DotA2 - Original Thread

[Dusk]

DotA's relative unpopularity in NA/Europe has a lot to do with (in addition to having one of the steepest learning curves of any multiplayer game) being a complete pain in the ass to play.
- You need a legit copy of RoC and TFT to play on Battle.net, which has no ladder system for DotA
- You need to have an outdated version of the game to play on Garena. There is no ladder system and any game you join is likely to be stacked and you'll have a miserable time playing.
- ICCup has a fairly good ladder system that uses the Battle.net interface. Unfortunately, 90% of the players are from eastern Europe and don't speak English. Also, you might not see many of their games.
- I hear Dotalicious is pretty good if you have an organized team but not for a new player.
I haven't played HoN but I'd recommend starting there if you don't want to jump through hoops, since it's fairly similar. Regardless of where you play you will encounter terrible teammates and a lot of raging. No matchmaking systems are available. And you can't learn DotA with AI, either, cause it's such a team-based game, more so than LoL. You have to coordinate item purchases, learn lane awareness, learn to coordinate chain disables...it's definitely not an easy game to pick up. Play with at least one buddy, I highly recommend it.

Edit: My friend showed this to me. omg @ #5 and #1 (Warning: really annoying music) Organized play is just incredible.

[Dark Link]

DotA2 international starts tonight. 10pm in Hawaii and early AM (1-4am) for everywhere else in the USA. GET HYPE!

Here's hoping they'll have replays for all the matches, because the last set plays at 5am Hawaii / 8-11am elsewhere in the USA.

[Malthe]

10 pm for you, 11 am for me while i'm at school.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

[Dark Link]

10 pm for you, 11 am for me while i'm at school.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Exactly why I want replays. Plus the fact there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to "All-night" 5 days in a row just to watch the games

[>Pineapple]

or if he doesnt know how to use garena, he can try HoN(now it is f2p) or LoL.

I play LoL A LOT but I haven't tried hon since it went free.

And no, I don't know how to use garena.

[Malthe]

I play LoL A LOT but I haven't tried hon since it went free.

And no, I don't know how to use garena.

Honestly LoL wont really help with anything the games are way too different.

But garena is pretty simple, you just need a working WC3 TFT running and then you use garena to find a game channel and then you enter the LAN option in WC3 and then either join a game or create one.
But playing HoN wont help too much either since HoN changed the map and location of a lot of things. But it'd prolly help more than normal DotA tbh.

Maybe watch the DotA2 tourney, that'd prolly be my best recommendations


Edit: SIGN UP FOR A CHANCE TO PLAY IN THE BETA: http://dota2.com/

[Dark Link]

Stream laggy for anyone else? Granted I'm using hotel internet and it's freezing every 5sec.

[Malthe]

Stream isn't laggy to me but it's stuck sometimes and the voices are lagging.

[Dark Link]

Stream isn't laggy to me but it's stuck sometimes and the voices are lagging.

Sucks they're having some serious connection issues, but hooray for "Pause". Still waiting for that mechanic to be implemented into LoL, RIOT!

[Malthe]

But god i love the game so far, my friend said that he thinks it looks like LoL and i don't get what he means at all.

Edit: Stream is running again!

[Dark Link]

But god i love the game so far, my friend said that he thinks it looks like LoL and i don't get what he means at all.

Graphics are a bit on the "Cartoony" side, which is probably why he's saying it looks like LoL. I honestly don't think they look that cartoony, if even.
Also I love how the announcer says "XYZ's "Top/Mid/Bot tower is under attack".

[Malthe]

Graphics are a bit on the "Cartoony" side, which is probably why he's saying it looks like LoL. I honestly don't think they look that cartoony, if even.
Also I love how the announcer says "XYZ's "Top/Mid/Bot tower is under attack".

It's not that cartooney and they do bleed and yea, it's great. And it's still only beta.

I also love that they sticked almost entirely to the old names <3

[Dark Link]

It's not that cartooney and they do bleed and yea, it's great. And it's still only beta.

I also love that they sticked almost entirely to the old names <3

Yeah, it brings back the memories that's for sure. I'm loving the game so far. The only change I'm hoping Valve will do to DotA 2 is implement an "All Pick / Normal" mode in addition to a "Draft / Tourney" mode. Kind of like how LoL has it set up. I'd prefer NOT to have to be "Tryhard" every single freaking game upon installation IMHO.

[Malthe]

Yeah, it brings back the memories that's for sure. I'm loving the game so far. The only change I'm hoping Valve will do to DotA 2 is implement an "All Pick / Normal" mode in addition to a "Draft / Tourney" mode. Kind of like how LoL has it set up. I'd prefer if every game WASN'T ranked IMHO.

I'm sure we'll be able to pick other modes.
RD, SD and the rest included.

[Dark Link]

I'm sure we'll be able to pick other modes.
RD, SD and the rest included.

Here's hoping for an "ARAM" mode for the lulz :P
Won't be surprised if they add a section for "Fun" modes and include ARAM, wtp, and other silly modes.

Also the graphics look pretty awesome even for Beta standards.

[Dusk]

There's no way they wouldn't implement an all-pick mode. All-pick mode is just unsuitable for tourney play.

I just woke up and haven't been watching the stream; what is draft/tourney mode? -cm?

Edit: Watched for a bit. Game looks incredible. It started lagging (iG vs EHOME right now) and they had to pause and take down the stream, though. This is a $1M tournament. That's kind of unacceptable.

[Dark Link]

There's no way they wouldn't implement an all-pick mode. All-pick mode is just unsuitable for tourney play.

That's why I said have a "Non ranked" mode, aka "All Pick". Not every game has to be "Tryhard" like HoN. I'd prefer selections for "Ranked" and "Casual", similar to LoL, IMO.

[Malthe]

That's why I said have a "Non ranked" mode, aka "All Pick". Not every game has to be "Tryhard" like HoN. I'd prefer selections for "Ranked" and "Casual", similar to LoL, IMO.

? HoN has all-pick, all-random, single drag and random draft and so on o_O HoN has normal and casual games, casual games have different mechanics to make it easier but both normal and casual include all the above modes.

And the current game mode is CM atm for the tourney.

[Dark Link]

? HoN has all-pick, all-random, single drag and random draft and so on o_O HoN has normal and casual games, casual games have different mechanics to make it easier but both normal and casual include all the above modes.

And the current game mode is CM atm for the tourney.

Shows what I know

[Malthe]

Also, they're still using the old announcer, or well it's not originally a dota announcer but yea. It's from unreal tournament, isn't it?