Dota 2's Tutorial is INSANE
48sShows the overwhelming complexity of Dota 2's tutorial, surprising new players with its depth.
▶ Play ClipA brand-new player documents his 24-hour journey into Dota 2, exploring the game's complexity, learning curve, and emotional highs and lows. He starts with tutorials and new player mode, experiences initial success, then faces crushing defeats in unranked matches, ultimately finding the game both rewarding and frustrating.
Dota 2 is considered one of the hardest and most complex video games ever made.
The player sets out to answer: what is Dota 2 like for a brand new player, and how good can he get in 24 hours?
The tutorial starts with a video explaining basics: two teams of five, over 100 heroes, goal to destroy enemy ancient. It covers creeps, Roshan, lanes, objectives.
After the video, the tutorial offers four tiers of lessons including basic mechanics, teleporting, courier, regen consumables, hero demo, and game play. The player spends about two hours in the tutorial.
Dota has a new player mode with forgiving gameplay, limited hero pool, faster matchmaking, and matches with other new players. The player wins his first game but has zero hero kills and eight deaths.
After a few more games, the player feels he's getting the hang of it, including a 16 hero kill win. New player mode builds confidence.
The player moves to unranked mode but faces a major problem: his favorite hero Sniper is banned/chosen, forcing him to play a hero he's never used before.
The player's first unranked game ends with zero hero kills, 15 deaths, and a loss. He realizes he needs to learn more than one hero.
The player spends about an hour testing different heroes in demo mode, considering factors like range, abilities, and role (mid, off, safe, support). He settles on Lina as a backup.
Despite having a backup hero, the player continues to struggle in unranked, dying frequently, getting lost in the shop, and experiencing blowout losses (e.g., 35-3 kill ratio). He questions matchmaking and smurfing.
With time running out, the player returns to new player mode for one final game to have fun. He plays Sniper and has a strong start (9-0-1) but ultimately loses after one mistake.
The player reflects that Dota 2 is a game where even playing well doesn't guarantee a win, and one mistake can cost the game. He sums it up as a frustrating but compelling experience.
Dota 2 offers a steep learning curve that can be both rewarding and crushing. The player's 24-hour journey shows that while new player mode provides a safe learning environment, the full game demands deep knowledge and resilience.
"The title accurately reflects the content: the player is a brand new player, and the game does break him emotionally by the end."
What is the main goal in Dota 2?
Destroy the enemy ancient before they destroy yours.
0:42
How many heroes are in Dota 2?
Over 100 (the player mentions over 120).
0:39
What does the new player mode offer?
More forgiving gameplay, a limited hero pool, faster matchmaking, and matches with other new players.
1:51
What was the player's kill/death ratio in his first game?
Zero hero kills, eight deaths, and 11 assists.
4:57
What happened when the player's favorite hero Sniper was banned in unranked?
He had to play a hero he had never used before, leading to a poor performance (zero kills, 15 deaths).
6:42
What did the player do to prepare for unranked after his first loss?
He spent about an hour testing different heroes in demo mode to have backup options.
8:33
What was the final score of the player's last new player mode game?
He went 11-1 but his team lost.
19:28
What is the player's final takeaway about Dota 2?
Even playing well doesn't guarantee a win; one mistake can cost the game.
23:06
Dota 2's Complexity
Establishes the core challenge of the game, setting up the entire experiment.
New Player Mode Design
Highlights a key feature that helps new players learn without being overwhelmed.
1:51Hero Ban Problem
Illustrates a major hurdle for new players: reliance on a single hero.
6:42One Mistake Can Lose the Game
Captures the essence of Dota 2's unforgiving nature, a key lesson for new players.
23:06[00:00] Dota 2 is considered one of the hardest
[00:02] and most complex video games ever made.
[00:05] Help me.
[00:10] So, I decided to spend 24 hours playing
[00:13] to answer two simple questions. Number
[00:16] one, what is Dota 2 actually like as a
[00:18] brand new player? And number two, how
[00:21] good can I actually get? And what
[00:23] happened over the next 24 hours honestly
[00:26] shocked me.
[00:28] Now, going in, I knew absolutely nothing
[00:30] about Dota 2. But, like most games, Dota
[00:33] started me with a tutorial. It opened
[00:35] with a short video explaining the
[00:37] basics. Two teams of five, a massive
[00:39] map, over 100 heroes, and one goal.
[00:42] Destroy the enemy ancient before they
[00:44] destroy yours. It talked about creeps,
[00:46] Roshan, lanes, objectives. For a game
[00:48] this complicated, the opening video made
[00:51] Dota feel surprisingly understandable.
[00:53] But, it was what followed after the
[00:55] video that surprised me the most. And
[00:57] then from here, we have basic mechanics,
[00:59] getting around, teleporting, using your
[01:02] courier, regen consumables, demo a hero,
[01:05] and play a game. This is one of the most
[01:08] Wait, what's tier two?
[01:10] Tier two. What's with all this hero
[01:12] stuff, anyway? So, mid-game progression,
[01:14] map vision, stuff How many are these?
[01:15] Tier three, tier four.
[01:18] Wow. Okay. So, it looks like maybe tier
[01:21] one like I have to do. And then
[01:25] this stuff is all additional learning
[01:27] stuff. Even though I didn't need to
[01:28] complete all four tiers in order to
[01:30] play, I still ended up spending around
[01:32] two hours in the tutorial section
[01:34] learning the basics, like how to get
[01:36] around the map, use the shop, and
[01:38] teleport. But, also learning things like
[01:40] the importance of last hitting.
[01:41] Eventually, after making my way through
[01:43] most of the lessons and playing a co-op
[01:45] game against bots, it was time for my
[01:47] first game. But, instead of throwing me
[01:49] right into the deep end, Dota actually
[01:51] has a new player mode. More forgiving
[01:53] gameplay, a limited hero pool, faster
[01:55] matchmaking, and most importantly, you
[01:58] play with other new players, which
[02:00] sounded perfect. The dire.
[02:03] Come on.
[02:06] Huge.
[02:07] Give me my W.
[02:12] Nice. Okay, so the killing has started.
[02:14] This is where it just feels slow in the
[02:16] beginning, I guess. Dude, I just don't
[02:18] know what the strategy is here. We pull
[02:20] back. I feel like we can't push anything
[02:22] forward here.
[02:24] I mean, so where do we get How do we go
[02:26] about getting the advantage where we can
[02:28] actually take those guys out?
[02:32] No no no no no no no no no no
[02:34] no no no no no no no no no no
[02:36] no, that was almost bad.
[02:38] I feel like we go back here real quick.
[02:40] I don't I don't know if I should go back
[02:41] here. I feel like we're in a pretty good
[02:43] spot as of right now.
[02:46] So, like let's not get too over
[02:47] aggressive here.
[02:49] Uh consume heal over time.
[02:53] Clarity.
[03:02] Yeah yeah go go go go go go go.
[03:06] Go.
[03:08] Go.
[03:09] Go.
[03:12] Go.
[03:16] Go.
[03:20] No, I just got over aggressive.
[03:25] No. No.
[03:27] Dude, I just wanted that kill so bad,
[03:29] and we were so close. I just got I got I
[03:32] got tunnel vision.
[03:38] Get me out. Get me out. Get me out. Get
[03:39] me out. Upgrade my R.
[03:42] I mean, this guy's Zeus is level 20.
[03:44] How?
[03:50] Nice.
[03:51] Oh, double. Wait, what what just
[03:53] happened? Did I get that kill or no? Get
[03:55] me out.
[03:57] I'm dead.
[04:00] I'm dead.
[04:01] I'm dead.
[04:09] Come on.
[04:15] What?
[04:17] What just happened?
[04:18] How did I die so fast?
[04:25] Okay.
[04:26] So, that gives us an advantage there.
[04:29] Not fully sure what the advantage is,
[04:31] but
[04:41] I don't know what I'm supposed to do
[04:42] here.
[04:44] How do I pick this?
[04:46] Wait, we we're good here. We're good
[04:48] here.
[04:50] We're good here.
[04:51] Come on. Honestly, I didn't know what to
[04:54] think after that first game. We won, but
[04:57] I had zero hero kills, and I died eight
[05:00] times. But, I did have 11 assists. The
[05:02] most important thing though was that I
[05:04] actually had fun in that first game. So,
[05:06] I kept queuing. And after a few more
[05:08] games, I felt like I was starting to get
[05:10] the hang of it. Okay, we're just going
[05:12] to farm here. Work back here.
[05:15] Reset.
[05:16] I need like mana regeneration. That's
[05:18] what I need.
[05:22] Dude, I might teleport back here.
[05:25] Nah, we'll we'll wait till we get a
[05:26] little bit more.
[05:29] Nice. There we go. Come on. Okay, now we
[05:32] go back. That's what I wanted. Wait, we
[05:34] can stay here though. Okay, bring all
[05:36] that stuff to me.
[05:38] Oh, he's dead.
[05:41] See you.
[05:42] Dude, the range on this is so I'm I'm
[05:44] actually kind of cruising here.
[05:48] See you. That's number three. I need
[05:50] health.
[05:55] See you, target disease.
[05:58] Yeah.
[06:01] Go.
[06:02] Nice.
[06:04] See you.
[06:08] We're having some fun. We're feeling
[06:10] good. After four straight good games,
[06:12] including a 16 hero kill win, I felt
[06:15] like it was time. New player mode had
[06:17] done its job. It gave me a place to
[06:19] learn, make mistakes, and build
[06:21] confidence. See you, Zeus. So, now it
[06:23] was time for me to jump into unranked.
[06:25] But, immediately, I ran into a major
[06:28] problem. First sniper.
[06:31] >> [laughter]
[06:31] >> Oh, there he is.
[06:33] Mid lane.
[06:34] Lock in sniper.
[06:37] Your hero was also chosen by the
[06:38] opposing team. Pick
[06:40] What is that?
[06:42] Wait, what? You see, the last four
[06:44] games, I've been using sniper. I loved
[06:46] his abilities, I loved his range, and I
[06:48] was playing great with him. But, now I'm
[06:50] headed into my first unranked match with
[06:52] a hero that I've never played before.
[06:55] What could go wrong?
[06:57] What the heck? Uh, we're going to have
[06:58] to figure out what what what what we do.
[07:00] This is I've I'm a little nervous here.
[07:04] I got to remember that it's a much
[07:05] slower fire rate.
[07:12] I don't know what I'm I I don't know I
[07:15] dude, that threw me off so bad. Not
[07:18] going sniper just it was not part of the
[07:20] plan.
[07:29] Don't kill him. No.
[07:41] Okay then.
[07:53] I don't know what I'm supposed to do
[07:54] there.
[07:58] Dude, Wind Ranger seems like a fun one.
[08:02] That sucks. That was just not That was
[08:05] just not a good game from literally the
[08:07] moment we chose our character. Yeah,
[08:10] that went about how you'd expect. Zero
[08:12] hero kills, 15 deaths, and we lost.
[08:15] Immediately, I knew that I needed to
[08:17] take a step back. There were over 120
[08:19] different heroes in Dota 2, all of which
[08:22] have different strengths, different
[08:23] weaknesses, and different abilities. As
[08:25] a new player, it's incredibly
[08:27] overwhelming. And while I didn't have to
[08:29] learn and know all of them, I had to
[08:31] know more than just one. So, before
[08:33] queuing again, I started [music] testing
[08:35] a few different heroes. We're going
[08:37] carry, low complexity, and we're going
[08:40] range. When we go to heroes, I'm okay
[08:42] I'm actually pretty open to not playing
[08:45] mid lane. Like, I think I just naturally
[08:46] went mid lane, but like I'm open to
[08:48] playing off lane, I'm open to playing
[08:50] safe lane, I'm open to playing support
[08:51] or hard support. What is Zeus? 53 to 60
[08:55] Oh, but he's got really bad range. Okay,
[08:57] we're not playing Zeus cuz I really do
[08:59] think that like I'm best at range.
[09:01] [snorts] Let's go ahead and demo Death
[09:02] Prophet. Okay, that attack speed
[09:04] definitely feels a little bit slow.
[09:07] Okay, so silence Fires a projectile that
[09:09] prevents enemy units in a target area
[09:11] from casting spells.
[09:14] I kind of like that. I feel like that's
[09:16] a good way for me to help my team. Okay,
[09:17] so that's recharging. Creates a spirit
[09:20] link between Death Prophet and an enemy
[09:22] unit draining health from the enemy.
[09:25] How does that work? How close do I have
[09:27] to
[09:29] But the problem is that range just isn't
[09:31] super super far. Like, that's a super
[09:34] close range. Death Prophet's
[09:35] interesting. Death Prophet is
[09:37] interesting. I I feel like I could play
[09:39] her. Lot more range. Let's go ahead and
[09:41] demo Lina here. Okay, so Q is wow,
[09:44] that's actually kind of far. I don't
[09:46] feel like that does a ton of damage
[09:48] there. Fiery soul Okay, summons a column
[09:50] of flames that damages and stuns
[09:52] enemies.
[09:54] Oh oh damages and stuns.
[09:57] Okay, so that's where we run the
[09:59] back-to-back combo, right? Laguna Blade
[10:02] fires off a bolt of lightning at a
[10:03] single enemy unit dealing massive
[10:04] damage.
[10:08] What's the range on that though?
[10:12] I just don't feel like that's
[10:14] I feel like that's not good range. After
[10:16] about an hour of messing around with
[10:18] different heroes, I felt like I had
[10:20] options. Sniper was still my number one
[10:22] choice, but if he got banned or chosen,
[10:24] I at least had some other heroes that I
[10:26] could choose. So, I went back into
[10:28] unranked. Lock in Lina. I guess we're
[10:30] going Lina here.
[10:37] Nice.
[10:39] That was a good start. Wait, the range I
[10:42] This is kind of crazy by range.
[10:45] There we go.
[10:48] No.
[10:51] No, I just got caught.
[11:05] Like how did that
[11:17] I wish I could say things got better
[11:19] from there, but
[11:21] I'm targeted. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm
[11:23] dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm
[11:44] >> I'm done.
[11:47] I'm going to be honest, I'm not proud of
[11:49] what I did, and I know that wasn't fair
[11:51] to my teammates, but Dota broke me. I
[11:54] didn't know when to push versus when to
[11:56] play passive. I was constantly dying
[11:58] before I even had a chance to fight
[11:59] back. This stupid Weaver. And when I
[12:02] wasn't dying, I was lost in the shop
[12:04] trying to figure out what to buy. But
[12:06] the worst part, in my opinion, is that
[12:08] in games where we were getting
[12:09] absolutely destroyed, we couldn't
[12:11] surrender. We just had to let them keep
[12:14] on us until the game ended. Like is this
[12:16] is this a matchmaking thing? Like is the
[12:18] matchmaking in Dota 2 just bad? Like I
[12:22] don't Is there a smurfing thing? Is like
[12:24] like what like I don't understand how
[12:26] this is possible that we are losing 35
[12:30] to 3. Is it a momentum thing? Like I'm
[12:33] just And I know that I've been on the
[12:35] other side of this where we've been up
[12:37] by a crazy amount of kills, but like is
[12:39] this a is this a matchmaking problem? Is
[12:41] this a smurfing problem? Or
[12:43] do we just suck? I did have one good
[12:45] game with Windranger, but every other
[12:47] game was frustration. New player mode
[12:49] made me feel like I was learning Dota.
[12:51] Unranked made me realize how much Dota I
[12:53] still didn't even know existed. By the
[12:55] end of the night, I wasn't thinking
[12:57] about getting good anymore. I was just
[12:59] trying to survive the last few hours of
[13:01] my 24-hour journey and hopefully somehow
[13:04] piece together one more good game. We
[13:06] might need a miracle, though. The next
[13:08] morning, I woke up excited to play some
[13:10] more. But with time running out, I made
[13:12] one final decision. I was done
[13:15] pretending that I could hold my own in
[13:17] unranked. It was very clear that I
[13:19] couldn't yet. So I went back to new
[13:20] player mode for one final game, just to
[13:23] have fun and maybe just maybe piece
[13:26] together one more win. Okay, here we go.
[13:30] What have we got? There's sniper. Oh,
[13:32] here we go.
[13:43] Where are you going, vengeful?
[13:48] We good? Yep, good start.
[13:51] Nice [snorts] little assist there.
[13:54] Nice.
[13:55] Uh let's go headshot here. Okay, pull
[13:58] back here. We're just kind of chilling.
[14:02] Huge. We'll go queue again.
[14:04] Okay, Viper's also level three.
[14:07] Once we get to six though, we have the
[14:09] advantage. Wait, he's actually kind of
[14:11] under pressure here.
[14:13] I'm not going to do that. I'm not going
[14:15] to do that. We're fine. We're one away.
[14:18] We just need level six and we'll be
[14:19] fine. And we should have enough mana.
[14:22] Yeah, we'll have assassinate for sure.
[14:25] Oh my gosh, he's right here.
[14:28] I probably could have
[14:30] got him.
[14:32] See you. That's a good start. Give me
[14:35] that queue.
[14:36] We can go ahead and start to skip these
[14:38] items. Boom, boom.
[14:40] Uh
[14:41] skip these items. Let's go one, two.
[14:45] We're just short there. Okay. Come on,
[14:47] buddy. Let's go ahead and teleport back
[14:49] here. We're going to go ahead and grab
[14:51] that. Let's grab that.
[14:53] We can go ahead and grab
[14:57] the mangoes this way and we can reset
[14:59] everything.
[15:01] I'm not going to go yet.
[15:05] I'm not going to go yet
[15:07] as bad as I want to.
[15:12] Now we go.
[15:14] Now we go.
[15:17] Now we go.
[15:19] Where'd he go?
[15:21] No!
[15:22] There it is. Oh my gosh, I thought he
[15:24] got away.
[15:26] I mean, we're just going to place that
[15:27] right on his Oh, no. He did He dodged
[15:30] it.
[15:35] See you. He's dead. Yep.
[15:38] No mana.
[15:41] That's the hard part.
[15:43] Dude, I wish I could hit him right now.
[15:45] I'd be fine.
[15:49] Let's go.
[15:50] Go. Go.
[15:52] Go.
[15:54] Nice. Good job.
[15:55] Dude, I need to find a way to get my
[15:56] mana to regen a little quicker.
[15:59] Oh, I have none of those. Hold on.
[16:03] Boom.
[16:04] Grab that.
[16:05] Uh
[16:07] Grab one, two, and I need to grab
[16:10] Please bring those all to me. Thank you.
[16:17] Where'd Where'd that axe go? Where'd
[16:19] that axe go?
[16:21] Axe is kind of staying away there, so
[16:27] Stunned. See you. See you.
[16:31] Nice. Huge. That's five. What do I need
[16:33] for the lightning? Like 2,500?
[16:36] Nice.
[16:38] We could just rain it down on them.
[16:47] Dead.
[16:49] He should be dead, too.
[16:54] Knocked. We're at seven.
[16:57] Enemy's top tower has fallen. We're kind
[16:59] of cruising here. I'm at seven kills
[17:01] already. Uh dude, I need so much. One,
[17:04] two.
[17:06] Oh, I still need 2,550 on top of that.
[17:10] What's the best way to get mana back?
[17:12] Oh no no no no no no no.
[17:21] >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[17:22] no no.
[17:27] Stunned. Got him.
[17:31] No, go, go, go, go, go. Get away, get
[17:33] away, get away.
[17:35] Go middle.
[17:38] Let's go middle.
[17:39] I'm here.
[17:43] Dude, I am just so strong right now at
[17:44] this point.
[17:47] We're kind of cooking. We're cruising.
[17:49] Let's go.
[17:53] We good here? Dude, if we can get over
[17:55] this way.
[17:57] Ah, get him. Get your Where's Troll?
[17:59] Where's Troll? Where's Troll? Where's
[18:00] Troll? Where'd he go?
[18:02] No. There he is.
[18:08] There he is. Where'd he go?
[18:10] Am I headed right into I'm headed right
[18:11] into my teammates.
[18:14] We getting an assist on that?
[18:17] Oh, I get out of here.
[18:19] Get out of here. I'm so dead.
[18:32] Nope.
[18:35] I'm going all the way back.
[18:37] I'm going all the way back.
[18:47] Axe Axe is dead. Axe is dead. Axe is
[18:49] dead.
[18:56] Okay, we're good. We're good. We're
[18:56] good. What do we got?
[18:58] Uh, take aim speed. Okay, are we good
[19:00] there? Uh, where is
[19:02] Where is my like
[19:04] This is what I want.
[19:08] Where is that Concussive Where is the
[19:10] shard? I'm holding my own. We're nine
[19:12] We're 9-0-1. We're definitely playing
[19:14] better this game.
[19:15] We're playing smarter.
[19:23] I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.
[19:25] I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I just got
[19:26] way over aggressive there.
[19:28] Dude, I'm 11 and 1 right now. We We
[19:30] can't lose this. I just need to keep
[19:33] playing smart.
[19:35] Dude, they are just so strong compared
[19:37] to some of my teammates. We might
[19:39] actually be in trouble here, dude.
[19:45] Dead.
[19:54] Go.
[19:57] Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.
[19:58] Let it rain. Let it rain.
[20:03] Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.
[20:10] Let it rain.
[20:15] See you. Watch this.
[20:17] Bang.
[20:35] Oh my gosh, Viper. Geez.
[20:40] Watch behind.
[20:42] Q.
[20:44] Stun spirit. Dead. Spirit's dead.
[20:48] I mean, what are they two two We just We
[20:50] literally just can't die here. That's
[20:51] it. Axe is dead.
[20:53] Got to be.
[20:55] Axe has got to be dead on that.
[21:00] Oh my gosh, I'm low I'm alone.
[21:05] Where did they go to? Holy smokes, that
[21:07] was almost bad.
[21:09] Okay, we're going to reset here.
[21:17] Let's go.
[21:19] Top tower. Which top tower?
[21:22] Okay.
[21:23] One dead. One dead. One dead. This is
[21:24] our big push right here. This is what we
[21:26] got to do.
[21:38] Wait, Axe should be dead. Axe should be
[21:40] dead. Axe should be dead. Axe should be
[21:41] dead. Nice.
[21:45] Viper dead. Viper dead.
[21:55] I don't know what we are doing here.
[21:57] Let's go. Come on.
[21:59] Can we push once and for all here?
[22:14] Get him. Get him. Get him. Get him. Get
[22:15] him. Get Zeus. Zeus. Zeus is dead. Zeus
[22:17] is dead. Zeus is dead.
[22:20] Zeus is dead.
[22:22] Dude, where are my teammates?
[22:30] Dude, we've got to find a way to kill
[22:31] these guys.
[22:39] No.
[22:42] Oh my gosh.
[22:45] Oh my gosh. I'm going to just sold.
[22:54] Dude, there's no way we just lost.
[23:02] Dude, that just sucks, man.
[23:06] That I just feel like sums up Dota 2 for
[23:09] me.
[23:10] I feel like I played so well and it just
[23:13] it just doesn't it just didn't matter.
[23:16] I feel like I played I made one mistake
[23:18] there at the end. My name's Cap'n Joe.
[23:19] If you enjoyed this journey, make sure
[23:21] to drop a like, make sure to drop a sub,
[23:23] and most importantly, make sure to check
[23:24] out the next video waiting for you right
[23:26] here because every gamer has a story
[23:28] [music]
[23:29] and these are all of my
⚡ Saved you time reading this? Transcribe any YouTube video for free — no signup needed.