The best mode for improving

[akitoes]

On your first few games you'll play AP of course but then you'll move on to other modes. Most people make the mistake of playing SD. Don't. SD is for psr farming and messing around.


If you want to improve the mode you'll want to play is :
RD
Always play RD when you can. It's the most balanced mode at the moment

[DenyTheTruth]

This is an opinion, not fact.

AP is balanced. Everyone has the same choices. SD is balanced, you get to choose from one of three heroes (str, agi, int), and you can switch around. RD is balanced. Everyone gets a random.

If you really want to discuss true randomness, put shuffle teams and force random on.

[akitoes]

it's not about the modes themselves, it's more about human behavior

join an average game of ap and you'll see what i mean

[IPlayForKeep]

it's not about the modes themselves, it's more about human behavior

join an average game of ap and you'll see what i mean


I have a feeling Deny has joinned an ap game before

[DenyTheTruth]

I have a feeling Deny has joinned an ap game before

LIAR!

I've joined (how many games have I played? minus roughly 15) AP games before in this game.

I typically don't play RD and SD because I don't like getting screwed by being forced to play heroes I'm not familiar with vs people who are familiar with far more heroes or have DotA Frozen Throne experience and are more versed in the game itself.

Having played Reign of Chaos I know how to play the game but I'm still at a disadvantage and am very much still a "noob". That's why I agreed to make this section.

My personal opinion is that learning is best done in AP where you can pick the same hero over and over and get good with them, then move on. If you want randomness, click on the dice.

[IPlayForKeep]

LIAR!

I've joined (how many games have I played? minus roughly 15) AP games before in this game.

I typically don't play RD and SD because I don't like getting screwed by being forced to play heroes I'm not familiar with vs people who are familiar with far more heroes or have DotA Frozen Throne experience and are more versed in the game itself.

Having played Reign of Chaos I know how to play the game but I'm still at a disadvantage and am very much still a "noob". That's why I agreed to make this section.

My personal opinion is that learning is best done in AP where you can pick the same hero over and over and get good with them, then move on. If you want randomness, click on the dice.


You have 261 matches played by the way

[Archemorus]

You have 261 matches played by the way

so he played 246 ap matches :)

[Distort3d]

SD imo.

3 choices and the ability to swap give you a very good way to better yourself :D

[guoguo]

SD and RD are the best imo. You often get stuck playing with or against the same 10-15 heroes when it's AP, not to mention you often end up with the dreaded 4-5 carry team. SD is a great way to see different heroes in action and learn new heroes and RD is a great for team play, teaching team roles, counter picks, hero synergy.

[Thysios]

I like AR. well did a lot when i started playing DotA. You will never get very good just playing the same hero You need to play all the heros, to be familiar which everyone's spells and learn exactly what they do. Which will take a lot longer if you never play them.

Ap if i feel like player a specific hero. Otherwise tend not to. I only play pubs atm and most noobs pick the 'OP' heroes in pubs. Scout etc

I no scout isn't OP but against pubs he isn't bad.

[Heridshire]

I don't think there is a "best", or optimal, mode to improve. Improve itself is a concept too vague. Improve your HoN knowledge in general? Improve your map awareness? Improve your gank skills?

I agree that when you play AP, you tend to pick the same bunch of heroes. That's bad for learning how to play with different heroes, obviously, but good to improve your teamwork, for instance. SD has the advantage of having the smaller pool of heroes, forcing you, most of times, to play with heroes you're not familiar with. Its good for some purposes, and bad for others. RD is ideal to learn a extremely important thing: how to pick. Since the pick is alternate, you end up learning which heroes are top-tier, which are mid-tier and which are low-tier.

I think AR is the worst, though. It forces random in a not balanced way, which often tends to screw the match, in a imbalanced way, favoring one lucky side. I like HoN because of the skill factor, not the luck one. So I'm not into AR.

But all that is just my humble opinion. And yes, I just finished reading a post-constructivist article, and that's why I'm so... constructivist.

[Tripwyr]

I had a good friend - we'll call him Denny - who told me that AP is the best mode for learning. I was inclined to agree, but I still think that RD is better.

RD I prefer because it forces you to learn not only how to counter pick, but also how to form synergy with your team. If you don't pick heroes who work well with your team, you lose.

We don't learn anything when we win, only when we lose. Pick the wrong hero, you lose. Lesson learned.

[protoculture]

I like SD over AP for learning because it stops you from being tempted to pick your best character. It also means that the other team can't automatically pick their best character and stomp you while you are trying to play something new. RA is good too but sometimes you get a character you really hate, so I think SD works out to be a happy medium.

[Stergeary]

This is an opinion, not fact.

AP is balanced. Everyone has the same choices. SD is balanced, you get to choose from one of three heroes (str, agi, int), and you can switch around. RD is balanced. Everyone gets a random.

If you really want to discuss true randomness, put shuffle teams and force random on.

I think you failed to distinguish between "balanced" and "fair". When people say that a game mode is balanced, it means that it retains the complexity that makes the game differentiate between strong and weak players, and the strong are rewarded for their correct gameplay decisions while the weak are punished for their incorrect ones. Fair, however, is achievable with a Coin Flip mode where the team who guesses correctly Heads or Tails wins the game. We would have the fairest 5 second games in the history of HoN.

AR is fair, but it's luck mode. It's not balanced because this method of hero selection does not reward the strong decision-maker, it throws him or her a random hero, and only the in-game decisions matter from that point on. This is a selection-space of one, which is no choice at all; with a pseudo secondary choice of repick.

SD is almost as bad, just three times less bad, which is still pretty bad. Instead of giving you a single random hero, it gives you three random heroes from each stratified population of Strength, Agility, and Intelligence heroes. Once again, your strength as a decision-maker is limited to the selection-space of size three.

Also, AR and SD are only "fair" within a match itself in the long run as an average of the total samples, as are all random events. A single AR game in which an enemy team randoms an unbelievably stronger team than yours is possible, as it is that the enemy team has unbelievably better choices than you in SD.

RD, however, has both you and your opponents select heroes from the same pool. This is where the fairness gets put into play. In every other game mode other than AP, you and your enemies have DISJOINT POPULATIONS of hero choices. You have no chance of randoming a hero your enemy has randomed, nor do you have a chance of repicking into one. Your SD pool of three heroes will also never overlap with an enemy's. RD is the only mode that rewards decision-making. Because truly, hero picks are as much of a determinant of a game as the gameplay itself, and you wouldn't want a game that PLAYS ITSELF FOR YOU BASED ON A COIN FLIP would you?

I didn't talk about AP because that game mode is about clicking really fast. I get enough practice of clicking really fast inside the actual game. That is to say, AP is retarded unless you're playing casually, otherwise expect the enemy to instapick their Dream Team in two seconds, if that.

[VyyyE]

I learned the game via SD. I can play every hero now except ones that require micro, I just can't be fuzzed getting used to the micro interface.

[Larpstah]

SD should be the best for learning the game, if you just purely want to buff your psr then ap/self hosted rd where you get to pick first/second before ppl in your team go for 1st pick nh or scout. :D Imo pubs dont develope skill as effectively as playing with friends/premade.

[_Archangel_]

When learning the game, pick one hero and stick with it, and master it. Thus AP is probably best to learn with.

[Lee_K]

RD is balanced. Everyone gets a random.

wat?

[akitoes]

The main problem with AP is : it's boring
At one point you will get bored seeing the same heroes + owning the crap out of everyone with arachna

So you move to another more diverse mode, which is for most people SD (because ar sucks lol)
And it's a lil bit less boring, but it's still flawed, because what are we going to do with the 3 heroes we get ? PICK THE BEST ONE LOL
In a sense it's like -ar.

It's still a fun mode and you can farm some psr on it, which is what i'm gonna start doing, but once you get enough psr to join RD games you should do it if what you're seeking is improvement

[migx]

I started playing dotA when EM wasn't available yet. And I do not recommend it.

AP's your best bet. Obviously you'll still playing in pubs so just go ahead pick whatever hero you like. Most importantly, don't stick with heroes who you already know. You'll find some similarities in some heroes and you'll be able to adjust to the game itself. You wont be like "ahhh wtf is this hero doing".

[cute]

I think you failed to distinguish between "balanced" and "fair".
is that you fox news?

[Decency]

I'm surprised no one has said it yet: I think the best mode for learning the game is Deathmatch. You are forced to play and encounter almost every hero every game. This means that you learn how to play as each hero and how to play against each hero, learning their spells and abilities, and their strengths and weaknesses. After you reach a certain skill and competency level, obviously Deathmatch isn't as useful because of the metagame differences between it and a standard game. If you haven't even learned each heroes spells, though, it's a huge aid to learning.

Unfortunately, the mode doesn't work in HoN yet. =/


In AP, most players don't understand the concept of teambuilding, so I find it next to worthless to play. A couple of my friends and I play AP specifically to pick a pushing team and down their throne in 20 minutes. We're 5-0 so far, even beating a couple of well-picked, balanced teams, and even the same pubstomp team twice (we didn't realize until after the second game, lol). If the opponents pick more than one carry, it's pretty much over before it even starts.

I don't know why people who play mostly AP tend to be dumber, but they are. With that said, both SD and RD give you good versatility of hero picks in addition to necessitating learning which are the best heroes, combos, and counters. And your team is much more likely to be well built.

[Sinz3r]

Here is my experience so far :

AP - Great for when you want to practice a certain hero, you can just pick them straight away. Usually the variety also means your teammates will "generally" pick a balanced team.

RD - Can be great mode for strategic play. However, in n00bland where I play, it is normally a frustrating exersize of if you get first pick you choose a top tier char and your other teammates all pick AGI carries. Or if you get last pick you are forced to take a support char, cos your other teammates decided to pick all STR tanks. You know you have lost from the start, good mode if you want to practice trying to make up for your team.

SD - This is a better mode than RD for n00bs. Usually everyone has to have a little organisation and pick something useful. I have found most players in this mode tend to have a little more communication. Good for when you want to try something new or have some interesting team match-ups.

RD is best suited to high level play IMO. At low levels it really is the worst mode for watching your team pick the most ridiculous hero combinations. Otherwise AP is good for when you have a specific hero you want to play, SD at all other times to have some interesting match-ups.

[nakke]

if you are totally now start with ap and play same hero to get understanding of the game. then play sd to get some random heroes, and then rd :=

[LightRain]

AP is not exactly balanced in that it can become a race to click on the best heroes. AP with alternate pick enabled is better. altAP doesn't really work as well for casuals because if only a few people are messing around or trying something new, the other team is more powerful by far in comparison to two RD teams or two SD teams. So I prefer RD and SD for inhouses where people want to have fun. The most balanced mode for actual play is obviously captain's mode (which is altAP with bans)

But balanced mode =/= best mode to improve in. When you want to learn a hero, learn where he is on the select screen, go join an AP game, glhf.