Understanding DotA

This post is for DotA players. Non-players may find it excruciatingly boring.

Recent memories of DotA have resurfaced after the thrilling warm-up a few days ago, and it has inspired me to write down some thoughts about the game which many guys perceive as a Good Thing while girls often think otherwise.

To excel in DotA, or any game in fact, is probably not as easy as many people may conceive. True, incessant gaming and a 'hardcore' gamer attitude may get you somewhere in games which are more progressive (MapleStory, Runescape) and thus have characters that can be built up over time. In such games, the amount of time spent may be translated to a rise in the hierarchy of the system. DotA is, however, a little different. It belongs to the genre of games more commonly known as role-playing/real-time strategy. Basically, every game is a 'new' game, and that the only thing carried forward from past games is the repertoire of knowledge and skills glimpsed.

This is one of the factors that differentiate DotA (and the actual game, Warcraft) from other games. Just like CounterStrike, due to the fact that it is 'real-time', instincts, experience and teamwork are key determinants to the victory that gamers seek to achieve.

How do you actually became better at DotA? Professional gamers can probably answer that better, but here are some personal epiphanies that have surfaced from time to time while playing the game in the past.

1. Productivity
Every second counts. This is an important realization that differentiate the newbies and the not-so-newbies. If you know how to make every second more productive than your opponent, you will theoretically be the stronger player. For example, if you can earn more gold than your opponent per unit time interval, you can buy better items to complement your hero, thus increasing the proclivity to overwhelm your opponent. This will have the added multiplier effect of gaining level for your hero while blasting your opponent into the dreaded phase of death where time slowly trickle away potential gold and experience that could have been gained. Some examples of productive play is to farm Neutrals while using your chicken to buy items for yourself.

2. Precision
How long does your hero's ultimate spell take to refresh? How far can your Burrowstrike hit at level 3? Where will the hero appear after he/she uses a Town Portal scroll on a building? In a closely-contested game, every piece of information (no matter how seemingly insignificant) can be the watershed that will propel your team to victory. Specialize in a hero if you are a beginner and learn everything about it. Of course, if you can't spare the time, at least get the essentials correct, and perhaps you might be on your way to becoming a better player :D To be precise means to have a good grasp of the internal workings of the game and use this knowledge to your advantage. For example, if you know the exact location where the hero will appear after he TPies to a building, you can time your AOE stun such that the opponent will be immediately incapacitated, thus reducing the threat it may pose and perhaps having a chance to quickly eliminate one opponent.

3. Psychology
Ask yourself, who are the people playing these tiny characters on the map? People, of course! People like you and me. Thus, while psychology may not be very important in low-level games, it may prove to be the key difference in higher-level games. Understanding your opponent gives you an edge over him/her. If you know that he/she is a beginner, you can probably expect him/her to panic in a mass battle. Target him and eliminate him fast. Another example: You are playing PotM and your opponent is running away with a little health left, and the only long-range skill in your arsenal that is available is your arrow. Using your precise knowledge of the movement speed of the hero as well as your personal gauge and time your arrow to the approximate area where the opponent is likely to travel. Yet another example: you are playing Juggernaut and the Bone Clinkz is dying. You know he is a beginner. He windwalks away. You can probably figure that he's clicking on the map to return to base in a hurry. Use your bladestorm and follow the trajectory where Bone will probably travel. You may just kill him even if you can't see him. Certainly, these are lower-level instinctive skills.

On the other hand, if you expect your opponents to be pros, be wary of their actions. Their seemingly-noobish acts may just be a feint to draw you in to a trap. They may be acting silly to deceive you and make you lower your guard, a prerequisite to a more deadly follow-up move. Reverse psychology could be at play. Try to see what the other person behind the computer is thinking, but don't spend too much time on it either. There is a danger of reverse-psychologying too much and wasting your own time instead. At higher-levels, Escape Psychology probably plays a more important (and exciting) role. For example, an opponent hero is chasing you and his/her movement speed definitely overwhelms your hero. What do you do? Run to the nearest slope or any area with fog. Just as you expect him to run past you, turn back in the opposite direction. It is actually pretty common these days, especially if you have the ability to Blink. In fact, if you study the map properly, there are tiny areas where you can slip into that your opponent may miss.

haha yea, there are probably a million and one other things that can be said about DotA, but the best advice is to try it out yourself. Specialize, read up, and commit your time to the game. Don't try to random heroes and hope you will become better just because you know how to play more heroes. There is a reason for the saying 'jack of all trades, but master of none' ya?

Essentially, everyone will develop their own unique style of the game, so don't be too hasty in mimicking a 'tried-and-tested' build. While such over-rated builds may be useful at certain games (probably due more to coincidence than anything else), they have a tendency to fail miserably as well. Just as in any game/sports, confidence is extremely important, but so is form. Practise to build up confidence, practise to get your form. In any case, the most important thing is also to enjoy the game :D Defeat paves the road to success, as the Chinese saying goes.

But of course, as we may already know, in such games, the level of happiness that one might gain is often more than proportional to the rate of success in the game.