Dota Dictionary for Beginners
Dota is a complex game with a vast amount of different concepts. In fact, it is complex enough to require its own vocabulary. While most of it is already common knowledge, newer players can struggle with the understanding of the lingo. Moreover, it is also almost never explained during tournament streams.
For newer players, this article might be helpful with jump-starting their process of getting acquainted with the game. For others, it’s a reminder that all of us were new to Dota at some point, and it is no easy task to learn the game. There was a time when none of us had even the slightest idea of what these concepts mean.
Pulling — the process of aggroing the neutral camp and “pulling” them into a friendly or enemy creepwave. Mainly done for controlling the lane equilibrium, but can also be used as an aid for farming.
Lane Equilibrium — a place on the lane where creeps from each side meet. A very important concept, since farming closer to your tower puts you in a much safer space. Controlling the lane equilibrium through pulls is a very important game mechanic.
Stacking — the process of aggroing the neutral camp and moving it away shortly before the respawn time. If done properly, results in two (or more) sets of neutral creeps occupying the same camp, which can facilitate the farm or ensure a more successful pull.
Zoning — act of applying pressure to the enemy offlaner, typically by a support, to prevent him from getting experience and gold in the lane and tampering with the farm of the carry.
Roaming — frequent movement from one lane to another for the purposes of ganking or support. Usually associated with supports in the early game, but is not restricted to them. More on the topic can be found here.
Playmaking — initiation of offensive plays. Hence, playmaking heroes are frequently initiators and playmaking players are the players who excel in this role.
Space creation — act of wasting enemy time, frequently associated with self-sacrifice, for the purpose of gaining advantage in the other areas of the map. Advantages usually include extra safe farm for the carry or an objective for the team.
Farming Pattern — an efficient movement pattern between one or two lanes and the jungle which typically aims to maximize the farm of the hero.
Burst Damage — high amount of damage dealt in a very short time. While typically associated with nukes, burst damage can also come from strong critical strike abilities (e.g. 
Phantom Assassin) or very high attack damage (e.g. 
Sven).
Map control — accessibility and safety of the map’s resources. Typically, areas around the towers are assumed to be under the control of the team, since the towers can be used as points of teleport and provide some vision. Gaining map control, therefore, is usually associated with taking the objectives from the enemy or warding. For more on vision-based map control, you can refer to our previous blog post.
Positions 1-5 — farm priority positions, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest. Positions 1-3 are usually core heroes of the team, with 4 and 5 being supports. Depending on how starved the supports are, commentators often jokingly refer to them as position 6—8 supports.
Win condition — a specific scenario, under which the team can win the game. While usually ample at the beginning of the match, these scenarios tend to shrink in quantity by the mid-game, especially for the losing team. More on the topic can be found in our “dealing with…” series.
Disjoint — act of evading the enemy spell or auto-attack projectile by using mobility (e.g. Blink), invisibility or temporary invulnerability (e.g. Manta Style) abilities.
Fade Time — a short delay between the use of an invisibility ability and the invisibility being applied. Most invisibility abilities, such as 
Shadow Walk or 
Glimmer Cape, have fade time, however, some spells, such as 
Ghost Walk do not, hence the invisibility is applied instantly.
Dispel — removal of status effects (buffs and debuffs) from an ally or an enemy. Only strong dispels can remove hard disables, such as stuns. There are currently only three sources of strong dispels which can be used on allies: 
Aphotic Shield, 
Press The Attack and 
False Promise. A more detailed overview of the concept can be found in our previous blog post
Interrupt — an ability, that can prevent the enemy from using channeling spells. Includes stuns, mini-stuns, silences, hexes etc. Note, that not all abilities with forced movement will interrupt channeling abilities. 
Force Staff, 
Deafening Blast, 
Flamebreak and many other will allow the enemy to keep channeling, while 
Vacuum or 
Nether Swap will not.
Reliable Gold — gold from kills, assists, objectives (including Roshan), couriers and 
Hand of Midas. Reliable gold is not lost on death, and is only spent during purchases when the unreliable gold pool is depleted.
Effective HP — HP of a target, taking into account its armor.
Pseudo random — distribution used by most random-based abilities in Dota. Each hit without random-based ability proc will increase the chances of the proc, however once the effect works, the chance is reset to below the stated value. The system is in place to prevent long chains of successful or unsuccessful attacks with or without proc.
Closing thoughts
We understand that many of you will not find a lot of new information in this post. However, Dota is a game that constantly attracts new players and it is our duty to make the newcomers feel comfortable.
Understanding the basic concepts of the game and its own language is a first step towards better in-game communication, and communication is often the lacking element in all of our games.
ha, first
2 =8=====Э
ha, third
You should have explained things like "initiation", "aggroing", "ganking" and stuff like that too. Beginners are not going to understand these simple (for us) things as much as space creation or lane equilibrium
Gank - When you farm where there is no ward and suddendly dies to a solo support
good blog post for noobs above me and below me
GG/Ez meaning pls haha
A lot of these strategic terms don't apply to newer players. In my opinion, they should know more mechanics-based terms such as "cast point".
9. Hoping for 9 winning streak.
10st
Don't forget CS LUL
You forgot putang ina bobo ako mid. Also, space creation is a myth. People only say it when they unintentionally feed and they say it to make them self feel better.
Effective HP — HP of a target, taking into account its armor (and magic resistance)
A good read......
Thanks!
I'm glad this exists, perhaps Valve themselves could include a section in an update which contains much more vocabulary. As a game that is famous for not being welcoming to new players anything we can do to make it easier for newer players is only a good thing.
"As a game that is famous for not being welcoming to new players"
@bogey654 had you ever tried the tutorial in dota 2 reborn?
Nice post, I'll need it for my career ;P
You forgot "ez mid: congratulation to my mid opponent for an honorable performance", and "?" after any questionable plays from the opposite team to signify encouragement and good sportsmanship (or type "question mark" if you really want to make friends).
For your own team, make sure to abuse "We need wards: we're losing this and it's not my fault" (say after your 5th death in 4 minutes for maximum impact).
glhf and welcome to dots!
good read
still doesnt understand about "mid or feed" strategic, can someone explain it to me?
What is the meaning of kappa and 4head?
You forgot to add mid or feed and GG WP
need some more concepts, like micro/macro skills, tempo and all of that.. and there should be a section inside dotabuff or dota 2 client to acces to this dictionary.. here, it will be forgotten and useless with easy..
Should have explained what is and what isn't a "nuke" and also what jukes/juking means.
Took me quite a while to figure those out.
?
is too short (minimum is 6 characters)
i think "zoning" dont exclusively apply to pressuring offlaners
maybe zone out enemy mid hero as a mid skywrath with your spells? zone out their carry because you as a offlaner (timber?) can do that if the supports arent around? zone jungler from the jungle in the early game with a roaming support?
im sure there are a lot of possible scenarios in which "zoning" can be applied
Write a post about Treant Destroyer
for beginners?? every player in the 3k bracket that i play with should read this cuz they dont know a single thing of it.
Interesting how nobody on my teams understands win conditions. They have 4 late game hard carries while we have 1, team never pushes, lose 70 minute game.
Lol I remember when I started playing I didn't understand what "gank" meant and my main hero was (and still kinda is) bloodseeker. Ah, nothing better than remembering the "BLOOD CANCER NO GANK REPORT" and genuinely not understanding. I look at my past self and cry.
tbh i thought playmaking is the act of aiming for spectacular plays rather than trying to win the game, ex. being greedy on bh/rp/other huge stuff, getting early refresher on invoker, etc.
therefore, useful blog post, solid 5/7
Effective HP — HP of a target, taking into account its armor, magic resistance and evasion (only damage block is often putted out, as it's really not conveninent to calculate with it)
Thank you i had a good read, however there's still a lot to add in
I think we need a section for abbreviation as well. I remember that i was confused when someone said to me "well yeah of course you won, you got fed bot" while trying to understand what bot means. I thought it was bot for like bot as in AI in offline match.
Here are some suggestions to add :
Lane abbreviations, Aggro, Backdoor protection, True sight, UAM, Item abbreviations (such as deso,radi,tarras, etc.), Heroes and Skills abbreviations (SK, RP, BS), Gank, Purge, KS (Killsteal) , buyback, etc.
Some of these have been explained in the wiki as well but it'll still be useful nonetheless, also i think it would be better to sort it alphabetically
322? Throw? Feeders? Fucking pinoy monkeys?
Kappa
Throw: When your team wipes the enemy and chooses to farm rather than push.
Feed: When you chooses to fight 1 on 4 because you have a kill streak.
5-man: What the enemy team does and your team refuses to do.
i still dont understand what kiting is
nice article
U should include uam does not stacks except skadi n lifesteal interaction. Please i cant bear to look at pa who buys deso n helm
I was more looking for explanation of gg wp ez lp fu gtfo, lol etc
what about ''cyka blyat''
@yaya its a strategy which the player goes mid. then feed and blame other players
Effective HP can also take into account magic resistance, and other damage reductors like Vanguard, Crimson, Pipe, and passives like Mana Shield and Dispersion.
Also zoning/space creating can also mean zoning out the back liners while the rest of your team can focus the frontliner down, or take objectives. Can be typically seen by high mobility heroes like Storm, Timber and TA in some cases. Also we see this zoning from Nyx with Aghs once they breach high ground.
Zoning is also more commonly done by cores actually. They assist the support in zoning with aggressive positioning in lane, and mid laners attempt to zone each other out a lot in the early stages.
You forgot the almighty "?"
You should ad that effective HP also include magic resistance besides armor (eg for heroes like huskar, meepo or antimage with high magic resistance)
Currently the Enchanted Mango has but a 40.93% win rate. Please help. It is our duty as fellow gamers to give this magnificent item the glory it deserves.
Nice one! Keep it up! ^_^