Deux_D wrote:I'm getting pretty comfortable using Bloodseeker, what other heroes are well worth learning to use? I'm thinking I'll try out Lina, maybe Venomancer, and Pudge looks like a lot of fun too.
I had a 2v5 bot game with a friend a couple of days ago. Can't believe I've never used him before. He was quite easy to learn with only 2 active abilities. I just got the recommended items for him from the shop tab and we won. I even left my lane to gank top, and I never leave lane because I suck. Normally my mate comes to help me, lol.
Veno is a pretty good agility support to start out with, from what I've read/heard, but Lina has lots of spells, so is a bit more technical. Pudge looks like a super-fun hero to play but if you can't position yourself properly and land good hooks, you're going to feed, be useless and get flamed.
As far as heroes go I've been working through this list -
Welcome to Dota, You Suck. Scroll down to
PICK ME IF YOU ARE NEW. Not sure why some of the heroes are on there though. In my opinion, a good hero to learn doesn't have too many active skills, as trying to remember hotkey combos when you're learning and trying to concentrate on last-hitting and watching the mini-map is bad for your health. So far these are the heroes i've played off the list and what I think of them from a beginner's point of view. Keep in mind I have played around 200 DotA 1 games, but never online against humans, only ever solo or with friends against bots. So I'm essentially a total noob.
Skeleton King - Probably the easiest. Press "Q". Own. He's pretty hardy early on and has good damage which helps with last hitting. Also, he's a carry, so if you pick him in matchmaking, people will rage at you if you suck, because they've all picked carries too.
Sven - Not recommended. Not sure why this hero is on that list. He's melee so you're close to the creep wave. All 4 of his skills are active and when you add a couple of items with active abilities I found I just stood there while the bots owned me becasue I couldn't manage all the hotkeys. I guess he was there because he has many possible roles (Disabler / Initiator / Carry / Support).
Vengeful Spirit - If you want to learn a support hero, Venge is pretty good. Although she has 3 active skills, her ulti is very straight forward. You only need to use it when enemy heroes are trying to escape, or when you want to initiate an attack. She's not very item dependant, so as long as you are getting Exp she can be useful and you can concentrate on learning her 3 actives. Plus she's ranged (barely) so you aren't quite as close to enemy heroes inthe laning phase. I haven't playerd her in DotA 2 yet, but I used her twice in Dota 1 and she was fun to play.
Drow Ranger - Excellent! Long, long ranged agility carry hero with decent attack speed and animation. A good hero to practice last hitting at range. Only 2 active abilities and has a passive ulti that upgrades your agility, thus increasing your armour and attack speed. In addition her 1st active skill is able to be toggled, so you can switch it on before team fights, then off after to conserve mana. Also it doesn't cost any mana if you aren't hitting anything, so you can turn it on well before you have to do anything and just concentrate on casting your silence and chasing down fleeing heroes. One of my favorite heroes. Played her quite a few times in DotA 1. Butterfly/Satanic ftw!
They are the only ones on that list i've played so far. Still (slowly) working my way through them. As for other heroes I've played either in DotA 1 or 2 that are either fairly easy, or that I've gotten used to:
Sniper - Another long range carry hero with 2 passive skills, one which increases your already long range so you can stay well back from enemies and concentrate on last hitting. His 1st ability is great for farming creeps, slowing enemies and pushing towers and his ulti is a single target long range snipe that can't be dodged. Use it only when you've done enough damage to a hero to make him turn and run, then BOOM! HEADSHOT!
Luna - My all-time favorite DotA 1 hero. After Sniper, the 2nd hero I chose to learn was Luna. Now, when I started playing, my friends didn't even tell me about last-hitting, so I just used to auto-attack (how fking noob is that), so I never had any gold to buy items. When I played Luna I discovered her Moon Glaives, which, in my noobness, let me mow down creeps and get enough gold to buy items and have at least a half decent amount of fun. She also has that long range nuke with mini-stun that was so fun to use and the enemy bots seem to hate, as they run every time I cast it. So, cool, I could keep those cheating **** away from me and farm. She's also the fastest hero in the game, so if I saw a bot come at me I could just Lucent Beam and run. If they stupidly gave chase and tower dived me I could turn straight around and Eclipse them to death.
I've since learned, thanks to watching a few tutorials and replays on Youtube, that is NOT how to play Luna, LOL. But it got me familiar enough with her to adjust my play style and use her in my very first solo queue in DotA 2. I was solo-mid against Phantom Lancer. I now hate that hero. A lot. Our team lost fairly convincingly, but at least I got some kills.
Solo-mid Luna vs. PL.Dota 2 Wiki also has a
list of heroes by difficulty, So after I've tried all the ones that Purge has recommended I will start working my way through those. The way I usually start is to pick my hero before I've even launched the game, watch a tutorial on Youtube if I can find one and
write down the skill progression (
this is very important), read a
Playdota guide or two, then play 2 or 3 private lobby matches against bots until I get used to the heroes skills. I make sure to play at least once on the Radiant side and once on the Dire to get used to playing that hero on both sides of the map and I usually stick to the suggested item build to make life easier. Then I'll play 2 - 3 solo queues and see how I go.
Hope that gives you a little insight into the mind of another daunted noob and find some of the resources I've found useful.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/ironmask
by Deux_D » 8 Jul 12, 11:53 am 
