Help me decide which character to play first :/

Play what looks most interesting and study about them a bit.

That's what I did and had fun.

You could also try Pudge, he is pretty easy, you just gotta hook someone, use your combo, and that's a kill.

Or just do hooks to help your team.

This. Play whoever, and if you see someone cool on the other team, or on your team, play them the next game, and so on.

I learned with Ursa, he is reeeeeaaaaaallllly easy.
But be sure to pick him if the opposing team is missing cc or you're in trouble

Huskar is another good pick for beginners.

Jug is also an easy hero to pick up and play.

Ooh, Lina as well. Even if you are under farmed, your basic skill nuke is an instakill usually.

Lion works too based on your logic. And the mana drain could help new players get comfortable with the mana costs of the spells. I hated how LoL had no limitations on your spell casting since the mana pool for everyone was so high

Lol, not really. Early game Lux, Xerath and Maokai was terrible. And jungling, but there's blue buff to make up for that.

LoL skills have 5 lvls so they scale slower. To make up for this, they are more spamable. Dota 2 skills have 4 and gain damage faster. They are much more powerful and cost more than LoL skills. Ofc im talking about all this stuff not counting ap since Dota 2 doesnt have ap.