DotA resources for Xoobies Introduction So based off that other little thread I made I've come to the conclusion that yes, you guys would like some sort of references for DotA that can help you along on your quest to become the world's greatest DotA player in human history. That's totally cool with me, but first things first: this game has depth, and to master it in it's entirety will take time and effort on your part. Now you don't have to go crazy and master everything in a month, but mastering the basics if definitely a good first step, and that's what I'm here to do: give you, the dota xoobie, a little bit of information to use as reference. Hopefully it helps you guys, and if it doesn't then please leave me feedback! I'd love to expand on this as much as possible so long as I have the feedback to do so. Fantastic Guides Before I do my little shtick, here are a few very good guides to help you guys get started. The first is http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=123364699#21449, or more formally known as Purge's Welcome to DotA, you suck. This guide covers a ton of ground far better than I could hope to, going over everything from hero roles to basic laning, items to heroes you should probably pick, and more. If you're completely new to DotA and need something to springboard you into the abyss with a little bit of knowledge, this is the guide you're looking for, and so I highly recommend you start here. The second is for you slightly more advanced players, or more specifically, support players who have trouble warding. That guide is http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=124307820#21449, or f334r's In-depth Guide to Warding, and it is quite the mother-load of information. It will tell you all you need to know about giving your team rune control, offensive and defensives wards, and even de-warding. If you're the kind of selfless dude or dudette that loves to play support and end a 50 minute game with boots and wards, this is the guide for you. Seriously, read this guide if you wanna know how to ward. It'll answer the age old question of "where do I ward?" in a matter of minutes. League of Legends Similarities For those unaware, DotA was the first big MobA game, and it's existence has led the way to many other mobas being thrown around the gaming market, with the biggest of them currently being League of Legends. While LoL does have quite a number of differences when compared to its big brother, there are still a good amount of similarities for one to draw connections to when playing between the two. But for a league player, the most important things to know when coming into DotA is that heroes do not have innate passives, there are no runes or masteries, no brush, no free trinkets, and of course, no summoner spells. This should be common knowledge to those that have played at least a few games of DotA, but the one thing people keep asking me about are summoner spells. "Do they exist in this game?" "Can I still get flash?" "ghost is crucial to my build please i need ghost i need to cs fast", etc. One of the cool things about DotA is that items have a bigger impact on the game due to their activatables, and in fact all of the summoner spells that exist in LoL are derived from items in DotA. So to alleviate confusion, here is a list of the items in DotA that have an equivalent in LoL. Do keep in mind they are not 1:1 spells, and will differentiate. ________________________________ GHOST Phase Boots +24 Damage, +50 MS, Active: Phase, Costs 1350 Gold Ghost's equivalent is a pair of sweet boots, called Phase Boots. These boots are usually picked up on heroes lacking innate mobility, such as Pudge and Beastmaster, or heroes that already have good mobility but can benefit from just a little extra as well as make use of the damage. As you can probably guess, the active ability on these boots gives the user +16% movement speed and unitwalking (able to walk through dudes) for 4 seconds, with an 8 second cooldown. Useful for moving around to initiate or escape, and since the active does not have a mana cost you are free to use it whenever you desire! HEAL Mekansm +5 Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Armor, 4 HP Regen Aura, Active: Restore Costs 2306 Gold This little puppy here is one of the best support items in the game, and is generally picked up almost every single game by a support hero. The reasoning is quite simple: AoE heal with armor buff = good stuff. When used, it heals both you and your allies in a 750 radius for 250 and gives them +2 armor for 25 seconds. This costs you 150 mana and has a 45 second cooldown, so be wise in its use. Another thing to note is that once the heal is used, anyone affected by it will have a debuff place on them that prevents them from being able to be healed by another Mekansm. This is so that a team can't stack 5 of these and have a 1,000 hp heal every minute, cuz that would be broken and stuff. That debuff lasts 25 seconds. If you're playing support, this is one of the best items that you can go for first, and a team should always have somebody carrying one around. Also note there are other heroes that aren't supports that benefit greatly from this item, such as Viper or Outworld Devourer, but aren't always the best choice. EXHAUST Rod of Atos +25 Intelligence, +325 Health, Active: Cripple Costs 3100 Gold Atos is a relatively unused item in that while a solid item, its benefits are fairly niche and as such aren't seen on very many heroes. Plus, why get a slow when you can get stronger CC like a Scythe of Vyse or a Euls? That's the mentality people have when looking at this item, but don't overlook it: casters that have no innate CC of their own, or very little of it, can definitely benefit from this item. The health and intelligence boost is an obvious plus, but the real reason you buy it is for the active: Cripple. For 50 mana, you can slow someone for 60% of their movement speed for 4 seconds, on a cooldown of 12 seconds. Simple, but efficient, and heroes like Zeus or Skywrath Mage (especially Skywrath) can utilize this to keep their opponent locked down long enough for them to get off all of their spells without worrying about them getting away, or in Sky's case, moving out of his tiny AoE ult. It's also cheaper than Scythe of Vyse, so if you're hurting for cash and need some cheap CC, it isn't half bad. CLARITY Arcane Boots +250 Mana, +55 MS, Active: Replenish Mana Costs 1450 Gold This little guy is pretty self explanatory: it's a pair of boots that, when used at the price of 25 mana, give 135 mana to you and your allies in a 600 radius. Boasts a 55 second cooldown as well. These boots are purchased exclusively on heroes that have mana problems, such as Tiny, Timbersaw, Tidehunter, and Bane, and are most efficient during the early to mid game phases. It enables your team to have a little bit of mana for pushes or for slinging spells around, which is pretty damn helpful all around. Definitely good to have at least one pair on the team. REVIVE ... is not an item in this game, but instead a mechanic known as "Buyback". When you die, a little box appears on your health bar that enables you to spend a large sum of gold to instantly revive yourself. Here is the formula for what the cost will be for a buyback: 100 + (Level2×1.5) + (GameTime×15), rounded down to a multiplier of 50. Basically, if you're a high level and you haven't died in a while, expect a large sum of cash to be spent on a buyback if you so choose to do so. Buybacks also have a cooldown of 6 minutes, so be smart in how you choose to use your buybacks. Ontop of this, you cannot gain Unreliable gold (gold gained from killing creeps and neutrals) for a full minute after buying back. This means that if you buyback you should only do so if you need to help out your team in some shape or form, be it to defend something or to get right back into a long teamfight and clean up shop. If you buyback just to farm creeps, you're gonna have a pretty bad time. BARRIER Pipe of Insight +11 HP Regen, +30% Magic Resistance, Active: Barrier Costs 3628 Gold When used, gives you and your allies a shield that absorbs 400 total magic damage. in a radius of 900. The shield lasts for 10 seconds, costs 100 mana, and has a cooldown of 60 seconds. This bad boy here is every magic users worse nightmare, since an entire team of magic absorbing heroes is pretty annoying to deal with. Obviously you'd wanna get this item against a magic heavy team, since it will screw them over royally and give your team quite the edge in teamfights. Support heroes can get it if they get the money for it, but usually it will fall to someone tanky on the team to get it. Heroes like Bristleback and Batrider are just a few examples of heroes that usually pick one up if needed, as they benefit greatly from the extra magic resistance and hp regen, since they are usually in the middle of the fights lobbing stuff around. CLEANSE Diffusal Blade +22/+26 Agility, +6/+10 Intelligence, Active: Purge, Passive: Feedback, 20/36 Damage Costs 3300/4150 One of the most versatile items in the game, Diffusal Blade is an interesting yet effective item that gives you both damage and a very useful active. The active itself is a purge, which will purge all debuffs off of an allied unit or apply a crippling slow for 4 seconds that slowly gets worse over the course of the duration. This means that the slow starts off strong, but every second means the slow will reduce in effectiveness, eventually tapering off completely. Diffusal also has 8 charges, meaning you can only use its active 8 times, that is, until you upgrade it again, which is done by purchasing the recipe a second time. This will refresh the item's charges back to 8, and give you 4 more agility and intelligence to work with. Ontop of all these awesome benefits, Diffusal comes with a passive that gives your auto attacks mana burn, meaning whenever you attack something with mana they will lose 20/36 mana and get damage for the same amount. A very good item for heroes that benefit from illusions, such as Spectre or an Anti-Mage with a Manta. SMITE Hand of Midas +30 Attack Speed, Active: Transmute Costs 2050 Gold Have a late game lineup? Are you not facing a pushing team thats actually pushing? Wanna flash-farm like the old Chinese meta and drag out games for 90 minutes? This is the item for you. Our little friend here, the Hand of Midas, is an item built for farming and should only be bought to do so: it gives you +30 attack speed, which is a nice albeit tiny bonus, and an active called Transmute, which when used on a creep will give you 190 gold and 2.5x their exp, so it is ideal to use it on big jungle creeps so you make the most of the exp bonus and start balling out of control. The tricky thing with Midas is that you wanna get it relatively early game; under ten minutes and ideally around the 5-6 minute mark. A minute or two over is fine really, but keep in mind that you're farming a farming item, and so you will be lacking any damage or survivablity items. Only get this if you can A) get it early, B) are not facing early pressure (push teams), and C) you are a carry that can make the most of the item. Heroes like Lifestealer and Doom are examples of flash farmers that can really make use of a Midas, and are almost always picked up by them if possible. "Beginner Heroes" While I do believe these heroes to be very good for newer players, that doesn't mean they aren't viable at a higher level. All of these heroes are good in their own way, but what really matters here isn't what the pros are picking but rather your own skill level. If you find yourself dying a bunch in DotA or feel like you don't contribute too much to the laning phase or teamfights then these heroes should hopefully enable you to contribute something to the team. And so I give you, the allstar list of easy but effective heroes that are also complete bad asses: INITIATORS/SEMI-CARRIES First up we have tanky initiators, the heroes that will be starting fights and wreck havoc in the middle of them as well. These guys are share a number of characteristics that make them both relatively simple to play and effective on any team: they're all Strength heroes so they have naturally high health pools, they possess stuns, meaning they are very effective during the laning phase and during a teamfight, and you don't have to be a farming wizard to use them effectively. They also all have skills that give them utility outside of stuns, such as Sven having an AoE armor and movement speed buff or Tidehunter having a ranged slow that also recduces armor, giving these bulky lads something to do outside of just sitting in lane or teamfighting. Now granted, three of these heroes (Sven, Spiritbreaker, Slardar) are semi-carries, meaning that while they can 'carry' a team they won't be as effective as an actual, harder carry. This also means that they need a bit of farm to get going, and almost every initiator in the game benefits from farming a Blink Dagger, so like any other MobA you will need to be able to last hit decently enough to farm up your core items. But that'll come with practice, so for now lets focus on some sweet heroes for you to pick. HEROES IN ORDER FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Sven, Centaur Warrunner, Tidehunter, Spiritbreaker, Slardar. SUPPORTS If starting fights and getting into the thick of thing isn't your cup of tea, then maybe supporting is something you wanna give a try. Unlike those meatheads up there, these guys rely on good positioning and their teammates to be effective. They also all have some sort of CC, ranging from AoE slows to single target stuns, further lending to their roles of supports by enabling them to setup kills for their team or protect an ally. Supports also have the arguably enjoyable job of purchasing Wards and a Courier for their team, as well as Smokes of Deceit, Dust of Appearance, and other utility items. The similarities that these guys share are: with the exception of Ogre Magi, they have low health pools, meaning that good teamwork and use of their abilities will keep them alive and the kills rolling. Another thing to take note of is that these guys are built around CC, as each of them have 2 or more abilities that enable them to slow or stun their opponents, making them invaluable to a teams composition. Supports are often under appreciated or devalued by newer players, but the don't let such thoughts dissuade you from picking one of these fine support folks: they are crucial to a team and make plays happen, so if your team needs one don't shy away from picking them. And they don't need to farm to be effective! THE ONE BUTTON WONDER AKA THE LAST RESORT Now, if you for whatever reason absolutely cannot grasp a single hero in DotA and are about to give up all hope, do not fret: there is hope. A hero so simple that a cat could play him; a hero so simple that he enables you to ball out of control once mastered. The hero I'm talking about of course is Wraith King, who only has one active ability out of his entire skillset. That of course is his Q, Wraith Blast, which does damage, slows, and applies a dot for a few seconds. Everything else is passive: a lifesteal aura, a crit, and when he dies he comes back to life after a few seconds. I mean really this guy is so god damn easy that I'd be shocked if anyone found him difficult, unless entirely new to MobA's, which in that case hes actually a decent idea for a pick. The problem with Wraith King however is that he's a carry, and a not-so-great one at that. He's kited easily and since he possesses no farming abilities has trouble farming without something like a midas, and even when farmed he can easily be kited due to no gap closers and one ability. So if you're looking for a carry to pick that's both easy and a decent hero, Wraith King is certainly for you, but I'd urge you to brave the waters sand look for something a tiny bit more skill-intensive so you don't feel like a gummy bear carry with no items whatsoever. CARRIES Carries are an interesting sort; they require good last hitting mechanics and map-presence to truly shine, skills that players usually do not master for quite sometime as they begin their DotA adventure. Because of this, I would not recommend playing a carry until you are comfortable and efficient at last hitting as well as have a good grasp of map presence, as in knowing when to fight and when to farm and being on the lookout for potential ganks coming your way. A carry must be able to farm up their core items quickly so that they can, eventually, strap their entire team to their backs and carry them to glorious victory. If you find yourself wanting to carry your team but can't decide on one that is easy to grasp, then look no further than these 5 handsome devils. Now carrying in DotA is tricky business, namely because you have to know when the best time is to stop farming and assist your team for a (hopefully) guaranteed boost of gold and know how to position yourself so that you don't get picked off. Playing safely is the name of the game for a carry, mainly because most carries are either squishy and/or do not have a form of escape mechanism, which means they will rely strongly on their supports and other teammates to help them out when they need it. Of course, that also means you're expected to farm up your items relatively quickly and eventually become a monstrosity on the battlefield. Want anything mentioned or covered in my very WIP guide? If so, please leave a response and I'll be sure to include it!
Just a little fyi as well, if you are brand new to DotA 2 and/or MOBA's and want to play, i HIGHLY suggest Purge's guide. http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck Also, when he talks about the Dota community as being about the worst thing next to xbox live he is not lying, but the game rocks.
