DotA 2 - Valve's up and coming hat simulator

[Neftren]

Hey, just got this game (thanks Neftren!) and have one question: Has anyone written a guide for LoL players coming over to DotA2?

I think there was a comparison post linked a ways back, but it was written from the perspective of a low-elo player who didn't understand many of the higher level fundamental mechanics of LoL.

I've just been getting pasted by bots to learn the game. Let me know if you want to play together.

[Volatar]

I think there was a comparison post linked a ways back, but it was written from the perspective of a low-elo player who didn't understand many of the higher level fundamental mechanics of LoL.

I've just been getting pasted by bots to learn the game. Let me know if you want to play together.

I'll probably be playing tonight if I can tear myself away from AC2. I will make sure to shoot you a message.

[Neftren]

I'll probably be playing tonight if I can tear myself away from AC2. I will make sure to shoot you a message.

Yeah I've been really absorbed by AC:Revelations.

[Volatar]

Yeah I've been really absorbed by AC:Revelations.

I am always behind on my gaming. I wait until games hit $5 before buying them.

[Pie Guy]

Any chance I could bum a beta key off someone?

[Niezck]

I second the above

[Tono]

Really, what I would suggest to anybody coming from LoL to DotA (Or vise-versa actually, as was my case a while ago, or starting out), is assume you know nothing. GO to PlayDota, Find a ward guide, find a stacking pulling guide, and find a general newbies guide. Maybe if you really want to watch some of the castings that higher level people do.(I really don't have the patience for a lot of this. But I had friends who would watch them and then pass on some of the smaller pointers that they picked up. I actualled learned a lot more from the few I did watch though then anything else. Instead off just the guides you see practicle use of what you read.) Practice once or twice, and then play against actual people and watch who you play. Want to learn to play carry? Watch the decent carries in your team and the other. See what they build, how they use the chicken, when they farm/how they farm, etc. Then try it yourself. Pretty much all roles for this game can be learned with a few guides and a ton of playing.

But if I had to boil it down to a few things about switching, that anyone has to know, it would be to remember a few things:
1) You can't free teleport back *Have a way to TP at all times.* Yes this means you may not every have six very good high tier items, but instead5 items+scroll, or even 4 items+scoll+dust/smoke/whatever.(Or one or two+boots+small utility item you haven't had a decent chance to sell+the rest) Backdooring is very easy with a good bit of heroes in this game. Also, TPs can only be canceled in a few ways. Wait until someone chasing you pops their disable then TP away while they pummel you.
2)You have a chicken, use it to stay in lane. Buy or upgrade it yourself if necessary, and definitely do it if you can afford to start without it(Hint: almost everyone can). 200-400 gold is worth the extra lane time.
3) Some items you can share. If you have extra tangos and your partner is getting low, pass it to them. If you find you're not running low on mana, let him have it. Not getting harrased? Pass on that Ring of Health for a few minutes(This may not work anymore, I think it does but its been a while. Items like this I don't generaly share with randoms, but only people I know, so...) Sharing is Caring.

Everything else, is practice.

[Neftren]

I am always behind on my gaming. I wait until games hit $5 before buying them.

I didn't buy AC:Revelations.

[Inhuman Bot]

As a pretty good player of both games, this isn't comprehensive but it does cover some useful points. (Cynan will probably disagree with the first point, at the very least.)

Runes spawn every 2 minutes, starting at 0:00. Runes are really, really useful and as mid you should try to keep getting them, even if you don't have a quick way of getting it like Queen of Pain or Anti-mage.
Mage
If you don't know what to get as starting items, get stats + recovery. Pretender's Crowns/Ironwood Branches (Also called GG branches), and Tangos of Essifation are always safe.

Spells are obviously more expensive. This is because they are more powerful. You can't afford to spam spells with obvious exceptions like low mana cost (Viper's Poison Attack, Venomancer's Plague Ward), or recovery mechanics (Obsidian Destroyer, or Lich's Extinguish.)

A support needs to harass, a lot. It's useful in LoL, but there's way more sustain there then in DotA. If your lane is, say, Spectre and Lich Vs Anti-Mage and Shadow Shaman, it is VITAL to keep hurting them.

Always carry teleports. Carry 2.

Wards are limited. Use them well.

Corpses (This may've changed in DotA 2), living creeps and having Line of Sight blocks creep respawn (Except Roshan). If the enemy team has a jungle, (Like Enigma, Nature's Prophet, Lycanthrope or Axe) it's useful to drop a ward at one of their more useful camps to stop their leveling/gold flow. It can also be used to your team's benefit; At around 0:55 seconds into the minutes, pull the a creep group (Usually the ancients) out of their camp. When 1:00 hits, a new group of creeps spawn, and they're now stacked. Stacking creeps lets heroes (Almost always your carry once they're bought a Battlefury) farm the entire camp in a few seconds, gaining a few hundred gold and a level or two in the process.

Orbwalking. Orbwalking is a kind of animation cancelling, done with a character who has a toggleable orb effect (Examples: Huskar's spears, Drow Ranger's frost arrows, Viper's poison attack). First, manually cast the orb attack and use it on an enemy hero. As the projectile is in mid air, issue another command, such as move, before it hits the enemy hero. When the projectile hits, it won't count as an attack, and the creeps won't aggro onto you, so you can easily harass the lane opponent. Edit: (Clarifying this a little below.)

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Corpses no longer block camp respawn.

[tribble]

Orbwalking. Orbwalking is a kind of animation cancelling, done with a character who has a toggleable orb effect (Examples: Huskar's spears, Drow Ranger's frost arrows, Viper's poison attack). First, manually cast the orb attack and use it on an enemy hero. As the projectile is in mid air, issue another command, such as move, before it hits the enemy hero. When the projectile hits, it won't count as an attack, and the creeps won't aggro onto you, so you can easily harass the lane opponent.

Thank you! I've never been able to find an explanation of that stuff, everybody talks about it like they expect you to already know what it is. Feels badminton.

EDIT: Does "stop" count as a command?

[Cynan Machae]

I'm supposed to disagree with runes being useful as a mid?


And stop would be a command, yes, but the point of orbwalking is to harass while chasing, or quickly moving back without giving room for your opponent to harass. Using a stop command would not be useful since it would give not real advantage over letting the animation finish. Orbwalking is used to cancel the attack animation in order to get back to moving faster, its only relation to no creep aggro is that you are casting a spell and not attacking.

Orb walking in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbgDcwi08Y0

[9mm]

so listening into a game... and I'm am highly disappointed to hear you still must press A to deny.

edit: and the UI needs lots of work. Double left clicks not working in the shop is down right criminal; that's interface 101 now a days.

[Neftren]

so listening into a game... and I'm am highly disappointed to hear you still must press A to deny.

edit: and the UI needs lots of work. Double left clicks not working in the shop is down right criminal; that's interface 101 now a days.

I can attack my own minions by right-clicking them... that's denying right?

[Meta]

I can attack my own minions by right-clicking them... that's denying right?

You can fairly easily set right clicking your creeps to function as denying I believe. My friend uses it and swears by it

[Alge'n]

Corpses (This may've changed in DotA 2) [...] block creep respawn (

Actually since 6.72 it is no longer the case in DotA too (it's a big part of junglers new popularity).

[LudiDrizzt]

I want the patch dammit.

[Meta]

I want the patch dammit.

I have fun combos I wish to try

[tribble]

I want Slark and Clinkz to come out already, drat it all.

[Primal Fury]

It makes me sad that there are so many people who get to play DotA 2, and I don't. I got Tribes Ascend beta key, and got invited to the closed beta for something called "Repulse", but still nothing for the one I really want.

Kinda embarrassing, but... anyone wanna shoot a spare beta key my way?

[Neftren]

For those of you coming from LoL (or are just interested in some cool tweaks), here is my Dota2 autoexec.cfg file -- best opened in Notepad++ or similar RTF editor. For quick reference, autoexec.cfg is bugged in Dota2, in that you need to execute it again. Basically, it loads at the launch of Dota2, but since Dota2 is a client-driven game, keybinds are loaded at the launch of the game, not the game client. Thus, to get all the settings to work, you'll just need to manually execute the file in-game (currently bound to F8) to reap full benefits. To avoid overwriting your own settings and bindings with mine, set your config (~/steamapps/common/dota 2 beta/cfg/) to read only.

A random side-note on the aliases... the quick courier macro does not take into account whether or not the courier is carrying more items than you have slots. Also, the camera lock macro is a soft-lock. The camera follows the hero, but will still snap off the hero when the camera is manually moved. Be sure to adjust your binds accordingly.

I'm still trying to get a generic solution to display the range indicators for the appropriate skill (similar to in LoL, when the range circle appears when a skill is selected).

[tribble]

For those of you coming from LoL (or are just interested in some cool tweaks), here is my Dota2 autoexec.cfg file -- best opened in Notepad++ or similar RTF editor. For quick reference, autoexec.cfg is bugged in Dota2, in that you need to execute it again. Basically, it loads at the launch of Dota2, but since Dota2 is a client-driven game, keybinds are loaded at the launch of the game, not the game client. Thus, to get all the settings to work, you'll just need to manually execute the file in-game (currently bound to F8) to reap full benefits. To avoid overwriting your own settings and bindings with mine, set your config (~/steamapps/common/dota 2 beta/cfg/) to read only.

A random side-note on the aliases... the quick courier macro does not take into account whether or not the courier is carrying more items than you have slots. Also, the camera lock macro is a soft-lock. The camera follows the hero, but will still snap off the hero when the camera is manually moved. Be sure to adjust your binds accordingly.

I'm still trying to get a generic solution to display the range indicators for the appropriate skill (similar to in LoL, when the range circle appears when a skill is selected).

...so the keysets are still a *backstab noise* mess that's all over the keyboard with no rhyme or reason? Even Heroes of Newerth had the sense to standardise controls.

Say, if autoattacking to harass is such a big part of playing a support, how does one manage it as a melee supporter like Omniknight? (I like Omninight.)

[Suedars]

You make do as best you can. Being melee is a major disadvantage for a support.

[Penguinizer]

...so the keysets are still a *backstab noise* mess that's all over the keyboard with no rhyme or reason? Even Heroes of Newerth had the sense to standardise controls.

Say, if autoattacking to harass is such a big part of playing a support, how does one manage it as a melee supporter like Omniknight? (I like Omninight.)

You can rebind all the keys. They have the option for Legacy binds which are the original ones or you can just standardize them to whatever you want.

[Meta]

...so the keysets are still a *backstab noise* mess that's all over the keyboard with no rhyme or reason? Even Heroes of Newerth had the sense to standardise controls.

Say, if autoattacking to harass is such a big part of playing a support, how does one manage it as a melee supporter like Omniknight? (I like Omninight.)

You mid solo

[Neftren]

...so the keysets are still a *backstab noise* mess that's all over the keyboard with no rhyme or reason? Even Heroes of Newerth had the sense to standardise controls.

Say, if autoattacking to harass is such a big part of playing a support, how does one manage it as a melee supporter like Omniknight? (I like Omninight.)

No, the keys are standardized QWER by default. I don't use QWER. Hence, the warning about making sure the binds are correct for you.

[Cynan Machae]

Yea Omni really shouldn't be played as a support

Tide and ES would be better exemples of melee support and their roles would be pretty much limited to setting up kills/counter-initation to protect the carry

[Grif]

Yea Omni really shouldn't be played as a support

Tide and ES would be better exemples of melee support and their roles would be pretty much limited to setting up kills/counter-initation to protect the carry

How do you play a Omni that is not support, pray tell?

Even if he cannot harass directly, he can still heal and keep his carry alive. Not to mention his heal also has that nifty effect of damaging your enemy if your heal target (usually carry), gets close. In effect, you're enabling your carry to play more aggressively than he would otherwise.

[Alge'n]

He is a support that is usually played as a solo because he needs levels and a bit of farm (for arcane boots) early on to be useful. That doesn't make him less of a support, though, once he has his core he usually revert to full support and leave the farm to someone else.

[Cynan Machae]

he is not a support as in: a support hero doesn't need any item nor levels to be useful. I'm not saying his skills aren't supportive skills.