FoH Warcraft 3: DOTA Community.

[Jabberwhacky]

In addition, know that a lot of the game will be spent being afraid of creeps. Most heroes don't become badass for a long time, and 90% of the time it won't hurt to play defensively. Stay behind creeps, hug towers, always stay with a team mate.

If you find always picking one guy boring, you can also try -DM games. DM stands for death match and you get a new hero every time you die. That's how I started, but that was years ago and I almost never see any DM now. It's good for a crash course in heroes, though.

I'd also recommend watching replays or better yet watching someone play IRL. I tried to play with a friend who has been into regular WC3 since it was released, and there was just WAAAAY too much to try and explain to make it any fun for him. Course, I was typing, but still, I was kinda sucking because I had to watch him and try to get in comments like STOP or WAIT or OH GOD. If he was just sitting next to me it'd be a hell of a lot easier.

[Ronne]

Originally Posted by MrGraham

Simple solutions are the best, add -windowed to the end of the path in the shortcut, outside of the quotes.

Important to note that moving the mouse off the window will free the pointer from WC3.

[The Dauntless One]

I would suggest newer players to start off by playing standard casters. I recommend Crystal Maiden, Lich, Slayer, Lion, Zeus, Leshrac, Twin Headed Dragon and Warlock. Just remember to get enough HP for these heroes (TWD aside)
I don't recommend Rhasta because apparently he's too hard for 90% of the dota community to play properly (and surviving for more than 10 seconds).

If you don't want to play casters, you can play some ranged heroes. I recommend Clinkz, Viper, Vengeful Spirit, Luna, Lightning Revenant or Medusa. Other than Clinkz, these heroes have a nuke that can be used to harrass. They are also strong shooters for late game.

They are usually powerful enough early-mid game that you won't have much problem surviving unless you're super aggresive. Just remember to get sufficient HP so you don't get instagibbed. These are just some heroes new players should start off with to get familiar with the game. You don't have to play through all of them

Also get some regen items like tango or clarity potion. They help a lot.

[wild_whiskey]

I think an excellent character to start with is Venomancer. He's pretty easy to understand/play and he becomes a force with almost any item build.

Don't fuck around with Tiny, Morphling, Earthshaker, Lanaya, Tinker or Beastmaster until you're familiar with the game mechanics.

[Thhin]

Meh you're suggesting low hp heros who will die painfully fast. Starter hero? Can't beat Skeleton King.

[Ninajrr]

Simple is best. Go with a hero with either a lot of health, or a lot of escape mechanisms. As many passives as possible is good as well. The basic idea is to introduce the new player to the defensive side of the game before allowing them to move on to more complicated, fragile, and powerful heroes.

[wild_whiskey]

Originally Posted by Thhin

Meh you're suggesting low hp heros who will die painfully fast. Starter hero? Can't beat Skeleton King.

Except skeleton king is melee, and new players will have a hard time always being harassed and not being able to farm for shit. Not to mention that other people you'll be playing with will have high expectations of a character with a direct disable, like Sven or SK so your team might be mad at you if you can't get the hang of the timing right on stuns.

You can't go wrong with Razor's retarded range and attack speed, or Veno's simple shadow strike + auto attack combo.

[Aamina]

Veno is a good starter ranged hero, DK and Skele King are good starter melees after ranged has been mastered.

[The Dauntless One]

Originally Posted by Thhin

Meh you're suggesting low hp heros who will die painfully fast. Starter hero? Can't beat Skeleton King.

I've been playing for a long time and the trend that I see is that noobs who play "powerful" heroes will leave the game after a few deaths because in their mind these heroes should be all powerful.

I'd rather see someone who's new to the game trying to learn the game than some faggot who picks PA, ask for solo and leaves the game after a few deaths.


Jabber why can't you talk to your friend over the intrawebs?

[mek]

STR heroes are often pretty damn painful to play in a PUG as they depend on actual teamwork because they can rarely get kills themselves and are easily harassed. And usually everyone else is playing some gank carry shit and ignoring the rest of their team. But yes, if you have a good ranged friend to lane with, can be a great way to learn as the gameplay is pretty simple for most of em.

Life insurance items like blink dagger or euls are worth their weight in gold as you learn the game, to discourage people from farming you.

[wild_whiskey]

In recent games I've been playing, Tinker and Lina have been sheer domination. I've been coming up with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio lately using Silencer and Tiny, myself. Juggernaut is always, always a problem. I hated Gondar in USA games, and I hate him even more in Korean games.

[Jabberwhacky]

Lately I've been having more and more trouble with Axe. I dunno what's happened but it seems every noob in a pub now likes to start with dual shields and be really, really aggressive. Granted, aggressive is Axe's middle name, but still, it's gotten crazy lately. Lots of guys even do that shit where they intercept the first creep wave before the tower. All it takes is one lucky break and he totally negates your damage + procs helix to take away a very large chunk of your life.

I think two of my least favorite heroes to go against (when well-played) are Abaddon and Alch. All they need is a fucking ring of basilius and it's GG, either shield-spam or stun-spam. It's so incredibly frustrating to survive / avoid 3 or 4 shields from Abaddon just to click him and see he still has 325/450 mana. Their power-levels both even out, but still, early game is just queer.

[The Dauntless One]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

Lately I've been having more and more trouble with Axe. I dunno what's happened but it seems every noob in a pub now likes to start with dual shields and be really, really aggressive. Granted, aggressive is Axe's middle name, but still, it's gotten crazy lately. Lots of guys even do that shit where they intercept the first creep wave before the tower. All it takes is one lucky break and he totally negates your damage + procs helix to take away a very large chunk of your life.

I think two of my least favorite heroes to go against (when well-played) are Abaddon and Alch. All they need is a fucking ring of basilius and it's GG, either shield-spam or stun-spam. It's so incredibly frustrating to survive / avoid 3 or 4 shields from Abaddon just to click him and see he still has 325/450 mana. Their power-levels both even out, but still, early game is just queer.

Axe has always had the ability to fuck people over with double stout shields. It's just noobs starting to catch on. You can't do anything because you do no damage to him and if the player clicks on your hero, all the creeps attack Axe. When Axe can get a vanguard, its pretty over (double vanguard is overkill IMO). You need nuking heroes to deal with Axe early game and shut him down. People always call him overpowered but PUG players always rather play DPS agi heroes over nuking int heroes. Late game Axe gets pretty weak because helix starts to lose its edge and DPS heroes just rape him though berserker's call is still pretty good.

Alchemist is HARD to deal with when he has a teammate with stun on the same lane. Alchemist + Vengeful Spirit seem to just rape shit up. Alchemist starts stun, Vengeful stuns, Alchemist lands stun -> GG.

Ababddon on the other hand is much easier to deal with IMO. Nowhere near the same league as Axe. Just get a few more tangos and it should be fine since his shield does so little damage early game (and only 250 damage at level 4). If he gets too aggressive he gets into trouble.

[The Dauntless One]

Originally Posted by wild_whiskey

In recent games I've been playing, Tinker and Lina have been sheer domination. I've been coming up with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio lately using Silencer and Tiny, myself. Juggernaut is always, always a problem. I hated Gondar in USA games, and I hate him even more in Korean games.

I call Tinker the pub stomper. Rockets and Laser is too good. A true pub stomper build cannot be without that useless level 5 dagon. While they took out Aegis, Lina has always been a stronger hero killer if played correctly. The 1250 damage Laguna blade is tasty against low HP heroes. Silencer is a high tier hero that takes a bit of skill, timing, and teammate work to play, thats why its rare to see people do well on Silencer in PUG games.

[wild_whiskey]

Aggressive Axe players drive me nuts too, but I've played against SO MANY that I've pretty much picked up on how to control the lane even with him around, always trying to get in your face.

You can't spend too much time harassing him. Even if you're ranged, Axe players love to let you start harassing with shots, then run up during your attack animation and BC when in range. The trick is to stick with smaller amounts of high-damage nukes and stuns. One thing Axe players do is risk their shit by running into creep waves and helixing them all down. Problem is, you can't predict how well the shields are going to protect you, so I say let him farm a bit like that, he'll hit half life soon enough and that's all you need to tear him apart with a 2-man gank. Any kind of stun or slow (or a combo of both) will own him as Axe players never get boots early, IME, easy to chase.

If I'm against an axe the first item I get after I cover some basic regen is a high +dmg item. Claymore, hammer, whatever.

And thats true. No one ever plays Silencer. I see him once in a blue moon, but I always pick him if hes on the draft list. My formula is to start off with two circlets and turn them into either bracers or nulls depending on who I'm facing, and always get stats at levels 2, 4 and 8. Stay the hell back and farm last hits with Glaives. He's super fucking fragile early on and if you don't beef up his HP you get continuously dominated.

Boots of Travel early + Euls for extra MS and escapability/chasing and then it really starts up. I was playing against a Weaver, walked up, and just started orb-walking with glaives, fool didn't even realize how much damage he was taking before it was too late. Global silence, he can't go invis, Weaver's ms is retardedly low, easiest chase/kill ever.

The other hero I've been in love with lately is Visage. With his recent changes, you can surprise the SHIT out of people with bonus damage in the early game. And with the new cloak, a heart or two is fucking gg. Play tank and all the dispersed healing beats out damn near any other healer.

Pubs are hit or miss in Korean games but leavers are rare, purposeful feeding is non-existant, and players are always intelligent about leaver items if someone does bounce early. I miss my clan, though.

Alchemist is HARD to deal with when he has a teammate with stun on the same lane. Alchemist + Vengeful Spirit seem to just rape shit up. Alchemist starts stun, Vengeful stuns, Alchemist lands stun -> GG.

Yes, yes yes. Shit is BRUTAL. Happened to me only once, but I got so owned it was ridic. My teammates are all hollering at me for feeding, they go in and the same shit. Pure. Rape. The only thing you can do to combat this is have a lane-buddy, hopefully one with a stun or good early dps so they can start wailing on Alch as soon as he starts his stun animation.

Huge post. Last thing: Dark Seer is extremely underrated.