The first hero I played with was Zeus. My friend advised me to choose him because he's, according to his words at that time, quite easy to play. He told me to go with him on the top lane and to spam Arc Lightning on creeps as much as I can so that we could push fast toward the first enemy tower. He said that I should use Lightning Bolt on heroes only.
However, he wasn't able to help me with my items because he had no idea what to build for this hero. At that time, he used to build Power Treads and Sange and Yasha on every single hero. And yes, I ended up building those two items for Zeus!
1 Apem stands for All Pick Easy Mode. Essentially, it's the same thing as Turbo game mode in Dota 2.
2 European Battle.net server.
Zeus is relatively easy to play, but he requires the proper items and positioning to be effective, so it wasn't the best suggestion as a first choice, haha.
My first hero back in DotA 1 was Bounty Hunter or Undying if I recall, I had no idea what I was doing but I was enjoying it a lot. I was randoming all the time to discover all the heroes, it was a really fun period where I've learnt a lot very quickly. My friends who brought me to the game have been playing for a year already at the time, and I started beating them quite easily after 2 weeks of no-lifing. :D
Keep up playing, DotA 2 is a great game! :)
If I remember correctly, that was ten (+/-) years ago. We weren't thinking about things like positioning yourself during 5 vs 5 battles, placing wards around the map so that you don't get ganked by a party of blood thirsty pubstompers, and buying Animal Courier was a rarity because most of the teammates would immediately start to shout things like: "SHARE! PLZ SHARE! OMG NOOB PLZ SHARE!!1." Learning curve was even harder back then without support of the official guides in the game that we now have.
I agree with you that Dota 2 is a great game. The good 'ole "I'm playing Defense of the Ancients" feeling is there for sure. Although, it's a bit harder to win than it used to be with all these younger folks who dream about becoming professional players. :)