official Dota 2

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Finally got into the beta, and i'm quite enjoying myself! Coming from playing League for the past few years it's quite a shock at how rusty i've become. Thankfully, i'm not feeding and actually managing to get a few kills here and there. One thing that has really stood out to me is how polished everything is. The ui is clean and simple, the graphics are beautiful, the characters have quality voice work, and best of all the screen does not turn into a cluster **** of spells (looking at you, Heroes of Newerth) when a large team fight breaks out. All in all i'm very impressed. If anyone wants to play a few matches my steam ID is The Tharp Daddy.

Same here. I haven't played a match yet. It's been such a long time since I last played DotA and after trying League of Legends/Heroes of Newerth, I realized my skills have diminished significantly. And because of that, I haven't been too excited about getting owned. Thankfully though, I've been playing StarCraft 2 instead so my micro skills haven't completely diminished.

[Ayepecks]

Anyone got any Dota 2 guides/tutorials? I don't see any in-game, and I've been playing Rise of Immortals a bit and found it very fun... but Dota 2 seems far more polished, and I got it in Steam Gifts. The gameplay mechanics are clearly a bit different, though, so I'm trying to get the hang of it.

[Tharp Daddy]

Anyone got any Dota 2 guides/tutorials? I don't see any in-game, and I've been playing Rise of Immortals a bit and found it very fun... but Dota 2 seems far more polished, and I got it in Steam Gifts. The gameplay mechanics are clearly a bit different, though, so I'm trying to get the hang of it.

I tried Rise of the Immortals, and i found it to be a horrible game. Get going with dota, and it will blow your mind to how awesome the moba genre can be.

http://www.playdota....-dota-you-suck/ that is one of the best guides for starting players. The guide is for dota 1, but dota 2 is literally a clone of the first game, minus a few heroes that have yet to be implemented. All the tips and tricks in there still apply. Other then that, it's really just about sucking long enough to get good. I've tried Rise of the Immortals, and virtually nothing you learned in that game will really help in Dota, Dota is a whole nother beast. Some basic tips i can give is watch some live matches in the game, and pay attention to their communication (or lack there of, and resulting loss) and laning tactics. A large part of success will come from how well you lane. Learn to last hit well, and stick with a hero to learn as a beginner. Also, make sure to call MIAs. Nothing will cause a team to rage more then a teammate who is not warning others that people have gone missing from the lane. It's better to call MIA every time you can't see them and flood the chat, then to brush off their dissapearance and suddenly mid gets ganked.

[Ayepecks]

I tried Rise of the Immortals, and i found it to be a horrible game. Get going with dota, and it will blow your mind to how awesome the moba genre can be.

http://www.playdota....-dota-you-suck/ that is one of the best guides for starting players. The guide is for dota 1, but dota 2 is literally a clone of the first game, minus a few heroes that have yet to be implemented. All the tips and tricks in there still apply. Other then that, it's really just about sucking long enough to get good. I've tried Rise of the Immortals, and virtually nothing you learned in that game will really help in Dota, Dota is a whole nother beast. Some basic tips i can give is watch some live matches in the game, and pay attention to their communication (or lack there of, and resulting loss) and laning tactics. A large part of success will come from how well you lane. Learn to last hit well, and stick with a hero to learn as a beginner. Also, make sure to call MIAs. Nothing will cause a team to rage more then a teammate who is not warning others that people have gone missing from the lane. It's better to call MIA every time you can't see them and flood the chat, then to brush off their dissapearance and suddenly mid gets ganked.

Thanks, will check it out (Y)

[BetaAddict]

Anyone else who payed HON for a long time and then tried the dota2 beta feel it being laggy all the time? I am absolutely sure it's not a hardware or internet lag problem on my end, and I was told by some other players that the reaction times on all the commands are just a lot slower. For new players who have tried neither, this shouldn't be a problem. But, it's really bumming me out because some heroes that I played really well in HON are really are a real struggle in dota2. Hope they improve character reaction times.

[Tharp Daddy]

Anyone else who payed HON for a long time and then tried the dota2 beta feel it being laggy all the time? I am absolutely sure it's not a hardware or internet lag problem on my end, and I was told by some other players that the reaction times on all the commands are just a lot slower. For new players who have tried neither, this shouldn't be a problem. But, it's really bumming me out because some heroes that I played really well in HON are really are a real struggle in dota2. Hope they improve character reaction times.

I've encountered that in a few matches, but not in others. Something you may be feeling (i'm not sure if this is present in HoN) is that there is a very precise amount of time it takes for character animations in auto attacks, spells, etc. For instance, you can cancel auto attack animations after the point the bolt leaves the hero, as the rest is needless animation. This speeds up auto attacks and the ability to chase other heroes. I agree the game feels sluggish sometimes, i am unsure if this is intentional due to it being present in the original dota (been too many years for me to remember if dota felt like this), or just a beta problem.

[BetaAddict]

I've encountered that in a few matches, but not in others. Something you may be feeling (i'm not sure if this is present in HoN) is that there is a very precise amount of time it takes for character animations in auto attacks, spells, etc. For instance, you can cancel auto attack animations after the point the bolt leaves the hero, as the rest is needless animation. This speeds up auto attacks and the ability to chase other heroes. I agree the game feels sluggish sometimes, i am unsure if this is intentional due to it being present in the original dota (been too many years for me to remember if dota felt like this), or just a beta problem.

Animation cancelling is not the issue, rather it is the time it takes for the intial animation to start and attack to be carried out just seems very sluggish compared to HON. But yeah, based on what others have told me in the game, it seems to be intentional to slow down the game a bit. I cannot really tell if that is a good thing or bad when it comes to team fights where reaction times are crucial.

[Evolution]

Are there any tips for getting into the beta or can you only apply on their main page?

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Are there any tips for getting into the beta or can you only apply on their main page?

Try this: http://dota2.com/login/auth/?goto=beta

EDIT: Actually, visit the Steam page for Dota 2 and click on the survey link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/570

[Emn1ty]

Try this: http://dota2.com/login/auth/?goto=beta

EDIT: Actually, visit the Steam page for Dota 2 and click on the survey link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/570

Its a bit annoying that the survey only asks for questions regarding DOTA and not MOBA's in general. The only general question it even asks is how much you have played Action RTS's. I feel it would be more useful to know what backgrounds your playerbase has (DOTA, LoL, HoN, RotA, BC, etc).

[BetaAddict]

Its a bit annoying that the survey only asks for questions regarding DOTA and not MOBA's in general. The only general question it even asks is how much you have played Action RTS's. I feel it would be more useful to know what backgrounds your playerbase has (DOTA, LoL, HoN, RotA, BC, etc).

Well fill it out truthfully anyway. You'd be surprised with the number of people I have played with in matchmaking that are completely clueless on how to play even the most basic heroes or understand the general game mechanics.

[Arthax]

That shopkeeper looks like such a sleazy greasebag *******.

[Singh400]

Thanks to Steam Winter Achievements I've been playing some Rise of Immortals and almost starting to get hooked on it. And I'm lead to believe these two games are somewhat similar. But I'm a complete noob to this genre, not sure I'm going to get in. Be nice though.

[Ayepecks]

Thanks to Steam Winter Achievements I've been playing some Rise of Immortals and almost starting to get hooked on it. And I'm lead to believe these two games are somewhat similar. But I'm a complete noob to this genre, not sure I'm going to get in. Be nice though.

Their genre is really the only similarity. I thought the same thing at first too, but they're not all that similar -- it'd be like comparing Rise of Nations to Command & Conquer.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Its a bit annoying that the survey only asks for questions regarding DOTA and not MOBA's in general. The only general question it even asks is how much you have played Action RTS's. I feel it would be more useful to know what backgrounds your playerbase has (DOTA, LoL, HoN, RotA, BC, etc).

They want information that would help them improve Dota 2. If they were to include complex questions for other competing action RTS games, then I doubt they'd get any useful information. And by useful information, I mean information that would help in hero balancing, hero design, etc. I would have liked to see a simple question that asked if you've played any of the competing games though.

Thanks to Steam Winter Achievements I've been playing some Rise of Immortals and almost starting to get hooked on it. And I'm lead to believe these two games are somewhat similar. But I'm a complete noob to this genre, not sure I'm going to get in. Be nice though.

That's the main reason I decided to play the Dota 2 beta. I had a lot of fun playing Rise of Immortals and it reminded me of how much fun I had in the original Dota. They're similar but only in the most basic sense.

[Evolution]

I too have only played Rise of Immortals since I didn't want to spend $40 in an outdated game just to get DoTA :/ Is there a more similar game to it than ROI e.g. Starcraft 2 map for it?

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I too have only played Rise of Immortals since I didn't want to spend $40 in an outdated game just to get DoTA :/ Is there a more similar game to it than ROI e.g. Starcraft 2 map for it?

There's an upcoming custom game for StarCraft 2 called Blizzard DOTA: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/maps-and-mods/mods/dota

[shakey]

Dota 2 is going to have a hard time making its way into the Moba market. A lot of people are pretty invested, money wise, into both HoN and LoL, and I don't see them moving onto Dota 2 without there being something just really amazing and unique to it. But if there is anyone to do it, it's Valve.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Dota 2 is going to have a hard time making its way into the Moba market. A lot of people are pretty invested, money wise, into both HoN and LoL, and I don't see them moving onto Dota 2 without there being something just really amazing and unique to it. But if there is anyone to do it, it's Valve.

I think it has a lot of potential. For one, it's the best looking game in its genre. Valve seems to have done a lot of work to improve the Source engine in terms of image quality. Also, Dota 2 has an aesthetically-pleasing art direction that looks consistent. Everything from the heroes to the creep fits in well with the game. And it's also building upon the original DotA formula which has remained popular in various forms since 2003. Finally, Valve is known for their quality games and I don't think Dota 2 will be an exception to that. Personally, I've grown to dislike Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends (to an extent) but I'm really looking forward to Dota 2.

[Miuku.]

Too bad DOTA2 can't fix one thing that's common to all MOBA games; the playerbase should be taken outside and keelhauled a few times.

[BetaAddict]

Dota 2 is going to have a hard time making its way into the Moba market. A lot of people are pretty invested, money wise, into both HoN and LoL, and I don't see them moving onto Dota 2 without there being something just really amazing and unique to it. But if there is anyone to do it, it's Valve.

I think it has a lot of potential. For one, it's the best looking game in its genre. Valve seems to have done a lot of work to improve the Source engine in terms of image quality. Also, Dota 2 has an aesthetically-pleasing art direction that looks consistent. Everything from the heroes to the creep fits in well with the game. And it's also building upon the original DotA formula which has remained popular in various forms since 2003. Finally, Valve is known for their quality games and I don't think Dota 2 will be an exception to that. Personally, I've grown to dislike Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends (to an extent) but I'm really looking forward to Dota 2.

Actually, this is where you are quite wrong. I haven't played HoN since it's beta and only spent $30 to buy an account, nothing more like most other people. One thing that I can say with certainty is there was rarely a time where HoN was balanced because they kept releasing broken heroes and then made some really bad nerfs, and it goes back and forth like that for months. The end result is you are essentially stuck playing the same heroes almost every game because those heroes have the best build setups to counter the most number enemy heroes.

Back when I played Dota1, it was balanced, and as far as I have seen in Dota2, it remains balanced as they continue to port the original heroes without any major modifications. They obviously still have a lot of basic features msising, but this is expected since it is only beta. Dota will always represent MOBA gameplay at it's finest. As for austhetics, I actually prefer something more simple like HoN. The smooth color gradients and everything makes it look like Van Gogh's The Scream painting with scenery and weird fog of war making it harder to focus on the action itself.

[nw2001]

HoN you shouldnt even worry about, It's pretty much dead compared to the other competitors in the market. (LoL, dota, and at this point RoI) and if dota 2 goes F2p it's creator icefrog will bring people just by name. (Like guinsoo did for LoL)

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

Honestly, I think I am more excited about Blizzard Dota than I am of Dota 2

[Emn1ty]

They want information that would help them improve Dota 2. If they were to include complex questions for other competing action RTS games, then I doubt they'd get any useful information. And by useful information, I mean information that would help in hero balancing, hero design, etc. I would have liked to see a simple question that asked if you've played any of the competing games though.

Not what I meant.

Their questions are along the lines of:

How much DotA did you play?

How many matches?

How many kills per match?

How many deaths per match?

How much gold per patch?

Very very ridiculously particular questions that only pertain to DotA itself, which means anyone who hasn't played DotA will give them no constructive information at all rather than giving them good information about the genre as a whole on top of specific info about their game's predecessor.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Not what I meant.

Their questions are along the lines of:

How much DotA did you play?

How many matches?

How many kills per match?

How many deaths per match?

How much gold per patch?

Very very ridiculously particular questions that only pertain to DotA itself, which means anyone who hasn't played DotA will give them no constructive information at all rather than giving them good information about the genre as a whole on top of specific info about their game's predecessor.

I was wrong about the purpose of the survey. It was made to help them choose players for the beta (see here). It would've made sense to include questions about other competing action RTS games like Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends.