DOTA 2

[Forbin]

Patters helped me out a lot.  But Jon, you should play the tutorial stuff on your own first.  It's really effective at getting you through the basics, and it'll get you to play a few bot matches before you play against real people.

[Reyturner]

Definitely start with the tutorial missions and do a couple of the limited pool matches vs. players. There is a tendency for experienced people to queue in Limited Pool so they can stomp asses, so after a couple of matches, maybe move over to Single Draft or All Pick. 

[Cleinhun]

Happy Dishonored Diretide everyone!

I was about to make literally that exact post. I am cool and original.

 

I still kind of don't understand earth spirit. Like, I read his abilities, and I get what they do individually, but what are you actually supposed to do with them?

[Patters]

Patters helped me out a lot.  But Jon, you should play the tutorial stuff on your own first.  It's really effective at getting you through the basics, and it'll get you to play a few bot matches before you play against real people.

 

 

Indeed, play the tutorial map then give me a shout and I'll happily coach a few games, I'm curious how it works too. 

[JonCole]

Will do, I'll try out the tutorials this weekend if I get a chance.

[Tundra]

Jon me and two friends just introduced a friend last night.

You're more than welcome to join, we are friendly Brits who don't rage and enjoy a laugh.

We use Mumble (it's free) to talk to each other as it's better than in game mic.

Feel free to add me on steam: Tundra_Boosh

I'll be on around 21:00 GMT. We might not be "experienced" but we have around 300 hours each and know enough.

If anyone else wants to join, feel free to add me, the more the merrier.

[Forbin]

So in today's Dreamhack finals, Na'Vi is absolutely stomping in the last game and on the Starcraft stage Darude starts up a live performance of sandstorm.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/dreamleague/b/483930827?t=619m45s

 

It was surreal.  I tuned in litterally just when this started happening, and the chat just went crazy.  I thought Darude was a player, or some hero I hadn't heard of before.

[Twig]

...Since when does Pyrion Flax join professional commentators?

[Forbin]

Well he did make the definitive guide to Dota 2.

[TheLastBaron]

Hmm, ranked matchmaking is coming.

[Forbin]

It sounds like they're completely decoupling the normal MMR and K-factor for this new system. After 150 games, I'm sure they have a lot of confidence in your skill level, but maybe they don't want people gaming their current rating. Or it's an exercise in true transparency. I personally believe that it's perfectly fine for a matchmaking system to obscure some values from players in order to get the most accurate measure of skill possible without player interference, but I think by restricting this system only to the truly dedicated it'll be interesting.

[Dewar]

New patch. I'm now locked out of all of the match making queues except limited heroes and all pick. Not much of an incentive to play more games.

[Forbin]

New patch. I'm now locked out of all of the match making queues except limited heroes and all pick. Not much of an incentive to play more games.

 

What level are you?

[Hermie]

Same thing happened to me. I'm level 3 right now, but I haven't played a game since the patch, so I have 200% of my current level. So far I've only been playing Wraith Night, which is a lot of fun.

[Forbin]

Gah same here. I hope I can still queue for captains draft with groups. I'm level 6 and everything is locked till 13

[Forbin]

Saw this posted on GiantBomb dota forums

[Dewar]

What level are you?

 

3, but with all my stream watching I was maintaining 65% win rate mostly playing random draft and Single Draft

[Sno]

I just started playing Dota2.

Feels weird, after resisting it for so long.

I'm also terrible, and people enjoy making me feel bad about that.

[Forbin]

I just started playing Dota2.

Feels weird, after resisting it for so long.

I'm also terrible, and people enjoy making me feel bad about that.

 

If you play through the tutorial, you should have enough practice to not feel out of place.  Don't over push or you'll get killed which will lose you a lot of gold, and give them a lot of XP and gold.  Also don't play mid, that's the lane for the carry and people will get mad if you deny them that opportunity then play ridiculously.  Other than that, I haven't found too many people crazy.  I just started off saying I was new and they gave me help.

[Twig]

mid, that's the lane for the carry

(this is not true, mid is the lane for the carry SOMETIMES but not often - usually it is the lane for the mid ganker)

[Forbin]

It's true enough for your first hundred games

[Twig]

(i don't agree)

[Forbin]

I'm certainly not an expert yet, but it in the 70 games I've played so far the mid lane has always been the carry. Maybe the meta game gets a bit different at higher levels of play. But the advice was, to make people happy while you're learning let them take the middle. The tutorial specifically guides you on running the mid lane, so people coming out of it think it's the best place for them. It's something you see a lot of early on.

[Twig]

But the advice was, to make people happy while you're learning let them take the middle.

That's definitely true. I don't want anyone new going mid. I've long been of the opinion that losing mid is worse than losing any other lane. (Unless they're just straight up feeding nonstop, but, well, extreme cases.) But even when I was new, I knew that mid wasn't necessarily the carry. Mid's main responsibilities are 1) beating the other mid and 2) ganking - and those often go hand in hand. With some exceptions, like Outworld Devourer, who is a farming mid. Among others. It's true that a dominating mid will often end up carrying regardless of their actual role, but that's just a result of dominating.

[Reyturner]

the mid is typically there for the fast xp more than the money; hit 6 quick and go kill the other team's carry.

carry mid is only viable in lowbie games because people don't have the wherewithal to realize that a carry in the early and even mid game is typically very squishy, and has minimal ability to escape making him vulnerable to ganks (or even to his lane opponent).

edit: yeah, what Twig said.