5punk

There are plenty of guides out there on how to get started playing Dota 2, but they inevitably tell you how hard the game is and how to master the intricacies of the game. What this guide does is tell you how to play with 5punkers. There's a difference. While some of us are quite good, none of us are really good. All the stuff about team play and tactics goes out of the window and we play like we play everything else - a herd of cats. That said, there are some things to know so that you don't get wtfpwnd all game and hate it, because the most fun thing is beating up another 5punker.

1. Tutorial.
No need to create an account, it uses your Steam credentials. So that's good. The interface isn't immediately apparent, surprisingly for such a popular game from such a quality developer. You're confronted with the usual community bollocks. You don't care about any of that shit, touch the Play button at the top. The community shit turns into a black area with buttons on the left and lobby buttons across the top. Later you'll want the (default) Find Lobbies (side) and Friend Lobbies (top) to join in with 5punkers, but for now click on the Tutorial button on the left under the l2p noob Learn to play heading. You get a map and a pile of rocks with a flag in it. Click on it, play through the tutorials. They'll teach you the basics of getting about and killing things, buying kit and getting cash and XP. Don't worry about #3, which a short video sequence. It's arse, it'll pass. By the time you're playing full matches with bots you'll have the hang of the basics. The bots here have gone full retard, in a normal bot match with 5punkers the easy ones are killing machines (albeit still retarded ones). Stop short of the last tutorial, which will put you up against experienced players trying to farm tutorial items. The first three tutorials (including the arse, unskippable video one) have to be completed before you're allowed into the game proper. It sucks a little, but it's so that people can't call you a noob. If they do, point out that you've done the first three tutorials, so they're clearly wrong.

2. Starting a match.
Remember the lobby buttons from earlier? Once you're ready to play with 5punkers you'll need those. When a little box with 5punkers in appears click on the Join button to jump into the lobby. Here you'll see two sets of slots and your name underneath. Click a slot to join, it doesn't matter which. The lobby owner will add bots to fill the gaps then shuffle the teams. Then it's off into the game (after the usual fannying about, losing connection, restarting Dota, and waiting for people to get beer).

There are things that the tutorials don't teach you, which are kind of important. First off is about choosing your character. There are shitloads of them, and you'll be completely overwhelmed. For now just know a couple of things:

* Press CTRL for a grid view of the characters, it's easier than the silly scrolly card thing.
* Try to choose one of the characters recommended in this thread. They're a bit simpler to play and more forgiving, and at our level there are no weak ones.
* If you're not sure you can always random. We usually do anyway, and learning a character is pretty fun. It's the best way to find characters you like (and we're all different). Be aware that you might land someone who's hard as nails to play though.

Other people will choose or random, scroll your mouse wheel over your character model in the meantime to spin them hilariously. Eventually the countdown timer will finish and the game will start. Click on the start game icon with the picture of your character. Your character will appear with the others on your side in the starting area, as per the tutorials. Don't worry if you're in the opposite corner, they're pretty much the same.

3. Learning your character.
One of the really important things they never tell you is the build function. Using this you can pre-load a build made by someone much better than us, which tells you which items to buy and skills to take, and in which order. The good ones will also give you a custom description of why. Click the book icon in the top left of the screen, then the right arrow in the window that appears. Wait for the builds to load. Personally I pick the one with the best name, or one that lets me kill shit. The higher up the list the build is, the higher its rating. Choose one, close the build windows. Now you'll have a level to take, and one of the skills will be highlighted in gold. Click the level up button and then click on the highlighted skill. Do this every time you level. Then click on the yellow shop button in the bottom right. Along the left hand side of the shop are the recommended items ordered in tiers. The tiers represent stages of the game, with the top ones being starting gear. Right click on them all to buy them. Be aware that some might be duplicated (iron branches are popular), and that some might not be needed. The latter is most likely the donkey, check if someone else buys him. We'll come back to him later, he's moderately important. Have your gear and skills? Cool. Have a quick read of what your first skill does to get an idea of how to use it, and off you trot.

4. The Donkey
I'll talk about this chap now. The donkey is your courier. Only one person needs to buy him, and you deploy him by clicking him in your items window, which allows your whole team to use him. You can see if the team has a donkey by checking the little pair of buttons under the shop button - the left one will show a little donkey if you do. So, you can buy stuff from the shop whenever you like, but unless you're stood by it it'll go into your stash. The courier can be used to bring it to you while you're in the field. This is important as you don't have to leave the fight, which would result in lost XP, gold, and an advantage to the other guys. You can get him to grab your stuff and trot over with it by clicking the other of the two donkey buttons, the one with the bag and an arrow pointing to a little bloke. The donkey will go to the store, grab your stuff, then bring it to you. If that button shows the face of another character it means it's already humping someone else's crap around the battlefield so wait for him to finish. You can override him, but that's very rude (and reserved for public games against randoms who will do it all the time). Later on the team can buy wings for the donkey so he can get about faster. Also note that donkeys are great targets for the opposite team, and they taste great.

5. Don't die.
This is the most important lesson they never teach you. Dying is a very bad thing in Dota, it's the reason why randoms will call you a noob (5punkers won't, they'll just laugh at you). Run away. In fact don't approach the enemy at all unless you're confident you can win. Got the other guy to low health and can get him if you chase him past a tower? Don't, you'll die. Think you've got the jump on the other guy by sneaking up on him? Don't, you'll die. Enemies ganking a buddy and you want to distract them so he can escape? Fuck him, rather him than you, or worse, both of you. So don't die. It's rude, it makes your team worse and the other team better, don't do it.

6. Early game
Okay. Happy about the not dying thing? Cool. So you need to move into a lane. You've played the tutorial, you know the score. Typically you'll have two in the outside lanes and one in the middle. For now stick to top or bottom. You'll be a certain type of character and you'll pair up best with another type, but chances are you won't know what type anyone's is, including yours, so just pair up with whatever you fancy. You'll pick up all that stuff by playing.
Get into your lane and start trying to generate cash by last-hitting creeps. It's not hugely important to fanny around trying for last hits, just beating them up is enough to generate cash. As a new player your objective should just be staying in lane to maximise your XP. To do that you need to not die, so keep a constant eye on the bad guys who will be milling around on the other side of the creep battle. If they start to rush you then fuck off, run back to your tower where they won't follow you. If you're playing a ranged character then take the odd potshot at them to harass them, which might eventually horse them to retreat and heal. Similarly, if you get low on health fall back and use a healing potion or Tango (green berries, click on a tree to eat it. No, I don't know either). If all else fails go back to the starting area where you'll heal and generate mana super-fast. Do some shopping while you're there, grabbing items in the next tier down when you can afford them.

7. Don't die.
Just don't.

8. Mid game
From about level 6 onwards people will start getting their Ults, ultimate abilities. These powerful skills are the ones which will let you start doing what you're supposed to be doing, which in most cases is killing the other guy. Take a little time to think about how they work together, because now you can start attacking the other guys. Even now though, try to do it when one of your opponents is out of lane - they've just been killed or have had to return to base to heal. Ideally your mate will be there too and you can gank the enemy. This is where you start generating good cash and XP from killing players, and also when you're most likely to over-extend. It's easy to follow the enemy into their territory and get killed by a tower, a mob of creeps (who can and will kill you after you've been one-on-one), or a roaming enemy player. This part of the game is pretty much an arms race, and you get ahead by getting more kills. As the creeps get less important and players become more important you'll start to abandon your lane and fall in with the others in groups. This gives you safety in numbers, and a better chance of killing the other guy. When this starts happening be careful of wandering off on your own, lest you become prey of roaming gankers who are designed to hunt down enemies one-on-one.
Oh, by this point you'll want the Secret Shop for some of your gear. They're out in the forests, marked with a little brown house icon on the map. They're not secret at all, everyone knows where they are. That includes enemy gankers, who, like chavs, hang around outside shops smoking and looking to beat people up.

9. Late game
Now you're into the team fight stage. Quite often everyone will be involved in big brawls, and you need to adjust your tactics from ganking individuals to disrupting the whole enemy team. If that's not happening (5punkers are a herd of cats, remember), then stick with a buddy and try to gank enemies who are unwise enough to wander off on their own, often when pushing lanes (working with the creeps to attack your towers). At this stage of the game dying isn't quite as important as it was, so don't be scared to get stuck in with your team - it's more harmful to run off and leave them outnumbered, and everyone is going to be effective by this point. Eventually one or both sides will start to encroach on the other side's base. They'll start to kill the towers and barracks there. Killing barracks is handy because your side will start spawning super creeps (they're super creepy), which will tilt the odds in your team's favour. It ain't over yet though. When you're in the enemy base the other guys will be making hit-and-run attacks on you. Their base is lousy with towers, so chasing them is a good way to get killed. Try to trap them and kill them, or leave them to run off and carry on beating up their buildings. Similarly, if they're in your base, use hit-and-run tactics. Don't charge heroically in and die because you'll just take yourself out of the fight. By hitting and running you can chip at their health and wait for more of your mates, then when you do all attack attrition will have left the bad guys lower on health. That's the theory, but half the time by this stage you're boned anyway.

10. The end.
Eventually one of the Ancients will go down. They're the big buildings in the middle. They don't take much damage so there's a fair chance it'll be over before you realise. You've a 50/50 chance of being on the winning side, so enjoy it if you are, don't be too disheartened if you're not. Have a look at the stats. If you're on 2 kills and 15 deaths you should probably be more cautious, but don't worry too much. 5punky games are practice games and nobody takes them seriously. The most important thing is that you enjoyed the game. If you couldn't get the hang of the character and died a lot, don't worry. It happens to all of us. Just try a different one next time. If you random them again (unlikely, there are loads), you can always opt to choose your own at the expense of a little starting cash.

11. After your first game.
You'll have heard a few things in your first 5punky game. Characters we hate, bots we hate, 5punkers we hate. Don't worry, we leave all our mean words for the bots. Here's a rundown of some common things:

Sniper: We fucking hate him, especially when a bot chooses him (which they almost always do). He can shoot you dead from half the map away and disappear when you jump him. Kill him often early before he turns into a machine gun, be prepared to hear the phrase "fucking sniper" from both sides.

Drow Ranger: Pretty much as per sniper, but not quite as annoying.

Riki: Invisible bastard who everyone hates because he's a bots favourite ganker. He'll appear, rape your face, then fuck off before your mates can catch him. Bounty Hunter is similar but the bots don't seem to choose him that often.

Dazzle: Mongy healer whose battle cry is his own name. Like Leeroy Jenkins, or more like Hodor. He's the bot comic relief, although actually pretty effective in their hands. If you play him you'll be shit.

5punkers: Beware of Bits and Roman, both are scarily good as any character. Everyone has their favourites, who I'm sure will be mentioned below. I like Slark, who is a jumpy fish man ganker. Pnut likes Lich, who is a handy lane support turning into a horrible nuker late game. Berk can play Sniper just like a bot.

This is more than enough to get you happily through your first few games until you get into the swing of it. Hopefully by then you'll have seen the beauty of the 5punky Dota game, but if not at least can say you've tried it.

Dog Pants wrote:

5. Don't die.
This is the most important lesson they never teach you. Dying is a very bad thing in Dota, it's the reason why randoms will call you a noob (5punkers won't, they'll just laugh at you). Run away. In fact don't approach the enemy at all unless you're confident you can win. Got the other guy to low health and can get him if you chase him past a tower? Don't, you'll die. Think you've got the jump on the other guy by sneaking up on him? Don't, you'll die. Enemies ganking a buddy and you want to distract them so he can escape? Fuck him, rather him than you, or worse, both of you. So don't die. It's rude, it makes your team worse and the other team better, don't do it.


7. Don't die.
Just don't.

Why am I only just being told this?

Well written Doggers. I would add though If you do see a character you like the look of, but don't have the first idea how to play them, then there are character specific guides out there that will give you a hint at hows best to play them. I usually use ones from here.

Lane Etiquette

There are certain done things in Dota that it's best to learn before being called a noob (and fortunately I have made that sacrifice for you). As Pants mentioned there are 3 lanes: bot, middle, and top. The middle lane is generally done solo, and it's usually best (though not essential) to do it as melee. Being in mid will get you more XP as you don't share it with other players, but it's also the riskiest as pushing down the middle is the quickest way for enemies to get to your base.

The side lanes should be done in pairs, preferably one melee and one ranged (again not essential, but if you've got two ranged in one, and two melee in the other then you need to swap). Try and avoid moving forwards without your lane buddy - there's safety in numbers and will help you to not die. It also helps if you get the opportunity to take an enemy down.

Pushing

As Pants mentioned, you only need to be present to get XP. To get gold you do need the last hit on an enemy though. So what's the best tactic? Attack constantly to kill the enemy creeps quickly, or hold back and just get the last hit? Well, yes, no, and maybe. Pushing (i.e. killing quickly to get to the towers to take them down) is handy as it lets you advance quickly and get the towers out of the way. The problem is that it's very easy to overstretch, especially early game. You see by the time you've killed one lot of creeps your own troops will have been depleted, and that means that when you do push ahead you've got a weakened horse - the first thing you'll meet is a fresh mob of creeps, a tower, and maybe even an enemy hero. Of course if you sit back your own tower might be rushed.

Pros and cons you see. Best thing to do is sit back and see how the tide of the battle goes. Whatever you do though, don't rush ahead on your own.

Denying

To succeed in this game you need XP and gold, if you are deprived of either you won't get far. Fortunately you can stop the enemy from getting either by 'denying'. Denying is when you kill your own creep, thus preventing the enemy from getting the last hit. They will still get gold and XP, but not as much. To deny press 'A' - your cursor will turn into a sort of red arrow, use this to click on one of your own creeps. Only do this at the last instant, otherwise you are unnecessarily wearing down your own horses. A successful deny is denoted by an exclamation mark appearing above the dead creep's head.

By limiting the gold and XP available to the enemy you will end up with a significant advantage.

Harrassing

Want to stop your enemy getting even more XP? Harassment! Weird Dota etiquette and caution generally means that early stages heroes will only attack creeps. However, there's nothing to stop you taking regular pot shots at the other players. You don't even need to kill them - wear them down and they will either have to return to base to heal, or waste gold on more healing. The longer they are back at base ("out of lane") the more XP they miss out on.

Some heroes, such as Riki, should be harassed immediately to slow down their level progression (Riki becomes invisible at level 6 and will fuck you up)

Ganking

More lessons in how not to die. Pretty much everyone sticks to the lane etiquette set out above, so what happens if you're in a lane and there are no enemies about? This could mean one of a few things: they've gone back to base to heal; they're off attacking neutral creeps (known as 'Jungling' - you will see green triangles on the map that shows their location); or they're all teaming up ready to give you a pasting. Assume the latter and be cautious.

You may occasionally hear a message saying "top/middle/bottom is missing" - this means that the enemy hero who was in that lane has buggered off somewhere, i.e. look out because he might be coming for you.

Conversely keep aware of your own teams movements. If they're planning on mass attacking someone don't ruin it by charging in early.

Clickables

Some items you pick up at the shop can be activated for nice effects. Do not forget to use them.


I always forget to use them.

Building items

So you want to buy Anhamgrimmar's Sceptre but it costs 4200 gold. Best get saving up eh?

No!

Whenever you die you lose gold, so saving up thousands to buy something is not a good idea. With most mid to high end items they are generally made up of other items. In the shop left click on the item you want to buy. If it's made up of other items you will see a little progression tree in the bottom right hand corner. Buy these cheaper items as soon as you can. Even if you don't have room and they sit in your stash, buy them quick as you won't lose them, but if you die with tons of gold you will lose that.

The other advantage is that all the lesser items will have various stat boosts, so it's handy to have them anyway.

Handy tip for item building: If you shift click the item in the shop the components of that item will be stuck into the little "quick buy" menu next to the shop button. This way you can quickly buy stuff mid fight without having to go into the shop proper.

I picked up a handy thing off a screenshot of a pro game. He'd bound one of his item keys to space. I put whatever quick-use item I have in that slot and rarely forget to use it now. My thumb doesn't do anything else, I don't take my fingers from QWER, and I've a built in reflex to hit space from shooters (not from bunny hopping). The default keys are pretty poor. Few heroes have 4 active skills, so WASD for skills with Q, E, and space for items would be far more playable. I don't have the balls to try it though.

Last hitting

As pants said earlier, don't necessarily worry about this too much in your first couple of games as it isnt as vital a mechanic, more so in 5punky games. However it is good to try and get into the habit once you have the basics down as it is your main source of income.

So let's get into it then, when anything is killed the person who strikes the killing blow will receive gold, in terms of killing enemy heroes anyone who has assisted with the kill will get some but the person who gets the last hit will receive the most.

With the lane creeps last hitting is incredibly important, watch the creeps fighting and try to learn how much damage they do to each other and try to figure out what the timing is to swoop in before they manage their last hit as the all the heroes you can play will have different damage, attack speed and range, and especially in the early game it can be easy to miss the last hit by overestimating one of those so if you learn the last possible moment to do it, you succeed a lot more

Aside from the obvious gold gain the other reasons last hitting is important is that it helps you control the flow of the lane in the early game, if your getting too close to the enemy turret (which can be bad early on as it makes it easier for the enemy to gank you) you start denying as many last hits on your creeps as you can to even out the friendly and enemy creep ratio, and if the other team are pushing too close to your turret then you either try to get an early kill on one of their heroes if you are confident enough you can get it, or you start helping your creeps push the enemy ones back to even out the lane again.

Plus while your waiting for the creeps to wear each other down you can get a few hits on the enemy heroes to wear them down.

The exception to this is the towers themselves, when they go down everyone on the team gets gold, even if a creep gets it.

Doggers, you are a god, best ever tutorial/guide ever!!!

I actually lolled, top stuff.

Another tip: unless you want the rage, then avoid playing games against other people - there are some real cocks in the Dota community. A lot of them aren't too bad, but the ones who are fuckwits make up for it with a vengeance.

As a bit of relief from the srs bsns, have a MOBA joke (stolen from the comments on the PCG review):

A Dota and a LoL player meet. The Dota player says "Dota 2 is better." The LoL player couldn't deny.

After a few new joiners have struggled, it's maybe worth revising my advice on randoming your character until you get a feel for the game and the roles characters play. Some are easier to pick up than others, and nobody will object to new players picking rather than randoming. As a rule of thumb, those with a couple of passive skills handle easily, because you have fewer skills to worry about. So with that in mind, here are a few beginner friendly characters to choose from.

Strength Characters
Strength heroes tend to be tough and melee focussed. They pair up well with a ranged character in a side lane, or can solo the middle.

Tiny
Tiny's a tough melee fighter with an AoE stun with two passives, making him easy to handle and handy in the end-game team fights.

Dragon Knight
A melee unit with good AoE and a stun, making him handy in the early laning phase. His ultimate is easy to handle - just pop it before the fight, and everyone will have played him in the tutorial.

Skeleton King
A decent melee fighter with an interesting ultimate - a few seconds after death he'll resurrect. He has a reasonable ranged attack and a 'pop before combat' buff that doubles as a passive when not in use. No frills, but can be very effective.

Sven
Sven is a melee powerhouse, able to give and take damage and extremely dangerous during late game (he's a carry, meaning the rest of the team carry him through his low levels to get him powerful at high level). He has a speed buff, an AoE stun, and a damage buff. Sven is a great character for inexperienced players because he's low maintenance and very forgiving.

Tidehunter
One of Dota's iconic heroes, the big fish guy is a great, resilient melee support. He can tank like a... erm tank, and his huge AoE stun is great in team fights. Don't forget that you're not a ganker, so your targeted slow and debuff is best when assisting another character.

Agility Characters
Agility heroes tend to be fast and light, hitting the enemy and disabling them rather than going toe to toe. This can make them vulnerable when outnumbered. They include a good mix of ranged hitters and melee hit-and-runs.

Bloodseeker
A fast melee fighter who is great for one-on-one hits. He has two passive skills, a ranged silence to cripple spellcasters, and a powerful ultimate which damages opponents if they move. His ability to see badly injured units anywhere on the map make him a good hunter.

Bounty Hunter
Bounty Hunter is a good hit and run attacker, with a stun and an AoE speed buff. His most notable feature is that he can stay invisible for long periods, then suddenly appear and gank a trailing support, before vanishing again. This makes him great for harassing the enemy team even during late game, and causing paranoia.

Drow Ranger
Very much a raged fighter, with nothing too complicated to do. A slowing attack, a silent attack, and two passives. She's troublesome and good at getting in last hits, but needs to stay away from melee.

Riki
A frustrating melee ganker, he has an AoE slow/silence, passive invisibility, and a teleport. This makes him great at striking from nowhere and disappearing again before the enemy can react.

Sniper
A very popular ranged character for beginners, Sniper has good passive abilities, a useful AoE, and his ultimate is a very long ranged, powerful shot which is great for taking down enemies fleeing on low health.

Viper
The flying sausage monster only has two active skills and they both do a fairly similar thing. He's a reasonably tough, ranged fighter with a slowing attack and lots of damage over time. This means that even if your victim gets away, your DoT might finish him off.

Intelligence Characters
Intelligence heroes tend to be support or nukers. They're often more complex than the other categories because they rely on harmonising their abilities over pure attack damage. More often than not they're ranged. Supports are good for matching up in a lane with an agility or strength carry because they don't rely quite as much on their equipment so can 'donate' the cash to their buddy.

Crystal Maiden
Crystal Maiden is pure support, ideal for new players who want to hang back from the fights and stay useful. Her auras provide passive buffs to her teammates, one of which only requires her to be in the game, regardless of distance. Her active skills won't get her kills, but they'll cause big problems for the enemy team with AoE slows and damaging stun.

Lich
Lich is a decent lane support character who has some good AoE attacks and a handy ability to be able to eat his own creeps for mana. This makes him good for denying and low on downtime.

Lina
Lina is a long ranged character who is great at harassing, but very fragile. If you're into hitting from a distance and staying out of trouble then she's right for you, but be aware that a fast melee ganker will eat you alive.

Lion
Lion is a good point-and-click support and nuke. All his abilities are single target so you can just pick on someone and hammer them until they die. He has a stun and a mana drain which takes mana from the enemy and charges his own from quite a distance. His ultimate is a powerful single target zap. Oh, and he can turn people into a frog.

Ogre Magi
The two-headed Ogre Magi is a tough melee support who can hold his own in a fight, unlike most supports. His AoE spells give him both a stun and a slow, and combined with his (targetable) damage buff make him a good team fighter who won't get killed in a scrap.

I'm sure everyone else who plays regularly has suggestions on good starting characters, and comments on everyone else's suggestions. Feel free to chip in.

I have a question and a suggestion.

Question: How much of a requirement is voice in pub games? There's no way that I'd be able to use it outside of 5punkygames, and to be honest I've no inclination to converse with randoms. If it's pretty much essential, or I'm going to get griefed all the time for not using it, I just won't bother with pub games. But I would like to play it more often, and outside of bot matches that's pretty much the only way.

Suggestion: From mid-game onwards make an effort to work with the team. It's not hard, mostly sticking together so that you don't get ganked. It happened to me a number of times last night where I'd not paid attention when the rest of the team fell back and I got jumped by four or five bad guys, and I spotted other people pottering about on their own and getting ganked a lot. Normally I am that ganker, but playing support last night highlighted it to me. After about level 9 you need to start using safety in numbers if you're not a ganker yourself with a good escape skill, otherwise you might find you're not enjoying the game.

Dog Pants wrote: Question: How much of a requirement is voice in pub games? There's no way that I'd be able to use it outside of 5punkygames, and to be honest I've no inclination to converse with randoms. If it's pretty much essential, or I'm going to get griefed all the time for not using it, I just won't bother with pub games. But I would like to play it more often, and outside of bot matches that's pretty much the only way.

Its certainly not essential, I've not used voice at all in any pub games or heard anyone else use the in-game voice, i mostly use shift clicks on the mini map to point out things in pub games and i believe there is also a chat wheel for audio commands, i think Y is the default button. obviously due to it being a team game at least a basic level of communication like that is expected.

I've never used voice, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone else use it either - mostly people just ping the map repeatedly.

Edit: the insect team seemed to work well last night.

Sticky'd due to awesomeness.

Last night's game with me, wifey, fab and pants pretty much proved to me the risks of random for new players.

Wifey had pretty much got the hang of running the fuck away during her first 2 games (incidetally abaddon seems pretty nice for new players) but visage in the hands of a new player is pretty much a disaster.

I had Visage too for the first game last night and only just broke even. I notice Wifey had Weaver, another difficult to play character. A few of us have taken a pasting as him. If you find easier characters make a note here so people can have a look and choose one they like the sound of until they get the hang of things. I'll update the post to suggest new players don't random.

I'm a twat, I got weaver and visage confused, both are retarded squishy though.

Oddly enough (or maybe not so), both are popular with the pros.