Friday, 29 January 2021 14:30

10 Bad Habits New Players Create When Starting DOTA 2 (& How To Avoid Them)

Written by Sid Natividad
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DOTA 2 can be a really strange game for new players and they can create some pretty bad habits as a result.

There's a reason why League of Legends is more popular than DOTA 2. DOTA 2 is a game of precision and mastery where mistakes get punished with a snowballing defeat and verbal expletives from your teammates (often the latter). The higher learning curve (and more elitist players) compared to other MOBAs make it rather intimidating especially for newbies.

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As a result, you can expect to make plenty of mistakes if you're just starting out with the game. Heck, you can make the same newbie mistakes even if you're in the four-digit MMR club. So whether you're an actual beginner or someone who keeps forgetting that they ought to act experienced, then these certain mistakes should be avoided.

10 Attacking The Creeps

In DOTA 2, you usually when it comes to items or gold if you don't know how to do a "last hit." Because whoever gets the final blow to a creep or non-hero unit gets the gold reward. Any other attack prior to the killing blow isn't rewarded at all.

That's why it's a waste of time and energy auto-attacking creeps in your lane. Such a practice will also hinder your ability to perfect your last hitting skills. So excuse your vulgar teammates if they start calling you a noob in the chat as soon as you start attacking anything, they probably should have explained this or did a more articulate approach.

9 Not Carrying A TP Scroll Or Other Consumables

In DOTA 2, each and every trip back to the fountain or base is a considerable help or hindrance to the pushing effort. That's because the amount of time it takes to return to the fountain for healing should have been better spent farming some creeps or dealing attrition damage to towers or even clashing.

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That's why consumables like the Town Portal Scroll are valuable early on and even late or mid-game. If you're in a lane, you'd want to stay there as much as possible. If not TP Scrolls then healing items are also a godsend when it comes to sticking to your lane. Your teammates will thank you for this kind of preparedness.

8 Defending Alone

Knowing how to cut some losses in DOTA 2 or any other MOBA for that matter, is crucial to avoiding some nasty and debilitating deaths. Such deaths can come easy when you see a three or five-man push at one of your towers and you do an uncoordinated defense attempt.

If it was a five-man push and they killed you alone then that already puts your whole team at a disadvantage in the event that they want to stop the onslaught because they're already outnumbered. Beyond that, each of your death contributes to the enemy's gold.

7 Not Practicing Denying

Speaking of gold, one thing that actually hurts a player more than dying is getting their creep income denied. You can do this by last-hitting your own creeps who are about to die. Apart from denying them gold, you also deny them the experience given by your dead creeps.

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Some might even say that this method of lane control is more important than last-hitting especially if your hero is stronger early game than late game. Early in the game, this is what sets apart a good player from a bad player and it has some unpleasant domino effects for the enemy.

6 Being Too Excited About Kills

Since DOTA 2 is a team game about killing heroes and destroying the enemy base, then it's understandable for some beginners to feel excited about "pwning sum n00bz." Some will even treat the game like a team deathmatch session from faster-paced competitive titles like Call of Duty.

If you do this in DOTA 2, then you only increase your chances of getting killed. When starting out, it's better to focus on avoiding deaths instead of racking up kills. Being too bloodthirsty and chasing a target relentlessly for that one positive point in your K/D/A is a good way to get ganked.

5 Underestimating Towers

If it's not your victim's teammates nabbing your head before you actually get to your target, then it's usually the towers that do a good job of punishing anyone who overextends. It's easy for newbies to fall into that trap of thinking they can risk their own heroes' HP for that one last hit against the enemy hero.

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Sometimes you get to pull it off but most of the time, the tower ends up killing you. This is also a known tactic to bait eager players into being overconfident. It results in a rather embarrassing death that only serves to fuel the enemy's gold deposits.

4 Playing With Humans Right Away

There's no denying that DOTA 2 can be a toxic game and you don't have to be experienced to know it. If you don't have friends, then you usually end up getting paired with random people online and things can get verbally excessive especially if you're new to the game.

So don't play with humans right away as a way to gauge your skills. DOTA 2 has competent-enough bots that can help players test out heroes, tactics, and builds until they're ready to get chucked into the brutal world of MOBA PVP.

3 Ignoring The Minimap

How exactly do you pull off those big plays and awesome ganks in DOTA 2 or other MOBAs? By communicating. Typing is too slow and not everyone has a mic or has enough social bravery to speak with their squeaky voice in-game so minimap pings and marks are pretty standard.

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There's typically a couple of responsible players even in a low-MMR match that will call out enemy positions or where to ambush or push. Paying attention to the minimap can give you better strategic and tactical awareness so you can snag some kills or assists.

2 Copying Pros

So you actually watched several DOTA 2 games and even have idols that you consistently try to copy even though you just began? Copying them is nice but doing that in a random low-MMR environment with your fellow beginners and expecting them to adjust to your "pro play" is not going to happen.

More often than not, this will result in a team wipe or some embarrassing misplays because one: random beginners didn't train with you and two: pro setups are tailored to specific teams and playstyles. Just because you copied your idol's play down to the last consumable doesn't mean you can carry the whole team. After all, DOTA 2 is all about teamwork.

1 Not Pushing After Team Wipes

5v5 clashes in a certain lane or while ambushing Roshan farmers can be exhausting but that doesn't mean some rest is warranted. In many beginner and low-MMR games, the winning side tends to sit back passively and scatter or go about their business even after some impressive clash victories instead of pushing one lane and clearing the towers for some creep upgrades.

This can cost them the game. It lets the enemy recover and removes the most important repercussion when losing clashes. Unless your team has the landslide advantage and you only want to prolong the enemy's suffering, not taking advantage of post-clast wipes a bad play.

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