How to start playing DOTA? Tutorial!!!

Dota takes a bit time to learn and the first stage of the learning curve looks like crap. but once you know your way, you just cant get enough.:D

How to start???

First of all, some basic knowedges about it:
Dota is a LAN game for up to 10 players. 5 against 5.
it is powered by war3 and it is actually a map whcih will be updated every few months with new heros, items and other things. So never gets boring:D

Start your game
If you are playing online mode, register a gaming platform such as Garena.....
Login and choos a room and start game. Go to Lan option and join a game by any host with a low ping. Host will usually start when 10 players are all in position. Usually the mode is "apso" mean all pick, switch on. If you are host, you have to enter the mode command "-apso" as soon as it starts.

Pick your hero
You have over 800 gold in your account and it cost 200 to pick 1 hero for you. After you picked your hero, people usually spent all 600 gold buying items enhence hero's attributes and also items that can recover your hp and mana points. (when hp reaches 0 you die, most spell will cost mana to cast)

Important things to remember
when learning the game, you will be called "noob" or "feeder" for sure. Feeder means you get killed by enemy players too much and they will be fed because killing you will gain them gold and experiences to level up.
Feel upset but never argue with your team mates. Feel free to ask questions and they might just give you some tips. Not everyone an asss in the game and we were all once a noob!!!

Interface layout
As you chosed your hero. You can see bottom left of your screen is a mini map with some option button on it. Different players will shown as spots in different colors. To make it easier to tell, one option can make all friendly players in blue spots and enemy in red.

Bottom right of your screen is a menu for commands to your hero. click on A yellow big cross and you can learn a spell every level up. Dont forget to learn at level 1 when you start the game. you can see what each spell does in that menu when you click the yellow corss.

And there is a "six pack" at the bottom as well. That is the place you put all your items and you can have six in total. You can drop, pick up, destory and sell at a discount price for most items.

The spring
The spring is the first place your hero and your teammates will be when start. in that small area you can see a few shops by clicking them you can then buy your items. There are descriptions of the items.
If you are low on hp or mana or both:mad:, go back to the spring and you will get it back:cool:

The map
the map is a square, cut into two triangle by a river, two teams are at each far conor. Three main paths crossing the river and on each path, there will be 3 towers on each team's side. You will be attacked by enemy towers and it hurts a lot:D Creeps will be released in each path from both team base heading to enemy base. Creeps will fight each other and also your hero.

Economy machanism
Use your hero to kill enemy creeps, for every creep you kill you will have around 50 gold. But only if your attack killed the creep. Every hero you kill you get around 200 gold, 125 for assist. Every tower you destroy you get 500 and more, every tower that your team destory you get 200.
You may loose 200 or more every time you die so it is important to know what you need to buy and how much it cost so you can buy it as soon as you have the gold in case you died and loose the money.

Items (props)
each item cost some money. some props need a few items to build. (when you bopught all the items required for this prop, they will became one) Most items will enhence your hero's ability and some props have their own ability. (for example "shiva" can reduce enemy's attacking and moving speed and cause damage)
You can buy a courier and let it ship your item so you dont have to run to shop everytime you buy something and it can be share between teamates.

Goal
The main goal is to destroy the enemy base. But I suppose it involoves a lot of killings:D

Roles
5 players each has a role to play depend on what hero using. some heros are better to support teamates, some are weak in the begging but with good gears and high level after a while it will be very strong, it is called "carry", some are called "tank" as they have heavy armor and more hp, go GI JOE and buy your carry some time to do the damage and killings, some called ganker. You will pick these up when playing.

FYI
There is a very very good website, having all heros, details about their spells, the right order to learn your spell, attributes, common roles and items every hero should buy.
All details about every item, theis costs, functions, locations to buy....

You can easily see what it means with all the pictures as it is in Chinese:mad:
But seriousely, check it out, its very helpful.:cool:

I will post the links later as I cant access that website at work:mad: