For you guys who have DOTA2, what are your Steam names so I can add you? I'd like to just have you guys on my list so that when I see you playing I can jump into your games and spectate.

I don't play bs but I believe the standard build is phase boots into rad if you are farming well. Force staff is good also for it's versatility + you can use it as a nuke in combination with your ult since it does pure damage. The ability you are referring to increases damage by a % i forgot what amount. It silences the hero however so you can use it to buff heavy melee dps heroes or silence the enemies important heroes such as weaver or anti-mage which depend shukuchi and blink to survive. It can also be used to deny yourself or allies if used properly.

just get a qb, who needs phase? getting that radi out faster is way +++++ but i'm a bastard who stays in my lane until my relic is done

force is koo but i mean, if u are planning on getting a radi on a hero imo theres no reason to delay it at all, you make back farm so quickly

ur talking about bloodrage btw, idk if it changed on 2 but in 1 its permasilence from lvl 3 (2? sigh im noob) if u have the mana, it rapes

bs tho is a great ganker, so easy to gang lanes w his ult and if u can get early levels of thirst u dont even need boots sucka. but i never play him not solo mid...i kinda think he would be dope in the jungle if u can pull a few times to get bb up never tried it tho

nalgene27

I just finished my first game. Whoa, I need some teammates to play with. Feels like a lot of people on here are not too good.

Also, the camera is WEIRD. For those that don't have it, it gives you an easy ease when you move the camera, instead of just a straight pan. I actually like it. Feels more fluid overall.

Do you know how to animation cancel? Bloodseeker especially needs this, he's like 50% more effective when you animation cancel his normal attack.

He has a large backswing that takes up a lot of time.

This game is sick. Played 2 games so far... it's wonderful. Love the voice chat and the new engine, shopping is a lot better imo, much smoother and crisper. Right click on items to sell is sweet.

I play on a Mac Mini 2011 with integrated graphics and it's totally playable, even with high graphics. I've switched to low to make it smoother but it's definitely playable at high. (1600x1200 resolution).

Jesus christ the camera, graphics, and animation in DotA 2 are horrible. Way worse than the WC3 engine or any of the DotA clones. Makes it hard to play.

I thought the same thing but got used to it after like 5 games.

You are right about the quelling on BS. I have not bought a QB in a long time to try to make my last hitting better but it is core on BS. It is not uncommon for some rad heroes such as doom, spectre, or bs to go into a phase before rad. Also, it can be very hard or maybe even nearly impossible for a beginner to go from a quelling ===> rad in a reasonable time. It is probably best for them to just go phase into a force staff or w/e. Blademail is also very good on BS due to his life gaining ability or ulti which will force them to either run or stop attacking likely.

Inso0 what settings do you have for the camera acceleration and speed? I believe those are the only two options but I am not positive.

I haven't messed with any camera settings.

It feels slow compared to WC3 dota to you guys, right? That was my first impression, but I got used to it.

Maybe I'll mess around with the settings a bit tonight and see if I like it.

Yes, really slow. Played a few games as Lich and it was unbearable.

I'm glad this thread is picking up because I'm having fun with this game, but the abbreviations (afaik) are making my head spin.

Quelling?
QB?
rad?
phase before rad?
phase into a force staff?

I know what animation cancelling is, but how do you stop it on a melee hero?

Also, need more steam names please!

EDIT: ok, so I see what some of these are now. Quelling Blade, Radiance, Phase Boots?

I'm watching a Blood Seeker right now who has Quelling Blade, Radiance, Power Treads, and Vanguard. 35mins in the game. and just picked up Staff of Wizardry.

I don't understand why you would be an Agility character and have nothing with +agi on it. That is what always throws me off.

That'll only come with time. Quelling Blade (increases auto attack damage, +32% for melee and less than that for ranged), Radiance (+65?? damage and you deal constant AoE damage in a radius around you), Phase Boots are an on-use item that give your hero zero collision and a speed boost. Force Staff was added to dota after I stopped playing it, so I'm not sure what that does.

I started playing dota in the 5.84c days when Medusa had a 5 arrow split shot that did 100% damage (lol) and thus I'm pretty up to date with a lot of the abbreviations. I used to be able to tell you all the stats for every item, right down to the +damage and +stat or regen, but I've been out of it too long. I can still probably tell you what every single hero does though. I might be fuzzy on an ability or two. Like I can't remember what Centaur's third ability is. He has a stun, a damage return ability, and his ult is a big strength boost, but I don't remember the other one. Though, he isn't even in the game yet so that's not an issue.

But for someone who has never played Dota before, I just can't imagine having to deal with it all on top of the people being an ******* to you for not knowing.

ItalianFX, you can add me to steam (mvertal@yahoo.com)

When was this? When I played years ago (from 2003-2007 or so), Medusa's split shot was unplayably bad. Was it a buff or was it way back in the day where they eventually nerfed it?

They changed a lot of heroes' ultimates to make use of the Ahganim's Scepter. Staff of Wizardry is part of that item. Sometimes you'll want intel items for your str/agility hero just to increase your ability spam. Tiny for instance, is a strength hero that loves getting intel items so you can spam his two abilities that synergize well.

Not sure on the year, but 5.84c was such an unbalanced version of the game. Riki got invisibility right away, and his ultimate was a death ward that makes Witch Doctor's death ward look terrible.

Medusa had purge as a regular ability (SO broken) and her split shot maxed out to be 5 arrows all doing 100% of her damage. I played the **** out of Medusa back then and it was not uncommon to literally solo their entire team at once.

People don't realize just how for dota has come in terms of balance.

Hrm. As far as I can remember, Riki's ultimate was stealth, so that probably wasn't it. But my memory is super hazy, because I do remember Medusa's purge ability.

Jeez that was forever ago and I was really bad at DotA-type games, so it's hard for me to remember anything.

When i said Phase before Rad I meant I would make a phase boots before making radiance.

When I said phase into force i meant I would make a phase then finish making a forcestaff. They are basically the same thing but I think in some instances it might be different such as for weaver sometimes people do Vit booster into Radiance into heart. This means I will buy a vit booster make a radiance and use the Vit booster from earlier into a heart.

Stopping animation is done by spamming the "s" key for stop. Most people do this but I just spam the right click movement typically. My method is probably worse but I am used to it and too lazy to change my habit.

I've played dota since AoS days on and off though every year so I do not remember everything.

Btw for anyone who are having a hard time understanding certain heroes just google the hero name + dota. You will be able to see their skills.

Medusa got split shot as a regular ability (severely nerfed from the old ultimate one) and gained purge as her ult (severely nerfing purge from the days when it was a regular ability) in one of the 6.xx patches.

A lot of old school players will remember 5.84c fondly, even though it was so terribly unbalanced.

But yeah, riki didn't always have stealth as his ultimate. You could get it at level 1. =)

I just started doing this. It's a lot easier to do on a melee since you don't have to time out the ranged hit. I saw a guy doing it with Pudge the one night that I was spectating games. He was crushing with Pudge.

So with Bloodseeker on creeps I would do the S-right click-S trick, so it was like a stutter. I still have to get the timing down, but eventually when I built up my damage, I was just autoattacking and last hitting every creep.

BTW, I added both of you guys who gave me your name/email.

Right now for my builds I have been using the recommended items and just go off of that. I don't know all of the little things in the shop and how to build on them. I see how the recommended items build, like the boots into power treads (or whichever). I usually never not follow that list. If I'm going for one of the higher items I'll see what it consists of and then buy it when I have the money to build into it.

Yeah I always did this too. H for hold position on melee heroes worked, but I always preferred constant movement instead of spamming S to prevent my hero from attacking. I play too many games and my old man wrists can't handle that kind of key spam.

Last night, however, I discovered that there is an option in dota2 to completely disable hero auto attacks.

BEST. ADDITION. EVER.

never knew about being able to disable auto attacks.

Force staff is probably considered one of the best items of the game. It is a fairly cheap costing item. Decent item build up. It is also extremely versatile. Ability to chase or run away. Can be used on allies or enemies. It is like a blink dagger but it has an item build up for stats, final component gives stats, but not as long initiation range

Yeah I do move to cancel my animations too. I think I'm going to try using "s" now though... it seems more pro.

Also, for learning heroes and their skills, I highly recommend the app "Tome of DotA" on Android and looks like iPhone too! (Crap, I bought another DotA app that wasn't as good already on iPhone).

WTF! What does that mean? I am trying to think. So if you are moving around and are by creeps and don't do an action your hero won't do anything? That sounds really nice actually.