---
title: 'An INTRO to PLAYING DOTA 2 - Grubby'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=fMooXp2p2QM'
video_id: 'fMooXp2p2QM'
date: 2026-06-17
duration_sec: 0
---

# An INTRO to PLAYING DOTA 2 - Grubby

> Source: [An INTRO to PLAYING DOTA 2 - Grubby](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fMooXp2p2QM)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive beginner's guide to Dota 2, explaining the core mechanics, roles, map layout, and strategic depth of the game. The speaker, Grubby, breaks down the five hero positions, the importance of vision and smoke, and the path to victory through tower destruction and map control. The guide emphasizes that Dota 2's complexity and comeback mechanics make it a deeply rewarding game to learn.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Dota 2's Complexity** [0:00] — Dota 2 is a very complex game; it took the speaker 1500-2000 games to start independent thinking. Initially, copying guides and frameworks is helpful.
- **Map and Factions** [1:40] — The map is roughly symmetrical but not exactly. Radiant (green) has a slight advantage over Dire (red), similar to white in chess. The goal is to destroy the enemy's Ancient.
- **Hero Roles (1-5)** [2:44] — Positions: 1 (Safe Lane carry) - weak early, strong late; 2 (Mid Lane) - solo, levels fast, ganks; 3 (Offlane) - initiator, core; 4 (Soft Support) - helps offlane; 5 (Hard Support) - babysits carry, buys vision.
- **Support and Carry Dynamic** [7:00] — Position 5 is the babysitter for position 1 (the baby). Supports buy Observer and Sentry Wards for vision. Observer Wards see normal vision; Sentry Wards see invisible units.
- **Lane Assignments** [10:59] — Safe Lane is near the tower for protection. Off Lane is riskier. Radiant safe lane is bottom left; Dire safe lane is top right. The mid lane is solo.
- **Smoke of Deceit** [13:07] — A cheap item that grants team invisibility for 45 seconds. It breaks if near an enemy hero, tower, or if you attack. Spells can be cast while invisible.
- **Winning the Game: Tower Destruction** [14:42] — To win, destroy the enemy Ancient. This requires killing Tier 1, then Tier 2, then Tier 3 towers, then both Tier 4 towers. Backdoor protection makes towers nearly invincible without allied creeps nearby.
- **Comeback Mechanics: Glyph of Fortification** [15:49] — Glyph makes all buildings invincible for 7 seconds. It can be used every 5 minutes, and resets when a Tier 1, 2, or 3 tower is destroyed for the first time. This prevents snowballing.
- **Creep Cutting and Map Pressure** [19:40] — Killing enemy creep waves before they reach your tower (cutting) prevents the enemy from pushing. This creates strategic depth and allows comebacks.
- **Barracks and Mega Creeps** [23:55] — Destroying enemy barracks (melee and ranged) makes your creeps stronger (Mega Creeps). This applies immense map pressure and can win the game without directly killing the Ancient.
- **Roshan and Aegis** [25:24] — Roshan is a neutral boss. Killing him grants the Aegis of the Immortal, which allows a hero to respawn after 5 seconds with full health and mana. It's a key objective for momentum.
- **Game Length** [27:00] — Average game length is 25-55 minutes, with a golden average of 35-40 minutes. Lower-level games tend to be longer (50+ minutes).

## Transcript

so I wanted to explain DOTA to this one
guy I don't know if he's still there but
I know there's probably some yeah I'm
here I stayed okay great Oscar fan Oscar
fan said he's interested in Dota
preliminarily but doesn't know left from
right yet and he normally watches
Warcraft 3 Dota 2 is a very complex game
and if someone teaches you how Dota 2
works you will start playing and you'll
realize it doesn't always go as you've
been taught which can be confusing it
took me like 1500 to 2,000 games in Dota
to be able to start doing independent
thinking when you start playing a very
complicated game it can be really good
to initially copy from others to copy
guides tips Frameworks for how to
play and then in 1500 games you'll
realize that people don't always follow
this like I just had a bad support that
you've heard me rant about a bit that
he's not doing what he's supposed suppos
to
do it's kind of like playing basketball
and learning that it's not a contact
sport that you can block each other
without touching each other and then
they're not allowed to shoot and then
you start playing and you get like
bumped around in street basketball and
like people are like bumping into you
with their shoulder check and stuff you
realize hey this is not how I've been
taught the rules of the game so not
having any physical strength and just
aiming well is not enough so you work on
your physical strength DOTA two you work
on your mental strength and you try to
be resilient when things don't go as
like how you've expected them to be
Tower okay let's give a little bit of a
quick rundown on how Dota 2 works for
those that don't
know the green side on the bottom left
as you see over here is called radiant
and this is your ancient if the ancient
blows up you lose the
game the top right side is red and
they're called dire it's radiant for
versus dire the map is roughly
symmetrical but actually not totally
symmetrical at all if you notice this
Tower is surrounded by scragged wood but
here it's more dense and here there's in
fact a ramp that isn't around here at
all so the map is not symmetrical and in
fact right now it's a little bit like
chess and that white has an advantage
over black and DOTA radiant the green
one has an advantage over red but these
things change what never changes is that
it's radiant versus
dire DOTA gets patches small and big
throughout the year so how the game is
played changes a lot but there's a
couple of things that are currently true
you have five versus five and these
heroes are called 1 2 3 four and five
one is also paraphrased to be called
safe lane two is mid lane three is off
Lane four is soft support and five is
hard support very roughly what it means
one is someone that can kill everyone
that may have a weak early game but it's
a monster mid to late
game there are different definitions
possible but that's kind of how you
should see them they build to kill
everyone and how is this done most of
the value that the team can acrw on the
map is tried to be funneled to them they
are protected they are given space
they're given money and
experience and they're given time that's
everything that the safe Lane the carry
the one is given to ATT two is the mid
lane mid lane in Dota 2 right now at
least it wasn't always the case plays
solo it's a 2 one2 formation two top one
mid two bot and what that means is that
you're not sharing experience with
anyone else in this one-on-one matchup
that means you'll be leveling up faster
than other other people and because of
that you're the first to reach your
ultimate at level six and that ultimate
can be used to bully people to get ganks
and to get kills a gank is when you go
to another Lane and you kill people that
are there you help your two people that
are there and you kill one of the two of
the opponents it's not just your ult
that you get earlier right because
you're leveling faster on account of
being solo you get all of your abilities
at higher level than
others your net worth growth is not
necessarily better than other net worth
being the amount of gold you get from
creeps or hero kills it's not
necessarily better but your levels
higher so three is your offlane in the
current meta but not always true offlane
is someone that initiates
fights that is also a strong farming
core a core being one two three they are
the Networth
gaers and farming means when you hit
neutral creeps or jungle creeps or and
so on so the offlane is someone that
also is a core but they are more
subservient in some way to the mid lane
and the safe Lane they often initiate
start uh fights together with their
supports and then the one watches from
the Shadows until it's safe to go in and
then strikes it's not always like this
there are so many exceptions but this is
often how it feels a bit number four
Saft support three and four four go
together to one lane they're quite close
in their net worth acrel three is
allowed to get net worth before four and
that means if there's a last hit on a
creep or a hero three should get it
before four and the difference between
these hero sometimes isn't big in their
hero
design but what is usually different is
that the type of Heroes that play on
three benefit a lot from the extra net
worth as it gives them tankiness
Mobility Dam damage and utility and the
four usually and again this has
exceptions the people that play support
they play Heroes that are slightly less
net worth Reliant than three that means
their abilities are good even without
adding a lot of gold items to it again
major
exceptions but four is supposed to be
able to get things done without a lot of
money compared to the
three and there are a lot of exceptions
but the idea is that at least in the
first 10 minutes four is supposed to
give a bit more space netw worth and
comfort to the three so if the four is
doing a very bad job then three will
have a bad start then three cannot start
to front line for the team or or create
space for the team and then has to
become more passive and become kind of
like a second safe Lane carry Comfort
player and that means there's very
little pressure on the enemy team but
this goes a little deeper
understand at least that three and four
go together and five heart support goes
together with one the best metaphor for
this is that five is the babysitter and
one is the baby and you often find that
this is also emotionally true for people
that play safe Lane they usually have
the emotional maturity of a baby and the
five is supposed to feed them GRL in the
form of Tangos they're supposed to feed
them en Vision create space sacrifice
themselves jump in Fr of a bullet right
hand feed them kills like a mother Lion
to their cups already a half mangled
deer and like here go ahead you did it
good job ruffle their hair so what kind
of Heroes are fives fives usually are
heroes that have good
lockdown right they have some form of
lockdown uh slows Roots stunts redirects
silencers
Etc and this lockdown helps the one in
lane and even late game to uh get the
kill or they can be safe supports which
is to say when someone on your team gets
engaged upon you can save them with a
button that makes them invulnerable to
damage makes them face out of existence
makes them have a lot of armor a lot of
healing Etc so in five you'll most often
see Heroes that in other moas are
considered a Healer like an Uther or
brightwing and
Huts or you'll see Heroes that have a
lot of lockdown like Shadow Shaman you
know lion a lot of stunts so that's kind
of the rundown on what every hero is per
role and then let's talk about why they
go where they go if we go back to the
start of this replay we see this I pause
the game note where my camera is over
here at the red face and the gray face
right so this is called the red the dire
safe Lane Tower actually I think it's
better to go to a new replay and it I'll
make it a little bit clearer we don't
want as many hero clutter
there all right
so we pause for a bit and we see the
following take a look at the mini map
right if you see over here this is the
safe Lane tower for red the dire this is
the middle
line on the map right this is the Middle
Line This is where all the creep waves
meet
me so if the creep wave meets here and
the tower is here which offers
protection and it also offers armor ARA
and regeneration of life then this is
very close to this indeed and that makes
it
safe by comparison this Tower is much
further from the Middle Line it makes it
further away they call this the radiant
green is radiant off Lane so part of the
goal for green radiant is to pull this
wave back here so that they continue to
meet here instead of here which makes it
far more risky for dire red to farm here
as you can get reinforcements from your
Tower you can get the tower shots you
get the Regeneration and the armor from
the tower and this is kind of like a
little mini game but initially off Lane
starts at risk and that influence the
type of Heroes that are valid to be
picked for radiant in the off Lane
because you're more at risk
the way back to the safety of your Tower
is further the Symmetry is real on this
side the green radiant Tower is near the
middle point of the farm uh meeting the
creep wave meeting and that's why the
safe laner the carry the baby right the
the lake game Insurance the the major
Farmer they start position one starts at
your safe Lane so that you're at a safer
place to be at least initially later
nothing is safe anymore right so the one
and the five go here that means that the
red dire three and four go here the twos
meet in the middle and then on the other
side it's flipped dire one and five
against three and four so now you kind
of know what kind of Heroes are picked
where and why and that initially this
Tower secures safety as the wave meets
here and the tower is right here right
and the tower can fire until
here now you know why people go where
they go and that's the initial DOTA
supports are also in charge of buying
Vision Vision can be purchased via
observe rewards and Sentry warts
Observer warts see things but they don't
see invisible things but they see a lot
of normal vision entry warts see
invisible things but offer no natural
vision so the combination of an observer
and a Sentry W together in the same
place offer invisible true sight and
actual Vision so when you place the two
of them you can be sure that there's no
enemy there this is an example of an
observer wart but some people did some
trolling and they renamed their Observer
W which you can do in
gabes in dota's client you can rename it
to Sentry wart but that's trolling it's
very confusing for nublets but this is
an observer wart and it took me a long
time to recognize one from the other and
then that's without that trolling yes so
anyway this is an observer you see the
eye and if you see like a Sentry word
it's like more muted it's like a kind of
a purple Dark Night Color glow this is a
Sentry I mean I don't think it's very
clear but I know this is Sentry you see
like the little eye the purple eye above
it Sentry this one doesn't have the
purple it's an observer
Ward but there's one exception to the
whole Vision thing this Vision Ward is
green as you see on the mini map it
means it's a radiant Vision
Ward dire will be seen if they're here
but there's one exception there's a very
special tool A Very Special Sauce in
Dota to It's called The Smoke of the
seat smoke of the seat is a team
invisibility you you buy it it's very
cheap you make your whole team
invisible and you can move around very
fast and invisible even invisible
towards and there's only three things
that make you visible four one it times
out after 40 5 seconds so you got 45
seconds to do a major incursion a major
Invasion the second thing is if you're
in proximity to an enemy hero suddenly
boom smoke is gone right The Jig Is up
you are seen the third one is if you're
near to an enemy Tower you cannot go
here with the smoke of the seed and
still be
unseen and the fourth one is if you
perform a basic attack you do a basic
attack you are allowed to cast spells
and remain invisible though the
opponents may catch the spell effect
like seemingly out of
nowhere those are the four things that
will end it
right so the smoke is a whenever you
hear people about we should smoke can we
smoke it always it never means tobacco
it always means can we group up as a
team either three people or two people
or four or five and go somewhere
invisibly and try to get a surprise
attack on the opponent and it's
sometimes the only way to travel the map
especially a hostile
map and and retain the element of
surprise so now you understand a bit
about the vision and then finally let's
talk about how to win the game you win
the game by killing the throne the
ancient I should say the ancient can
only be attacked when these two towers
are dead these are called the tier four
Towers both must be dead before you can
attack the
throne these towers are only attackable
once one of these three towers is dead
these are called the tier thre these are
the tier
fours you can only attack these towers
if one of these three tier three towers
is dead right these tier three towers
are invincible until one of
these Tier Two Towers is dead you get
the point right there's layers to this
onion and in finally those tier tws are
invincible until one of these outer tier
one starting towers are dead so the way
to Victory is to get a tier one then a
tier two then a tier three then get both
tier fours and then the throne but
there's a little bit more to it than
that DOTA has comeback and slowdown
mechanics every 5 minutes someone is
allowed to use the glyph of
fortification it will last 7 seconds on
structures and 4 seconds on creeps it
will make all buildings Invincible for 7
Seconds you can use this once every five
minutes and it makes every Tower except
the first one multi-shot six
targets it will respawn after 5 minutes
but there's additional respawn
reasons the first time you lose a tier
one Tower any one of the three you gain
a free reset on the cool down for Glyph
of fortification that means it what it
avoids it has many conclusions after
that but what it avoids is that someone
will kill your tier one Tower and
immediately with the surge of momentum
that they have also kill your tier two
Tower this cannot happen because well
you glyph this one once 7c delay they
kill it they move here you have another
glyph and usually that's enough to uh
take the wind out of their sails
and that's also true for the first time
you lose a tier two Tower and it's true
for the first time you lose your tier
three Tower so you are guaranteed one
Cliff at the start one after tier one
that's two one after tier two that's
three and one after tier two so you are
guaranteed four glyphs per game but
usually you'll see like five to 10
glyphs used per game because of the cool
down regeneration so that's a lot of
slowdown on your opponent having some
kind of push
comp
finally one of the most interesting
things about Dota 2 is the uh Glyph of
fortification minions are like walkers
in The Walking Dead Lane minions Lane
creeps I should say Lane creeps this
green one and this red one they're like
walkers in The Walking Dead every now
and then they'll get a kill but mostly
they serve to be killed in great numbers
Cannon father a plot armor to show the
drum of the show it would have been the
same here initially creeps can do damage
when you're level one and two but
eventually you end up just blazing
through the creeps look at the mid game
the late game oh man you know those
creeps they give you gold they give you
XP and they give a lot of it actually a
lot of gold and XP but you kill them
with an afterthought you don't you
certainly don't need them to kill a
tower you could kill this Tower late
game in 10 or 20 hits however there is a
thing called back door protection
structures take greatly reduced damage
incredibly reduced damage and quickly
regenerate any damage taken if there are
no enemy creeps
nearby and that means it is it is not
impossible but it is virtually
impossible to kill this Tower without
Allied creeps nearby what's nearby like
here like here or here or something when
the creep when the creeps come here this
Tower loses that insane regeneration and
armor so what is that mean actually for
how the game is played
out well it means that you must kill the
enemy creep wave and then you walk with
your creep wave and then you attack
Tower this creates a kind of
pacing it also creates
counterplay the opponent can kill your
creep wave when it's here so that by the
time you want to get here you can't take
down the tower someone could be hiding
in the bushes here and kill your creep
wave and disappear and then kill your
creep wave and disappear and they can do
that over and over and this is called
cutting
creeps and that means that this Tower
never becomes killable and this creates
a miname of stealth Warfare on the
map that goes far beyond the just
bashing together of two stubborn goats
their heads against each other and to
see who's strongest it creates a level
of tactician gameplay that is incredibly
deep and satisfying to master or
frustrating to get wrong sometimes your
whole team is winning you kill all the
enemy Heroes and you're just pushing and
in Heroes of the Storm you would just
push and win and in League of Legends
you would just push and win because
there's no back door protection there's
no buyback right everyone is dead you
have a lot of damage in League Hots you
win the game but in Dota one enemy can
start cutting waves they can start
manipulating the map and suddenly your
base becomes Untouchable there's also
buyback of course there's also Glyph of
fortification so there's three mechanics
here that allow you to make a comeback
and that means that DOTA does not have
nor usually need a surrender
function in an Ideal World what actually
happens often is of course that people
do lose heart they do lose courage or
they are so far back that even all of
these techniques cannot allow you to
make a comeback
also it's not always the best mood or
morale in a public game to Stage a
comeback because faith has been lost
trust and amicability has been lost
between public teammates to the point
that people don't want to try anymore
and this of course you know this this
this happens and then people go AFK and
they give the win and they call it let
them
end but every now and then you get games
that are nearly impossible to win but
you do an amazing set of macro plays
that allow you to get back into the game
and actually win the game we had a
really cool game recently we were losing
we were losing we were losing I was
Enigma and I stood over here and I kept
killing this creep wave and pressuring
Tower this Tower kept taking damage and
my team was hugging themselves together
in the snow cabin hugging for For What
Little warmth there could be in this
Avalanche of hatred and aggression from
our opponents our opponent stood here
with the five of them they were much
stronger than us they wanted to go up up
here and attack and and and win the game
we have been losing many fights and here
I am just killing one wave and another
and another ideally I would be cutting
the bottom wave so that they can't push
at all but I didn't dare to and that's
not where I
was they didn't make a lot of Headway on
killing this Tower they would have loved
for us to charge out of the gates like
the rohim in the defense of Helms Deep
but we didn't my team stayed here and
the enemy stayed here eventually this
pressure made them so impatient that a
fight broke out it was messy it was
dirty they had gotten frustrated that
they started losing their Tower my team
starts the fight it was half here half
here and half here that's one and a half
of a fight I know but it's weird but
it's true I Town portal in we we fight I
black hole their carry bam we won the
fight and without split map pressure it
would not have been possible because it
would be simple for the opponent it'll
be five versus five no one getting any
Headway no one getting anything done
Elsewhere on the map there is no m
pressure no economic pressure they're
not losing anything there's no risk they
can stay here and go up or don't go up
so by creating pressure by creating
Stakes it forces the opponent's hand
sometimes either they can leave and deal
with me or he can go up and just Leroy
Jenkins in and see what happens and this
is a cliff there's Miss chance there's
no Mis chance is there this is a cliff
you need to funnel through the area of
effect that the opponent can inflict
upon you this is a stronger Tower than
the other ones you don't initially have
vision of The High Ground so there's
lots of disadvantages against you when
you walk up and attack these
towers there is Mis chance oh yeah yeah
there is Mis chance 25% yeah I've
explained most of how a game of macro
and how a game of Dota 2 works there's
one more thing to explain maybe two
maybe five maybe 20 these are called the
barracks the range barracks and the
melee barracks
creeps are a great source of calcium
protein Gold and
experience and when you kill the enemy
Barracks your creep of that same type
let's say you kill the range Barracks
your creep of that same type the range
unit becomes big having double Health
double damage and giving half the amount
of
gold do the same to the melee Barracks
now both of your creeps are big very
tanky a lot of damage hard to kill and
right and not that rewarding and this is
how you also additionally apply split
map pressure to an opponent so that they
can't as easily leave this Lane because
eventually that lane they're called Mega
creeps will push in so hard it will
start to take down your tier four Tower
without any other hero of that faction
helping them kill all six
barracks and you get mega Creeps in
every lane that are super
strong
the dire has spawned Mega creeps it's a
very scary message for everyone right so
besides just killing Throne there are
ways to subjugate your opponent to bring
them to their knees and instead of
trying to win you make it impossible for
them to win and then your Victory shall
follow sunu Art of
War there is another way to get an
advantage
rashan rashan is the boss every MOA has
a b boss sometimes it's called Baron
nashor sometimes it's called the boss
very simply in Hots of the
storm right when you get this you get an
ank of reincarnation one of your Heroes
can pick up the Eis you respond with
after 5 seconds with full health and
Mana you also get a nice chunk of
experience and gold for your whole team
taking rashan as a power play that is
essentially a neutral objective placed
relatively neutrally and it's an
objective to fight for it's an objective
to protect it's an objective that can be
snuck taken ninja style and it gives you
momentum it means that you can play a
lot more risky on that hero they need to
so when we speak of objectives it means
killing Towers killing racks and killing
ran that's DOTA two in a nutshell and
the depth of Dota 2 is why I enjoy the
game so much you will try to work
together with your four nitwit allies
that fail to see your
Genius and all together you try to come
together and create a culmination of
teamwork and critical
Force to win against the
opponents who are all using imbalanced
and overpowered Heroes and here you are
on your respectful and mannered and
tasteful Heroes right you've got all the
odds sticked against you one v9 you go
Egoista mode you become strong and then
you win and it's
great the average length of a Dota 2
game is between 25 to 55 minutes I would
say the golden average is about 35 to 40
minutes so it's definitely longer than
the other moas here's an example of my
game length recently as you get better
game length becomes a little
shorter especially at the highest level
you've got a lot of 15minute games it's
because they actually want to quit after
they uh lose because sometimes it's very
lopsided because of account buyers or
Smurfs or something but on average 35
minutes for me is normal but when I was
lower level when I just started it was
almost always 50 plus minutes here I've
got a 1 hour 20 minute game there's a 22
minute game got a lot of 26 minute games
there here it's like 30 to 50 so
definitely longer than uh Hots and do 2
it's uh that's DOTA to if you have any
other questions feel free to ask me at
any time during the stream I explain
this outside of playing a live game
because it is far too complex to do
while I'm also playing I hope you
enjoyed and learned Dota 2 a little bit
more and why it's such a great game