Has anyone taught a friend to play HoN [Archive]

FuelCell

01-31-2011, 09:40 PM

Terukio

01-31-2011, 09:47 PM

I have a friend that I have been teaching for months now and he is basically in the same position as your friend now. He is realllllly bad and has no map awareness either. I think if you're just slow in real life then HoN isn't the game for you ;)

ipwntbarney

01-31-2011, 09:55 PM

i have a friend that started out as total trash, but is slowly getting better (he still sucks).
the biggest thing that makes a difference is how open minded they are. if they are unwilling to admit that they suck and that *they* are the reason that they lose, then you probably aren't going to make very much progress.

Serris

01-31-2011, 09:55 PM

If you know the friend IRL it's a lot easier to stand behind them while they play and give them advice. Most important thing is to just keep your patience, because there are a lot of intricacies that seem obvious to us but not to them.

Terukio

01-31-2011, 10:01 PM

Okay well I do have to say he has gotten a little better over the course of his play time. (900 PSR to about 1200 currently) However he just never admits he is the reason he loses or that he isn't willing to accept the fact that he IS bad so he WONT get better. I will admit I started out suckish like every noob, but I was willing to put in the time and came out better. Browsing the forums just does so much for you minus the trolls. Watching a competitive game here and there also helps but wont too much if you're that low in PSR because no one else plays like that anyways lololololol

01-31-2011, 10:18 PM

my friend taught me how to play i hated hon at first, but once i got my first kill i enjoyed it enough to bother myself to get better, and now im a dog. but i would say i got decent enough to be self-sufficient after about a week of playing with him and asking questions.

DontPicnic

01-31-2011, 10:33 PM

Honestly was better off playing on my own then having my friend teach me.
Now teaching another friend of mine, my palm hasn't left my face. Just figure it out yourself, it really isn't that impossible

haz3y

01-31-2011, 10:47 PM

i tried to teach my friend how to animation cancel.
it made him worse:GlovesOfTheSwift:

`x`

01-31-2011, 11:11 PM

my friend taught me, now im higher psr

FuelCell

01-31-2011, 11:34 PM

my friend taught me, now im higher psr
why you stalking me x

xisT

01-31-2011, 11:41 PM

Sorry bro

MiniDon

02-01-2011, 12:55 AM

I taught a friend,...... its just whether they listen or not....... also get him to play 100 nostats games. tellhim random everygame, you see a hero you like boom play him 10 games straight. read guides, try different items on the hero and all, then make him play with that hero in some stats, his psr should improve.

After tell him the rules in hon........ Never wonder alone, never go without sight... never cross the river alone when 45+ mins in.... if you see someone about to get ganked warn him and do everything you can, but not to suicide, when he notices some ppl are just dead and he cant do anything for them then he will back, tell him things like dude.. if you dont see 1 hero for more that 20 secs get the crap back to a tower... example if mid goes missing there should be a mia, if he doesnt come back between 15-20 seconds tell him to get the fack back to the tower and stay there, not to go to the base because they might spot him and kill him.

Map awareness comes from trial and error..... tell him dude this hero is missing, if he dies go ahead and say see be more careful, whenever a hero is mia its dangerous.. if he dies again and again and again just keep telling him the same, keep telling him that if he doesnt play smart hes just going to die..

Its not that hard, its just frustrating... tell him to read guides they help alot, also u could tell him to watch 1 or 2 pro players play.. and you could watch the replay with him and tell him see right now he backs because he sees hes mia.. or he moves in because of this and that.. it doesnt matter if you lie to him.. like if chu plays really aggressive and u dont know why just tell him thats what he does and thats his style of play or just tell him he noticed the other hero had no regen.. stuff like that

Brodamonium

02-01-2011, 01:22 AM

Taught 5 RL friends of mine, took a while and they were horribad to begin with, in fact I thought one of my mates wouldn't even pick the game up .. ever (he ended up best of us all) we're all fairly decent ~1600-1700 rating now. Payed off and Team MM is fun. Stick to helping him.

BabaGanoush

02-01-2011, 01:35 AM

friends taught me, after a couple weeks i was on my own, playing with them and all but the learning was done, all about experience after that. Now ive been trying to teach my cousin for the past few months, just doesnt get good at all. Stuck in the 1400s and hes just really bad. I play some 1v1s with him so that he can learn the basics of judgement when to back or when to attack, and it just doesnt seem to sink in. Some people are just hopeless, others catch on really fast.

NoskillzNils

02-01-2011, 02:10 AM

taught 2 friends, one of them is decent, the other is deadewood :/

Dorathor

02-01-2011, 02:13 AM

I've taught many friends, boosted them, still teaching them and playing with them all the time. The game is just much better when you have someone special <3

dEph_

02-01-2011, 03:13 AM

Honestly you have to really immerse yourself in the game to even get to a decent level. My friend intro'd me to the game and I had no DotA background and it was pretty rough. And my friend only played EM at the time and taught me Scout as the first hero! lol

I pretty much had to read every HoN guide i could find, from warding to laning, map awareness to jungling.
I spent a good 3 months or so where I found a guide on a hero; how to play them and what to buy then played that hero for about 5-6 games straight. And just did this with every hero.
I kept a spreadsheet that listed suggested skill builds and item builds for each hero in the game and i would edit this spreadsheet every time i found something that worked better.
I watched VoD after VoD of competitive games and this was when the only things available were QuC|Angel's youtube vids a handful of gamereplays.org vods and the ones from the aussie site (name i dont remember)

And really only after putting in this effort am i comfortable playing any hero now and can change my skill or item builds on the fly confident that i know what im doing.

Shinzuwa

02-01-2011, 10:43 AM

Teaching friends can be very frustrating at times. Even very simple things like always carry a tp can takes games for them to grasp why it's good. And then twice as many games before they start to carry tp reliably. Just don't lose temper or anything like that. When you feel like you've pointed the same thing out enough times for one game then put it at rest and start nagging about it next game.

It takes time and patience, but sooner or later it will pay off.

Myzzrym

02-01-2011, 11:32 AM

Taught Voice2, he had never played any DotA before nor similar games, and now he's around 1650+ PSR, so I guess he's fine.

All it takes is the right mentality, tell him to keep cool, keep cool yourself, don't worry about losses as it is part of the game (and that you have to impart to him as well so he doesn't get frustrated if he keeps on losing), and congratulate him when you see he has improved.

A smile and a helping hand is all a newbie needs to get better. An angry face and raging at him will put him on par with every troll of HoN.

Okuu

02-01-2011, 11:56 AM

I taught you, op

FuelCell

02-01-2011, 03:09 PM

HoNPro1337

02-01-2011, 05:26 PM

My friend tried to teach me like a month ago, we played like 2 games and he told me to get better and then play with him.. had to go through the struggle of being called a noob every game for like 100 games, not as bad now but he still wont play with me ahha. Recently though I've got my friend to get the game and hes even worse than me but he admits hes bad..

KillBei

02-01-2011, 05:56 PM

Yep, I'm on Skype with my friend who plays. I would not do it if he raged though. That'd be plain old annoying when it's so obvious that it just results from his own failures. We try to lane together if possible but it is not always. He does better when I am there to yell stuff (usually "BACK!!!" or "STUN STUN STUN NOW NOW. OK RUN RUN"... etc.) Just don't expect to win games when you're with a noob (not easily anyway, and definitely don't pick support =P) It's fun to laugh at how bad some of the people around his rating are though. A good way to remind you how far you have come.

He got a hat trick yesterday (his first ever). So he got a "Grats" for that one. He is improving slowly, just needs practice. =]

FelipeCosta

02-02-2011, 01:38 AM

All my friends have quit due to life obligations or a ***** wife. But we used to have four guys who played all the time and one friend who would play when he just wanted to hang out with us. In the last ten years, he has only played Halo or Call of Duty. Absolutely zero RTS experience or even computer-gaming experience.
Us teaching him dota/hon basically went one of two ways.
1. "Get Skeleton King."
2. "Get Kraken." "HIT R HIT HIT R **** WHY DIDN'T YOU HIT R???? IT'S SO DAMN EASY."

Typhy

02-02-2011, 02:05 AM

I've taught about 3 people. One of them is now actually incredibly good, the other two not so much. The good one is on par, if not better than me (He can actually mid and carry unlike me, but I'm such a better supporter and babysitter) while the other two are like 1300psr ragers that don't learn very well.

Easiest way to make some learn is often praise. They get a kill alone? Say Nice Job or something. Saved you? Say thanks and that it was a good play. Got a good ult off? Tell them that was perfect and to do that every time. It turns into a habit at one point, and now I say "Nice" or something like 20 times a game. They've actually told me they enjoy it when I say they did a nice job.

Okuu

02-02-2011, 08:32 AM

I got taught by [Bor]Xevro
Kudo to him

Myzzrym

02-02-2011, 08:36 AM

If they DON'T want to learn than whatever you do won't help you teach them.

You cannot teach anything to someone who doesn't want to learn.

KhiNo

02-03-2011, 08:09 PM

some people are just not capable of playing these types of games. you'll see when you start to teach a friend, if he's willing to learn or not... teach them about basic lane tactics, last hit, deny, creep pull, regen, wards/counters. then give them a recommendation of a hero of what they can do best. tell them about what items to start off with and be sure to explain WHY. once they can master the first 10-15 minutes of the game, then they can start learning about map awareness/control, item building, ganking. stuff like that. A lot of people know what to do to a certain point, then they start to make poor judgements and throw all their hard work away. You have to teach them and give them examples about what to do in certain times/moments.

Kudryavka

02-04-2011, 12:15 AM

I taught my brother to play. He's 1550 MMR after a couple months.

Vulpes

02-04-2011, 12:26 AM

I taught Kudro to play. He's still terrible but somehow got 1800 PSR.
RL Mates taught me how to play DotA, but I'm better than they are now )

Kraphty

02-04-2011, 12:35 AM

I introduced many friends to HoN. I originally brought DotA to the boarding school I went to. And all my friends and I stuck together. So I introduced them to HoN. The one who was a natural gamer is now equal if not better than me. (Though with my last game I think i'm 3 MMR higher :P )

You probably know ur friend the best, so you will be able to see how quick he will learn. Some people don't have the overall mental awareness to always be working with the various skills needed (i'm not even there).

My successful actions are validating their wins. If they play pyro and build a codex, but get some kills in the 1300 rating and enjoy it, go ahead. The more fun they have, the quicker they will improve. Also, if they read the forums, it tends to reduce the time taken to improve by an exponential rate.

Magicshmop

02-04-2011, 12:52 AM

I learned this game (dota) in a few months because I had very solid competition in a LAN setting. When I hopped online for the first time, I was already leauges better then everyone else who I played with.

The biggest thing for teaching someone new is to give them motivation to do it themselves. Present the resources to get better(guide links, videos), but make them reach for it themselves.

Kudryavka

02-04-2011, 01:26 AM

I taught Kudro to play. He's still terrible but somehow got 1800 PSR.
RL Mates taught me how to play DotA, but I'm better than they are now )
I'm pretty sure I carried you last time we played <3.

Crypto_23

02-04-2011, 01:31 AM

I introduced HoN to my friend and he liked it so he bought it...I tried to teach him the stuff that I know... but it didn't really turn out that well.

Gesus

02-04-2011, 02:15 AM

i'd say you just tell him what hes doeing wrong when he dies. when he doesnt get the kill etc. let him develop his own playstyle and correct himi if needed.

Summonabatch

02-04-2011, 04:45 PM

I was taught how to play by a few friends of mine who were really into DOTA. The game looked cool, so I jumped in. I mean watch every honcast, read guides, play a million games, and always talk about it kind of jump in. I'd say I'm pretty good, my subaccounts usually float up to around 1650ish. My biggest problem is that I am only good on a semi-limited number of heroes. Case in point, don't let me carry a damn thing, but you'll love me if I'm sitting.

It was nice having a group to play with because we could do stuff like 2 v 2 inhouse games just to learn the ropes.

iSex67

02-04-2011, 06:12 PM

Well... Brought 3 friends to DotA then to HoN.

One of them is doing ok right now.
There is one that plays only a few heroes and really sucks with some of them, I try to convince him to not take carries because he can't last hit but .. "NIGHT HOUND HEHEHE"

The last one is so terrible .. Only heroes he plays are: Rampage, Dark Lady, Tempest or Gauntlet. And always get boots as first item. One year I'm playing with him, I tried everything. I rage so much that I yell on Skype every evening, but what the ****, I yell so much that he should understand that he sucks since I tell that he's bad every two seconds when he does a mistake. His actions are so illogical, his style makes no sense !

The fact is, when he's playing with me, since I know him in real life, he thinks it's a funny game and that it doesn't matter if we win or not, but I can't stand this kind of behavior. "HEHEHE GAME ARE FOR FUN I WANNA FUN LOLO LO LOL OL BOOTS RAMPAGE DAMAGE HIHI"

Thanks God, sometimes, he buys some wards or a courier. He's sticking to 1400 PSR right now, but oh god ..

Zenit

02-07-2011, 11:09 AM

I taught my lil bro to play HoN
First we played HoN with the LAN version
Then i liked the game and purchased it
I played hon for about 3 months when i explored that we can use 1 account to play both (acc. glitch bug, fixed for now)
then he liked the game and purchased his own acc
we were playin a lot together , first we started on 1300-1400 psr now 1700 he plays mm too , i cant cuz of leave % :/
now he plays decent, it took me to teach him and myself about half year .. (i still need to improve my gaming)
btw we both raging a lot:D cuz of fails
he has still map awarness and general farming & teamfight problems
and the biggest problem that we cant really harmonize our abbilities for example we played a gladiator and andromeda lane and we had very big problems to untite comet and pitfall = almost dead enemy ..
i still playin sometimes pub games with him

QuagsireIn3D

12-06-2011, 03:27 AM

I had been playing DotA but the my brother said that HoN was a lot better. So i tried it out and died about 15 times with 0-3 kills EVERY GAME. When i got down on 1300 psr, i quit HoN, and went back to DotA.😱 2 years later i still had HoN on my pc, so i decided to give it a try again. And i actully did pretty good! So i learned one of my friends to play it, and we play 2v2 all the time now. We are about 1550-1650. :)

Faint2k

12-06-2011, 06:31 AM

Got a friend who started in this weekend, he have barely played dota.

Ward trapped like a boss the 2nd day. He even wardtrapped 2ppl in the same trap without SOTM

deathz0r

12-06-2011, 09:17 AM

I have a clan of friends we are usually 3 to 5 playing depending on free time and all that... I've taught them all the intrinsic details that I know about hon(I'm not that skilled but been playing this game a lot so at least I know) and lately I've seen they try to ward more often, sometimes fail wards but wards at least.

When I rage is when the picks happen, I believe I'm a good drafter but since not all of them are legacy and don't have a lot of heroes/are good with they always buy carries and when I hardcore support for them they fail when the other team is decent, horrible judge calls, awfull farm, positioning etc.

Yet when I play carry I have to stomp hard cuz they being so unaware of a lot of stuff makes them play even worst initiators, supports. usually if we get to lategame we lose xD.

wouldn't change it though, playing with them on TS is actually fun and *most* of the times we laugh about our fsckups xD

BaneElement

12-06-2011, 12:35 PM

new_slang`

12-06-2011, 12:54 PM

my whole clan exists out of irl friends, just play with them and give them tips. if they want to get better and learn the game they will.

since hon went f2p everyone started playing and i have to teach more people every now and then. but its fine, im not teaching alone so its not like ill have to play with them 24/7. just keep switching teachers

CernD

12-06-2011, 01:16 PM

Way too time consuming. I'm working and can't be bothered investing hours doing that. I'd rather have real fun playing a good game alone.

FrostCloud

12-06-2011, 04:19 PM

I met my 1st friend in a game of 3v3 where he was :devo: and missing his hooks failing with the decay etc, while I destroyed their team with :silh:.

I taught him the basics of MIA/SS calling and hero choices and after a few months he is really good, he was a 1200 player but now a 1500, he can now play 'most' heros beside the odd heros and everyone favourite :scou:.

I don't know him IRL but it is nice if he likes to comunicate and talk.

I taught him to ward and all the basics.

But I havent yet taught him so more 'advanced' stuff like using Fog to your adavtange and he still ridiciously buys the worst item set for starting:
:Marchers: + Runes/Mana/HP Pot

but he is getting there. Just suggest to him a few heros that suits his play style.

My friend is now addicted to :arma: and win 100% with it !!!

Katieeee

12-06-2011, 05:01 PM

No, not good enough to do a full-on teaching yet. I hope to someday though!

But in the meantime, if I have a game where I do very well, I'm often in the mood to pick up someone who did poorly in that game and we go to a no stats and I help them with a few tips and such to help them improve a bit. ^^

Gilaiir

12-06-2011, 08:04 PM

Yeah, I learned a buddy HoN, together with another friend of mine.

Hes now around 1600 (a lil less then me) but he still fails at not killstealing as a support or map awereness and warding.

But hey, hes getting there...

londoahv

12-06-2011, 09:20 PM

Were you successful? Is he a good player? How long did it take?

My friend and I have been playing Hon/DoTa in and out the problem is he rages a lot and has very bad map awareness and wont admit it. Should I just give up on teaching him because it is very stressful to be in a game with someone who rages all the time and calls people noobs and bad when he is stuck in 1300/1400 rating

Don't give up. What i did when i taught a friend to play HoN (well started right before HoN with dota) was to get him to play supports that can score kills, like Plague Rider (Lich and Dazzle in dota). He played him like normal hero but i forced him to ward. About a week after he had been warding he was quite aware of what was going on in the map because i used to shout at him to ward mid for me when ward ran out :D. I now babysit him if were playing together.

What i suggest you to do though, is not to play constantly with him. Play a game or two every few days with him and just tell him what he should have done or what he did wrong. If you play with him too often he will become reliant on you to win the games.

TheWikedEnd

12-07-2011, 12:00 AM

Now op knows what every E mentor feels like lol

SupportAngel

12-07-2011, 07:39 AM

I got taught by a friend and now I'm 1714 mmr. Never played any dota or lol before that, but I think he is happy he taught me cuz now he has a support in every game :)

Coolica

12-07-2011, 11:20 AM

Honestly in any game I've played I haven't had to teach any of my close rl friends how to play, simply because I don't make retarded, dumbass friends. Not saying they're all geniuses, but they all have common sense and logical though patterns.

If I met someone irl who isn't at least 1650+ after learning the game, chances are I probably don't want to be friends with them irl either. (And what I mean by learning the game is that it shouldn't be very hard to teach them at all since they aren't think-headed or stupid.)

I have mentored someone before though, and the guy was very open to advice and he improved by about 200-300 in rating.

FinalChapter

12-07-2011, 11:33 AM

Hey fuel! long time no see!

ChewyCat

12-07-2011, 12:01 PM

Taught my girlfriend back in dota 'cause she wanted to join me. Doesn't take too long; just teach basics and it really just is learned through practice. She's ~1780 mmr, but only plays plague rider and demented shaman mostly :P Very poor map awareness but listens well and is now great at babysitting (harassing, denying, warding constantly)