DotA: Strategies

DotA is a game that requires a lot of planning and strategics in order to defeat the other team. The strategies I will explain will be competitive at the public(pub) level, not professional. In games where you can pick your heroes, it's best to pick heroes that compliment each other. For instance, you'll want a decent amount of stunners and support so that you can be effective in team fights and one or two carries to aid in the late game. Some starting items that most people use are Ancient Tango of Essifation or Healing Salve which are good items because they are relatively cheap and effective at healing, magic stick if you lane against a hero that constantly uses spells, Animal Courier so you can bring items to your hero without running back to base or magic bottle if you're good at rune hunting and constantly use mana. There is always one lane where a hero will solo which grants them more experience points and in pub games this lane is usually middle. The other two lanes top and bottom will usually contain two heroes on each lane but some times they are split into one and three to obtain the first kill granting more gold and experience. A major part of this game is getting gold and experience points effectively because you can spend gold to get items and experience points help you level up. A method to get gold faster is to "last hit" which means you're the final person to attack the creep which gives you 38-50 gold rather than none. Over time, this will give you a definite advantage if you are good at last hitting. Since this is a team game, it is crucial that you communicate with your team when you want to commence attacks. Usually communication is the factor that determines whether you win or lose.

The Map of DotA (Red is Sentinel, Green is Scourge)

If you are a beginner to this game, you may want to pick one hero and practice it until you are decent because it's not easy to learn every hero. There are many online guides to every hero so make sure you read them as this helps you decide what items to get and make full use of your skills. You will also want to join games that include the game mode -em which stands for easy mode as this gives you more gold every second so if you aren't good at last hitting, you will still be somewhat competitive. Although this game is pretty old, there are still a lot of beginners so you won't always be playing with people way better than you. This game requires a lot of practice and has a very steep learning curve but it can be very enjoyable when you're decent at it.
The full list of items can be found here: http://www.dotastrategy.com/item.html