Checklist for beginners

[IAmLegion]

Hello,

Most of you probably don't know me, as I'm fairly new to DotA on ENT. I've had a very long break from DotA all together.

I'll give you a hint of how old school I am (bragging rights as a senior citizen on WC3).

[spoiler=Me bragging and lolling, read at your own risk]When I started playing DotA most hero spells didn't have an icon.
When I started playing DotA the best hero you could pick was sandking with a huge glitch.
When I was an intermediate player in DotA, you could jump to a certain point in the map and get insane bosses.
When I started playing DotA TFT didn't even exist.
When I started playing DotA the best clan was TDA and IceFrog banned me and MOGG for beating them 3 times in a row in a ACW.
When I started playing DotA 2s delay was entirely normal, and no one reacted to it, however, when the first 8MB ADSL host popped up, people actually complained for days in and days out about someone bugging the games because they were going "too fast"
When I started playing DotA bots didn't exist.

Here are my criterias:
- 8 years of MOBA: LoL for 2 years, DotA for 5, a multitude of shit MOBAs for a year or so in gathered time.
- Specialties: map awareness, dmg calculation, micro managing your every move (Yeah.. I know), shot caller
- Previous clans: MOGG, Spanish Mafia (B00B), SoN (Spirit of Norway, never really took off.. too bad).
- Have been in VIP and IH games in the following: DL, NL, lots of private clubs[/spoiler]

Now, let's get down to some simple facts. The amount of knowledge that resides within the brain of a good player, is crazy. Most of you would not believe it. The mind is a powerful tool, and in MOBA it is without a doubt a make or break one. Damage calculations, map awareness, spell synergy, team synergy, specific item builds, farming, denying, positioning etc.

I wanted to create a small and simple checklist for beginners, so that you may begin your road to becoming a "pro" abit simpler than most of us had to.

1) Farming and Denying: Here you truly have what seperates the pros from the noobs. A beginner will typically go for the kill, and try to harass instead of farm and deny. I've checked over most of my games now, and what I see is shit cs and 0 denies from both teams. Last hitting is important, in the laning phase, it is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Look at how much dmg your hero does to the creeps, activate the health bar in options, and start last hitting your way to victory.

Deny your enemy exp whenever you can. If you're lvl 7 without at least 15 denies, you failed your lane in my eyes.
The advantages should be clear: You achieve a new level faster than your adversories in the same lane, you deny them gold, and you annoy them Learn to last hit and deny, and you will see your games becoming much easier.

2) Map awareness: Getting ganked alot? Flaming your team for not calling a miss?
This is EXACTLY what you have the minimap for. Regard it was your rearview mirror in a car. It should be used every 5 seconds. Glance at it fast, make sure that everything is as it should be, then go back to whatever you were doing.

Winning your lane? check the other lanes and see if there's an opening for you to gank them. If possible, give the kills to your allies so that they may win their lanes as well.

Use wards. Always, always, always! It costs 150g, gives you great vision for 3min. Or to put it into another perspective, it denies your enemies 260-520g from ganking your ass, and costs 3.4 creeps.

3) Don't be greedy! Just don't do it.. It's not worth chasing him to their fountain, it's not worth trying to get the kill when you're only 30% hp. In LoL, this isn't an issue, which is why I suppose so many clowns manage to get further than they should in the ranking system they have. However, this is DotA, you die, you get punished. Not only are you dead for what sometimes seems like an eternity, but you lose alot of gold. Play safe, get 3 allies to join you in killing that fucker instead, and you'll be stomping down pubs in no time.



Teamwork is key, always were, always will be. However, don't underestimate your own ability to secure a win. I can't tell you how many games I've played where my team sucks. They feed, play greedy, don't work together, don't ward, etc etc etc. Sure, it's easy giving up and saying: Hey guys, let's just !ff and call it a day. Don't. Never give up, never surrender. When your enemy becomes certain they have allready won, they will begin playing sloppy. This is when you bring your A-game, and gather your team to serve an epic stomp fest!

You do what I've told you now, and you'll be better than I ever were, and faster.

"But I play for fun". Sure you do, but if you think losing is fun, then you've got a much bigger problem than this game can ever bring you.
"But you can enjoy the ride". Stop being a loser, and say: Losing, fuck you, I'm never gonna get into bed with you again!

Good luck & Have fun

(winning)

[Aghnaar]

When I started dotA, I was always playing double basher troll = GG. Or double basher - blink dagger sniper

[IAmLegion]

When I started dotA, I was always playing double basher troll = GG. Or double basher - blink dagger sniper

My first game with over 100 kills was Void with 3 bashers, threads, MoM and butter

[Aghnaar]

My best though was anub'arak with 2 blade mails(yep, old ladder items were stackable) , 2 hearts and ac when opponent team had many melee heroes. I was just walking and they were afraid to attack me lolz. Your void wouldn't stand a chance

[VirusHunter]

there was n AC when blade mails were stackable. AC is a fairly new item... soooooooo yeah.

[Aghnaar]

Ac is in the game from 6,42 version lol. Check this item list, they are both in
http://vespenegas.com/dota/items.html

[zerodenies]

when i played dota, the roles were either healer (sr/pd/wraith/omni/aqua), hero killer (sa, veno, toto, ts) disabler (ms, fm), seiger (manny, dk, es, tank).
when i played dota, if you deny, the opponents get 0 exp. Therefore the most imba hero in my eyes was sniper because of his instant attack animation. You can be 15 minutes in and the opponent could still be at lvl 1 if you had a hero with good attack animation vs an enemy with a slower attack animation (or melee).
when i played dota, if you were a range hero and animation cancelled your projectile as soon as it comes out, you could potentially drag the creeps away from ur lane. In essence you "juggle" your lanes and move them away from the lane. Thus, the enemy laner may never see a creep in their lane and will get 0 exp as long as you "juggle" the creeps before they even reach your third tower.
when i played dota, you can deny your own rax from full health. back in the day, the rax actually produced the units so killing them off stops production of the units. some would purposely kill the rax in the first minute to deny the opponent from getting any exp at all. You would than have a summoner type hero defending at the third tower with their summons. (with good micro your tower would get no dmg and the opponent will get 0 exp)
when i played dota, stealth assasin had a death sentry that can produce a 10 second stun (or maybe it was 15). and nothing could reveal stealth assasin except for a dog that you buy in the side shop.
when i played dota, you can pool gold. hence we would give all the gold to our key heroes.
when i played dota, if a person disconnected, everyone would be capable of microing that leaver hero and their own hero.
when i played dota, there was no crow, therefore the healer (who had the teleportation skill) would "shop" items for you.
when i played dota, if you were farmed enough, you can directly back door their main (throne) even if all their towers were up. (a team of aqua/pd/dk/es can take down the main in two tries)

when i played dota, icefrog hadn't even made dota. It was Euls that was producing dota maps.

[Aghnaar]

when i played dota, if you were farmed enough, you can directly back door their main (throne)

That was funny with furion. Older version furion could tp only in explored ground, so u were summoning trees and made them reach opponent base so then u could tp there and bd throne or tree xD
Another funny hero, noe that u mentioned riki's ward was old naix that was agility and had like 40 base str at lvl 25 lol. With only one activation skill, his ulti that gave u magic immunity for 25 secs

[IAmLegion]

when i played dota, the roles were either healer (sr/pd/wraith/omni/aqua), hero killer (sa, veno, toto, ts) disabler (ms, fm), seiger (manny, dk, es, tank).
when i played dota, if you deny, the opponents get 0 exp. Therefore the most imba hero in my eyes was sniper because of his instant attack animation. You can be 15 minutes in and the opponent could still be at lvl 1 if you had a hero with good attack animation vs an enemy with a slower attack animation (or melee).
when i played dota, if you were a range hero and animation cancelled your projectile as soon as it comes out, you could potentially drag the creeps away from ur lane. In essence you "juggle" your lanes and move them away from the lane. Thus, the enemy laner may never see a creep in their lane and will get 0 exp as long as you "juggle" the creeps before they even reach your third tower.
when i played dota, you can deny your own rax from full health. back in the day, the rax actually produced the units so killing them off stops production of the units. some would purposely kill the rax in the first minute to deny the opponent from getting any exp at all. You would than have a summoner type hero defending at the third tower with their summons. (with good micro your tower would get no dmg and the opponent will get 0 exp)
when i played dota, stealth assasin had a death sentry that can produce a 10 second stun (or maybe it was 15). and nothing could reveal stealth assasin except for a dog that you buy in the side shop.
when i played dota, you can pool gold. hence we would give all the gold to our key heroes.
when i played dota, if a person disconnected, everyone would be capable of microing that leaver hero and their own hero.
when i played dota, there was no crow, therefore the healer (who had the teleportation skill) would "shop" items for you.
when i played dota, if you were farmed enough, you can directly back door their main (throne) even if all their towers were up. (a team of aqua/pd/dk/es can take down the main in two tries)

when i played dota, icefrog hadn't even made dota. It was Euls that was producing dota maps.

pooling "No pooling or ban" haha

When I played dota, spectre wasn't even out, and her name were to be: ??

[Aghnaar]

U referring to qwerty? LOL... Old dispersion btw was pure fuckin overkill...

[VirusHunter]

u know who was OP and fun and didnt last very long? gambit lol or the gambler? dont remember the name. he was fun lol.

[EdgeOfChaos]

1) Farming and Denying: Here you truly have what seperates the pros from the noobs. A beginner will typically go for the kill, and try to harass instead of farm and deny. I've checked over most of my games now, and what I see is shit cs and 0 denies from both teams. Last hitting is important, in the laning phase, it is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Look at how much dmg your hero does to the creeps, activate the health bar in options, and start last hitting your way to victory.

Deny your enemy exp whenever you can. If you're lvl 7 without at least 15 denies, you failed your lane in my eyes.
The advantages should be clear: You achieve a new level faster than your adversories in the same lane, you deny them gold, and you annoy them Learn to last hit and deny, and you will see your games becoming much easier.

I disagree entirely with this. When you harass your opponents, you make them afraid to come up in last hit range, = easier last hits for you and your carry. Plus, you can even get a kill sometimes. I play aggressively when I see we can get a kill. Would you say I lost a lane if I'm 2-0 and level 8 and the enemy mid is 0-2 and level 5 when I have no denies?

And also, 15 denies by level 7 is not practical if your opponents have a brain and you are simultaneously trying to last-hit and deny (unless you have a huge level advantage in lane).

[IAmLegion]

1) Farming and Denying: Here you truly have what seperates the pros from the noobs. A beginner will typically go for the kill, and try to harass instead of farm and deny. I've checked over most of my games now, and what I see is shit cs and 0 denies from both teams. Last hitting is important, in the laning phase, it is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Look at how much dmg your hero does to the creeps, activate the health bar in options, and start last hitting your way to victory.

Deny your enemy exp whenever you can. If you're lvl 7 without at least 15 denies, you failed your lane in my eyes.
The advantages should be clear: You achieve a new level faster than your adversories in the same lane, you deny them gold, and you annoy them Learn to last hit and deny, and you will see your games becoming much easier.

I disagree entirely with this. When you harass your opponents, you make them afraid to come up in last hit range, = easier last hits for you and your carry. Plus, you can even get a kill sometimes. I play aggressively when I see we can get a kill. Would you say I lost a lane if I'm 2-0 and level 8 and the enemy mid is 0-2 and level 5 when I have no denies?

And also, 15 denies by level 7 is not practical if your opponents have a brain and you are simultaneously trying to last-hit and deny (unless you have a huge level advantage in lane).

Disagree all you want, this is for beginners, not intermediate and advanced. Also, if you harass me in my lane, I will punish you for it every single hit. To successfully harass, you need to be either 1) Ranged vs meele, 2) higher dps, 3) higher health or better regen. If not, you're only trading blows without getting anywhere.

last hitting your creeps and denying your enemy doesn't go at the expense of harassing, but you're talking about playing vs utter retards that lets you get 3 hits before they return fire. A good player won't let that happen.

"Oh, but I'll just counterpick my lane and stomp him", no, you won't. Skills outweigh counters any day of the week.
If you're the better player in your lane, your method will work, hands down. However, a beginner won't know the animation speed, the creep movement, enemy damage and will most likely lose at least 2 creeps every spawn trying to harass.

[Medicca]

I felt like I had stuff to add

1) Farming and Denying: Here you truly have what seperates the pros from the noobs. A beginner will typically go for the kill, and try to harass instead of farm and deny.Unless you're a support, then harass and deny all you want Also, please stack neutral camps. I've checked over most of my games now, and what I see is shit cs and 0 denies from both teams. Last hitting is important, in the laning phase, it is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Look at how much dmg your hero does to the creeps, activate the health bar in options, and start last hitting your way to victory. Unless you're support

Deny your enemy exp whenever you can. If you're lvl 7 without at least 15 denies, you failed your lane in my eyes.
The advantages should be clear: You achieve a new level faster than your adversories in the same lane, you deny them gold, and you annoy them Learn to last hit and deny, and you will see your games becoming much easier.

2) Map awareness: Getting ganked alot? Flaming your team for not calling a miss?
This is EXACTLY what you have the minimap for. Regard it was your rearview mirror in a car. It should be used every 5 seconds. Glance at it fast, make sure that everything is as it should be, then go back to whatever you were doing.

Winning your lane? check the other lanes and see if there's an opening for you to gank them. If possible, give the kills to your allies so that they may win their lanes as well. Take the kill if you're the carry. Supports don't need kills.

Use wards. Always, always, always! It costs 150g, gives you great vision for 3min.Actually it's 6 minutes. Or to put it into another perspective, it denies your enemies 260-520g from ganking your ass, and costs 3.4 creeps. Let the supports by them. Carries have better things to do with their gold.

3) Don't be greedy! Just don't do it.. It's not worth chasing him to their fountain, it's not worth trying to get the kill when you're only 30% hp. In LoL, this isn't an issue, which is why I suppose so many clowns manage to get further than they should in the ranking system they have. However, this is DotA, you die, you get punished. Not only are you dead for what sometimes seems like an eternity, but you lose a lot of gold.Unless the gold is reliable! Play safe, get 3 allies to join you in killing that fucker instead, and you'll be stomping down pubs in no time. More allies = more team gold

[BlackSpade]

1) Farming and Denying: Here you truly have what seperates the pros from the noobs. A beginner will typically go for the kill, and try to harass instead of farm and deny. I've checked over most of my games now, and what I see is shit cs and 0 denies from both teams. Last hitting is important, in the laning phase, it is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Look at how much dmg your hero does to the creeps, activate the health bar in options, and start last hitting your way to victory.

Deny your enemy exp whenever you can. If you're lvl 7 without at least 15 denies, you failed your lane in my eyes.
The advantages should be clear: You achieve a new level faster than your adversories in the same lane, you deny them gold, and you annoy them Learn to last hit and deny, and you will see your games becoming much easier.

I disagree entirely with this. When you harass your opponents, you make them afraid to come up in last hit range, = easier last hits for you and your carry. Plus, you can even get a kill sometimes. I play aggressively when I see we can get a kill. Would you say I lost a lane if I'm 2-0 and level 8 and the enemy mid is 0-2 and level 5 when I have no denies?

And also, 15 denies by level 7 is not practical if your opponents have a brain and you are simultaneously trying to last-hit and deny (unless you have a huge level advantage in lane).

Disagree all you want, this is for beginners, not intermediate and advanced. Also, if you harass me in my lane, I will punish you for it every single hit. To successfully harass, you need to be either 1) Ranged vs meele, 2) higher dps, 3) higher health or better regen. If not, you're only trading blows without getting anywhere.

last hitting your creeps and denying your enemy doesn't go at the expense of harassing, but you're talking about playing vs utter retards that lets you get 3 hits before they return fire. A good player won't let that happen.

"Oh, but I'll just counterpick my lane and stomp him", no, you won't. Skills outweigh counters any day of the week.
If you're the better player in your lane, your method will work, hands down. However, a beginner won't know the animation speed, the creep movement, enemy damage and will most likely lose at least 2 creeps every spawn trying to harass.

For you to expect beginners to know how to cs/deny is just fail.. cs/deny is situational!! you should know this by now with 8years of dota experience!!! shouldn't you?