I'm terrible at Dota, so I can't teach you how to be a good at the game.

All this guide does is kinda steer you into the right direction, without going over details that you already learned while farming IP in League.

If I didn't explain something well, or you'd like to read more about the specifics of the game's mechanic you can ask them in the comments, or you can do some research on the Dota 2 wiki[dota2.gamepedia.com], it's a great site with a lot of information.

• Dota 2 is less about skillshots and intense game mechanics, and more about decision making and strategy. I'm not saying that Dota has neither skillshots or complex game mechanics, or that LoL has no strategy or decision making, I'm just saying that Dota puts more focus on the latter than the former. God, people, reading comprehension.
  
• Spells have long cooldowns and high mana costs, so the game punishes every whiff you do.
  
• The map is larger, so even though towers do a lot less damage than in LoL, they provide you more map control.
  
• At the start of the game both teams are equal. There are no runepages, summoner spells or masteries. A fresh account has just as many tools to win as one with 3k hours.
  
• Dota is a game of CC.
  
• There is no AP. Spells only become more powerful if you give skill points to them. The difference between a hard carry and a notcarry in Dota is based on how their skills scale.
  
• Supports are early game KILLING MACHINES. In the right hand, almost every hero can be played as a support, but generally look for heroes that are not reliant on items or levels.
  
• The meta is very flexible. In TI4 (the superbowl of Dota2!!!) only 2 heroes were not picked from 106.
  
• When you die in Dota, you lose some gold. Sacrificing yourself as a support for a core is always worth it.
  
• Each hero has 3 attributes: Strength(hp, hp regen) - Agility(armor, attack speed) - Int (mana, mana regen). One of these is also the heroes' main attribute, so each point in it will also grant you one extra damage.
  
• There are also secondary, but still very important stats. These are movement speed, attack speed and armor.
  
• All heroes have a built in 25% magic resistance. When calculating damage in your head, calculate that into it. However, not all skills deal magic damage. More about damage later.
  
• There is no such thing as armor or magic penetration in Dota 2, however there are ways to decrease your enemies armor.
  
• Because flash is expensive and optional in this game, being out of position usually means out of healthpoints as well.
  
• You roughly get twice as much gold for CS in Dota than you do in LoL. Items are generally more expensive as well.
  
• In Dota you get a lot less gold for kills. However, breaking killing sprees and stuff will grant you a lot more(up to a 1000 gold), so the comeback is a lot more real here.
  
• You can buy stuff from the shop even if you are not there.

You should probably remember these, or you'll make your teammates hate you before 0:00.
LoL - Dota

• Champion - Hero
  
• Minion - Creep
  
• Turret - Tower

• Assassin - Ganker
  
• Tank - I must make something clear: there is no "tank role" in Dota 2, there are just tanky heroes. There is no rule that you shouldn't make a team full of paper dudes.
  
• Marskman - Ranged carry
  
• Fighter - Melee carry
  
• AD Carry - Hard carry
  
• AP Carry - AP doesn't exists in the world of Dota. However, that doesn't mean that there are no heroes who are farm-dependent but rely on their spells to deal damage.

Generally, for each summoner spell in LoL there is a counterpart in Dota. It's either an item, or a specific game mechanic.

• Clarity - Clarity potion(wow!)
  
• Garrison - Glyph(it doesn't heal the tower, but it fortifies it so it won't take damage for a brief period). It's a big golden button on the lower right of your screen. Has a 5 minute cooldown, and shared between teammates.
  
• Ghost - Phase boots
  
• Heal - Mekanism
  
• Revive - Aegis(you take it from the big bad dude, doesn't make you go fast but restores your health and mana)
  
• Barrier - Crimson Guard, it's also AOE!
  
• Exhaust - Rod of atos, diffusal blade(the first slows, the latter slows and removes some buffs)
  
• Cleanse - Diffusal blade removes debuffs. Black King Bar grants you magic immunity for a short period against most spells. Linken's Sphere blocks one spell instance and then goes on cd for 20 secs.
  
• Teleport - TP scroll. Always carry one. ALWAYS. CARRY. ONE.
  
• Clairvoyance - This doesn't exist. Some global spells grant you vision, but you don't have an item for this.
  
• Flash - Blink Dagger. Only 12 second cd, but you can't use it for 3 seconds after taking damage. Making sick plays with it is actually challenging now.
  
• Ignite - DoT is always worse than burst, but if you reall must, you can get Orb of Venom (super cheap!)
  
• Smite - Hand of midas! It gives you 190 gold! 2.5x the experience of the creep you've used it on! You can use it on full hp creeps! The ultimate farming tool!

I lied, it gets changed quite a lot. But you will still be fond of it.


IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

• The safelane is called a safelane because the creep equilibrium is closer to your tower than to the enemy's.
  
• The offlane is called the offlane because you send people to die there. Tough warriors only, sissy hard carries should go to the safelane. NOTICE HOW THIS IS NOT AFFECTED BY BEING BOT OR TOP.
  
• There are no "buffcreeps" in the jungles. Jungling is different in Dota, although its a lot less complex than in LoL.
  
• Roshan pit - There is a huge creep there, you can't midas it, he is immune to magic, but defeating him grants you an Aegis of Immortality, which will allow you to revive once instantly. It will expire after five minutes.
  
• The ancients are huge magic immune creeps. Only farm these when you are ripped.
  
• Just like in LoL, both bases have a shop in them. You can buy stuff from that shop, even when you are not there, in that case it goes to your "stash", and you won't get the item's effects until you equip it.
  
• The sideshop has most items you want to get in the early game.
  
• The secret shop has a lot, but you don't have to be there to buy stuff from it. You can just send the courier.
  
• The Summoner's Rift is roughly 1/3th of the map of Dota.

"Woah there is more than one?" - people at Riot

Yes, there are quite a few. A dedicated jungler is completely optional and actually very rare. Generally, if you pick a dedicated jungler (unless she is Enchantress) you pretty much lost your early game. But hey, that doesn't mean ♥♥♥♥ in Dota, so go for it if you feel like it.

• 2 - 1 - 2: the classic, the one bots know. You need at least 2 support for this, but you can get away with a 3 core lineup. However its usually inferior to:
  
• 1 - 1 - 3: aka. the trilane. The best for 2 core lineups. The hard carry is protected by 2 supports, and you can easily control your jungle. This is a lot harder to pull off than the classic one, but you should try to learn this.
  
• 3 - 1 - 1: aka. the aggressive trilane. Instead of protecting the hard carry, you make sure their hard carry has a hard time.
  
• 1 - 2 - 2: REALLY rare, and you probably shouldn't do it unless you know a lot about the game, but the pros do it, and there is a chance you'll see it too.
  
• 1 - 1 - 2 + jungler: not so rare, but generally means a weak early game. Usually doesn't pay off as well. A greedy, risky choice, but can pay off against specific lineups.
  
• 1 - 1 - 1 + 2 jungler: EXTREMELY rare, but the pros do it sometimes. The greediest thing in the game, and probably won't pay off, but it's still plausible.

ROAMERS - don't even think about it, let your experienced friends do this, but its good for you to know that it exists.
1 - 1 - 1 or 2 + 2 or 1 roamers: Roamers basically walk around the map looking for kills from level one. Works pretty well in some line ups. I really don't recommend this, unless you have a really good gamesense.


cores: people who farm
supports: people who wreck ♥♥♥♥ early

2 supports are generally a must have. With that, you can either choose to get a starved core, or a farmed support. The choice is usually a starved core because of the carry potential, but a farmed support is not inferior.

If you have a good carry player, you can also go 4 protect 1, but thats risky, and unless you do a really good job it won't work.

Okay this is a tough one. If you never liked math, you'll probably won't like Dota 2 either. By the way this used to be SUPER complicated, so be glad Icefrog felt mercy once in his life.

Always remember that only one Unique attack modifier can be applied in a single attack! You probably have no idea what I just said, but when you get into the game, make sure to read the little item descriptions.

So here is an ugly chart which will tell you what type of damage pierces what.


"Wow that wasn't hard at all!" - you if you are not 8. Well guess what, I simplified it a lot, it actually has a lot more depth[dota2.gamepedia.com] into it. But it's not really neccessary, you shouldn't really care about that until you are quite a few hours into the game.

Armor works both ways with physical damage. Negative armor increases the damage you take, while positive decreases it. You can only get -24 armor, but there is no upper limit. Physical attacks can be also evaded, but most heroes don't have built in evasion so you probably won't have to worry about that for a while.

Also the chart doesn't say, but magic damage is reduced by magic resistance. Each hero has a 25% built in magic resistance, which you can increase with some items! Int doesn't increase your magic res. Also, keep in mind that Meepo has 35%, and Visage has a magic resistance between 10-67%, based on how many layers of shields he has.

Pure damage pretty much ignores everything, but of course there are expections. Generally, there are a lot of exceptions in Dota.

There are two types of gold in Dota: reliable and unreliable. When you die you lose some portion of your unreliable gold. You get reliable gold from hero kills, towers, roshan and midas. Everything else gives you unreliable gold.

When you think you can actually do stuff in a teamfight, make sure that you have enough gold for buyback. To check your buyback status just hover your mouse over your gold counter. After using buyback, it will be on a 5 minute cd. Don't ragebuyback, you can't gain unreliable gold for a while.

The only real difference between Dota 2 and LoL is that in Dota you can attack your own creeps. It doesn't even make any sense why would you attack your own stuff don't you have a surrender button I mean whats the point of friendly fire in a team game

You can deny your creeps. It's called a deny, because your enemies 100% won't get any gold for it, and they get less xp as well.

Creeps can be denied under 50% of their hp.

Towers can be denied under 10% of their hp. The enemies will still get some gold for it, but it's still a loss for them.

Heroes can be denied under 25% IF they are under 3 specific spells in the game. These are A) Doom's Doom, B) Queen of Pain's Shadow Strike, C) Venomancer's Venomous Gale. Some heroes can also deny themselves.

If a hero is killed by a neutral creep, it's considered a deny. That means that if you can get control over a neutral, you can kill deny your friends!

Oh boy.

You gonna hate this one.

Basically, this is not something that's unique to Dota. Almost every older RTS has this, and I think it exists in the code of other ARTS's as well. But Dota is the only one where it matters.

Think about it like this: in LoL you characters have a turn rate of 1. That means, that they will instantly turn to the position you want them to. Therefore, we can conclude that the maximum value of turn rate is 1.

Now in Dota 2, the turn rate is different for every hero.

People who play Dota don't even think about this, because they are used to it. However if you played a lot of LoL and you are new to Dota, I know that you are going to hate it so much.

There is really no way around this, or tips I can give. It's something you have to get used to.

I don't care what the game tells you, if any of the following applies your team is losing. It's just as much as your fault as your teammates. It's better to lose 150 gold as a carry for wards, then to lose control of your jungle.

• We don't have a courier.
  
• It's past 5 minutes, and we still don't have flying.
  
• There are 0 wards on the map.
  
• My teammate died and I didn't TP to him(unless its on cd).
  
• I don't even have a TP scroll.
  
• We are not trading objectives, we are giving them.

When you are behind, you have to take risks.

Dust of appearance - Laugh at your enemies as they wasted 4 skill points in invis, and it took you 180 gold to counter. Free kills! Also slows them.


Tango - 115 hp regen, 4 stacks, 125 gold. You can share it with your buddies too!



Healing salve - 400 hp regen, 115 gold. Also shareable. However, the effect is removed when you take damage.


Clarity - Spells are very expensive compared to LoL in this game, make sure to get at least one of these. 50 gold, its like 2 last hits.


Teleportation scroll - Buy two when you respawn, always have one at you. Has a 60 second cooldown, and unlike in LoL you can only use it on allied buildings.



Boots of Speed - a.k.a "Brown Boots", compared to LoL the map is huge in Dota, which makes this item a lot more important. You shouldn't buy it at the start of the game, but its generally one of the first items you buy while laning. Just like in LoL, boots don't stack. You can upgrade it as well, which is generally the second item you buy in the game.

Magic Stick - Each time an enemy casts a spell in your area, this guy gets a charge. When activated, the magic stick will restore charges * 15 mana and health. Next time when an enemy walks away with 5 hp make sure to remember this item. A core on almost every hero in the game. Upgradeable, but you don't have to.

Black King Bar - One of the BIG ITEMS OF DOTA. This guy decides games. Grants you 10 seconds of sweet sweet magic immunity (damage and effect) for the first time. After that, the length and the cd will decrease. If you get one, make sure to time it well. Keep it in mind though that some ultimates, and in really rare cases some spells go through it.

Mekansm - 250 hp aoe heal and bonus armor? Great stats and cheap? Costs mana? Although it's a lot less flashy than Bkb, this is also one of the BIG ITEMS OF DOTA. You'll probably want to pick one up if you are a support with a high mana pool. Make sure to ask your team first though, 2 meks don't stack, not even the heal, you generally don't want 2 meks in a team. And for ♥♥♥♥♥ sake, don't call it meka. It's mek.

Aghanim's Scepter - It upgrades some heroes ultimate. It's very expensive, so please don't rush it. And make sure it does something for your hero, it's not worth it statwise.



Crystalis - The best item to increase your attack damage. Grants you crit.



Heart of Tarrasque - Grants you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of HP and HP regen. Very expensive, so unless you are a farmed dude don't even think about it.


Gem of True Sight - Allows the player carrying it to see invisible units in an aoe. If you see it in an enemy's inventory, make sure to alert your team. It's kind of expensive, but can be really useful. When the carrier dies, its dropped on the ground, and anyone can pick it up, even your enemies!

Drum of endurance - Oh my god we are losing I need a little bit of EVERYTHING to carry these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and I need it cheap! Your prayers are answered, EVERYTHING IN THE GAME in one item! Sure, it's pretty weak compared to a bunch of expensive ones, but this can really give you the edge you need. The bonus movement speed is also great.

Divine Rapier - The FINAL BIG ITEM OF DOTA. The ultimate gamemaker, your last resort. +300 damage, however, when you die you drop it, and anyone can pick it up. When you are winning, don't get cocky and buy this, if you drop it once you pretty much lost.

All you need to jump in. You'll never stop learning new things about this game!

And welcome to Dota 2, the game where you spend hundreds of hours of suffering for a few minutes of absolute euphoria, and you will love it.

I changed this section of the guide a lot, because I realised that even though you might have a lot of experience in LoL, your mad skillz not gonna transfer to Dota to instantly, so here you go.

I'm not gonna write a guide for these heroes, sorry. I recommend subscribing to a guide in game, here is the button for that.







Generally look for guides titled: XY Standard Build(whatever lane).


Abaddon[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Crystal Maiden[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Lion[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Lina[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Lich[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Ogre Magi[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Sand King[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Tidehunter[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Axe[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Bristleback[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Centaur Warruner[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Slardar[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Viper[dota2.gamepedia.com]
Wraith King[dota2.gamepedia.com]


If you are playing with experienced friends, you might want to ask them in the picking phase to help you pick. However there is one thing you should know about Dota players, when they say "pick anything you want I don't care", actually means "you better pick something that fits my gameplan or I'll make hell look like a school trip for you". In that case, the safest thing to do is just to pick a support. Probably a ranged one.

The most common reason for losing a lot of games is you sucking at the game and not realizing that.

Here are some resources for you to change that.

Dota 2 wiki[dota2.gamepedia.com]: A lot of information about the game. If you are not sure about something, check it here.
Aui_2000's vlog about pub mentality: a pro player talks to you about how to deal with soloq.
Purge: Really good videos for beginners. He is not the best Dota player you'll ever see, but in his videos you can see how you should play a specific hero.
Prof. Fierce: Will teach you how to carry.
simplyDota:He looks at pros and analyses their playstyle, pretty helpful for advanced players, if you are struggling with basic mechanics don't try to copy pros.
video guides made by me

PROTIPS FROM ME THE COOL DUDE:

• If you are on a loss streak, play less.
  
• Don't be a ♥♥♥♥. Imagine you are playing with 3 of your friends unranked, and suddenly some guy comes in, calls mid before you even enter the hero selection, and then starts ordering everyone around as if he was Arteezy or something. Let the other players play their game, it's pointless to get angry at them. In pubs with randoms you probably won't need too much coordination, generally using pings and the chat wheel is sufficent to communicate.
  
• Don't be a ♥♥♥♥♥. The enemy doesn't care if their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or hero picks bother you. In Dota, being mean is not a reportable offense, despite what the game tells you.

Disclaimer: I'm not a good Dota player, but I'm a terrible LoL player. Take everything here with a grain of salt.

One thing you should know, if you are used to Dota 2, you will be REALLY FRUSTRATED with LoL. Unless you have friends who play LoL, I don't recommend playing it at all. If you must, here are some basics to jump in.

As you probably know, there are things calles Summoner spells in LoL. There are also stuff like Runepages and Masteries, but they don't really make a lot of difference until you are a few hundred hours into the game.

However summoner spells do matter. And you won't get the most important one, Blink Dagger Flash until you played like 30 matches, and it's REALLY frustrating cause you are literally a cripple handicapped without that spell.

Summoner spells have long CD's. So if they won't 100% save you from death or whatever, don't use them. But also, like in Dota, don't sit on them as well.

Items are cheap. You get less gold for farming, and more for kills. A kill is worth like 20 CS. As you probably know, there are no denies in LoL, which makes last hitting SUPER easy. Also, you will have an itch every time there is a creep you could deny and you cant and its like not smoking for a day as a chainsmoker

In LoL your spells with scale with your levels. Spell usually deal damage or heal or whatever like this: (spell damage based on level) + AP. AP is short for Ability Power, and that means that there are pucks in LoL that scale like Anti-Mage to late game.

Please enyoy this image of your dota friends to calm down.

Moving on, LoL heroes are generally artifically complex, there are a lot of combos with their spells, and you jump around a lot in battles, which is actually kind of fun. Teamfights kind of feel weird in LoL too, it will feel like you are not doing any damage at all but keep at it, you can probably bring it down. It feels like LoL is a lot more about continious DPS rather than burst DPS, so it feels more like an MMO instead of an RTS.

LoL have a lot of pin up girls. I think Dota 2 heroes are generally really loveable even if they are ugly, but if you don't really care about the personality as much as the Hollywood perfection looks, then you'll probably like LoL heroes more.

Comebacks are rare. And not just because of the game's rules, that blatantly allow a team to easily get an advantage so high in 10 minutes that they can just steamroll you, but also because 20 minutes into the game, a team will surrender. If you think Dota should have a ff button, you should probably play a good few hours of LoL with friends and try to have an enjoyable match. It rarely happens, especially on lower levels.

On the good side, matches are usually really short in LoL, they are usually not longer then 20-30 minutes. Also, it's very easy to snowball as well, so wait until your enemies get out of position and kill them BUT OH NO THEY HAD BLINK DAGGER AND YOU DON'T LOL HAVE FUN BUY SOME HERO SKINS FOR 60 BUCKS