Dota 2

[Lanthirrhos]

I'm a complete noob when it comes to MOBAs (or whatever we want to call them, I know people bicker over that :P). So naturally, I decided that I'd pick up Dota 2 (arguably the hardest one, so I've heard... but I know people will bicker about that too) and muck about with it. I've put in about 120 hours thus far--mostly practice against bots; but I have 22 complete games in (and a paltry 50% win rate, like I said, I'm a noob). I have a few more games played than that, but they were plagued by abandonment so they didn't count towards the tally as wins or losses.

 

Does anyone have access already? Did anyone play the old Dota? In general, anyone have any thoughts on Dota? I can probably answer simple questions about Dota 2, but as I've mentioned, I'm a terrible noob, so don't expect me to have a clue.  I'd be interested to hear what the major differences are between Dota/HoN/LoL/Other(?) as well.

 

I have to say that I'm enjoying it thus far, and I've only ran into one player who felt the need to flame his teammates for a losing game, but I'm still in the infant years so we'll see if this'll turn into another LoL in that regard.

 

Dota 2 doesn't have all it's features yet. The game itself works, but characters are still being added (Medusa and the Troll Warlord are the latest additions), AI being fixed, a "new" game mode just popped up last week (All Random, and Least Played is farly new too) and most notably for me all of the tutorial sections have yet to be added, even though they show up in the menu (there is a "Learn" page that details the Heroes and items, along with all their stats and abilities however, and bot matches are available, for whatever that is worth to you). Lobbies are also available for Private games with friends.

 

After playng so many hours I recieved 5 copies of Dota 2 to gift people on Steam. I've used one with my brother, all it required was a normal Steam Download and then it was playable. If you're interested in getting early access, Steam allows me to gift it to you through your email, or directly through Steam (I'd need your Steam name to send it). It would be easiest if you added me on Steam (at least temporarily) to make sure I get the correct account name before sending it, but that's up to you. You can post your Steam names here, or PM me if you're more comfortable with that. If you want to add me to make sure I get it to you, my steam account is "Lanthirrhos" same as here on DM. And just to be clear, Dota 2 is free to play, The Dota 2 copies are official, and free, sent directly through Steam. I make no profit from this, I just don't want the copies to sit in my Steam account for ages and go to waste. The only restriction Steam gives the Dota 2 copies is that they can't be redeemed in China. I'm assuming that means all other countries are fair game. So if you want free, early access, let me know. First come first serve if there are too many people interested, I only have 4 copies.

 

As for system requirements, I'm running Dota 2 on a non-gaming laptop just fine with no problems at all. I'll refer you to the wiki page for specifics:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOTA_2

[goksekor]

Hey Mate,

 

I used to play DOTA a while back. It was something we did back at college with friends, and it may be the most fun game I played with friends. I havent played for a long while then a friend of mine introduced me to LoL. I have heard about DOTA 2 but havent even seen the game yet. So I can only compare DOTA to LoL.

 

At first, when I started LoL the graphics were too... cheesy (I'm not sure if its the right word here) for me. I lost track of my champion within teamfights and I died pretty quickly and was like "wtf just happened". In time you get used to that but it definitely is a colorful experience at the beginning. A major difference between DOTA and LoL is that you don't deny creeps in LoL. You just focus on lasthitting enemy minions, and IMO it is better this way. One HUGE plus on LoL over DOTA is that it recommends you a set of items at the beginning of every game. It may not be the optimal build, it definitely isn't wrong. The problem with DOTA was that you had to know every single item and you were like "Damn what the hell am I gonna go for now". That is at the noob phase of course. So I guess LoL is much more "noob" friendly. In time you get to know the items but if you ever played any MOBA before, you can just download the game and start a match against AI instantly.

 

You have a summoner profile in LoL and there's a level cap at 30. You get some ability points each level which helps your heroes in general and runes too, and they don't do much difference one by one but a full rune set at level 30 can really define how the game goes down.<br /><br />I would like to see the DOTA2 as well. I don't have a steam account though so I guess I'll have to get one later on, but feel free to send me a PM to let me know if your invites are still there!

 

Cheers,

G.

[Knivy]

I recently started playing DOTA 2, I had played the original DOTA in Warcraft III and sucked at it, but im getting better at Dota 2 now. its pretty fun.  Also, they do have recommended items in DOTA 2 for each hero, though they didn't in DOTA.

[Lanthirrhos]

I'd be lost without the recommended items list. That thing is invaluable to me, because I don't have recipies memorized yet, and I wouldn't even know what I could build without it. The out of game learning tools help with that, but having it in the game is a huge help.

[Knivy]

Ive just realized that i completely suck at this game xD