What is Dota?Dota stands for Defence of the Ancients, which is an action RTS that started off as a mod for Warcraft III. Two teams, the Sentinel and the Scourge would pick heroes and face off 5 vs 5 against each other, assisted by creeps and towers. The goal was to destroy the other team's Ancient, the main structure at the back of the base. Valve decided to pick this up and give the whole game a big make-over in the Source engine, and thus we have Dota 2.
Comparison
HeroesHeroes are the characters you play as in the game. Heroes usually have 3 skills, and an ultimate. Skills are maxed at level 4, ultimates at 3, and they can be passive, active, toggle, area target, whatever the forget you want, though are some exceptions to these rules (Invoker) The maximum level you can go to is 25, and each time you level up you can raise one of your skills (your ultimate at certain levels) and even stats when you've run out of skills to level, or when you need a little boost early game.
There are 3 types of heroes; Strength, Agility, and Intelligence.
Each type has one main attribute that determines how much damage they can dish out, and the attributes also change your stats.
Strength will increase your health and health regeneration.
Agility will increase your armour and attack speed.
Intelligence will increase your mana pool and mana regeneration.
There are plenty of items that can give bonuses to your attributes, stats, and other stuff.
Play StylesEach hero is good at doing certain things, this is where I go over what those certain things are.
Carry: These guys are the people that scale really well as the game progresses. Most carries are item dependent, and require a lot of farm to reach their full potential. These guys should be pulling your team through the battles if they're doing it right. Some examples of carries are Anti-Mage, Doom Bringer, and Tinker.
Initiator: People who are really good at starting fights. These guys usually have good crowd control spells, like area stuns or damage nukes. Make sure these guys are at the front of your team battles. Some good initiators are Earth Shaker, Tide Hunter, and Sven.
Ganker: They're good at teaming up against heroes. They should be roaming around the map every now and then to go for some hero kills, expect lots of dirty play. Some good gankers are Clockwerk, Bloodseeker, and Nature's Prophet.
Support: They're good at babysitting heroes in the lane, buffing their teammates, using wards for vision and just helping out in general. Pretty straight forward, some good support heroes are Omniknight, Witch Doctor, and Crystal Maiden.
There are probably some other not so dominant ones like Tank and Pusher but you guys get the point and I don't feel like writing too much about what type of heroes there are.
Good/Bad StuffI couldn't think of where to put these things and I'm getting tired of writing.
Items: You can buy cool items that will increase stats, come with cool abilities, and generally make you stronger. One notable item is the Aegis of Immortality. It's dropped by Roshan, who's the strongest neutral creep on the map. If you die with this item you'll be revived in 5 seconds with full health and mana where you died.
Penalties: This game is a lot more unforgiving than most Action RTS games. If you die, not only will you lose gold, but the other team will earn gold as well. Plus respawn times are a bitch and buying back into the game can be costly. Also, to teleport back to your base you have to sacrifice an inventory slot for a teleport scroll which costs money.
BIG RED THIS IS NOT FOR CASUALS ALERT GOES HERELast Hitting/Denying: When you get the last hit on a hero/creep/tower, you'll get bonus gold. Get good at this so you can farm quick gold during the lane phase. If you last hit one of your own creeps, you'll deny gold AND some experience from the enemy team, this can slow down both their farm and leveling. Doing these two things can help push the lane and keep your lane back so you can get covering fire from your tower or something.
Important/Useful ThingsLinks, links, lots and lots of links to things that are really helpful!
Dota 2 Wiki A great source of all that needs to be known about Dota 2.
DOTAFire This is also a good place to find things like guides for heroes.
Current Facepunch Thread Probably more informative than my thread.
Dota 2 Blog Learn about new stuff being added, news, and maybe Beta Key giveaways.
Dotacinema They make good videos explaining characters.
CyborgMatt's Blog Patch content brown townysis, tells you what's being updated.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention this game is in closed Beta so you have to sign up and hope you get it!
CloserWell I'm going to wrap this up so go sign up for the Beta!
LinkYeah they also had a big ass tournament with all the pros and these guys won $1,000,000 for playing games.
FALSIFIED TIKITAI SEAL OF APPROVAL
DAVY AS WELLWill update OP if I need to add anything else cool.
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