View Full Version : Player Help Guide
I'll be posting stuff here to help you guys get better and have better games.
Who am I?
I'm Murs, I have played DotA for a very long time. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the game and at least above the average pub player.
Here's the start of my help guide.
1. Understand your role and hero. Not every hero is meant to be a carry. If you're not very good and want to help your team out immensely at the start you can buy yourself a monkey (chicken) and share it with your team.
Carry heroes farm, gank when it is necessary and should be given the hero kills for the most part. Examples of carry heroes are Night Hound, Chronos.
Support heroes should buy wards, place them in strategic areas, and generally help the carry heroes farm. Examples of support heroes: Glacius, Tempest.
Gankers should start helping the team gank before level 6, especially mid lane. Gankers typically have a special skillset that allows them to either kill a hero quickly with nukes or disable them, or both. Examples of gankers are Pharoh and Pebbles.
2. Carry a teleportation stone (or whatever its called) around with you always. Good use of the tp can save your hero from a gank, can prevent a tower push, the benefits of holding this item are many. I always carry a tp around with me.
3.Organize ganks and teamfights. There are clearly heroes that should be focused, disabled, or ganked. Try to communicate with your team and work something out so you have a set plan when you attack.
4. Ward and counterward. If nothing else, at least ward the river so that people can't gank easily from the river, and so you can get runes. Buying wards and placing them helps immensely with ganking, and positioning teamfights.
Helpful links
http://nadota.com/2009/04/making-the-jump-climbing-from-mid-skill-games-to-high-level-play/
This posts a lot of common sense stuff any good dota player should know, however many of you could use some work. 99% of this stuff is relevant to HoN too, so it's a good read.
http://www.na-ihl.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1572
More of the same, still a good read.
I really do want people to learn and get better in HoN, ask me any questions that you have and I'll do my best to answer them. You can repost questions from the other thread too, I don't mind.
Delta5
05-28-2009, 07:46 AM
heres maybe a stupid question
perhaps a break down of which characters are hero killers/support and so on?
heres maybe a stupid question
perhaps a break down of which characters are hero killers/support and so on?
Ok.
Lots of heroe's can be classified as multi-role, that is they can carry/gank or support/gank, etc, but i'll do my best to classify each now.
2 more roles to be aware of are tanks and initiators. Tanks can do decent or more damage or stun while being incredibly hard to kill, making them particularly annoying in teamfights. Initiators should be the ones to start teamfights and set them up for others.
Night Hound - Carry. This hero's skillset enables him to perform above other heroes should he have a good early/midgame.
Swiftblade - Carry.
Magebane - Carry.
Moon Queen - Carry.
Wildsoul - Psuedo-Carry.
Blacksmith - Support/Ganker. His unique skillset helps not only his team but makes him a good ganker as well.
Thunderbringer - Support/Mostly Ganker - His nuke skillset can help him take down lower hp heroes early-midgame very easily, he's a good ganker and he can support lategame as well.
Pollywog Priest - Gank/Support. This hero's skillset can help him gank other heroes, disable, summon wards, and he even has a nuke. This guy has it all.
Pyromancer - Gank/Support. She can kill almost any hero midgame in a 1v1 situation.
Tempest - Gank/Support. His skillset enables him to lane well, or farm jungle well. He can gank with his unique stun and blackhole is nothing to mess with.
Armadon - Tank. His abilities allow him to be a great tank, and helps teamfights immensely with spam quills and his slow.
Behemoth - Ganker/Support. His stuns are great in ganks and once he farms blink there's not much else he really needs itemwise.
Hammerstorm - Carry/Ganker. His targeted stun allows him to be a decent ganker, however he can carry, sometimes.
Jereziah - Support. He is a healer similar to armadon.
Legionaire - Ganker/Tank/Initiator - This hero is fairly strong in lane, but when he gets his blink he becomes a beast.
Pebbles - Ganker - His skillset can take down a hero very quickly, similar to Pyro.
Keeper of the forest - Tank/Initiator/Semi-Carry - He can initiate, some-what carry, and help out the team greatly.
Scout - Carry/Ganker - This unique hero can gank, and carry.
Nymphora - Hard Support/Gank - This hero can be a decent ganker with her ulti, silence/stun, and aoe, but her main job is to support.
Zephyr - Carry.
Predator - Carry.
Chronos - Carry.
Slither Carry/Gank. Slither is a very powerful ganker and in teamfights with his aoe and targeted poison, and powerful slow. He can also somewhat-carry with items, but his main job is ganking.
Blood Hunter - Carry.
Soul Stealer - Carry.
Defiler - Carry. This hero is unique in that it's an int hero and it can carry. Basically cheap hp items and some phase boots on this hero and it can destroy entire teams in teamfights.
Glacius - Hard Support/Gank. This hero supports the team greatly with her global aura, and with her stun and slow she can gank too. I like to get a blink dagger on her.
Hellbringer - Hard Support. This hero can do decent in teamfights and support his teammates fairly well.
Demented Shaman - Hard Support.
Voodoo Jester - Hard Support/Gank.
Torturer - Carry/Gank/Support. This hero can perform many roles, similar to Defiler however a little less item dependent.
Accursed - Support. He is a healer.
Devourer - Ganker. This hero should go around taking out other heroes early-midgame with his hook/devour combo.
Pharoh - Ganker - This hero is very good at taking down other heroes early-midgame with his disable, ministun, and global nuke.
Pestilence - Tank/Gank. This hero has a stun, and with his ulti and bash can take down any melee hero 1v1 midgame.
Warbeast - Carry.
Arachna - Carry.
Madman - Carry.
Dark Lady - Support/Gank.
Puppet Master - Gank/Support.
Electrician - Support/Gank.
Kraken - Gank.
Straith
05-28-2009, 01:19 PM
The biggest problem I have is power leveling and gold farming like the pros do. I am aware of last hit and staying near your creeps as they fight, but that just doesn't seem to cut it. Am I missing out on something??
Carry a tp stick with you always. Gank early, and get herokills early. The "pros" that have more gold/and levels than you probably ganked and won more teamfights than you.
warpzealot
06-03-2009, 05:17 AM
Farming well is a combination of all those things. It just all adds up. Good players will last hit TONS of creeps while getting good ganks off. They will also take minimal damage while laning and carry sufficient regen to stay in a lane to farm longer. On top of all this, they creep pull, and know when to neutral creep during down times. You have to be able to avoid a gank, but not be spooked off too early to not be able to farm enough during mid game as well. All these little things add up into big items later on.
Oh and hero pick is pretty critical in this one, I feel. Heroes with spammable AoE damage spells or heroes with cleave can farm up a storm. Attack animation, range or melee, and speed of the projectile matters when last hitting.
Teams should usually consist of 1 carry, 1 strength/tank, and 3 support/gank. The tank and gankers should go around killing the enemy while giving as many of the kills to the carry as possible. The idea is to feed your carry early so that they can buy items that make their late game heroes shine. You can also just leave your carry to farm farm farm; just make sure you can win team fights without the carry. If you have too many carries (MORE THAN ONE IS TOO MANY) the two carries have to compete for gold and your ganking party loses its effectiveness.
Farming well is a combination of all those things. It just all adds up. Good players will last hit TONS of creeps while getting good ganks off. They will also take minimal damage while laning and carry sufficient regen to stay in a lane to farm longer. On top of all this, they creep pull, and know when to neutral creep during down times. You have to be able to avoid a gank, but not be spooked off too early to not be able to farm enough during mid game as well. All these little things add up into big items later on.
Oh and hero pick is pretty critical in this one, I feel. Heroes with spammable AoE damage spells or heroes with cleave can farm up a storm. Attack animation, range or melee, and speed of the projectile matters when last hitting.
Teams should usually consist of 1 carry, 1 strength/tank, and 3 support/gank. The tank and gankers should go around killing the enemy while giving as many of the kills to the carry as possible. The idea is to feed your carry early so that they can buy items that make their late game heroes shine. You can also just leave your carry to farm farm farm; just make sure you can win team fights without the carry. If you have too many carries (MORE THAN ONE IS TOO MANY) the two carries have to compete for gold and your ganking party loses its effectiveness.
eh i hardly ever go heroes with cleave or get a bfury, there's almost always better items to get for heroes.
if you want to farm creep waves fast radiance is probably a much better decision early (before 30).
2 carries isn't that bad, however any more and i agree that they will have to compete with gold.
my ideal team is a lot different from yours too.
1-2 carries.
2 gankers.
1 hardcore support.
1 initiator.
what do you mean by a carry? What is the carry role...Is he a hero that needs items or something? I think I get that they "carry" the team...But in what way do they carry the team?
Animosity
06-30-2009, 11:49 PM
I'm new to this type of game, thank you for taking the time to share some beginning knowledge. Another resource I found somewhat helpful is the Art of DotA: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=151015 however it gets sort of carried away with the philosophical side of battle which is not relevant to an intermediate player.
KoL: "Carry" heroes seem to be the ones that dictate the tempo/direction of the game. Be it a tower takedown or a barracks raid, or a deep territory gank. They are capable of spearheading any of these maneuvers, mostly because they have the highest damage output in the hands of a knowledgeable player.
lightzout
07-02-2009, 07:23 PM
Bookmarked this guide for future reading before I delve into the game later. I like playing support roles. The beat aspect of multiplayer gaming is when a more cohesive, cooperative team can overcome a losing battle by remaining cool and not folding under pressure. I really look forward to buying a chicken. Or a monkey.
When i try to join a game that a friend is in, i get the message "No Response from the server", and i cant join or create any games... I dont understand the problem. Can someone help me please? I contacted support and did what they asked me to do, and the problem still is not fixed.
When i try to join a game that a friend is in, i get the message "No Response from the server", and i cant join or create any games... I dont understand the problem. Can someone help me please? I contacted support and did what they asked me to do, and the problem still is not fixed.
try checking your firewall settings, router, security, etc.
post your computer specs here.
kosta1
07-04-2009, 08:06 PM
what do you mean by a carry? What is the carry role...Is he a hero that needs items or something? I think I get that they "carry" the team...But in what way do they carry the team?
From what I know a carry is a hero that is really dependant on items, if the hero gets the items in time he will be nearly unstoppable and spearheads every attack. However if he gets killed several times and doesn't get enough gold he isn't really powerful. That's why it's important for the carry to get the most kills possible.
Alhanalem
07-04-2009, 09:03 PM
carryYou start your guide to new players off with a word they likely don't know the meaning of. You might want to explain what carry means.
(btw, take a close look at glacious, he does not look like nor sound like a female)
Terroric
07-04-2009, 09:18 PM
You start your guide to new players off with a word they likely don't know the meaning of. You might want to explain what carry means.
(btw, take a close look at glacious, he does not look like nor sound like a female)
This isn't the first person to call Glacious a she... Now I want to go in and check, but I'm pretty sure it's a dude!