Ever wanted to get the full rpg experience in under an hour? DOTA 2 is for you.

It starts off by picking one of the (currently) 115 heroes the game has on offer, each plays incredibly different and offers many choices for building them out the way you want. Everything from a character whose abilities rely on the abilities of others, that he can steal (Rubick), to a shapeshifting tree hopping martial artist (Monkey King), and everything in between.[If there's a playstyle you like in rpgs, it's most certainly in dota 2 in some capacity]

No two characters play alike, and each character can only exist once per match, so it's best to get comfy with atleast 15 of the cast, and learn their abilities inside and out, so you're prepared for anything(should the characters you want be banned/picked by someone else). Furthermore, each character has multiple distinct paths they can take, not even counting the items they obtain, since talent tree options (at levels 10, 15, 20, and 25[max]) allow you to make the decision to buff a skill, gain a stat, or other intricacies such as bonus night vision. Each talent tree level presents you with two distinct options, and you pick one or the other, but once you pick, there's no going back.

There's a whopping 153 items on offer(not counting upgrades of the same item,) in the game, which each hero is allowed to hold 6 items to be active on their character at a time, these items are where you maximize your character's potential, furthering out your build and adding new abilities to your character. The 67 basic items help by providing a simple stat boost or other small bonuses, while items which require recipes or multiple items at once to merge have game changing abilities and stat boosts which make or break your character. (That's not to say all basic items are just minor, some with no ability to be crafted into a higher item are incredibly useful on their own, such as the Blink Dagger which allows you to teleport a decent distance away as long as you haven't been hit recently.)


But why do you need all this? Well, the goal of the game is to work with your 4 other teammates in order to break through your enemies towers, reach their base, and destroy their ancient.(Once this is destroyed, your team wins.) The game is impossible to go into too much depth without reaching the word limit on steam. With the incredibly massive number of heroes on offer, it's recommended that you either use a guide, or use Dota Plus assistant in order to learn the basics of what items to buy for your hero in order to skill them out, once you can do this on your own and craft your own heroes the outcomes are amazing.

This game is updated bi-weekly, and the meta/items/skills/hero balance is always changing, so it's very important to keep up to date on guides while first learning the game.


This game is truly, unlike any other that I have played for PVP. The diverse builds, the innumerable number of combinations of heroes/item builds, and just when you think you've seen it all, a new update comes and keeps the game fresh and alive. Now with the new Dota Plus features, you can always stay on top of your game, and learn where to go, winning item builds, and never have to feel like you're not making progress because you don't know what to buy. Dota Plus also adds challenges you can partake in to have goals to reach on all 115 heroes, (you get 3 challenges at a time PER HERO, that rerolls after 14 days)

It should be noted that in dota: All heros are overpowered, as part of their design. If you fall too far behind, you'll find yourself being one shot by the one carrying the other team, or you may find a tank who takes 3 characters to take out. Practically every character is comparable to a dungeon boss in another mmo. (not to mention dota 2 has a neat feature where you can chat in steam through dota 2, in the mmo style of /r and /whisper)

I absolutely recommend this game to anyone looking for a pvp game, since this is the only game I've ever spent this much time in on steam (and almost my most played game ever.), there's a reason the playerbase is huge, and you'll find players with upwards of 4000-5000+ hours, it's always fresh and always a good time.

Beware toxicity though, some players aren't very pleasant, for those, you just open tab menu, and hit Ignore user... While learning the game it's preferable you play on easy-medium AI difficulties, since the game has a lot to learn, and there's a lot to keep up with while getting into it.

I absolutely love the balance[post talent system], and unique feel of every hero... It's one of the main reasons I play dota, because each hero plays so 100% different from the other characters... It's the Tekken of ARTS genre.

I'll start with a couple characters based on other franchises and this game's interpretation of them:

Lina Inverse, the slayer, feels so much like her anime counter part, with the same exact skill line up, the same badass temper, and really awesome stacking abilities that can be furthered through talents.

The Butcher, Just like his diablo counterpart, with his signature rot, hook, and dismember.... And just like him to get stacks and grow bigger and fatter with each kill.

Next up are unique mechanics:

Night Stalker: Day Walker, Night Stalker One of two characters who utilizes the day&night system of the game and this one does his part a lot more... Someone who's incredibly strong at night, increased ability duration, damage, sight... But totally gankable at day time if not protected,

Bloodseeker, a global ward for low HP heroes, to top it off he gets stronger the weaker they are... Incredibly powerful passive coupled with stopping enemies from escaping/pure damage silence.

Silencer & Butcher (already previously mentioned butcher; but) the ability to scale into the game harder the more you kill foes... Especially in Silencer's case who actually STEALS attributes of nearby foes when they die and doesn't even need a skill point anymore!

Rubick & Morphling (and Formless when he was around), characters with incredibly versatile tool sets able to use any ability they need when the going gets tough, and in both cases if the abilities they steal have an aghanim's upgrade (Especially Skywrath+Morphling) then they'll gain those abilities too allowing them to be what the team needs them to be when they need it.

Could go on and on about unique mechanics, but I think I'll end it with Winter Wyvern, who turns your ENTIRE TEAM against you, with bonus attack speed... Great fun and all her abilities are pretty unique.

Then you have heroes for when you wanna laze about but still get a good game of pvp+rpg in, the simple characters who don't require much thought but get stuff done and if they get fed can be the reason for victory...

Characters like Wraith King, who has THREE Passives, and is basically auto attack to win... But It's still not bad design because these passives help massively in teamfights (reincarnation+lifesteal aura), allow him to quickly clear creep waves, and his one active is a powerful utility that deals DPS and stuns, which can help with positioning, make a good escape, or get that last hit kill.

So, I'll say again, I absolutely love EVERY character in Dota... Even if I can't play some as well (looking at you Meepo, Earth Spirit and Batrider), they're still a part of the well balanced parts I love about dota.
I wrote the above in reply to a reddit post, and decided to append it here as well.