Every game requires a certain amount of skill to be good or the knowledge to understand how the game works. For the most part, playing any game a few times gives you enough experience to figure it out.

Dota 2 on the other hand, is not one of those games. It requires an immense amount of knowledge and skill to understand what each hero/item does and how to use them efficiently.

Most players in this community have been playing this game for years and are still only considered your average player. To be honest, I've been playing this game for five years, only making it to 4k mmr. Even till this day I'm still learning something new that shocks me.

Here's my list of tips for new Dota 2 players:

5. Figure Out Your Role

The first thing you should figure out is what role you want to play in Dota 2.

Your options are: 1 - Carry 2 - Mid 3 - Offlane 4 - Roam/Support (Jungle if you have the hero that can farm efficiently) 5 - Support

Knowing which position to play will help you learn where to go on the map and what your priorities are.

If you are a Carry, farming should be your No. 1 focus. Mid players should focus on winning their lane by getting the most creep kills/denies. Then create space for the team by getting towers and ganking.

The offlane role should focus on preventing the enemy carry from farming as best as they can without dying, until they are strong enough to take team fights. As position four the goal is to roam the map providing support to any lane that needs it the most. While helping position five buy items if needed. The position four can also choose to jungle but there are a few heroes that can do this well.

Legion Commander is an example of how not to jungle, and you will be flamed if you jungle with this hero. Finally, the job of a support is to make sure that your carry gets as much gold as possible by keeping them alive. You are the sacrificial lamb whose purpose is to make sure your team is where they need to be by prioritizing support items more than your own items. This includes wards, sentries, smoke, and dust.

If all goes well in your team draft, and all your lanes are winning, you will be more likely to claim that victory.

4. Stay Alive

Dying in the game isn't super bad, its part of the game. There's plenty of situations where I've fed early game by putting myself in a bad situation/position or by playing overly aggressive. Yet, the difference in coming back from this deficit is by not tilting or getting upset, but instead having a strong positive mental attitude and the ability to not give up.

However, if you're new to the game focusing on staying alive will put you in a situation where you prevent the other team from getting gold and experience. This doesn't mean you shouldn't take risk or never help in a team fight, but to maybe back out when you have low life or no mana. This will make you more useful in-game and to your team.

3. Learning When to Fight

I feel that this is the biggest issue that most players have when playing Dota 2. It's probably the biggest issue because it's the most difficult to learn. With so much going on in the game and knowing what heroes/items do what. It can be confusing having to decide if you should jump in and take this fight or back out for another opportunity.

My suggestion would be to learn how to read the mini map. If you can figure out how many people might be behind to back up the hero you are trying to fight/gank then your chances might be better. You also have to consider if you and your allies have enough damage and skills to win the fight.

Avoid a fight if you have poor vision or if your team is out of position. Remember, this is a team game so if your team is not there then you shouldn't be taking that fight. Don't fret knowing when to fight or back out will come with experience.

2. Gold and Experience is Key

Something that should be super obvious but somehow is always forgotten buy most is that gold is good. I guess in the middle of a game most players are more interested in getting kills than they are farming. This can be fine if you are succeeding in getting kills, but if your trading your life as a position one for a position four then it's not worth it.

Like I said earlier, the higher your position the more you should be focusing on farm. When someone says farm, they mean getting as much gold and experience as you can. Killing as many creeps as you can, as fast as you can. That way you can buy more items before your enemies.

As for supports, roams and even offlane players if you notice your not doing anything or moving around the map to much then start killing some creeps to get some gold. But beware of the mini map because if you are a position four in lane by yourself you will be susceptible to ganks.

1. Always Have an Objective

Yes, Dota is a team based game with objectives. The main objective is obviously killing the throne and winning the game. But before you can do that you have to destroy towers, racks, shrines and even Roshan.

These are all objectives that most players overlook. The reason objectives are so important is because they gives the team gold! Plus, if you don't get certain objectives it gives the enemy team an opportunity to come back and force a game to go from, what could have been, an easy 30 minute game into a 60 or even 90 minute game.

My suggestion would be to lead the team by typing/speaking, pinging, or drawing arrows for the team to group up and get that tier one tower. Don't stop there, make sure your team is strong enough to keep getting the next objective.

Keep pushing to that tier two tower, and then back into Roshan. Whatever you or your team decides, maker sure you read the situation and figure out if your team is able defend or attack an objective.