Hello everyone!

This guide is meant to show you some of the basic stuff, that you should be aware of as early as possible if you plan on spending your time by playing DOTA. It's a pretty snobby game with lots of non-intuitive and cryptic stuff, which can be pretty hard to comprehend for a player who never really played ARTS/MOBA games (like me). You can get all of this knowledge only by playing, sure, but would you rather git gud sooner or later?

I'm no pro player by any means, nor did I play original DOTA, but after spending dangerously increasing part of my life playing game - I feel confident enough about it to share some of my knowledge with you.


If you are already scared and questioning your choice of trying DOTA - don't be a ♥♥♥♥♥, just hold my hand tightly and lets begin the journey!

So many items!
- updated Animal Courier (new cost)

• giving you basic idea of different mechanics
  
• overview of hero types, roles and game modes for beginners
  
• sharing useful tips

• explaining game mechanics in detail
  
• explaining GUI and options in detail
  
• teaching about different heroes, items and strategies

• ancient - each team has to defend their ancient throughout the game; located in front of each team's fountain
  
• creep - any non-playable character that is not a hero
  
  • Radiant/Dire creeps (melee, ranged, siege)
    
  • neutral creeps (found in jungle)
    
  • ancient creeps (their camp is placed near each secret shop)
    
  • Roshan (in Roshan's Pit)
• crowd control (cc) - property of abilities and items, which are capable of disabling an enemy in some way, for example: stunning, slowing, lowering their damage, armor or attack speed, etc.
  
• farming - activity of getting gold from all sorts of creeps (enemy, neutral or ancient)
  
• feeding - "giving" gold to the enemy mostly by dying too much/on purpouse; people doing so are called feeders
  
• ganking - activity of gathering up as a group and surprising an enemy with an intent to take them out;
  
• last-hitting - attacking creeps when they are very low on health to secure the kill, so you can get gold out of them;
  
• denying - basically last-hitting your own creeps to deny enemy of gold and experience
  
• nuking - ability to deal massive damage to an enemy with spells or items; spells/items capable of dealing heavy damage are called nukes
  
• pushing - activity of killing creep waves and destroying enemy stuctures (towers, barracks) as fast as possible
  
• stacking - way of provoking neutral or ancient creeps out of their camp at the right time so when they will head back to their camp - new set of creeps will respawn there (advanced technique)
  
• pulling - way of provoking neutral or ancient creeps out of their camp at the right time so allied/enemy creeps will attack them instead of going along the lane (advanced technique)

• gl hf - good luck, have fun
  
• gg - good game
  
• wp - well played
  
• bg - bad game
  
• ff - finish fast
  
  
• b - get/going back
  
• care - be careful
  
• ss - enemy is missing
  
• oom - out of mana

Extended glossary[dota2.gamepedia.com]

If you are new to this kind of games your best bet is to sharpen your non-existent skills facing some basic artificial intelligence - bots. You can either practice with BOTS against BOTS or decide to play game with other HUMANS against BOTS. Either way you end up with bots as your enemy.

In both scenarios you can pick difficulty.
For beginners best are:

• passive
  
• easy
  
• medium

It depends on how confident you feel with the game by that point, but picking hard or unfair is NOT the brightest idea, because bots on these difficulties start to act more like jerks and you shouldn't really confront such behavior now. Take it slowly.

If you are keen on trying PvP - these are my suggestions (in order):

Beginner-friendly modes:

• Limited Heroes (introduced in tutorial)
  
• Single Draft
  
• All Pick
  
• Least Played *

Beginners seeking additional challenge:

• All Random
  
• Ability Draft
  
• Random Draft
  
• All Random Deathmatch

Avoid (for now):

• Captains Mode
  
• Captains Draft

NOTE: You won't be able to play every mode instantly[dota2.gamepedia.com]

EXPLANATION

Why Single Draft? You get to choose from a pool of THREE heroes (each with different main attribute - later on about these). What's more - each of them will usually be different in terms of their playstyle, so even without huge knowledge about the game you will be able to pick hero who suits you best.

Unless you don't have a choice - I wouldn't advise playing All Pick. Why? Bacause having all heroes unlocked and not knowing single thing about any of them won't help you in picking one. Same thing goes for Least Played - but you can't choose from 40 of your most played heroes there.

Other reason is hero abuse. There is even a term pub stomping heroes which refers to heroes who are usually very easy to play, yet very effective when you do not have knowledge how to counter them. Picking them up as fast as you can and stomping everyone on your way sounds fun, but don't come crying to papa, when some random guy on the enemy team will pick them faster.


All Random - everyone gets a random hero
Ability Draft - random hero + picking abilities from a pool = CRAZY
Random Draft - picking hero in turns from pool of 24 random heroes
All Random Deathmatch - like All Random, but each time you die you get new hero (keeping the items and levels); you can lose earlier by depleting yours team available respawns

* I do not know how popular is Least Played nowadays, but back in a day it was very hard to find a match. Try at your own risk!


More about game modes[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Right now there are over 100 heroes to pick from and that's a lot... not every hero is good for beginners, due to their complexity, required skills or overall knowledge about the game needed to play them effectively.


Check official list of heroes

As you can see heroes are divided by three attributes.

Strength

You can think of Strength heroes as ones who usually initiate battles and being able to withstand some serious damage. Especially later into the games they tend to be very tanky and hard to take down.

Agility

Agility heroes tend to depend more on they primary attacks than skills to deal damage. Because of that they are in great need of items (which cost in-game money) to enhance their overall DPS (damage per second). Their skills usually are more about catching onto enemies or escaping safely.

Intelligence

Most of them are supportive type of heroes with crowd control abilities, capable of dealing heavy damage (nuking), aiding allies or increased pushing potential. They are most newbie-friendly (with some exeptions) due to their versatility.


With more knowledge and experience in DOTA you will surely change your way of thinking about heroes (because in reality it's not that simple), but there are more important things you should be focusing on right now.


More about attributes[dota2.gamepedia.com]

At the very foundations we can distinguish two basic roles:

• Carry
  
• Support

================================================================================

Carry-like job is basically to secure team win in a longer run.

Heroes who usually fit this role tend to be weak and fragile during early stage of the game. Early on they heavily depend on the help of their teammates to get experience and resources, which are needed to build their might later on. Carries also depend mostly on items which allow them to hit faster and harder as well as surviving clashes. Unfortunately power comes with price - you need lots of gold to become a powerhouse!

What is needed to be a good carry?

• awarness of your hero's strengths and weaknesses
  
• being very good at last-hitting
  
• knowing how, where and when to farm
  
• buying items benefiting mostly YOU
  
• very good map awarness, predicting enemy's actions
  
• avoid dying at all costs

==============================================================================

Support-like job is to provide help to their allies as well as making enemies' life harder.

Supports are a backup for carries, guardian angels of the team and in some cases literal babysitters. They should take care of decreasing overall danger awaiting for their allies, provide survivability tools in teams clashes or even sacrifice themselves for their good. "Ungrateful" job, but someone has to do it.

What is needed to be a good support?

• being selfless
  
• buying and upgrading courier
  
• buying items benefiting mostly TEAM
  
• denying gold and experience from the enemy
  
• providing vision over the map as well as decreasing enemy's
  
• helping your teammates farm and survive
  
• taking hits for your teammates if necessary

==============================================================================

Sooner or laner you will come across other "roles", but more or less they only tell you what this particular hero is good at. For example heroes described as pushers have some abilities useful in destroying enemy's structures or cleaning up whole waves of creeps easily, while ones going as junglers can fight neutral creeps early into the game. Don't boggle your mind about these for now.

The more heroes you play - more accurately you will be able to tell what they are good at.


More about roles[dota2.gamepedia.com]

• involve advanced micromanagement
  
• have tricky-to-use abilities
  
• require good positioning
  
• require better map awarness
  
• require extended knowledge about in-game items

More about hero difficulty[dota2.gamepedia.com]

NOTE: If user interface (GUI/HUD) is still confusing to you - take your time to get used to it.

Guides (in-game icon)

• they suggest which skills to level up on each level
  
• usually have less general item choice than default builds
  
• may incude additional descriptions of skills and items
  
• may include hints for playing this particular hero

Thanks to them you can focus more on a game itself, than spending too much time thinking about what you should buy or which skill would be the best to level up right now. Follow them step by step as for now.

Until you will be confident enough about the game - judge guides by their titles and ratings.


More about interface[dota2.gamepedia.com]

They take a key role in increasing your hero/team efficiency. They offer not only various bonuses, but some also passive or active abilities.


> TIP: If you click on an item in shop while holding SHIFT - you will add every single component of it into a little window close to the shop button. By doing so you won't have to go back into the shopping panel to buy any component, but will be able to get them straight from that little panel.

> TIP: If you click on an item or skill while holding ALT - you will inform your teammates if item or skill is ready to use.


==============================================================================

Town Portal Scroll (100 gold)

Always carry at least one of these. They let you teleport to the fountain or allied tower, which is very helpful when you want to run away from enemies or move a greater distance in shorter time.

You can buy them also in Side Shop.


==============================================================================


Animal Courier (120 gold)

Basically it's your way of transporting stuff from one place to another. If noone else bought it at the beginning of the match - do it.

• has six slots of inventory, shared within players
  
• if killed by an enemy - gives 150 gold to each player on their team
  
• respawns after 140 seconds
  
• can't move over cliffs or through trees
  
• if placed near shop - you can buy items from that shop
  
• can be controlled manually

Flying Courier (220 gold)

An upgrade for your Animal Courier.

• requires Animal Courier being activated first
  
• can't be upgraded until 3:00
  
• has six slots of inventory, shared within players
  
• if killed by an enemy - gives 175 gold to each player on their team
  
• respawns after 140 seconds
  
• can move over any terrain (cliffs, trees)
  
• if placed near shop - you can buy items from that shop
  
• can be controlled manually
  
• each 90 seconds you can use Speed Burst to increase his movement speed for 4 seconds

==============================================================================


Observer Ward (150 gold)

When placed on a ground - gives your whole team vision over the area.

• comes in pack of 2
  
• lasts 6 minutes
  
• once placed - you can't move them
  
• can't be seen by enemies unless they have source of true sight near it
  
• vision will be restricted by obstacles (ex. trees) if they are on the same level as ward
  
• if placed close enough or within neutral creep camps - blocks their spawn

Sentry Ward (200 gold)

When placed on a ground - source of true sight in nearby area.

• comes in pack of 2
  
• lasts 4 minutes
  
• once placed - you can't move them
  
• can't be seen by enemies unless they have source of true sight near it
  
• doesn't give additional vision
  
• if placed close enough or within neutral creep camps - blocks their spawn

==============================================================================


Dust of Appearance (180 gold)

Lets you reveal invisible units if they are within an area of effect upon activation.

• comes in pack of 2
  
• effect on unit lasts 12 seconds
  
• won't reveal wards
  
• slows down revealed units

Smoke of Deceit (100 gold)

Upon activation makes you and nearby allies invisible.

• effect lasts 35 seconds
  
• increases movement speed for the duration
  
• effect breaks when you get too close to the enemy heroes or towers
  
• attacking will break the invisibility, using abilities won't
  
• source of true sight won't reveal you

Gem of True Sight (900 gold)

When in inventory, carrier is basically a walking source of true sight, but...

• Gem is dropped upon death (enemy can pick it up and use)
  
• cannot be destroyed

More about true sight[dota2.gamepedia.com]
More about items[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Some places changed since 6.82

As you can see from the minimap - map itself is kind of symmetric. Each side has access to the same resources like jungle and shops, but devil is in the details - both sides differ from each other in terms of trees and creeps' camps placement, distances between places and so on.

But don't worry - it shouldn't matter that much for a beginner, unless you want to learn about very situational: hiding spots, escape routes, possible shortcuts... might be useful, right? Yes, unless other people are aware of these too. So... don't bother for now!







Side Shop[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Secret Shop[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Runes[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Roshan[dota2.gamepedia.com]








Reaching enemy's base and destroying their ancient is your main objective in the game. Of course defending your ancient is as important.



Before you go for mentioned main objective - you must push at least one lane to get there. You do so by destroying enemy towers on the way. As previously - you need to defend your towers as well to stop enemy from reaching your ancient.

Additionaly each lane is also pathway for each team's creeps.



These shops help mostly during early phases of the game, but be aware of their very specyfic choice of equipment.

• you can also buy teleport scrolls there

Items from these shops are (in most cases) vital ingredients of the strongest items in game. Items obtainable from the secret shop have an additional circle on their icons.



Every two minutes runes spawn in both marked places. One of them is always a Bounty rune.
First five runes from the list work only fixed amount of time (which you can see in a square above the hero's stats panel after picking it up).

• double damage
  
• haste (maximum movement speed)
  
• illusions (two controlable)
  
• invisibility (invisibility breaks when spell or item is used)
  
• regeneration (effect breaks if you will get hit)
  
• bounty (gives gold and experience, values scale with the length of the game)

It's the strongest creep in the game who you shouldn't really take on early (unless you know beforehand how to beat him). Drops an Aegis of the Immortal upon death.
Additionally drops Cheese if killed at least three times during single game.

• Aegis of the Immortal[dota2.gamepedia.com]
  
• Cheese[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Quick reminder what you should do at the start of a game:

• check for available guides for your hero and pick one
  
  • if it's a new hero for you, read the descriptions of your abilities
• buy suggested early game items
  
  • buy courier if there is none in your team
• choose your lane and follow creeps

Now, depending on a role you want to fulfil in the team you should do different things during laning phase. But if you are not sure about it yet - just follow all of the advices to learn about different playstyles.

General:

• don't attack creeps continuosly
  
• be aware of missing enemies, they might be on a way to gank you
  
• if you are alone or in danger - stay near your closest tower
  
• place observer wards in crucial points on the map - additional vision is very important

Carries:

• try to last-hit as many hostile creeps as possible
  
• find additional ways of getting gold (farming jungle or ancients)
  
• don't be too agressive on enemies, unless you are sure that you can kill them

Supports:

• deny aliied creeps
  
• be ready to defend your lane partner
  
• try to harrass hostile players (hit'n'run style or using spells to scare them off)
  
• stack and pull neutral camps (advanced technique)

This phase of the game shouldn't exceed more than 10-12 minutes. By that time you should get past level 6 and also aquire few of the items. From now on it's time to push, gank, stick together and be a contribution to the team.

Good luck!

Tips and Tricks for Beginners by Commander Chocula

Very useful guide which covers things like interface, worth mentioning options and most importantly console commands. You might think "why would messing with console help me that early anyway?" - answer is simple, you can turn on some useful options (not game breaking or unfair, because everyone has access to them), which aren't available from menu. Check it out and make your life easier!

If you have any questions, instead of adding me post them in the comment section below. This way me or other players will be able to answer them and next souls searching for answers won't have to post the same questions again. I might even add section with your questions and answers later on.

If you have any suggestions or want to leave constructive feedback - feel free to do so. I am aware that this guide might lack some important info, but I really wanted to compress it as much as possible to not scare people off or overwhelm them.