Knowing, Enjoying and Winning DotA!

[saint]

Knowing, Enjoying, and Winning DOTA

Outline:

* [Introduction]
* [Essential Knowledge]
* [How to Make Effective Hero Builds]
* [Enjoying The Game]

[Introduction]
This guide is about exactly what the title states, "Knowing, Enjoying, and Winning DOTA." At one time, I knew much about the game. I'd used every item and every hero, I knew the prices of every item by heart, I knew exactly what every hero ability did (their damage, duration, casting time, etc), many bugs, all the hotkeys, etc. However, there's always more to be learned and the game's always evolving. Hopefully some of this insight will help you enjoy this game to its fullest and increase your playing ability. This is a guide about many things; if a topic doesn't interest you, don't read it. Enjoy what you will happy.gif

[Essential Knowledge]
Essential knowledge is that which everyone must know to be a strong player. This includes knowledge of the map, items, prices, characters, and game basics. Instead of listing everything I know, I'll list questions for each of these items. If you can answer every question with a close or exact answer, then you can feel confident that you have most of the essential knowledge. For any question you cannot give the exact answer, make a note of it and find the answer. This will increase your knowledge of and thus ability to play the game. If you attain perfect knowledge and can apply perfect concentration, then you can have a perfect game every time. This is certainly not my goal, but there are always professionals and beginners alike who have this in mind as the ultimate goal. Now you know a way to get there; know the questions and find the answers. Note that some questions may get you thinking of a possibility which you find out is impossible. What's important is that you try it out and continue to think of new possibilities and try them out as well.

Map Knowledge:
How many towers are there on the map?
Where are the power-ups located and how often are they made?
How do creeps level?
How long between each creep wave?
Do different towers regenerate at different rates? How about barracks?
Where do neutral creeps spawn, and what kinds spawn at each area?
How much money does each kind of neutral creep kill give you?
Which barracks do you kill to level the melee creeps?
Which barracks do you kill to level ranged creeps?
If you get stuck in a place on the map, what command do you use to get "unstuck"?
Do you know every path you can traverse on the map?
What's the fastest route from point A to point B?
Are there any parts of the map you can stand and not be visible on the minimap?
What patches of trees or other areas can you get stuck in temporarily when blinking?
Do you know every spot you can attack from in the fog of war with a ranged hero without being visible?
At what times do neutral creeps spawn?
Where is it especially easy to run from the enemy due to fog of war?
Where are the secret shops?
Where is Roshan?
Which creeps can be instantly dominated or killed?
Do you know of any current map bugs?

Item Knowledge:
Do you know how to make every item in the game from memory?
Do you know the cost of every item in the game?
Do you know which items can be activated for an ability?
Will using a lesser clarity potion when you're windwalking cancel the windwalk?
What if you use the potion before windwalking?
Do you know how items stack?
Will 2 cranium bashers give you a 30% chance to stun?
Do 2 hyperstones give you 110% increased attack speed?
If you have 2 eul's sceptres with charges, can you drop one, cyclone an enemy, then pick the other up and cyclone another enemy?
What items can cancel channeling spells?
What's an orb effect?
Does Eye of Skadi's frost override Satanic's Life Leech?
Do orb effect overrides depend on the order in which the item was picked up or the slot position?
Which items override some characters abilities?
Which items can you use to instantly kill or dominate creeps?
If you're stunned, will activating the Black King Bar cancel any stuns?
Are you vulnerable to any abilities or ultimates when Avatar is active?
Can you use manta style's illusion to cancel any stuns?
Can Aghanim's Sceptre, Dagon, or Necronomicon be upgraded?
What's the difference between sentry and observer wards?
Do agility items also add additional damage to agility heroes?
Which item combinations work really well together?
Do you know of any current item bugs?

Hero Knowledge:
Do you know all the abilities of all characters?
Do you know how much damage, how long of a stun, etc. that each ability does?
Do you know all of your abilities hotkeys?
Which abilities can be upgraded via Aghanim's sceptre?
How and what items stack with heros similar abilities (i.e. bashers w/ faceless void)?
Does battle fury's splash stack with magnataur's splash damage?
Which abilities take a while to cast and how long do they take?
Which abilities can be canceled by an enemy when you're casting?
Which abilities can clear trees?
Wihch abilities whill hit a unit if he goes invisible after targeted but before the ability executes?
What range do you have to be within a creep to get experience?
How much money does killing a tower give you?
What ways can you kill a creep to give you the most money?
How much money does killing syllabear's bear give you?
What abilities hurt towers?
When is it a good idea for the techies to suicide a tower?
At what range can towers hit you?
Can any hero hit a tower without being targeted?
Can any AOE abilities / ultimates be activated and stay in effect after blinking or when cycloned?
Is _____ an intelligence, strength, or agility hero?
Is there an item for _____ which almost every player gets for the hero every time?
At what levels can you upgrade your ultimates?
At what levels can you upgrade your normal abilities?
Do you know how to let other heros buy with your character?
Which Hero combinations work really well together?
Do you know of any current hero bugs?

Other Knowledge:
What are 3 ways to signal on the minimap?
How long does it take to re-spawn at level 1, 3, 5, 10, etc.?
How much money do you lose if you die at level 1, 3, 5, 10, etc.?
When and how do you use control groups?
Do you know how to set waypoints?
Can you set waypoints ending in an attack on an enemy or tower?
What game modes are available?
Do you know how to share your chicken with teammates?
How can you find your movespeed and who your opponents are?
What's the hotkey for the top left (top right, etc.) item slot?
Do you know the hotkeys for hero selection and buying items?

This is just a quick list of questions and is by no means comprehensive. If you have a question you think would make a good addition to this list, please leave it in a reply in a quote box so I can easily find it and I'll add it if I like it.



[How to Make Effective Hero Builds]
Every hero has many abilities. Each ability has some strength to it and can be enhanced, directly or indirectly, by the proper items. Here is a process which will guarantee the most effective hero builds given time, thought, effort, and experience:

Step One: Choose an Ability
Let's choose Pugna's ethereal for illustrative purposes.

Step Two: Analyze the Ability.
Pugna's ethereal is usually used before nuking a hero i.e. ethereal + blast, ethereal + drain, ethereal + dagon. Ethereal can also be used in conjunction with other heros. You can ethereal someone and let lion cast finger of death while you dagon and then lion impales, you both whack him then lion voodoo's, you run up and blast him, then drain him while lion's still whacking, and then ethereal him as hes running away (if still alive). So once you think of an ability's obvious usage, start thinking of how it can be used with others. Then look for less obvious uses. If you're about to be ganked by a couple heros and have a Eul's sceptre, use cyclone on one hero and ethereal on another to make your escape. Maybe you're in a group fight and a teammate is running away but a meelee hero without mana is trying to gank him and will likely get that last shot in but you can't cyclone the enemy since you just used it on another hero. Use ethereal on your teammate so he can't be hurt by physical damage and then cyclone the enemy hero once it's refreshed or try to chase him off via some other means. If you have a refresher orb you can ethereal your teammate, refresh, ethereal the enemy, then nuke him. Buying more time than just etherealing the enemy. There are so many situations that can come up, so do your best to find creative ways to use each ability for each situation. If you use an ability when it's not expected, it's even more effective than it normally would be.

Step Three: Build for the Ability.
Think about what items can stack with the ability. If nothing stacks with the ability, what items may be useful in conjunction with the ability. Nothing stacks with Pugna's ethereal but a Dagon will work well with it. Don't limit yourself there though, examine all items available, and combinations of items. Say you decide a dagon is a good idea and have previously spent your time thinking about item combinations and remember that one decent item with the dagon is a refresher orb. Thinking of the ability as a disabler, you think of guinsoo's scythe. Now you think about what's possible with the three together. Based on this one ability and 3 items you find you can nuke for up to 1600 damage with the items and ethereal alone. If you throw some blasting and draining in there you can nuke for even more. If you need to disable many people, you can polymorph, ethereal, refresh, polymorph, and ethereal again for 4 quick disables. When thinking of using the ability with all other items, you may come accross the following questions: Can you ethereal yourself then mekansm for 500hp? Can you use ethereal then scroll of town portal to escape from battle? If the combination sounds appealing but you're not sure if it will work, try it out!

Step Four: Repeat Steps 1-3 for All Abilities
Sometimes it's great and a lot of fun to make a build focusing on only one ability. Usually, it's more effective to consider all abilities and build for at least 2 of them. I recommend building for single abilities first though and knowing each ability inside-out.

Step Five: Start Building for Ability Combinations
After you know each ability to the best of your knowledge and are familiar with what items you use for each, you can start properly evaluating how items may be used in conjunction to maximize effect. Here again though, analyze all reasonable combinations and sometimes consider things which may not be reasonable. I find this step very similar to how one progresses in the game of Chess. First, a beginner will need to practice being able to see all possible moves first 1, 2, 3, and possibly more moves ahead. If you're new to dota, analyze all combinations and you'll come up with some neat stuff. If you're an intermediate, you've already looked at all basic combinations. Intermediate players in chess start realizing different parts of the game. They recognize an opening, middle, and endgame. Plus, their strategies and tactics improve even though they're often thinking of fewer brute-force moves. So intermediates need to start considering what order they should build the chosen items and what stage of the game they're most effective. In Chess, masters and grandmasters know where the game is going within the first couple of moves. They can play almost an entire game according to the best lines very quickly, but they still spend a lot of time playing. This is because they're always looking for that little something which could be improved; a solution to a problem they know exists; or a creative alternative to the norm with good options. The advanced DOTA player knows some very good combinations and has played with them many times. Here's where I hope this guide will make some influence on the community. You may browse through the forums and see 5 guides on the same character, with almost exactly the same builds. Some guides are made by advanced players, they're solid and work quite well, and most players will come to the same builds with time since they're naturally good. Other guides are made by beginners and may be fun to try, but ultimately are disregarded. Sometimes though, an advanced player will see a beginner's guide and have an inspiration, then write a killer new guide. We need to be able to distinguish the good guides from the bad quickly (it comes with being a good player), and then introduce some creativity into the community. When you've gotten to the advanced stage, don't stop there. Keep looking for new ways to play the same character and find new builds that are effecitve. Explain your combinations to others and include replays so that people may see their effectiveness and know by example as well as word that your suggestions work. Once people start using the same effective new builds, others have to learn to counter them and the skill level of the whole community increases.

Step Six: Repeat 1-5 for Every Hero Until You've Analyzed Them All.

Step Seven: Repeat 1-5 with every hero / item / map / version change.


[Enjoying The Game]
People enjoy the game for many different reasons. Here are some suggestions I think will benefit everyone if applied.

Use Banlist
Program at: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Banlists at: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

With banlist you can keep lamers out of your games. You can make sure everyone pings well to the host. You may also only allow people who are in or around your country. Checking these things before each public game greatly helps with the quality of public games.

Join a Clan
Being a part of a clan has many benefits. When playing another clan or an in-house game, the chance for leavers is greatly reduced. You make friends. You also are usually playing with experienced players so you're likely to learn more about the game.

Respect Others
Play games to the end. Don't leave because you're dying a lot. Learn from your mistakes and remember the golden rule. If you don't want others leaving your game, don't leave others games. If someone's new and wants to learn how to be a better player, help them if you can, don't call them a noob and be mean.

Remember, "Patience is a virtue"
This is true with everything in life, but keep it especially in mind with dota and it will save you much frustration. Is it better to go for that hero kill now and possibly fail or die and have to waste 2 minutes respawning / healing, or is it better to wait another 45 seconds and get a sure kill when you have enough mana/health?

Know Your Priorities
Do you play so much dota that you're having trouble in school, with your parents/friends, or you find you're getting angry / depresses / stressed and dota is somehow mentioned? I've seen this happen to many people, and it's called video game addiction. There's actually counselling for it these days because it's a serious problem for some people, a minor problem for many. Know what's important to you in life, and know why it's important. What benefits does it have? How will it help you in the future? For me, dota is something fun to do in my spare time. I have lots of work which takes priority at times, so I'll go weeks or months without dota. At other times, I'll play for 14 hours in a day because I'm on vacation, don't have other plans, and don't care to make other plans. Only play the game if you enjoy it. If it's causing problems, stop playing and think about why there are problems, and solve them. It may mean not playing the game ever again (this happened to a lot of my old cs buddies), but know what makes you happy and don't continue to do things which make you or those dear to you unhappy.

Join DOTA Forums
For the enthusiast, forums offer a great place for discussion, knowledge exchange, and other activities. However, if you're reading this post, you've already found this bit out yourself happy.gif

Read the Changelog
The easiest way to keep up to date and get new ideas or make modifications to old ones is to adapt to the new changes in the game by reading each version's changelog. If there's a new ability, try it out. If the price of something has gone down, re-evaluate how it might affect your item builds. It doesn't take long to read a changelog, and there are many benefits to reading it with each new version, so if you're not doing this already, start! happy.gif

That's all for now. I just wrote this guide in one sitting. I've never written a guide for DOTA before, and likely won't write another, but I'll still play the game, make forum posts when convenient, and perhaps add / modify some of this stuff if I feel like it.

I hope this has been helpful and that all of your games and lives are wonderful.

Notes: This guide was written while v6.24 was being played but should still be applicable for the most part in future versions.

Written by Re-SpekT.