Table of Contents

New or changed sections for 3.0 in gray 
Sections in blue will be updated for a 3.1 release 

 

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v3.0 Change Log

 

• Reworked paragraph form & punctuation
• Added color titles
• Section titles now stand out more
• Put this Change Log in for future releases
• Changed title from Complete to “Complete” for obvious reasons
• Changed the file name to have no spaces
• Added the paypal link for supporting the author
• Made the items section more printer friendly
• Changed verbiage of some items
• Added copyright info on first page.  If you want to use information in this guide just simply ask.  All I’ll probably ask from you is a link to my guide. 
• Drastically reduced the size of the file

 

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Things to look for in v4.0  

The main thing I hope to accomplish is drastically adding onto the items section.  Beyond that I’ll be back to adding strategy to the guide.  No other plans as of now but usually as I build more and more some new things come to mind.   

 
 

1. Starting the Game

 

Dota reminds me of my favorite sci fi flick “tron”. To beat the system you’ve got to get through several layers of defense.  The object of the game is very simple:  destroy the Frozen Throne or the World Tree.  But how you get from point a to point b is quite complex.  That’s what makes the game so fun.  From game to game you’ll find a large number of differences, which is what keeps you coming back.

This game is completely overwhelming when you first start.  The map is just as big as a regular ladder game but in addition to that there are 79 hero’s to choose from (as of version 6.36) and 94 different items. There are so many different variables it’s a difficult game to master, which makes for one great game.

At the start of the game you will pick a hero and then select your first ability and shop for your starting items.  These first few things are very important that over time you will get a better understanding for.  Your team, typically, will consist of 5 players (including yourself) and you’ll be pitted against 5 other hero’s.  There are 3 lanes in dota and to start, if there are a total of 5 hero’s, 2 will be in 2 of those lanes providing a lane that only one person will take.  This is also known as ‘solo’.  Going out alone.  Some players will call a lane solo from start, meaning that they want a certain lane to themselves.  Good for players who know what they are doing because they will end up leveling faster, typically, than the other hero’s on their team.  When starting out I would recommend not taking a lane solo and always going out with another hero.  It’s my opinion that the best lanes consist of a ranged hero paired with a melee one, unless your team’s heroes do not allow for it.

In addition to real live players there will also be the computer, which controls the sentinel and the scourge. The computer sends out creeps in waves for each lane and a neutral fight will take place. The computer is somewhat mindless in the sense that these creeps will walk down a lane until they meet an enemy to fight.  If you run past these creeps to attack an enemy hero they are smart enough to turn around and start attacking you, but for the most part they are just mindless zombies wanting to attack the first thing they see. 
 

2. Map Basics

 

There are 3 lanes to which you will meet the foe: a top, middle, and bottom.  Also known as the west path, middle path, and east path. On each path you will notice a tower.  This is the 1st layer of defense. Once this tower is destroyed you will find another tower. The 2nd layer of defense. This tower will prove to be more difficult to take down because now enemy hero’s can easily flank you.  This also hold true with the first tower, but it’s easier to make an escape from attackers when fighting the first tower versus the 2nd.  You can also be flanked from 2 different directions when taking on the 2nd tower, so I recommend using caution when fighting this tower, and typically, you’ll want at least one other hero on your side there with you.

After you have destroyed these towers you will be on the outskirts of the enemy base. Another tower is what you’ll meet next and once that tower is down you will have free reign to attack the barracks’ (also known as racks, or rax for short) that let loose the creeps.  Now back in the 3.7 days when you destroyed these buildings the creeps would cease to be released.  Makes sense... you destroy a building you destroy its function.  But for whatever reason this changed in a version in-between 3.7 and 6.36. The creeps are still released up until the point you have destroyed all 6 barracks in your enemy’s base in which you will be granted ‘mega creeps’.  Mega creeps means that the enemy has stopped producing creeps while your teams creeps still exist.  What you end up with is putting a lot of pressure on the enemy’s team because now they not only have to deal with your teams hero’s, but they’ve got a lot of creeps to kill to save face.

After the two barracks’ in your lane you will be one step closer to the primary building.  That is the Frozen Throne or the World Tree.  But guarding the Frozen Throne or the World Tree are buffed towers.  These towers have more hit points than the previous 3 that you encountered, and they are located next to each other, which means you’re typically going to be attacked by both if you’re not careful.  Both towers must be destroyed before you can attack the Frozen Throne or the World Tree.  Once the Frozen Throne or the World Tree is destroyed your team will have won the game.

Get familiar with the dota map.  It may seem large at first but eventually you’ll memorize the nooks and crannies and where things are. The obvious:  your base, the enemy base, where towers are (2 in each lane), but also get down where the “secret” shop is as well as the rune locations.  Know where the natural creep areas are, as well as where Roshan is.   

yellow = towers 
purple = runes (located in the river) 
green in upper right = scourge base / red in lower left = sentinel base. 
Roshan is the large brown dot just to the right of center.

The minimap also proves to be a very useful tool when it comes to keeping tabs on hero’s, whether they are on your team or not.  What I like to do is turn off the colors for paths/bases, etc and just keep that black so I can easily see where heroes are on the map.  When you learn where everything is on the map it wont be difficult to understand exactly where a hero is just by looking at the minimap.

Along with this memorize what colors belong to what team.  Blue, teal, yellow, orange and purple are sentinel heroes.  Pink, light blue, gray, dark green and brown are scourge heroes.  It helps to know which color is associated with what hero, an association that is easier to make as the game goes on.  What I like to do when an enemy hero gets a killing spree (meaning has 3 kills in a row) is to memorize his color and what hero he is so I can easily look at the map and know who to avoid or who to gank (more on ganking in the hero section).

Familiarize yourself with your own base.  It may seem complex at first but its fairly simple.  There are 4 people dealing different level items, 2 other dealers who deal in basic items, and 3 structures that deal more basic items. At first its overwhelming, where to find what and how much it cost, but the more and more games you play the easier it will become to memorize where items are and where to buy them. In the items section I have marked off for you where items are sold and what that person/structure is selling.

There are 2 rune locations.  Both of which are in the river in the middle of the map.  That river runs from northwest to southeast and the 2 runes are at the corners of the northwest part and the southeast part.  There you will find different powerups that can mean an escape from the enemy or a hero kill for you.   

Runes

Every minute forty-three in real time a rune will pop up randomly in one of the two rune spots.  Each rune that pops up is also a random selection from the five.  Runes are great ways of getting yourself a hero kill or pushing a lane hard.  The majority of the time that is what people use runes for, but every so often when you’re in a pinch they can be used as a means of escape when you’re at red health and being chased.  Below let’s discuss what each rune does.

1) Haste increases your movement speed from whatever your base speed is to 522. Movement speed will max out at 522. Haste is great for escaping the enemy when your health is low and you are being hunted.  Also serves for hunting down heroes.  Or my personal favorite:  just getting back to town faster to heal and buy.   
 

Being on the sentinel team I’ve been able to get haste in the northwest location, run all the way to the enemy’s base, run past a tower and kill a hero by the Frozen Throne and then run out, all while taking minimal damage because I’m running so fast. 

2) Double damage can get you multiple hero kills if you play it well.  Double damage is just that, increasing your damage by a factor of 2.  Late game you’ll find this can be quite monstrous, especially if you’re a strength hero and especially if you have a Crystalys or a Buriza.  Hot tip if you have Banehollow and you see a Double Damage rune:  trigger your buff and then pick up Double Damage.  Whatever you do do not pick up Double Damage and then trigger your buff or you’ll lose Double Damage.   

Typically you’ll want to stay away

from an enemy hero if they have

Double Damage.  The blue circles

_above a hero’s head signifies they

have Double Damage. 

3) Regeneration is the super version of Sapphire Water and Clarity Potion.  At a fast rate your hit points and mana will be restored, but just like triggering the Sapphire Water or Clarity Potion you want to avoid being attacked so you can fully restore.  When you see an opponent using the Regeneration Rune it will be in your best interest to cast or whack at that hero to prevent a full regeneration.   

 

There are two ways of telling that a hero has picked up the regeneration rune.  The first graphic might be hard to tell but there are stars circling the heroes head.  A more cumbersome way yet tall tell sign is to click on the hero and you’ll notice the regeneration icon on the bottom next to the heart icon.  Clicking on a hero you shouldn’t need to do as the stars really aren’t that hard to see in game.  This graphic doesn’t do justice but I wanted to point out the two ways of telling a hero has Regeneration. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4) Invisibility is, just like Double Damage, serves best as a hero killing rune but can also serve to make an escape when you are low on health.  A good strategy to go by is standing next to the rune and waiting for an enemy hero to get somewhere near the rune location.  Notifying a friendly hero might be key in your surprise attack. Communicating with your team that you’re about to pick up the rune is clutch.  It’s always funny to pop out of nowhere and slaughter an enemy hero and it’s beyond frustrating when you’re attacked from someone who had an Invisibility rune.  Just when you think you are taking on one or two heroes suddenly it becomes one more to add to the mix and it usually ends up with you dying.     
 

 

When a friendly hero on your team picks up invisibility you’ll be able to tell they have it by one of two methods.  Just looking at the hero you’ll notice they look a little more transparent than normal.  You can also click on the hero and you’ll notice the icon to the right of the heart signifies that this hero is invisible to enemy heroes.  The only way for an enemy hero and unit to spot this invisible hero is a gem, wards or Beast Masters hawk.  Stay clear of lanes where you know wards might be or a hero that is carrying a gem.  Typically you only have to worry about that if you have a teammate that is Goblin Techies or has the wind walking ability.  

5) Illusion creates a copy of yourself to fool the opponent. Some heroes have this as a normal ability like Phantom Lancer or Terrorblade.  Someone with the Manta Style item can also duplicate themselves.  Same concept with this illusion rune.  Creates one copy of yourself, will take more damage than your actual hero as well as deal less damage than your normal self.  I find the Illusion rune best used to fool enemy heroes into thinking they are about to face the real you. Taking into account each player is at different DOTA experience levels sometimes you can fool people and sometimes you can’t.  Beginner players will blow mines or use their ulti on your image in which case you sit back and laugh at the waste of their resources.  Experienced players won’t be so easy scared as all it takes is one attack to notice how quickly the life goes down thus telling them they are dealing with an image and not the real deal.  You can use this knowledge to your benefit as well.  Don’t be so quick to cast your ulti or blow mines when you spot a hero pop up on you.  Especially if they’re coming up out of the river.  It might just be an image you’re dealing with.  You don’t want to be caught wasting your ulti or blowing mines on a case of images.  You’re just about guaranteed to get laughed at or called a noob.  
 

A Duplicate copy of yourself is spawned

upon picking up the illusion rune.  
Use it wisely. 
 
 

3. Farming

 

In my opinion the most important thing in this game is gold.  You want to be the guy getting the most in the game. If you can do that you will have a serious advantage over the enemy.  Now some people might say hero selection or experience is the most important thing... but contrary to that I believe items make you or break you.  And what you need for items is gold.  You could have randomly been given a hero that, in the larger context of things, is not as powerful of a hero as another.  Well that might be irrelevant if your items are better than his.  Gold.  I’m telling you, it’s the most important thing in the game.

The term used in game for getting gold, whether on natural creeps or neutral ones, is farming. One of the trickiest things I found in the game when I started playing was getting a large amount of gold from creeps. The problem is you have to get the last hit on a creep to get its gold.  Experience you’ll always get from the death of a creep if your hero is close enough to the dying creep but getting a creep’s gold is a bit more complex.  Usually your own team’s creeps will kill the other teams creeps meaning no gold for you. You want to prevent this so you have to basically understand the timing issue that is at hand. It’s easier in the first twenty minutes of the game to get the last hit on creeps if you have one hero rather than another one. I’ll provide more specifics on that later. 

What I strongly recommend doing before you go onto Battletnet to play a DOTA game with everyone else is get the map and play it local with no other players so you can practice this concept. The better you get at this the quicker you’ll get powerful items that will get you more hero kills and help you push lanes better. You’ll also be in a better position to support your team. 

I recommend picking Dwarvin Sniper as your 1st hero in DOTA.  He’s a great hero to use to familiarize yourself with the game.  Every hero has a primary attribute and Dwarvin Snipers is agility, the 2nd easiest hero, typically, to creep kill in an early game situation. Being that there is no enemy heroes on the other side of the lane here is a great strategy to follow:  there are a totally of 4 creeps from the enemy’s side in your lane.  3 melee and 1 ranged. Start by killing the ranged creep in the back. Being that you have free reign on this ranged creep you should get its gold. After getting the ranged creep concentrate on the life bars of the remaining melee creeps.  Just before you kill the ranged creep try to get the last hit on the melee creep that’s lowest.  Stop attacking the ranged creep if you need to.  Remember, it’s all about last hits.  Use some duh type logic and you’ll do fine.

Early game if you can get 1 creep kill every wave I would say that’s about average.  Most of the time you will find that you wont get 1 per wave, you might get 1 every other wave or something.  But being that you are solo in this lane the bare minimum that you should get is 1. 2 would be average, 3 or 4 would be great. As your hero gets bigger and better items and as your level advances you should find it easier to creep kill.

You will find this creep killing strategy useful when playing online if one of the following situations proves to be true:  if an enemy hero has to go back to his base to heal, that makes it all the easier to get gold.  If an enemy hero leaves his lane for whatever reason, here again you should be better off farming.

A lot of times what you will find is that if your in a lane with a friendly hero and you got a lane with only 1 opposing hero, you both can attack him little by little eventually making him go back to his base to heal.  (Going back to the pool is another term for going back to base to heal).

Once you’ve practiced farming a bit offline you’ll will be able to make the next step, which is a bit more complex: farming while playing against an opposing hero(s).  This creates a much more dynamic situation because now you have to worry about being attacked from an enemy other than the creeps themselves.  It's most difficult to farm when you have a melee hero and the hero on the other side of the lane is a ranged one.  What you find most of the time is that if you go up to kill a creep the enemy hero will turn their fire from the creeps to you. You’re forced to retreat because you can’t just stand there and take that kind of punishment all in the name of getting one creep kill.  This is why I recommend you go with Sniper to start off with. 

When you make the switch from playing on your own to playing online go with Sniper again, and if he’s selected choose another ranged hero.  You want to stay with ranged heroes until you get a good grasp of the game.  Switching to a melee hero makes the game much more difficult and you should wait until your a bit more advanced for that.

Now that you have an enemy hero on the other side you might find that you can’t start off by attacking that ranged creep in the back.  A lot of times I find that I can though.  Especially with Sniper.  He has the longest range in the game (when his range ability has been maxed) and that helps when you go to kill whatever your target is. Attempt the same process you did in the local game, if that doesn’t work what you will have to resort to is trying to get the last hit on one of the 3 melee creeps. 

One of the most valuable “little tricks” in this game is the alt button. When you hold it down you can see every units life bar.  Very valuable when you go to select a target to kill.  Now you could just click on a unit to see its life, but what you want is a quick and easy way to do things in this game.  It’s just like regular Warcraft in the sense that you don’t click everything with your mouse, you use the mouse in tandem with the keyboard to optimize performance.  Same here in DOTA. When you have that alt button held down you know what creep to attack and which not to attack.  What you want to do is wait until a creep has a sliver of red energy and then proceed to attack it.  Your hope is that you get that last hit and what you will find is that either you 1) you attacked to soon or late and your own creep got the kill, or 2) you chose the right time to attack and in 1 or 2 attacks you have killed the creep and the gold is yours.

Obviously we’re aiming for option 2 as many times as possible.  It will take some getting used to for the melee creeps as well as the ranged creeps. Also keep in mind the ranged hero has far less hit points than the melee ones.  So it will be easier and take less time to kill them. What I typically do if I am a ranged hero and I don’t have the option to be attacking the ranged creep is I will sit back and attack one of the melee targets and then switch my fire to another one.  I might do this several times and when I see one low I’ll target that one.  I find that when your wave meets the enemy’s wave and I sit and blast one creep that there’s a really good chance that I will not get the last hit.  This is why I move my fire around several times.  That will spread the damage around and it becomes easier to get that precious last hit.

Below I have complied some graphics to show you what I am talking about.  This is what you want to be practicing offline.  It might seem a little boring doing this, but this is a vital part of the game.  If timing isn’t your thing this isn’t the game for you, plain and simple.  Get this part of the game down and you’ll enjoy it so much more.

 
 
 
 

In Section 4 “Exterior Programs” you’ll find the best helper to DOTA:  Dotakeys.  In this program it contains a way to have lifebars permanently be shown on your screen.  What a valuable tool this is.  Now you don’t have to hold down the Alt button and you have all your fingers free to work the keys you need to.  I highly recommend this program and utilizing this feature.  See Section 4 for more details. 

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Being a melee hero changes everything about farming.  Typically you’ll find it much more difficult to farm when you’re a melee hero because odds are there is a ranged hero in your lane on the opposite side and he isn’t going to let you farm so easily.  That’s when things are worst for your gold raising endeavor.  Melee hero against ranged ones.  I’ve come quite a ways in the technique of farming and find it still easy to farm when I am a melee hero up against a ranged one just because you learn what to do and not to do with each game you play (and I’ve played quite a bit of DOTA games). 

If you have an experience like mine you’ll find that once moving from ranged hero’s to melee ones is ultra frustrating.  Farming just becomes much more difficult and it took me a while to get down what I am about to tell you.

The key here again is seeing the lifebars.  Now you’ll be standing back a ways so you’re not in range of those ranged enemy heroes. What this boils down to is 1) knowing your hero and 2) timing.  If you’re a strength hero know that your damage to start the game is more than that of an agility hero or an intelligence one.  Typically that is.  So what you want to do is stand back a ways, hold that alt button down (if you don’t have Dotakeys or another program that is) and wait for your moment.  When you notice an enemy creep with just a sliver of life left you want to start your approach.  By the time you get to the creep the hope is that your 1st attack on that creep will be the last one on it and you receive the gold. With that one hit you then quickly retreat because that enemy hero is probably about to start attacking you. 

Once again I remind you of the 2 things you must know:  1) your hero which means knowing how much damage you’re going to do to that creep once you hit it and 2) timing.  What you’ll find is that, typically, if your an agility hero you’ll have to wait until that sliver gets even farther down to get that last hit versus if you’re a strength hero.  Strength heroes, again, will typically do more damage than an agility one so you don’t have to wait until that sliver of life is so far down. Get down your farming technique and sooner or later you’ll have a hero that can kill creeps in 2 or 3 hits thus not needing to sit back and wait or check its life bar.

Another source of income is neutral creeps.  Typically you’ll find that it’s not worth trying to kill these until you get some levels under your belt.  Trying to take on neutral creeps at low levels will get your life considerably lowered while only receiving a small amount of gold and experience. What you have to ask yourself is was that attack on the neutral creeps worth it?  The answer is no because now you’re headed back to the pool to heal when you could be in a lane potentially getting gold and a lot of experience.

The biggest neutral creep is Roshan.  Roshan is the most powerful player on the board to start the game, and remains so until you get your hero’s level up considerably and team your hero with some powerful items.  Keep in mind Roshan isn’t all that if you’re a level 25 Naix with 2 Hearts, Satanic, Butterfly, Agies and a Divine.  You could easily solo Roshan on your own.  Typically what you’ll find is that late game someone will suggest taking on Roshan and it will be a team effort.  Killing Roshan gives 800 gold to each player on your team, and the lucky person who gets the last hit on Roshan will get an extra few hundred gold.  In my opinion Roshan is pretty pointless because 800-1100 gold late game doesn’t mean that much. It’s definitely not going to swing the game one way or the other and Roshan is left to be a bragging rights type thing. 

Typically you’ll only see roshan slain if one team is dominating the other.  A lot of times I see Roshan get slain when we’ve destroyed a good amount of the other teams base thus giving us the time to take him on while the other hero’s are kept busy with all those creeps.  It’s my personal opinion that killing Roshan is arrogant, especially if you’re crushing the other team.  Most people on a badly losing team just want the game to end, not for you to go take more time by killing Roshan. If a teammate suggests we kill Roshan when we are dominating the game I will typically try to discourage that and just finish the game.  Follow suit and show good sportsmanship.   

The great thing about neutral creeps though is that you get to solo them meaning you are guaranteed the last hit, which means gold for you, and you’ll get the experience from them as well.  You’ll find that with some hero’s it’s best to just stay in the neutral creep area and fight rather than chance being in a lane and dying.  The first hero that comes to mind is Naix, who at mid game can stay in the natural creep area indefinitely because he has an ability to leech life from the target to add to his own. 

These are the basics about gold, understanding them is easy but applying them will be more difficult.  Practice and practice, eventually you’ll have that last hit thing down and you’ll be well on your way to playing a more powerful game. 

4. Creep Denies

 
 

Creep denying is killing your own friendly creeps to prevent an enemy hero from getting experience and gold. It may not have occurred to you, especially if you are new to DOTA, but you can attack your own friendly creeps if their life is low enough.  New to the .36 map is an experience/deny change.  Before when you successfully denied one of your own creeps the enemy heroes would receive no experience but now instead of receiving none they receive some.

Creep denying is such an important part of the game for 2 simple reasons:  you prevent the enemy from leveling faster than you and you take away from their farming ability.  I once was Slayer, solo in a lane versus Sand King and Tormented Soul.  The two of them combined had so many creep denies that they both out leveled me (keep in mind I’m solo in a lane versus 2 of them in one lane) and they had a lot more gold than I. Being that it was 2v1 it wasn’t hard to kill me because I didn’t play defensive enough so their lead climbed all the faster.

So how do you creep deny.  Well creep denying is just like farming expect you are attacking your own creeps instead of the enemy’s creeps.  Just like in farming how you wait for a sliver of red energy on a creep, you do the same with your own creeps.  The hope is that you land the last hit on your creep thus denying the experience and potential gold that would have been attained by the enemy hero.

From my observations during CAL match play it seemed like creep denying was more important than farming their own gold. The best of best players somehow deny creeps as well as farm ridiculous ratios.  When using the –cs command or –cson you can see how many creep kills and creep denies you have.  4:1 (kills : denies) ratio is not that bad, 4:2 ratio is pretty good and anything above that is from an expert player. 

The experts can farm as well as deny.  It’s not uncommon to see an expert get a 3:2 ratio in a single creep wave. One step at a time though. Get good at farming and then try your hand at farming as well as denying. 

You’ll find not as many players in pubs deny as they do in organized tournaments.  I’m surprised when I come across a pub game where multiple people are effectively denying.  In big tournament matches expect denying and expect it to happen often.   
 
 
 

2.1 Hero’s and Their Differences

 

There are several attributes to a hero that set them apart from other hero’s.  First lets look at how hero’s attack: ranged and melee.  Ranged hero’s can attack from far away while melee hero’s have weapons that require you to be right up against a hero to attack. I recommend starting out with ranged hero’s, as you will find it easier to play them versus a melee hero.  As you become more familiar with the game you will understand how to play a melee character and their fragile nature. 

All heroes have a characteristic they specialize in. Strength, Agility or Intelligence.  Typically strength hero’s will have more hit points than their counterparts, agility hero’s will be a more of an all around hero, and intelligence heroes will have fewest hit points but a larger mana pool for them to cast spells. Strength hero’s are typically melee, agility are either or, and intelligence are ranged, the only exception being Ogre Magi. As you progress with your skill in DOTA try intelligence heroes after you have Sniper down. 

There is an overwhelming number of hero’s, 79 to be exact, which means there are 316 skill abilities that you’ll have to become familiar with. Some skill abilities are used by multiple heroes like the blink strike and images, but for the most part get ready for a long haul in getting to know every hero.

An important aspect to DOTA is knowing what abilities hero’s have when going into battle. At the start of the game I’ll take into account the 1 or 2 hero’s on the other side of my lane and mentally think about their abilities so I know what to do and what not to do.  With stunners like Vengeful Spirit and Sven I’ll know that killing them might prove to be difficult because they can just stun me and make an escape.  Killing a hero that has wind walk can also prove to be difficult because they can just wind walk out of trouble.  Unless I have a gem or true sight (being able to see the invisible) that enemy hero is bound to get away.  Know heroes and know their abilities. It’ll take a while but the better you get down every hero the better you’ll do. 

One thing I did when I first started playing DOTA was using my laptop to bring up heroes in the middle of a game to know how much damage they could shell out. Once reaching level 6 Lina and Lion can do a considerable amount of damage.  I know that if I fall under 300 or so I need to stay far from them or go back to the pool and heal. (I’ll avoid the latter like the plague if I can.) Also keep in mind if an intelligence hero has Aghanim’s Scepter chances are they are going to do even more damage with their ultimate (their level 6 ability). 

 
 
 
 
 
 

2.2 Hero’s in the context of a Team 

Knowing your own teammates abilities is also very helpful when going into battle.  When I am sven and I have another stunner like Skeleton King on my team, I like to go into the same lane with them in hopes of getting first blood (fb, the first hero to hero kill is first blood and you get a bonus 200 gold on top of what you normally get). Some other great combo heroes: Keeper of The Light and another other intellect hero like Zeus. With Keepers Chakra it gives the other intellect hero the opportunity to mass spam his spells. Chakra gives Keeper of The Light unlimited mana and even if he lanes with another intellect hero they’ll both have an ample supply of mana.

This is just one example of a hero combo that works great. Probably my favorite hero combo is Pudge The Butcher and Goblin Techies.  I find it beyond funny to lay 5 mines and have a hero meat hooked over on top of those mines.  Many times I’ve gotten fb from this.  Hilarious.

Understand different terms used for heroes:

Disabler = a hero that has a hex (Lion, Rhasta) where you can turn an enemy hero into a sheep for a set amount of time thus disabling them to do anything. When teamed with a Guinsoo’s you now have the ability to double hex.  Imagine Lion and Rhasta on the same team and both with a Guinsoo’s.  That’s 4 hex’s in a row.  Used on just one hero I would find it hard to believe they would live through the barrage.  This is an extreme example, 9 out of 10 hero’s don’t have the hit points to be disabled 4 times while being attacked and live.

Also know that if you don’t have a hex ability within your hero (like Rhasta and Lion) you can become a disabler by buying Eul’s Scepter or upgrading that to a Guinsoo’s.  This is true of any hero wanting an ability outside of his or her own. You don’t come with it chances are you can buy it. Think of blink. You’re not Queen of Pain or  
Anti-Mage? All you have to do is buy a blink dagger. (Unless of course you are Pudge or Vengeful Spirit)

Pusher = a hero that is better than other hero’s at pushing. 2 great examples of pushers are Goblin Techies and keeper of the light.  Remote mines at level 3 can take out a whole creep wave with just one mine.  That will let you and or your team push a lane much quicker than individually trying to kill creeps one by one.  Keeper of The Light is ridiculous with Aghanim’s Scepter and Ignis Fatuus. 2 orbs resurrect an obscene amount of priests, which heal your teammates or friendly creeps or can be used to fight against enemy creeps or heroes.  Another great aspect of Ignis Fatuus is you can push a lane without actually being in it. Typically you’ll have so many priests to work with that you’ll actually gain gold from doing that as well as the gold you are making from the other lane you are in. 

Supporter = typically intelligence hero’s, a supporter does just that.  Supports your teammates in a push or defense.  Typically not hero killers but their function is vital to team play. Supporters can also be used in a whole different fashion and that is pooling your teammates.  Intellect heroes usually have a bigger advantage at farming gold versus their counterparts. I find that when I am Goblin Techies or Keeper of The Light I can afford myself some decent items as well as buy some hefty items for teammates. Supporters can be any of the following or contain multiple qualities:  disabling, pooling & pushing.   

In addition to knowing what kind of hero you have, know what kind of hero’s your enemy has.  When you walk into a lane with two other heroes’ be sure you know what they are capable of doing.  If you see two stunners across from you, you might want to take it easy especially if you are a melee hero. 2 stuns in a row with those two heroes whacking on you and you’re probably done for. Imagine a gank with two stunners.  Now you’ve got 3 or 4 hero’s smashing you while double stunned.  Good luck.

Know your team’s abilities and use them to your advantage.  This is a team game and although someone can run away with a mass of kills and great items, they can be stopped if the whole opposing team ganked them. The best teams I’ve seen help each other out when in a jam or communicate well when going for a gank.  Teamwork is an aspect of this game that won’t necessarily make or break you, but it will for your team.

2.3 Hero’s and Items

 

Things you want to achieve as a certain hero and things you want to prevent enemy heroes from doing:

A popular item for a hero that has a stun or mass damage ulti is the Refresher Orb.  Typically obtained late game, once a hero has this item it becomes that much more difficult to stay alive.

Popular intelligence heroes for the refresher orb: Slayer, Demon Witch & Zeus

Popular agility heroes for the refresher orb: Luna

Popular strength heroes for the refresher orb: Tree, Sand King & Cow.

If Luna or the intelligence hero’s listed have teamed Aghanim’s Scepter with the Refresher Orb they become a damage powerhouse. Expect kills frequently, even double or triple kills. I have found that being a strength hero with a lot of hit points has still sent me to the pool to heal frequently when up against Zeus with Aghanim’s Scepter and a Refresher Orb.

A general rule of thumb is to not let any hero gain so much money that their items become too much for you to overcome. It’s some hero’s that really become a pain if fed too much by your team. Hero killing as much as possible is always going to give you an experience and gold boost, but you’ll be preventing that hero you just killed from getting great items. They just died which means they just lost gold. Limit your deaths to as few as possible so you refrain from giving the other team extra gold and experience. 

2.4 Hero Killing / Your Death

 

I would consider this to be the second most important part of the game. More so than this section is about hero killing or your death this is about experience. 

Hero killing will help your cause out greatly, and on the other side of the coin, dieing will greatly hurt your cause.  When you kill a hero you get 200 gold and a certain amount of experience. Sometimes you can get 2 levels worth of experience from a hero kill if the level difference if levels between you and him/her is large. That just gave you a selection of 2 more skill abilities.

Just like killing creeps if you kill a hero 1v1 with none of your allies around you will receive the full amount of experience from that kill. If you find yourself in a 3v3 fight, or something of the like, the experience you will receive will be divided by how many heroes are present.

Hero killing can also get you bonus gold depending if the hero you just slayed had a streak going. After a hero has 3 kills in a row without a death the hero is on a killing spree. The more kills that hero gets without dieing the deeper into that spree he or she gets. Below is a chart that will help you better understand this. 
 

 
 

There are other fun audio messages you can get for kills.  Killing 2 hero’s in a short amount of time will earn you a double kill while killing 3 in a short amount of time will get you a triple kill

The more kills you can get in a short period of time the more dramatic and funny the audio clips become. If as a team you get 5+ kills you’ll get a message that your team is owning. Great for keeping track just how much you are sucking or dominating as a team. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

3.1 Every Item in the Game 
 

Chimera roost 
 
 

The following items can be purchased at the chimera roost:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cache of The Quel’Thelan 
 
 

The following items can be purchased at cache of the quel’thelan: 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sentinel Secret Shop

(Using the minimap in the bottom left notice where the white box is located) 

Scourge Secret Shop

(Using the minimap in the bottom left notice where the white box is located) 

The following items can be purchased at the secret shop: 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sena The Accessorizer 
 
 
 

The following items can be purchased from Sena The Accessorizer: 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Beazel The Weapons Dealer 
 
 

The following items can be purchased from Beazel The Weapons Dealer: 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Level 0 Recipe Scrolls

 
 
 
 

The only item that can be purchased from the level 0 shop: 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Level 1 Recipe Scrolls 
 
 

The following items can be purchased at the level 1 shop: 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Level 2 Recipe Scrolls 
 
 

The following items can be purchased at the level 2 shop: 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Level 3 Recipe Scrolls 
 
 

The following items can be purchased at the level 3 shop:

 

Level 4 recipe scrolls 
 

The following items can be purchased at the level 4 shop: 
 

3.2 Starting Items 

When you start the game you’ll also start with a small amount of gold that is used on starting items.  popular starting items: boots of speed(BoS), ring of regeneration(RoR), ring of health(RoH), wraith band/bracer/null talisman, ring of basilius(RoB), clarity potion, sapphire water and chickens.  what items will be best for you is for you to determine.  a rule of thumb that I like to go by is always teaming a RoR or RoH with a melee character. When buying a RoH from start this is the only item you will be able to afford (without missing the 1st creep wave), which can only be done in -ar game mode. The RoH is 500 gold more expensive than its little brother RoR but provides twice the hp regen and can be turned into the battlefury later on (a good item for melee hero’s). Even in -ar games sometimes you don’t start with enough gold and you have to miss out on at least the 1st wave of creeps to get it.  That or after the 1st wave run to the acolyte and buy it.  Either way this will end up being an inconvenience. Great starting items for intelligence heroes are BoS due to their lack of speed.  Speed is a huge issue with some hero’s take lion for example.  After having BoT his speed is 370.  370 is the starting speed for [hero name].  Another good idea to go with is starting off with a single or couple GoS/circlit’s [check spelling] which can be turned into bracers/null talisman’s/wraith band’s. Most people go with multiple items to start off with, finding a good combination is something you’ll understand better as time goes on. When starting out in dota click on other hero’s to see what they have started with and use that along with your personal experience to put a better plan into motion when you start the next game.  You’ll find your starting items vary depending on what hero’s you get.  Something you’d start off with for a strength hero you’re most likely not going to start off with for an intelligence hero.

3.3 Item Basics

 

Like I’ve said before, the most important thing in this game is gold because gold buys you items. Items will make or break your hero and your team.  It’s important to understand all the items in the game and what they do.  The problem is when you first start out its overwhelming.  Just like the hero’s, there are a ton of items, 92 to be exact, and so learning what each one does will take time.  Learn where you can buy each item.  Not all items can be bought in your base.  Some items you must go to the “secret” shop (the acolyte) to buy.  Understand how recipes work.  This was something I just didn’t understand at first and I had to go to the forums to understand what the heck was going on.  In dota versions prior to the 6. Era you never had to do this so of course I struggled with it at first.  It’s actually quite simple though.  Take the sange & yasha for example.  There are 2 items and a recipe scroll that are used to combine into the final item, sange and yasha. But getting the 2 items is more complex than just buying 2 items.  Each of the 2 items requires you to buy 3 items.  So 6 items in total are needed in order to get the 2 items, and those 2 items need 1 more item to be morphed into 1 item.  Sounds confusing/weird but its not trust me.  Take a look at this flow chart to help you better understand what I am talking about. [Flowchart] 
 

A rule of thumb that you 99% of the time want to go by is this:  buy the recipe last.  Having the recipe in your inventory will serve you no good, and trust me... I speak from personal experience; you WILL be called a noob if you carry around a recipe scroll in your inventory.  :)  The recipe is just what you need to morph 2 items into one.  Some items don’t even require a recipe like the soul booster.  You buy 3 items (point booster, mana stone & vitality booster) and the item automatically morphs into the soul booster.  Over time you’ll just get a nack for what you need in order to complete recipes.  I started out by having a laptop next to me with a web page pulled up that had all the items, so while I was on my desktop playing I could use it as a quick reference.  If you don’t have a laptop or another computer next to you think of printing out a web page that has all the

Items on it so you can quick reference it while in game. (See section 3.5 for flowcharts) just be sure not to take your eyes off the screen for too long or you’ll end up dead :) the more and more you play the less and less you’ll need that reference. 
 

You’ll notice, if you’ve ever looked at hero guides, most of them have item builds for that hero.  When I was a new player I found those to be somewhat helpful, but what I learned as time went on is that item builds that you would do on a hero can vary from game to game.  What I mean by that is this.  Say I’m clintz.  If I can farm 3400 gold without dieing I’ll buy an eaglehorn before I even buy boots.  (My clintz start never has BoS).  Now that I have that eaglehorn if I can get enough money to complete a butterfly I’ll but that before getting BoS as well.  The game flow all depends.  Lets say that from starting the game till the point when I died I had 2600, then I’d be down to like 2300 when I repined and I would then buy a whole bunch of stuff in town and get the eaglehorn later.  Item builds all depend on game flow (and hero’s you are up against as explained in section 3.4).  So what I suggest is using those guides (assuming you’ve looked at one or a couple) as references and learn to do these item builds on your own.  With that I will now educate you with ‘intro to items’ and you can use this as your foundation that you can build off of. When item building I follow these guidelines:  

1) If I can elude death I’ll wait until my gold piles up until I go shopping. I try to limit my buying so that I can stay in a lane as often as possible and get the most experience before I go shop.  I guess you can say I prefer buying in bulk.  It maximizes my experience and gold gain.  Important factors. If I die once I’ll shop upon spawn.  If I can’t stay alive I’ll shop frequently to prevent more loss of gold. 

2) If you have a hero that has an orb effect (whether with an item you have or an ability that your hero has) avoid buying another orb effect all together. For example if you are anti-mage you would not want to by yasha because it has a maim orb effect.  It conflicts with your mana break.  You want to keep your mana break because it’s a great orb effect. What actually happens when you buy multiple orbs is that sometimes one orb will work and sometimes another orb will work. For that we refer to [name & chart]’s chart of orb effects. Orb effects never stack which means both orbs will not work at the same time.

What this boils down to is the cost & worth that you get from this path.  Is it really worth thousands of gold to buy another orb effect when you will only get to use 1 orb at a time?  The answer is no it is not, and for that reason you will rarely see a hero with 2 orb effects.  And when you do you will probably find that the player is new to dota and does not understand orb effects.  What it all boils down to:  just don’t get more than 1 orb. 

3) A fun strategy to go with when it comes to items is to follow suit to your abilities.  For example.  Phantom lancer & naga produces images of themselves so why not add to the effect and buy a manta of style.  Now you’re producing even more images thus making it more difficult on your enemy to figure out which one is really you all the while you are dealing a lot of damage to your target.  With naga think of 7 images hitting crit attacks instead of just 4.  Manta is a nice addition to any hero that produces images or to a hero that deals a great deal of damage.  Think of nevermore/drow/clintz with a manta of style. The term used to adding onto abilities with items is called stacking.  From time to time you’ll see people ask other teammates if this stacks with this.  They want to know if this item works with another or if this item works with an ability that they have.  Other popular stacking items: desolator for nevermore. Cranium basher for hero’s that already have the bash ability like faceless void and troll.  Troll with 2 bashers becomes a nightmare because he has something players refer to as perma-bash (his odds of landing a bashing hit are [calculation], basically ridiculous odds, which means: chances are, you are going to be bashed and he’ll have free reign to attack you unrestricted for another [time] seconds. the key to this process is knowing your hero’s abilities, knowing items and knowing what stacks and what doesn’t.  And just like anything else as time goes on you’ll come to learn heroes and items better and better. The following chart is a guide to items that stack and items that do not. [Chart] 

4) Some items are just not a good idea with some hero’s.  Take for instance the previous example of S&Y with anti-mage.  Or think about aghtims scepter on a strength hero.  Other items that just make no sense:  lothar for stealth assassin or bounty hunter, blink dagger for queen of pain or anti-mage. _Unless you’re really in the mood to move quickly on the map with a double blink why would you get this item for a blinker?  That money could best be spent on another item.  The thing to keep in mind here is if your hero has an ability that is also in an item, chances are you don’t want that item.  This can easily be confused with stacking so my only comment about that is if you’re a person of logic you should be ok.  If you are not just ask a teammate.

5) Be careful of the dreaded forgetfulness of your item(s) when you go into battle or you’re fleeing from a battle.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve died with 6 charges in an eul’s scepter.  When you buy an item it helps if you repeat to yourself 10 times that “you have a lothar, you have a lothar”.  There’s items meant for escape, lothar and eul’s being just that.  Remember your items when you’re in a pinch.  Every hero has a counter and if your hero doesn’t have an ability to counter a hero that is constantly slaughtering you, chances are the ticket to your escape can be found in an item.  Take for instance a lothar on a hero that does not have wind walk.  You can active it and make an escape assuming you are not around wards/hero with a gem/tree’s eyes ability.

(I personally believe the lothar isn’t the best of escape items just because its ww is so short.  If you really want a good escape item carry around an eul’s) a great deal of the time when I first started playing dota was that I found myself buying lothar first for sniper as he can easily be killed in early game play.  Below I have listed some things to keep in mind when it comes to items and countering heroes:  

• Blink dagger works great on a hero that can slow you with his attack.  Take naix and spider for example.  They can easily kill an intelligence hero because their attacks will slow you down which makes escape very difficult. 
• Lothar is a good 1st item for agility hero’s as it will add to your damage and attack speed while also providing you a means of escape
• Lothar is also a good item for a hero that has a good array of spells to then activate.  2 hero’s that come to mind are Nevermore and Ursa.  Nevermore can sneak up on an opponent or a group of enemy hero’s and cast his ulti and then proceed to blast away with his heavy damage and nuke. Ursa can stomp out of a lothar ww and then use his frenzy [check spell name] to inflict a lot of damage and cause a great deal of panic on your opponent because you just appeared out of nowhere.
• Euls scepter is great 1st item for intelligence hero as it will add to your mana pool, mana regen and your damage while also providing you with possible the best use of the item: an escape with it’s tornado charges.  Keep in mind if you turn this staff into ginsoo’s [proper name] you will have added more to your mana pool and damage but you’ve reduced your probability of escaping by going from a [figure] stun to a [figure] stun. 

6) Be careful when you buy items that morph into others.  More than once I’ve gone to the acolyte to buy a void stone in hopes of buying an eul’s scepter and forgot that I had a RoH in my inventory thus producing perseverance.  Now I have to save another 900 to get back to where I originally started.  Not good.  

Item builds are terribly important and it’s important to spend your gold on the item that’s going to maximize your hero’s performance.  Try to keep your errors to a minimum like mentioned in #2 and #6.  You’ll find item knowledge will reach a point of perfection but item builds more difficult to master due to the differences that come from game to game.  Keep in mind an item build that you use for a hero in one game might not be the best route in another game.  A recent game that I played taught me the importance of early game items.  As mentioned as a tip before: I was lion and I first went for soul booster when I should have gone blink dagger or BoT to escape naix.  I had multiple deaths because I found it difficult to escape his avatar and poison.  What it usually comes down to is knowing your foes abilities.  Knowing those will help you determine the proper items to put on your hero.

3.4 Advanced Item Techniques

 

What advanced players will do with their item builds is design a build based on the other teams hero’s.  An average player will get down a good build for a certain hero and then use that build every time they play that hero. Sometimes that will work out and sometimes it won’t work.  For example, when I am an int hero and I’m up against a naix on the other team, without fail one of my earliest items is a blink dagger.  If naix has his poison maxed at level 4 all he has to do is get 1 hit on you and you are done for.  I counter this with being able to blink and get away. (Obviously not something I need to purchase if I am queen of pain).  I find that throughout the game this ends up saving me more than once all the while I see another int hero on my team get trashed.

Only when you have gotten completely familiar with every hero’s abilities will you know before hand what items to get.       
 

Another example I will show you to give you better insight to item building:  linken’s when up against blood seeker (only if you are a hero without ww).  Late game blood seeker can become a killing machine with his ulti and all of his damage.  With linken’s sphere he won’t be able to cast that on you (assuming you’re not on cooldown).  With linken’s you’ll find that against int hero’s it really isn’t that effective of an item.  Take zues for example.  An advanced player can easily get around a linken's by casting their weakest spell on you first and then hitting you with the spells that do more damage.  Linken’s is an expensive item so be on the lookout for a hero that trashes you with 1 spell (like rupture) and go for a linken’s.

3.5 Item Flowcharts

 
 

[This will be added directly onto the items modules] 
 
 

 
 

Dota has grown in popularity to the point of people creating programs to help game play.  I highly recommend these programs, as they will greatly improve game play

And help you to achieve a better edge on your foe.  They will also just help the basic flow of the game and depending on the program they might just save you from dieing sometimes. 
 

1st program: Dotakeys

This program is great for remapping the hotkeys of every hero into easy to use keys.  I searched for such a program after getting so frustrated with naga sirens ulti

Button being ‘g’ when I so frequently hit the ‘h’ button for holding.  So many times I would sing people to sleep when all I meant to do is hold.  Very annoying. With dota keys what happens is the typical hotkeys for your hero’s abilities are null and they are mapped to ‘q’ ‘w’ ‘e’ and ‘r’.  You can assign them to any key but I find the default ability keys just fine.  ‘A’ is move ‘s’ is still stop ‘d’ becomes hold and ‘f’ is attack. Quite possibly the greatest thing that this program has done for me comes in the way of using goblin Techies.  More annoying than the naga siren ulti malfunction is accidentally setting off all your mines with the stupid ‘d’ button.  When using dotakeys when I hit ‘d’ my hero holds, he doesn’t detonate all his mines.  Now I can assign that detonate all to another key but I keep this key blank meaning there is no key for this ability.  I’ve never found a use for detonating all my mines at once so why bother having the button?  Even when I am Morphling I don’t find myself using these keys.  Syllabear is the only other hero that uses these keys [finish statement]. Another great thing with dotakeys comes in the way of items that you require action.  Like euls scepter, the blink dagger, the ginsoo, etc.  For these items you will have to click on that item (or use the number pad) and then select the hero to use that item on.  Dotakeys remaps these items to your number keys.  My #1 key is always reserved for my hero, and #’s 2-5 are used for my inventory.  I have found it difficult to reach over to the number pad in the heat of battle to use an item and clicking on an item with my mouse is cumbersome as well.  With this I can easily use items because my fingers are already right next to the number keys.

Dotakeys can be downloaded here: [link] 

2nd program: Ventrilo

Known as vent for short, vent is a communication program that will allow you to communicate with your team much more efficiently vs. typing out message in game.  When I first started playing dota I used to type out several messages throughout one game.  Considering that I am a fast typist I didn’t think it was taking away much from game play until the day I died.  Typing, no matter how fast you are, will never compare to voice communication.  All it takes is for you to start typing right when a team is about to gank you and you’re all done for.  Its happened to me several times or I’ve ended up missing out on a hero kill because I’ve been mid sentence scrambling to hit the enter button and just finish my statement so I can get on with game play… not the best way to approach the game.  The only challenge you will find when it comes to vent is finding a server to connect to.  I find myself lucky that one of our clan members has his own vent server, which he just runs off his computer that he uses to play dota with (another option).

The vent program can be downloaded here: [link] 

5.1 Pubs & Clans

 

When you first start playing dota you’ll find yourself on one of 4 different servers provided by battlnet/blizzard (US West, US East, Europe, Asia).  The custom game is where you’ll find the dota games whether you’re joining a game or hosting one.  These games are known as public games, or pubs for short.  You’ll quickly learn just how lame these games are. 
 

Of all the dota games that I have played (talking somewhere in the hundreds) I have played maybe 3 or 4 games that had not one person leaving at some course during the game.  A person who leaves during any part of the game, other than the very end, is known as a leaver.  Chances are very high that you will come across not just one leaver but also several during the course of a game, which is what makes pubs crummy to play on.  Once you’ve advanced past the beginner stage you’ll also find it annoying to have people who don’t have a clue. But when your own skills have improved to a certain level I would highly recommend trying to play with people in a clan in hopes of being invited into one.  You will then graduate into clan games, which typically are a lot more enjoyable due to less leavers. A popular clan that is on the US east server is called TDA.  There are several requirements you must meet to even be given a tryout but once into the clan you can join TDA games, which have far less leavers than regular pubs.  For more information on TDA visit their forums at: dota-allstars.com
 

There is a huge amount of clans out there (for a partial list visit: www.caleague.com) and still a ton more beyond the list that cal provides.  (The cal clan list are for clans that are competing in a bracket tournament.  Chances are these clans are good and are well beyond the level of play of the typical pub game.) But even still there are a ton of clans beyond the caleague.  Your goal after graduating from pubs should be to hook up with a clan that is large in size to get in on in-house games (IH for short).  IH games are far more enjoyable than pub games just because typically it’s rare to see leavers on an IH game.  Your only frustration with IH games should be the skill level.  Typically IH games have more advanced players than a pub. 
 

Another route to take when hooking up with a clan is visiting forms where clans have their own section.  Typically they will have a thread that tells you how to try out for the clan or contact information.  I found this route more cumbersome than just meeting people online, but it is a valid route nonetheless. The faster you can graduate from pub games to clan games the better, trust me. 
 
 
 

5.2 Caleague

 

The caleague is an organized group that puts on tournaments for all the big name games in computing.  From first person shooters like counter-strike to real time strategies like warcraft. Caleague added dota to their ranks in 2006 and season one was won by team apex. As I write this guide season two is underway, who wins and the bracket breakdown can be viewed at: www.caleague.com/dotaopen 

 

The clan that I am currently in chaotic/kotx participated in caleague season #2 and I learned a great deal form it even though we dropped out after week 2.  You’ll find that after getting used to IH games and a new level of play, caleague is just like going from a pub to IH clan games… the next step up. We have some decent players in kotx that could trash 8 out 10 pub games but when it comes to caleague we failed miserably as a team.  When you jump from one level to the next it takes you a while to adjust to the new experience level and for you to catch up to that level.  What I found is that in cal if you as a player cannot get a very good farming to deny ratio in level 1-6 chances are good that you are going to get tossed all around.   
 

When kotx would play pub games we would win far more times than lose but when it came to cal our biggest downfall was the technique of denying.  I solo’d a lane as slayer and was up against sand king and tormented soul.  This team we played against was so good at denying creeps that both SK and ts were 2 levels above me and I was soloing a lane!  That’s just a hint at how tough cal clans are, and I would imagine not every clan is that seasoned, but we dropped out after week 2 because chances are, the majority of those clans are. 
 

Cal takes clan games to a whole new level.  I would imagine IH games could be similar to cal games but unfortunately I never got a chance to experience that.  DOTA has always been a team game and although there are individual aspects to the game if you cannot truly function as a team, you won’t make it very far in cal. 
 

Before trying to be successful in the caleague I would highly suggest you as a clan can get down the following strategies before joining:  excellent ratios in creeps killed & creeps denied.  A solid strategy when it comes to hero selection for all 5 team members.  A solid strategy when it comes to item building, not just for your hero but also for the team as a whole (think mek and items of the like).  A solid strategy when it comes to ganking as well as preventing team deaths.  And finally a strategy when it comes to taking down the world tree/throne. 

 

Clans that fail in cal are clans that are used to playing as an individual versus a team.  More clearly defined if you find yourself always calling the solo lane to level faster than your teammates or mid game going off on a solo lane for the same reason, your playing as an individual.  There’s more items in DOTA that serve the individual hero rather than the team… can you avoid getting individual items and help your teammates instead? 

Clans that succeed in cal matches are clans that truly work together as a team.  Plain and simple. 

5.3 – 1v1 2v2 3v3

 

I’ve found these types of games to be enjoyable for the most part, especially the 1v1.  The only thing that stinks about these games are leavers.  When you play 3v3 and you get a leaver on your team it’s not too hard to imagine how one lane is just about guaranteed to get trashed.  2v2 is about the same… when your left alone to yourself and you are up against 2 players it becomes difficult unless you got the right hero going against hero’s that aren’t going to be able to stand up to you. The best 2v2 or 3v3 games come when you do an IH game and you know no one is going to leave.     
 

When it comes to 1v1 games the strategy of DOTA drastically changes.  I became a well-rounded DOTA player before ever playing a 1v1 game and so when I made my 1st 1v1 game I thought I would have a good chance of getting an opponent that was either at my level or below it.  Quickly I became 0-3 when it comes to 1v1 games because I failed to realize the following:  if you don’t go into one of the following modes: -ai –aa –as expect an unfair advantage in your favor or stacked against you.   
 

As I have mentioned in previous parts of this guide certain hero’s are better suited for early game vs. late game.  If you’re an intelligence hero up against a strength hero, you will find it more difficult to win a 1v1 game unless you harass the pants off that strength hero the whole game.  What class of hero you are and are up against comes into great play in 1v1 games.  My suggestion is that you use one of those following modes to get the game on a more even plain. 
 

Another big thing that comes into play in 1v1 games are “rules”.  Sometimes people demand you only go middle lane.  Others make no rules and say do what you want.  Use the following guidelines when it comes to these rules: 

If there are no set rules use the lane jumping to your advantage.  If you’re a late game hero up against an early game hero jump lanes as often as you have to avoid the harassment.  On the other side of the coin if you are an early game hero up against a late game hero you want to be in the same lane as often as possible.  Harass the heck out of them because the longer the game goes on the greater chance of you chalking one up in the loss column.  If you used (-aa –ai –as) mode and you’re forced into the same lane the way you get ahead of the other guy is by having better skills when it comes to creep kills and creep denies.    
 

-Articol trimis de catre Razvan