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So welcome! This is my not-really-a-guide guide to some of the basic stuff in the game. If you are truly a new player this should help you out with processing information and understanding some concepts. In this case, I will talk about some basic settings, the hud and stuff, and then I will explain some of the most basic stuff, like how to read your spells and items; as well as explain you what is a stun, etc; all that stuff, with some examples on its side. I will not teach you to play the game, but give you some of this information that will hopefully come handy for understanding better whats going on with the heroes and the spells.
So the very first thing you want to do is install the game. It is pretty simple, you cannot miss it.
When you are done with that, run the game.
As for the most recents versions of Dota 2, upon first running the game, you are going to have to walk through some tutorial levels; that in my opinion can be well made and all, but they are really misleading to what Dota 2 really is, and how the game is played, so stick with me.
Anyway. Of course you are going to out the game controls and stuff of that nature by joining a Bot Match (if you dont know, a bot is a CPU-AI that simulates being another player).
The first thing that will pop up as you enter a match is the Hero Selection screen.
At first it will look like too much of everything, and you will have no idea who to pick, who does what. See the Heroes section.
Dota 2 has plenty of options. Regarding not only display options, etc. But ingame controls, types for targeting, for example quickcasting, auto attacking, etc.
You are going to want to turn auto attack off, just untick the box. There are two reasons to do this: If you are escaping, you dont want your hero to turn around and auto attack when you didnt command it to. Second, you dont want to push the lane without you wanting to actually push the lane.
Also, try to play with Edge Pan from the very beginning, I have met players that had this option turned off at the start, and they got used to it, and now dont have the best camera settings.
In Dota you control one character. Your hero. There are over 100 heroes, and they all do different things (See the Heroes section).
Controlling your hero is simple. You right click a position and it will move there, and even if the hero didnt reach said position, you can right click somewhere else, and they will go to the last one you ordered. Also, they will path around any obstacles in the way.
Right Clicking an enemy hero or creep (non-hero unit) will set an attack order on them, so your hero will attack them with the basic attacks. These basic attacks are called autoattacks or right clicks.
The vast majority of heroes have 4 spells, spells are like special attacks. They consume mana and have a cooldown most of the time. See Spells section.
These 4 spells are controlled with Q,W,E and R. And if your hero has more, D and F, are used aswell.
Items often have active abilities, these are used with Z,X,C,V,B and N.
Observer Wards and an enemy walks by one, you can see their icon on the minimap on the move, and be ready, without having to watch the actual situation with your camera.[/color]
Town Portal Scroll (TP scroll, or simply TP).In a regular game of Dota, each team has 5 heroes on each side. One of each controlled by each player, and picked from the hero pool (currently over 100).
Each hero has a different spell set, a different amount of stats, armor, movement speed and base damage.
Heroes can be very different one from each other, and these differences, dictated by said criteria, makes them apt for different roles and types of heroes, all listed in sections below.
Dragon Knight
Drow Ranger
Faceless Void
Luna
Lion
Lina
Ogre Magi
Omniknight
Phantom Assassin
Riki
Earthshaker
Slardar
Sven
Tiny
Ursa
Vengeful Spirit
Venomancer
Centaur Warrunner 
Viper
Wraith King
Chaos Knight
Sniper
Tinker needs a lot of practice at map awareness, high mechanical skills and managing of multiple items and buttons at the same time in short time windows.
Batrider needs knowledge or ranging and makes the laning experience totally different, also, to your fellow new player teammates, it is a hard hero to play with.
Brewmaster, his ultimate requires micromanagement of units.
Broodmother, deals with hard to understand spells, and requires micromanagement skills.
Clockwerk requires good camera control and aim, and also knowing your enemies.
Dark Seer deals with some really wonky spells and very specific playstyle, hard to grasp.
Disruptor mechanical skill and timing is really important to play a proper Disruptor.
Earth Spirit, where to begin. Just dont worry, you probably wont deal with this hero anyway.
Enchantress needs micromanagement and jungling knowledge most of the time.
Enigma same as Enchantress, but also has a big spell that if you miss you will cry because of its 300 second cooldown.
Invoker needs good memory, fast fingers, and a lot of practice.
Io, AKA Wisp, has a really strange playstyle.
Lone Druid needs micromanagement aswell.
Meepo tons of micromanagement.
Chen same as Meepo.
Morphling deals with weird concepts aswell.
Naga Siren, micromanagement.
Nature's Prophet, micromanagement.
Phoenix failing its spells will punish you hard.
Rubick, not that hard, but requieres full game and spell knowledge.
Terrorblade really easy to kill early on, and needs micromanagement.
Treant Protector needs map awareness.
Visage needs micromanagement.
Beastmaster needs micromanagement too.Based on their spells and playstyles, heroes have different positions on a team.
There are 5 main positions, and they are in farm-dependence order.
This means that a Position 1 Hero needs a lot of gold and Exp to carry his team to victory. And a Position 5 hero is supposed to stay behind, take care of Observer Ward coverage and protect their carry early game.
As you can see, the position 1 represented in the yellow line starts up early game being weak, and gets gold and exp and goes really strong late game, making the team win, but before that, you need supports, blue line, that have a really good early game spell set, and will help you make early game as painless as possible, as they slowly decay into their awesome spells being less and less relevant, as the carries take over.
The carry is the hero in the team that has the most amount of farm (gold & exp), and gets the strongest of all in the late game.
Dota is a game of momentum, your team's gold & exp versus the opponent's. And this is shown via your carry. Whoever has the best, most farmed carry, is going to win the game most of the time.
How to play a carry in a nutshell:
-Get gold.
-Win Game.
Some examples of heroes that are good at carrying, carries:
-
Alchemist
-
Bloodseeker
-
Anti-Mage
- Chaos Knight
- Dragon Knight
-
Ember Spirit
- Faceless Void
-
Gyrocopter
-
Kunkka
-
Legion Commander
-
Lifestealer
- Luna
- Morphling
- Naga Siren
- Phantom Assassin
- Sniper
- Sven
- Tiny
- Ursa
- Viper
- Wraith King
-
Medusa
- Meepo
- Drow Ranger
Among many others. Also, there are plenty of other heroes that arent by default a carry, but can be built like one, and with enough farm, could take over the game.
-
Queen of Pain
- Tinker
-
Silencer
- Nature's Prophet
-
Juggernaut
-
Storm Spirit
-
Clinkz
Anti-Mage.
Butterfly, 
Boots of Travel, 
Manta Style, 
Heart of Tarrasque, 
Battle Fury and 
Abyssal Blade. Just in case you want to know the item's information.
The position 2 hero is most of the time taking the role of the midder. The midder is the hero that lanes Mid.
The Mid hero is one that needs quick gold and exp to thrive and be relevant during the early and mid game. Not only that but one that is a competent, map controling, solo hero, against a similar opponent.
The Mid heroes get an absurd exp and gold advantage, providing they actually won their lane, and use this advantage to get some big relevant fighting items and making the opposing team's early game a living hell. Early ganks coming from a mid hero will obliterate your lane composition if you dont do anything to prevent it. You can prevent them telling your mid hero to keep the pressure on the lane, with Observer Wards and positioning yourself back a bit, somewhere safe.
Via this constant storm, the mid hero creates farming space for the position 1 hero. And gets a big amount of gold himself/herself, to assist in teamfights and keep on ganking.
Solid Mid Heroes:
-
Puck
-
Pudge
- Queen of Pain
-
Magnus
-
Huskar
-
Mirana
-
Night Stalker
-
Slark
- Storm Spirit
- Earth Spirit
-
Tusk
-
Zeus
- Viper
-
Templar Assassin
- Tiny
- Invoker
- Ember Spirit
-
Necrophos
-
Lycan
- Legion Commander
- Drow Ranger
-
Death Prophet
-
Razor
-Outworld Devourer
- Dragon Knight
- Vengeful Spirit
-Among Others
The Mid hero is most of the time the most powerful hero of the game, until the 25 minute mark. However, not all Mid heroes' main objective is ganking, there are the called farming mids, and their objective is to farm as much as possible. Most of the time, the farming mids are also the position 1 of the team.
Mid heroes also have total access to runes, I will talk on that later.
The position 3 hero has some variation to it. It can be an offlaner, or a semi-carry, depending on the lanes you are running.
If you are running duo-lanes (this means 2 heroes in the safe lane, 1 mid, 2 on the hard lane) the position 3 hero is a semi-carry.
The semicarry is considered to be an early game aid to the carry and the support. Being literally the mid point between the position 2 and 4. The position 3 is constantly ganking, creating pressure and space for the position 1 to farm, but is also protecting the supports. The semi-carries can get pretty nasty if given enough farm, and be rather relevant later in game, even surpassing the Midder if given the opportunity.
Heroes that are good at semi-carrying:
- Sven
- Wraith King
-
Abaddon
- Batrider
-
Axe
-
Leshrac
- Venomancer
- Lion
- Vengeful Spirit
-
Skywrath Mage
-Others
Tidehunter
Bristleback Clockwerk Dark Seer Puck
Bounty Hunter Axe
Timbersaw Beastmaster Lone Druid
Weaver Ogre MagiThe position 4 hero is known as the support. Not to be confused with the Hard Support, the position 4 actually does stuff that go beyond the barrier of the position 5.
This means getting items such 
Mekansm and taking second hand part in fights. And most of the time, position 4's can make a big difference.
Nature's Prophet. Silencer Enigma Rubick Leshrac Venomancer Earthshaker Phoenix
Sand King Tusk
Witch Doctor
UndyingThe position 5 is the most gold starving hero of the team. They usually have items that you would consider to be early game oriented, such as 
Boots of Speed and 
Magic Sticks for way longer than the rest of the team.
Their role is to keep the map warded, and free of enemy wards; pulling and stacking to keep the lane equilibruim for their carry, and not feed.
Examples of Hard Supports:
-
Crystal Maiden
-
Lich
- Io
- Omniknight
-
Dazzle
-
Oracle
-
Keeper of the Light
-
Ancient Apparition & Chen more than often.
Apart from the 5 position system, we have specific hero utilities. This is how good is a hero to do something, and this is based off their spell set. Said if your hero has a lot of disables, or a good disabled, he is consider a disabler. Or for example, if your hero is adept at ganking, can be considered a ganker.
Heroes can have more than one of these utilities.
See the next sections on these utilities:
An initiator is a hero that is great at starting a teamfight, and at the same time giving his team the advantage on said teamfight.
These heroes typically have strong area of effect damage or disable or some ability to affect the positioning of the enemy team.
Many of these heroes rely completely on a positional item such as 
Blink Dagger or 
Force Staff to get the proper positioning to initiate a teamfight, while a select few, such as 
Elder Titan and Silencer, do not require this asset. Although it is common for an Initiator to be a Durable hero, this is not always the case; fragile heroes such as Enigma and Vengeful Spirit are adept at initiation. Late in the game, this role becomes very crucial, as an effective initiation can win a teamfight, and a poor one can lose it.
Honorable Mentions:
- Magnus
- Tidehunter
- Enigma
- Axe
- Dark Seer
- Earthshaker
- Elder Titan
- Silencer
- Kunkka
- Mirana
-And many more
But, you do not necessarily need an initiator hero to initiate a teamfight, as a simple spell like 
Storm Hammer could do the trick, or a Tiny with Blink Dagger and 
Avalanche too.
As the name says it. Its a hero that excells at disabling opponents, this can be by stunning them or by straight out disabling them, such as 
Fiend's Grip.
Heroes tagged as Disabler generally have abilities which are more focused to reliable crowd control, whether by single target or by area. Generally supportive heroes (because their abilities are not improved by items), they often lane with carry heroes as a defensive system, or along powerful early fighters, to have the possibility of getting kills.
Carry heroes generally have weak disabling power, although some, such as Faceless Void are exceptional. Heroes with powerful disables tend to have low base movement speed, giving enemies a chance to react, but this can be bypassed with mobility items, such as Blink Dagger and Force Staff.
Here are some disabler examples:
-
Shadow Shaman
- Lion
- Enigma
- Magnus
- Tidehunter
-
Bane
- Batrider
- Faceless Void
- Legion Commander
- Naga Siren
-More
Heroes that are granted a tactical nuke when they reach 23 kills.
No, but actually, heroes that have high damage spells. Like 
Finger of Death. Or that tend to buy high damage items, such dagon Necrophos or Tinker.
Nukers are Heroes with fast, strong, and/or sustainable spell or magical damage output, whether it be through single-target spells or area-of-effect ones. Because area of effect damage comes mainly from nukes, Nukers can provide a huge damage-per-second advantage in team fights when they can harm multiple enemy heroes all at once.
Area of effect nukers also excel at pushing, like 
Pugna as they can dispatch enemy creeps efficiently. Burst damage nukers such as Lina can also be deadly, as one single fast combo of her spells can often kill, making a teamfight one-sided from the start. The mana cost and cooldowns of nukes often dictate how they will be used, as ones with low mana cost and/or cooldown can be spammed in lanes or in ganks, while ones with higher mana cost and cooldown are often best saved for large confrontations.
Examples of Nukers:
- Bane
- Invoker
- Lina
- Lion
-
Nyx Assassin
- Ogre Magi
- Puck
- Pugna
- Queen of Pain
- Sand King
- Timbersaw
- Tinker
- Zeus
-Etc.
Gankers are Heroes with abilities that deliver long duration crowd control and/or immense damage in the early and midgame.
They tend to have good mobility and rely on a mixture of physical and magical damage as well as disables to bring down their enemies. Their goal is to give the team an early game advantage during the laning phase by killing enemy heroes in their proper lanes. The Ganker role is often synonymous with the Semi-Carry role, as most Gankers become Semi-Carries if they are successful in their efforts, owing to a large gold and level advantage. However, because their abilities do not scale as well, they will usually suffer more in the late game (hence the need for a Hard Carry). Nevertheless, if a Ganker performs extremely well, he or she might prove to be the overall bigger threat to the enemy team at the game's conclusion than an allied Hard Carry.
The most important task for a Ganker is to restrict the farm and levels of the opposing Carry.
Examples of Gankers:
- Night Stalker
- Pudge
- Storm Spirit
- Slark
- Queen of Pain
- Earth Spirit
- Magnus
- Nyx Assassin
- Ember Spirit can gank.
- Mirana
- Ogre Magi usually paired up with another support.
-Many others.
Junglers are heroes that can efficiently jungle neutrals at the start of the game, rather than lane. This allows for there to be two solo lanes, which in turn allows two allies to benefit from solo farm instead of one (see offlaner). Junglers typically have abilities that allow them to convert neutral creeps, summon minions, or sustain themselves through moderate damage from jungle creeps. The ability to Jungle is found in Heroes of all attribute classes and roles.
Although having two solo lanes and a Jungler produces a significant gold and experience advantage, it increases exposure to enemy ganks and can make side lanes weaker.
Jungling has become quite obsolete in Dota 2 as of right now, but there is still an amount of heroes that can do it successfully.
Examples:
-
Doom
- Nature's Prophet
- Chen
- Enigma
- Enchantress
And some older junglers that arent that efficient:
- Ursa
- Lycan
- Lifestealer
- Bloodseeker
- Legion Commander
Escape heroes are heroes equipped with one or more escape mechanisms which allow them (or sometimes their allies) to avoid damage and abilities while retreating or repositioning themselves during a teamfight or gank. Escape heroes are particularly suited to soloing the "suicide lane" or short lane (offlaning), as they can turn situations where death is inevitable into a temporary delay in farm.
Escape mechanisms include movement speed buffs, invisibility, teleportation (such as Blinking), and evasion. Many carry heroes also have escape mechanisms to give them the survivability they need to continue farming and killing.
Heroes with good escape mechanisms:
- Puck certified escape artist.
- Ember Spirit
- Slark
- Queen of Pain & Anti-Mage for their strong 
Blinks.
- Earth Spirit
- Storm Spirit
-Invisibility heroes like Bounty Hunter, Clinkz and Riki can escape easily if you do not have true sight (see true sight section).
- Faceless Void
- Timbersaw
- Weaver for multiple reasons.
- Morphling
-Other heroes depending on their items.
Pretty simple. Pushers are heroes that are usually picked for their pushing power. Pushing lanes that is. Killing creeps easily, taking down towers.
There are two kinds of pushers, they are not all the same. Some pushers have an easy time taking down the creeps, but cannot take towers by themselves (for example Tinker and Ember Spirit. Some others find it easier to push the tower down than the creepwaves (like Death Prophet and Lycan. Some can do both just fine, like 
Techies, arguably Nature's Prophet.
Durable heroes are what just they are meant to be. Fat tanks that can soak up a lot of damage. Some other games actually consider this a core role, but in DotA is more of a secondary treat your hero has.
Pudge by excellence. Centaur Warrunner for his strength growth (see stats). Tidehunter Abaddon
Spectre Alchemist if properly farmed up (and during 
Chemical Rage). Chaos Knight gets really tanky due to his illusion based character, as he needs to build stats up. Axe Clockwerk. Huskar Morphling strength up.Dota 2 is a game with a lot of varibles and changes to it. That's why you will hear the word 'situational' a lot when you play, situational heroes, situational item pickups.
This is because there are heroes that do not really fit completely in many or one of these categories. As they do their own thing, by a combination of the above.
For example, Pudge. He is a ganker, he is a durable hero, he is an initiator to a point, he can also get really nuke-y, etc. But in the end he is just Pudge, and playing against Pudge is different than playing against other gankers, initiators, tanky heroes or nukers.
Heroes as Techies, Nature's Prophet, 
Spirit Breaker, and others, are good examples for heroes that have a set specific playstyle.
Alright, this might be a little but confusing for you, as a new player. But I will break it down the best I can.
There are three damage types in DotA 2. (They removed some others like composite damage, universal damage and HP removal so it could be easier for new players to understand it).
Different damage types are mitigated by different damage resistances. Spells, attacks and attack modifiers can change your damage type when performing some actions.
See the next three sections.
Physical damage is the most common damage type in the game. As all right click regular auto attacks deal this damage type.
You can add more damage to your auto attacks by buying items that provide damage (often called raw damage items, like 
Blades of Attack or 
Divine Rapier or by having more points in your main attribute stat. This can be done by leveling up or buying items that provide stats.
Physical damage is reduced or mitigated by items that provide armor (see armor). But that is a little bit more complicated and subject of another section.
Counter Helix
Tidebringer Slardar's bash
Omnislash Techies's landmines & suicide squad attackMagical type damage is the damage most spells deal, more specifically nukes. Magical damage can be mitigated by spell resistance, also called magic resistance or magic armor if you are one of the older players.
It can also be completely blocked by magic immunity from sources like 
Black King Bar, 
Rage, 
Blade Fury, etc.
The vast majority of spells deal their damage in magical type, here are some examples.
-
Magic Missile
-
Dragon Slave
- Finger of Death
-
Ravage
-
Shockwave
-
Fissure
-
Impale
-
Sanity's Eclipse
-
Void
-
Fireblast
-
Shadowraze
-
Starstorm
-
Rot
-Pretty much anything you can think of, magical damage (most of the time).
Pure is the big thing. Pure type damage is not reduced by any type of damage resistance. However, it is dealt by a small selection of spells, and a few other sources, like cleave.
Here are some spells that deal pure damage:
-
Chakram
-
Dispersion
-
Meat Hook
-
Brain Sap
-
Purification's damage part.
-
Blood Rite
-
Stifling Dagger
-
Sonic Wave
-
Laguna Blade if 
Aghanim's Scepter is equipped.
-
Wave of Terror
-
Urn of Shadows when used in an enemy.
-Some others.
Some spells deal damage based on percentages of health. Back in the day they would be in the HP removal damage type, now they have changed it into pure damage, so its still kind of the same damage numbers.
These are very few spells:
-
Midnight Pulse
-
Life Break, this is a little weird though.
-
Sunder is a really wonky spell, you will know when you see it or read it.
-reaper scythe is technically magical damage, but it uses HP percentage to calculate its output of damage.
-
Heartstopper Aura is more of a "negative regeneration" deal, but I will list it here since it has no other place to be.
-
Ice Blast deals magical damage over time, but instantly kills you if you drop under certain percentage of HP.
-
Black Hole when Aghanim's Scepter is equipped.
-Oblligatory etc, just in case I missed something, which I bet I did.
Alright! Onto the fun stuff!
Spells is what makes the game so much fun, along with items.
As already noted, every hero has spells, most of them have four, some can have more spells or subspells, like Earth Spirit, Io, Phoenix; and then there is Invoker.
There are many spells of different kinds in the game. And they are used in different forms. These are called targetting options.
The main divider of spell types is active and passive.
Passive abilities are those that just work by having them, you don't have to use them, they just permanently work.
For example:
-
Inner Beast
-spell shield
-
Berserker's Blood
-
Warpath
-
Incapacitating Bite
-
Chaos Strike
-
Lunar Blessing
-Many more.
Passives come in diferent forms and utilities, sometimes they are attack modifiers, like 
Mana Break; sometimes they are buff-like spells such as 
Feral Impulse (yea I knew that spell's name), sometimes they are auras, will talk about that in a minute, and sometimes they are a weird combination of passive-semi actives, like 
Jinada or precision aura.
Magic Missile, 
Bloodlust, 
Dismember are examples. These also apply to items: 
Scythe of Vyse, 
Rod of Atos, Force Staff. Meat Hook, Sonic Wave, Blink Dagger are examples. Ravage, 
Echo Slam, 
Reverse Polarity, all work with instant targetting. 
Vendetta for example does as well, but it is not a AOE spell.
Death Pulse, 
Heat Seeking Missile, 
Concussive Shot are examples. Rot, 
Berserker's Rage, 
Radiance. Black Hole, soul catcher, 
Sun Strike.So, that was targetting. That still doesnt tell us what spells do, and what are they for, just how they work.
In the following sections I will cover the basic spell effects and utilities you need to know, its not the bear minimum, but it isn't detailed either.
Stun is a status effect that prevents active actions like moving, turning, using spells, items, but does not prevent passive abilities, such as evasion, damage block. Stuns also interrupt any casting or channeling spells and attacks.
Many spells cause stun which make them effective for stopping and killing your enemy. Stuns also allow for easier escapes as they prevent your enemy from pursuing you temporarily. It is usually considered to be the strongest disable, which is why most stuns do not last for more than few seconds.
Stuns come in all shapes and sizes. But here are some good representative examples:
-
Hoof Stomp, AOE and Instant.
- Magic Missile Ranged stun.
-
Ice Path ground targetted.
-And many more, read the notes of each spell.
There are also mini-stuns, that are usually 0.1 second long or less, sometimes too short you don't realize it. Why are they useful? They cancel channeling actions. Like Town Portal Scrolls.
Leshrac stunning Lina and Sniper with 
Split Earth. Notice the little blue tornado-like animation on top of their head, that means they are stunned.
Slows are abilities that reduce your movement speed, sometimes by a fixed value, sometimes by a percentile amount. Slows can also reduce attack speed.
There are a lot of spells that slow in the game, here are some of them:
-
Thunder Clap
-
Shadow Strike
- Rot
-
Viper Strike
-
Gush
-
Ignite
-More, many many more.
Some spells that slow your attack speed:
-
Curse of Avernus
-
Chilling Touch
-
Smoke Screen
-
Degen Aura
-Massive slow 
Fire Spirits and 
Untouchable
Honorable mention to Tiny's 
Grow. He slows his own attack speed.
Also honorable mention to Batrider's 
Sticky Napalm that slows your turn rate as well.
Not to be confused with the bombs. A nuke is a spell that deals a considerable amount of damage and/or damaging the enemy is its main focus.
That is it. They are spells that deal damage. Sometimes they can get a little crazy on the numbers though.
Some examples of nukes:
-
Laser
-
Waveform
- Sun Strike
- Brain Sap
- Thunder Clap
- Dragon Slave
- Finger of Death
-
Crypt Swarm
- Sonic Wave
-
Breathe Fire
-
Static Remnant
-
Nether Blast
-dagon (damn right)
-Among others.
Also, remember spells are not necessarily just one of these utiities, you can have nukes that stun, stuns that slow, all of the above, mixed and matched.
Zeus wipe the whole enemy team by using 
Thundergod's Wrath and a 
Refresher Orb.
Buff is good. Debuff is bad.
Anything that is applied to you and has a negative effect is called a debuff, this can be a slow, a disarm, a silence, a hex, a stun, a blind, whatever.
On the other hand, a buff is anything that gives you a positive effect, this can be faster movement of attack speed, damage, armor, magic resistance, sometimes more wonky effects, like cleave, or 
False Promise (don't get me started on that thing).
Not to be confused with buff as a game balance term (buff/nerf).
Examples of some simple buffs:
-
Press the Attack
- Bloodlust
-
Warcry & 
God's Strength
-
Fiery Soul, technically a passive, but provides buffs.
-
Howl
-
Phantom Strike provides a attack speed buff upon landing.
-Many more out there.
Pretty much anything is considered a buff or a debuff, for instance, technically getting stunned is a debuff, but for sake of not confusing you, we wont call everything a debuff. Same goes with buffs, technically 
Shallow Grave is a buff, but it doesnt provide positive effects, like faster movement speed for instance, but have different effects, this kind of spells go under the 'none of the above' section.
Not to be confused with the following section, summoning and conversion, transformation is similar to a buff, but actually changes your hero drastically, and most of the time visually aswell.
Hex, which is a negative transformation.
Metamorphosis
Primal Split
Shapeshift
True Form
Supernova, technically.
Flesh Golem
Spirit Form
Elder Dragon Form Tiny's ult Grow Chemical RageSummoning and conversion are very similar, that is why I put them together on the same section.
Summoning consists on, well, summoning a unit to your command. These units can do different tasks depending on their type.
Some summoning abilities:
-
Forge Spirit
-
Frozen Sigil
-call of the wild
-
Healing Ward
-
Plague Ward
-
Mass Serpent Ward
-
Nether Ward
-spirit bear
-
Summon Wolves
-
Tombstone
-
Summon Familiars
-
Chaotic Offering
-
Spawn Spiderlings
-
Nature's Call, it is not considered conversion because trees are not units as creeps.
-
Necronomicon warriors.
March of the Machines is not summoning, as it does not bring any actual units.
The Swarm is not considered summoning until it hits an enemy unit and actually summons a beetle.
Death Ward is not considered a summoning spell. Meepo clones are not summons, they are Meepo clones.
Power Cogs is considered a trap over a summoning. Visage's familiars)
Enchant is Enchantress' version of it.
Helm of the Dominator has a conversion active.
Infest's Mind control sub-ability.So you already knoww that a stun is a disable. But there are many other types of disables. Again, just as the different targetting/casting methods for the spells, I will sum them up with a quick description and some examples.
Here we go:
Shackles: They are called shackle disables because they have a similar working as Shadow Shaman's shackle spell. When using a shackle disable, the disabler is usually chanelling, or has a specific ability restricted, during the disabling. Examples are spells like Black Hole, Dismember, Fiend's Grip, of course 
Shackles and some others that are not channeling spells but do debuff the caster are 
Flaming Lasso, that disarms Batrider and less known 
Electric Vortex that slows Storm Spirit for its duration (to encourage 
Ball Lightning use and balance his escape capabilities. The reason they have to limit the disabler is to balance out the spell, as these disables are usually really strong. However there is one exception to the rule (as always, welcome to dota) and that is Morphling's morph (agility gain) and morph (strength gain).
Sleeps: There are different kinds of sleeps, the full on sleep from 
Echo Stomp, and the foe is waken up if attacked. And the other kind, that disables the target but makes them invulnerable at the same time, for example heroes under the effect of 
Song of the Siren.
Cyclones: These disable the target hero, but puts them in a state where they cannot be targetted, often by rising them up in a cyclone. Other units can walk under them while cycloned. 
Tornado, Brewmaster's Primal Split 
Cyclone and 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity's active ability.
Forced Movements: Some spells and items can force unit movement, on enemies or allies. Most of them, when used on allies do not fully disables them for the duration of the movement, but will disable if used on enemies; for example Force Staffing an ally or using 
Geomagnetic Grip on them will not disable them. Using stuff like 
Vacuum, Meat Hook, Force Staff and 
Skewer on enemies will fully disable them for the duration of the forced movement.
Roots: Also called ensnares often, are spells that disable movement and spells like Blink or the use of Blink Dagger (not Force Staff though), but doesnt prevent the disabled unit from attacking, turning, and casting spells. Examples of roots are 
Ensnare, earhbind and 
Entangling Claws (that is from Lone Druid's spirit bear by the way if you didn't know).
Entangles: They are exactly the same as roots, but they also disarm the player, not silencing them though. 
Frostbite and 
Overgrowth are entangles.
Hex: Hex spells transform the targeted unit into a creature that cannot attack, cast spells, and moves very slowly; it can also cancel the effect of some passive spells, like any spells that grant evasion. Lion and Shadow Shaman have Hex in their spell sets, also you can purchase Scythe of Vyse with the active hex effect.
Traps: They do not disable the target unit in any way, but serve as obstacles that hinder the heroes movements. Some trap examples are 
Sprout, Power Cogs, 
Ice Shards, 
Kinetic Field, 
Pounce (the leash effect, not the jump) and Fissure.
Taunts: Taunts are spells that basically take control of the affected units temporally and forces them to attack a certain unit. For example 
Berserker's Call, 
Duel.
Hiding: Hiding spells are those that disappear units by a period of time, for example 
Snowball, 
Phase Shift, 
Doppelganger, 
Disruption and 
Astral Imprisonment
Silences and Mutes are also disables, but I decided to put them in a separate section. Not to be confused with muting microphones, which is useful and I will go over that on the end of the guide.
While silenced, the hero is prevented of using any spells.
While muted the hero is prevented of using any spells or items.(yea).
Silences can be punishing for those heroes that completely rely on their spells, like Lina for example, or any other spell casting hero for that matter. Shutting down their possibilities for a duration.
Mutes will just destroy you, do not get muted, you are pretty much useless when muted. Just run.
Blood Rite
Gust
Silence
Orchid Malevolence Geomagnetic Grip Blade Fury you silence yourself. Smoke Screen
Global Silence Doom
Static Storm if Aghanim's Scepter is equipped. DuelHEALING!
If you are unable to guess it by the name, healing spells are those that heal. There are instant heals, think nukes, but that add hp instead of taking it away; and there are healing over time spells.
Some instant heal examples:
-
Shadow Wave
- Purification
-
Mist Coil
-
Soul Rip
- Sunder if you are on the bright side of the situation.
-
Death Pact
-Among others
And over time healing examples:
-
Voodoo Restoration
- Urn of Shadows if used on an ally
-
Purifying Flames
-
Living Armor
-
Shadow Word if cast on an ally
-
Scorched Earth heals Doom.
-And some others.
Gnarly Skillshot!
Skillshot is kind of a street term for spells that actually need to be aimed and landed.
You will know what I mean when you actually try them out.
- Meat Hook
-
Sacred Arrow
- Sun Strike
-
Torrent & even ghost ship
-
Hookshot
-
Powershot
- Shadowraze
-Long range 
Boulder Smashes
-You get the idea
Here goes anything that doesnt fit in the rest of categories.
Here are examples of 'none of the above' spells, you can read their information by hovering over the names.
-
Borrowed Time is technically a buff, but is really different.
- Shallow Grave and weave
-
Battery Assault can be a tad confusing at first.
-
Glimpse
-Any of Earth Spirit's spells for that matter.
-
Fire Remnants
-
Invoke
-
Mana Leak & 
Rupture
-
X Marks the Spot
- Morphling Morph spells.
-
Life Drain
- Sunder
-
Spell Steal
-
Requiem of Souls
-Enchanted tree and its interaction with Overgrowth
-
Gravekeeper's Cloak
-
Time Lapse
-Among others, you will know when you see them.
Ok, this is one of the really important sections for new players.
Teach a man how to fish and they will eat for the rest of their lives. Teach someone to read spell tooltips and they will try to play Tinker.
-Goo 2015
Shadow Shaman's Hex. Check out the tooltip.
Scythe of Vyse as an example, as it is a item with Hex effect.
Scythe of Vyse's active ability, Hex.
Diffusal Blade, Necronomicon book.Ultimates are most of the time, your hero's most powerful ability.
Most ultimates cannot be skilled until level 6, with a few exceptions ( Meepo, Invoker). This does not mean you always want to skill them at level 6 though.
Warpath or 
Enrage.
Walrus Punch or Chakram. Invoke, 
Rearm, Spell Steal, etc. Black Hole.I need you to read this list through very carefully, and more than once, and as many times as possible.
This list contains most if not all specific pieces of information you just have to know.
You are going to come across some spells and items that will really, really screw you over if you don't know them well, so here you are, all summed up; along other useful stuff that is not intuitive at all for new players.
Ursa is an agility hero.
Windranger is an intelligence hero.
Chronosphere stops everyone, including your teammates. Abaddon's Ultimate Borrowed Time makes it so any damage dealt to him, heals him instead; aka, don't hit him if he is all shiny. Bloodseeker's Ultimate Rupture damages you if you move, so instead of running, use a Teleport ability. Don't Blink though. Diffusal Blade's active ability remove the effects of 
Dust of Appearance Sun Strike is global.
Rocket Flare Enchantress is almost impossible to hit with regular attack (due to Untouchable) Gyrocopter's 
Rocket Barrage will turn you into a moist tissue if you are by yourself. Lone Druid's Spirit Bear yields around the same gold as killing an enemy hero. Necronomicon units, specially if they are high level. Necronomicon units level 3 carry true sight. Necronomicon warrior, the red one, will deal a powerful, pure damage nuke to whoever got the last hit.
Bottle to an animal courrier and control it so you can get it recharged at the fountain, and bring it back to you. Razor's 
Static Link steals your damage. Mass Serpent Wards do a ton of damage, be careful around them. Ice Blast
Shrapnel does not damage structures. Nether Blast do though. Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb, 
Warlock can summon four Chaotic Offering golems (good luck with that). Gyrocopter, Aghanim's Scepter makes 
Call Down a global spell. Chronosphere as long as they are not actual units, this can be a Storm Spirit using Ball Lightning, a Juggernaut with Omnislash, Fire Remnants and 
Stone Remnants, 
Exorcism ghosts. Chronosphere with a Force Staff
Phantom Lancer is really strong in the beginner scene Techies. Earthshaker's Ultimate Echo Slam does more damage the more units it hits, this includes creeps, summons, heroes, illusions, Meepoes, everything; not ally units though. Clockwerk can deny his Power Cogs in order to escape sticky situations. Clockwerk is not locked in with you. Clockwerk.
Haunt, Spectre can finish you off globally.
Chain Frost.
Track, amplify damage, assassination, among other spells, give true sight of the target while they are marked.
Charge of Darkness, Spirit Breaker's first ability is global. Sunder is Terrorblade's ultimate spell, stay away from him, he swaps his hp with yours. Phoenix's Supernova is not always the best idea. Medusa if her eyes glow red, that is her ultimate, 
Stone Gaze.
Wall of Replica is a spell you might want to read about. Chaos Knight 
Reality Rift also teleports all illusions under his control with the effect. Observer Wards where ever is needed, do not limit yourself to the common ward spots.Well. Thats what I got for you for now. I know its not much but I hope I helped any new player out there because at the end of the day that's the idea.
If you are a new player yourself and found this guide helpful whatsoever please let me know, that way I can create more similar guides on different topics other than heroes and spells.
For everyone else, as always, I encourage you to comment below if you think there is a mistake of if you think I missed something key that should be added in. Also any sort of critism is welcome.
Goo signs.
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