Dota 2 - Newbies, read the OP. Veterans, play Anti-Mage.

[Banned?]

[img]http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/valve/secret/logo610.jpg[/img]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSFPIwMEq4&feature=player_embedded[/media]

[B][U]What is Defense of the Ancients?[/U][/B]

Defense of the Ancients is the original map that created the "Action RTS" (ARTS) genre. It started as a map modification in Warcraft III and is now being made into it's own game with Valve using the Source engine. In short, it's a session based, Player vs. Player RPG. Ten people play on two teams of five and each person controls a hero of various ability, utility and strength. As you play in a game your hero will level up, you will gain gold, you'll kill opposing heroes and buy items to become stronger. The ultimate objective is to kill the enemies main structure in the back of their base. This takes teamwork and coordination, not something you can do by yourself as the base is also protected by AI controlled creeps that constantly spawn to defend it and towers meant to hold you back. Matches take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and when you're finished and start a new game, you pick a new hero and start all over. Nothing is persistant when it comes to something that can affect each game. That sounds simple in description but what has kept people playing it for years now are the complexities of the game.

[B][U]What is the history behind Defense of the Ancients?[/U][/B]

Defense of the Ancients started out a long time ago as a map modification in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. It was originally started by someone who went by the name Eul back in 2003. DotA is actually based on an older map from StarCraft called Aeon of Strife. When Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne released, Eul never updated the map. Probably because he went to work for Valve on Half-Life 2 and every title since (see [url=http://www.1up.com/previews/dota-2-valve-fanboys-developers]this interview[/url]).

Variants of the map were made to replace Eul's version but none really replaced it until Steve Feak, aka Guinsoo, made DotA Allstars. Guinsoo added more heroes, the recepie system for items, and Roshan (Which is named after his bowling ball? Huh.) with his Aeigs of Immortality. He held development of the map for two years and in that time also helped make a central hub for DotA players with Steve Mescon, aka Pendragon, at dota-allstars.com. The website is now debunk since Steve and Steve now work on League of Legends.

In 2005 Guinsoo handed off development to IceFrog, the most reclusive of the DotA developers. IceFrog turned DotA into the highly competitve map it is today. While he regularly updated the map, adding new heroes, items, and fixes over time, the only evidence that he was working on it was the fact that his name was branded on the loading screen. He even refused to do interviews. Eventually he opened up his own blog and then a website, playdota.com, to communicate better with players. PlayDotA is now the central hub for DotA. IceFrog's variation of the map is the most balanced and competitive. DotA didn't become an esport until this version. It's mind boggling to think how over 100 heroes on one map can be balanced to such a point but IceFrog did it and has been doing it for years now.

At some point Valve approached IceFrog with the proposal to make DotA into a full retail game. Robin Walker, Adrian Finol (Eul), and Erik Johnson were all fans of DotA and eventually started talking to IceFrog over e-mail using the fact that they were big game developers (lol). When IceFrog expressed the want to make a sequel that was free of the restrictions in the Warcraft III engine, Valve said "Hey, we've got a great idea! Why don't you come here?" Obviously he said yes.

[B][U]So what is going to make Dota 2 better than DotA?[/U][/B]

Speaking from a players perspective, DotA had a lot of restrictions in Warcraft III. Battle.net was not the best host. You needed third-party programs to reliably host a game of DotA. Hotkeys were either restricted to what they were in-game or you needed to dig through the CustomKeys.txt yourself and set everything individually. There was no stat tracking and leagues were all self-regulated outside the game. There was no voice chat. There were none of the conviences that other ARTS had developed. Eventually, if you wanted to play DotA on Battle.net, you needed to join an in-house league because the game list was taken over by bots and automated games.

Everything in Dota 2 that has to do with gameplay is the same. Heroes, items, map layout, even attack animation are the same. The big changes are to interface and accessibility. You won't have to rely on local host programs because it will be done on Valve's servers. Matchmaking makes it easy to find games. There is voice chat for better coordination. There will be stat tracking. Being free from the Warcraft III engine will pretty much allow IceFrog to do whatever he wants with the game. And Dota 2 looks amazing. The voice work for each hero is like nothing that's been done before. Heroes talk to each other. How awesome is that?

[B][U]So how can I play it?[/U][/B]

You can't. Yet. Sorta. You can [url=http://dota2.com/login/auth/?goto=beta]sign up for the beta[/url]. More and more people have been getting in every day. The selection is totally random at this point but if you're in the pool you still have a chance to get into the beta.

In the meantime, they also lifted the NDA. People in the beta can talk about it, post screenshots, and stream. If you want to watch some streams check [url=http://www.twitch.tv/directory/DOTA%202]Twitch.tv[/url] or [url=http://www.own3d.tv/game/Dota+2]own3d.tv[/url]. There is a website dedicated to streams for Dota 2, [url=http://streamdota2.com/]StreamDota2.com[/url]. You can also check Reddit's Dota 2 subreddit for news and screenshots and stuff like that. You can also watch all the matched from Valve's Dota 2 reveal tournament, The International, [url=http://www.dota2.com/tournaments/international/schedule/Wednesday/]here[/url]. It's a spectacular series and shows off the game very well.

[B][U]Coming from League of Legends? Read this.[/U][/B]

[I]Written by Zorus...[/I]

[quote]Like LoL, but a lot more unforgiving.

*Abilities don't scale with items, with the exception of a certain item increasing the damage on certain ultimates.
*There is no AD or AP as in LoL, just three attributes which give health/health regen, mana/mana regen, and attack speed/armor.
*Also there doesn't appear to be any sort of fixed metagame, unlike League with its standard bruiser top, caster mid, support/carry bot and jungler.
*Every hero uses mana as a resource.
*There is no combine cost for some items, but there are items called recipes which you must buy in order to complete certain items.
*CC is much more brutal, with fifteen second silences and five second stuns.
*You can control more than one unit, players control their own hero and a courier, and some heroes can summon units that they control. In League there's things like Tibbers, and Shaco clones, but to control those you can only hold alt and move the unit.
*Upon death, you lose gold. Killing a hero will not decrease their value. Bounties are pretty much the same thing, also exp reward from kills is much greater
*You can kill your own creeps when they are under 50% hp, only with autoattacks and certain skills, this is called denying and stops a hero from killing the creep for gold, while also decreasing the exp gain from the creep.
*Trees and elevation which can be used to advantage
*Day/Night system, some heroes get stronger during the night (and day?)
*A lot of mids gank, whereas in LoL mid normally doesn't gank/would gain more benefit from staying in lane
*LoL level cap is 18 and you can only level abilities, each ability can be levelled to 5. In Dota, level cap is 25, and you can add +2 to attributes as well as level abilities to 4 and ultimates to 3, not every hero only has 3 standard skills, also the hotkeys are different for each hero (however in Dota 2 the ability hotkeys are standard QWER with some heroes having more skills that extend to d and f)
*Certain heroes have more vision range than others.
*Wards last longer
*Neutral creeps do not give buffs, the equivalent to Baron drops an item which is the equivalent to Guardian Angel's passive, and also Cheese on third death
*Two runespots, runes are items that can be taken instantly, or bottled (with an item) to be used for later, runes can double damage, make two clones of your hero, (which take and deal less damage) stealth, increase movespeed, or regenerate hp and mana greatly
*Lane creeps give a lot more gold than in LoL
*Unit collision is more important
*Different types of shops, there's a unified base shop in Dota 2 but in Dota they were segmented, a secret shop in the jungle on both sides, and a sidelane shop
*To return to base you must either walk or purchase an item that allows you to teleport to allied structures, in other words, no global recall spell
*Towers deal less damage but fire faster, the last hit on a tower will reward extra gold, towers can be denied to the enemy team just as creeps can
*No runepages/summoner spells
*No bushes

and that's about it. I've played both games, switched to LoL for a long time and now I'm playing Dota 2. Some negligible things are that lane creeps are pretty damn big compared to hero units, and nomenclature of heroes isn't always standard. In LoL most heroes are called by name ([B]Malzahar[/B], the Prophet of the Void) whereas in Dota, you refer to a hero mostly by their occupation/title. Yurnero the [B]Juggernaut[/B], Krobelus the [B]Death Prophet[/B]. Some exceptions like [B]Zeus[/B] the Lord of Olympia or [B]Riki[/B]maru the Stealth Assasin.[/quote]

[B][U]Coming from Heroes of Newerth? Read this.[/U][/B]

HoN has a very close relation to DotA, at least in it's early life. Over time its changed its but it still retains a lot of likeness and it the closest game to DotA between it and LoL. It does have it's differences thought. The HoN Wiki has a pages dedicated to what is the same and what is different between DotA and it. Check it here: [url]http://honwiki.net/wiki/DotA_vs_HoN[/url]

[B][U][highlight]Fucking helpful resources!!![/highlight][/U][/B]
[url=http://www.playdota.com/guides/welcome-to-dota-you-suck]Welcome to DotA. You suck![/url] A must read for newbies.
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/n2sz1/psa_jungling_etiquette/]PSA! JUNGLING ETIQUETTE[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/n53fw/psa_support_items_and_you/]PSA! SUPPORT ITEMS AND YOU[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/n7ayv/psa_uuuutility_part_one/]PSA! U-U-U-UTILITY PART 1[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/n9j5w/uuuutility_part_two/]PSA! U-U-U-UTILITY PART 2[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nalp8/psa_go_around_and_kill/]PSA! GO AROUND AND KILL[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nc9st/psa_so_you_think_you_can_carry_part_1/]PSA! SO YOU THINK YOU CAN CARRY PART 1[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/ndnwq/psa_so_you_think_you_can_carry_part_2/]PSA! SO YOU THINK YOU CAN CARRY PART 2[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nf5p8/psa_area_of_influence/]PSA! AREA OF INFLUENCE[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/njr3m/psa_power_to_the_pusher/]PSA! POWER TO THE PUSHER[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/o27do/psa_support_our_supports/]PSA! SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTS[/url]
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/osrku/psa_roam_against_the_machine/]PSA! ROAM AGAINST THE MACHINE[/url]
[url=http://www.playdota.com/guides]The Guide section of PlayDotA[/url] Sort by rating. Use the highest rated guides. Still applicable to Dota 2.
[url=http://www.playdota.com/heroes]Hero listings on PlayDotA[/url]
[url=http://www.playdota.com/items]Item listings on PlayDotA[/url]
[url=http://www.dota2reference.com/]Dota 2 Reference[/url] Maybe better than the two above links because it uses Dota 2 icons for everything.
[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/search?q=Hero+Discussion+of+the+Day&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance]Reddit "Hero Discussion of the Day"[/url] Top voted posts generally have valuable info about the hero.

[Nelth]

2 threads now, gg

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=Nelth;34018189]2 threads now, gg[/QUOTE]

I made the original, I'm making it again. I also plan on keeping the OP updated and not just make a thread like "lolfirst".

[Smashman]

Banned is better OP.
Though I remain by my wish for this thread to exist in the Valve Games and Mods forum, as it is a Valve game.

[Nelth]

valve sucks pls release geomancer already

[NomadicNinja]

that's not techies

[bionic0n3]

I just looked at some of the links in the OP. The advance tricks for jungling/stacking are pretty sweet.

[Beardy]

[url]http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nznjb/push_it_to_the_limit/[/url]

[Banhfunbags]

I wonder when the next update is coming since the holidays are over.

[Banned?]

This Thursday I guess.

[BackSapper]

Hey Banned, could I at least get my section on HoN vs Dota heroes to this thread?

[Godrek]

I like the title

[Sax]

Man, Lifestealer is pretty fun to play. Even if it doesn't go perfect.

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=iwirthless;34020351]Hey Banned, could I at least get my section on HoN vs Dota heroes to this thread?[/QUOTE]

I don't know if I will because the majority of people who've played HoN know the difference and there are a ton more people who play LoL here.

[BackSapper]

[QUOTE=Banned?;34021116]I don't know if I will because the majority of people who've played HoN know the difference and there are a ton more people who play LoL here.[/QUOTE]

Since HoN went f2p, there's a lot of people who don't know anything about Dota heores. I was one of them :/

At least the hero port list I did.

[Sax]

[QUOTE=IAmAnooB;34020672]Man, Lifestealer is pretty fun to play. Even if it doesn't go perfect.[/QUOTE]

Man, I killed Viper a lot of times in a game today as Lifestealer, and his line (when he kills viper) just makes it better.

[url]http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/9/96/Lifest_rival_21.mp3[/url]

[chamon]

[QUOTE=IAmAnooB;34022344]Man, I killed Viper a lot of times in a game today as Lifestealer, and his line (when he kills viper) just makes it better.

[url]http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/9/96/Lifest_rival_21.mp3[/url][/QUOTE]
WHOA MAN, that scared the living shit out of me! Dicktits that was loud.

[Smashman]

The best lines in the game are tied between Tinker and Bloodseeker.

[url=http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/3/32/Blod_ability_rupture_04.mp3]Lie down…have a cookie.[/url]
[url=http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/a/a7/Blod_respawn_10.mp3]Don't be negative… B positive![/url]

But this one is easily my favourite.

[url=http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/7/7a/Tink_levelup_04.mp3]Hazard suits me! He he he[/url]

[Great Gibdo]

Looks like its going to be a great thread. Thanks again, Banned!

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=iwirthless;34021458]Since HoN went f2p, there's a lot of people who don't know anything about Dota heores. I was one of them :/

At least the hero port list I did.[/QUOTE]

Added a little blurb under the LoL section which has a link to the HoN wiki's page about it vs. DotA.

[editline]2nd January 2012[/editline]

Also, how Beardy wins games.

[t]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/614972449765637308/FACCF02550D035B57F37AA0122ECD3CE51B310A4/[/t]

[Blueplastic]

[QUOTE=Smashman;34019128]Banned is better OP.
Though I remain by my wish for this thread to exist in the Valve Games and Mods forum, as it is a Valve game.[/QUOTE]

Please no that place is creepy

[Beardy]

[QUOTE=Banned?;34022979]Added a little blurb under the LoL section which has a link to the HoN wiki's page about it vs. DotA.

[editline]2nd January 2012[/editline]

Also, how Beardy wins games.

[t]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/614972449765637308/FACCF02550D035B57F37AA0122ECD3CE51B310A4/[/t][/QUOTE]

brass, col, lion all left. mirana, tide, puck, sniper, and doom all left after me and dk started killing them lol.

[t]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/649875346867915028/730166C70A3D00E3BFDE43E8C8FF3E0DF6B50B3A/[/t]

[Great Gibdo]

I'm disappointed that a Pudge who nabs seven kills before the 15 minute mark on the other team's mid and carries isn't enough to overcome the shit farm that his own carries will get because they are bad, thus losing in the end. :(

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=Great Gibdo;34023927]I'm disappointed that a Pudge who nabs seven kills before the 15 minute mark on the other team's mid and carries isn't enough to overcome the shit farm that his own carries will get because they are bad, thus losing in the end. :([/QUOTE]

One man can only do so much.

[Vaught]

[QUOTE=Banned?;34023982]One man can only do so much.[/QUOTE]

In the case of blood seeker, he can do everything

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=Vaught;34024461]In the case of blood seeker, he can do everything[/QUOTE]

Until you TP that is.

[Jon_MadN]

[QUOTE=Vaught;34024461]In the case of blood seeker, he can do everything[/QUOTE]

He can't stun

[Smashman]

Orchid, purchase!

[Godrek]

[QUOTE=SmashJonXD;34024554]He can't stun[/QUOTE]

Basher :v:

Just went 21-3 as lich... too many triple kills to count

[materialsafety]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4kGFF.jpg[/IMG]

this fucking huskar holy shit