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Dota 2 update helps you learn the game

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Dragon Knight

What I really love about Dota 2 is its accessibility to well, every one on the planet and how easy it is to learn. Many find games in this genre intimidating and scary, because they think it’s too complicated – but as Valve adds more features to teach new players, it’s hardly a game that’s meant for hardcore gamers only. This week’s update does exactly that; check out the details.

The update includes the first of many features aimed at teaching new players the game. New players will automatically be guided towards the first tutorial where they’ll play the hero Davion, The Dragon Knight. The tutorial will be stored under the Quests tab of the Play screen.

This however isn’t the only new feature; Valve added Hero Builds to the in-game menu at the top left corner, where you can choose community made Hero Builds to guide you through any hero you are playing. It describes what abilities to use when and highlights where to spend skill points. Any one can create and publish a hero build on the Steam Community page.

The update also added the ability to preview the content of all chests before opening them in full 3D. Gamers are also now able to update their status on their Career Profile.

If you’re still trying to decide whether to try this game out or not, do it! It’s getting easier and ever more addictive.

Last Updated: February 28, 2013

24 Comments

  1. Theo Steenekamp

    February 28, 2013 at 14:46

    Can anyone give me a Beta invite:( ?

    Reply

    • 2scaly4j0o

      February 28, 2013 at 14:58

      Steam name please. I will send a few your way.

      Reply

      • Theo Steenekamp

        March 1, 2013 at 09:27

        nvm guys got a invite after applying for the beta on steam:)! thanks for wanting to help out.

        Reply

      • jopelao

        March 2, 2013 at 16:34

        “jopelao” please

        Reply

    • Kaya

      February 28, 2013 at 15:39

      I have more beta keys than I can give away, so let me know if you still need.

      Reply

      • Rudi van der Walt

        February 28, 2013 at 16:57

        Hi Kaya, I’ll have one if you don’t mind 🙂 always wanted to check it out… my steam name is rudivdw

        Reply

  2. Valshen

    February 28, 2013 at 14:47

    I can’t wait to take a good look at the chests of my favourite her~~~ Oh wait, you mean the loot chests. Carry on.

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      February 28, 2013 at 14:58

      You now face the wrath of the unlikeness monster!!!!
      WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!???
      Lulz

      Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      February 28, 2013 at 15:28

      Dude, somewhere in a previous life you must have done something bad to deserve downvotes for that

      Reply

    • Matthew Figueira

      February 28, 2013 at 15:33

      Wow… dafuq did all these downvotes come from? O_O

      Reply

  3. Tarisma

    February 28, 2013 at 14:59

    I must say dota is a lot more Noob friendly, its quite nice

    Reply

  4. Warren Ross

    February 28, 2013 at 15:12

    All stuff that League of Legends has had for years now. Valve missed a big opportunity to actually evolve the DotA “franchise”, but instead chose to almost perfectly recreate the original game, warts and all. When I picked up my DotA 2 key last year (having moved on from DotA to LoL), playing the game felt like a big step backwards. The initial nostalgia brought about by reconnecting with some of my favourite champs was quickly overcome by lots of questionable design decisions which did almost nothing to diminish the already steep learning curve.

    Reply

    • Ben S

      February 28, 2013 at 16:54

      “Questionable design decisions”? Such as?

      Reply

      • Warren Ross

        March 1, 2013 at 10:16

        1) Narrow field of view – it’s very difficult to see anything in DotA until it’s right on top of you. This was a limitation of the Warcraft 3 engine, rather than a direct design decision. This forced DotA players to develop a strong “map awareness”, as well as a means of shifting the camera around a lot to keep an eye out for enemy champs. With LoL, Riot Games realised that map awareness and the ability to out-position your opponents is a great game mechanic, so they evolved the system: you can hide in designated “brush” areas, which allowed the developers to keep both the ambush mechanics AND expand the camera field of view. It’s a much improved system: the claustrophobic perspective of DotA 2 feels archaic in comparison – it’s a shame they didn’t try something different.

        2) No surrender mechanism – LoL allows your team to throw in the towel if a game has gone the way of the Dodo. This is actually a great mechanic, meaning you can get out of a losing game and onto another match quickly. In DotA 2 you have little choice but to wait out defeat: if the other team wants to take their time maxing out their champs before they finally take your base down, there’s very little you can do about it. Having to play another hour of an already lost match is immensely frustrating.

        3) Too much emphasis on individual play – In DotA 2, a number of successful early ganks or a strong start in-lane can very easily result in a single player dominating entire groups of other players. The level gap widens very quickly, and with certain champs in particular it can be impossible to overcome them, even with a concerted team effort. In LoL, a player can dominate early on, but it’s no assurance that his team will win the game. Team-fight mechanics become far more important in the mid to late game, and even a heavily built and leveled champ will struggle against a well co-ordinated group. DotA 2 still makes too much allowance for one player to win the game all by themselves.

        4) Fewer counter mechanics – in LoL, if an opposing AP or AD champ is running away with kills, your team can counter by building the appropriate resistances, and many items include some sort of defensive/offensive bonus that is well thought-out and can create a build that is both sturdy and deadly. DotA 2 doesn’t allow for these sorts of direct counters. Sure, you can build a sheep stick, or a Linkin’s etc. but those items often work best on very specific types of champs, and building them means that you will have to neglect stuff that synergises with your own champ a lot better. LoL has a more balanced approach here.

        5) Multiple maps / game types – LoL has a 5v5, 3v3 and 5v5 Domination map, last I checked. Although the original 5v5 is the most popular, it’s cool to have the other options to try out.

        6) Recommended builds – LoL has had these from the beginning. It has always been possible to learn the mechanics of a new champ initially, without having to focus on the build at the same time. This is a much easier way to learn new characters.

        There are some others, but those are off the top of my head. I’m not trying to bitch that LoL > DotA 2 (though I do believe that), I’m rather just pointing out that Valve did very little other than take the original DotA and add a new graphical engine on top of it (and, arguably, Heroes of Newerth had already done that in all but name). I think they could have done a better job of adding additional refinements and new ideas to the formula.

        Reply

        • Kromas

          March 1, 2013 at 11:38

          LoL however has a much worse community to the point that I don’t even need to play it to drop my self esteem. I just need to think about it. Dota 2 has bad players but just try to avoid the Russians and you are set for a while before someone insults you.

          Reply

          • Warren Ross

            March 1, 2013 at 11:59

            Yes indeed, and that’s the only reason I don’t play LoL anymore. Although, I must be honest, I find the DotA 2 community just as bad. Online gamers in general haven’t done much to renew my faith in humanity. 🙁

          • Kromas

            March 2, 2013 at 12:07

            Play DayZ … you get equal parts renegade/paragon.

        • NoxvilleZA

          March 5, 2013 at 00:05

          1) As a person who’s played LoL, HoN, DotA and Dota 2, I really don’t get what you’re saying. Map awareness in pretty much every game is hugely significant, by creating a default field of vision that’s bigger than another game is perfectly fine, it’s not a case of it being strictly ‘better’ than another game. Any reasonable Dota team uses wards to provide vision in key spots around the map (LoL does this also – congrats), and the brush is effectively just a weaker form of smoke of deceit, with no downsides for failed gangs. Movement in both games is strictly important, and they do this in different ways. Congratulations for saying that you feel less claustophobic for seeing more – that’s a great point you have right there.

          2) Nobody has ever played an extra hour of Dota due to their opponents drawing the game out. Even people crushing don’t like hanging around. I think in the few thousand games of DotA and Dota 2 I’ve played, the most I’ve waited for a game to finish once my entire team gave up was around 5 minutes. At the same time, providing a surrender option means that very often a small early disadvantage, or something relatively minor in the early game leads to an entire saying “gg wp fucking noobs” and then quitting. Very often the game is far from over, and providing an easy way out means that most public games of Dota will be immediately called when one team gets ahead. In about 70% of the LoL games I’ve played one of the teams will surrender within 20 minutes.

          3) All games are about gaining and maintaining an advantage. What you’re essentially saying is that LoL is designed to counter that, to re-balance the game even if a team picked terrible early game heroes, and individual players ripped them apart. This falls in line with the low-cooldown, low mana-cost spamming spells that so many of the LoL heroes are about. Teams attempt to get a relative advantage, and then extend this. Teams that cannot actually teamfight due to being so far behind need to do other things to attempt to get back into the game, whether this is split push, ward aggressively and look for gangs or just farm their own jungle. The game of Dota is far from static, and there are very few assumptions you can make about a game of Dota going into it. Also, jesus “too much emphasis on individual play”??? Have you ever watched Counter Strike? Or Starcraft? Or Quake? Or even World of Warcraft Arena? Or pretty much any competitive single or multiplayer eSport ever? Individual skill is essentially the core skill in any team game. Sure – teamwork and synergy are also paramount, but not at the cost of individual skill. Good players do good things, this isn’t a bad thing, this is merely why they’re called good players. This also seems to counter your point above, as most of the time when someone is dominating early, the opponents will just surrender. How is that a possiblity given ‘.. a player can dominate early on, but it’s no assurance that his team will win the game’.

          4) ‘LoL has a more balanced approach here’. This is a ridiculous statement. Dota has many items that provide specific counters (to a type of strength). Things like Mekanism, Pipe, Medalion, Shiva’s Guard, Assault Cuirass, Desolator, Veil of Discord all have very specific reasons and roles to play in a game. Sure – if you drafted really badly then you’re in a very bad position to win the game, but this is no different to any other game where you have a bad strategy. The fact that you’re indicating that LoL is more balanced here probably means you don’t know enough about competitve Dota to make the assessment.

          5) DotA had -ar/-sd/-cd/-cm/-ap/-rd/-lm/-cp/-vr as basic game modes, with -dm/-id/-om/-nb/-nt/-sp/-mm as modifiers. That’s probably a few hundred game-mode combinations, although at the moment only a few have been implemented in Dota 2 as the others are not a primary concern. The game has, and always will be balanced around 5v5, and as a result, sure certain other match-ups may seem to be balanced (1v1/3v3).

          6) Dota 2 is still in beta. It’s a bit harsh to judge a game that’s still not officially out. Hero guides are available for heroes, and these include both Valve provided ones and community provided ones. Valve also has plans for a tutoring system for new players.

          [Your conclusion]. Valve’s primary goal for Dota 2 is to replicate the functionality of DotA within a new engine. Everything else at the moment is just an extra. The Warcraft 3 engine is indeed really old and dated piece of shit. Once it’s out of the beta you’ll have a more accurate picture of how it matches up to LoL, both in popularity, features and gameplay.

          Reply

  5. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    February 28, 2013 at 15:27

    n00b mode engaged. Now I can get it and not feel completely useless! Yay!

    Reply

  6. Skande

    February 28, 2013 at 15:53

    Awesome, read up on the tutorials and played 1 or 2 games but just couldn’t get the hang, hope this helps as with such a big fan base you will always have a live game to play. Have about 13 invites in my steam inventory…

    Reply

  7. caponeil

    February 28, 2013 at 15:56

    Dota is the perfect excuse to procrastinate. I have some copies as well if anyone still needs some!

    Reply

  8. Admiral Chief Erwin

    February 28, 2013 at 20:56

    DOTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

    Reply

  9. Alex [SS] PsyChoPanthis

    March 1, 2013 at 10:39

    im so keen to start playing again but now im moving and wont have net for gaming for a while :'( makes me sad panda

    Reply

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