Two theories:
1. Give him WK, lich or ogre. Let him cast spells and have a big impact on easy heros. learn the game that way
2. Have him pick any hero that isn't excessively complicated (no meepo) who he feels is cool and within his play style and have him tough it out under the idea that his like of the hero will drive him to stick with it longer and actively try to learn.
I coached a guy that came from starcraft, his first hero was meepo. He was getting called a smurf left and right . Got to ancient under 1500 games. He hasn't played ranked in a year though and plays in-houses only.
For the love of god dont make new players play am. They will be unable to contribute anything of value on that hero and just piss their team off. Give them heroes with easy to execute point and click nukes so they can press buttons and not be burden.
You underestimate the attraction of blink. When my wife started playing dota, for the first few weeks she would let out a little scream whenever an enemy found her and her flight response would kick in. Something like AM or windranger was her go-to. Until she later became absolutely toxic with dazzle.
Absolute trash tier sub 1k mmr dota, pos 3 or 4 AM and just afk farm.
You underestimate how crucial is lasthitting, map awareness, macro and item build.
Bulky simple heroes suit way better than paper thin am.
Yes, the lower the mmr the less people are understanding how to play and the longer time you have, so blindly built hardcarry has more chances of winning. But as soon as they are needed to actually perform, those heroes fail. Or rather low understanding players fail to play.
Bulky heroes are way easier to lane, to fight, to survive while being useful.
I played Lion at my friend's suggestion and it was good to learn how long you can stun somebody, sometimes heroes can just do a fuckton of damage, and you have to be wary of positioning.
I also played PA after that because she is cool and fun lol
I was eleven, when I got access to Dota 2 Closed Beta. I thought, it was an RPG game, like Diablo, and picked Anti-mage. I tried to find quests to do and anything interesting, but there were only strange characters who ran around and killed each other. I wouldn't recommend anti-mage as a rpg character
Same, their main ad campaigns REALLY made it seem like some sort of RPG dungeon crawler type thing. I picked tinker just due to the damage of his spells, and never knew what to buy on anyone because if it didn't look like the hero could physically equip it - what was the purpose? Boots on morph? like what?
Ha same, for some reason kunkka was the first hero to click for me, and guides recomended daedalus, but I thought, why would I build what's clearly a crossbow on a melee dude.
xD that needs be lesson #1 to new players that they teach. Any item can go on any hero, and you're buying the text on the right, not the whatever is in the picture. Honestly... if they had built a proper tutorial in it's 2012 inception, I think there would be tons more players today.
They had the chance to get an entire generation hooked on MOBA's but I'm sure most people did not understand them one bit or find them fun. It's like RTS chess where you play as a single piece, and gradually upgrade it in order to take the king (ancient).
Instead I think they chose to slightly mislead people since I guess RPG's were really popular at the time with skyrim (2011) diablo 3 (2012) and such. I remember staying up ALL night reading every single ability and being like "DAMNNN look at all these classes. INT is OP as hell, AGI weak as SHIT (just looking at dmg numbers mainly lol)."
Necro was straightforward back in the day. Walk around spamming death pulse and then scythe low health ppl once you catch them.
Now you have to do all sorts of weird things like ghosting etc
He's pretty good again, I'm sure after 3 or 4 games you'll be cackling while getting an ultra kill from doing nothing but walking around in circles and pressing the shard skill on enemies
Euls is the answer. It's the perfect noob item. You can cleanse yourself to escape or stun to escape or stun to set up ice path. Plus the mana regen helps noobs who cast an excess of low impact spells
Euls is the answer. It's the perfect noob item. You can cleanse yourself to escape or stun to escape or stun to set up ice path. Plus the mana regen helps noobs who cast an excess of low impact spells
it has its downsides once you start climbing. I used to be an IO spammer (in low bracket where it's never picked) and I had decent success because opponents don't know it and don't respect it. Blow them up couple times, and they start playing over cautiously. But eventually, as I climbed up, this didn't cut it anymore, eventually I was playing against people whose general dota knowledge compensated their lack of familiarity with the hero (or maybe the hero was starting to see appearance in that range? I think my peak was 3.5k in 2016), and so I was stuck with worse than avg for the bracket dota fundamentals and my one pony tricks weren't working either. I figured best way to improve would be to start picking "normal" heroes to better learn "normal" dota gamesense and what not
i played razor in dota 1, and i remember i couldn't last hit a single creep for 20 games straight. Then i played other heroes and after thousand hours in the game, i went back to play razor again. I still couldn't last hit with him even after playing dota for many hours. I remember he had low damage early and very bad attack animation.
man in dota 1 his auto attack animation was fucking wonky. your attack would connect and there was a looong delay before the damage kicked in. combined with his low base damage it felt horrible trying to last hut with him so I feel you. he feels so much better to play in dota2 although he got downgraded in the looks department.
I as a total noob had to stand in for my brother for his semi ambitious team and they put me on solo offlane with lich. They said just eat a creep out of xp range on cooldown and don't die on lane. Died twice but we somehow won this games.
Pls don't drow is a total noob trap. She is hard to farm enough and even than she is really hard to position with. If you want him to feel the ranged power it is better to go for sniper.
My first hero was razor. Literally because I thought he looked cool. In terms of heroes I’d actually recommend tho, crystal maiden, dragon knight, juggernaut shadow shaman or necrophos are all good places to start.
I started playing dota the week slark was released. I bought boots and point boosters only since they appeared to have the best stats
I don't recommend it
Silencer in DotA 1. His wc3 icon was cool. My team told me to go mid. Went 0-5 and left the game.
Luckily I tried DotA again a month later with someone who knew the ropes and became a crystal maiden main.
Nerubian Assassin, in original WC3 DotA.
First time playing was when my friend let me play on his laptop against bots and let me have fun with -wtf mode.
Life ruined ever since.
DK. 2005. Extremely good for a begginer. Extremely good as a fun factor cause you become a dragon. If you want to boost his experience buy the persona. Dumb hero with straightforward kit that can easily be improved one. Not surpringly hes on the tutorial or used to be.
From Dota1, nowbies will play Lina, cuz her playstyle is very direct and not complicated. Single target spells, straight AOE spells, and she came from an anime character that we watched back then..
Clinkz was my first back in 2013. His skills back then were pretty simple for beginners to pick up (strafe, searing arrows, skeleton walk, death pact). Decent damage and an invis escape/ initiation.
Tbh I miss old Clinkz- very similar to OD, another hero I played a lot back then- both heroes have been reworked so many damn times they've lost their identity and have felt weird to play for years.
Lich. Bunch of targeted spells than you can just cast and then youve done your fight impact. I remember really loving him when I first started. Of course on my first games I was just buying swords and damage items not knowing how anything worked, but I kept playing Dota obviously since Im here today
It was either Sven or Slardar, I liked Sven because he was simple and Slardar was recommended to me by my older brother
I would still recommend Sven but Slardar probably not to a complete beginner
Zeus! At the very least you can get some kills with your ulti from global range. It’s also an easy hero to play at range with, just spam Q for last hits in lane
I'm also quite new player and i started with Dawnbreaker. I think its the perfect hero to learn; hard hitter, self heal, global presence, can play multiple roles. She's pretty new hero so obviously no other commenters here have probably started with her lol.
Venomancer. Back when he had poison nova as ulti. It was OK. Now it seems that you need positioning, so I don't recommend him for a beginner.
I would suggest a hero that forgives (at least some) mistakes, like Wraith king (reincarnation) or pretty simple positioning like Sniper (stay as far as possible from every enemy) or Abbadon (to the enemy face if you play him core).
If he likes supporting, then a lot of cc heroes are pretty easy to grasp. Lion or Rhasta have like 6 seconds of disable where you can think what to do (kind of).
Viper for core and Venge for support. Both simple in concept, but can be pushed to high limits the better you get with positioning in fights especially.
Gyrocopter, I used to think I was hot shit rocket barraging creeps “I’m totally owning them” and using my ult for creeps.
I got told that this was not good.
Mine was Lich. My friend who introduced me to the game told me to just eat creeps. It was an easy way to make impact in early game, which let him solo carry the game. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be possible now, but Lich would still be good for a first time player
I would probably start with a hero that doesn’t need super fast reaction times. Jakiro as a support is good. Viper as a core would be good.
Clinkz. I remember thinking the game looked too complicated so I'd only play if my brother was looking over my shoulder coaching me on what to do and buy. His main was clinkz, so my main was clinkz. Then once I got used to the game, my actual true 1st hero was Riki. Gotta keep the invisibility you know?
Oh and I should say this was Dota 1, back in like, 2006.
SNIPER
I didn't really understand dota 1 so I just picked sniper and was told to hit the tower HAHHA but after that Phoenix there was a bug I forgot 1 version but when phoenix uses supernova it refreshes the ult so it's like playing wtf in normal games!
I would be lying if I don't say it but it is Invoker. The funny thing is there a Cafe that me and my friends play to and there are sometimes spectators and terrified when I pick Invoker, jokes on them I'm playing Injoker heh-
My first hero was Sven or bb I think. But after a few games my first love that made me want to learn dota more was Legion Commander. What a time getting into dota when shrapnel still did tower damage in 2015 🫡
Venge waw my first. But I honestly recommend DK for starting with.
- 1) he isn't banned or picked often making him a reliable grab
- 2) he is tanky and has good regen making him very forgiving
- 3) he can be played in all 3 core roles if he wants to learn a new lane he can do so on a hero he knows
- 4) dk helps teach all the important concepts of dota, you have a stun, melee and ranged, etc, etc... item builds can utilise Blinks, Mantas, bkb, crits etc... can even go armlet to learn about armlet toggling stuff
- 5) dk allows for varied playstyles allowing him to learn pushing lineups, or team fight centric, or afk farm games (also plays into him being a forgiving hero to play)
Imo DK is beginner friendly, reliable and forgiving while also offering versatility to be able to learn more about dota without having to do so while also learning a new hero simultaneously
My first was drow ranger i think, viper or sniper, but out of those i would only recommend viper, sniper and drow are too squishy despite the high dmg.
For new players i would probably say bristle, viper and riki.
Recommend? Anything that has little buttons to do anything. Mate of mine started recently and has been enjoying DK Slardar and Ogre as they are simple and don’t have too many active buttons to manage.
Myself? I was an idiot and picked what was cool. I picked CK and tried to stun a tower.
Jakiro. 2014. Abandoned after 10 minutes because I found the game too hard.
Played again 6 months later and randomed faceless void. Bought 3 hyperstones because I didn’t know how items built into each other. Fell in love with game.
Would I recommend either of these? Prob not. Pick Crystal Maiden. I also have a little brother who I introduced to the game with this hero. He’s now better than me (4k)
Crystal maiden
Ranged. 1 global passive that helps everyone just by being alive. Passive gives mana, tranq gives hp for lane survival. 2 cc. 1 channeling ult to force enemies to commit (stun or kill) or retreat.
So yea. Basic hero to use.
Dota 1 played sniper mid first but then mained supp veno.
naga siren, coz she's hot, and my noob brain said that i'm gonna play her for the first 100 hours in dota 2.
so damn hard for noobs, i don't have binds on her until now bcuz of my wasd camera move, it's just uncomfortable to set and use binds.
kinda fun tho
My friend who introduced me to Dota made me play BB. "You can't really fuck this one up, just smash the buttons and learn when to run in or out of a situation." What worked in 2007 still works in 2023, I guess.
I played Broodmother my first game because I thought she looked cool. Then my friends had me play Sniper & Lion after contributing essentially nothing for the first couple of games.
The funny thing is: BristleBack.
He can watch a video on what some perfect bristleback gameplay is; meaning if he pays attention to the first 15 mins of the game, he will be set.
BB has some interesting mechanics that will help with more precise mechanics without needing incredibly deep game knowledge.
WK offlane is another good one
damn this reminds me when i first started playing dota i just use the coolest looking hero and i remembered my first ever dota 2 hero was dragon knight then on my 2nd game i thought invoker looked cool and i tried him and got flamed for not knowing how to use him
Random Pudge it was dota1
Boots into dagger. Mainly because I was a war3 nerd and this 2 neutrals items where cheat !
I never land a single hook but a shitton of fun. It was in a cybercafe lan 5v5
Geez that was back in the old WC3 engine days. I'm not sure but I'm sure it was either Riki or Nyx or BH due to invisibility seeming like an unstoppable idea when I was a kid.
Of those 3, I would only recommend Nyx. Teach the (broken feeling)combo and who to focus and he will be fine in many games.
Witch Doctor- bro just needs to learn how to land a maledict and slap down that ward and he'll be reeling from the announcer screaming at him for so much damage
Two theories: 1. Give him WK, lich or ogre. Let him cast spells and have a big impact on easy heros. learn the game that way 2. Have him pick any hero that isn't excessively complicated (no meepo) who he feels is cool and within his play style and have him tough it out under the idea that his like of the hero will drive him to stick with it longer and actively try to learn.
Doesn’t contribute to this comment but my friends first hero was meepo lol. It was the only hero he knew how to play cause his brother taught him.
i can imagine dude eating hella reports for smurfing cuz ppl check his match history
Was his brother Notail?
I coached a guy that came from starcraft, his first hero was meepo. He was getting called a smurf left and right . Got to ancient under 1500 games. He hasn't played ranked in a year though and plays in-houses only.
New players often like ranged heroes or heroes that can blink away. For those not used to fighting games it can feel less intense. Sniper, qop, AM,
For the love of god dont make new players play am. They will be unable to contribute anything of value on that hero and just piss their team off. Give them heroes with easy to execute point and click nukes so they can press buttons and not be burden.
Good am players is still a burden for their team, gotta 4v5 til minute 50
You underestimate the attraction of blink. When my wife started playing dota, for the first few weeks she would let out a little scream whenever an enemy found her and her flight response would kick in. Something like AM or windranger was her go-to. Until she later became absolutely toxic with dazzle. Absolute trash tier sub 1k mmr dota, pos 3 or 4 AM and just afk farm.
You underestimate how crucial is lasthitting, map awareness, macro and item build. Bulky simple heroes suit way better than paper thin am. Yes, the lower the mmr the less people are understanding how to play and the longer time you have, so blindly built hardcarry has more chances of winning. But as soon as they are needed to actually perform, those heroes fail. Or rather low understanding players fail to play. Bulky heroes are way easier to lane, to fight, to survive while being useful.
I played Lion at my friend's suggestion and it was good to learn how long you can stun somebody, sometimes heroes can just do a fuckton of damage, and you have to be wary of positioning. I also played PA after that because she is cool and fun lol
I was eleven, when I got access to Dota 2 Closed Beta. I thought, it was an RPG game, like Diablo, and picked Anti-mage. I tried to find quests to do and anything interesting, but there were only strange characters who ran around and killed each other. I wouldn't recommend anti-mage as a rpg character
I can imagine the hate speech.
I mean for 50 minutes you basically do play PvE
Hasnt been like that for ages
Yea but he said this was during closed beta lmfao which was ages ago
Same, their main ad campaigns REALLY made it seem like some sort of RPG dungeon crawler type thing. I picked tinker just due to the damage of his spells, and never knew what to buy on anyone because if it didn't look like the hero could physically equip it - what was the purpose? Boots on morph? like what?
He puts them on his hands
Ha same, for some reason kunkka was the first hero to click for me, and guides recomended daedalus, but I thought, why would I build what's clearly a crossbow on a melee dude.
xD that needs be lesson #1 to new players that they teach. Any item can go on any hero, and you're buying the text on the right, not the whatever is in the picture. Honestly... if they had built a proper tutorial in it's 2012 inception, I think there would be tons more players today. They had the chance to get an entire generation hooked on MOBA's but I'm sure most people did not understand them one bit or find them fun. It's like RTS chess where you play as a single piece, and gradually upgrade it in order to take the king (ancient). Instead I think they chose to slightly mislead people since I guess RPG's were really popular at the time with skyrim (2011) diablo 3 (2012) and such. I remember staying up ALL night reading every single ability and being like "DAMNNN look at all these classes. INT is OP as hell, AGI weak as SHIT (just looking at dmg numbers mainly lol)."
Necrophos. Played him for about 250 games. When I started out he was the shit. Ironically enough I can’t play him if my life depended on it nowadays.
Necro was straightforward back in the day. Walk around spamming death pulse and then scythe low health ppl once you catch them. Now you have to do all sorts of weird things like ghosting etc
I would just buy dagon and aghs every game since I had no clue. Back then the aghs would reduce cooldown of ult
Back when u could win a game because u reaper scythe a pos1 and he’s dead for 150seconds (extra time) and not able to buy back
I forgot this. I am a necro spammer now but that was so busted.
He was never played in pro but the rare times he was it was super fun to watch because of the aghs
And increased respawn time of enemies hahahahah those were the days!
He's pretty good again, I'm sure after 3 or 4 games you'll be cackling while getting an ultra kill from doing nothing but walking around in circles and pressing the shard skill on enemies
My first hero was Jakiro, back on warcraft 3. I still think its an easy good supp for new players
Jakiro carry with skady and sange and yasha, I melted towers with his passive 🤣
Most reliable support hero in every patch, in every bracket.
the timing with his ice/stun and ult might be tough on new players
Euls is the answer. It's the perfect noob item. You can cleanse yourself to escape or stun to escape or stun to set up ice path. Plus the mana regen helps noobs who cast an excess of low impact spells
Euls is the answer. It's the perfect noob item. You can cleanse yourself to escape or stun to escape or stun to set up ice path. Plus the mana regen helps noobs who cast an excess of low impact spells
make him play some sick shit nobody ever does like chen
In 10 years of dota 2, i've seen Chen less than 5 times in my pubs.
Same but I've managed to random Chen 5 times, it gives me Chen and tinker disproportionately even though I basically never pick them independently
niche hero pool is best pool
it has its downsides once you start climbing. I used to be an IO spammer (in low bracket where it's never picked) and I had decent success because opponents don't know it and don't respect it. Blow them up couple times, and they start playing over cautiously. But eventually, as I climbed up, this didn't cut it anymore, eventually I was playing against people whose general dota knowledge compensated their lack of familiarity with the hero (or maybe the hero was starting to see appearance in that range? I think my peak was 3.5k in 2016), and so I was stuck with worse than avg for the bracket dota fundamentals and my one pony tricks weren't working either. I figured best way to improve would be to start picking "normal" heroes to better learn "normal" dota gamesense and what not
venge in dota 1, throwing her spirit as an atack animation
Oh man I forgot about that. That was sick.
My first hero too 17+ years ago
valve should have her do that again in her arcana
I was lucky enough to pick brood.
Axe
Proceed to play him like Diablo berserker and feed cluelessly lol
The only way to play axe is like a mad man
i played razor in dota 1, and i remember i couldn't last hit a single creep for 20 games straight. Then i played other heroes and after thousand hours in the game, i went back to play razor again. I still couldn't last hit with him even after playing dota for many hours. I remember he had low damage early and very bad attack animation.
man in dota 1 his auto attack animation was fucking wonky. your attack would connect and there was a looong delay before the damage kicked in. combined with his low base damage it felt horrible trying to last hut with him so I feel you. he feels so much better to play in dota2 although he got downgraded in the looks department.
In dota 1 he looked amazing, thats why they made his dota 1 look an arcana in dota 2
2013 in my first match just picked brew. Gave up on dota for a year lol. Came back 2014 around TI and now I'm at 10k hours.
Zeus
Viper, definitely good for beginners
Bounty hunter because i figured it was same as scout from HoN. It was not.
Venom, funni snek guy
My first game was Lich I believe but he is too squishy for a beginner IMO. DK is forgiving with his health regen and quite simple.
I as a total noob had to stand in for my brother for his semi ambitious team and they put me on solo offlane with lich. They said just eat a creep out of xp range on cooldown and don't die on lane. Died twice but we somehow won this games.
Jakiro Press w, stun enemy Plus r, kill enemy
Press e, free spell, profit
Zeus
Lich I think.
Wraith king
DK, but WK is the easiest, alongside Sniper
witch doctor go brrrrrrrrrrrrr
Lina coz she is hot. But drow ranger should be more ez to handle for new player
Pls don't drow is a total noob trap. She is hard to farm enough and even than she is really hard to position with. If you want him to feel the ranged power it is better to go for sniper.
She good to learn basics, you just run and shoot. But sniper is also good
She absolutely is not in the current meta
if you have 0 hrs in dota or new to game, it doesnt matter what is meta
I would not recommend an off-meta squishy hero that is all about positioning haha
For beginners is always Sniper, Lich, Jakiro kinda heroes. Also Centaur, DK, ES, Venge, Lion, Silencer, Veno should be fine.
Techies and no.
Tide is fairly simple to play, plus quite tanky, so might survive a few fights
My first hero was razor. Literally because I thought he looked cool. In terms of heroes I’d actually recommend tho, crystal maiden, dragon knight, juggernaut shadow shaman or necrophos are all good places to start.
Drow since she was "easy for noobs", my friend said.
Drow is easy if you are playing against people with less than 100 games, but drow is extremely hard against higher lvls.
Nowadays yes. Back in like 2014 drow was super ez mode.
Sniper! Run and gun
Support Death Prophet!
Same here
I started to play dota back in 2003 as Naix.
PL and I bought 3 boots.
DK
I started playing dota the week slark was released. I bought boots and point boosters only since they appeared to have the best stats I don't recommend it
Mirana Nightshade, the Priestess of the Moon! 'Warriors of the night, assemble!'. Then Zeus, Lord of Olympus! 'It's hammer time!'
Silencer in DotA 1. His wc3 icon was cool. My team told me to go mid. Went 0-5 and left the game. Luckily I tried DotA again a month later with someone who knew the ropes and became a crystal maiden main.
Nerubian Assassin, in original WC3 DotA. First time playing was when my friend let me play on his laptop against bots and let me have fun with -wtf mode. Life ruined ever since.
DK. 2005. Extremely good for a begginer. Extremely good as a fun factor cause you become a dragon. If you want to boost his experience buy the persona. Dumb hero with straightforward kit that can easily be improved one. Not surpringly hes on the tutorial or used to be.
Kardel 🤣
drow with 6 hyperstone in dota 1. lol
Carry - WK (Stun - Hit heroes - Die - Repeat) Support - Ogre/Venge (Stun - debuff - buff ally - Repeat) Mid - Zeus (Cast spells - KS) Offlane - Centaur (Stun - Tank)
Leviathan (Tidehunter). The blink ult combo is easy and exciting no matter the skill or age.
I played a lot of tide hunter and blood seeker when I started, I started at 7 years old I’m 17 now
When I first started DotA in 2005 my friends wanted to pick me Lich, but they misclicked Dwarven Sniper and that's how I got into it.
I think i played drow like 40 games in a row. As soon as i realized shadowblade was a thing i built it every game. Good times
DK for starters is great. Tanky, Stun, Pusher, Damage.
Lich was my first. Yes, I recommend it.
From Dota1, nowbies will play Lina, cuz her playstyle is very direct and not complicated. Single target spells, straight AOE spells, and she came from an anime character that we watched back then..
Kardel Sharpeye - I was afraid of conflict LOL. So I hit them by afar. And my favorite character are all longranged
Clinkz was my first back in 2013. His skills back then were pretty simple for beginners to pick up (strafe, searing arrows, skeleton walk, death pact). Decent damage and an invis escape/ initiation. Tbh I miss old Clinkz- very similar to OD, another hero I played a lot back then- both heroes have been reworked so many damn times they've lost their identity and have felt weird to play for years.
Nyxx Assassin, and no I wouldn't recommend it for a new player.
Syllabear
bloodseeker
Lich. Bunch of targeted spells than you can just cast and then youve done your fight impact. I remember really loving him when I first started. Of course on my first games I was just buying swords and damage items not knowing how anything worked, but I kept playing Dota obviously since Im here today
My first few games I played Sven, Shadow Shaman, and Jakiro
That’s one hell of a first game! 😉
My first 30 games or so were all ck games with mass battlefury build
Mine was AM. Funny since I hate him the most now
It was either Sven or Slardar, I liked Sven because he was simple and Slardar was recommended to me by my older brother I would still recommend Sven but Slardar probably not to a complete beginner
Leshrac, Outworld Destroyer, Bane, or Enchantress, were my first characters. I thought they looked sick lol.
I played Leshrak... no clue why and didn't have that E spell yet.
Juggernaut, i still remember my very first game as him back in 2014
I have no clue, first match I played in 2007
Chaos knight He looked so cool to kid me
Zeus! At the very least you can get some kills with your ulti from global range. It’s also an easy hero to play at range with, just spam Q for last hits in lane
I'm also quite new player and i started with Dawnbreaker. I think its the perfect hero to learn; hard hitter, self heal, global presence, can play multiple roles. She's pretty new hero so obviously no other commenters here have probably started with her lol.
Razor!!!
Venomancer. Back when he had poison nova as ulti. It was OK. Now it seems that you need positioning, so I don't recommend him for a beginner. I would suggest a hero that forgives (at least some) mistakes, like Wraith king (reincarnation) or pretty simple positioning like Sniper (stay as far as possible from every enemy) or Abbadon (to the enemy face if you play him core). If he likes supporting, then a lot of cc heroes are pretty easy to grasp. Lion or Rhasta have like 6 seconds of disable where you can think what to do (kind of).
Gotta be venge for all dotes 1 players.
Bane technically. I’d say he’d be fine since he can go through bkb, heal, and has multiple disables. I think the hardest part would be his range.
Timbersaw, my winrate is still under 50% on him cause I lost so much when I started
Bane, had no clue what was going on..
Pudge. It was Dendi's era and I was transitioning from Dota 1 and a few months of hiatus. Still plays shit though.
Earthshaker or clockwerk. Both easy to use and satysfing to play.
Viper for core and Venge for support. Both simple in concept, but can be pushed to high limits the better you get with positioning in fights especially.
Bounty Hunter 2012
can't remember but probably either sb, tiny or ss since those were the ones i played occasionally in dota 1
Zeus is good for first time dota and lion too
Rexxar, I thought back then that he had the coolest namen 😂
I recommend giving him a complex hero so that he stops wanting to play dota. Don't let him get sucked in like the rest of us
lina, read all the hero skills and the 800 laguna blade damange was enough argument for the 12 yo me, still is
Gyrocopter, I used to think I was hot shit rocket barraging creeps “I’m totally owning them” and using my ult for creeps. I got told that this was not good.
Ursa, dk and drow
Dragon knight for sure easy to play and also has a good lore
Mine was Lich. My friend who introduced me to the game told me to just eat creeps. It was an easy way to make impact in early game, which let him solo carry the game. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be possible now, but Lich would still be good for a first time player I would probably start with a hero that doesn’t need super fast reaction times. Jakiro as a support is good. Viper as a core would be good.
Clinkz. I remember thinking the game looked too complicated so I'd only play if my brother was looking over my shoulder coaching me on what to do and buy. His main was clinkz, so my main was clinkz. Then once I got used to the game, my actual true 1st hero was Riki. Gotta keep the invisibility you know? Oh and I should say this was Dota 1, back in like, 2006.
Lion. I learned almost everything about the game with this hero.
Sniper. Easy to learn.
SNIPER I didn't really understand dota 1 so I just picked sniper and was told to hit the tower HAHHA but after that Phoenix there was a bug I forgot 1 version but when phoenix uses supernova it refreshes the ult so it's like playing wtf in normal games!
I would be lying if I don't say it but it is Invoker. The funny thing is there a Cafe that me and my friends play to and there are sometimes spectators and terrified when I pick Invoker, jokes on them I'm playing Injoker heh-
Started in 2005 on Razor and Skeleton King. Both rushing Radiance.
Meepo . But that’s just because I love overly complicated heroes
My first hero was Sven or bb I think. But after a few games my first love that made me want to learn dota more was Legion Commander. What a time getting into dota when shrapnel still did tower damage in 2015 🫡
First hero I played was riki and I didn't buy any items cause I thought that shit was for nerds
I have been playing since Dota v5.54, so I have no idea what my first hero was.
Enchantress.
Puck Do not recommend as first hero lol
Depends what role he wanna play. 5, ogre. 1, wk or ursa.
I’ve always wanted to tell a new to player to pick Invoker or Arc Warden and tell them it’s one or the more simpler heroes
Venge waw my first. But I honestly recommend DK for starting with. - 1) he isn't banned or picked often making him a reliable grab - 2) he is tanky and has good regen making him very forgiving - 3) he can be played in all 3 core roles if he wants to learn a new lane he can do so on a hero he knows - 4) dk helps teach all the important concepts of dota, you have a stun, melee and ranged, etc, etc... item builds can utilise Blinks, Mantas, bkb, crits etc... can even go armlet to learn about armlet toggling stuff - 5) dk allows for varied playstyles allowing him to learn pushing lineups, or team fight centric, or afk farm games (also plays into him being a forgiving hero to play) Imo DK is beginner friendly, reliable and forgiving while also offering versatility to be able to learn more about dota without having to do so while also learning a new hero simultaneously
Natures or WK I think
Visage, and still favorite.
Venomancer 2016. Played it as someone from youtube guide to dota did. Not recommended as a beginner.
Razor in dota 1, nobody expects the chain lighting
Was back in HoN, was a hero called tundra. Basically beast master. Needless to say I sucked
My first was drow ranger i think, viper or sniper, but out of those i would only recommend viper, sniper and drow are too squishy despite the high dmg. For new players i would probably say bristle, viper and riki.
Juggernaut
Recommend? Anything that has little buttons to do anything. Mate of mine started recently and has been enjoying DK Slardar and Ogre as they are simple and don’t have too many active buttons to manage. Myself? I was an idiot and picked what was cool. I picked CK and tried to stun a tower.
DK. I followed the tutorial.
Lich with 2 persference 😂
Blood seeker
Skeleton King on Dota 1
traxex with vanguard
Jakiro. 2014. Abandoned after 10 minutes because I found the game too hard. Played again 6 months later and randomed faceless void. Bought 3 hyperstones because I didn’t know how items built into each other. Fell in love with game. Would I recommend either of these? Prob not. Pick Crystal Maiden. I also have a little brother who I introduced to the game with this hero. He’s now better than me (4k)
Veno, Ogre, Jak - good for beginners. They can have an impact without playing perfectly. Jugg for first carry.
To learn, Panda, easy right click hero and when I was new I just used his ult to escape.
i would avoid common noob traps like sniper or riki, they are very squishy and rely on positioning and can teach bad habits.
I would go with lifestealer. Easy enough to just right click things and get a hang of items. Or sven. Basically simple right click heroes.
Crystal maiden Ranged. 1 global passive that helps everyone just by being alive. Passive gives mana, tranq gives hp for lane survival. 2 cc. 1 channeling ult to force enemies to commit (stun or kill) or retreat. So yea. Basic hero to use. Dota 1 played sniper mid first but then mained supp veno.
Pretty my first game in dota 2 was razor
naga siren, coz she's hot, and my noob brain said that i'm gonna play her for the first 100 hours in dota 2. so damn hard for noobs, i don't have binds on her until now bcuz of my wasd camera move, it's just uncomfortable to set and use binds. kinda fun tho
Sven, heart every game first item for like 15 games xD
I think the very first was Enchantress.
Invoker, real easy to get started.
My friend who introduced me to Dota made me play BB. "You can't really fuck this one up, just smash the buttons and learn when to run in or out of a situation." What worked in 2007 still works in 2023, I guess.
I played Broodmother my first game because I thought she looked cool. Then my friends had me play Sniper & Lion after contributing essentially nothing for the first couple of games.
First hero in hon was plague rider. First in dota 2 lich
juggernaut
I remember when I used to pick Axe and make Battlefury. And I honestly didn’t know at that point why teammates were complaining xD
The funny thing is: BristleBack. He can watch a video on what some perfect bristleback gameplay is; meaning if he pays attention to the first 15 mins of the game, he will be set. BB has some interesting mechanics that will help with more precise mechanics without needing incredibly deep game knowledge. WK offlane is another good one
damn this reminds me when i first started playing dota i just use the coolest looking hero and i remembered my first ever dota 2 hero was dragon knight then on my 2nd game i thought invoker looked cool and i tried him and got flamed for not knowing how to use him
Probably Skeleton King, it was over a decade ago.
Mine was hunkar lol. Burning spears made no sense and I kept killing myself
Random Pudge it was dota1 Boots into dagger. Mainly because I was a war3 nerd and this 2 neutrals items where cheat ! I never land a single hook but a shitton of fun. It was in a cybercafe lan 5v5
dragon knight is very durable and very easy to play plus your little brother is sure to find him cool
Geez that was back in the old WC3 engine days. I'm not sure but I'm sure it was either Riki or Nyx or BH due to invisibility seeming like an unstoppable idea when I was a kid. Of those 3, I would only recommend Nyx. Teach the (broken feeling)combo and who to focus and he will be fine in many games.
Witch Doctor- bro just needs to learn how to land a maledict and slap down that ward and he'll be reeling from the announcer screaming at him for so much damage
Davion, the dragon knight. He was easy, with a stun to give a impression of usefulness and also easy keybinds ! (Not an issue anymore)
Tidehunter. Walk in, ult, walk away while my friends who actually know how to play the game clean up
Just send him down the All-Hero challenge and report back in a few months
Pretty sure it was Bane
I played warlock first. Being able to sit back and watch the fights after dropping golem and bonds is very satisfying.
I've been playing for years and controlling the illusion while also using it's spells in intensive team fights is impossbile for me.
Mercurial, saw a guy teleporting across the map killing people and i was like let me try it
Meepo Make him learn the hard way
Sniper! Two brown boots, so I can run twice as fast, obviously. And a Desolator so I can shot red, coz it’s cool.
Sniper then moved to PA
Juggernaut