DOTA101 - Beginner Guide

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Introduction

When your hero dies in DotA, several things happen: You have to wait a
designated time (your level x 4 seconds) until you revive at your base
fountain, the opponents gain experience and gold from killing you, and
your allies lose a valuable asset temporarily. Dying in DotA can be an
unpleasant experience, even more when it happens to less experienced
players. These are a few fundamentals that you can learn will help you
to stay alive when facing better opponents.

Starting the Game

Basic Items

A lot of newer players tend to go right for items like Boots of Speed
or Gloves of Haste in the beginning of the game, and tend to ignore
cheap ways of increasing your survivability dramatically; some even
give you an offensive edge!

• Regeneration
  
  Ancient Tango of Essifation: Tangoes provide uninterrupted healing so you can get right back to the middle of the action.
  Healing Salve: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Salves heal about 1/2 to 3/4 of your life early on.
  Clarity Potion: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Allows you to cast more spells.
  Bottle:
  Heals HP and mana. Empty bottles automatically refill when you return
  to your fountain, making them useful all game. They can also store
  runes. For more information about rune powerups.
  Magic Stick: Accumulates heal/mana on standby, this item is great against opponents who use spells frequently.
  

• Statistic-Increasing
  
  Gauntlets of Giant Strength / Slippers of Agility / Mantle of Intelligence: These items give you very minor +3 bonuses to a specific attribute
  Circlet of Nobility: +2 Rounded attribute bonuses usually if you intend to make Bracers, Wraith Bands and Null Talismans
  Ironwood Branch: +1 to stats, Cheap and effective, these fill out slot spaces nicely
  

Patience

Keep an eye on the timer at the top-right corner of your screen. When
it counts down and reaches 0, that is when the first wave of creeps
will spawn from your base and at your three towers and walk outwards.
They will continue walking along the lanes until they reach the enemy
creeps or tower. It is a good idea to stay near and behind these creeps
because they can provide you with safety from enemy attack.


Creeps and Towers

Creeps
While you can easily kill one on its own, their strength lies in
their numbers. A common mistake many players make is to engage multiple
creeps by themselves. Stay behind the safety of your own creeps so that
you can fight them at your leisure. Creeps spawn every 30 seconds.

Towers
The primary defensive measure for both teams, standing in the safety
of your tower is a strong incentive for enemies to back off. Towers
deal a sizable portion of your hit points in damage, making them
powerful unless there are other targets already in their attack range.
Try to figure out how far this distance is so that you do not take
unnecessary damage.

Both creeps and towers will change their
targets to attack you if you have chosen to attack an enemy hero in the
vicinity. This can be seen clearly in our first example.



Example: In the first part, the creeps are content to attack
each other until Sniper starts attacking the Priestess of the Moon, at
which point they switch to attacking him. Note that the creeps do not
go for the Priestess when she attacks the Sniper back because she is
too far away from them. In the second part, the tower stops attacking
the creeps in order to attack the Sniper when he attacks the Priestess.


Spells

Dying to spells is very common to new players who might not understand
the individual effects or mechanics of the many heroes in DotA. There
are hundreds of unique abilities in DotA, so it would appear to be very
daunting to have to learn and read about EVERY single hero. Instead,
try to place the spells that you have seen your opponents use into
major categories so you know how to react to them in the future:

• Direct Damage
  These spells often deal lots of damage quickly to an opponent, great
  for harassing and/or finishing them off. Try to be careful of these
  spells by keeping your current HP relatively high.
  Examples: Laser (Tinker) and Culling Blade (Axe)
  
• Area of Effect
  Affect only the area specified by your opponent. These spells can
  sometimes be avoided if you can be unpredictable as to confuse your
  opponents or keep your distance so that the spells do not reach you.
  Examples: Sonic Wave (Queen of Pain) and Macropyre (Twin-Headed Dragon)
  
• Damage Over Time
  Rather than instant damage, these abilities do their damage in segments
  but can come with extra effects, such as slow. While this will prevent
  Healing Salve and Bottle from healing you, regeneration items and
  specific abilities or items such as Mekansm can still be used.
  Examples: Venomous Gale (Venomancer) and Ignite (Ogre Magi)
  
• Disable/Stun
  These spells stun you or prevent you from responding in some way -
  movement, attacking, casting spells, or sometimes in combination.
  Generally you have to watch your distance or have an ally to assist you
  in case this happens.
  Examples: Shackle (Shadow Shaman) and Fiend's Grip (Bane Elemental)
  
• Buff/Debuff
  These
  spells either make you or your allies stronger or opponents weaker in
  some way such as increasing damage, armor, prevention of status effects.
  Examples: Repel (Omniknight) and Frost Armor (Lich)
  

Just be careful because sometimes certain spells fall under
more than one category: the best way of dealing with these spells would
be from gaining experience, learning from your mistakes, and good
teamwork.


Buying Items

While it can be tempting to go for huge damage items like Buriza-do
Kyanon and Radiance, it helps to know that buying items in a certain
order can really help a lot for improving your survivability. Here are
some tips:

• Bracers/Wraith Bands/Null Talismans
  Sometimes
  it can be useful to make 2-3 before going for more expensive items.
  They provide useful bonuses that help you survive and use more spells
  or deal more damage.
  

• Power Treads/ Phase Boots / Boots of Travel
  Upgrading
  your footwear will also give you both a movement speed boost and may
  come with useful abilities. Power Treads are good if you want the
  attack speed, Phase Boots give you a little more damage and armor, and
  Boots of Travel gives you a teleportation ability to any allied unit.
  

• Buying order
  Sometimes
  players tend to purchase items in the wrong order, so in order to
  explain this more thoroughly, let us look at the components of an item,
  the Linken's Sphere, which is comprised of:
  Perseverance (Ring of Health [875] + Void Stone [875]) + Ultimate Orb [2100] + Recipe [1325]
  It is a good idea to start with the ring of health or void stone to
  help provide regeneration in the lane. This will help you survive and
  save up the 2100 for your Ultimate Orb. Of course, if you were
  fortunate enough to get that much gold early then feel free to buy the
  more expensive component. NEVER BUY RECIPES FIRST.
  

• Scroll of Town Portal
  The
  reason this item deserves special mention and its own category is
  because it is one of the most important items that EVERY hero
  gets.While you do not have to buy one at the beginning of the game,
  this item is extremely useful and provides you with the ability to
  escape from enemies or to defend your buildings. Be wary of its
  channeling time, because it can be interrupted by some spells and
  items. You definitely want to be carrying at least one of these at all
  times, especially later in the game.
  

The Map

The map terrain and features are not only for decorative purposes,
something that newer players will understand very quickly when they are
facing opponents who do have the knowledge to make use of the
environment and playing field: Here are several aspects of basic
understanding that will help you to learn about the static features of
the DotA map:

• 
  Elevation
  Players
  in low areas cannot see enemies located above them: They also suffer a
  25% miss chance when fighting higher targets. Players often get
  surprised when they seemingly get attacked without warning near a ramp.
  In short, the higher you are, the better.
  

• Terrain
  There are
  many small pathways and little areas of trees that obscure vision and
  provide perfect hiding spots for your enemies. Sometimes it can be a
  good idea to run into the trees if you are trying to escape from them.
  

• Time
  You will have
  less vision at night, making it easier for opponents to close in and
  surprise you. Bonus fact: Some heroes like Drow Ranger and Nightstalker
  have higher than normal vision at night. More information
  

• Crossing the River
  The
  River divides up the territory between Sentinel and Scourge. Please be
  extremely cautious when you decide to travel across to the other half
  of the map. One of the most common mistakes for less experienced
  players to make is to fight creeps too far into the other side and
  eventually get killed as a result of this. Unless you are extremely
  confident in your abilities to escape, or bring allies with you,
  entering enemy territory alone will always result in an easy target for
  the opposing team to exterminate.
  

Example: Look at the trouble that Sniper gets into from crossing
the river alone! This play by Sniper is doubly bad because he also goes
uphill into the fog, which severely limits his vision. He can't see the
enemy team lurking above him until it's too late.

Summary

Hopefully, after reading this guide and learning more about
some fundamentals, you were able to pinpoint some of your mistakes as a
newer player to DotA. Learning how creeps and towers function, dealing
with spells, which items are useful, and understanding the map itself
will allow you to better survive against players who have learned this
through their experiences. Dying happens to everyone, use the knowledge
gained by those deaths to improve as a player and you will be a great
asset to your team in the near futur
I would like to come to a
close by reminding you that DotA, while full of individual play and
customization, is still a team game. Nothing gives you more
survivability than the 4 allies fighting alongside you, so having
coordination and teamwork can often be the difference between surviving
together, or dying alone.

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There are many commands that you can enter during the game,
some impact the game itself, while others display useful information.
Here we provide a list of most of the commands in the game. There are
some other commands that you can also use, but they are almost entirely
for fun and have no impact on the game, so we will start by covering
only those that impact gameplay.
All commands must be preceeded by "-" to work, for instance, "-ma".
All game modes must be entered on a single line preceeded by "-", for
instance, "-apemomsc".

Common Game Modes
ap	All Pick. Each player is allowed to pick a hero from any tavern.
ar	All Random. Each player is given a random hero from any tavern.
rd	Random Draft. 20 random heroes from any tavern are selected and players take turns picking from them.
sd	Single Draft. Each player chooses from one of 3 individual random heroes.
cd	Captains Draft. 24 random heroes are selected. Then Blue and Pink take turns banning heroes, then picking heroes. Then the players on each team pick from their team's heroes.
cm	Captains Mode. Blue and Pink take turns banning heroes, then take turns picking heroes. These heroes are then chosen by members of their team.
em	Easy Mode. Towers are weaker, and players get extra gold and experience.
dm	Death Match. When you die you are given a new hero. The game can end normally, or when one team reaches a certain amount of deaths.
Other Game Modes
rs	Random Side. Places each team on a random side.
du	Duplicate. More than one of each hero can be played.
sp	Shuffle Players. Randomly switches around players from each team.
xl	Extended League. Both Sides will take turns picking heroes. Each team captain can pick 4 heroes to remove from the pool.
om	Only Mid. Only the middle lane is used.
sc	Super Creeps. Powerful creeps will spawn every 10 minutes.
lm	League Mode. Both Sides will take turns picking heroes.
mm	Mirror Mode. After one minute, each team will have the same heroes.
tr	Team Random. You will be given a random hero from your taverns.
mr	Mode Random. Selects a random game mode.
vr	Vote Random. You will be given a random hero from the voted groupset.
rv	Reverse. You pick a hero for your opponent.
oi	Observer Info. Disables extra information display for observers.
sh	Same Hero. All players will be given the hero that Blue has.
aa	All Agility. Only Agility heroes are used.
ai	All Intelligence. Only Intelligence heroes are used.
as	All Strength. Only Strength heroes are used.
id	Item Drop. When you die, a random inventory slot will drop an item.
np	No Powerups. No runes spawn.
nt	No Top. The top lane is not used.
nm	No Mid. The middle lane is not used.
nb	No Bot. The bottom lane is not used.
ns	No Swap. Swapping heroes is not allowed.
nr	No Repick. Repicking heroes is not allowed.
pm	Pooling Mode. All items can be used by other players.
mi	Mini Heroes. All heroes are half normal size.
fr	Fast Respawn. Reduces death times by 50%.
mo	Melee Only. Only melee heroes are used.
ro	Ranged Only. Only ranged heroes are used.
er	Experimental Runes. Uses an experimental rune spawning system.
so	Switch On. Allows use of the -switch command.
Commands
tips	Gives you various helpful pointers about your hero throughout the game.
random	Random. Gives you a random hero in modes like All Pick. You get 250 extra gold.
random int	Random. Gives you a random Intelligence hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150 extra gold.
random str	Random. Gives you a random Strength hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150 extra gold.
random agi	Random. Gives you a random Agility hero in modes like All Pick. You get 150 extra gold.
ma	Displays the heroes your opponents control and their levels. Alias: -matchup.
ms	Displays your hero's current movement speed. Alias: -movespeed.
cs	Displays your creep kills, denies, and neutral kills.
switch	Allows you to switch teams with another player.
cson	Activates the cs display to display your creep kills and denies.
csoff	Deactivates the cs display.
disablehelp	Prevents certain spells, such as Test of Faith cast by an allied Holy Knight, from affecting you. Also prevents allies from picking up your items in the fountain area.
enablehelp	Re-enables effects from certain allied spells and allows allies to pick up your items in the fountain area..
unstuck	Pauses your hero for 60 seconds, after which you are teleported to your base.
recreate	Sometimes rare glitches occur with certain heroes, recreate can fix those glitches. Recreate takes about 2 minutes to complete, and only works on Lycanthrope, Lifestealer, Dragon Knight, Soul Keeper, and Tormented Soul.
swaphero xx	Offers to swap your hero with another player's.
showmsg	Shows messages.
hidemsg	Hides messages.
showdeny	Shows a '!' above a creep when it is denied.
hidedeny	Hides the '!'.
weather rain	Switches weather to rain.
weather snow	Switches weather to snow.
weather moonlight	Switches weather to moonlight.
weather wind	Switches weather to wind.
weather random	Switches to random weather.
weather off	Turns weather off.
di	Enables -cson and -showdeny. Alias: -denyinfo.
don	Shows the death timer. Alias: -deathon
doff	Hides the death timer. -deathoff
roll xx	Shows a random number between 1 and the number entered, max of 2000. Default of 100.
hhn	Hides the hero name portion of player's names. Alias: -hideheronames.
test	Enables single player commands.
mute	Toggles sounds on and off.
gameinfo	Displays information about the current game modes.
kickafk xx	Used to kick a player who has been AFK for a long period of time.
mines	Shows you how many Land Mines you have placed with Goblin Techies.
mc	Shows how many times you have Multicast with Ogre Magi.
fs	Shows how much bonus Strength you have gained from Flesh Heap with Pudge. Alias: -fleshstr
ha	Shows your average accuracy with Meat Hook or Hookshot.
aa	Shows your average accuracy with Elune's Arrow.
invokelist	Displays all of Invoker's spells, and what reagents are needed to use them.
water red	Makes the water red.
water green	Makes the water green.
water blue	Makes the water blue.
water default	Makes the water the default color.
water r g b	Sets the water color to the color specified by r, g, and b. Example: "-water 255 0 0" is the same as "-water red".
water random	Sets the water to a random color.
terrain snow	Makes the map have snowy terrain.
terrain default	Returns the map to normal terrain.
gg	Displays bonus gold gained from Alchemist's Goblin Greed ability.
rh	Displays a random hero name. Alias: -rollhero.

Thanks

Great info switch...

And during match, u can see it in the MAP INFO/ Modes.

Hmm..I've to try this anyways thank you switch