The fact that you are reading this guide implies that you already know at least something about this awesome game. But even though, let's repeat everything!

Dota 2 is a team game, where 10 players are divided into 2 teams: Radiant and Dire. Each player controls a Hero, which is the most important unit in the game. As the game progresses, Heroes get the experience and advance through levels, getting better and more powerful spells. The goal of each team is to destroy the Ancient; the main building of each team. In order to do that, Heroes have to break the outer defenses and destroy the towers in the lanes leading to the Ancient. In order to do that, it's important to play as a team and talk about the strategies that you should or should not do. In any case, mistakes will often happen, and the Dota 2 School is the perfect place for you to make them!

Once the game starts, this is your first problem. Since the Heroes are divided into several groups - Carries, Supporters, Gankers, Initiators, Junglers and so on, is there a rule for the perfect team composition? Sadly, there isn't. Each Hero is unique and only tons of experience will help you out to be able to tell exactly what your team needs in every situation. However, there is a way to pick at least a semi - balanced team, and we are going to tell you about it right now!

Before we do, let's just say some basic things about the most common Hero roles:

• Supports - Are here to hold the early stages of the game and support the team till the carries get enough farm to be able to join the fights in the mid and late game. Supporters are usually most powerful in the early/mid game and mostly fall off in the late game.
  
  
• Carries - Are here to farm as much as they can during the early game, since they are basically useless before they get at least one core item. Once they do, they should help their team if they decide to push or if they are forced to defend. In the mean time, they have to farm even more!
  
  
• Gankers/Initiators - Are the most common middle lane Heroes. They have a great combo to melt down single targets or start the team fights, so it's important for them to take the middle lane since it gives more experience than the side lanes. (It gives more experience cause they are alone in the lane and do not share the experience with their team mate in the dual lane).
  
  
• Junglers - Are the Heroes that have the summon, conversion or life-steal spells which are great for surviving the hostile Jungle environment from the very beginning of the game.
  
  
• Offlaners - In case your team gets a jungling Hero, one of your side lane Heroes will have to go solo versus two or more Heroes. In order to survive that, they have to have an escape ability, such as invisibility, blink, speed or others.

Each time should have at least 2 supports, 2 carries and 1 ganker/initiator. Once you are in the picking screen, you can filter out the Hero Roles in the top screen and pick whatever your team needs the most. Also, in case your team gets the jungle Hero, you will have to pick the offlane Hero. 1 of the carries that your team has should be the late game carry and the other should be the mid game carry. The best Heroes for beginners are the following:

• Supports - Lich, Treant Protector, Ogre Magi, Vengeful Spirit, Necrolyte, Jakiro, Death Prophet, (Crystal Maiden*), Dazzle, Keeper of the Light, Lion, Shadow Shaman, Warlock, (Wisp*), (Shadow Demon*)
  
  
• Mid Game Carries - Kunkka, Slardar, Spirit Breaker, Tiny, Huskar, Juggernaut, Razor, Viper, Lifestealer, Alchemist, Sven, Gyrocopter, Outworld Destroyer
  
  
• Late Game Carries - Alchemist, Lifestealer, Anti-Mage, Chaos Knight, Clinkz, Faceless Void, Drow Ranger, Phantom Assassin, Weaver, Sven, Gyrocopter, Outworld Destroyer
  
  
• Mid Lane Gankers/Initiators - Kunkka, Night Stalker, Gyrocopter, Nyx Assassin, Templar Assassin, Lina, Outworld Destroyer, (Puck*), (Pudge*), (Tinker*), Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Spirit Breaker, (Magnus*), Slark, (Batrider*)
  
  
• Junglers - Axe, Enigma, Lifestealer, Ursa, Natures Prophet, (Chen*), (Ench*), (Batrider*)
  
  
• Offlaners - (Dark Seer*), Clockwerk, Treant Protector, Bounty Hunter, Broodmother, Clinkz, Slark, Weaver, (Puck*), (Timbersaw*), Slardar, Windrunner, (Batrider*)

* Heroes require a certain skill level and are not that easy as the other Heroes mentioned in the category. They were mentioned simply cause they are very popular these days.

Depending on the picked Hero, your role through out the game will mostly be set in stone. Each match is divided into 3 stages - Early, Mid and Late Game. Early game mostly lasts till 15-20 min mark, mid game till 30-35 min mark and after that, it's time for the late game.

The most common ways to play each role are following:

• Supports - have to buy the courier and the set of Observer Wards. One support buys the courier and the other support buys the wards. One ward should be placed in the top lane jungle (if you are playing as the Radiant), or in the bot lane jungle (if you are playing as the Dire). By placing those wards, your off-lane Heroes will be safer from the possible ganks. The 2nd ward should be placed on the rune spot, for your mid Hero. Wards are important and make sure to buy them all the time!
  
  Since you will be supporting your Carry Hero, you will have to let them farm the creeps and you will have to harass (attacking the enemy Heroes from time to time with your right click or cheap spells) the enemy Heroes, to show them who's the boss! Make sure not to overextend though! To get at least some farm, supports in the Radiant's bot lane, or Dire's top lane can push the nearby medium jungle camp to colide with the incoming creep wave. By doing this, jungle creeps will draw the attention of your creeps, and while they fight each other, you can snipe off the last hits and get the precious gold.
  
  The two most important support items in the mid early/mid game are the Mekanism and Drums. Mekanism gives the instant healing to the nearby allies, while Drums increase the movement and attack speed of the nearby allies. One support has to buy the Mekanism and the other has to buy the Drums. Talk with your team and see who has the most farm to get the fast Mekanism, since it's so important to get that item as soon as possible!
  
  Team fights for the supports are really difficult - don't be sad if you die as long as you have used all of your spells, but do your best to survive. If you survive the combo, don't run too far since most of the support spells have the low cooldown, making you able to land your combo twice in the same team fight!
  
  Conclusion - Courier, Wards, Mekanism, Drums, leave the farm to your carry, pull the neutral camp, don't run first in the team fight, always carry a Teleport Scroll
  
  
• Carries - Go to the safe lane (Bot lane for Radiant and Top lane for Dire). Since your early game is pretty bad, try to avoid the team fights as much as you can and help out only if your team is being stomped. Focus on farming the creeps and buy yourself a Quelling Blade (Cheap item that improves your last hitting) if you are playing as a melee Hero. Focus on getting at least one core item and then see if you can help out your team. If not, farm even more and prepare yourself for the mid and late game!
  
  Conclusion - Go to the safe lane, farm as much as you can, avoid the early game team fights, focus on getting the core item(s), carry the TP scroll!
  
  
• Ganker/Initiator - Since you will mostly go to the mid lane as these Heroes, focus on getting the Bottle, Boots and 7th level. 7th level means that one of your abilities will probably be maxed (Like Pudge's Hook) and that it's time to grab a rune which spawns every even minutes (0,2,4,6 min and so on). If you get lucky with the rune, go and gank! Ganking is a move where you do your best to attack and surprise the enemy with the sudden attack from the fog. Gank as much as you can, but remember to not overextend!
  
  Conclusion - Get the 7th level, grab the rune, gank the closest/easiest lane, gank as much as you can, carry the TP scroll!
  
  Other roles do not deserve a special mention. Junglers will farm safely in the Jungle and start ganking/pushing once they get a core item. Offlaners will do their best to survive the suicide (hard lane) vs a dual or tri-lane and get as much farm as they can. If they end up not having any farm, try to at least farm the experience, and don't worry about getting no farm.

We won't give you more info about the game in this guide since we will be teaching you during the game itself. We encourage you to join the group and look after the announcements; as we will often open the game lobbies.

The most common types of the lobbies that will be opened are the following (some mentors prefer some types over other):

For beginners:

• - Beginner Skirmish Lobby - It's a lobby for players who feel like they are on the beginner level, or for more experienced guys who would like to try out the new Heroes. A mentor will play with 4 additional players VS bots.
  
  
• - Beginner Lobby - It's a lobby for players who feel like they are on the beginner level, or for more experienced guys who would like to try out the new Heroes. A mentor will open the lobby and wait for the players. Once we get 10 players, we will shuffle the teams and start a game. During the game, we will often pause to give advises and to point towards your mistakes.

For advanced players:

• - Advanced Skirmish Lobby - It's a lobby for players who already have a lot of Dota 2 experience (not too much though) and would like to get more insight into their Heroes, strategies, builds or something else. The game would be played vs 5 unfair bots.
  
  
• - Advanced Lobby - It's a lobby for players who already have a lot of Dota 2 experience. We would form a lobby out of 10 advanced players and shuffle the teams. As the game goes, we will pause and answer the questions and help you in any way that we can.
  
  
• - Advanced CM Lobby - Similar to the "Advanced Lobby", though the played mode won't be AP (All Pick), but will be CM (Captains Mode) in order to practice the drafting.

Universal Games:

• - Pudge/Invoker Wars - 5v5, Only Mid, Only Pudge/Invoker to practice our APM (actions per minute) and our control in the messy team fight.

Over 20 D2P moderators will make sure that you play in the friendly environment. If however you do encounter the unfriendly people who flame, whine or cry, make sure to report them to one of our moderators. 2nd report will mean a permanent ban of that particular player.

As we get more members, we will open the lobbies strictly for the beginners, or lobbies where we learn the CM drafting or just brainstorm the various strategies and ideas. Please, invite your friends and let's create a Dota 2 family where making mistakes is not a cause for flaming, but are actually welcome!

See you in the game!