Because there wasn't one I had to create this.

DotA 2 is based off of the custom map "Defense of the Ancients" in Warcraft 3, which again was based on a custom map for Starcraft named "Aeon of Strife"
You control a single unit (a hero) and some other ones depending on item choice and the hero you are playing.
There are currently 92 heroes released, 17 unreleased, and some in the making, but they are pretty far away.
It is a game that already has almost perfected balance, throughout several years of just using Warcraft 3, and then porting it over to a new engine for fancier graphics, more possibilities with the engine, easier interface etc.

It's pretty hard to learn on the fly, and other than being the same genre as LoL they aren't much alike. (Which isn't as small as 2 FPSes being FPSes but not the same)

The main hero categories would be carry, support and jungler, subcategories include pusher, initiator, disabler, lane support etc.

• Initiators usually have skills that lets you force a teamfight or open space for everyone else to destroy the enemy. Example: Kunkka, Earthshaker
• Carries are vastly underpowered early game, but as the game goes on and they get more gold, they become unbeatable by anyone else than another carry with similar or more gold. Example: Faceless Void, Phantom Lancer
• Supports need almost no gold, and are there to help the carry farm safely, and also help them kill people if possible. Example: Venomancer, Lion
• Junglers can start killing creeps in the forest at level 1. They are usually summoning heroes that uses their units to tank the damage, or they are heroes with lifesteal. There are also some heroes that have neither but can jungle kind of well at level 1. Example: Chen, Natures Prophet
• Pushers have an easy time destroying towers and killing creeps fast. Example: Broodmother, Natures Prophet

The only way to play is to have received a beta key from VALVe themselves, or trade for one.

I would advise trying a couple of bot games before diving into matchmaking, as the world is not very forgiving.

Easy starter heroes would be..
Support:
Ogre Magi - Very luck based, but fairly simple. Your stun can sometimes one shot enemies if you get double quad cast, has a good AoE slow and a nice buff.
Lina - Good at dealing damage, has a stun that hurts and stuns for good time, but needs some aiming, kind of squishy.
Crystal Maiden - Really squishy, but has AoE slow and single target "stun", ultimate requires positioning.
Shadow Shaman - Harder than others listed here, but still not too bad, he can disable 3 heroes at the same time (hex one, shackle another, and trap another in the middle of wards) Needs good positioning, as you can't move while shackling someone.
Lich - Has near-infinite mana pool, ultimate not too hard to land, and can be devastating.

Carry:
Skeleton King - 3 passive abilities, fairly straightforward, needs to know how to last hit.
Luna - Highest base speed, ranged, one extremely long ranged high-damage stun + ultimate pretty much instantly wins battles if used right. Needs last hits.
Centaur Warrunner - High early game damage and health pool, ultimate gives you a free way to escape certain death.

Other
Zeus - Extremely high damage early in the game, can force enemy out of lane pretty easily, can gank fast, has a global ability to finish off hurt enemies. Mid hero.
Viper - Right click hero, ultimate adds extreme slow and deals high damage. Mid hero
Lifestealer - Can jungle at level 1 with easy, just needs to be wary of enemy ganks. Jungler or laner.
Ursa - Can reach maximum attack speed on top of adding a debuff that makes enemies take extra damage per hit very early, can jungle efficiently but better off in lane.

If you use the random button you start with extra gold, it might be useful to learn different heroes, but try not to become dependent on the bonus gold.

Some heroes I'd suggest staying away from until you're confident in your skills would be Meepo, Chen, Wisp, Lone Druid or Batrider

I'd suggest following the recommended items until you learn the game.
The "early game" section is a list of items you should get within 5 - 10 min, but not always mandatory
"Core" is almost always correct
"Situational" is filled with items, not necessarily in the order to buy them.
Also you need steam to play.

Dota 2 is going to be released fully free to play, after all heroes from the original are added.

Dota 2 is also celebrating its first seasonal event right now, Diretide, which adds a new game mode where you are pitted against the enemy team, and have to have the most candy by 20 minutes, and then kill Roshan together.

For any other questions, consult my friend Wiki.

Official dota site.dota2

Actually DotA originated from a custom Starcraft map made by Eul.

It was called the Aeon of Strife.

There's a lot of simple heroes.
Doom bringer, Clinkz, Viper, just to name a few.

Dota 2 is just a cheap imitation of LoL, but with worse graphics and to expensive./thread

That being said, why is DoTA 2 more expensive? It's going to be free to play anyway.

^^^


LOL

Been playing today.
If all the Heroes are from the original, funny how much LoL has ripped them off. I've tried using the two halves of Warwick and almost-Ashe so far.

The donkey confuses me, and I'm never ever going to use that "I turn into (max) 6 different clones" hero.

Once you keybind the courier it's pretty easy to manage, you just press c>d>f and your items are on your way, mash r too for good measure if it can fly
Substitute c for your keybinding of choice

I was just trolling, you don't even have to pay for heroes in DoTA 2, so it's actually free-er to play.

Mhm.

Lol didn't really rip heroes in a way.
I mean if you think about it, there's only so much you can do before they have to rendition a move to be slightly different.

Like think of LoL, there's like 3 spin moves, Renekton, Darius, Hecarim, a lot of next hit effects, jax, nasus, renekton, rengar, etc...

SO at some point there will have to be overlap in hero style.

No some of the heroes are almost identical, that's sort of alright though because they're ripped from DoTA one and I don't think they knew DoTA2 was in production at the time.

There's not much variety that's available in MOBA's as far as Mechanics go.

Really there's only so few kinds of mechanics to chose from.

Gap closers/Mobility
Steroids
Auto attack modifiers
Skill shots
Targeted

And that's all there is really. Items and environments are the only things that can mix it all up any further. Maybe there's the occasional "Use this skill shot before the gap closer for more damage!" thing but it's all the same if you think about it.

So saying "This champ/hero is exactly like that one and does the exact same thing." would be like saying "This gun is exactly like that one and does the exact same thing." or "This dog is exactly like that dog and does the exact same thing.".

You can only really differentiate things like this with style and characteristics.

Considering how many unique heroes LoL and DOTA2 manage to have in their rosters that's pretty much bull♥♥♥♥.
We're not talking about characters sharing one move, we're talking about characters with almost completely identical skillsets.

Can't forget Invoker as a Newbie hero. Just get coldsnap and alacrity
Ezpz

Got this today. So satisfying. Add me on steam if you don't mind a horse cock for an avatar and extremely vulgar names. It's really fun to stomp someone as "gay boy bottom lookin 4 a top".
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Ophanim/