A Beginners Guide To DotA !!!
A Beginners Guide To DotA
Since I have seen a lot of people starting to play DotA without knowing the basics I have decided to write a Guide for beginners. This guide will be divided into six parts to which every month I will add one part...
Defence of the Ancients [DotA] is a hugely popular custom map for Warcraft III: TFT. The main aim of the game simply put, is to kill the enemy heroes, farm gold, and eventually destroy your opponents base. You can either pick a hero and farm enough gold to beat the crap out of your opponents; or you can be a wuss who relies on teamwork to set up ambushes and kill enemies' heroes. In most DotA you'll only be able to do the latter, [since most DotA players are wussies] as any decent player won't leave you alone long enough to reach a powerful level. If you want to get ahead in this contest, quit dreaming about rearranging about enemy anatomy and start reading the Guide! The first part of this Multi-Section Guide is for the absolute newbie, and deals with the Basics of DotA gameplay.
Picking a Hero
Since you'll have many heroes to choose from [The total no. of heroes of the latest version available when I'm writing the guide viz DotA Allstars 6.41 is 80] you'll most likely be confused. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses, making the choice crucial. For example certain heroes are initially weak but become powerful as the game progresses [most strength based heroes]. On the other hand some are initially very strong and can be a real pain to kill early game, but tend to become less effective lategame [unless of course they are in the hands of a skilled player]. Most Intelligence heroes fit this category.
There are three types of heroes Strength [SH], Agility [AH], and Intelligence [IH]. SHs rely on their high physical damage output and high hit-points [HP]. These are generally mid-late game heroes. AHs have a few high damage spells, but mainly rely on fast attack speed and high damage to kill other heroes. They are relatively weaker than SHs but can't withstand too much of a beating, preferring Brain over Brawn and stealth over Brute-Force. Finally, IHs have some really high damage spells and are very effective early to mid-game. However as other heroes buy items and level up, this advantage diminishes. It's best to know you're hero before you pick one, but since its going to take you time to get acquainted with the whole bunch, here are a couple of tips:
• If you're new to the game, its best to stick to a ranged Hero. This allows you to be a part of the battle and stay away from the enemy while dealing some healthy damage.
• Ranged heroes like Dwarven Sniper, Lord Of Olympia and Lightning Revenant are easy to handle and extremely deadly if handled right.
Farming Gold
When the game starts all the heroes are at Level 1, with limited abilities. It's practically impossible to kill an enemy hero at this level. Even pros have tried and failed [miserably, might I add]. So, don't try to be a hero - stay behind your army and play smart. As you creep [Warcraft slang for killing neutral creatures, and in this case, the opponents army as well], you gain experience and levels as well as bonus gold. The aim, at least for the first few levels, is to make sure you get the last hit on the enemy creep. If you do this well and with some consistency, you can gain some bonus gold, making shopping for you final or late-games easier. The faster you get the items the quicker you power up your Hero. However, it's not viable to get the last shot if it means you're going to die or lose a mammoth of hit-points. This is the main reason why it's much easier to farm with a ranged hero, since you don't need to get close to your target. Besides if you opponent has a melee hero, you can keep taking potshots at him while farming, that too without risk. This allows you to keep you're opponent low on health, forcing him to go back to the base [each base has a Fountain of Health that heals Heroes], thus denying him precious experience and gold.
If you get good at farming, try to start killing your own creeps [commonly known as Denying] that are low on health. Creeps can be denied when they are about under half their full HP but it is advisable to deny your creeps when they are between 50-75 HP so that you do not waste to much time denying your creeps as well as they are assuredly denied. By doing this, not only do you deny valuable gold to your opponent, but also make sure that he takes much longer to level up. In fact, in the newer versions of the map, you gain a small amount of experience even though the creeps are denied. The old Warcraft rule applies here - always keep the <ALT> key pressed during the battle, since it shows you the health of all the units onscreen.
Building Your Hero
Items boost you heroes' performance or help them survive. Each item improves one or more stats. Moreover, a lot of items build on others [they are commonly called recipes]. Your item choice depends on the hero you pick, but certain items are common to all heroes. Boots Of Speed as well as life and mana regeneration items, are a must and should be purchased by all heroes. An item I'll highly recommend to be purchased from the outset id the Ring Of Regeneration. However if you choose a hero who loses health more often than mana, you're better of buying a Ring Of Health instead.
If you pick an SH, buy items that boost his Strength, hit points and physical damage. Early on you'll want to buy life regeneration items as well, especially since you're going to be in the heat of battle. For Ahs, buy items that boost hit points, but more importantly, increase their attack speed and damage. Finally, for His concentrate on buying items that increase their mana and HP. Remember that the Real World™ rule applies here - think about the item before buying it. You don't want to be wasting gold on an item only to realize that it doesn't benefit your hero. Either that, or the item goes the way of your old Pick-up - Defunct.
Playing Smart
Now that you know the basics, lets move on to how you should actually play the game. One of the first things you need to learn is to never underestimate your opponent. I've lost count of the number of games in which I thought my opponent didn¡¯t have a damn clue of what he was doing, only to end up dying like the fool I was.
Always be on the look out for an advancing enemy Hero - you don¡¯t want to keep going back to the Fountain Of Health, or dying, for that matter. In the early stages, stay in the battle for as long as possible to gain experience and farm gold. Also try to find out how all the Heroes operate during gameplay. This can help you formulate a strategy that works to your advantage.
Once the battle begins, pick one lane [from three] and head off in that direction, preferably with some kind of life regeneration. You should focus on staying out in that lane for as long as possible, while killing as many enemy creeps as possible, all without taking too much damage. As a ranged hero, it's possible to play slightly aggressively, so you can take your enemy out of the battle easily. Sniping an enemy hero gradually reduces his health, allowing you, at the right moment, to rush in and finish him off. However, always keep an eye on your spells. Nothing is more annoying than being stuck without mana and watching the enemy hero run away with 10-20 hit points left.
Generally, a game will have five players per team and three lanes available. In most cases, you'll have a partner to help you deal with enemy heroes, but if you're left solo, stay close to your Tower - it switches targets randomly, but also attacks any hero or creep in range attacking it's [the towers] ally hero. This works both ways, so when you're in the enemy tower's range, you don't want to attack his Hero, because his defensive Tower will then retaliate. These things dish out heavy damage and should be avoided early game, when you're rather low on hit-points and regeneration. If you find you're getting into a lot of trouble inspire of sticking close to you tower squelch you're ego and call for backup, or switch your lane with another powerful Hero. Early on, it'd also be really smart to stay in your side of the river. This way you can avoid being ambushed by your opponent, and if need be, run for cover to your tower.
Flanking each lane lie forests that are ripe for exploitation. If you cross a tree line, the enemy will often lose sight of you. Use this to escape or ambush an enemy hero. Some heroes have spells that allow you to use these trees to your advantage. The Treant Protector, Rooftrellen [an SH Hero from the Sentinel] can place Watcher Wards [his skills name is Eye's In The Forest] on trees giving you sight around the area in spite of the fog of war. Also Furion, The Prophet can convert these trees into treants that fight for you. Another important use of these trees is that an item called Ancient Tango Of Essilification allows you to eat these trees and increase you HP [by about 175] in turn.
Since you're rank nOOb, you will, more often than not, flee from the enemy. There's an art to do this as well - never run in a straight line. Always pick a random path through the forest. Your chances of survival increase greatly when you go up a slope and into the forest, randomly taking turns in there. Your opponent won't always predict which path you'll take, so you'll often be able to run back to your base without dying. This also helps to avoid any ambush that might have been set along the shortest path to safety.
Team Work
Most of wat u need is team work , without this winning the game is going to b extremely tough with competitive opponents , u must have team work to win.
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Originally Posted by vafaskillz
Seriously, to put plagiarized work in a blog will be sad if people find ou it is a copy/paste? 
But this is Internet Fraud! Personally I don't see a problem in wriing a small line at the end - "This was written by ..." or "It has been a compilation from x , y & z's work".
