First of all this is my very first post on dotafire after joining just now.
This is not at all a pro guide so don't expect pro tips. Constructive criticism is more than welcome.
I've been spending a lot of time trying to improve my dota game, trying to find basic things I might be overlooking.
But most guides I found all say the same thing in the end: practice and watch. Although these are very important I have been doing that for long
so I decided to share my tips that I've been using in a straight up bullet list. this is mainly for noobs entering the intermediate phase,
but there may be a few things that even intermediate players may find useful. That being said lets get started.
We'll start with the basics.
1. Watch educational videos.
I don't mean pro games, I'm referring to more skilled players who play pubs. this will give you a nice feel for what to do in pub matches, Also, public matches are where your journy to ownage will begin as this is where you will learn the vital mechanics of the game. a good example of videos to watch is PurgeGamers on youtube. I watch his dota 2 videos religiously because he records his pub matches (and some scrims) and afterwards (sometimes while playing) explains all his decisions and his logic behind them. he has multiple videos for every hero.
2. Getting started.
What you're going to want to do right off the bat is find a hero you like. most likely this will be a carry. Stick to all pick for let's say about a week. practice with your hero and play only him. I would suggest waiting til the last second to pick because in all pick people have a habit of waiting for the others to make their picks and then counterpick them. I'm not a big fan of this as it's a pub game and should be played for fun. The reason why I say stick to one hero for a while is because this will give you a good overview of the mechanics of the game while still enjoying it. Make sure to look at what your teammates and opponents are doing and buying for their heroes. The suggested build is a good place to start.
3. Discovering your hero.
This part is simple and can be used with all heroes you play. As you start to play your hero you must notice both the hero and your own shortcomings. If you see that your hero takes a lot of damage around the start, ask yourself: "how can I change this?" a a simple answer would be buying a stout shield for them. If you find yourself low on mana, then try to focus on getting mana REGEN items. (keep in mind regen items are much better than an item that just gives you health or mana once and then is gone.) what I do on most of my heroes is start off by laning normally and then look at what needs to be done. If I'm having trouble I'll rush a ring of health (purchasable from the side shop) and if I'm having mana problems I'll go for a sage's mask. next game you play, you'll go into the match knowing about this weakness and be prepared. Congradulations, you've just learned something!
4. Learning from your mistakes
The next part may be a bit tedious, but if you really want to improve, save and watch your replays! Fast forward to every time you get killed, and every time you take a kill. carefully look at your tactics and ask yourself "what did I do wrong?" in case of deaths, and "what could I have done better" where you got kills. make sure to look at possible entry points and exit points that could have made sure that one enemy wouldn't have gotten away with 50 health, or what escape routes YOU could have used to get out of that gank. see juking later in this guide.
good questions to ask would be: "did I have enough mana for this gank?", "did I have enough health?", "did I initate too early?" "did I initiate too close to their tower?", "how did I use my abilities? did I use them in the right order?", "would I have been able to escape the gank if I had a teleportation scroll with me?" write these mistakes down if you have to and go play another match with that list right next to you. Got killed by an enemy and you have no idea how they did it? look at their abilities, study them, and next time you'll be prepared. trust me you learn abilities pretty fast if you die from them.
5. Moving on to other heroes.
By now you should have a pretty good understanding of the basic mechanics of dota. move on to a couple of other heroes in all pick who have vaguely the same play style as yours. you'll have picked this up while playing your first hero. This time don't focus too much on individual heroes, try to play around and find some you like, still using step 2, 3 and 4 learning how to use them in a more general sense.
6. Starting to play different game modes.
All right, So you can play with a couple of heroes now, you know the basics of survival. good for you. the most important thing for you to know now is how to adapt and learn as quick as possible. also how to see the logic behind heroes' abilities. If you have got this under control, you can pick almost any hero and within 1 or 2 games understand how you should play them. all the while still repeating steps 3 and 4 to learn. You can now go play random draft, single draft, and all random. The good thing here is that everybody is getting a random hero, and since you're still low level, the chances are good that everyone in the game are not too experienced with the hero they are assigned. You might even find it easier than all pick because you won't be facing all carry teams just filled with right click heroes. use this mode to discover new heroes and practice adapting your gameplay and logical thinking as much as possible. Here is where your journey to intermediate begins.
7. Hero counters.
Now we start to get into the specifics of dota. first off: hero counters. In dota there are some heroes that become a real nuisance later in the game. some even early game. when I play a match where there are at least 2 very tanky heroes (lets say pudge and bristleback), I having a lifestealer is a neccesity. because if those 2 get too powerful, the game is over. it's really basic when you think about it. you see tanks on the other team, get an anti tank. you see a lot of nukers on the other team that could take down your carry if their nukes are combined, get antimage / keeper of the light / lion / silencers. Or even a phantom assassin that could quickly shred through squishy intel heroes. once again if you see 2 agility carries with low health at start but have a massive potential to snowball later on, grab a proper nuker to nerf them early game. I see far too often that people try to counter brute force with brute force. all this does is that whenever there's a teamfight both the carries engage each other, your team engages their carry and their team engages yours. both die. a simple support with good disables could easily turn the tide in your favor. if the other team's carry can't act for let's say 6 seconds, it gives your team 6 seconds to take out 2, maybe 3 other members on their team and then go for the carry.
8. Mind games.
Many people don't realise this, but dota is all about thinking like your opponent would think and forcing them into making the moves you want them to make. If you look at the laning phase, there's always one team playing offensively and one team playing defensively. in both these scenarios you have the potential to turn the game. If you're playing the offensive and agressive roll well enough, you're effectively intimidating your opponents, denying farm and XP. you force them right onto their tower and make it very hard for them to get last hits because the tower is taking them all. in the same way if you're playing defensively and tower hugging, the oppertunity might arise where they try to tower dive you. in this case it would be great to have a stun or slow which will hopefully direct the tower's fire onto them and secure you a kill. it's up to you to take the oppertunity. also keep in mind that they will be far away from their tower when playing this offensively, making it easy for you and your teammate, and perhaps your solo, to swing behind them for a sudden unexpected gank, taking them both out. you just need to ask yourself, "what do I need to do in order to get the enemy to make the mistakes I want them to make?".
9. Juking and playing it smart.
If I had to count the times I've seen allies running the wrong way when getting chased I'd never stop counting. Yes if you're being chased by a raging rightclick hero you are in trouble. but DONT LOSE YOUR COOL! if you make a dash in a straight line and stay in their sight the whole time then chances are you're either gonna get chased down, slowed, or stunned. try to head into the trees and up cliffs, ask yourself "which way do they think I'm gonna be going" and run the other way. Most likely if you're dire and being chased, your enemy will assume that you'll be making a dash for the base. use this to your advantage and make sharp turns in the other direction. most importantly, if this happens while your team is roaming, RUN TOWARDS YOUR TEAMMATES! in later game running to your tower with 25% health won't protect you because most likely your enemy will be more than happy to dive the tower and kill you. So stay smart, run, juke, but make sure you find your way to your teammates as they will help you out. pinging yourself violently and screaming "HEEEEEEEELP" over the mic also works pretty well in getting their attention.
10. Know your position and Roll.
Positioning is really important in dota. This is something I personally have really struggled with at the start. and it's actually so basic. but the fact that sometimes your teammates will be idiots makes it really hard. if you're someone like rikimaru or phantom assassin, and you have a major damage output but you're just as squishy, you should know better than to initiate. Even if the axe on your team is a little ***** and too scared to initiate, stay in the bushes, and wait. eventually if they initiate you can catch them off gaurd when their focus is on someone else and score a few kills. In the same way if you're playing a tank / initiator dont be that guy who's to scared he's going to take damage to initiate. ITS YOUR JOB! Being a spellcaster or support hero you will have to make sure you're always at the back of the fight, running in to use your abilities and then getting back again. Most importantly for you is to keep an eye out behind you. A good ganker will always look for the oppertunity to pick you off from behind during a teamfight. You need to counter this by keeping an eye on them and making sure to keep a safe distance between you and them. In the case of someone blinking in, ad his max blinking distance to the distance you keep from him.
That's it for now folks, I hope this article helped a few people. Feel free to comment as long as it's constructive.
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