30-ish hours in DotA and still sucking, LOL in Adventure Log [01]

It’s almost midnight, and I’m still reading up on a lot of DotA-related stuff. I’ve only started playing last January 2, and I really want to get good at it. This game is…difficult.

Being an enthusiastic RPG player, I have been led to believe that I can defeat any enemy I encounter. During my first game, I found an enemy Hero at Level 1 like myself and decided to nuke it out mano-a-mano. I died, and decided to try again after respawning. I died again, and found myself in this toxic cycle of self-destruction just to get even.

Luther pointed out that the first minutes of the game isn’t about killing other players but to farm for experience and gold. It was such a weird concept for me. “What, both of us are going to farm in front of each other as if the other doesn’t exist? There’s a, what, mutual understanding between us?” I asked.

“…Yes,” he replied. I suppose he knew that I was going to understand this concept as I kept playing. It got quite boring for me since I seriously just want to kick some ass. I did what he told me anyway.

When I’ve had saved up a lot of money, I’d spend an eternity over at our base, wondering what the hell to buy. There were so many, and there were these recipes and item skills and whatever. Over time I realised that wasted time is wasted gold and EXP, so I have gone into the habit of asking Luther what I should buy whenever I have saved up. I can now make some decisions for myself after familiarizing the item list, but from time to time I still ask Luther for advice.

When it’s time to push, I get excited. Finally, my bloodthirsty desires are to be quenched. But of course, I would be horrendously underleveled since I don’t farm efficiently, and so I don’t get to do amazing stuff Luther does. “HOLY SHIT.” “OWNAGE!” “GODLIKE.” I get kind of jealous, but I understand that I would be able to do that if I am able to farm properly and actually understand item builds and my Hero’s skills.

What’s nice is that Luther tailors my item build to maximize my Hero’s qualities, and he still brings me along when laying siege upon the enemies’ base. He tells me what I could do, and we coordinate to disarm enemies and go for the kill. Whenever he takes charge, I can’t help but grow fond of him.

When we started our third game, we went with an ‘All Pick’ option, and I had the liberty to choose from the 100-ish Heroes. He suggested that I should probably practice with ranged-attack types to be on the safe side, but I really like swords. This is such a macho thing to say, haha. So I found this character, Rogue Knight, and thought he might be cool.

Good lawd, I’m addicted with Sven now. It is so tempting to play as him with every game. But I really try my hardest to try out other Heroes as well, especially since I need to familiarize everyone on the roster. Even though I found my staple Hero, I still suck. Less, anyway.

One time during an ‘All Random’ match, Luther got Sven. He gave me a quick glance, obviously watching for a grand reaction. I kept my cool despite being stuck with a difficult Hero. Throughout the game, Luther dominated with Sven in ways I could never imagine. Whenever I waited for respawn, I discreetly watched his gameplay in awe. (<- This is starting to sound like porn, haha!)

There were a lot of funny moments during our plays. One time he caught me off-guard during an intense battle, saying “You’re just clicking randomly, aren’t you?” Which was true, because I can hardly differentiate which my Hero and the enemies are. I wonder how he does it.

Sometimes when I roam around, I’d have my finger hovering over my Ultimate and Stun skills in case an enemy shows up. Ah, finally, a sucker to bully! “It’s me!” he’d say, because I keep forgetting who his character is. “Good thing there’s no friendly fire here, or I would’ve ruined our team somehow,” I joshed.

I played by myself one time to try out these item skills that you still need to activate. Hero skill activation alone is already taxing on me, so I needed to practice. I was in the midst of an exciting battle with an enemy Hero, and thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to use my item’s skill. I clicked excitedly and ended up dropping the damn thing in front of the enemy. I frantically clicked away trying to pick it up since it was quite expensive. After the game, I told Luther about it and we laughed so hard. “I OFFER YOU MY ITEM, PLEASE SPARE MY PITIFUL LIFE!” he added.

At this moment, I know enough to get around, but not good enough to be pitted in a pub game. I still can’t get satisfying kills even in a Custom Game by myself, and that’s what I want to work on. There are all sorts of things that make a player good, like Last Hitting, Lane Control, proper item buying progression, Warding and Runes, skill combos along with your teammates, and a lot more.

I’m honestly not that enthusiastic with the game, but Luther is the main reason I keep playing. Luther and I have played many games before, most of the time against each other. Tekken, Cabal, O2Jam, Dissidia, Soul Calibur. I owned him most of the time. Not this time. DotA is insanely complicated. Even if he has started playing many years before, I don’t want to use that excuse to lag behind.

That’s why it’s somewhat frustrating that I still feel incompetent despite the hours I’d spent learning it. They say that DotA doesn’t have a learning curve, it has a learning cliff. I just want to be able to play competitively beside him, to the point that we’re confident to join pub games. You know, before it’s finally time for me to leave the country.