Dota for Newbs: An Extensive Guide to Starting Items

A thorough explanation of all of the items you could possibly buy with your starting gold, and the reasons for each one. Will continue to update if there is demand. Any feedback you have is very much appreciated!

JUNE 5th 2015: Updating to show all item stats for additional clarity

Introduction

Hi, I'm Diurden, and I'm here because you are not very good at Dota.

That's not to say you're bad though! Well, maybe you are. I have no idea! The point is, you're probably not a professional at least.

Please note the difference between a "newb" and a "noob".[www.cad-comic.com] By clicking this guide, you've proven that you are not the latter. Congratulations!

Anyway, this is the first in a (planned) series of guides for newer players to learn some of the more in-depth gameplay concepts of Dota 2. Fittingly, in this first chapter I'll be talking about one of the first parts of the game - buying your starting items.

You've chosen your hero and loaded into the game. You spawn in your fountain, ready to charge into battle against the enemy team and begin the un-Defense of their Ancient. You open up the shop, and...oh jeez, that's...that's a lot of choices...well...uh...

What the hell do you buy?

Gold Value and You

In Dota, you have only one currency to spend on items - gold. Your gold can buy you consumables, statistical improvements, and can even buy you back to life in a pinch. However, gold is not your only resource. You have one other resource to manage when it comes to thinking about items, and that is your item slots.

Imagine for a moment that you had an infinite number of item slots. What could you buy? What should you buy? There is only one correct answer - the GG branch.





Iron Branches give you 1 Strength, 1 Agility and 1 Intelligence for 50 gold. Let's compare that to the most stat-heavy item in the game, the Eye of Skadi. Skadi gives you 25 of all three main stats, as well as 250 HP and mana, and the nice slowing effect, for 5675 gold. What if you replaced one Skadi with 25 branches? Well, let's double it, to compensate for the value of the passive. 50 branches. That's 2500 gold - less than half the cost of a Skadi - for twice as many stats.

This is a recurring theme in Dota. The cheapest items are the most cost-efficient, while the more expensive ones have diminishing returns in terms of value. However, because you only have six item slots to work with, you have to swap your smaller high-value items for more expensive high-impact items as the game goes on.

What does this have to do with your starting items, though?

In the early game, your limited item slots are not really too much of a problem, because you don't have that much gold in the first place. As a result, you are able to exclusively buy extremely high-value items, which will give you a significant advantage for the first few minutes. With that advantage you can secure more and more gold and, in the long run, end up with a higher impact than if you had just tried to go straight for more expensive things.

An Example of Value Advantage

(I'm not sure why it wouldn't let me keep this info in the previous section. It gets its own section I guess)

Here's an example of a relatively even lane matchup - Queen of Pain vs Puck, in the middle lane. Let's say we're about six minutes into the game. Puck decided he wanted to go straight for his Blink Dagger, while QoP opted for more early dominance. Up until this point they have had pretty much the same amount of gold.

Both heroes have Power Treads, a Bottle, and the two Iron Branches they started the game with.
QoP has purchased two Null Talismans, while Puck is saving his gold.


Puck has an extra 940 gold in his pocket going towards his Blink Dagger, which is great! However, Queen of Pain now has a massive advantage in terms of stats, and will be able to deny a lot of Puck's farm and bully him out of lane. Puck will have to use his spells to kill creeps, forcing him to either lose a lot of last hits or be using the courier constantly to refill his bottle.

In this scenario, QoP has guaranteed her early dominance in the lane by having high-value items rather than rushing for something big. While she has set back her Orchid or Aghs timing by a fair bit, the exceptional stat advantage she has will help her win fights and snowball the game in her favour.





This is an important concept to keep in mind when choosing your starting items. You want as much value as you can get out of your initial gold pool in order to give yourself an advantage in the lane.

One of the most important ways to do this is to start with some regen.

Sustaining in Lane

TANGOS AND MANGOS AND SALVES, OH MY

(I'll be breaking up this section a little better in the future. I know it drags on a bit, just not sure how to improve it while still expressing how important regen is)

Tangos

125 Gold per stack of 4

Active: Consume a tree to heal for 115 HP over 16 seconds (~7.2 HP/s), or consume a ward to heal for 230 HP instead
Active: Can be used on an ally to give them an individual tango - shared tangos have a 60 second cooldown and do not stack


When I was learning the game. the vast majority of people would always tell me to start with a set of tangos in just about every situation. They were right. The amount of healing you get for the 125 gold is just immense, and allows you to trade blows with the opponent or tank creeps for a moment without worrying about getting within kill range. If I buy a tango and you don't, I have 400 more HP that I'm not afraid to sacrifice trading with you to force you out of lane. Buy a tango.

If you're anticipating a difficult lane, you might even want to have an extra set of tangos just to bolster that regen - a common choice on someone like Timbersaw, who wants to be a bit aggressive but can easily be worn down over time.

Healing Salve

110 Gold

Active: Heal target for 400 HP over 8 seconds (50 HP/s)


It's often worth considering a salve as well. After a rough trade (or series of trades) you may want to very quickly heal back to full, and for 110 gold it's pretty good value early game. A very common start includes one tango, one salve, and one defensive item, filling out the rest with some GG branches. This gives you a good balance of everything you need, and having both a tango and a salve covers you in any situation.

If you don't expect to be contested much (say, a strong defensive trilane against a solo offlaner) you can easily get away with just one tango to jump-start your way to your early game core, or just to have some extra early stats.



NOOB TRAP ONE: Unless you are very, very confident in your play and the matchup, do NOT just save for a bottle. Midlaners will often "rush" for a bottle, but you still either buy yourself a set of tangos or have your supports give you a couple, just to guarantee you can safely get there.

The only exception to this would be if you are playing Wisp, because it is absolutely crucial that you get your bottle as quickly as possible. Common starting items for wisp include literally no items because you need that damn bottle. DO NOT DO THIS ON ANY OTHER HERO. Got it? Good.



NOOB TRAP TWO: Ring of Health sounds great! Five health per second? That's not too far from a permanent tango! And you know what, it is great. But don't skip normal regenerative items to rush one of these; it's not going to do much for you in a contested lane, and even if your opponent can't come close to you it barely compensates for tanking creeps to maintain equilibrium.

DO NOT SAVE YOUR STARTING GOLD TO RUSH FOR THIS. To be fair, I have only ever seen one person do this. It ended horribly. Learn from XxSephir0thxX's mistakes.



NOOB TRAP THREE: Okay, Ring of Health is way too expensive, but I can get a Ring of Regen instead, right? Well, technically yes, but it's not nearly as reliable as a set of tangos to heal yourself back up, and costs you 350 gold that could be better spent on other early-game items that help you contest the lane.



Now let's talk mana - do you need a clarity? Do you need five? Why the ♥♥♥♥ did Icefrog add mangos? ...Let's back it up a bit.



Mana management is a tricky thing (I still struggle with it a lot myself), and early game you might be wanting just that little bit of extra leeway to get you through the laning stage. However, mana-regenerating consumables are terrible value.

Clarity

50 Gold

Active: Target ally restores 170 mana over 45 seconds (3.77 mana/s)


Having one clarity in the early game is really nice on a lot of supports. It lets you use your spells a couple of times in early skirmishes without being screwed afterwards, until you have a few more levels or mana-sustaining items.

However, it's usually best to avoid them for the most part, except on certain heroes or supports who have nasty mana costs and will want to use their spells a lot - the most glaring example of this being Earthshaker. It used to be pretty common to get three, four, even five clarities on Shake'n'bake, because otherwise you simply couldn't use fissure in lane...at all.





It's also quite nice to have clarities when you plan to be roaming, as after a gank you'll be able to pop one and stay on the map to roam again. The drawback is it takes quite a while for a clarity to give you its payout - 45 seconds! This makes it pretty easy for the enemy heroes to break early if they catch you using one, and makes them worthless in an emergency. That's where mangos come in.

Mango

150 Gold

Passive: While held, grants 1 HP/s; lost on consumption
Active: Target ally instantly recovers 150 mana


Most of the time, I am of the belief that mangos are worthless. 1 HP per second means that it'll take a mango a full minute to heal up a single right click from your enemies. It also means your average hero, at level 2-3, will take almost TEN MINUTES to heal back from the brink of death.

The regeneration is not the main draw of the mango, though. An instant burst of 150 mana on yourself or any ally sounds fantastic on paper, until you realize that you're paying one gold for every single point of mana it recovers.


There are only two normal situations where I would buy a mango:

• If you have a very strong spell that costs a lot of mana, and want to guarantee you can use it in a tight spot a mango can help a lot. The extra touch of health sustain doesn't hurt either.
  
  
  
  
• if you're playing a hero with extremely high base HP regen (Ogre Magi!), and want to just buy three mangos to have the equivalent of a permanent tango. Please note that situation B is clowny as ♥♥♥♥, if you weren't sure, but it *can* work. Sometimes.

literally unkillable


Examples of heroes that can make okay use of a mango: Earthshaker, Storm Spirit, Timbersaw, Techies (please don't waste it on a land mine)

Examples of heroes that can take advantage of a mango forced down their throat by a nearby support in the middle of a fight: Storm Spirit, Medusa

Honorable mention to Warlock and his Mangolems. FUTA'S WAY



Okay, enough with the consumables. Let's talk real items.

Defensive Options

You can never be tanky enough, and in the early game everyone is squishy as balls. Well, except Ogre maybe, but almost everyone. If you're playing against smart players, you will most likely end up taking some harassment, or possibly even having full skirmishes. You'll be wanting to mitigate that damage as much as possible.

Stout Shield

200 Gold

Passive: Gives a 50% chance to block a portion of damage received from basic attacks.
Blocks 16 if you are melee or 8 if you are ranged


If you're playing a melee hero, a Stout Shield will almost always be a fantastic pickup. If you're against a ranged hero they will be right clicking on you, and a stout mitigates a massive portion of that damage. If you ever need to tank a few hits from creeps to trade blows, or to keep the wave from hitting your tower, it mitigates a ton of creep damage.

Agility heroes can opt to upgrade this to a Poor Man's Shield at the side shop in order to get a quick infusion of last hitting power for extremely cheap, and it also will always block right clicks from enemy heroes. This is pretty damn handy as someone like Spectre who has a really weak laning phase and can get harassed a lot.

Note: If you're against a Broodmother, BUY THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ STOUT SHIELD AND THANK ME LATER EVEN IF YOU'RE RANGED JUST TRUST ME. The spiderling damage is absolutely decimated by a stout shield, making it much more difficult for her to kill you. Take it from someone whose most successful hero was Broodmother.

Ring of Protection

200 Gold

+3 Armor


Another option to get on any hero is a Ring of Protection. Armor is a fantastic stat to have to bolster your effective HP, and many heroes will want to upgrade to a Ring of Aquila or Tranquil Boots later anyway. Even just having the casual armor boost, without plans to use it later, is great on heroes who are sorely lacking it early on like Huskar.

In the side lane, buying a ring will allow you to buy your Tranqs or Ring of Basilius right from the side shop without having to send the courier out to bring anything to you. This is pretty useful a lot of the time, especially if your mid laner needs to use the courier a lot for their bottle.

Cold Hard Stats

If you want to have a Good Game, buy GG branches.

Iron Branch

50 Gold

+1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Intelligence


Seriously, though. Iron Branches give you 3 stat points for 50 gold. As stated earlier, they are the primary reason why we only have six item slots. Imagine if a late-game Morphling had spent half of his, say, 25,000 gold on GG branches. He would have 250 strength and 250 agility to work with, on top of his other items.

After you've fulfilled your early-game item desires, it's usually a good idea to spend whatever gold you have left on Branches. You can sell them back whenever you need the space for half price, meaning that for only 25 gold early on you're getting 1 damage for last hitting, 19 HP and 13 mana. This doesn't sound like much, but it can easily make a big difference.

Circlet

165 Gold

+2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Intelligence

Think of a Circlet as a sort of condensed Iron Branch. Twice the stats, but a fair bit more expensive - you can see an easy example of the reduced cost efficiency here. I would only start with a Circlet if you are sure you want to build it into a Bracer, Wraith Band or Null Talisman; otherwise, it's better to just get the two GG branches.


But let's talk about those three.

Bracer

525 Gold

+6 Strength, +3 Agility, +3 Intelligence, +3 Damage

Wraith Band

485 Gold

+3 Strength, +6 Agility, +3 Intelligence, +3 Damage

Null Talisman

470 Gold

+3 Strength, +3 Agility, +6 Intelligence, +3 Damage


These are the most notorious items for raw stats - they give a fairly significant +6 to one stat and +3 to the others, plus an extra free +3 damage. It's not uncommon to see people pick up one or more of these casually with no intention of upgrading them later, just to bolster their early-to-midgame (See triple-Null Prophet or triple-Wraith-Band Drow). But should you start with one?

I'll start by saying a flat-out NO to Bracers. If you buy a Bracer you can't afford to buy a tango. See above for why that's a terrible idea.


What about a Wraith Band or Null Tali? It gives you a massive advantage in last hitting and trading early on with a pretty sizeable amount of stats. The downside is that you can only afford one more thing if you choose to buy one, unless you randomed your hero - and that one thing is almost always a tango. If you really want to dominate the early stages of the laning phase, or just secure your farm early on, then this is not a bad idea.






If you have additional gold from randoming, it's a fantastic idea to use it to pick up one of these stat items as well as a bunch of regen and whatever else you want. An agility carry can even afford to get a Wraith Band, a Ring and a tango right away and get an extremely fast Aquila from the side shop.





You used to be able to pull this off without random gold as well, technically - you just had to skip the Slippers of Agility, and have a casual Wraith Band recipe in your starting build - but since the cost of Ring of Protection went up, you can no longer afford a tango. By now, just reading that should have made you cringe.



But what if I just want to get my main stat for last hitting?






NOOB TRAP 4: Generally speaking, don't buy a Mantle of Intelligence or Slippers of Agility instead of buying an equivalent number of branches. Those items are just as dead-end as a GG branch, but are three times less cost-efficient, and more importantly, don't give you balanced stats. Three points of strength is over 50 raw HP to work with, in addition to a little tiny bit of extra regen - that can definitely make a difference early game.

The exception to this rule is if you're playing a very safe hero in a very safe position and desperately need more damage to guarantee your last hits - for you safelane Sniper players, a Slipper isn't the worst idea; however, safelane Sniper already is.

Just to demonstrate why even Gauntlets aren't always the right choice on strength heroes, keep in mind that unless you have two Iron Branches in your inventory, Tiny can't afford to do his Q-W combo on someone at level 3, even at full mana.



Stats matter!

Miscellaneous Items

There are four other reasonable candidates for your starting items, but they are all very situational.

Quelling Blade

225 Gold

Passive: Give bonus damage against creeps and summoned units.
40% of base damage if melee, 15% of base damage if ranged
Does not work against Roshan or Lone Druid's bear

Active: Destroys a target tree or ward. 5 second cooldown


Quelling blade lets you last hit more easily! Who doesn't like last hitting? Not me! I love it! However, it gives you nothing else. No HP, no damage against heroes, nothing. Just lets you hit creeps. For this reason it's usually not a great idea to start with one - just pick one up at the side shop later on if you want it.

When should you start Q-blade? If you're jungling! Not only does it let you kill camps much more quickly, but it lets you cut the trees and carve more efficient paths and safe little holes where you take less damage. Notice how in the image to the right, the red Hellbear is running around and unable to hit Doom at all. Quelling Blade isn't just about the damage!

It's also a nice pickup VERY situationally on heroes like Pudge or Earthshaker, since you can hide in the trees to get exactly the right position for your spells. Securing just one early kill as a result will pay for your little hatchet immediately.

Boots of Speed

450 Gold

+50 movement speed


Boots are something every single hero in every single game wants, with almost no exception. Moving faster lets you farm more efficiently, position better in fights, chase enemies and run away if you're in trouble. It also fits into your budget for starting items, with enough cash leftover for a tango and even one GG branch if you're so inclined. However, once again, you're left wanting for other stats early on, and boots don't do much to help you last hit.

While you shouldn't start with boots on a farming hero, it's actually not always a bad idea to pick up boots first in other roles. If you're in the offlane, certain heroes make excellent use of boots to weave in and out of danger to soak experience and even contest the lane - Tidehunter is a great example of this. As a support, if you're communicating well with your team and the other support is willing to take one for the team and buy all the support items, a fast boots pickup will make your roaming much more dangerous for the enemy team.

Magic Stick

200 Gold

Gains charges (max 10) based on enemies using abilities in a nearby area.
Active: Consumes all charges to restore 15 health and 15 mana per charge. 13 second cooldown


It's very important to learn how to read the lanes and predict who you're going to be facing, as certain heroes can be dealt with much more easily with specific item choices. Zeus is a great example of one such hero - when facing a farming Zeus, you know for a fact he will be spamming his Arc Lightning like there's no tomorrow, right from level 1, and it hurts. Grabbing a Magic Stick at level 1 will help mitigate this, and even counter it by giving you free mana every time he casts.

This is also a solid pickup against Bristleback, but he usually doesn't spam too hard until a little later in the game, and you can pick up your Magic Stick from the side shop once you feel it's appropriate. Batrider also falls into this category - unless it's a mid Bat, you can grab it from the side shop with your first 200 gold instead.

Note that you can upgrade this to a Magic Wand if combined with two branches and a Circlet, or even (if you know what you're doing) start with a Magic Wand and a tango. This gives a nice +4 to all stats, as well as letting you store up 17 charges (letting you burst heal for 255 HP and mana once full!)



There's one other item that you can get at level 1, situationally - an Orb of Venom. There are only four heroes I have ever considered this on, but it can actually be extremely difficult to deal with.

Orb of Venom

275 Gold

Passive: Basic attacks poison the target, dealing 3 damage per second and slowing them for 4 seconds. 12% slow if you're melee, 4% if you're ranged.


Ogre Magi and Treant Protector can grab one and use their insane beefiness and level 1 damage respectively to just run at the enemies at level 1 and bop them over the head over and over. The slow will let you chase them right back to their tower, and if they don't run right away you can easily set up a kill.

Groo--er, Treant Protector--hits for an insane 85 damage at level 1. In this screenshot, even though my health was a little low, I was able to drive Jakiro back just by running at him and hitting him a couple of times. If he had tried to fight back, my carry could have come up and abused the slow I placed on him to take him down.



Omniknight can also do this well, but it becomes even more effective if you take Degen Aura at level 1. If the enemy doesn't see it coming, it's almost a guaranteed kill for your carry.


The last contender for an early Orb of Venom would be Bounty Hunter - he can make use of it throughout the game combined with his Jinada to chase people indefinitely, and it also makes for great harassment early on with Shadow Walk.




Note that all three items in this category can be bought at the side shop. For this reason, it's generally a better idea to start with more stats or regen, and pick them up later on.



NOOB TRAP 5: I know you really want your super fast Midas, but for the love of god don't buy a Glove of Haste as your first item. Attack speed at this early stage of the game is almost useless unless you're jungling with Nature's Prophet, and it limits you from having better last hitting power and regen.

If you start with a Glove, your "super fast" Midas is going to become a super late Midas, because you're going to be harassed and denied right back to your tower with little to show for it.

Some Sample Starts

These are not at ALL the only choices you should consider, but here are some examples of some very common starting builds.

Melee Carry	Stout Shield, Tango, Salve, Branch, Branch
Ranged Carry	Ring of Protection, Tango, Salve, Branch, Branch (or Circlet for better buildup later)
Mid Bottle Rush	Tango, Branch, Branch (optional Stout Shield depending on matchup)
Mid Farming	Null Talisman/Wraith Band, Tango (or 2 Branches with pooled tangos)
Offlane Defensive	Stout Shield, Tango, Tango, Salve, Branch
Offlane 2	Boots of Speed, Tango, Branch
Support 1	Courier, 2x Observer Ward, Tango, Clarity, Salve
Support 2	Smoke of Deceit, Sentry Ward, Tango, Clarity, Branch
Jungle	Stout Shield, Quelling Blade, Tango, Branch
Situational Options	Orb of Venom, Tango, Clarity, Branch, Branch Magic Stick, Tango, Branch, Branch (200g leftover for whatever)

Do you see a theme? GG Branches are good items guys.

And just to repeat one more time, these are not the only viable builds! Supports will need to consider a wide variety of builds, since they need to mix in the specific support items and consumables they will need in the situation. Carries might opt for more regen if there's a dangerous offlaner, or they might go light on regen and start with more aggressive items if it's going to be an easy lane.

Think about what you'll be facing, and build accordingly!

Summary

There are a few key things I want you to have taken from this guide into your future matches.

• BE PREPARED. Look at all of their heroes, imagine the most likely matchups you'll face and plan accordingly.
  
  
• BUY REGEN. There are VERY few situations where not having regen is acceptable, and if you didn't know all of this before you are not at a high enough level to take advantage of most them anyway. The only two I can even think of right now are Io's bottle rush, and a support starting Boots and a Smoke to do a super fast gank.
  
  
• BUY STATS. If you can afford to have them, raw stats are usually the best thing to have early on. Almost everything else can be picked up at the side shop, so make sure you can survive the lane and last hit effectively with stats and regen before thinking about anything else. Can't have a GG without GG branches!
  
  
• USE YOUR BRAINICLE. If the situation calls for something weird or unique, give it a try! This guide covers 90% of situations, but my sample starting builds in the last section are hardly set in stone. Vary your choices based on your hero, their heroes, your allies heroes, your playstyle...basically everything! It takes practice to get the feel for it, but once you have it down you'll feel the difference in your lane play.

Thanks for reading, folks. If you liked it, disliked it, hated it, fell asleep in the middle, whatever, I want to hear it! Tell me how I can improve this guide! If it's well-received I'd like to do more, covering all sorts of basic topics. I've brought a lot of new players into the game recently and I've seen a wide spectrum of things they struggle to grasp, so I hope I bring a different perspective to things.

For all you little newblets out there, I'll see you on the battlefield. GLHF!

[masakary]

you recommended orb of venom for omni but never mentioned lone druid? amazing.

[MrMikopi]

I'm a simple man. I see FUTA'S WAY, i press like.

[Unknown]

Yea. This is what works for me because I have been contested a lot in last hits but not so much in hp. If I need more regen I buy it a bit later on. But the stout was certainly not something I did very frequently. Now I am because of this guide.

[Kl'gxupyitrodo]

I find that if you're being contested in last hits, you're probably being contested in HP as well - at least, in higher skill brackets as you said. Also consider that with extra regen you can afford to trade early and drive the opponent out of lane for a while, securing you a massive lane advantage.

Still, if you're not as contested, the quelling blade is definitely a wonderful thing to have. Do whatever works!

[Unknown]

I understand, but even so I'd say it's better to secure some of the first last hits and buy a second set of tangoes if you need them. I statistically feel that If I buy more healing than one set of tangoes beforehand most of the times they go back to the shop. So one set of tangoes and quelling is better (at least for me) than no quelling, more healing and lose some of the first last hits.

[Kl'gxupyitrodo]

Glad you liked it! It's pretty outdated at this point, and unfortunately I don't really have time for this sort of thing anymore.

One big thing to keep in mind is that you can always buy the quelling blade at the side shop, and so it's often worth grabbing a second tango or a salve instead with your starting gold, and after two last hits taking a short walk over to buy it. Naturally, this isn't always possible (especially if you're mid), so consider the matchups and act accordingly as always.

Adapting to the situation >>> some silly guide written by 4k trash :P

[Unknown]

This guide is fucking excellent. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
I only disagree with one point. In high skill matches it's almost impossible to dominate the last hitting without a quelling blade. I like to get stout, quelling, tango and 2 branches.

[Pestilence]

Thanks for the guide.

[Kl'gxupyitrodo]

@Black Hammer, that's a well-thought out build that covers all of your bases really well. However, you'll often find that you need to sacrifice either the gauntlets, the mango or both to pick up things like courier and wards at the beginning.

A good rule of thumb is to just watch your mana, and do the math to make sure you'll always have shallow grave anyway! Not to say that the emergency mango is a bad idea - you just may find it infeasible some games.

[Kl'gxupyitrodo]

@Jake, of course there are no rules for what to buy. However, if you come to lane without a Tango and I come to lane with 8, ninety nine times out of a hundred you're going to get destroyed. The point of this guide is for people to get the chance to "play the game, learn the game" without having a totally awful time learning what's good and what isn't at the beginning. Those who don't know what they're doing, the target audience of the guide, should not be doing any weird starting strategies - stick to the basics until you have more experience.