[For Dota beginners] Where should I play?

[NotAbastard]

A common question I get from those who begin their DotA career (?!) is "Where should I play?"

Well here's a list of the most famous servers.

 

Battlenet

 

Battlenet is the original Warcraft III server of Blizzard. The games are hosted by the users , and the performance of the game is based on their computer.

 

Advantages :

• You will ALWAYS find a game to play, 24/7,  and players to play with.
  
• In certain rooms, you are sure that you play with experienced people ( mostly useful when you have some basic experience yourself :P )
  

• You can find games with any map you like , not only DotA.
  
• Official support by Blizzard.
  

 

Disadvantages

• Most public games are full or random , inexperienced people , who only join games just to mess them up, and they end up destroying your game.
  
• Some games are really laggy.
  
• You have to know which room you should join, to access the high quality games.
  
• It's not free.
  

 

Garena

 

Garena is a LAN emulator, you join rooms and you find the games like a local network. It's really popular, and it also has support for other games.

 

Advantages

• Free to join, and play
  
• It has a high population, and there are rooms for every country in the world
  
• Delay-free, for most people
  
• Leveling system sometimes helps understanding who's experienced and who's not
  

 

Disadvantages

• Non-gold members may find it hard joining rooms during busy hours of the day
  
• Lacking a proper banlist, there are many people who leave games and just get away with it
  
• Maphack is an everyday phenomenon
  
• The support is crappy, at least from my experience

 

Eurobattle.net

Eurobattlenet used to be a "free" , low quality battlenet alternative, but since then it has grown quite a lot.

 

Advantages

• Lag-free, since most games are hosted by fast hostbots
  
• Nice protection against maphackers, leavers and afkers, since it has a nice banlist system
  
• Pretty close community, people know each other.

 

Disadvantages

• Most of the times you'll get kicked from high-quality games if you don't have a game history (like 30-40 games or so)
  
• Low population compared to other servers
  
• No map variety. DotA, Footmen or Enfos and that's it.
  
• You cannot find a variety of nationalities between users. Most of them are either Romanian, or Brazilian, or Turkish.
  
• You have to activate your account everymonth, if not your account gets deleted in 6 months

 

 

RGC (Ranked Gaming Client)

RGC is not that popular in Eastern Europe, but it's a really nice place to find quality games.

 

Advantages

• Mostly lag free
  
• Organised games, and a nice way to play like the pros do (Captain's mode in dota, wards, proper gangs, some stuff that you don't find everyday in other servers
  
• Support from the staff.
   
  Disadvantages
  
• Maphackers ruin it for others
  
• Low population
  
• Low experience players will get some serious mocking and insulting

 

Dota-League

Dota league is where you will meet your idols, most of the famous players play there. It's hard to get in , easy to get kicked out, so don't join it if you think you ain't got the guts.

 

Advantages

• Professional gaming. With a proper clan you can live some pretty nice moments in there
  
• Most people know what they are doing
  
• The ranking system will let you know who's good and who's bad

 

Disadvantages

• Not for newbies
  
• You need to be accepted to join in , and it takes time
  
• If you are looking for fun , do not go there. Things get serious, and a tiny bit of insult can get you banned
  
• Some people speak of lag, but I haven't experienced any

Dotalicious-Gaming

Although still beta, it has developped a pretty competitive ladder , with many professional gamers on top. You can meet players like Maelk in a simple game you join. The games are categorized in skill levels, and as your experience and winning percentage rises, you get to join higher-level games.

 

Advantages

• Reconnection System
  
• High Quality Games
  
• Leaver-free
  
• Easy to join
  
• Proper categorization of games and players

 

Disadvantages

• Still beta
  
• Pretty messy if someone is lagging too much but won't get disconnected
  
• Sometimes a single new player can ruin the game, dragging his teammates into a loss of experience and win percentage reduction.
  

 

Darer

Another famous server you could try is Darer. It's pretty famous in Eastern Europe , and a place for many famous players from these countries. It also supports CASH prizes for the top players EACH MONTH and you can also bet cash for a match! Pretty interesting, but i haven't checked it out myself so I can't write a proper review.

 

 

Of course there are other servers you can choose (Like groups in Hamachi and Xfire) but these are the most famous ones.

 

The links are given below :

 

http://www.garena.com/

http://www.battle.net/

http://www.rankedgaming.com/

http://www.eurobattle.net/

http://www.dota-league.com/

http://www.dotalicious-gaming.com/

http://www.darer.com

 

If you have any objections about anything I wrote, please let me know

Credits : NotAbast4rd

 

EDIT : Dotalicious added, and info about Darer

[`Vaxil]

bravo !

 

Abnormal has started recently playing dota , so good job meng!

[|Itachi]

In my opinion RGC and Dota league should be deleted from this post just because you refer to newcomers(Noobs) so plz dont destroy the whole dota platforms

[Reptant_]

About BNET,you will never play in public servers.

Just join channel 'ELEOS' and u can find lagless games hosted by bots

 

then,some semi-private clans(clan nol,public but very better than eleos)

and totally privates,when u need invitation

 

also RGC or what of them has reconnection tool,i can't remember

 

 

ah,Dotalicious

add it

so considering urself a newbie ,you go at eleos

then nol

and they invite you privates

 

you will start garena public if u are tard and can't play w/o mh

 

[DreaM]

So.. from your point of view there's no place that we can call "proper"for DotA games ?

[NotAbastard]

So.. from your point of view there's no place that we can call "proper"for DotA games ?

 

Every and each one of those servers have proper dota games. But you gotta know where to find 'em

 

For example , I play some really neat games on Clan PDC of battlenet, while public games are crap

                    I love Clan matches on Europe Clan War 1, 2 of garena, but 90% of GDR games are sucky

 

etc

[DreaM]

If you want to play proper games gather your friends find a Internet Cafe and have that special DotA game you never can be satisfied to the fullest when your feelings aren't shared with friends ...

[Reptant_]

If you want to play proper games gather your friends find a Internet Cafe and have that special DotA game you never can be satisfied to the fullest when your feelings aren't shared with friends ...

Exactly

nothing can be compared with this

[Lain]

NotABastard and what is your best personal choice?

[Reptant_]

btw,add http://www.dotalicious-gaming.com/

[NotAbastard]

NotABastard and what is your best personal choice?

 

Tbh I have no permanent residence , but I've had my favorite games in Europe Clan War rooms of Garena

[|Itachi]

btw,add http://www.dotalicious-gaming.com/

plz no all these Greek noobs destroying online games will destroy this too >.<

[Versus]

This should be stickied, nice one.

[Noble®]

pretty useful! deserves a sticky

[unqART~]

Darer.com the best client ;) today i play versus Xboct and denti ^^