One of the most common comments I see online about Dota 2 is that it’s “too hard”, “has a great skill floor” or that it’s “impossible to get into as a new player”. While these comments certainly aren’t completely arbitrary, they are much exaggerated and do not show the true state of the game or the true skill floor of the game.
Is Dota 2 really this hard to get into? How much does prior RTS/MOBA experience help you learn the basics? These questions are the ones I will try to answer in this article.
The root of the misconceptions
If you’ve ever tried to get into Dota 2, or even just read about it online, you might have encountered all those different, hard-to-understand words and abbreviations. Denying? Pulling? Stacking? What is a BKB? Who is an OD? Why are there two items (Aghanim’s Scepter and Aghanim’s Shard) that work completely differently on each hero in the game?
Just looking at the above, one might say “that’s too much” and just give up, instead of trying out the game. Especially since the information above is often presented in a very direct matter, sounding almost like “you must know all of this right away to be able to play”. That’s completely wrong!
All heroes available for free
First of all, all heroes in Dota 2 are available to everyone for free. You do not need to purchase anything to jump in, unlike in other games such as League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm. This means that it’s very easy to try a lot of different heroes before focusing on only a few of them, but it also makes the game a lot of fun for beginners, as you can try out a lot of different things from the get-go.
Compare this to games like League, where you only start with a couple of heroes that you probably have to play for tens of games to unlock anything else – and even then, there is no way to try out a hero before fully unlocking them. In Dota 2, you can just pick whatever you like, try it out, and if you like it – play it more!
Only certain heroes are hard to play or master
This is another point that is brought up very often – “Dota has many micro-heavy heroes that are impossible to play for a beginner!”. While that is partially true – Dota 2 does have such heroes – there aren’t that many of them, and there are actually many more “easy-to-play”, simple-design heroes than the complex ones.
It’s certainly true that if you’re just starting the game – especially with no prior MOBA or RTS experience – you should avoid heroes such as Oracle (who has more than one effect on each of his abilities, so by using them wrong you can actually do more harm than good), Meepo (who summons multiple copies of himself, each controlled separately, and when one of them dies – they all die), or Arc Warden (who can summon a copy of himself, controlled separately, that can use all of his items, abilities, and gives gold to enemies upon death).
However, since there are 123 heroes at the time of writing this, and the overwhelming majority of them do not require extreme micro-managing skills, every player can find something for them. And, wanting to learn the more complex heroes can be a driving force to play and learn the game. For example, I am a big Arc Warden enjoyer, but it took me tens of hours of learning the basics of Dota 2 and controlling multiple units before I felt comfortable enough to try him in a real, PvP match.
A lot of mechanical depth, that you do not need to practice right away
Do you know what “pulling” is? The good news is – if you’re just starting with Dota 2, you probably won’t need to know for a while.
There is a lot of skill expression in the game – from last-hitting, which is common in other MOBAs as well, to some unique mechanics such as camp stacking, creep pulling, item sharing, and so on. However, nobody’s expected to know all of this since the beginning, nor is it necessary to win games – and more importantly, to have fun playing.
It’s certainly not easy to know what to do at a certain point in the game, to farm optimally, or to have good map awareness. But all of these things require practice. If you’re a new player and lose a game, it’s almost never going to be because you didn’t stack the camps for your carry.
Your gameplay WILL improve over time as you learn about those mechanics, but you don’t need to think about them the moment you play your first game. And a lot of people miss this – they think those mechanics add to the increased skill floor of the game.
Lots of resources and guides available in-game
A lot of guides on the basics of Dota 2, as well as more specific guides (such as hero guides), are all available for free within the Dota client. This means that the average player does not need to go to external sources to learn about the game.
What’s even more, these guides can all be accessed in-game as well. The beauty of the Dota 2 client is that you can “minimize” the currently playing game and access all the resources, for any hero or mechanic, at any time.
There are lots of different hero-specific guides curated by respected members of the community, which means that there is always a way to choose whose guide to follow.
For players who are interested in high-skill gameplay, it’s possible to access a list of currently playing pro- or high-level games, filter it by hero name, and watch it almost in real time. This can be useful insight into how experienced players play in the lane, move around the map, and so on.
Dota Plus
Dota Plus is a controversial system – it allows you to get additional information, such as access to detailed hero and item statistics, in-game timers, item suggestions, better death summary, and more, for a monthly price of about US$4 (affected by local pricing).
Some argue it gives an unfair advantage – which isn’t incorrect – but it’s also a great learning tool that helps you understand the game, pick the right hero in a certain situation, buy the right items, and so on.
On top of that, Dota Plus also brings new progression systems to the game, such as hero leveling (which can be used to show off your experience on a certain hero) or hero relics (tracking the stats of certain skill usage, kills, or other hero-specific challenges), and comes with a lot of easily unlockable cosmetics.
In short, Dota Plus is very much worth the money if you’re just starting the game and are looking for tools to improve.
How prior gaming experience translates into Dota
The simple answer is – quite well, actually. Dota 2 shouldn’t be a big step up in difficulty for anyone who has played a MOBA or an RTS before.
Picking up Dota 2 should be just about as difficult as picking up any multiplayer game. There is a lot to learn – from game mechanics, to what all of the 123 heroes do, to different item builds and combinations. However, it doesn’t mean that Dota 2 is harder to get into.
Let’s look at League of Legends as an example. In League, there are currently:
- 161 champions
- 97 Legendary or Mythic items (excluding components)
- 5 roles that differ greatly in gameplay
Do these stats make you think that League is hard to get into? Most League veterans would probably say “no”, especially compared to Dota. Regardless of the answer, there is A LOT to learn about the game – so why should it be easier or harder than Dota 2?
In short – if you have some prior experience with other MOBAs or RTS, it will make it easier to grasp the basics of Dota 2. And if you don’t, it should be a comparable experience to starting any other MOBA.
Grubby’s point
Grubby, a former Warcraft 3 pro player and a well-known Heroes of the Storm player, has recently started his Dota 2 journey. With over 250 games of Dota 2 played so far, he has now climbed to be among the Top 3 Dota 2 streamers on Twitch.tv in terms of the total hours watched. Obviously, he had a head start compared to the majority of people – over 20 years of RTS experience with multiple tournaments he has attended.
But he raises a very good point – according to him, the community makes Dota 2 look much harder than it actually is, and that is what is driving new players away from the game – not the actual complexity.
I was more scared to start because of all the messaging than the game itself actually deserves. […] It sounded more scary going into it than it actually was.
Grubby
He also raises another good point about new players starting the game:
You can just start playing against bots, and it’s fun – you’re forgetting […] that for new players, it’s actually fun playing with bots.
Grubby
There is nothing wrong with playing against the AI – it’s quite the opposite actually, as it’s an excellent learning opportunity, and a stress-free environment that allows one to grasp the basics of the game, as well as learn some heroes, to later play against real players.
On top of that, the “AI vs AI” game mode allows you to play with 4 bots on your team, against 5 enemy bots. You can also leave the game at any time, which creates a perfect environment to, for example: practice the early game, read the hero’s abilities and try them out, or even just observe how the game plays out from the beginning.
Conclusion
Dota 2, just like most multiplayer games, can be difficult to get started with. However, despite the general public opinion, it is not a significant step up compared to other games, especially MOBAs. The Dota community makes it seem like an impossible game for new players, but that is mostly untrue and over-exaggerated.
If you take the game one step at a time, use all the available resources, and pick the heroes you like, you will have fun – and after all, that’s what matters in a video game. And, if you already have some background in fast-paced multiplayer games such as MOBA or RTS, learning Dota will not be a completely new experience, and by the time you’ve completed your first 100 hours (the amount of time spent playing required to unlock the ranked mode), you will most likely already feel comfortable enough to compete with other players for rating. And if not – that’s fine, as long as you’re having fun!