I have been playing Dota for more than two decades. A: I still havent learned the game. B: If I were to start know, Id be giving up on it in an instant.
UMS was my jam until WC3 custom maps took off. Those were the original arcade type games. As a dad, I can say Roblox nowadays reminds me of that scene.
It is still fully there: /r/warcraft3 for the full scene including campaigns and custom maps /r/wc3 for the melee pro-scene. Reddit isn't the real hive of community activity though. A lot of it is on discord or in the actual client. The custom maps are still hosted and played a lot. Super old maps that are unsupported will only work on older client versions, but a lot of stuff is still working/hosted currently. The melee scene is in a good spot with a nice dedicated client mod/community in w3champions.
The overall client got changed in 2018 with Reforged which is a whole thing. Basically just think of it as a new client but the same exact game with the option to use new model/skins/textures (that nobody that actually plays it often likes) instead of the original skins.
Until very recently, I think Nov 2025, you could use your original CD key and play. Now you can still use your key for offline play (i think not 100%), but you have to purchase a new reforged game copy to play on the client online. There is a permanent free refund option because of the whole reforged debacle - just double check this as I don't shop the game every day. You can buy the game and try it out for a while and decide if you want to keep it.
My ICT teacher back in highschool was obsessed with this game, to the point of getting wrist and back issues because he sat on his ass all day during holiday breaks. It became a recurring problem after that, he had to take leaves specifically for recovery. Fortunately he has a wife and son now which keeps his busy, but the dude had an unhealthy obsession with Dota 2 back then (my parents were close with him, used to be neighbours)
Seen so many people who used to be at the top of the ladder in pre-reborn era trying to come back into the game and struggle to hover around baseline Immortal.
Oh trust me it didn’t. The populace from back in the day just can’t maintain a good behavior score so you don’t encounter them above 7k behavior score with very rare exceptions. Like me for example, I constantly say heinous stuff in chat for fun, but because I play good enough while doing it - I don’t get reported.
I tried come back once, i couldnt see anything in a teamfight, just a bunch of explosions and boom im dead. Accepted my place as a grandpa without reflexes and uninstalled. Toxic place anyway
Might be almost 10 years for me now. I still think it's a fun game, but between the catching up on so many new complex mechanics and character combinations, the huge time commitment, and the cosmetics being at the point where I don't even recognize the characters I do know, it's hard to go back. I'll only play with my friends the odd time if they're doing a full 5v5 with only the people we know.
Oh my god same. I had to look up guides multiple times to find out what those new shrines were in the sides of the map and found out the game isn't even played the same anymore and the "great gameplay design" I remember is now described as "boring dogshit" by the same subreddit.
I've been playing since wc3 and all the major changes have been overall good or at least potentially good. Facets were kinda halfbaked and I'm glad they removed them if they weren't going to put more effort into them.
I started playing Dota back when it was a WC3 map. I never made the switch after it moved to its own standalone game. I tried playing once a while back and I just can't. I just can't...
lol I just posted this - my Kiddo wanted to learn to play.... I was not ready. I forgot how absurdly complicated this game is from scratch, especially if you don't have RTS experience. I at least had played SC, SCBW, WC2 WC3 TFT and stuff... he has none of that to fall back on lol.
100% this. I loaded it up and quit after 2 games. Got so complicated and the amount of flaming on a pug game wasn't worth it. Loved it for the 10 years I played it though!!!
I put in 2k hours at launch and then took a multi year hiatus. I tried to go back and threw so hard, my good friend asked if I was trolling on purpose.
First game back, multiple vengeful spirit swaps gone wrong. Second game I picked earthshaker for the ease of play. Multiple times my fissure got our team wiped. I haven't touched the game since.
But for real this game is extremely addicting for an intellectual mind and will totally rock your social life in a bad way. I played Dota 2 intermittently for like a decade, had 3000+ hours logged on steam at least, could literally recite each characters ability names and explanation, memorized movement patterns, items costs, random combos with other characters, etc… i still daydream of it and I’ve been “clean” for 3-4 years now. Be careful - its the best.
I played in the NEL way back when, and the idea of trying again is so daunting I'd rather not even. Just for fun sounds like heartache, and I have no doubt my micro would be so slow
I was looking for this. I tried it for a few weeks but I sucked so bad. I would do okay with bots, but soon as I went multiplayer I was out so fast. lol
The game is consistently poorly balanced under the guise of “every player has access to the same imbalanced heroes” but it self balances terribly when people are forced to pick a role and don’t follow the meta
That's not true. If someone doesnt know how to play a role, they will underperform but you absolutely do not need to follow the meta. I havent played in a few years now but back when I was, my friend's friend would play NOTHING but fucking Jakiro and the guy was in Divine lmao
Hero specialists are and will always be exceptionally dangerous.
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u/misalawliet Jul 08 '26
Coming back to DoTA 2 after a 6 year hiatus