The first LAN tournament in what feels like ages is over and we are promised a patch some time next week. While overall it feels like the current meta and hero pool was pretty diverse for both professional and pub play, there are still some heroes who were completely ignored throughout the major and who aren’t too hot in pubs either. Heroes who could really use a buff.

With the release of DOTA: Dragon's Blood this week on Netflix, we thought this was a good time to review some Dotabuff posts that describe and explore some of the basics of Dota 2. Whether you're new to the game, coming back after a break, or are an active player already, we think there's something here for everyone.

Over the last couple of months, Weaver was getting progressively more popular and successful, especially in the higher level brackets. However, this is not the only reason we want to discuss the hero today: Weaver is also one of the invisibility heroes in the game who might not be a bad fit for a beginner player. Today, we would like to look at why Weaver works well in higher-level games while also discussing how he can be a good hero for newcomers.

Map control is one of those buzzword phrases that casters like to throw around constantly. It’s a pretty easy concept to understand, “hey just control the map lol!” Let’s get a bit deeper into what it means and how to achieve it. Map control is not just as simple as having vision over an area. This is a crucial part of the puzzle but the whole picture needs a few more pieces to get and maintain influence over critical parts of the map.

This is an exciting day for us. We're thrilled to share two new products with you: one brought to you by us, the team behind Dotabuff, and one is from our partner team.

Over the last couple of weeks, we went over some heroes who get too much undeserved attention as beginner-friendly heroes and we proposed better alternatives. Today, we would like to expand on the ideas presented in the previous posts, discussing possible pairings for you and your friends to try. Our goal is to find some dual lanes that are effective in lane and are effective throughout the game, while being fun and requiring teamwork.

We are continuing our series discussing heroes who, in our opinion, are not a great fit for newer players. Today, we are going to concentrate on the mid and carry roles. Some people might disagree with the idea of newer players playing high-impact DPS roles in the first place, but maybe we will retain a higher number of newcomers if they think the game more closely resembles the action RPG you play as a DPS core, rather than the survival horror you play as a support.

Last week, we started a discussion on the overrated supports in the current meta. One argument we think is worth adding to the previous discussion is that perhaps a non-trivial portion of the losses for these support heroes comes from primarily core players, who are simply farming their ranked role tokens. This can’t be an argument in today's discussion, however, since we are going to be talking about the most overrated cores in the current patch and why consciously picking these heroes in the later phases of the draft might not be the best idea for everyone.

It is hard not to be excited about the first bit of actual marketing for the game we all cherish. Hopefully, the new TV series, coming out on March 25, is going to introduce a lot of new players to the world of Dota and hopefully, some of them will stay for the long ride. A lot of it is going to depend on the first impressions these new players will have though.