DotaStrategy.com - Dota Strategy Starter Kit

Wii<R>venom

Godlike Posts: 1062 Joined: 28 Oct 2007 32697 gold

Dota Strategy Starter Kit

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:52 pm

Welcome:

If you’re fairly new here, then welcome to DotA Strategy. I hope you are able to find the help you're looking for, provide some fresh knowledge to the members of the site, or both.

So if you’re new here and you may be wondering what to do. Maybe you’ve just stumbled onto the site while searching for guides on the net (like me), or maybe you’ve been referred here by a friend. Either way, there are a number of things to do. You could read some guides, download replays, make a guide of your own, or simply read up on items and heroes. But eventually you’ll perhaps take an interest in the forums, if not right from the beginning. This is where people make so many mistakes. Now I’m not saying that every new member is new to DotA – that would just be too presumptuous of me. But each new member has not necessarily been in a forum environment before and even if they have, the rules/procedures for the forums as well as the responses in threads will not be the same as what they’ve experienced elsewhere. So here are a few steps you should take as a new member.

Read the rules:

This is the single most important thing you should do as a new member. Ignorance is not an excuse. For those of you who don’t quite understand, what this means is that not knowing the rules doesn’t count as an excuse for breaking them. I’m quite sure that Drew and the mods would have the same thoughts about this, so please visit the following links before doing anything else:

Rules and Regulations:
This is the main area you should visit and contains all the rules set down by Drew and the Mods
How to get Banned:
This is a thread created by Drew about how to get banned. The irony of the thread is that this also indicates what you should not do because you will get banned; worth the read.
Rules to post a new Thread:
This kinda re-iterates what has been mentioned in the rules but believe me, it’s needed. People just seem to get very lazy and don’t give their topic title any substance.

The Library:

So you've read the rules and understand them, now check out the library – it’s filled with a lot of useful information. If you find a thread that only answers a portion of a question that you have, then post on that thread asking for the missing information and also PM the author and request that it be added (if what you would like added is still more or less on the lines of the topic). In this way, you are being proactive on the site and showing actual interest in being a member here. People will respect you for that and as far as I’m concerned, you should never have to post anything about stacking issues – it’s all in the library.

Here is your link to the Library, and a short list of some of the topics you’ll find there:

Dota Game Modes
Basic game tactics
Armor-Damage System Walkthrough
What to get as a starting item
Critical, Evasion, and Spell Resistance Stack Percentage
Items Stacking Issue List

The above threads account for just a small percentage of the information in the library and should give you a good idea of the type of info you’ll find there.

Search Tool...Search Tool…Search Tool:

Use this if you didn't find anything similar in the library this and you want to post a new topic. The reason I have “Search Tool” up there three times is because that’s the minimum amount of times you should try before giving up – use different key words and such.

You may feel that what you want to post is unique and will not be found with the search tool, but please just be reasonable and rational about it - posts about items on a hero are not unique nor is it specific (just one of the many examples). If you did use the search tool and really couldn’t find anything, but feel that the infomation might be out there already, then state that you did that in your starting post. In addition to then posting the body of your thread, also ask if anybody has links to other similar threads or specific keywords to help you find the older posts. Also browse the forum area where you think a thread should be (I’ll talk about forum areas in the next part). Once again, this is being proactive in the forums.

Posting A New Topic - Areas:

You’ve been through the library and used the search tool and feel confident about the thread you want to post - just one more thing before you actually post though. There are number of different areas you can start a new thread in – some with relevance to different things about DotA, and some without any relevance at all. There are about four areas which receive most of the action here at DS – I’ll discuss what should go where with regards to those. The areas are very specific and people don't seem to read the fine print under the bold heading.

Questions and Answers:
Here you post questions on how to play the game. There are very specific words there – “how to play the game”. So just because you’re asking a question, it doesn’t mean that it belongs here. Your question has to be about gameplay. So, “How do I creep block?”, “Where are the juking areas?”, “What’s an effective way to deny/last hit?” – these are all viable. “How does DotA make you feel inside?” does not belong here. There are separate areas for questions involving items and heroes so those don’t belong here either
Heroes:
Post your questions, discussions, and strategy on heroes here. If your post has to do with items and heroes, then if the focus is more on the hero side it can still go here (e.g. which heroes should use {item name}).
Items:
Post your questions and discussions on items here. With a reversal from the heroes area, if your post has to do with items and heroes and focuses more on the item side of things then it goes here (e.g. which items are good on most heroes).
General Discussions:
Post anything else about DotA here that does not fit in any of the three posts above – simple as that. Here you can post about the fuzzy feelings that DotA gives you and so on – just as long as it has something to do with DotA. Jokes are not welcome as there is a special area for that as well.

Side Note: When replying to a topic, don't be too loose with sarcasm or the not so obvious joke. I can guarantee that 90% of the members here won't know you well enough to know when you're doing that - even if you've been a member for quite a while.

What happened to my thread?

You may find yourself in a situation where you have started a new thread, and soon after it gets locked. This will happen for a number of different reasons, but more often than not, a mod will either tell you to use the search tool (and he’ll probably provide the link to it), or provide the link of a similar existing thread, and subsequently close your thread. Normally when that happens you’ll also find that other members who’ve responded to your post have also mentioned searching and/or checking out the library or looking in the forums.

For the most part, people will tell you these things because they have seen the threads before and know that they do exist already, and if there’s one thing that just annoys existing members (and the mods) is seeing the same threads over and over. Do not take it personally, and actually take their advice and put a little more effort into searching. Most importantly, do not start another thread to whine about your closed thread. If you really feel that it was not fair for a mod to close your thread, then PM whoever closed it (or just any mod) and state your case in a reasonable manner. That will also earn you respect points with the mods. This may not get your topic unlocked but they will then at least provide full reasoning for why it was closed.

So this concludes my “guide” on how to be a better new member. Hope it helps some of you new members, and perhaps even some not so new ones. Go out there, have fun, stay active, and become proactive.
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Last edited by Wii<R>venom on Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:53 am; edited 8 times in total