Learning the Ropes - A Beginner's Guide to DotA

Introduction to DotA

DotA, as you may well know, was first created as a custom map for Warcraft III. From there, DotA spawned the genre of Action RTS, and many games followed, such as League of Legends, Realm of the Titans and Heroes of Newerth. More than likely, you have played one of these games, and I welcome you to Dota 2.
I will go over the very basics here, move along to the next section if you are a veteran to Dota-style games.
In DotA, the goal of the game is to destroy the enemy's base. The map is made of three lanes, and jungle in between those lanes. Creeps move down these lanes and attack each other. As a hero, you choose a lane to go to, and in this lane there are basic things you can do to win your lane and get a better late-game advantage. Typically, two heroes go top, one hero in the center, and two bottom. Though, there are several different ways to play. Eventually, through killing creeps, getting kills, and taking the enemie's towers, you will push a creep wave to the enemies base and take their creep spawning buildings, causing you to spawn super creeps. However, in DotA, there is a denying system. This allows you to kill friendly minions and towers, and under certain circumstances allied heroes, to deny your enemy the gold benefit of killing that unit/structure. Both farming and denying are very crucial to the game. Once one or more of the enemies creep spawning buildings (further known as raxes) are destroyed, you may destroy the enemies throne, resulting in a victory for your team.

The Basics

As mentioned earlier, there are multiple things, that added together, help you win the game. These things are: Farming creeps, denying creeps, destroying enemy towers and killing enemy heroes.

rming creeps in DotA is most important during the laning phase. Farming them is the act of getting the final blow on an enemy creep, resulting in more gold for you to spend. One thing that should always be avoided is pushing a lane. Basically, do not sit there auto-attacking an enemy creep! Most of the time if will only be denied, and then your lane is pushed to the enemy tower, making you very susceptible to a gank from a member of the enemy team. Later in the game, having good farm will pay off in a gold advantage. A gold advantage is an item advantage, and an item advantage almost always wins the game.

While in lane, you should be trying to last-hit your enemies creeps for their gold, yes, however you should also keep an eye out for allied creeps that are low on HP and attack them. This is denying, and can also be done to a tower. It keeps an enemies gold down, which is enough to win a lane. It is just as important as farming the enemy minions. It does take practice, but with enough concentration you can pull it off.

During this time you should also be weary of harassing. It is simply the enemy landing a few hits on you to dwindle you HP down and try to make you leave lane. Try to harass in return or avoid oncoming harass. Primary focus is still farming and denying.

Destoying the Enemy Tower

Destroying the enemy tower will usually be the cause of winning you lane. If the enemies in your lane are both dead or missing, then now it is the time to push and finish off the tower. If the enemies are simply missing, be courteous to your team and call MIA (Missing In Action), as well keep the river warded so if they are missing while you push their tower you can avoid them ganking you.

Killing Enemy Heroes

Killing heroes in not your primary goal early game. As stated before, your goal is farming. Farming is a safer and more sure way to gain gold, without leaving it to a 50/50 chance that you kill the enemy or they kill you. Note that in DotA, while you gain gold for a kill, the enemy you killed loses gold also. It also applies to you, of course.
However, while farming you can harass the enemy, and if they get low on health, you can coordinate with an ally to take them down or burst them down yourself if you are confident enough. Mid to late game, however, ganks become more prevalent and team-fights start to occur. Around this time, you should still be cautious of your lanes and farm whenever the team is idle, but getting kills really will bring the enemy team down and rise yours up. The team will ever gradually be more revolved around the jungle and middle lane. Winning these team-fights is a direct result of winning lanes and the farm your team has accumulated.

The Basics II - Items

Items... where to begin? One problem in the original DotA was the item system. You had multiple shops with an assortment of items, and a new player doesn't know what the heck to buy or where to buy that item he saw in the guide!

Have no worries, though! Dota 2 has made the shop a much easier place to navigate. It is split into two major categories, each with various self-explanatory mini-categories. The two major categories are;

Basics

I. Consumables - The consumables section contains all your items that offer a bit of utility, and help you or your team with various tasks. It contains  Tangos, which allow you to consume a tree for some helpful HP regeneration. You can get  Observer Wards to help you see where the enemy team is, see runes when they spawn, and prevent ganks on your lane. An item that is one of the most important is the  Town Portal Scroll, which allows you to return to base almost instantly, and you can quickly return to one of your towers as well. Animal Courier is another item that is, in my opinion, the most important in the game. You won't have to leave lane, so you can continue farming and receive items regularly with your donkey. A  Dust of Appearance is always more than helpful against an enemy stealth hero. There are more items in consumables that all have specific uses and effects.