Fire Team: Lina, Clinkz, Huskar, Ogre Magi, Bat Rider
Ice Team: Drow, Crystal Maiden, Lich, Tusk, Ancient Apparition
Water Team: Morphling, Naga Siren, Kunkka, Slardar, Tidehunter
Earth Team: Earth Shaker, Sand King, Tiny, Treant, Ethereal Titan
Wood Team: Timber Saw, Natures Prophet, Beastmaster, Treant, Windrunner
Lightning Team: Disruptor, Razor, Zeus, Leshrac, Storm Spirit
Spirits: Spectre, Wisp, Storm Spirit, Vengeful Spirit, Spirit Breaker
Assassins: Templar Assasin, Phantom Assassin, Nyx Assasin, Stealth Assasin, Bounty Hunter
Knights: Dragon Knight, Chaos Knight, Death Knight (Abaddon), Omniknight, Rogue Knight (Sven)
Illusionists: Shadow Demon, Naga, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, and Spectre
Healers: Omniknight, Chen, Dazzle, Warlock, Undying
Natural bashers: Slardar, Troll Warlord, Sniper, Spirit Breaker, Void
Bug team! Puck, Broodmother, Sandking, Weaver, Nyx Assassin
Heros that ride animals! Luna, Mirana, Batrider, Chen, Abaddon
Power to women team: Queen of Pain, Luna, Lina, Mirana, Enchantress
Troll team: Troll Warlord, Alchemist, Tinker, Batrider,Dazzle
Wizards Team: Ogre Magi, Zeus, Warlock, KotL, Skywrath
Silence Team: Silencer, Riki, Drow, Death Prophet, Puck
Heros with way too many disables: Earthshaker, Shadow Shaman, Lion, Bane Elemental, Meepo
I want to suck your blood team: Bloodseeker, Pudge, Bane Elemental, Pugna, Lion
Poison Team: Viper, Venomancer, Dazzle, Queen of Pain, Alchemist
Windwalker Team: Clinkz, Bounty, Weaver, Treant, Riki


Can we get some of the above lineups in on an inhouse?

Gayest Team that you can't kill because you can never catch them: Timbersaw, Puck, Storm Spirit, Weaver, Slark

I just installed Steam and Dota2. Never played Dota before. Any basic beginner tips you wish you knew when you first started playing?

Prepare yourself to be very frustrated.

hawk: play the training campaign, watch some pro matches, and then prepare to hate all the kiddies
bot games are ok for practicing keyboard setup but it's worthless as far as a simulation of a "real" game :P

hmm, i found some youtube videos that have been pretty helpful. I'll just take it slow.

i really can't stand playing it much, partly because matches are so long, but i watch the hell out of pro tournaments. it's probably a bad thing, because i see the one or two heros that i've played and set my bar stupidly high.

Play LoL to get into the genre ;) It's much, much, much more forgiving. Come to the dark side! >:)

lol is lol

wtf IS this game?!?

I'd play Fire, Ice, Water and Women. They seem like the most balanced setups

Edit: Knights are good too, and Riders... More OK teams than I thought :)

Too bad CM is a giant noob!

Hawkeye just prepare to have to deal with children who get very mad when you mess up, when a teammate messes up, or when they mess up.. hell even when no one messes up. And they will always blame one or two people and never themselves. The playerbase leaves something to be desired at times.

Assassin games are really fun if you get the early advantage.

Stony is fluffing terrible at dota.

impaling team: lion, sand king, leviathan, nerubian assassin, tuskarr
invisible team: bounty hunter, riki, weaver, clinkz, templar assassin, phanton lancer
blink/teleporting team: queen of pain, vengeful spirit, anti-mage, mirana, storm spirit
the "OMG HOW DO I DODGE ALL OF THIS" team: pudge, clockwerk, mirana, goblin shredder, ezalor
the "BANG, YOU'RE DEAD!" team: lion, lina, zeus, tinker, queen of pain

some of those have a hero that doesn't quite fit in, but is just there to complete a team.

(never played dota 2 before, just dota)

i once played as omni with a good dazzle in the team, and our three other allies trusted us to keep them alive. awesome game :-D

Evil Geniuses used to run the knight strat in pro games... Dragon Knight, Chen (Holy Knight), Chaos Knight, Omniknight and Leshrac (the horse)

there is 2 new hero... Ember Spirit and Earth Spirit :)

should create a team of spirits

Vengeful Spirit, Spirit Breaker, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit and Earth Spirit

leshrac isn't really a knight :P

Candyman doesnt actually sell Candy.

locket doesn't actually make locks.

he does live in a trash can though.

and pretty sure I can beat five lockets in dota, 1v5.

Hawkeye add me:

Requiem2341

I'll show u the ropes!

I could beat you with one hand and a foot in a 1v2. You can even let your dog play the other guy.

TANKS:
░░░░░░███████ ]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ ☻/
███████████████████]. /▌
◥⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙◤.. / \

Not really locket. You suck!

You'd be surprised I suspect ;) I wouldnt even need items to take you down!

So I just played through the first two "training" missions, I guess. What. The. fluff? There are like 100 characters and like 100 items and a ton of skills and roles. How am I supposed to know which items to save up for and which skills to use and which characters should go down which alley? Frustrating! Damn right.

Requiem I'll add you! Maybe you can show me a few tricks :)

154402131 is my ID requiem. It won't let me add you by name...

Practice with bots with any character you are interested in to get a feel for what they do etc. There are skill and item suggestions in the game made by players and voted on by players as to what is good etc. You can find those in the top left of your screen when ingame and you can pick whichever you want. Many of them come with descriptions of when and why you would want the items or skills in question.

Just stick to those to start with till you figure out items and maybe watch a few pro games to see what they do.

As far as heroes you can google which ones are "easier" to play and probably pick one you like that way. I'd stick to a few and broaden your selections when you figure the game out a bit more.

that # doesnt pull anything up.

Hmm.... maybe we're in different zones Requiem?

Thanks Locket - didn't know that those suggestions were voted on by players. That's very useful. I'll jus stick to bots for a while :P

Some of those "strats" are out of date I think so you might not be able to buy everything on the starters guide but yah.. I played a few games with bots before I went into a real game. It helped quite a bit to figure out mechanics etc.

look at locket pretending to be good at dota when he's a complete noob. don't listen to him hawkeyee.

easiest is to pick a hero that you think you'd enjoy playing and stick with the same character until you get the hang of it. it's the quickest way to figure out the mechanics and climb the learning curve. once you've mastered the first hero move onto another hero and that's how you'll figure out what your natural fit hero type is.

... you just gave the exact same advice that I gave. Funny. Only thing is I went in to more depth then your sad self. You are pretty pathetic sometimes :)

few and one are different :P