DOTADOTADOTADOTA

So, if you've read my previous posts, you would know that I do play League of Legends. Which kind of came from Dota.


Well, Dota2 is coming out this October but the public beta is already open on Steam. Unfortunately, you need a beta key which you get by doing a survey and then pray to god(or whomever you worship) that your name comes up from a ballot. 


Sidenote [Can you imagine if some girl actually gets a beta key for her boyfriend?]


Girl: Hey honey, guess what I got for you? The Dota2 public beta key!!!


Guy: OMGWTFBBQHOWDIDYOUGEDDIT?


Girl: Oh, just lucky. And having 500 connections with nerds-who-want-to-touch-my-ass-but-will-never-get-a-chance-to. Enjoy!!! Oh and I was thinking maybe we can go out this Sunday to.......


Guy: OMG THIS IS GREAT, NOW I'M GOING TO LOCK MYSELF IN MY ROOM AND NEVER COME OUT!!!! FOR 2 WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!! (because that's how long the beta key lasts, apparently)


Girl: Erm, what?


Guy: What? I'm enjoying your present to me.


Girl: But..... but...... but.......


Guy: Thanks, babe. I'm going to play this as soon as I get home. Oh, and I might be so distracted from it that I might forget to check my phone or reply your messages. Sorry babe, hope you understand.


Girl: But..... but.......


Guy: Bye, love you!!!


Girl: But......




My imagination distracts me so much.


But you're prolly wondering what I'm doing blogging if I have that beta key. (Or maybe not. Shut up)


I don't have the beta key. But my local LAN shop has it.


So about 60-70 of their coms has Dota2. And works pretty fine.


I don't know why I'm bragging. 


A couple of friends told me that piece of news, so I flew down to give it a try.


So here officially starts the nerd talk of Dota2. 

Reasons why DOTA2 is awesome.

Firstly,  lets get the fact that Icefrog, creator and updater of the current Dota map files, helped in making this out of the way.


Secondly, the game lobby is very similar to the NA League's. Its slightly messy, in my opinion, but its enough for the first timer to understand how to play. 


Oh, when you first log in, the game attempts to get a clue on how good you are. If you pick beginner, the game attempts to teach you basics of the game. If you pick familiar, you get to skip the tutorial but you are unable to join draft games. If you pick experienced, you get to skip and join draft games.


Thirdly, gameplay mechanics are still very similar to Dota. Although the animation is different, I find that every hero is still kept the same. I can see that Icefrog tried his best to keep things as close to Warcraft Dota as possible. 


Fourth, the voice that tells you a building is getting attacked is better. And hotter. But better. 

Reasons why I wouldn't buy DOTA2

Their new matchmaking system takes quite abit to start. I queued with 3 friends and started waiting for the match and it took around 10 minutes for a game to form. Previously, when we used Garena, we'd have to wait as short as 5 minutes to 20 minutes for a game. This doesn't sound like a flaw but its something I address, it takes quite awhile to start.


From experience, Steam games can't be tabbed out without risk of the program crashing. This makes the previous flaw more apparent because you're stuck waiting for matchmaking and you end up doing nothing for the 10 minutes you have to wait.


Also, to play with your friends, you have to make a party and then find your friends, who you probably can't see until you add them, and invite them to your party. Once this is done, you have to select where you want to play (they will match you to games in US, EU, SEA, etc.) which is quite complicated to anyone who wants to try out/new to Dota.


Overall, Dota2 was very well made and I do expect it to please the gaming community. The tutorial (I gave it a shot before leaving the LAN) was decently made and easy to understand. It is definitely a better experience than when I first started playing the Warcraft Dota. 


Certain things like last hitting, denying and warding became easier when I did them on Dota2, but others such as adding skill points, buying items, taking items while you're dead became harder. Certain functions such as the stash got me confused (My friend played SF and couldn't find his desolater because it was in his stash, which no one could find. It took a 5 minute check on the controls before he found it) and the core items needs some changing (I heard you can change your core build but I haven't tried it out yet. Shall do it when I am too bored being dead.)


So far I've only played Shadow Priest. Today I hope to try out my other 2 mains, Spectre and Lifestealer. 


Of course, I would still love to hear your opinion on Dota2, which is coming out this October and the public beta being out, so please do leave a comment below. Cheers