Unfortunately, Dota 2 doesn’t really care whether you know how to play it or not. Most new players see a wall when they look at the game, and it’s a difficult one to climb, but the task is not at all impossible.
In this article, I'm going to provide you with some tips that will help kickstart your Dota 2 career. I'm also be showing you how you can play the game offline.
- Play the Tutorial
- Find Yourself a Coach
- Play Against Bots
- Use the In-Game Guides
- Listen to Your Betters
- Play Supports
- Explore the Community
- Playing Dota 2 Offline
- Learn Lane Mechanics
- Demo Heroes
Play the Tutorial
You wouldn’t play a sport with a group of strangers if you didn’t know its rules and how it works.
The tutorial in Dota 2 is quite detailed, and while it only provides a small glimpse at the depth of the game, it’s better than nothing.
The tutorial will teach you a few heroes, like Sniper, who is a popular and extremely annoying pick.
You will also learn about the types of abilities that the different heroes have and how you can activate and use them to your advantage.
For New Players
While the tutorial is very much intro-level, it is extremely important, particularly for players that don’t have much experience with MOBA games.
You will also receive a very basic introduction to the game’s item system. Be sure to get acquainted with Tangos. You’ll use them a lot.
Find Yourself a Coach
This may seem rather premature, but many players’ first experiences with Dota 2 did not involve the ‘playing with bots’ stage.
Instead, they went straight to the ‘playing with friends that know how to play the game’ stage. If you can do the same, then I highly recommend that you do.
This can be especially useful if you are quite impatient. Playing with your friends that know how to play the game properly and that are able to succeed more often than they fail can help you.
You can learn the ropes much faster than any bot match could, as you’ll be going up against real players that use real strategies.
Instant Fun
Playing with your friends also makes the game instantly more fun, as you won’t be battling against mindless bots but rather real players.
You’ll be able to ask your teammates, and even the enemy team, tons of questions while you play so that you can gain a finer understanding of the game.
Play Against Bots
Now I may have made it seem that playing against bots is a waste of time, but it’s actually not.
The AI in Dota 2 tends to be very aggressive, which means that you’ll have to learn how to be highly defensive and very aggressive in retaliation, which can be valuable to learn.
When playing in a bot game, you have the privilege of being able to pause and resume the game at your leisure, an infinite number of times.
This means that if you’re playing a bot match to learn a new hero, you can pause the game to look up some strategy guides on the web, then continue playing.
A Test Environment
Bot matches are practice matches and are there for you to try out new strategies or hero builds.
It’s a test environment in which you can mess around without hindering your team or yourself, and in a game like Dota 2, that is extremely important.
Use the In-Game Guides
At the upper-left corner of the in-game UI in Dota 2, you’ll find an icon that looks like an open book.
Clicking on it will reveal the game’s guide menu, which contains player-authored and rate guides for every hero in the game. Many players have favorite guide authors - ask your friends for theirs.
Be sure to explore the different builds and guides that are available for the different heroes in bot matches, and try to find ones that fit your preferred playstyle, as well as your capabilities.
There are literally hundreds of builds to choose from, so you’re bound to find one that you like.
Pay Attention to Your Guide
Guides are not mere static resources that you look at and then close.
As you level up in a match, the guide that you have chosen will highlight the next recommended skill level/skill to choose.
This is while providing you with the guide author’s explanation for choosing that skill. The same goes for the item shop.
Listen to Your Betters
I'm not saying that you should put up with any bullying your teammates might put you through.
Instead, if your teammates are far higher levels than you and are offering advice (which might come with a sardonic, backhanded tone), then you should listen to them.
The best way to learn how to play Dota 2 is to play with players that know more about the game than you do.
They will be able to tell you where on the map you should be, which heroes will fit the team composition the best, which items the team needs, and more.
An Eye for An Eye
People will be more inclined to help you if you are enthusiastic about helping the team.
Newbies are not the worst teammates in the world to have - stubborn players that only want to do what they want to do are.
If you want to help your team, your team will want to help you.
Play Supports
It is vital that you learn about Dota 2’s hero roles as quickly as you can, though as a beginner, you can always rely on playing support heroes.
As the name suggests, these heroes are meant to support their teammates, either by providing them with buffs, healing, mana regeneration, whatever.
Support heroes are generally also responsible for spending their gold on consumables that benefit the team.
If you are looking to get on the good side of your team, offer to purchase the courier before anyone has even picked their heroes. Let them know that you’ll be playing support.
Supports Can Be More Fun
As you get better at playing support heroes and helping your team, you’ll have a better time.
Additionally, a positive attitude will contribute to a more fun and enjoyable playing environment in the chat with random team members.
Good vibes are contagious and will make games more fun.
Explore the Community
You will, of course, learn a lot about Dota 2 just by playing it, but you will eventually want to make your way outside of the game and into the community at large.
A lot of the content created by the community is exceptionally high-quality, and there are millions of videos, guides, and tutorials to help you get better acquainted.
Professional Dota 2 matches can be some of the most educational resources for the game.
They can show you how to play heroes in ways you would never have thought of and provide you with lessons on professional strategies and tactics for micromanagement and map control, and more.
Watching Dota 2 is Fun
What’s more, watching professionals play Dota 2 can be extremely fun and is a great way to pass the time if you have nothing else to do.
It’s exciting to see the high-octane play of a game that you understand, and MOBAs are some of the easiest games to follow when watching.
Playing Dota 2 Offline
Sadly, not everyone has the privilege of an internet connection, and with Dota 2 being primarily an online game.
This means that if you don’t have an internet connection, you can’t play the game. Or does it? There is actually a way that you can play Dota 2 offline.
To start, you’ll want to type “Dota 2 offline” into your search engine. This will bring up results that feature the word ‘revloader’.
PinoyTechSaga’s blog is generally always updated, and I recommend downloading the revloader from there, as it is also quite safe.
Downloading Revloader
After you have downloaded the revloader, you should extract the files to the following file path: Steam/SteamApps/Common/Dota 2/Game/bin/win32.
You will then need to run the revloader tool as an Administrator for the smoothest experience, and you’ll be able to play the game offline, without updates, and without needing Steam.
Learn Lane Mechanics
One of the most important mechanics in Dota 2 has to do with its lanes. On the map, there are three main lanes that players will find themselves battling in Top, Middle, and Bottom.
With each team consisting of five heroes, Top and Bottom will generally have two players from each team, while Middle will generally have one.
As a beginner, you’ll want to stick to either the top or bottom lanes, as the more experienced players tend to take middle, and you’ll have no support from your teammates there.
The goal is either to kill the enemy heroes at your lane, or get them to flee, so that you, your teammates, and your team’s creeps can attack their Tower.
Towers
There are several Towers in each lane that will attack any enemy that enters their range.
They do significant damage to low-level heroes, so you’ll want to stay out of their range as much as possible, entering only to attack when your creeps are being targeted by the tower.
Demo Heroes
I recommend that you first go to the Demo arena to test out a hero you’ve never played before you play them in an online match.
The Demo arena is essentially a sandbox that allows you to test out a hero's abilities and strategies.
In the Demo arena, you will spawn at a friendly Fountain and Tower in front of a small river, with the enemy Tower and Fountain being on the other side of said river.
The map is quite small, and you’ll face regular waves of creeps. You can also spawn AI-controlled enemy heroes to battle against.
Testing
You can change the game rules in the arena to make ability casting free, increase your damage, give yourself infinite mana, and more.
There is also a shop available so that you can test out different item combinations, and your build guide will also work in the Demo arena.
Summary
That concludes our beginner’s guide for Dota 2. I hope that you found this article helpful and that the tips mentioned here will help you in your Dota career.
