Many of you playing this game? I picked it up recently (about a month ago), practiced with bots, and 55 wins later I’m just starting to think I know what I might be doing.
For those that don’t know, it’s a game similar to League of Legends, but (according to some) harder and a bit more complex. It is FREE to play and, unlike LoL, all ~130 heroes are available right away. You only pay for cosmetic items and to watch some tournaments.
I have done some single queuing but it’s much better with a group. My steam username is Ixander - hit me up if you’d like to group up. I usually play in the evenings after 8pm EST.
I’d love to get in with a group of Dopers, but I can’t even beat the AI. Gotta practice some more.
I understand the powers and abilities of a few of the heroes. But I’m still fairly clueless when it comes to the ebb and flow of the overall game.
When and why do teams suddenly double up in the middle lane? When do you go jungling and when do you go looking to kill another hero, etc. Unfortunately practicing with the AI doesn’t tell you about that kind of stuff, so I end up sticking to one particular lane and stuff just kind of happens around me.
I haven’t played in a few months, but I have several hundred wins under my belt. I’d be happy to run some bot matches with Dopers and answer questions. I’m cale knight on Steam, and I’m also in the SDMB Steam group.
There are TONS of faqs out there, though, that are worth looking at. They’ll answer most any questions you have.
It’s a funny thing - I very recently felt the exact same way - totally overwhelmed by the amount of information I was supposed to keep track of and pretty unsure where I was supposed to go and what I needed to do. After about 100 games, it’s actually started to make sense…so stick with it, the learning curve is pretty insane but the amount of fun once you get up the curve makes it worth it.
A pretty good overall intro guide to DOTA2 is here:
This is exactly why I never got into LoL when my one buddy tried to get me into it. Even when being taught, nothing he was saying seemed to “click” much along the same lines of the things you described here. I wouldn’t really understand why certain strategies would randomly be implemented. I’m sure it’s just a high learning curve, but I didn’t have the patience for i t.
It’s not hard to get into League of Legends; just play against the easy AI to get the hang of things, and remember two simple rules:
Have an exit strategy.
Don’t give them uncontested control of your towers.
As long as you make an effort to ensure you’ll be able to run away before you get killed, and as long as at least one person shows up underneath a friendly tower before it gets destroyed, you have a lot of leeway to do as you wish. Just sitting under your tower and hitting anyone who gets close is enough, since it frees up the other four players to push the other two lanes.