Stepping out into the Real Battlefield

This is actually a public "poll": of opinion without actually being a poll.

I once played the original dota as a WC3 mod back in College, and i havent touched a MOBA game since that point. A friend threw me Dota2, and I've logged a bunch of hours in as an inaugural demonstration of the core mechanics. I often attempt to play as Phantom Assassin and Faceless Void which I was eventually told are both hard as nails characters to play. But I'm ok with that, I'll take my bumps.

I've only been playing with Bots so far though. Medium level bots, but bots non-the-less. Ive played on my own, and played with upwards of one other friend. Both on a private password protected bot server.

I am told the Bot are way intense in terms of difficulty, and I believe it. I get rocked pretty hard 99.9% of the time, but I always end up helping my team finish the match.

Truth be entirely told, how much experience SHOULD one get against bots before releasing ones-self into the wild of pub matches? Im stoked to go against players, but I dont wish to be laughed off the face of dota2, you know?


First post guys, glad to be here, I hope to stick around for a while :)

You will be laughed at sooner or later now matter you good or bad you are, get over it.
The only healthy mindset you can play this game with (as far as I can tell) is that of always trying to improve your own skill level (be it team-wise when you have capable teammates or individually when you are in lack of capable comrades).

I wouldn't worry too much if I was you, esp in the lower brackets, lots of ppl like you will be playing there, of similar skill level (in general) and with a more or less similar mindset set out onto exploring the game rather than getting good at it.

If you can beat medium bots (outlane them, having better positioning, playing smart) you'll probably be above average for your skill branch, so winning should prove easier.

imo

also, get friends, keep it civilized and you'll actually get to enjoy your wins from time to time instead of it feeling like some kinda of chore

Honestly, that is precisely what I was expecting to hear, right down to the finest of details. I appreciate your frankness. Pending not having anything on the go when i get home from work, I may jump into a pub then.

The only detail I didnt know, was I was informed that dota2 pubs atm are filled to the brim with people who know what theyre doing. It's comforting to hear the possibility of otherwise.

A lot of people pretend they know what they are doing, when in fact they don't, there is another bunch that do know what they are doing indeed, but that's not how you separate the good from the bad people.

I'd rather play with a non-flamy average player than a really good superflamer. There are no excuses for being an ***.

http://imgur.com/EVpdB

In case you didn't see it yet. It may help you recognize common stereotypes more easily.

I just spent 5 minutes reading all the stuff on that page. Makes me wonder what kind of person I am xD.

I honestly think you should try some pubs even if you feel unsure. If you are going to do it sooner or later, why not sooner. Experience is always good. If you feel really unsure, you can try harder bots and improve by playing them but that is not as fun.

You don't have to be a good player to play with other players, just play, that's how we all learnt. You can't be good by playing with bots, everyone was a beginner at a time.

Just play with players, do your best, listen to advice from your teammates, read guides and always remember, ignore the people who flame, they are just mad they are losing the game.

Play and never give up, do your best.

Even when you will be a good player, you'll still have bad games, it happens to absolutely everyone, so it's okay. :)

Haha I appreciate everyones encouragement :)

See, to me the only reason it's a little offputting (or so seemed), well, it's kind of like jumping into CS:S or COD4 or even better Unreal Tournament for the first time Today. You'll just get your face rocked and ultimately become a detriment to your team even being present. At least, thats what I acquitted it towards anyways.

This said, I've been playing online games since Age of Empires and Quake. The differences is I grew with the franchises I play online, so I'm familair with the communities, play style, maps, changes, etc. I'm extremely familair with the concepts of having a bad game or two no matter what ;) especially when your rusty and coming back after a while. haha

That all said, DOTA is something I _completely_ freaking missed, so I'm in an awkward position where its like going to a brand new school in a different country. I'm starting "a-fresh" and therefore have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going, and I just hate being "that player" haha


I wasn't able to jump into any DOTA last night like I wanted to, something I had to do for a client required some research of a piece of software, and completely botched my entire system (hint: Never install "IECollection" on Windows 7, its bad news bears). I'm all recovered now (finally), reinstalled, waiting to get home after work, got some time before the Mrs. comes home, so totally going to jump in today, and just for fun (not expecitng too many people to care) I'll share explicit details about my experience.

I'm totally willing to learn and get good at this. Every game even against bots so far has been a lot of frustrating fun, so I'm stoked to continue :)

Since it's only a week or two back since I had my first online match after being in almost the same situation I can look back and tell you you will probably be 'shocked' by the skill level of some others. I swear I've played a few games with people who probably don't even know how MOBA games work. Best thing is to go along with it and try to make the best out of it, since everybody has to learn it some way or another :)

just go online and play ffs :) - Bots will only teach you to last hit like a pro..
consultation.. done.

OK so I had to step around a bit but I managed to finally get a pub game in.. after waiting for 35 minutes to find a match (seriously? I'm in canada! where are all the matches?! x_X) . Of course I played as the Phantom Assassin.

We lost the match as a whole, but I snagged 3 kills. A new record for me!

However, based on the response, I noticed that as well as a good melee carry as PA, I should also probably get used to a Ranged hero as well. After doing some digging, I stumbled across the Sniper. Tried him out in a bot game.

Holy. GOD. What a difference!

I think I've already found my two favorite Heroes overall haha