DOTA Beginner guide

Introduction:

I’ve decided to write this guide mainly because I feel that I can contribute on this subject, but also to learn in the process. Back when I began to draft, I found it very hard to find useful information from the people, who actually knew, what they were talking about. No guides were to be found etc., and I hope this will help at least a few people out there. The title is drafting for intermediate, since it definitely isn't for beginners. Whether it is for intermediate or advanced, I frankly don't know, and I'd like to spare myself of the "this is far too simple for advanced"- comments. I could only find one published guide to drafting on PD, and I felt that it was outdated and flawed. My knowledge picking-wise is limited for sure, and I still have much to learn. Furthermore, this is only my take on the drafting phase. However, I hope that you will all feel that you’ve learned a thing or two regardless of your level of skill. I like that DotA is such a complex game strategywise, which has led me to analyze a lot while both playing, picking and watching, and I feel that I have many valid conclusions to draw.


"Always pick hard carry last,” I sometimes hear. I even sometimes still see people picking with the old-school mentality. However, DotA has reached a much more complex level since the 6.48b version. First of all, the range of valid heroes has grown. Especially due to the evolvement of the support role, which has helped widen the range of heroes used. Back in the day we had the 2-1-2 lanes, and 1 side-lane would typically be some stun/nuke combo, whereas the other side-lane would consist of a hard carry and a babysitter. The babysitter role is still valid for sure, but with the discovery of the tri-lane, the added support items and the buffing of jungling and pushing, there is now a ton of other ways to play the support heroes, not to mention DotA in general, but I’ll get back to that. The reason I will be using the timespan from 6.48b till now to explain certain things is simply that it is the time I started playing competetive.