Ok so I'm going to try to answer as many questions as I can

Lane control/Last hitting is part of what you should learn, but its not exactly where you start roles would be more important

Map Awareness is something that is hard to learn, but it's as it sounds awareness. You will get a feel of safety which is what you need to know

If you are hard support (wards detection and tier two boots at 20 min is good farm) and semi support (mek pipe force staff and wards support) really depends on each game

Hope that helps

All in all, Dota is a team style game so eventually yes, you will find a role that you are good and comfortable with but this program is designed to get new players actually playing and trying to learn about all the different roles and exposing the game to them so that new players can become something awesome one day. Hope that answers your question.

Also, if you want a good support match to watch (not pro level) you can check out my last match from last night. Played a support Dazzle. Dazzle is one of my worst heroes, but had a pretty good game:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/141733433

The key the entire match was keeping our biggest damage dealers alive. We out carried a PL and a Lone Druid.

Pfft you havnt played dazzle until you've played huskar dazzle. THAT is real dazzle game. Its hard keep a suicidal Micheal Jordan from dying.

Lol, of course that's amazing . A hero that gets stronger as he loses health combined with a hero that saves him from dying.

The best is having an Axe against a Dazzle. Shallow Grave<Culling Blade. So many raging Dazzles.

Skyop: Understood. My thinking is how can I improve while still contributing in a positive manner. And still have fun doing it. Which so far I am.

Lemonstre1357: Thank you for the input. The whole map awareness bit is just from my experience from Smite that has made me into a mini-map junkie. But I do see your points.

Fallenelf86: My apologies if my questions came off as loaded. I think that since I have an idea of which path I would like to tackle first in DOTA2. It makes my questions a little more direct to my current situation. Which I could be totally wrong in taking said path. I will take a look at the match once I'm back home later today. But thank you for linking me to it. Dazzle is a very fun hero to play.

Moving further into my abyss of questions, Item builds will vary depending on situations, hero and so on. I see wards as a must for gank mitigation, what are some common item builds that you would see used on a regular basis? I saw what Lemonstre1357 posted above. Is this a good course of action?

Thank you again for all the help. cheers!

More loaded questions .

Item builds are completely situational. It's hard to say that a set item build will work in every game. Citing the game I linked to earlier, I played Dazzle who has a heal as well as an ability to save a target for 5 seconds. He also has a pretty good mana pool and is a support hero, making him ideal for a mek. However, we also had a Pugna. Pugna is also a fantastic Mek carrier because of his low health and lack of escape mechanisms. However, since I had more farm because of kills/assists, I built the Mek.

There are general item builds, and when you're first starting out you should try to follow a few guides, but as you improve and learn what item builds into what, who the enemy has on their team, etc, you can start catering your builds towards the game you are in vs. the game whoever made the guide was playing.

Common items that should be built in every game though: mek, pipe, drums, at least one pair of arcane boots. Also, always have a TP scroll.

I had a whole post ready, previewed it, and got ninja'ed

Fallen pretty much hit the nail on the head. One edit I would make is pipe is situational and vlads is luxury items on that "must be in every game" list

I am starting to see the rational behind your post and my questions. If I may, last night I had a game with a "support" Sand King. Was able to make a pipe and was asked by one teammate why pipe if I am not ganking? Which raised the questions as too what is expected out of a Sand King as semi support. Which I had no real answer too. I figured that the pipe would help me live a little longer. Which rarely worked and to be honest, in the middle of team battles I would totally forget about my consumables.

We won the match by really digging our heels and pushing forward. My contribution was lacking since i had not played a support SdK (by my judgement it was lacking). Why sand king? Single draft and I felt a little more comfortable with sand king as opposed to Bounty hunter and sniper.

In the end, I am having a lot of fun with Dota 2. I may be trying to take in to much information at the moment. Cheers!

OK, this gives a little more perspective.

Sand King essentially needs 2 items to be really effective, Arcane Boots and a Blink Dagger. Arcanes because he has mana problems and Blink so her channel his ulti and blink into a team fight.

A pipe isn't really a terrible item on SK, but a Veil or an Aghanim's Scepter would better since his ulti and long range stun are his biggest assets.

this whole post feels like it belongs in Memento with the back tracking to the basic point. Thank you all for providing me with some answers to all of these questions. I have a better understanding now of how to approach item builds in the game. Now to go and dig my head in some "newer player" guides and absorb what I can.

And getting back to the topic of this hijacked post. Are sign-ups still available for the mentoring? As you can well see I am interested (a little to much to be honest).

Wow you guys DO post a lot.



This sort of evolved didn't it? Initially I figured it was just a group of new players who would play a match together and get feedback on what we were really struggling with.

@TechSupprt; there's a lot of good 'new player' learning material on the /r/dota2 subreddit on reddit (which is where I learned of this place). I would highly recommend combing through it. It's a lot of info to take in but it's all very good. http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/wiki/faq#wiki_what_are_some_basic_tips_when_starting_to_play

Honestly, I'm finding the best way to learn what you need to know is a combination of both research and practice (just like all things). The biggest issue is finding an environment to do that practice. I can read up all I want on timing ganks, but I avoid trying it in a pub match because I don't want to screw up the team. Bots are a little tough because you can't really communicate with them. So I just suggest we all just keep playing together and give each other room to push our comfort zones (someone practicing a hard carry role for example) and learn.

Well that's kinda why this thread keeps expanding, Skyop had a rough idea and now we are starting to narrow down more and more into what everybody wants to end up doing.

So what if we post alot it's not like this is an open forum for people to discuss ideas or anything right.

So i was feeling pretty crappy after my terrible display on the weekend lol.

Hadn't played again until last night, alot happier with how the two games went last night haha! Still have to pay more attention to my specific role sometimes but slowly learning.

Im enjoying Phantom Assassin at the moment, second game last night we made a nice come back and ended up winning still behind in kills

Dota can definitely get you down sometimes. I should be around most of the night tonight and probably most of the day tomorrow (Assuming my office is closed due to the storm), so if anyone wants to play let me know. I can't promise I'm the best coach, but I can definitely give advice on positioning, item builds, skill builds, etc.

Biggest thing i have to remember is to actually use my items in a team fight, alot of the time i get all excited/too caught up in the fight that i forget i have stuff there to use!

That is why I don't recommend tinker for new players. You have 3 damage skills, rearm, and typically 3 or 4 active ability items. Gotta know them hotkeys

Skeleton King best hero for new players.. your ults a free aegis and you have 2 passives.. so essentially hes a 1 button hero

My biggest problem with saying skeleton king is a good hero for new players is that sometimes newer players dont watch their mana so they have enough to respawn. I learned that the hard way when I was showing a friends the ropes

This and the fact that SK needs a decent amount of farm to be useful. Having only 1 active ability and a free aegis is nice, but not doing anything all game sucks.