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 The Idiot's Guide to DotA
Over the course of any players gaming career he has endured many insults for a range of reason but I've never heard the term used more than in Defense of the Ancients. What if I told you that I could turn you into a well versed pro in just one article? Well, I'd be a dirty liar so I will leave you no allusions as to what this article is going to do for you. This is guide is entirely general and is intended to soften to blow of making a transition into the world of Defense of the Ancients.
Beginner's Questions
What is DotA?
Defense of the Ancients, or DotA as it will be called throughout, is a custom map for Warcraft III that has been developed over time. The concept for DotA originated with a map named Aeon of Strife used in Starcraft many years back. Over the past few years it has developed, and many different versions and variations have spawned from it. The most common amongst these versions is, by far, DotA Allstars. The official site can be found at www.dota-allstars.com.
The main objective of DotA Allstars is really quite simple; you attempt to kill the other team’s Ancient Throne, which is the World Tree for Sentinel and the Frozen Throne for Scourge. At the beginning of every game you will decide which team you want to join, you may side with either the Sentinel or the Scourge who start in the bottom left and top right respectively. The map is composed of three lanes that are each cut in half into Scourge and Sentinel sides. Starting at the 1:30 mark creeps will begin to spawn in sets of 4 in every lane and push automatically. They will meet in the middle of every lane and it is your job to assist in their battle. It's harder to attack a base than it may seem at first glance. Each lane has three towers, each increasing in power as you move closer to the enemy base, and two final towers protecting your respective ancients.
At the beginning of every game you are given the opportunity to either select your own hero or have one selected at random for you. If you are reading this as a player who is just beginning to learn the concepts of DotA I strongly suggest you pick the same hero for quite a few games until you can get the hang of them. Randoming all of the time will not be beneficial seeing as you will play different heroes every game and never truly understand one. As you begin to gain in skill and understand the game you can make the transition to randoming quite easily, which will make you a more versatile player.
Where can I get DotA?
DotA Allstars is available at quite a few different locations. www.GetDota.com and www.DotA-Allstars.com are the most common and reliable resources for downloading the map, while we do keep the most up-to-date version available for download in our DotA Forums (in DotA General Discussion). You can, occasionally, find a host on battle.net that will allow you to download the game directly but it is generally a very frustrating process seeing as how impatient the general DotA community is.
Where Can I Play DotA?
DotA is not intended for playing by oneself, though it is possible. The most common location for finding games is just pure public players that fill up quite easily. On most of the realms and nearly all day you will find ten or more DotA games on your custom game list, though the real trick is discovering how to find a good host. There is massive amount of game type variations, some of which you want to avoid like the plague (more on this soon.)
There are other ways to play DotA besides public games. Many clans have channels where you can meet up and play in-house games. You are assured that the players will not be terrible or quit, which is a security measure everybody loves to have. Alternatively you can play at Clan TDA on Azeroth which is a format of games that bans leavers and abusers of all degrees. Though the skill level may not be as high as in-house games, it is more accessible and more variety amongst players.
Game Requirements
There are very few "requirements" to play DotA outside of that fact you need players on both Sentinel and Scourge (the two teams in DotA). The most common format, by a large gap, is 5vs5 games. They provide a lot of variation in games because they usually are composed of a lot of skill levels and strategies. Starting with fewer players on both sides will result in a increase in starting gold for you and your fellow players. I'd advise away from playing anything less than 4v4 as it makes for very boring games.
How do I play DotA?
This may seem like the simplest topic out of these all. You right click on stuff and try to kill people. I wish it was that simple, but frankly, it's game with a very high learning curve which I hope to cushion a bit via this article.
Game Modes
In the game of DotA there are a variety of game modes which can be enabled by the host in the first few seconds of the game. Each of these game types presents a different way to play and all have their pros and cons. These game modes are with their respective advantages and disadvantages:
All Pick (-ap)
Allows you to pick heroes from any tavern regardless of their allegiance. This is the game type you will be looking to play constantly as a beginner and has no downside outside of the fact that there are very common hero choices so games may begin to get repetitive.
All Random (-ar)
You will be given a random hero from any tavern regardless of their allegiance With all random games you will see much more variety and interesting combos between heroes. The large downside for the majority of players is you won't be able to use the same set of heroes over and over to really get down their abilities and play styles. I'd advise away from all random games until you understand the game more.
All Intelligence-Based (-ai)
All non-intelligence heroes are removed from the taverns. This leaves you with just intelligence heroes which make for some interesting match ups. This game type is a load of fun but can be quite imbalanced if a few specific heroes are taken by one team.
All Agility-Based (-aa)
All non-agility heroes are removed from the taverns. Fairly boring game type as it is a race to be the first that buys a power damage item. I'd advise against this game type.
All Strength-Based (-as)
All non-strength heroes are removed from the taverns. Games turn into a battle of the mass-health-with-blade mails. Another boring game type, I'd avoid this one as well.
Short Mode (-sm)
In Short Mode, players are given more gold and experience for each creep kill. On top of that, your towers are all much weaker so it is incredibly easy to push. Alright, everybody, let me get this out on the table. Short Mode is terrible. Avoid this game type at all costs! All Short Mode leads to are heroes that do not have the ability to make a large amount of cash income become killing machines very fast. This practically removes the early and mid game so many heroes become too powerful very fast. Please, do not play this game type as it will kill a large portion of your skill as well as a small kitten showing disapproval from the DotA Gods.
However, if you aren't down for a long, serious game of DotA, Short Mode is the way to go. It's a good way to quickly pass the time and you can pull off some really crazy things with the extra income and experience.
Death Match (-dm)
Players are given the chance to choose a new hero on death. This is most commonly played in conjunction with all random games which make it very interesting. Another game type to play once you have mastered the basics because of its variety of heroes used.
Item Drop (-id)
Upon death, the hero drops an item from a random slot in his or her inventory. Makes for interesting games and more cautious play styles. Only downside I see to this is the frustration of losing an expensive item and hero killers being able to buff themselves up very quickly with your items they steal.
Super Creeps (-sc)
Super Creep mode creates the game so that at random intervals of time, a Super Creep will spawn in a random lane for either the Sentinel or Scourge. The Super Creeps vary depending on the time of the game from a big fish to a Hyrda. Super Creep mode is not often used, as the creeps are extremely strong and can vastly swing the momentum of a game. It is also thought that the 'random' spawns are not that random, as the Sentinel is said to have more spawns early game, whiel Scourge is said to have more later on.
League Mode (-lm)
This is the equivalent of playing with no game modifiers on. League Mode will allow for a hero drafting method as opposed to the regular frenzy to pick your hero. Sentinel picks one, scourge picks two, sentinel picks two, scourge picks two, sentinel picks two, and scourge picks one. That's how the hero selection is formatted and it allows for both teams to counter their opponents’ strategies. Don't play League Mode unless, and this should be obvious, you are playing in a league.
No Power-ups (-np)
Shuts off the spawning of power-ups on the map. Alright if you want to play without the randomness of game breaking Runes and has no real downsides. For those of you unaware of what a Rune does, it grants one of 5 random powerups to boost your hero for battle. These runes include the following:
 Double Damage - Double damage runes are recognized by their dark blue color. They will increase your attack damage by a large amount based off of a couple factors. The bonus damage recieved is your base damage plus the amount of points you have in your primary attribute. For instance, say a hero does 80 damage and has 55 strength. The bonus damage added from picking up a double damage rune would be 135 for a total of 215 plus any addtional damage you have from items.
 Haste Rune - Haste runes are recognized by their red color. They will increase your move speed to the max allowed in DotA, 522. If you are affected by any ability that has a slow you will maintain the maximum move speed regardless.
 Invisibility Rune - Invisibility runes are recognized by their purple color. Invisibility runes will turn you invisible to the enemy team for 60 seconds. They will still be able to see you with the use of sentry wards or any other form of invisiblity detection. When you attack or cast a spell the invisibility will be broken. Also, unlike wind walk abilities, invisibility runes will not remove your collision size, so you can be noticed if you block a units path.
 Image Runes - Images runes are recognized by their orange color. When you pick up an image rune an image of yourself will spawn that deals 30% damage and recieves 200% damage from all damage and will be immediately destroyed if it is hexed. Images from these runes are most often used as a way to draw fire from enemy heroes or as a distraction while forming an ambush on the other team.
 Regeneration Runes - Regen runes are recognized by their green color. Regeneration runes will increase your health and mana regeneration by a massive amount. Picking one up at any point in the game will bring you back to full health and mana in a matter of seconds. Being harmed by anything, physical or magic, will disable the regeneration effects of the rune.
Team Random (-tr)
In Team Random, players will be given a random hero from their respective allegiance This limits your choices but can also prevent some imbalances that arise from multi faction hero combos.
Team Pick
The game type by default. You are only allowed to pick heroes from your respective side of the taverns. This is a good game type to play except for the fact it limits peoples hero choices which isn't always beneficial in learning the game.
Mode Random (-mr)
Will select a random main game type (ar, ap, tr, tp). Can be interesting to mess around with on occasion but has no effect outside of it adding some variety to games.
Other Commands
There are also many in game commands that give you little tidbits of information.
Match-Up (-ma)
This command shows what heroes the enemy team possesses, sometimes if the enemy choose their heroes quickly you can use this command to determine which hero to use to best counter them.
Move Speed (-ms)
This command gives you your hero’s movement speed. Starting move speed
varies but the average is likely around 300 but can range from anywhere between 275 and 325. Move speed can be modified by the use of Boots of Speed and certain items like Yasha or the Endurance Aura of Necronomicon minions. The cap on movespeed is 522 and can only be achieve through the use of haste runes or some heroes abilities such as Lycanthrope in Wolf Form, Balnazzar at night and Bone Clinkz in wind walk.
Creep Stats (-cs)
This command gives you the number of creeps that you have killed and the number of allied creeps you have killed in order to deprive the enemy of experience. Great for keeping track of your farming progress but has been outdated due to the next command.
Creep Stats Board On (-csboardon)
The greatest thing to happen with DotA since... ever! This will cause a board to be displayed constantly updating your creep stats which allows for very easy tracking of how you are doing. Type -csboardoff to turn off the board.
Unstuck (-unstuck)
On occasion you will encounter situations where you can't escape. Typing -unstuck will initiate an ability that takes 60 seconds to cast and will teleport you back to your respective fountain.
Basic Mechanics
Experience
When enemy creeps die to either your attack or a friendly creeps attack you will receive experience. Depending on if you have a solo lane or a shared lane you will level up at different rates. Gaining experience is extremely important early game, even more so than gold. Early on a very large percentage of your damage output is spell based. The only way to level your skills up is gaining enough experience to cast them. If you find yourself being against a very aggressive opponent hang back behind your ranged creep and soak up experience.
Leveling
Levels are your heroes rank and can range from level 1 to 25. As you level up you gain access to higher levels of your abilities. As time goes on you gain levels slower and slower depending on the game type and level of enemy creeps.
Stats
Every hero has a main attribute that, in most cases, reflects their play style The attributes each provide different benefits as well as an additional one damage if it is your main attribute:
- Strength – Provides 19 health per strength point as well as bonus .03 health regeneration per second.
- Agility – Increases attack speed by 1% and armor by .14. Seven points of agility is equal to roughly one point of armor.
- Intelligence – Provides 13 mana per intelligence point as well as bonus .04 mana regeneration per second.
Abilities
Every hero has a set of four abilities, three regular and one ultimate, and an option to boost stats. These abilities are what determine a hero’s play style and your choice of abilities will determine when and how effective you are. There are multiple builds with every hero, but I will not be including those today. The best suggestion I can give is to experiment and find what works for you. Everybody plays differently and there is no reason to lock a hero in a box with a specific build that everyone recommends. Depending on the situation it can be very beneficial to focus on one skill and bonus stats for increased mana, health and armor.
Gold
Gold is probably the single most important factor towards the end of the game. The longer games drag on the less abilities matter and the heroes that deal the most pure physical damage are going to dominate. Because of this, farming is ridiculously important. You don't have to kill creeps to get gold. You can farm neutral creeps or heroes if you are able to with certain heroes like Butcher, Venomancer and Shadow Shaman.
Beginner Heroes
As a beginner there are many concepts that you may not entirely understand and utilize so it's best to learn a hero that is effective yet simple. You can learn basic concepts like farming, proper items, harassment, denying and pushing while using a hero that doesn't take too much focus to use properly so you can absorb the rest DotA has to offer. Below are a few good examples for Sentinel and Scourge.
Scourge
Doom Bringer
Doom Bringer has one of the easiest times farming due to him being able to devour a creep for extra gold. His spell combo is also one of the highest single target nukes in the game (a nuke is a spell with the sole purpose of dealing lots of initial damage) if used at the correct level, all for a relatively low mana cost. The best way to play him is as a tank with Hearts of Tarrasque and Sange & Yasha. Be careful not to try and ambush heroes while devouring a creep as it gives the enemy team vision of your hero.
Lich
The best early game harassment hero by a gigantic margin. You have an unlimited amount of mana due to Dark Ritual and his nuke (Frost Nova) is one of the highest damage single target regular spells in the game. On top of being effective he is very good later in the game with Chain Frost, which is one of the best area of effect nukes in the game. With Lich, you need to focus on getting more health and means to survive since you have a lot of damage output but not much survival. A Mekansm is always a good item for Lich, as is Aghanim's Scepter.
Venomancer
Another one of the best early game heroes. Shadow Strike combined with Poison Sting damage is usually enough to net a kill in the early game. People tend to stay away from Venomancer because of his ability to kill you even after he is dead. Your role in games will usually be as a slower (someone who keeps heroes from running away) with Shadow Strike and a mass damage dealer with Poison Nova. Note that Poison Nova can not kill but only bring heroes down to 1 health. Also, always use nova before shadow strike or it will wear off before the Poison Nova is finished and not kill the hero.
Sentinel
Moon Rider
The only down fall to the Moon Rider (a.k.a. Luna) is her lack of health in the early game which can make her a prime target for harassment. This is why I suggest you should include attribute bonuses in your skill build. I prefer to go the Lucent Beam, Stats and Eclipse build. This will give you a bit of health which should help with using your nuke more often and surviving spells. Your ultimate, in the early game at least, will be an instant kill to any hero you catch alone. At level seven you can deal 1125 damage with Eclipse and an extra Lucent Beam, this is after reduction making it the highest single target nuke in the game. What makes it even better is you can do this to two heroes once you hit level 11 with relative ease. It may take a few games to get the hang of her ultimate due to creeps taking spell hits but you will figure out its radius on your own.
Pandaren Battlemaster
Having an ultimate that makes you very difficult to kill is always a help to beginning players, and that is the reason he's on this list. On top of having very good evasion ability, a critical strike, and two slows, you also have the ability to split, which will prevent any further damage to you until you reform. You will always reform on the Earth Panda, which is the one hauling around the massive rock. The easiest way to use his ultimate as an escape function is leave the other two pandas behind to attack your enemy. Alternatively you can use cyclone with your Storm Panda or Hurl Boulder with your Earth Panda, both of which will disable your enemy long enough for you to get a safe distance away.
Lord of Olympia
Using Lord of Olympia (Zeus as he is called in the game) as a beginning hero is about the same concept as having Lich, being able to dominate early game. Has a very powerful spell combo and decent starting health for an intelligence hero. Always pay attention to heroes in other lanes so you won't miss a chance to kill them using your ultimate Thundergod's Wrath, which instantly deals lots of damage to all enemy heroes, regardless of their position on the map. Your main concern with Zeus will be early game survival but the majority of heroes won't be too aggressive against Lightning Bolt and Arc Lightning spam. Go for early game mana regeneration to sustain your dominance with your spells. In the late game focus on supporting your teammates by finishing off weak heroes using your ultimate.
Intermediate Concepts
Hero Killing
In order to assist your assent to the enemy ancient, killing enemy heroes is advisable. However to do so, careful planning and making use of the current circumstance is required. Usually using a hero’s abilities to your advantage will help in hero killing. Certain abilities have certain affects on the enemy as listed below.
Ability Effects
There a dozens of abilities, both passive and active, that have secondary effects that in some way disable an opponent.
- Stuns – Stuns are the ultimate form of disabling in DotA. A stunned player cannot cast spells or move, they are completely disabled.
- Slows – A slowed player will have reduced effectiveness in a physical fight. Most slow spells effect only move speed but a few effect attack speed as well.
- Maim – Maim is the effect given by the items Sange and Sange & Yasha. It will severely slow an opponent’s move and attack speed.
- Freeze – Similar to stun only used by Rylai the Crystal Maiden. Frozen units cannot move or attack but can cast spells.
- Ensnare - Naga Siren's ability that will only disable movement. Heroes can still attack and cast from inside the net.
Cool Down
Cool downs are the waiting period between casting of your spells. The bulk of spell cool downs are fairly low with the exceptions of ultimates which are nearly always two to three minutes long. Cool downs can be reset with the use of a Refresher Orb or Bousch the Tinker's ultimate Rearm. There are also 'bugged' cool down resets such as using Stone Giant’s ultimate Grow or Morphling's Adapt. Note that Aghanim's Scepter also lowers the cool downs of most of the heroes it is available for.
Farming
 Farming is the process of killing enemy or neutral creeps for an extended period of time to bulk up your income of gold. Each creep gives between 30 - 60 gold and a varying amount of experience based on what level they are, which is determined by the game time. The most common time to farm in the majority of games is early game from levels 1 - 9. After this point you will find it harder to gather gold by sitting in a lane as most heroes will begin searching out lone heroes and killing them in groups. If this is becoming a problem and you are in need of gold don't be afraid to switch over and farm the neutral creeps on your respective side of the map. You can also purchase a Hand of Midas for easier farming though it is not a requirement for a steady gold income.
If you find your gold income not supplying enough gold for the items you desire you can add neutral creeping on top of your regular lane farming. There are four sets of neutral creeps for each side of the map, three on the top lane and one in the middle for Scourge and three on the bottom plus one in the middle for Sentinel. In addtion to the normal neutral creeps there are two groups of ancients, or big neutrals as they are more commonly named. The big neutrals are much stronger and should only be attempted by a long player if you are at or around level 11. Between creep waves or after pushing up to a tower you can shift your focus to the neutrals. Note that you will take many hits which will shave of large amounts of damage unless you have a form of life steal or a heal. Also, be careful of enemy heroes wondering around the map looking for stray heroes as they will eventually catch on to your farming habits and kill you with their buddies. Below is a diagram of the neutral creep locations and their common farming paterns.
Items and Recipes
Throughout DotA there is a massive array of items which can all be seen over at www.dota-allstars.com/items.php. Every item, with a few exceptions, is useful for at least one hero. Usually, the items effectiveness reflects the cost, with the most useful items costing upwards of 4000 gold. There are a variety of items ranging from consumables and items that have passive orb effects. All of the worthwhile items, in regards to end game battles, are formed using recipes. Recipes are a nifty process of combining multiple lesser items into one larger, more powerful version. When a recipe is described as costing 1 wood it is considered create-on-purchase. This means that the recipe will auto form when you have all the required items in your inventory. For example, to form Perseverance you only need purchase a Ring of Health and Void Stone for it to form. Though that is nifty in saving gold, it is only true of a select few recipe items. The majority of them must be bought for an additional gold fee.
Each team has identical items to be purchased from their shops as well as matching "secret" shops. The secret shop is located west of the middle lane for Sentinel and east of the middle lane for Scourge.
Recommended Items
 To begin every game you should purchase either: a Ring of Regeneration, a chicken (who is able to carry items back and forth without your hero needing to leave its lane), or two Circlets of Nobility and either a Mantle of Intelligence, Gauntlet of Strength, or Slipper of Agility.  The most common starting purchase amongst beginners is Boots of Speed which is, if you ask me, a terrible choice. Early game your main focus should be on harassing your enemy and bulking up your gold. Boots of Speed doesn't help accomplish either of these tasks seeing as how your health will fall very quickly and you have no means of boosting it back up. To begin the game you need some form of survivability with health regeneration. Ring of Regeneration can save you many unnecessary fountain trips and allows you to continue farming.
In certain situations, though, you may need to adjust these starting build orders. If you are truly being man-handled in your lane against someone with many long range spells you can purchase either Flasks of Sapphire Water or a Ring of Health. Even if you don't end up turning your Ring of Health into a higher level item, it is still very helpful for early game survival. Alternatively you can start with Circlets of Nobility and an attribute boosting item for your respective primary attribute. This aids in the process of killing creeps because you will have an additional +7 damage.
When playing with friends it can often times be beneficial to buy a Chicken and share your control with everybody on the team. I wouldn't do this with public players because you can not trust them not to steal your items, but for friends and players you know are smart it can help greatly.
Items to Avoid
 There are some items you will benefit from avoiding. The first of this elite bunch is the Wraith Band. They give you +3 strength, +3 intelligence and +6 agility. This translates into 57 health, 39 mana close to 1 armor and +6% attack speed. That is all you get for 510 gold. It does not give you any form of survival, the attack speed is barely noticed and the armor isn't cost effective. With nearly any hero you will benefit more from a few Bracers or a few Null Talismans instead of this terrible item.
 The second of the bunch is the Dagon. The item has its uses as a finisher for heroes that can take your spell combos already and not be finished off. The problem arises from the fact it is terrible late game on the vast majority of heroes and it is not worth upgrading in the least. Upgrading this item is a huge burden on the pocket book for not much of a difference in spell damage. For 1350 you are getting an additional 75 damage. The heroes I see this item as useful on are Necrolyte, Witch Doctor and Pugna because they have an effective way to amplify the damage it can deal to enemy units.
 The third and final totally ineffective item is the Ancient Tango of Essifation. I'm sure this item could have gone without saying but it served no purpose outside of eating down Rooftrellen's Eyes of the Forest. They don't provide enough health regeneration to keep you in your lane.
Items to Love
Though there are many items that I find totally cost ineffective and a waste of time, there are many items I find incredibly effective on a large portion of heroes. The first of these items is the Wraith Band’s distant and sexier cousin, the Bracer.  The Bracer provides +6 strength, +3 intelligence and +3 agility. This translates into 114 health, 39 mana, +3% attack speed and half a point of armor. it may not seem very effective at first glance but they are cheap, and for the price, provide a generous boost in the health department. Buying Bracers on intelligence and agility heroes make them much more effective due to the strength it provides. People may ask, "Why not just get a Belt of Giant Strength?" The answer to that is pretty simple, you get the other stats on the strength for not that much more gold. A bracer costs 510 gold where as a belt of giant strength is 450, which means you are getting +3 intelligence and +3 agility for 60 more gold. That's worth it if you ask me.
 As I've said before, one of the most important parts of the game is having effective items due to farming correctly in the beginning and maintaining a steady gold income. There is no item in the game that helps you do that quite as well as Boots of Travel. The ability to be able to teleport around the map and stop large creep pushes puts you at a nice gold advantage and provides a means of escape, which is always important. The 2200 you spend upgrading your boots of speed into boots of travel is earned back quickly enough with all the additional experience and gold you get from being able to teleport.
 One of the most under used items amongst beginners in DotA is the almighty Kelen's Dagger of Escape. The dagger is the multipurpose item that is affordable and easy to use. This will allow you to escape ganks, chase heroes that are faster than you, set up combos, assist team mates quicker and anything you can think of really. The 90 mana cost can be a bit of a damper in the early game, which is when it should be purchased, but as time goes on you won't be affected by the mana it requires. This is a must for heroes that rely on being close to the enemy to get their spells off such as the Centaur Warchief, Pandaren Battlemaster, Tormented Soul, Sand King, and Earthshaker.
 I am of the opinion that disables is the name of the game when it comes to DotA but many times you find your self without powerful disables in your roster of heroes. What is there to do? Well, buy an Eul's Scepter of Divinity of course. This item will allow you to remove a hero of your choosing in all sorts of situations. Being ganked 2vs1?  Throw the one with a stun into the air and run away. In a large fight and see a Centaur coming to stomp you all? Cyclone him and continue on with the battle. Being able to cyclone people is a very helpful ability but limited by the fact you only have six charges to use. This means you need to put them to good use on each occasion and not let them go to waste with unnecessary charge usage. Even if you do run out of charges you can upgrade it into Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse, another disable that is not quite as effective for removing heroes but still does the job as a disable. These are both extremely good items to purchase on any intelligence heroes because they provide sufficient mana regeneration to spam nukes.
Advanced Concepts
Proper Micro
The concept of micro and macro should come extremely easily to anybody who had played WC3 in ladder at any point in time. Many people claim that DotA requires no micro at all, which I agree with to an extent. You only have one hero to control so that immediately takes away the factors of keeping track of multiple units, but with DotA, a new form of micro is introduced: ‘last hitting’. Last hitting is the process of waiting until a creep is low enough for you to finish it off in a single blow. This concept applies to your friendly creeps as well. The act of last hitting is vastly superior to constantly attacking creeps as it reduces the amount of harassment and minimizes damage taken from enemy creeps. The best process is to pace back and forth behind your ranged creep until the unit you are going for drops to about 1/4th of their maximum health. At this point walk in and wait for it to drop around 40 - 50 hp, depending on your heroes total damage, and attack it. If all goes well you will have got the gold and removed any chance of that creep being killed by his own team. I recommend not attacking creeps except for the last hit so you can keep them close to your tower which makes it infinitely more difficult to harass and attempt a gank.
The other element of micro in DotA is controlling summoned units. Not many heroes have summons but when they do it is important you control them effectively as they all give gold and experience like normal creeps. The same concept carries over from WC3 in regards to this, when you see a summon being focused by an enemy hero run it back out of range and keep it there. Being able to micro summons effectively is an important skill if you play heroes like Prophet as a pusher or Holy Knight with creeps.
Mini Map
Being able to watch your mini map properly is a technique that will take some time to really master as it is more a creature of habit than knowledge. Try to keep a list in your head of what colours are in what lanes and the heroes that they represent. If you see colours go missing for an extended period of time you should be more cautious in your farming and harassment. Your team mates should be following the same concept but sadly many players do not which is why you need to call a hero missing. Even if an enemy disappears from a teammate’s lane you should call the hero missing if they have not. You will be thanked for it when your team mates can successfully save their own lives.
Harassing
Harassment is the other extremely important concept of early game DotA. When you are in a lane against the other team you can gain large advantages by forcing them to either stay out of experience range for your creeps or just entirely sending them back to the fountain to heal. The process in which you harass varies greatly from hero to hero seeing as there is such a large range of spells, abilities and attack ranges on heroes. The most common way to harass an enemy is with the use of spells. Any hero that has a stun, nuke or slow has a way to harass quite easily. Starting at level three is the time when most nukers begin to harass as they have just got level 2 in one of their nuke abilities. The most common harassment casters in the game are Zeus and Lich because of their low cool down spells and large mana pool, or in the case of Lich, an infinite mana pool. With heroes that lack damage dealing spells, you have to rely on your physical attacks. This is not too difficult if you are facing off against a melee hero or ranged hero with a small attack range but can pose more of a problem if they have 500+ range on their attacks. In DotA, the triggers are programmed in such a way that if you attack an enemy hero the creeps will immediately start running towards you to attack, this is remedied by the simple hit and run. Run close enough to attack a hero and right click or attack click them. Once your attack comes out and deals damage, run away right away to make the creeps lose their target and continue attacking your creeps. This is a slow way to run down your enemy but if you are aggressive enough, it won’t be long until they will have to make a trip to the fountain.
The concept of harassment can work both ways unfortunately so you need to be prepared to deal with it. When I mentioned the Ring of Regeneration earlier it was for a very good reason, and this is it. You need some form of health regeneration if you hope to stay alive against caster heroes or an aggressive player. With physical harassment, a simple Ring of Regeneration is often enough to keep you at full health, but against nukes you often need additional means to survive. The most common and cost effective method is to buy Flasks of Sapphire Water. This will heal you for 400 health points over 20 seconds. This is enough to negate around three early game nukes or two nukes at level 7. They cost a mere 100 gold so they are amazing for surviving against a tough nuke lane. This process of staying in your lane is further simplified by the use of Chickens. If you are running low on health move back behind your tower or a hiding spot of your choice and run some sapphire waters down to yourself. If you are playing smart then you can stay in your lane for as long as you like.
Team Pushes
Team pushes are what the late games of DotA are all about. They consist of the entire team pushing one lane to knock down its barracks. These pushes will generally be countered by the other team sitting behind their tower (‘camping’), while waiting for an opportunity to show themselves and jump in to kill you all. Certain spells such as Earthshaker’s Fissure, Keeper of the Light’s Illuminate and the Dwarven Sniper’s Assassinate can force players to back off of their tower and barracks and allow you a chance to push. There are also items that can make the process much easier. Having two or more heroes with a Mekansm can greatly ease the process of pushing because you can chain heal your team for upwards of 750 damage. Necronomicons can also be used as meat shields to tank the tower and take out enemy mana pools so they can't get the jump on you with spell based damage. Once you have destroyed all the towers and killed the enemy team’s barracks your creeps will spawn with double the damage and additional health. At this point you can leave that lane alone and begin progress on another. It is usually ineffective to push a lane that has already had its barracks knocked down as you will be forced to fight the enemy heroes behind two towers and right next to their Fountain of Health.
Most teams at this point will either try to counter push the lane that has been destroyed or stay in their base to farm up sufficient items they can use to repel future attacks. If the other team attempts the latter tactic then you need to push a second lane down. This is usually not the hardest task in the world seeing as they are forced to attend to the lane that is being destroyed automatically by your own creeps. if you manage to kill all six unit producing buildings in their base (3 Ancients of War and 3 Ancients of Lore for the Sentinel, 3 Crypts and 3 Temples of the Damned for Scourge), you will attain Mega Creeps which are next to impossible for a team to defend against, let alone push back, as Mega Creeps all do upwards of 80 damage and have very high HP. It is near impossible for one team to win against another team with Mega Creeps. Pretty simple concept but harder to attain against a team that knows how to properly defend.
Team Defense
Being able to defend is just as important of a concept as being adapt at proper pushing techniques. When you are on the defense it is important that you get the jump on your opponent when they are at your tower. This will put you at an advantage immediately because you have the tower to provide additional physical damage. If you see that they have area of effect style spells you need to spread out and wait for your chance to attack. It's best if you have a hero that has some form of stun or disable start off the battle by stunning the enemy heroes or taking out their primary damage dealer. It also helps very much if you have some form of silence from Drow Ranger, Death Prophet, Stealth Assassin or Silencer. So long as you repel their push, be it through weakening or killing them, you have accomplished your job. As with pushing, Mekansms and Necronomicons can be very useful in defense. When they fail an attempted push it's your cue to push them back and take out at least a tower since they will be at the disadvantage of healing.
Roshan
Roshan is a tasty little creep that can only be killed once per game but with good reason. Found just East of the Scourge's first tower in the center lane, he is the most difficult creep to kill by a massive margin and possesses many abilities that make it tough to take him on. His abilities are Spell Shield, which blocks a single target spell every 10 seconds, Hurl Boulder, a small nuke and stun, Thunder Clap which deals 300 damage in an area of effect, and finally Thorns Aura, which will return a certain amount of melee heroes’ damage to them. The Thorns Aura makes it very difficult for melee heroes to kill Roshan unless they have a means to keep their health up such as a leech life or healing ability. It is advised only to tackle Roshan once you have gained a significant advantage over the team such as having the majority of them dead or two barracks down in any lane. When he dies he will give the entire team 800 gold and the killer 300 bonus gold. Roshan isn't much of a threat if your team contains three or more stuns or disables. It is important to get one hero to throw a useless spell at him to knock off his spell shield and then proceed to hex, shackle, stun, stomp and slow him into oblivion.
Ambush/Gank
Being able to properly ambush (or ‘gank’ as it is referred to in DotA among other games), a hero is a very important skill to understand. For many heroes, their gold is provided through hero kills during the early game scramble to farm. The most common form of ganks is having a hero leave their lane and traveling over to an adjacent lane to double or triple team a hero. This process is extremely simple with more than one stunner in the early game. Your team should focus on ganking heroes that are threats in the late game like the Dwarven Sniper, Shadow Fiend, Lightning Revenant, Troll Warlord, and any other pure damage hero. Ganks are effective even if you don't manage to kill the hero as well. If you even send a hero back to heal it is worth the time because they will be missing out on experience and gold they could have farmed. When trying to gank a player, be conscious of the fact they may place Observer Wards around their lane to prevent surprise attacks on them from behind. If this is the case, you can either buy Sentry Wards yourself and destroy his Observers (Sentry Wards have the True Sight ability, while Observer Wards don’t, which is why they have separate costs), or switch to another lane. Note that it is alright to run past the tower when ganking heroes as long as you are not close to death or below level 5.
Avoiding a Gank
There is not a 100% way to avoid every gank that the enemy can throw at you during the game, but there are precautions and measures you can take to cripple their effectiveness. The first and simplest way is to always carry a scroll of teleportation. If you are low on health and in fear of being ambushed or just plain can't out run a hero with slow teleport to your fountain. Unless the enemy has a stun then you are home free and ready to get back to your lane. This is effective against every hero that doesn't have stun or bash early or late game. There are often common routes that players take to gank a hero in each of the lanes. You can purchase Observer Wards for 225 gold and place them in these locations to give you a heads up and call for help. If you catch two players off guard in the forest with the rest of your team you can easily snag a few kills and reverse the gank in your favor.
Here are screen shots of common ward placement (click for enlarged version):
  
  
With just those six wards you can see every main ganking area on the map from the Sentinel's point of view. At the same time you can also watch both rune spots and prevent two Scourge side neutrals from spawning which prevents heroes from farming during the off times in the game. This is all for the low price of 450 gold, which is just amazing. If you can keep these observers up and watch your mini map you should very rarely die to enemy ganks.
Professional Craft
Denying Experience
This is a concept that may seem a bit redundant at first but it is extremely game breaking. This is a concept better known as denying because you are denying the enemy team experience and gold. Denying works under the same principles as that of farming, you wait for your creeps to be within one hit until death and get the last hit on them. This will reward neither gold nor experience but it will prevent the enemy from gaining either. Friendly creeps can be attacked once they are below ½ of their maximum health. This is roughly 200 for melee creeps and 150 for ranged creeps. The most basic form of denying consists of killing creeps after the enemy wave is dead and your weakened creeps are running to meet the next group. If you see a creep that is one or two hits from death, kill it. This should be done on as many creeps as possible to severely cripple your opponents leveling. If you are feeling up to the task you can take the time to kill your own creeps during the time in which the creep waves are engaged. It is much harder or a task because it will be under attack from enemy creeps and enemy heroes. The third and sometimes simplest way to deny experience is through the use of hero abilities. Some heroes have spells that can destroy friendly creeps, such as Dark Ritual on the Lich, Conversion on the Enigma, and Death Pact on Bone Clinkz. This is the simplest way to deny experience but requires a bit of mana sacrifice to do so, which is not recommended by me as an early game strategy. The best way to learn this skill is pure practice; attempt it every game and it will slowly become second nature. When you become truly adapt at this technique you can keep enemy heroes 2 – 3 levels, depending on the enemy’s skill, below you.
Denying Hero Kills
Denying hero kills is the same principle as creep denying but there is special condition that must be met before you can harm a team mate. That condition is they must be inflicted with either Doom or Shadow Strike from an enemy hero. Once that condition is met you can attack your team regardless of their health. Only attempt this if you know for sure the hero will die, as you don't want to be giving team mates unnecessary deaths and a waiting time to respawn. There are spells that can deny hero kills such as Toss from the Stone Giant and Nightmare on Bane Elemental.
Creep Blocking
Creep blocking is a simple idea that requires a little practice to get the hang of. Blocking happens during the first wave of creep spawns and can be done on any of the lanes. The concept is to delay the movement of your friendly creeps to draw enemy creeps closer to your tower so you can have an early pushing advantage. The easiest lanes to properly block in are top for Scourge and bottom for Sentinel. By standing in front of your creeps by the second tower in your lane (the one just outside of your base) you get the creeps to bunch up trying to find a way around you. When this happens run straight forward until they straighten out again. Stop. Wait for them to bunch. Move. Repeat the process until they eventually get past you or the enemy creeps reach the tower. There is a much simpler way to get the same effect by using Earth shaker. Cast a fissure and close off the lane you are blocking and watch the creeps be delayed for seven seconds. You can choose to block again with the regular method to further your results, though it is generally not necessary unless you are on top for sentinel or bottom for scourge. Note that the creeps spawn at 1:30 so it is ideal to cast your fissure at 1:29 to avoid the creep spawn lag.
Conclusion
In regards to ideas and concepts, the previous technique sums up Defense of the Ancients. Reading this will not make you a pro, nor can any guide. Hopefully you understand and can take this knowledge with you into your next game to practice all of the aforementioned techniques and perfect them with time. If any body has a specific question that was not answered in this article please send a private message to AvengerxZ, post in my staff profile or leave a comment. I will answer as many as I possibly can in my next article.
Tip of the Day: I find this interesting program over at the DotA-Allstars forums. It is a program that you run that will set up custom hot keys for your hero’s abilities and item slots. You can configure it to your liking and it will help you micro and use items much more effectively. Download it here.
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Fantastic job <3
Fantastic job indeed! Sad I don't like DoTa at all -.-
damn so long, great job though!
wowowo dota custom keys ? This is what i've been waiting for my whole life, tyvm
NICE ONE!!!!
Great Job man, nice read, and informative for the begginers at dota.
wow... nice work
nice guide, i can see myself in one of the screenshots. i was getting ganked ):
Ok... you convinced me, I ll read your guide tomorrow and play some dota games ;)
Finally, the dota noob guide that I requested is here!
well written, good job man
Massive article...nice job
Awesome Job - not a big Dota fan but admirable and detailed outlay. Fantastic. Can we have some footmen frenzy stuff up too ?
well written, but dota is a little bit stupid. I dont think you need something this in depth to learn how to play it, its pretty simple...
Zeus and Luna aren't beginner heroes. They are hard to use effectively.
pretty decent guide, from the parts Ive read. I would definately mention that the tree eating item is a MUST have anytime your playing vs a good prophet, as it makes his primary skill root (which is basically a 5-6 second disable) next to useless.
lol too long but very good
Gratz. well written...
Great job man. Keep up the good work!
nice but useless to people who are good at dota O.o still nice job
I don't play dota but it's still great when people write huge articles like that for the community... GJ
sweet! thanks a bunch
I dont agree with a lot of things here esp wraith band but damn, some of this shit is gonna give noobies a lot of good info writer definently knows DOTA
Huge guide o_O; Great though ^^
I can't agree with you more on the short mode portion. So many games today are -sm now. I always end up playing them because there's no regular ap anymore. Just pick Mortred, stand around for 5 minutes, get rapier aegis, kill indiscriminately. GG.
sm is the worse mode... btw extremely great guide avenger. hope to play with u some day (:
Is that program even allowed by blizzard ?
woot; less noobs = better games
Superb work. Definitely one of the top 10 guides written. BUT DOTA IS NOOB! :)
oke.... and did you show up @ work the last 2 months? =D
Incredible job! Keep it up!
Very nice looking guide ^^
Thank's for all the nice comments, guys. Glad you enjoyed it and hopefully learned a thing or two.
So huge article bring back so many memories from my DoTA carrier in the past. I still curse the people i used to play with because they all started with WoW.
Nice work dude
WOW thats alot of read, better get on it
also i like how u mentioned the great placement of wards. its very helpful indeed!
great article, but what about the ice frog after roshan? =P
wow learned some stuff i never knew, ty
I always enjoyed DotA but never was any good at it, thanks for the article man and i like the little hot keys program, keep it up!
Footmen Frenzy articles? .........lol
Proper Micro The concept of micro and macro should come extremely easily to anybody who had played WC3 in ladder at any point in time. Many people claim that DotA requires no micro at all, which I agree with to an extent. You only have one hero to control so that immediately takes away the factors of keeping track of multiple units, but with DotA, a new form of micro is introduced: ‘last hitting’ you obviously dont play much ladder.
awesome guide. great job mate.
Luna fits into both categories of beginner and advanced. She is like basketball, for example, easy to pick up, hard to master. She has a relatively high move speed for a hero (like most agility based heroes) and has fairly simple skills. -A direct damage spell, a multishot bouncing upgrade, damage bonus, and an AOE ultimate.- ----Luna is a low hp hero indeed my friends. She is the lowest hp agility hero (tied with the soul keeper at 435 hp) and 2nd only to the tormented soul for lowest starting hp in the entire game (TS has 415 hp)
So pro! Grats man - this ROCKS! GJ GJ
Wow cool. Nice fonts. Laughing at people who cant stand dota.
wow must have taken you at least a day to make
nic article but can you do something on backdooring cause im still not exactly sure why i get yelled at for it since i dont even know what it is :(
Backdooring = the act of taking out an opponent's tower/barracks by means of going around the creepwaves (going through trees towards the tower). It's a pissy way of winning a game and very bad mannered to do so.
Dagon is an item to stay away from? You've got to be kidding me. I can get a dagon before lvl 9, and I will rock heros. Other than that, good job.
good guide for noobs should help a lot of people.
word of warning with the custom hotkeyes is that it will mess up the standard ladder hk's. if you only plat dota though it is definitely worth it
great job, i like how u included creep blocking.. not just good for first wave but anytime u need help of your tower early game.. also u forgot juking.. but i think thats something that should be left out and left to the most advanced players.. i'd hate to see nub pubs pull some juke on me.. lol.
"Backdooring = the act of taking out an opponent's tower/barracks by means of going around the creepwaves (going through trees towards the tower). It's a pissy way of winning a game and very bad mannered to do so." perfectly valid strategy :P Can be countered with town portal scrolls as they are relatively cheap later in the game, and provide 9999 armour? to the building chosen.
Very nice job !!
i wonder how can any1 spare so many times doing this think. anyway GJ
Very nice screenshots. I didn't even know about the last one with creep blocking!
This and the ffa guide is the best artikle ever.. :)
You said that the Bane Elemental's spell that can kill allied heroes was nightmare. Do you mean Brain Sap?
Truely very complete^^ good job
OK NOW IT LETS ME LEAVE A COMMENT: I was unable to find any mention of the -random in game command. When the host picks -ap if you feel confident in your hero abilities across the board, you can choose to type -random and it will pick a random hero from both the scourge and sentinal taverns. This then will leave you with more cash than those who pick, because if you pick in an -ap, you have to spend a little cash on the hero choice to pick it, if you random you dont. hence more $$$. I personally prefer doing this, although i could very well just go to -ar games, but i think its an interesting fun way to play at times.
Wow im impressed very good job :D
Excellent guide, but I agree Luna is not the best character for beginners. That honor goes to Razor in my opionion. Like Zues, he has Chain Lightning; less spammable, but can soften up/finish off heros and bounce for a creep or 2. He has twice the range of Zues/Luna. Lvl 4 Unholy Aura gives you more speed than Boots of Speed AND the same regen as a Ring of Regen, making it a very helpful skill early on, and even faster with Travel. Then your Ultimate is a passive, which gives you cash just for being near enemy creeps; none of that last-hit micro for you! Frenzy is the only difficult skill to use; sure you just cast it then right-click til they die, but the +20% damage taken means there are some times it's better to go without (such as Rhasta or Bane pounding on you for 5 secs b4 you can hit back) Also of note with the Bracer/Null is that buying the recipe gives you +1 all stats for 175 gold, so it's better to get Twigs or Circs until you actually *need* to combine items to get more room. Again, great guide. Will we be seeing a 'Moron' guide soon? :P
wow really nice article. you sure have spent alot of time. but its worth it. keep up the good work!
awesome work, even not getting SHIT about what it says there :D
he's right, dagon sux on all the heroes except for the one he mentioned and maybe nerub and tinker
immense article, very nice, very gj-
wow amazing job man
awesome. keep up the good work!!!
In your hero guide section, you didn't even put enchantress or stealth assassin, two of the easiest heroes to play by a fair margin. Also, you didn't put anything about item effect stacking in your item section which, in my opinion, is a pivotal DotA point to learn. Also, your guide to 'useless' items is incredibly misinformed. Wraith Bands aren't widely used, but then again neither is Refresher Orb. They can be useless for heroes such as the Anti-mage and other low-hp agility heroes who need slightly more attackspeed/mana to be functional. The Ancient Tango isn't useless by far. It can saved you while doomed, it can eat eyes in the forest, and if Furion trees you, you can simply eat your way out (and regen while doing so). Also, "Tip of the Day" implies that the tip will be updated every day, and this obviously isn't the case. All in all, a decent guide for beginners, but it shouldn't be followed word for word.
nice article very descriptive and i found a few things i did know i wish i could watch some replays of dota but im currently banned from the forums i think....
it probably took his whole f***ing life to type this dont flame him idiot
very nice dude, sorry I missed it..got it now. Keep it up!!
3! awsome
Wow good job man. Been playing dota for a while still learned a bit. Those unwanted items are really popular tho and i've seen some good players use them.
U forgot to put in my most fav disable, hex cuz turnin a hero into a sheep is so funny n cute (baaaa) haha, anyways when was da last time u actually sleep cuz dis guide is long but informative for peeps hu dun see the true beauty of dota, anyways GJ on da guide so hopefully i hope to b facin tougher opponents in dota
What i miss here is a reference to Eul, the original creator of the ROC custom map called dota, Defense of the Ancients. He designed the tormented soul as it still exists today, he designed the frost maiden, he designed the map layout with the diagonal 3 lanes, he designed all the basic items, and he was responsible for keeping dota growing and up to date for many, many months. He should be given credit where its due, since this "dota allstars" is just one of the shameless TFT-ripoffs of the original map by Eul.
^^When new papers in physics are published they don't cite Isaac Newton either.
@ Strontkop: DotA, as it once was, is never played anymore as it is an RoC map. And seeing as this is a beginner's guide, there is no need to make reference's to DotA's history - just the now.
Great guide i reccomended it to my friend and he said it has improved his game by tenfold...
disagree with dota not requiring much micro. It is almost all micro. imo it improves micro and worsens macro. If you play dota for a while then start laddering again you may notice a significant increase in apm. Last hitting is not a new form of micro. Gosus have been using it in ladder for ages to deprive their opponents of xp. nevertheless, this is one of the best articles ever posted on this site. good work.
Nice article
great job! luna with stats rules, thx for tip i was wasting points on abilities earlier, now i give her only beam, ulti and stats and i had 14:2 and 25:5 in the best of my games, it is really cool :D
@ luna stats: This works well with Drow too. Getting early points in aura gives you +3 or 4 damage, while stats gives +2 damage, +2% attack speed, +.28 armor (1.68% ehp), 38 hp, 26 mana, .06 hp/sec and .08 mana/sec. After a few points in stats, auras will start giving +5 or more per point, and you'll likely be team pushing/ganking more so it will benefit teammates as well. Vengeful is an exception; not only does she give DOUBLE the bonus of lvl 1 Lunar Blessing, (12 v 6, and 8 each after that) but it has a larger aoe and buffs melee creeps/heros, so she's better off with aura and a Null or something.
why does the zues still have his chicken?
Thats nice, perfect for a guy like me if i ever wan't to play that shit ^^
great nooby guide, but dude, wraith bands are great early game on heros like SA, drow, darkterror, PL... 500 gold is really not that much... if you have 2 bands on an agi hero, thats pretty much like having a gloves of haste, a claws of attack, a ring of protection, a belt of giant str, and a robe of the magi, all rolled into 2 item slots for just 1000 gold. very very good early game on most agility heros, and later on in the game you end up selling them anyways, really only having spent 255 gold for the use of all that stuff dagon rules too, it is NOT expensive. if you farm well you can get a dagon 20 min into the game, and with lion, lina, ogre or tinker or whoever, you can double or triple nuke most heros from 100% to dead a couple of seconds or less.
nice article man, looks like you put alot of work into it, i MIGHT start playing dota cuz of this :D
Dammit AvengerZ... you make me wanna come back to DoTa and dominate again -.- Great article btw... Keep up the good work!
Same, dont love dota at all xD
Nice thing.
I disagree, the dagon and the wraith band are useful !
i dunno about avoiding wraith band
lol alot of that is common sence but nicely done anyways
very nice
This would have taken an insane amount of time to write up, so thankyou for your hard work, i find dota fun to play, some of the "profession craft" part was very interesting, so once again top job!
Very Nice tnx
Ok guys, don't kill me -- but I still don't know what's so fun about DoTA... :P
good job.
Dota Is For Noobs Only
i love dota <3 8D
This is a well written guide, good job. I didn't read most of it, i just skipped to the advanced concepts, to see if you actually knew what you were talking about or you were just some random pub, and seems like you know your shit. What you should have included was pulling neutrals out so that your lane creeps help you farm, and provide a lane advantage by pushing the enemy's tower soon after. Also you should have included the concept of jungling, where one hero farms neutrals in the jungle all early game, allowing for your team to have 2 solos. This process has been made much easier with the introduction of the 'Quelling Blade' which allows you to chop down trees and deal extra damage to nonhero units.
Also, for your ward pictures, it probably would have been better if you provided minimap samples as well. Also under professional/advanced concepts you should have included team synergy in terms of supports and carries. For example, what the jobs of supports are, such as warding, buying a courier for the team, and most importantly, the 'babysitting' of carries. For carries, stressing the importance of farming well, and having map awareness at all times so that you can farm effectively without getting ganked. As you have mentioned, having map awareness is something that can only be gained through experience, making agility based carries a bad choice for new players. I notice that many new players rush to play carries, without knowing how to play them, and it frustrates me.
I realize this guide was written 4 years ago, but many of the concepts you mentioned still apply, and this is a well written guide overall. I did not play in 2006, so I don't know how strategy has changed over the years, so forgive my ignorance if any of the things i mentioned were not part of standard strategy 4 years ago.
Sorry for the double post, but i couldn't ignore your comment on the effectiveness of tangos. I don't know how they functioned 4 years ago, but i do know they have been changed several times over the time i played dota.
Just for a simple update, tangos today are excellent starting items and provide very decent HP regeneration, and allow you to stay in the lane long enough to farm a Ring of Health, or other regenerating items. Even if this were not the case, they are relatively cheap today (90 gold for 3 tangos), and can be transported to you via team courier.