Noob-friendly heroes

[Voidi]

Just a quick list of Heroes new players should pick to actually help their team winning and not feed uselessly. Note that this is entirely my opinion and by no means undebatable.

Favourable traits of these heroes should be:

a) no excessive need for gold (read: hard carries)
b) a decent survivability, good range or an escape skill to avoid feeding
c) easy and straightforward gameplay
d) at least of some use for the team


Noob-friendly:

Agi

Moon Queen
Arachna
Swiftblade
Blood Hunter

Int

Thunderbringer
Plague Rider

Str

Armadon
Accursed
Electrician

Somewhat advanced:

Agi

Zephyr
Magebane
Andromeda
Slither
Madman

Int

Blacksmith
Nymphora
Defiler
Demented Shaman
Torturer
Succubus
Soul Reaper
Pyromancer

Str

Hammerstorm
Pebbles
Keeper of the Forest
Legionnaire
Predator
Pestilence
Magmus
War Beast


Require some experience:

Agi

Scout (Yes, there are few good scouts. Very, very few.)
Valkyrie
Chronos
Soulstealer
Dark Lady
Sand Wraith
Wildsoul

Int

Glacius
Pollywog Priest
Tempest
Voodoo Jester
Puppet Master
Hellbringer
Wretched Hag

Str

Behemoth
Jeraziah
Pandamonium
Devourer
Kraken
Pharao
Maliken


Don't even consider:

Ophelia
Night Hound

__________________________________________

I'm aware that every hero's capabilities depend on the player and his team, and this order does not attempt to indicate a ranking of power or usefulness of the heroes in general, but rather their potential of successfully integrating a new/bad player into his team.
Also, maybe the most important advice:

IF MORE EXPERIENCED PLAYERS IN YOUR TEAM ASK YOU TO PICK A CERTAIN HERO BECAUSE THE TEAM WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM IT, DO IT IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT YOU CAN PLAY HIM WELL. DO NOT EGO-PICK.




Hope this helps.

Regards

[Volshok]

I would swap Nighthound and Wildsoul. Nighthound isn't that hard to play, but newer players find it difficult (imo) to control multiple units at once.

[Heridshire]

I think he means the timing to throw the smoke screen, and maybe the fact that most newbies when play him get careless.

Nonetheless, this will make some people's life much easier.

[Voidi]

I put Night Hound on bottom tier because, in my opinion, he is the least useful hero in team fights currently ingame. I know he's not too hard to play, but even a good player will have trouble doing much except killstealing after placing his cloud right, and I want noobs to stay away from this hero as he will drastically reduce their chances of winning.

[Tripwyr]

I put Night Hound on bottom tier because, in my opinion, he is the least useful hero in team fights currently ingame. I know he's not too hard to play, but even a good player will have trouble doing much except killstealing after placing his cloud right, and I want noobs to stay away from this hero as he will drastically reduce their chances of winning.

Dude please stop giving people this awful advice.

Night hound is one of the best team-oriented carries in the game. He is an agility carry who has a silence about the same size as Defiler's. So not only is he capable of shredding the enemy team, he also has enormous utility.

[Volshok]

Night hound is one of the best team-oriented carries in the game. He is an agility carry who has a silence about the same size as Defiler's. So not only is he capable of shredding the enemy team, he also has enormous utility.

I agree with this. I also don't think he is very difficult to use. While smoke screen may have some delay on it's cast, it's a large area like he mentioned.

[Voidi]

Night Hound is not a true carry, merely a ganker. His main DpS comes from Backstab, his farming is mediocre at best and his survivability noneexistant due to his incredibly easily counterable Ultimate. Any team that is capable of buying a ward or dust will destroy him as soon as he gets in cloud range.
If used properly and IF NOT COUNTERED, his cloud can be good, but not gamebreaking, and the rest of the hero is just too bad to be a valuable addition to any team.
There is no hero I have seen noobs fail with more than this one, except maybe the old Scout. I don't want them to be flamed for picking NH, although they deserve it.

[Drasha]

Pure opinion with no logic behind it pretty worthless post.

[Diffusion]

You need skill to kill jack with scout?

Come on, a scout with no assists, electric eye at level 22, boots first does not require skill.

[Tripwyr]

Night Hound is not a true carry

The definition of "true" or "hard" carry is a hero with a skill or effect which supplements their attack allowing it to do more damage, or adding other effects to it. Such abilities include: Backstab, Way of the Sword, Toxicity, etc.

[Diffusion]

Actually, the hero that has the most impact for the team is a carry. You cannot call a hero a carry simply because it has agi or str elements and it does a crapload of damage.

[Volshok]

Actually, the hero that has the most impact for the team is a carry. You cannot call a hero a carry simply because it has agi or str elements and it does a crapload of damage.


While non carries can carry, the term carry generally refers to an agi or strength hero with late game scaling damage abilities and a need for items to maximize his damage potential.

[Voidi]

While non carries can carry, the term carry generally refers to an agi or strength hero with late game scaling damage abilities and a need for items to maximize his damage potential.

Exactly the point I'm trying to make. Of course his damage scales with his items, just as every other Agi, but a Night Hound can not fullfill the role of actually "carrying" his team in a game that is not apem <1400 due to the reasons I stated above.
Anyway, this discussion kinda blew out of proportion, this is not the important part. Let's try to focus on other things.

[Konsume]

funny that I carried a game yesterday with him.

I randomed and said erhhh!!! 1st time I was playing with him btw..... we totaly raped a ~1700 5men team! :P

I won't ever laugh at NH again!



oh and to the OP.... almost all your noob-friendly heroes are the one that gave me most trouble and the one that require more exp... are the one that I found easier :P hell i'm still having trouble playing with swiftblade as he's freaking squishy and take true melee damage when using wirlwind :P




Require some experience:

Agi

Valkyrie <=== Robin hood, easy escapes and deals good damage
Dark Lady <=== slow, silence, no vision (can you be more newb friendly? xcept her fragile skin)

Int

Glacius <=== stay far and nuke, get in and ult?
Tempest <=== jungle, no laning stress get portal key and own
Puppet Master <=== eh? control and win?
Hellbringer <=== massive ult... maybe a bit harder than the above but still...
Wretched Hag <=== easy escape, massive damage

Str

Behemoth <=== only fissure is hard to manage, but with an half-brain you can do it
Jeraziah <=== eh? repel moar? how is that hard?
Devourer <=== activate ult and win?
Kraken <=== get a portal key and win? maybe more complex but.... still easy


These are all easy heroes to play..... tempest was my 1st hero

[Fidel]

Hammerstorm is easy, he has a stun, a speed buff and a 120 % base damage.. it's all synergised for you :)

*also, a Carry is someone who will be able to 'carry' the team late game, by getting ass loads of kills.*

[Tripwyr]

Exactly the point I'm trying to make. Of course his damage scales with his items, just as every other Agi, but a Night Hound can not fullfill the role of actually "carrying" his team in a game that is not apem <1400 due to the reasons I stated above.
Anyway, this discussion kinda blew out of proportion, this is not the important part. Let's try to focus on other things.

I think the last DotA skrim replay I watched included a Stealth Assassin carrying the game. Since SA is exactly the same as Night Hound, I'm pretty sure Night Hound can carry.

Carry has two definitions in this game. A "carry hero" is a hero with a passive or active skill which causes their damage to scale better than other heroes, or adds a special effect which makes their attack more effective than the average hero's swing. For example: backstab, whiplash, etc.

"To carry" means to have the largest effect in the game, or otherwise be the cause or be the largest contributing factor to a winning a game. For example, Soul Reaper who has no boost on his attack is still capable of carrying a game due to his large devastating AoE damage, and his ability to quickly remove one person from the fight.

Be careful with these distinctions, and watch the context in which they are used. Night Hound fits into both definitions because he is extremely devastating when well farmed.

Never seeing a Night Hound carry this well doesn't mean it isn't possible. If you think that a hero like Swiftblade is a good carry, think about how good he would be if he were invisible, and crit on every attack.