How to learn new heroes

[f4hy]

I never played DoTA but love this game. It has taken a while but I am finally decent with a few (~3) heroes. My problem is trying to learn a new hero I just feed like crazy, or contribute nothing to the team. I don't know how to get better at more heroes without playing tons of games first where my team is sure to lose.

I have read guides and such on many different heroes but that only gets you so far as experience appears to be needed to really play any hero well (guides can't give you a feel for the delay on attacks and spells to time things properly, or the range or area that spells affect.)

I know how frustrating it is to play with someone who does not know how to use their hero at all and feeds the enemy constantly. I do not want to be stuck just playing 3 heroes game after game, but unsure of a good way to get better at other heroes. Anyone have tips or suggestions on how to branch out and learn heroes that you currently suck at?

[Preacher]

One good way is to watch while you are playing with your good heroes. Watch other players, opponents or teammates alike, and what they do with the hero, you will then have a bit of an idea how everything works.

You could also fool around with the abilities in practice mode to get used to them. Other than that, you'll have to go to the good ol' fashioned practice practice practice.

Only so much can be learned outside the heat of the game. Just try to play conservative with new heroes you are using, even if you don't do well, your team usually will not be all that upset if you don't die constantly.

well id say watch replays , but well , replaysection doesnt work yet , so u maybe could try DotA , items/heroes/gameplay are not that different from HoN.

Or u ll just join <1400 games , so u ll get mates that are maybe on the same lvl as u....

well gl and hf in teh future

[InspecterJ]

I'm in the same boat as you and usually I'll practice with a new Hero's skills in practice mode just to get the hang of casting them. This, of coarse, doesn't help at all in a real game. Generally, I'll play noob only games with a new hero just cause everyone else has no clue what they're doing so yay for you. I still end up losing 100-200 PSR through out the process of learning a new hero. The downside of my method is that you also end up losing cause you're playing with morons.

One other way is to read up on a few Heroes and then just play single draft games. Hopefully you or someone that's willing to swap will have something you wanna try, but if not you might get something you're good at. At least this way the other team aren't all playing their best Hero.

I do get annoyed at it, the degree to which each Hero varies is both awesome and miserable. It's probably the best and worst thing about this game.

[sPloOsH]

I just play a hero in a 1v0 game and play around with last hitting, read all the abilities and try to think of what my perfect item build would be.... it's really not that hard.... most heros follow a mold..... ranged/early dps/crowd control/support/lane pusher, etc....

[KSteal4Lols]

I play a hero I want to try in practice mode, figure out his skills.

Then I pull up a guide for him to refer to while playing as him...the rest is just not being dumb and remembering how you've seen other players play him.

[noodle0117]

so this is what i do
1. play a hero im good at
2. if an enemy hero owns the game, play that hero on your next game
3. if you get owned playing your next game, the next time you play against the hero that owned u in your first game, choose the hero that owned u in the second...
and I really have no idea what im talking about...

[Blitzl0l]

Just play games with the ~3 heroes you know. When you get raped, watch every move the guy does who is raping you, his item build, how he ganks, etc... Play that hero until you can match that success or find another hero that rapes you worse than the one before.

Basically what the guy above me said, just in understandable terms.

[BL4CKDELTA]

Read some Guides
Try the Hero
Re-read the Guides
Play Again
Practice
Practice
Practice


oh, and don't care about your stats. Don't give up trying if you suck the 1st match with this hero.

[Zakariel]

Read some Guides
Try the Hero
Re-read the Guides
Play Again
Practice
Practice
Practice


oh, and don't care about your stats. Don't give up trying if you suck the 1st match with this hero.

This.

I recently tried Magebane and got too damn lucky in that I had an all right team, so I became pretty much an awesome, speedy little guy with great tanking and dps. Next game I played as Magebane, I died 5 times, instead of the 0 in the first game, and didn't even manage to get a warpcleft. It's really down to luck, or finding a good clan.

[Chamie]

Here are some serious tips for you...

First of all learning many new heroes doesn't always have to mean, play as many different heroes as possible.
I've recently started to play with some old friends in HoN who haven't played dota for a very long time, among us 4 there is a player who hasn't played any dota at all.
For him, every hero is new. However they have all managed to reach around 1800 PSR now in just 3 days.

This particular player chose to focus on only 1 hero which he plays almost always if it's AP (We play all kinds of modes though). By doing so he learn the gameplay easier since he only needs to focus on 1 role.
Now you might wonder, "How does this help me learn new heroes?".
Learning new herroes gets easier the more gameplay knowledge you posses.

By seeing how your opponents and allies play different heroes you will learn how they should be played and how they should not be played.
So my tip for you if you are totally new is to chose 1 hero that you play 50-70% of the games, the other 30-50% of the games you should play different heroes all the time.

If you wanna read about optimizing your HoN gameplay then I suggest you study competetive gameplay by either watching top skill dota clan war replays, or perhaps reading this gameplay guide I made:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?p=225144#post225144

[Meta]

I've been playing for about a month and have a really good understanding of a wide range of the heroes thanks to playing lots of SD. In SD, more likely than not, your opponents won't be as good with the heroes they pick than they would be in AP games. This makes for a good opportunity to pick heroes you've never played before, look up a few items on this forum, and see what happens. I've done pretty good with heroes I had literally never played before in SD games when my opponents haven't been on the top of their game.