For anyone interested in getting into or even trying Dota2, which I find to be a great game, it's available for free on Steam, and here are a few good starter Dota2 articles, in order:
- Welcome to Dota, You Suck (by PurgeGamer)
- Reddit new player's tips
- DotaFire Introduction to Dota2
- Complete & Comprehensive Guide to Dota 2
- It's free to play and free to download. It's totally free. Did I mention free?
- It's a team game. You can play with friends, and if you lose, it's (usually) not all your fault.
- Your SC2 micro skills are valuable
- You get to buy items / collect "loot"
- Low time block commitment: A game takes slightly longer than an SC2 game, but it's still a "sit down for a 0.5-1 hour type of game. Game ends, you walk away and do other stuff.
- The computer AI doesn't suck. Well, it does, but it will continue to challenge you for some time to come. You can also just play games against the "bots" when you feel like winning.
- Ladder play: unlike the SC2 ladder, you don't have to know your ranking, so you don't know when you're not achieving the ranking that you think you want. Instead, you're just placed against another team of similar skill level.
- Reporting system: if a player is a jerk, you can easily report his behaviour. Also, disconnectors / game abandonment is penalized in the sense that people who do that, get placed with others who do that.
- Lots of variety and gradual skill improvement. There are 120+ heroes to choose from, meaning you'll get never bored of the choices, and even months after you start, you'll notice you're still gradually improving.
- There are lots of events to take part in, and professional casts and videos to learn from .
