"sooka blyat noob report" - your average friendly Russians
"Well played!" - chat bind used in a mocking way
"DROP YOUR STICK"- EternaLEnVy leading his team in a professional way

Dota 2 is the leading game of the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre developed by Valve Software, released in 2011. In Dota 2, players in teams of five control various heroes and abilities in a bid to utterly crush the enemy in a pointless waste of 30-60 minutes.

* Gameplay

Dota 2 largely follows the experience of the original Dota All Stars mod: you pick a hero of your choice and get assigned to the Radiant or Dire (formerly known as Sentinel and Scourge) faction with the objective of destroying the enemy's Ancient. Protecting the Ancients is maintained by towers and barracks which ensure lane equilibrium and creep strength. Heroes are initially very weak and must rely on creeps (faceless grunts) to obtain starting gold from which options to start pushing begin, as well as experience which enables leveling up abilities. Abilities range from:

• Deal damage (and maybe a status effect)
  
• Inflict a positive or negative buff
  
• Area of effect damage/positive or negative buff
  
• Utilities
  
• Global effects

While laning is the main way to gain gold and experience, alternate choices are fighting neutral creeps in the jungle (usually done by very specific heroes) or challenging the mighty Roshan, who drops the fabled Aegis of the Immortal (resurrect on death). In order to maintain the advantage, certain nuances of the game must be learned:

• Last hitting/denying (ensuring/denying gold and experience)
  
• Camp stacking (having a single jungle camp hold more creeps than intended)
  
• Creep pull (having allied and neutral creeps fight each other to shift lane equilibrium)
  
• Map vision (prevents ambushes)

Of course, having a good Dota 2 experience is defined by your teammates, who may be either incompetent or singlehandedly taking on the entire enemy team and winning. Communication and teamwork are vital, thus it is recommended to play with friends, although it doesn't ensure victory.

* Hero roles and balance

Each hero has a set of 4 abilities that have synergy with each other or other heroes' abilities, but more importantly, each has a specific role:

• Carry/hard carry - heroes that need a lot of gold and levels to get the ball rolling
  
• Support/hard support - heroes that excel at supporting carries in early stage, and usually buy support items and stack camps
  
• Jungler - heroes that spend early game in jungle, then ambushing lanes at level 6

A hero is not forced to follow a role, although using highly unorthodox tactics will most likely earn you the scorn of your team, possibly giving you a trip to the low priority queue, filled with Russians and similar friendly people. Dota 2 often changes with large updates that give heroes buffs or nerfs, change certain mechanics or simply iron out bugs and glitches. The most popular heroes tend to be the ones that have an easy way of dominating games, making you have a hard time if they aren't on your team, although learning to counter them is a great learning experience.

* Other interests in Dota 2

If you get bored (and you will) of right clicking at the time, the game offers the option of following various e-sport leagues, the biggest being the yearly International hosted by Valve, and famous players (such as Dendi, EternaLEnVy and so on) which set many gameplay trends and strategies. There is also the large economy which is mostly based on altering the looks of heroes and the game, but with no pay-to-win options, except maybe gaudy gold cosmetics. Finally, every Chinese New Year/Halloween/Christmas a slightly different game mode is introduced, thus making the game slightly less stale.

* Closing comments

Dota 2 is a fairly well made game which offers many hours of play, although the relatively unchanging experience and hostile people may spoil your enjoyment. Personally, I wouldn't suggest getting too involved as you will become highly misanthropic, although I wouldn't say it is a bad game.

[i]"sooka blyat noob report" - your average friendly Russians[/i] [i]"Well played!" - chat bind used in a mocking way[/i] [i]"DROP YOUR STICK"- EternaLEnVy leading his team in a professional way[/i] Dota 2 is the leading game of the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre developed by Valve Software, released in 2011. In Dota 2, players in teams of five control various heroes and abilities in a bid to utterly crush the enemy in a pointless waste of 30-60 minutes. * Gameplay Dota 2 largely follows the experience of the original Dota All Stars mod: you pick a hero of your choice and get assigned to the Radiant or Dire (formerly known as Sentinel and Scourge) faction with the objective of destroying the enemy's Ancient. Protecting the Ancients is maintained by towers and barracks which ensure lane equilibrium and creep strength. Heroes are initially very weak and must rely on creeps (faceless grunts) to obtain starting gold from which options to start pushing begin, as well as experience which enables leveling up abilities. Abilities range from: [list] [*] Deal damage (and maybe a status effect) [*] Inflict a positive or negative buff [*] Area of effect damage/positive or negative buff [*] Utilities [*] Global effects [/list] While laning is the main way to gain gold and experience, alternate choices are fighting neutral creeps in the jungle (usually done by very specific heroes) or challenging the mighty Roshan, who drops the fabled Aegis of the Immortal (resurrect on death). In order to maintain the advantage, certain nuances of the game must be learned: [list] [*] Last hitting/denying (ensuring/denying gold and experience) [*] Camp stacking (having a single jungle camp hold more creeps than intended) [*] Creep pull (having allied and neutral creeps fight each other to shift lane equilibrium) [*] Map vision (prevents ambushes) [/list] Of course, having a good Dota 2 experience is defined by your teammates, who may be either incompetent or singlehandedly taking on the entire enemy team and winning. Communication and teamwork are vital, thus it is recommended to play with friends, although it doesn't ensure victory. * Hero roles and balance Each hero has a set of 4 abilities that have synergy with each other or other heroes' abilities, but more importantly, each has a specific role: [list] [*] Carry/hard carry - heroes that need a lot of gold and levels to get the ball rolling [*] Support/hard support - heroes that excel at supporting carries in early stage, and usually buy support items and stack camps [*] Jungler - heroes that spend early game in jungle, then ambushing lanes at level 6 [/list] A hero is not forced to follow a role, although using highly unorthodox tactics will most likely earn you the scorn of your team, possibly giving you a trip to the low priority queue, filled with Russians and similar [i] friendly [/i] people. Dota 2 often changes with large updates that give heroes buffs or nerfs, change certain mechanics or simply iron out bugs and glitches. The most popular heroes tend to be the ones that have an easy way of dominating games, making you have a hard time if they aren't on your team, although learning to counter them is a great learning experience. * Other interests in Dota 2 If you get bored (and you will) of right clicking at the time, the game offers the option of following various e-sport leagues, the biggest being the yearly International hosted by Valve, and famous players (such as Dendi, EternaLEnVy and so on) which set many gameplay trends and strategies. There is also the large economy which is mostly based on altering the looks of heroes and the game, but with no pay-to-win options, except maybe gaudy gold cosmetics. Finally, every Chinese New Year/Halloween/Christmas a slightly different game mode is introduced, thus making the game slightly less stale. * Closing comments Dota 2 is a fairly well made game which offers many hours of play, although the relatively unchanging experience and hostile people may spoil your enjoyment. Personally, I wouldn't suggest getting too involved as you will become highly misanthropic, although I wouldn't say it is a bad game.