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I just recently started playing DOTA2 and am super confused at the gameplay.

So far all I've learned is to run away when I'm almost dead. Is there anything to it aside from that?

Do you become strong enough not to die quickly if you play a lot? It really wasn't that fun getting killed in a couple of hits against any other player.

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Hi, @TMP. I'm voting to close your question because it's very broad. You're basically asking for a tutorial on how to play the game. That's going to garner very broad, list-type answers. If you have a problem with a specific part of the game, we can happily help you with that, though. – fbueckert Aug 8 '12 at 14:01

closed as not a real question by fbueckert, Alok, Ender, murgatroid99, badp Aug 9 '12 at 8:15

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Well there are a few places you can find guides for certain heroes, but generally I like to find a guide for a specific hero here

Champion guides aside, I know there will be a need for certain basic fundamentals to playing dota.

1) Last Hit, this is when you are laning in a lane for creep kills and gold, its always good to practice this in AI mode on only getting the last hit for the creep, this will mean you getting the gold for the minimal effort and less exposure to enemy hero hits, if anytime you find yourself mismatch (say you are a melee champion against 2 ranged heroes then its time for you to request a change with a team mate)

2) Survivability, if farming the creeps is ok for you then the next thing to concentrate on is how to last long in a lane, firstly its getting the less amount of hits not only from heroes but creeps as well and its always good to carry a few tangos for you to heal (i prefer tangos over healing potions as the healing doesn't get dispel upon hits)

3) Awareness, this is somewhat linked to the 2nd point, you need to play attention to the map, if not to the team chat, if enemy heroes are missing then its time to be defensive and stand in the range of your towers, but if the whole enemy team is missing even the tower will not be about to survive a gank of 5 enemy heroes.

4) Ganking/Leveling, this is when you have farmed enough for your hero and its time to bring the fight to the enemy team, its always good to appear like you are returning to base but heal using your potions/tangos and gank another lane's enemy heroes.

The basics are above and the rest you need to customise with heroes you are interested in, reading more guides will not only let you know what builds you can go but also the abilities of enemy heroes that you face.

Good luck in Dota 2

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Better guides and more up to date (and in Dota2 terms) at dota2alttab.com in my opinion, though not as detailed. – Decency Aug 8 '12 at 10:51
@Decency, thanks for sharing. I haven't been looking for more sites haha kinda just stuck at playdota :D – jonleech Aug 8 '12 at 11:21

The best option for you is to play, play and play. It all comes with experience.
But here are basic rules:

  1. Take as much as possible heal, in laning phase(no need to take all slots with heals, take some stats\or axe, if you're melee)
  2. Stay in line as long as you can, and when it doesn't hurt your team
  3. Always focus on farm, even if you're support, you can get creep kills, unless there is a carry in your line.
  4. If you're a support character, always do warding, ganking, roaming (if possible). This will increase chances for your carry to get good farm.
  5. If you're a support character, sacrifice yourself to save the carry.
  6. If you're a carry, try to get as much as farm as possible in laning phase of game.
  7. If you're a carry, always farm, but this doesn't mean, that you have to sit in line 24\7. If there is a team fight, always TP\go and help your team. Kills will cover all your expenses for TP, missed waves of creeps.
  8. Map awareness. Always look at map, and predict the next moves of your opponents. If you see all are missed, be sure, they're going after some of your teammates, or even you.
  9. Experiment with items. Sometimes there can be a very good result.
  10. If you're losing hard, don't stay in base, ward your half of map, and keep on farming.
  11. Learn new strategies of game
  12. Improve yourself
  13. Watch pro games\vods\casts
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Might want to be more specific with #1. Taking something like 27 tangos or 4 salves with you at the beginning of the game is overkil and will put you at a disadvantage, wherein you'd be better off instead by buying early game stat items with a moderate amount of healing items. New players may also not know what the "laning" phase is. – Kotsu Aug 8 '12 at 13:35
No, not like that, but better get 6 tangos, instead of 3, or 3 tangos and heal pot. I've seen lots of ppl who comes to line with 3 tangos and some stat items, and then going back after 2 min to heal – Avdept Aug 8 '12 at 13:37
I know what you are talking about, I've played Dota for over 7 years. I'm just saying you should update your answer to be more specific so that new players don't get confused. – Kotsu Aug 8 '12 at 14:09
Yes, ill do that. Thank you for your advice – Avdept Aug 8 '12 at 14:50

Welcome to DOTA, you suck.

That's the best newbie guide anyone has written to date that I'm aware of, it encompasses everything you'll need to know to get started. It's written by Purge, a well known Dota2 caster. Anything else I could say is in the link. Good luck!

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This is not a very good answer at all. – fbueckert Aug 8 '12 at 19:46
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To elaborate, if you don't provide any useful summary of the content of what you link to, this answer becomes completely useless if the link ever dies. Besides that, we want to have the information in the post people are reading and voting on. – murgatroid99 Aug 8 '12 at 19:50
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Although links to related or supplemental material is perfectly fine as a comment. – user3389 Aug 8 '12 at 20:00
The link in all likelihood won't die any more than this site will die, and even in the rare case that it does it can easily be edited and updated. Content on the internet doesn't disappear anymore, it's 2012 and archive.org is a thing. It's the best answer he's been given because it provides the overview of everything that he'll need, which the other answers have attempted valiantly but fallen incredibly short of. I won't rewrite something that's already been written by a player more experienced than myself and I won't plagiarize it or pretend that I wrote it myself. The policy here is stupid. – Decency Aug 9 '12 at 5:16

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

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