as the coaching / teaching I do for Flipside Tactics. The first episode just went up, it covers the base basics such as movement, hot keys, and courier usage. I also have the next few episodes lined up, which will be: How to pick a hero / new heros to focus on, Explanation of the attributes and types of damage, Jungle Information, and Stacking / pulling camps as a support player.

The reason I am coming here, is that I have spent a lot of time teaching and assisting a ton of new players from the Giantbomb community over the past year. Now with this series, I really want to make it as useful as possible to the new players stepping into Dota 2. With Brad's recent infatuation of Dota 2, the Giantbomb community in Dota 2 has exploded with a lot of new people...hopefully this stuff can help your transition to Dota 2.

I really would love to gather feedback from you guys on the direction you would want me to take these, as well as any various topics that I could cover that you believe could be beneficial for your personal advancement in Dota 2.

Episode 1 (Movement, Hotkeys, and Courier Usage): YouTube

Episode 2 (Attributes and Abilities): YouTube

Episode 3 (Hero Roles and Where to Start): YouTube

Episode 4 (Jungle Information): YouTube

Episode 5 (Stacking and Pulling as a Support): YouTube

Episode 6 (The Shops): YouTube

Episode 7 (Warding): YouTube

Episode 8 (Last Hitting, Denying, and Tower Mechanics): YouTube

Episode 9 (Micro and Control Groups): YouTube

Episode 10 (Dewarding): YouTube

This was very well done, thank you. Certainly it has cleared up a few things for me, seeing as I'm relatively new to the Dota and still quite awful. Well produced!

@rpgee: Thanks! The others should be up soon, just trying to figure out a reasonable release schedule. Hopefully it can ease you into Dota 2 a bit.

Very nice video. I've been playing Dota for a bit and I still learned some tricks from your video. One suggestion I have is to consider making a video explaining last hitting and denying in detail. While I feel you covered the ideas well in this video for someone who has played a MOBA before, as a brand new Dota 2 player I had no idea what either term was or how exactly to do it. So I think a video going over the aspects that contribute to last hitting such as: base damage, attack animation and just helpful tips for last hitting would be helpful to new players.

I also second your suggestion to change the item hotkeys to something you feel comfortable with, as when I first started I kept the default hotkeys and always had a hard time activating items at the right time until I changed my hotkeys to better fit my hand position.

Again great job on the video, I always come into threads like this nervous that the person in the video has issues talking coherently and making points succinctly, but you were very good at explaining things. Great idea for a video series and I'll be looking out for more.

@triple07: That is a wonderful idea, that didn't really occur to me. I will do one based off that and can expand upon it by making it about lane presence. How to control a late in a beneficial area / why you need to control the lane...etc.

i will watch this.

I will get around to checking this out, I hope it can be useful. Really I need a series of beginner videos that explains how to play Dota from the perspective of already having played LoL. You think it would be easy to make the switch but every time i've jumped into a bot game in Dota 2 I've been completely miserable at the game.

@hyuzen: Well I hope that these help. If there are specific areas that you have questions on, let me know and I can add them to the list of topics to hit or I can just help you personally. I played at least 1000ish games of LoL before the Dota beta came out, so I am still quite familiar with how LoL differs from Dota 2.

It is well made video, I hope that you will do a tutorial on the shop and explain on Agility, Strength, and Magic Heroes.

Definitely learned a lot more from your video than others on the YouTubez.

@wasabicurry: Episode 2 is actually just that. I talk about Agi, Str, and Int. Then also the types of damage, Physical, Magical, Pure, and Composite. It is already recorded and uploaded, just waiting for the word that I can flip it live.

Two big things!

Well done! I was just surprised that there was no mention of control groups, that seems like something that would fit into the basics here.
Then again it is only some heroes that will make us of it and i might of just missed it.

I also had no idea that you were Finch from dota insight. Keep up the good work.

@cheappoison: I don't think I mentioned it, your right though...I probably should have. Coming to think of it, maybe I should make an episode focusing on control groups / micro. Could talk about how to make control groups as well as little tricks like hitting tab to shuffle through units.

@indiefinch: Well it is still way beyond what is ingame and a great introduction. There are always things that are missed or could of been mentioned, but then you run the risk of putting to much in there.

And on the next video, it is a good idea to cover stacking and pulling in the same video where you talk about doing it with a support and going to the jungle. But i think it could be valuable to have a video dedicated to how the game goes for a support. Seeing as a lot of new people start out with supports but have don't know about wards, upgrading the courier, supporting the guy you are in lane with but don't sap too much xp, rotating, what to do/make usefull use of your time once the laning stage is over as a support.

Nice video and pretty useful. Didn't know about that double cast to auto cast on self option. Will definately be using that from now on.

@cheappoison said:

Yeah, really hope you cover these things at some point. The trap many new players fall into as a support is that they end up just roaming aimlessly from lane to lane but not getting anything done (finding themselves drastically underleveled) in the mid-game because they have no idea what they should be doing once the laning phase breaks down.

I always appreciate these although I can never be sure how much it means (as I don't play DOTA because I don't have a key AND I don't want to try playing and get yelled at because I don't have any friends that play haha)

Will you be covering what character to pick and why? That seems important from what little I can tell and I haven't seen that covered (although I'm sure it is somewhere). I know it'd be too broad scope to cover all the characters in detail (and really that is something you learn by doing) but it seems like team balance (what characters they choose) is important... or at least that is the impression I get.

So, I guess just a suggestion. I can't watch the video yet as I am at work but I'll check it out later =)

The gameplan for now is:

Ep2 will be attributes and types of damage.

Ep3 will be general hero roles and what heros are friendly to new players. Short talk on the lanes.

Ep 4 will be the jungle overview, camp sizes / span information.

Ep 5 is stacking and pulling camps as a support player, when / where / why.

Those are all recorded and ready to rock, will release a new one every few days. Episode 6 will be last hit / deny and lane control. Episode 7 will be warding, where and why. After that though, the door is wide open. Can focus on specific roles throughout the game. Possible picking / team synergy. Really at this point just taking everyone's ideas and adding them to a list...then hopefully I can knock out as many questions as possible and make these a good resource for new players.

Episode 2 is now out. I talk about attributes, hero abilities, and how to get additional information about your abilities.

Damn man, this is helpful.

I just released another episode of Dota for Dummies. This one I talk about hero roles and give new players a set of new heros to play first.

Can't wait to go home and watch them for real. I skipped around a bit and just from the little I saw it seems really well done. It is people like you that I would prefer got paid then the other crap on youtube. Also you did not need to make a kickstarter to make these videos (you know who I am talking about).

Ah well another topic indeed, but these videos are perfect for someone that just installed DOTA last night!

@hellbound: Thats the goal! A lot of the guides out there require to much time commitment. Even Purge's guide of "Welcome to Dota You Suck" covers a lot, but is a intimidating long read. It is a hell of a lot easier to flip these on, watch a few videos which explains and shows you stuff...then dive on in.

Great videos. Very much enjoy these.

Subscribed.

Goddamn Finch peddling his shit on the forums, being all helpful and shit. Maybe if you took more time playing on the GB Inhouses and signing up for the tournament and less time making useful content people wouldnt hate you so much Finch! #Latifahs4Life

I've started playing Dota since Brad started, so I'm still learning. Watched the first video and it was a real help, it cleared up a few things that I wasn't too sure of. Gonna watch the rest and look forward to more.

@darkwhitehair: Somebody's grumpy

Episode 4 is out today. I went over the jungle and what you need to know about it! Episode 6 and 7 are recorded as well. One goes over the shop, secret shop, and the side shop. The other is all about warding, going over some of the more common ward spots and why you want to have wards in that area.

Great work duder, I'll watch the rest when I get home!

I released Episode 5 a little early since it goes along with last weeks "Welcome to the Jungle" video. I will still release another episode on the usual time on Friday if you want to subscribe to the F.3 channel and it will show up on there.

I am still taking requests for episodes! The next 3 lined up are the Shops, Warding, and Laning. After that it is wide open to whatever people want to see.

A double release this week. This episode I talk about the three different shops in Dota 2 and how you should use them. Next weeks episode will be the warding episode, going over a bunch of stuff about warding.

I am learning a lot from these, thank you.

Today is the release of the Warding overview! Hopefully this is able to answer some of your questions about warding as well as give you a solid foundation to begin thinking about map awareness.

Finch, do you know what's going on with Frost and his DOTA101 series/Road to Glory? Those vids are really informative for the more intermediate players and I haven't seen much activity from him in awhile.

@birthdaysuitburns: They are still continuing. Shit has been crazy at F.3 since we signed the team. Right now all of our effort is working on getting them prepared / financed for their tournaments. They will be at the Raidcall EMS event in Poland in a few weeks, once that is completed hopefully he will be able to get back to videos.

I am going to watch some of these videos before I jump in to games, because I feel like if I go in without any prep I will be in for games with people calling me a faggot ad nauseum.

Cool stuff will check it out later.

This weeks episode is now up! This episode centers around laning. Things such as last hitting, denying, and tower mechanics. Hopefully people can get a better idea of how these mechanics work in Dota and realize how important they are. Next weeks episode will be all about micro heros and tips to make people more successful when playing them.

@indiefinch: Thanks so much for making these. I'm trying to get into the game a bit and these videos are fantastic.

@chilibean_3: No problem, hopefully they help you get into the awesome game that is Dota!

New video out today. It is focused on tips for micro and control groups. Next week I am thinking I will do an episode about dewarding and how to do it. Then after that I am considering doing a series that highlights each role, and what to do throughout the game. Support, initiation, carry..etc. But I am still taking requests if anyone has any topics they want covered.

These videos are the best. You should be getting paid for these.

New video up, this time it is all about dewarding. Let me know if you have any additional topic requests and I can take care of them next week.

@indiefinch: you did a really nice job on these!

I think a video on how to play the various roles is something that would benefit lots of newer players.

@indiefinch: you did a really nice job on these!

I think a video on how to play the various roles is something that would benefit lots of newer players.