Brannigan

DOTA 2

Recommended Posts

Maybe do the A-Z challenge of the heroes in the Limited Heroes pool?

 

My dota diet is like 99% watching it 1% playing it, and half the reason for that is that I have crippling ladder anxiety and every time I boot up i just go into a private lobby and do last hitting practice or something instead of hitting Play Now (the other half is kids). I want to get myself to triple digit games played and I'm thinking about doing that to get myself comfortable.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll hold off on the all hero challenge thanks to this advice. There are some heroes I'm completely avoiding, meepo I'm looking at you and you and you, so I would probably be best not to put them on others.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's always the all random match type in the beta client if you're wanting to get out of your comfort zone. At least then everyone's in the same boat.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked Chris Thursten's article about DOTA this week where he is talking about how esoteric the draft phase is, and yet why it is so exciting for fans of the game.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/in-praise-of-the-secret-language-of-dota-2s-drafting-phase/

 

I think this is the essential counter-point to Nick's argument in a recent Idle Thumbs cast where he argued that e-sports are being held back by how comprehensible they are to someone not familiar with the game (I also think he was probably underestimating how much esoteric knowledge is embedded into traditional sports that most of us take for granted just because of their ubiquity). Sure, it is definitely baffling to the outsider, but curiosity is a powerful force, and the satisfaction from understanding a lot of these things is pretty powerful too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The dynamic of playing Dota is like basketball, but the dynamic of watching it is like baseball. The stats, the sublevel strategy, the esoterica: baseball is painfully dull to watch if you can't / won't engage with it at that depth and if all you're seeing are the physical movements of the bodies on the screen.

It was baffling, almost off-puttingly so, but I wanted to understand it.

This is the impulse that got me interested in Dota in the first place and I can't say for certain why Dota inspired this other than it being so brazenly obtuse. I can't imagine it's a universal response, or qualitatively better than the opposite, but I think its presence in someone is necessary for that person to get into Dota. And it richly rewards you if you come at it at that angle.

It's frustrating when people talk about the accessiability "problems" of LoMas (at least the ones that aren't cultural).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah my introduction to DOTA was the same. Watching the International, not really understanding what was going on even if I understood the object of the game, and developing a desire to learn about it.

 

Accessibility is great, but it isn't appropriate to have that be the most important feature of every game. A plurality of complexity in games is great. Association football is a much more accessible game to get into than American football. That doesn't make one game superior to the other, it provides different kinds of games to different audiences. That's awesome.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I bounced off Dota hard, and continue to have no interest in the game itself. The game is so big that it's very hard to find an initial thread into grab onto to start to unravel this big knot, and when there's a community of dudes who would love to yell at me about being a girl it provides no incentive to even try.

 

I am interested in team dynamics, and how teams/players do in tournaments, and overarching narratives of seasons, in much the same way a casual football fan often times doesn't want to learn positions and plays and things like that, but can still enjoy having it on the background and following stories on the front page of espn.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Weirdly, my desire to understand Dota faaaar outstrips my desire to play it (or, at least, doesn't trigger the anxiety entering the solo queue does). Even though I very rarely actually play, I'm constantly reading about it and thinking about it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Weirdly, my desire to understand Dota faaaar outstrips my desire to play it (or, at least, doesn't trigger the anxiety entering the solo queue does). Even though I very rarely actually play, I'm constantly reading about it and thinking about it.

I don't think this is weird at all, at least it goes for most people I know.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I mean that's exactly how most people view American Football right?

 

I think that this is particularly true for pretty much everyone who didn't play football in jr high,high school or college.

I'm a casual American Footbal fan in that I know the basic rules, and I know what many of the penalties are, but couldn't tell you individual player's positions and what those positions do outside of a very small subset of the most obvious. I'm a "diehard" fan in that I have followed the same team since I was 12 years old when I learned the rules of the game and watch every game I can.

 

Also, I'm ride or die for Aui_2000, but that's a much more recent addition to my life.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's used to be a lot of people who just watched SC2, because playing was a gigantic chore and you didn't need to know what timing a 4gate had, you just knew the casters were saying it's an all-in/rush. I wouldn't have believed dota2 would be similar a few years ago but turns out you can watch it fine without knowing the finer things as long as casters tell you something's a pushing draft. It also helps the players are a lot more charismatic on camera in comparison, good thing it's a team game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Watching Blitz stream on MLG at the moment. He's in a stack with Cap, Aui, and Charlie. It's pretty hilarious. They're all randoming. First game Blitz randomed Storm Spirit. This game Aui is complaining about Techies. The memes are good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Charlie didn't have a mic today because he was at work, so I bounced out, but yesterday when he was able to talk it was A+. He blew off Conrad (Cloud9's manager) for like an hour past when Charlie promised to hang out with him, so Conrad kept tweeting about how his feelings were hurt at the time..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Charlie didn't have a mic today because he was at work, so I bounced out, but yesterday when he was able to talk it was A+. He blew off Conrad (Cloud9's manager) for like an hour past when Charlie promised to hang out with him, so Conrad kept tweeting about how his feelings were hurt at the time..

That's not A+, it's just sad. :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think that this is particularly true for pretty much everyone who didn't play football in jr high,high school or college.

I'm a casual American Footbal fan in that I know the basic rules, and I know what many of the penalties are, but couldn't tell you individual player's positions and what those positions do outside of a very small subset of the most obvious. I'm a "diehard" fan in that I have followed the same team since I was 12 years old when I learned the rules of the game and watch every game I can.

 

Also, I'm ride or die for Aui_2000, but that's a much more recent addition to my life.

The only reason I know those things is I played a lot of season mode in Madden and NCAA Football.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played literally my first ever DOTA match last night, first as Lion and then as Sniper.  It was chaos.  I had no idea what anything was, how to do anything, or what the point of anything was.  I bought everything I could from the courier and then didn't pick up my gear.  I had a 0-25 K/D ratio.  My friends were using words that I'd heard in English before, but didn't know what they meant in this context.  I destroyed a tower and thought I was an unstoppable Jesus.  Died two seconds later.  

 

10/10 would make my friends hate me again

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played literally my first ever DOTA match last night, first as Lion and then as Sniper.  It was chaos.  I had no idea what anything was, how to do anything, or what the point of anything was.  I bought everything I could from the courier and then didn't pick up my gear.  I had a 0-25 K/D ratio.  My friends were using words that I'd heard in English before, but didn't know what they meant in this context.  I destroyed a tower and thought I was an unstoppable Jesus.  Died two seconds later.  

 

10/10 would make my friends hate me again

 

I had a run last year where I played about ten games, and I never got any good but I DID get better at not dying. I'm sorely tempted to get back into Dota if I can find the time. I've been playing plenty of HoTS, and I like it, but Dota is really good. I would just need to get back into my pub player vibe of "I'm not going to communicate a bunch but I'll try and be a good team player and mostly I'll do my utmost not to feed the whole time."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So last night I played my first game in a year, and it was interesting. One guy was very friendly. He had tried to start a chat in the lobby and I had joked with him that my only real goal was not to feed. He was chilled out. No one else says anything.

 

We start the game, and things get rolling. Turns out the friendly guy is using voice chat (I don't use it). Thanks me for grabbing the courier, seems like a nice, polite dude. After a few minutes it becomes apparent the person playing Sven is either insane or doesn't know how to play Dota. Like, at all. He is just running deep into enemy territory and getting destroyed. He comes on voice chat and it's apparent he's about twelve. He also owns up to it being his first game. I should probably point out at this point it's the Limited Player pool, which I understood as being newbie-friendly. Meanwhile, the remaining two players are giving him horrendous shit that doesn't ease up after it's obvious he's a kid and after he shares that it's his first game. Go play the tutorial, we'd be better off with a bot, just quit, that kind of thing. 

 

After a while the Bounty Hunter (who is the best player on the team but deeply unpleasant) starts giving me grief for having terrible gear. I have no idea what to buy and know so little about items I'm scared of taking something that should go to someone else. I have Mekanism and Aghanim's Scepter. I'm also at this point wondering why I liked Warlock so much last year... I'm not sure I'm helping, I just gank a dude with a golem every now and again and otherwise try not to feed. We manage a couple of pushes here and there, despite Bounty Hunter rather hilariously saying things like "WE NEED TO PUSH" and then not answering queries as to where we should push and going off on his own instead. Meanwhile the fifth player, who is not quite a big a jerk as Bounty Hunter but basically feels the need to pile on is passively aggressively wandering the jungle and not helping.

 

We win the game.

 

It was the most Dota Dota that I've Dota'd, I think. I like the game a lot but this experience just makes me want to go back to HoTS. I'd have finished two, maybe three HoTS games in the time the Dota game took (it went almost an hour) and people there are actually reasonably nice. Who knows. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm lucky enough to still only had a couple of those experiences in my hundred or so games.

 

Are you using the recommended builds list? They're not perfect by any means, but it can give you a general idea what you should be purchasing.

 

Edit: Also, I played HotS last week. It's a pretty good game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are a bunch of community curated guides with titles like "6.84 Axe Lane" by a guy who's name is basically Tortellini that are recognized as being good. That's what I use.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm lucky enough to still only had a couple of those experiences in my hundred or so games.

 

Are you using the recommended builds list? They're not perfect by any means, but it can give you a general idea what you should be purchasing.

 

Edit: Also, I played HotS last week. It's a pretty good game.

 

That's really good to hear. Actually, when I had my little burst of ten games last year I was really very surprised at how little crap I got. The only time I've received the sustained awfulness people talk about in Lords Managements was during a short stint with Heroes of Newerth quite a few years ago.

 

I do use the recommended list, but I get nervous about taking something someone else might actually be able to use. Stuff that has charges and needs to be paid attention to seems like a lot to keep track of, but I am cool with Mekanism and stuff like that with a useful active. I also like playing as a healer in these games. 

 

HoTS is actually taking up a bunch of time now. The daily quests that push you to play different roles work really well.

 

 

There are a bunch of community curated guides with titles like "6.84 Axe Lane" by a guy who's name is basically Tortellini that are recognized as being good. That's what I use.

 

Cheers, I'll have a look, thanks!

 

You guys are making me want to play more DOTA.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The forum changed my use of Lords Management to Lords Management, hence the "Lords Managements" above. I didn't realize that was happening. Awesome.

 

EDIT: Obviously I can't make my point because it won't let me write out the incorrect four letter acronym that begins with m.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now