Introduction To Dota(for the newbies and the pros)

Hello there, this being my first blog here, I intend to give as much of my insight as possible.

This article will cover all you need to know when playing PUBS and even Ranked games.

I will also go over all the hero picks and items you should consider. Hopefully by the end of this article, you will be able to go into a game knowing when to initiate, what to look out for, when something becomes situational, and the most important aspect, Communication.

Let’s start off with that, Communication.

Picture the scene. You just entered a pub game, and you're waiting for the ten seconds to pass to make your picks.

Your entire team drafts carries. And it’s just you. What do you do?

Do you take support? You should right?

Don't

As soon as you connect to that game, you say hello to everyone, get a clean level of respect for everyone, Not only does this open up friendly talks between the team, it also lets an open mind to everyone and will promote your team to work together.

When it comes to picks, go with the counters, and say that, "Guys we should counter their heroes, Pick late" and there, first enemy picks and suggest a hero, they guys you are playing with may know why you have chosen that hero and may end up playing it.

I know the guys in higher levels naturally counter pick, so if you’re at the stage that you don’t need to point out counters, you don’t need to, you still however need to start the communication.

Though, the communication doesn’t end there, on a successful gank or kill, a bit of accolade goes a long way, saying "well done" or "good job" makes whoever got that kill feel a little better about themselves.

When you’re going for a gank, tell your team where you're going. Those guys in their lanes will be a bit more prepared. Let them know who to target, If you have a PA or AM in a lane, they can easily escape, Make sure they know who to disable or silence before you even make the gank.

Even if the gank fails, find out where it went wrong, tell the team what should have happened and commend them for putting in a great effort.

This one is done not often enough. Watch your lane enemy. If that guy goes missing, watch which direction he was going and warn the team. This can be helped with wards, good warding goes a long way. Especially if you are against aggressive players (I will get into warding in a bit).

Making the enemy gank unsuccessful is great! You have your xp because you’re playing a little safer but you didn’t leave the area. That roaming soul coming to kill you, loses xp from his lane for the time it takes him to get there and get back! AND if you have warded correctly and have informed the team. You can even counter gank, 100g to smoke up and gank your ganker. That’s something not to take for granted.

That about does it for comms.
Just remember, Be friendly and helpful, even in the worst circumstances.

Let’s go over the second most important aspect to dota.

Vision


There are multiple heroes with invisibility, insane movement speed, and great escape mechanisms.
These heroes are invoker, clinks, Bounty hunter, Rikki, anti-mage, Phantom Assassin, Queen of pain and so on.

Hunting these guys down becomes tricky because they are so versatile, and go anywhere or even disappear. The only counter to these guys, is a silence. That does the trick. Not quite.
YOU NEED VISION, all the time. This makes seeing those sneaky invisible heroes possible.
Take the 300g it costs to get vision, it’s worth it, warding the rune spots and your jungle, can save you from losing a lot of gold and xp if you get ganked.
Late game, focus more on the sentries if you’re dealing with invisible heroes. If you managed to farm enough, you can even invest in a nec book. The true sight is like have a gem
That’s about it for warding, just remember, wards and communication can get you very far.

The third most important thing about dota... Map awareness.

I know that we may have gone over this, truth is, we haven’t.
You know that little minimap, it should be second nature to refer to it every few seconds.
Familiarize yourself with the heroes associated to a colour in the enemy team. You can see who’s moving, roaming all over the map just by doing that.

That about covers the theory and practices,
What happens after that is all on you. I will go over drafting and strategies, but just briefly, this is always going to change for every single match you play because you will play another hero and the drafts will be different.

When it comes to picking, in PUBS, its open to opinion, naturally someone would want to counter you, but when the lane starts, you never see your counter until a team fight, which by then, may not even target you.

Best to not pick early and counter them with a hero you enjoy. If you raddled up the team enough to want to play with each other, the game will be easy.

Always adapt to situations. Sacrificing a hectic carry item in place for mobility is never a bad idea. You don’t need to be OP and buff to destroy your enemy, though it’s better to be. When in doubt, just remember, surviving is better than dying.

I hope this helped you out a little. I will be making some exclusive guides as asked by some people on different forums, I will also be making video guides on Heroes and all you need to know about dota.

Please feel free to comment and ask questions, I am happy to answer and I realise that this blog may be redundant, I wrote it very fast and will correct anything :)

Happy dota.