Dota 2

[Bison]

Well the reality is that while the bot games allow you time to learn the powers of the class you are playing; human opponents do not behave like bots.  So all that strategy that worked against bots goes out the window against humans.

[Nefaro]

Well the reality is that while the bot games allow you time to learn the powers of the class you are playing; human opponents do not behave like bots.  So all that strategy that worked against bots goes out the window against humans.

Of course.  But it's nice getting used to how a class operates and how to shop without standing about too long.

[Bison]

I just buy crap from the store and hope it works out for my class.  :P

[Huw the Poo]

I had a spectacular session last night, and I think I may have found my hero: Sniper.  I utterly dominated the opposition with him.  In the first game we completely steamrolled the other team, getting an easy win in about half an hour.  It was just what I needed; after a string of losses it definitely lifted my spirits.  So I decided to gamble and play another game.

The second was unbelievable.  We were more or less neck and neck until the final stages of the game and it really could have gone either way.  They even took Roshan down but thankfully failed to press the advantage.  I feel that my team was technically playing better, but we just weren't communicating.  As usual I was the only one on voice (and the only one denying creeps AGAIN) and I was trying to coordinate the team, and they were trying, but we just couldn't quite all get together in one place at one time, making it really difficult to push.  However there was one splendid moment when I spotted the enemy team marching into our base, so I called it and we all ran back to defend.  Ganked the shit out of them. :D  We won the game in the end.

Just an excellent session.  Dota 2 really is an incredible multiplayer game, I'm having silly amounts of fun with it.

[Tuna]

hmmm my Son is playing this now (the one who was addicted to League of Legends).. I didn't play that with him, because I didn't like the looks of the 'launcher'.. But since this runs through Steam, I may give it a shot.... lol.. game play itself, it looks like the same game to me!.. How do they make their money?

[Bison]

The micro shop.  Last night there were over 450,000 around the world watching DOTA 2 The International tournament.  Add in the 200,000 playing the game and it does take too many $2.50 chest unlock keys to make money.

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, Valve already discovered that, bafflingly, hundreds of thousands of players are willing to spend money on hats.  So almost everything you can buy in the store is a cosmetic item.  The prize fund for the current pro tournament is made up entirely of store purchases, and it ran to the millions of dollars.

Tuna, gameplay-wise it doesn't look, superficially, like there's any difference between MOBAs.  Once you play them, though, you start seeing differences which are night and day.  In LoL, for example, you get a lot more mana to use abilities and you can't deny creeps.  This makes players of other MOBAs look down on LoL as a more casual MOBA (it has the largest playerbase by miles though).

Dota 2 is more hardcore, then, and truest to the Dota original.  It also looks a hell of a lot better than LoL in my opinion.

[Bison]

I like DOTA 2 because it's fun.  :P

[Huw the Poo]

I like DOTA 2 because it's fun.  :P

And I like you because you're so cute!

[Bison]

Thanks!

[Huw the Poo]

So!  One year on and I'm still playing little else.  Look at how naive I was last year:

I think that, given the right circumstances, I could really be sucked into this one.

Oh, if I only knew!  For those who don't know, I play hardly anything else at the moment.  I've barely touched any game I've acquired in the last year, because I do most of my gaming at weekends and at those times Dota 2 just calls to me.  I stand by everything I've said in this thread before...it's the purest multiplayer experience I have ever known, and win or lose, it's staggering amounts of fun.

I have around 80 games under my belt and over 100 hours and I've still barely scratched the surface; of a 100+ hero pool, I only know about 15 of them well, and I haven't even tried at least half.  A noob I may still be, but I'm not completely green any more.  I know which items to buy, which order to buy them, I've got all the fundamentals down, I even avoid being criticised in more than half the games I play!

I urge anyone even slightly curious to give it a go.  The tutorial has apparently been beefed up in the last year (and it wasn't bad when I did it) and with The International 2014 qualifiers over and the main event about to start, there's no better time to dive in.  Play a few games, watch the pros play a game, then play some more.  All completely free of charge.  It's gaming bliss. :)

[Nefaro]

I like the variety of characters (and their styles) in DOTA2. 

But I'm not all that enamored with the gameplay itself.  The strategy of it is very narrow and rigid.  Too "gamey", even. 

[Huw the Poo]

I like the variety of characters (and their styles) in DOTA2. 

Yeah, there are no duplicates there at all, which is quite an achievement for such a large hero pool.  No two heroes are the same.

The strategy of it is very narrow and rigid.

This might be truer at the higher levels, but not so where I languish.  There are several ways to win each game...split pushing, pure pressure, Roshan rush, teamfight-heavy etc.  Like all things Dota, it depends on your team, their team, and how the game naturally flows.

For anyone starting out, this has been the pattern I've followed thus far: Play All Pick and just pick a hero I like the look of, or play All Random and let the game choose one for me.  Play the game.  Do it all wrong.  Later, look the hero up on the wiki, watch "Purge plays [hero I just played]" on Youtube and find out how I should have been doing it.  Play again with that hero and do much better. :)