official Dota 2

[shakey]

I really hope Dota 2 does well, and I will most likely move to it. But it will be a slow move, and only if my other friends follow. But as far as Leagues goes, they have me pretty hooked, via gameplay and look, as well as by the guilt of me spending money on it.

If Dota 2 isn't F2P, it will most likely not rise above the others. If it is F2P, and they incorporate some model as LoL or HoN, then it very well will most likely pass them up.

As I said before, if anyone can do it right, it will be Valve. I'm just on the fence with this, due to the other available options, and what I have already invested into those.

[killmaster84]

If anyone still has a DoTA2 friend invite I would love you forever...

[Evolution]

If anyone still has a DoTA2 friend invite I would love you forever...

same :whistle: I'm posted in a bunch of playdota.com threads but probably stand no chance of getting a key there :p

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It's a shame they stopped the invite a friend thing. It would've been nice to give one key to my friend and give away the other one here. How are people enjoying the game? I find it difficult and that's probably because I've only played intelligence heroes so far. I've heard they're the hardest to use.

[Dolan]

I think Dota 2 is gonna release soon because i heard of people who playing the game is perfect and ready for release.

And dont forget that Valve said they will release in early 2012 ;)

[Minifig]

I think Dota 2 is gonna release soon because i heard of people who playing the game is perfect and ready for release.

And dont forget that Valve said they will release in early 2012 ;)

So we'll see it in December or next year?

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It feels like the beta doesn't have enough players. It takes longer than usual to find a game which wouldn't be a problem if more people are playing. I read somewhere that they stopped the invite-a-friend program because people were selling Dota 2 beta keys. What a damn shame.

[spacer]

I got an email from Valve last night. I got into the beta!

My life is now on hold. I hope my girlfriend doesn't leave me...

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

Got into the DOTA 2 Beta last night downloaded it and have not had a chance to play yet.

[Asharae]

How is everyone still getting into the Beta?

[BetaAddict]

I think Dota 2 is gonna release soon because i heard of people who playing the game is perfect and ready for release.

And dont forget that Valve said they will release in early 2012 ;)

Depends on what they mean by early. They only have added about half the heroes and I would probably assume they won't release the final until all of them are ported from dota1. Current rate of adding new heroes is about 1-3 per week or every other week. But I think it might be reason to expect the release in the summer.

It feels like the beta doesn't have enough players. It takes longer than usual to find a game which wouldn't be a problem if more people are playing. I read somewhere that they stopped the invite-a-friend program because people were selling Dota 2 beta keys. What a damn shame.

Nah. There's enough beta player right now to get into a matchmaking game within a minute in peak ours, and usually takes no more than 5 minutes during off peak.

Got into the DOTA 2 Beta last night downloaded it and have not had a chance to play yet.

They tend to invite a new batch of people mainly on Thurdays, sometimes smaller groups on other days.

How is everyone still getting into the Beta?

Have to go to the Dota2 game page in Steam and fill out the beta survey. Then they will add you into the pool for an invite.

[Dolan]

If anyone have Dota 2 invite pls contact me :)

[CGar]

Dota 2 plays amazinginly well, but it is NO where near ready for retail/release.

-Hats/etc shop is still being designed

-Lots of heroes still missing

-UI is still being changed frequently

-Still lots of fog of war bugs

-Still lots of general bugs

-Unpredictable changes such as the one coming next week, which kills all old replays

-No coaching system implemented yet (though the Source engine already supports this in other games)

This is Valve we're talking about, they are very meticulous and precise, plus they have IceFrog at the helm making sure everything goes smoothly. I'd expect some sort of release near the end of the year though

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

[...]

Nah. There's enough beta player right now to get into a matchmaking game within a minute in peak ours, and usually takes no more than 5 minutes during off peak.

[...]

And when are those peak hours? Out of all the times I've played, I haven't seen more than 12,000 players on at once. You'd think that's enough to start a game within 5 minutes but it isn't. And it takes even longer on some occasions (e.g. 6-8 minutes).

[CGar]

The most I've seen online at once is around 20,000 poeple, but even during the weekdays when there's only 8k people online, matches take around 15 seconds to 3 minutes to start. I'm really impressed with how fast their matchmaking works... though I do think it still needs some tweaking as far as skill balancing goes.

[BetaAddict]

Dota 2 plays amazinginly well, but it is NO where near ready for retail/release.

-Hats/etc shop is still being designed

-Lots of heroes still missing

-UI is still being changed frequently

-Still lots of fog of war bugs

-Still lots of general bugs

-Unpredictable changes such as the one coming next week, which kills all old replays

-No coaching system implemented yet (though the Source engine already supports this in other games)

This is Valve we're talking about, they are very meticulous and precise, plus they have IceFrog at the helm making sure everything goes smoothly. I'd expect some sort of release near the end of the year though

I honestly don't think the in-game shop will be finished by release time or if it is even a priority right now. Even for HoN, they introduced months after the initial launch.

My bet is they will finish coding the remaining half of the heroes, do some bug hunting and fine-tuning, and then launch during the summer. I really hope they add a feature that will allow you to see other teammates skill cds in the upper bar itself without having to manually click on their hero.

[spacer]

Well I got to play a fair amount of the game over the weekend. I routinely saw about 20,000 or more players online when I played, and the longest I had to wait for a game to start was 5 minutes. Not too bad considering the number of players online and the fact that I only have the east and west regions of North America selected for matchmaking.

I played a different hero every game, just to get a feel for quality. I've played all of the heroes in the original DotA (some more times than I'd like to admit) so this was just to get a feel for how they have been ported to the new game. And I'm happy to say that all of the heroes that I tried have the same feel to them as they did in the original, which is awesome.

The people I played with are generally nicer than the communities from HoN or LoL. And I am glad Valve did not make the mistake of broadcasting everyone's "rating", win/loss, and k/d/a ratios. You can see someone's wins and favorite heroes if you view they're profile. But just like LoL, you can't determine their "bad" stats just by looking them up. (a good thing)

They also have several types of good and bad comments/ratings that you can give people after a match. So if someone was helpful (teaching) or led the team well you can give them specific props for doing so. At the same time, if someone was kill stealing, being a prick, or flat out left the game; you can rate them negatively as well. This all adds up to a player base that (at least so far) is generally more friendly to new players and each other. I just hope it lasts.

I didn't encounter any glitches in terms of gameplay or controls. The gameplay is smooth and satisfying, just like I remember. The game, as a whole, plays much slower than HoN or LoL which makes everything feels more deliberate. (another good thing)

The only negatives I can say about the game are minor. The first being I wish I had friend invites to give to my brother and a buddy of mine who are both big DotA fans. Neither of them received an invite, so I'm stuck playing with random people all the time. The other gripe for now is the lack of any other game modes besides All Pick. I really enjoy the team strategy session that comes with Banning Draft or Normal Pick games. This is only a minor negative because these modes will be added soon or at retail. But for now it's ok.

Overall, Dota 2 looks and plays great. Everything is looking up, and I can't say that I will miss LoL or HoN.

[Evolution]

Hadn't touched steam in at least 2 weeks and just as I installed it in Windows 8 CP I received an invite :D I also learned after two matches that I'm horrible... Are there any recommended guides? Is the playdota.com the standard or are there any better ones? It's too bad they haven't implemented tutorials yet.

[BetaAddict]

-snip review-

Valve/Dota team really did a good job in making sure the community is overall positive. For the most part, I don't think anyone uses the player rating system except to report the idiots who make

teamplay unbearable. I have encountered a few of them, but usually get a decent team most of the time.

Still quite a lot of features missing, compared to HoN at least, that could improve the gameplay. Surely adding the heroes right now is top priority over those accessory features, so I'm not complaining as long as the basic gameplay stays good.

Hadn't touched steam in at least 2 weeks and just as I installed it in Windows 8 CP I received an invite :D I also learned after two matches that I'm horrible... Are there any recommended guides? Is the playdota.com the standard or are there any better ones? It's too bad they haven't implemented tutorials yet.

One of the best things about Steam is the spectator feature. Makes it really easy to join and watch an ongoing match. Guides from playdota will give a base foundation on how to play a hero and their skills, but there is no substitute to watching someone else play it and get an idea of what to do and what items might be useful in what situations for that hero. The games usually last an hour, so downloading replays is probably better since you can watch it in 2x mode and skip the farming parts.

[Tharp Daddy]

I have a couple extra beta keys, if anyone is interested in a trade on steam, feel free to send me a message.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

i have had this for rather some time and still only played one game with it. :p

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I have a couple extra beta keys, if anyone is interested in a trade on steam, feel free to send me a message.

PM sent. How did you acquire the beta keys?

[Tharp Daddy]

PM sent. How did you acquire the beta keys?

I have no idea, to be honest. Valve must have given them to me, because I randomly found 2 extra beta copies in my steam inventory.

[Emn1ty]

So far my experience with the game is:

- Its very slow

- Its hard to determine if grabbing ability levels or stats at certain points in the game is a good idea. Seems a little too complex and open ended.

- Item shop is a bit... weird.

- At times its difficult to tell what's going on, and a lot of abilities in the game are rather sudden (makes seeing, let alone avoiding them difficult).

- I really hate losing gold on death. It seems a bit too harsh to not only lose farm and experience but also be retroactively punished for dying (losing gold you already earned).

Sure, my first Moba was League, but even then there is a lot here that really just punishes new players. Which, IMO, is just a dumb idea. Never punish players for being new or doing poorly. Reward them for succeeding.

[Amarok]

Keep hoping I'll get a beta key / keep trying to win one on SteamGifts, but no luck so far. Bleh. This game looks amazingly fun. Looking forward to when it actually gets released.