The Idle Thumbs Lords Management Consortium - Dota 2, LoL, other Lords Managers unite

[Squid Division]

If I were to try to start playing DOTA II, where would I start? My knowledge of the genre so far is opening and then immediately closing the client.

[Brannigan]

Pretty good place to start really, I think there were some guides linked the in the regular dota 2 thread. Other than that, attach yourself to someone experienced like a leech and drain their delicious knowledge nutrients.

[dibs]

make brannigan sigh.

or

reddit have a side bar of guides for newcomers. there is a lot of them thouhg, so play a few bot games to get the controls, then don't die.

This one seems ok: http://www.welcometodota2.com/2012/01/purges-inclusive-guide-for-noobs-aka.html

[Twig]

New meta, everybody roam!

Friend DC'd during character select, came back to alchemist. Decided to roam. Other friend decided to follow suit as Dragon Knight. I was mid Viper. Got enemy Pudge immediately, no problem. Eventually I die and Alch takes over mid. We swapped every time somebody died.

Ultimate strategy. Super destroy! Enemy team loses.

[Brannigan]

I only get annoyed with bad randoms!

[Brannigan]

captain's mode + non-english speaking captain who is bad = amazing

[Gwardinen]

captain's mode + non-english speaking captain who is bad = amazing

Yeah that game was a trial, I tell you. Four of us in a party and it picks the fifth guy to be captain. He is Russian, none of us speaks Russian, he picks and bans almost at random. That's just a kind of funny accident in itself, but he then proceeded to feed horribly before disconnecting. Sad times!

[Brannigan]

My favorite part is all you guys thought we were radiance instead of dire, and didn't realize just how bad it was until picks were done. It's ok though, we rocked the crap out of the next match

[dibs]

Ah man, i came online when you were in the middle of the game. if only i hadn't spent so much time playing my ipad in bed after work...not that i do that a lot.

[Brannigan]

Well, you gotta have some romantic time with the ipad, or else it gets all mopey

[Sully907]

had a weird game last night trying batrider again. Did terrible during laning, got myself ganked twice, but then when I was able to get a vanguard and a forcestaff I was able to help a lot during the teamfight faze, and I went from 0-3-0 to finish at like 5-6-18

[Sean]

If I were to try to start playing DOTA II, where would I start? My knowledge of the genre so far is opening and then immediately closing the client.

I can tell you what I've been doing.

1) Just play a game and get rolled. I dunno, not even knowing how anything works is ok. It will be hilarious and you will get yelled at but you'll see what's happening.

2) Watch some Dota Cinema videos on youtube -- they're brief 3-5 minute intros to the characters and their abilities. Pick a coule lords you think are interesting and learn about them. Avoid anything that seems really advanced.

3) Watch a full match from someone like Purge or "Alan Plays DOTA" on Youtube. Purge is sort of a douchey "pro" gamer whereas this Alan guy I discovered is a hilarious eastern european man who is a lot of fun to watch while he commentates. Know you know what a real game should look like.

4) Play your main lord a lot. Figure out what makes him good and know what you're doing wrong when you're not playing well.

5) Check out DotaFire for user-submitted item and skill builds with (often times) great descriptions.

Good luck!

[Sully907]

for some reason the phrase, "play your main lord" made me giggle.

I can't believe i'm actually considering buying a costume for faceless void. I never buy microtransactions for anything, this is a weird moment for me. Maybe it's easier to justify it to myself since the main game is free?

[Twig]

for some reason the phrase, "play your main lord" made me giggle.

I can't believe i'm actually considering buying a costume for faceless void. I never buy microtransactions for anything, this is a weird moment for me. Maybe it's easier to justify it to myself since the main game is free?

For me, it is just a matter of how much I enjoy a game. When TF2's store went up, I had no qualms about spending a few bucks here and there because I have played it for a thousand hours over the years.

I've already almost reached that point with Dota 2. What!

[Sean]

For me, it is just a matter of how much I enjoy a game. When TF2's store went up, I had no qualms about spending a few bucks here and there because I have played it for a thousand hours over the years.

I've already almost reached that point with Dota 2. What!

Yeah, I agree -- this game is free, I don't mind throwing a few dollars at stupid creative content if I'm continually compelled to entertain myself with Dota.

But holy christ I just played with the absolute worst trollish, racist, despicable team ever. Killed our courier 5 times for fun. Filled chat with the worst shit. Ugh, it actually depressed me and I'm currently spending mental energy pepping myself to do a bunch of writing I have to get done today. Reported them all but I'm curious to see if Valve brings any of that reporting/commendation stuff to the surface to provide real incentive/dis-incentive for being a certain type of teammate.

[Twig]

I know that a while ago I got a message pop up that said action had been taken against someone I reported. Only happened once, though.

[Brannigan]

phantom lancer, pretty fun. Too bad the rest of the team didn't fair so well

[bakka bakka bakka]

3) Watch a full match from someone like Purge or "Alan Plays DOTA" on Youtube. Purge is sort of a douchey "pro" gamer whereas this Alan guy I discovered is a hilarious eastern european man who is a lot of fun to watch while he commentates.

I discovered Alan a few days ago and am very glad to have no reason to watch a purge video again. Your descriptions are spot on.

I've been playing a lot of different heroes lately and forget just how much I enjoy playing as Death Prophet. By the end of the game all 5 enemy heroes were banging on me and I managed to kill 3 before I walked away.

[bakka bakka bakka]

Rubick was added to the test client. This is by far the best possible dota news. I played around with him a bit and he's just as trollish and awesome as i remember. Zeus casts his ult, I take it and give it out again.

[Gwardinen]

I saw the preview for him on DotaCinema. He looks like a very interesting character, but also one that I am not nearly good enough at the game to play.

[dibs]

He looks sweet indeed. I hope they add a lot of those custom animations like the batrider one (stolen flamebreak below), that would really make him shine. I'm really looking forward to whisp. Can't beat a good support:D

[njoos]

If I were to try to start playing DOTA II, where would I start? My knowledge of the genre so far is opening and then immediately closing the client.

Learn the basics of the game before jumping into a few solo practice games.

4) Play your main lord a lot. Figure out what makes him good and know what you're doing wrong when you're not playing well.

Yes, no, maybe. Knowing what you are doing wrong is relevant the 9 other Lords, which is the main problem I have with this advice. Dota isn't really about being good at one Lord. It is about being good at all Lords and items, and using your knowledge to make good decisions. It is hard to learn the strength and weaknesses of a Lord without playing him/her yourself a few times. Dota2 also has replays, which is really nice for players who want to learn the game. Dota looks very simple, but is in fact one of the most complicated games there is (and a lot of the mechanics don't make any sense at all).

[dibs]

Ya, its very important to know who can rip your face off, and who is just waiting till level 6 to do it.

Pro Tip: if any of your opponents is glowing, run towards them for hugs!

[Twig]

This happened a while ago, but I only just now got around to recording it.

[TheLastBaron]

but I'm curious to see if Valve brings any of that reporting/commendation stuff to the surface to provide real incentive/dis-incentive for being a certain type of teammate.

Well when you get reported you go into the low priority queue for matchmaking, and the opposite is also true, only with high prioirty match making. Last time I logged it I got a message saying that action had been taken against one or more of the people I had reported so I guess they're taking effort to make it more apparent.

I agree with the videos thing for learning the game as a new player, but I actually like Purge unlike everyone else. In some of his videos he comes off as a huge dick and at first it was off putting to me, btu the thing to keep in mind is that in a lot of his videos (and every single one when he's been a douche that I've seen) he is playing with real life friends, like ones he's known since he was a kid, so he's pretty hard on them. He's addressed it and acknowledged that he's mean to them, but that he knows they don't take it personally and if you watch any of the games he plays with fans or his stream he's completely different. He's actually a really nice guy. Even if you don't watch his hero games, his gameplay guides on things like how to spend starting gold, how to outlane your opponents, how to solo the hardlane, ect. are incredibly helpful especially if you are just starting out.