How to Play Dota 2 – the basics, the lanes, the builds

Dota 2 is Valve’s giant. Dota 2 is the spiritual successor of the DOTA mod from Warcraft 3, which allows players to take control of a hero, going around the map, collecting gold, experience, and fighting. While it may appear to be similar to other MOBAs, Dota 2 is a complex game. In this guide, we will help break down the different elements of Dota 2, making it easier to learn and giving you a better understanding of how to play Dota 2.

Dota 2 follows every other MOBA’s usual traditions, with a map containing special monsters to kill, jungle camps, three lanes, towers, and other structured to defend and attack. Players join a team of five and face off against another team of five. Those teams then load into an actual game of Dota 2, either on the Dire’s side of the map or the Radiant’s side.

The game aims to take the Heroes into the lanes to gain gold and experience to progress their heroes power level. While that is the main aim of the game, there are other aims in the game. Players should look into learning how to deny, meaning enemies don’t benefit from its experience or gold. Only the player who lands the killing blow on an enemy minion gets the gold, which means denial is very important for making sure your opponents fall behind.

One other basic part of learning how to play Dota 2 is team fighting. Fighting enemy Heroes is one of the most important parts of the game, as it allows teams to take objectives. Killing an opponent in lane is huge because they can fall behind so quickly. On the other hand, getting kills in the later stages of the game mean your team can focus on taking down enemy buildings or getting powerful buffs like Roshan.

When it comes to fights, there are a few things to know. One aspect of team fighting is the use of CC. CC simply means crowd control. Teamfighting likely needs some form of CC to make it easier to kill targets.  When players die, they enter a respawn period, meaning they are out of the game for that period of time. Players can also spend gold to buyback, which means they spend their gold to get back in the game.

Heroes are the primary way players experience Dota 2. The game has several different types of Heroes, each filling a different role. The game’s main roles are Carry, Solo Laners, Off Laners, Junglers, Soft Supports, and Hard Supports. The community largely separates the Dota 2 heroes between Gold priority. The game tends to use terms like position 1 – 5. The higher the roles priority, the less gold they get.

Carries is the most gold reliant, and therefore are position one. Carries require the most gold to do the most damage by the end of the game. Solo Laners are the second most important role, as they are another carry position but don’t need as much investment. The third most important areOfflaners, who are pretty self-sufficient and don’t need as much gold to pop off. The fourth position typically belongs to Soft Supports or Junglers, who need some gold to get decent power levels, but otherwise not that great of a deal. The final position is Hard Supports, who scale with experience better than they do with gold.

Here are some examples you can expect to see for each role.

The map of Dota 2. Image via Valve.

 

With the Hero gold priority outlined above, these Heroes tend to follow certain lanes. There are a few lane concepts to think about when it comes to lanes. The Dota 2 map contains features known as the Safe Lane, Offlane, and the Mid Lane. The Safe Lane is the map position where the tower is furthest away from the Ancient and closer to the creep line. The Offlane is where the tower is closer to the base and furthest away from the Creep Line. Finally, the mid lane is the shortest lane of the two, where the towers are position on higher ground, with the creeps meeting in the middle. All are very important Dota 2 positions players need to grasp.

The Safe lane is ideally where your carry and support want to go. The Safe Lane offers the best chances of survival for weak Carries, who are bullied in the early game by most Heroes. Furthermore, Supports want to follow the Carries and protect them from harm in the early game.  Radiant’s safe lane location is in the bottom lane, with Dire’s at the top lane.

Contrary to this, Offlaners want to meet the Carries and Supports. Offlaners typically have stronger early game stats and decent enough defences to withstand the handicap lane. Furthermore, better players can manipulate the Creep waves to come towards them, forcing the Support or Carry to come to them, creating opportunities to get kills or force the Carry in unfavourable situations.

Of course, the mid lane is the easiest to understand. Solo Laners who benefit the most from getting levels and unlock damage spikes in their kit go Mid Lane. They can accelerate the game or even farm a lot more gold with only the other solo laner contending it. Heroes with the most mechanically skilled kits and the more flashy playstyles also typically occupy this lane.

There are a few different compositions that can affect every game. Lanes can go 2-1-2, which allow two carries and two supports for a team. Alternatively, a Soft Support can lane with an Offlaner, which enables the support to roam more. Then there can be a 1-1-1-2 setup, which adds a Jungler while losing a Support. Furthermore, there can even be a three Hero lane in some situations. The average player, especially those learning how to play Dota 2 will likely find themselves in a 2-1-2 setup most of the time.

Creeps head to every lane from both team’s bases. Image via Valve. 

 

By now, you’ll have seen the word Creep thrown around. But what exactly are Creeps? Creeps are pretty much the main way players get their gold and experience. Creeps spawn at each team’s base every thirty seconds from the moment the game horn sounds. 

The typical Creep wave consists of three melee creeps and one ranged creep. By the eleventh wave, a Siege creep will spawn with the Creep wave and will continue to spawn every ten waves. When a game reaches the 15-minute mark, every wave will spawn with an additional melee creep, followed by another at the 30th minute. Moreover, an additional Siege creep spawns beginning at the 35th minute, a ranged at 40, and a bonus melee creep at 45.

Throughout the game, Creep waves will get permanent upgrades. The upgrades kick in every seven and a half minutes. The upgrades generally make the Creep waves more threatening against structures while also allowing characters to scale continue scaling, only at a much quicker rate. Melee creeps range between 34-39 gold for a killing blow, with Ranged creeps going for 43-52 gold. 

To gain experience, players need to stand within a 1500 range radius around the creep. This rule also applies to those near Roshan and enemy Heroes who die.

On a final note, Creep denying is a major part of learning how to play Dota 2. Knowing how to  Creep deny is an essential part of Dota 2, as the game only awards gold to those who score the killing blow on Creeps. Players that get the killing blow on an allied Creep denies that gold to an enemy. Mastering this while minimizing how often this happens to you is a huge way to win the lane.

Considering how important farming is in the game, trading is important in the laning phase too. Players need to understand the fundamentals of trading if they want to learn how to play Dota correctly.

The basic concept of trading is exchanging one thing for another. This could mean a variety of things in Dota, such as getting a ranged creep at the expense of getting poked etc. The basic concept allows players to create different pressure points, eventually leading to a lead in some regard.

One thing a player can do is force advantages through health trading. A player can focus on trading in the short term and farm in the long term. For example, one of the best trades players can make is killing an opponent or forcing them out of the lane. The poking player can farm and get XP without contest and perhaps even take a tower. It is one major way a player can generate huge leads against their opponent.

One of the other aspects of the laning phase also means Ganking. One of the best ways to succeed during the laning phase is to create successful ganks. Soft Supports who don’t need to be in a lane all the time have the option to roam when the Creep wave is in an ideal position. Also, Mid Laners that get an XP lead can roam to either side of the map and create plays. Moreso, Junglers also have the option to do so when they wait for their minute-long respawn timers on their Jungle Camps.

Ganking is an important part of the game, because of the large quantities of gold and experience generated on slain heroes. OG, one of the world’s best teams, favoured this playstyle at the International 2019 and won the event because of it.

After farming up a storm, players will want to spend their hard-earned gold on new items. Although there are a few places that offer different items, so we’ll dissect the various shops.  

The Base shop has access to most game items and will be the primary source of getting items. Furthermore, the base shop is the first point fo contact for players to buy laning equipment. During the laning phase, players can task their courier to collect items from the base shop, spending their gold in the process.

For those that want access to more powerful items, players must head to the Secret Shop. The Secret Shop is located in the map’s centre, with one in each forest of the Dire and Radiant half of the map. The shop has access to some unique items, which can only become full built items from that shop.

As of 7.23, the Side Lane Shops are no longer in Dota 2. The shops once offered players laning items, like regeneration, wards and other starting equipment, allowing them to stay in the lanes for much longer. Valve’s intentions behind this change imply they want players to manage their laning phase better.

Tangos are one of the popular starting items on Dota 2. Image via Valve.

 

At the start of every game of Dota 2, every player begins with 625 gold, unless they got a random hero, providing 825 starting gold instead. Players then use that money to buy starting items, which entirely depend on your role and position. Buying the right item for the appropriate role is one of the most important things as you begin learning how to play Dota 2.

A set of Tangos at the start of the game is great for nearly every Hero in the game. Tangos ensure that a Hero’s HP stays full enough until they buy a bigger regen item. Players can also share Tangos using a pooling system, which lets them use it at a much-reduced rate. You can use them to instantly slay a Sentry or Observer Ward. This also gives you twice the regeneration duration as a normally-eaten tree.

Another solid item is the Iron Branch. Iron branches are a solid low-cost option to increase regeneration. Most heroes will purchase Branches at the start of the game, and turn them into some other simple items later. You can use your Iron Branch to plant a tree in the ground that players can consume to get HP. Using this in synergy with Tangos means double the duration of those effects.

Healing Salve acts as a big healing potion, particularly used by Offlaners and Junglers. Those under the Healing Salve effect lose their regeneration if enemy Heroes or Roshan attack the user.

Stout Shield is the go-to for almost every melee Carry and often as a melee Offlane Hero. It blocks a portion of damage from enemies, making it a solid laning survivability option.

Claritys are a common purchase for Supports and some Offlane heroes. Lots of Supports use their mana bar to aid their allies through ability casts. Damage from Heroes and Roshan also cancel this item’s mana regeneration. 

The Smoke of Deceit is a powerful item for supports that want to create ganks in the early game. It makes the user invisible to creeps and Observation Wards, so it helps guarantee that wards won’t catch you out. Users under its effects also move faster; however, when you enter into a hero’s range, the effects of the SoD fade.

Null Talisman is the go-to intelligence starting item for INT Carries, in particular, INT Solo Laners. Null Talisman is valuable because it provides +5 INT and 3 Spell power, plus some mana regen and strength and agility for those extra pads.

For Agility based Carries and Solo Laners, the Wraith Band is good for its 5 Agility, with the addition of attack speed.

There are several other items useful at the start, but they are used to fill specific niches. Once you know how to play Dota 2, you can start picking them in those early game scenarios. But for now, these are generally solid options for all the roles in the game.

Shops are not the only buildings Dota 2 players are interested in. Due to Dota 2 being a MOBA, every team has several buildings they must defend. Every lane has three towers, which eventually lead to the main base of each team. If the towers fall, the enemies Creeps will eventually begin sieging the Barracks. Every team has two barracks in each lane, with the left always the Ranged Barrack and the right being Melee. Taking out a Barrack in that lane empowers that Creep type to become Super versions of themselves. Taking out every Barracks in the enemy base causes the game to spawn  Mega Creeps instead.  Understanding how to increase the strength of your Creeps is a good way to win games when learning how to play Dota 2.

From there, it becomes easier to take down the enemies’ Ancient. Ancients are the core of any team, and any team that manages to kill one will win the game. Ancients are immune to damage until both Tier 4 Towers fall.

There are other buildings in the game too. Each team has a Shrine located near Roshan, which allows players to get huge health and mana regen. Shrines are immune to damage until an allied T3 tower has fallen. Pillars are another feature of base defence, slowing down creeps as they assault. The Pillars slow down creep movement and can only get damaged once a T3 Tower dies. Knowing how buildings work benefits players in so many ways, making it easier when it comes to learning how to play Dota 2.

Every game of Dota 2 has different phases. Every game starts in the early game, where teams tend to spend most of the time in the lane, trading early advantages and farming. The mid-game is where teams can begin making plays around the map as squads, destroying towers and creating spaces to win games. The late game is the point where the Heroes have built most of their core items and can crack open bases and win the game. Understanding these phases is crucial to learning how to play Dota 2.  This is simply bbecause recognizing these stages will better inform your gameplay, and how far ahead or how far behind a team is.

Wards are one of the best tools in the game for both teams. Image via Valve.

 

Warding is a very important part of learning how to play Dota 2, especially for Support players. Warding allows players to gain vision in the fog-of-war, which means areas your team doesn’t have any vision of. Getting vision in the forests, rivers and more will enable players to make an informed decision. 

The main focus of warding in the early game is to make sure you are free from ganks. Junglers, Solo Laners, and Soft Supports have the opportunity to roam in the early game, setting up plays to help win the laning phase. Getting wards up allows players to see things coming, which means players can call for aid and counter-gank or simply move to a  safer position, making them waste their time.

In the mid and late game, wards are essential for creating plays and monitoring how the enemy team wishes to team fight you. Wards can also spot enemies looking to push side lanes by themselves, allowing players to think about ganking them in the side lanes.

The main source of vision comes from Supports. Supports are the ward bots, spending their little money on keeping up vision. They can but wards as soon as the game loads with their starting gold, keeping them up throughout the game.

There are two different types of wards in Dota 2. The most common is the Observer Wards, which go invisible after placing and provide vision in an area and last for six minutes or until destroyed. Every team starts off with two and can have a max of four Observer wards at a given moment. Observer wards replenish every 135 seconds in the shop and are free to purchase.

Sentry Wards are the other warding tool in the game, which provides true sight, revealing invisible enemies and wards. Both teams start with three sentry wards and can have a maximum of 10 sentry wards out at once. Sentry wards replenish every 85 seconds and last for eight minutes once placed and purchased for 75 gold each.

Throughout the Dota 2 map, there are places known as Ward Hills, which are elevated boulders and other geographic features. Supports can place wards on top of these to get the full 1400 vision radius. Normally Ward Hills is positioned around keymap movement areas, making it easier to decide where to place wards.

Stats are one of the ways that Heroes build up their power level in the game. Stats provide several bonuses, including health and damage depending on the Heroes primary stat. Furthermore, there are defensives in the game that make Heroes take less damage from physical or magical attacks.

One point of Strength (STR) provides a Hero with 20 health points, a health regen increase of 0.03 a second, and one Damage for Strength Heroes.

As for Agility users, one point of Agility (AGI) gives a Hero one bonus Attack Speed, a sevetnhs worth of armor, and one damage for Agility Heroes.

Finally, One point of Intelligence grants the user 12 Mana, an additional 0.04 Mana a second, one bonus Damage if you are an Intelligence Hero, and 0.0625% spell damage equaling to 1% spell damage increase every 16 INT.

In addition to these types of damage statistics, there is another stat called Pure Damage. Pure Damage is a very rare form of damage that Valve sometimes bakes into very few Heroes’ kits, along with a very few items. The Pure Damage deals all the damage the tooltip says it does, ignoring all forms of damage resistance.

This guide has covered many basic concepts of learning how to play Dota 2. Besides that, this has some more intermediate knowledge to take your expertise in the title to the next level. Hopefully, you can gain some more elo now you know a few extra things or two from this guide.