General Discussion

General DiscussionHero Guide template (How to forum efficiently)(Make a Hero guide!)

Hero Guide template (How to forum efficiently)(Make a Hero guide!) in General Discussion
Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

    As some of you may have seen I have been attempting to encourage the creation of "How to play X hero" guides as well as general hero discussion threads as listed in my "Hello, Welcome to Dotabuff thread". As we can see via a players in-game stats, there are several [Url=http://dotabuff.com/]Dotabuff[/url] players that are more than exceptional players with X hero. Now I'm sure you're all aware that steam, has in-game guides submitted by players on how to play and build a hero, however those of us here that use the [Url=http://dotabuff.com/]Dotabuff[/url] forums obviously have a passion for statistics, and attempt to better our play styles and performance by reviewing our games and records. We have a desire to improve, and we're not writing for "+1" or "Like" features. Since we have this desire, I would expect our guides to be more experienced than those of which that Steam portrays.

    If we are to write guides, we can check that players in-game stats with ease, without cycling via websites, and can contrast the difference of "You should play the hero X way" and then check that player's success with the hero to see if it has been effective for them. There will be a few specific [Url=http://dotabuff.com/]Dotabuff[/url] users that I will request guides from, because they have made it clear through frequent and consistent success and amazing statistics with specific heros. However if I haven't gotten around to contacting you, or you feel the need to contribute to the [Url=http://dotabuff.com/]Dotabuff[/url] community feel free to take your own initiative and use this template to create a guide yourself.

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    If you need help with forum code, for organization please contact me and I would be more than happy to edit it for you.
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    [color=#ffa500]Title[/color] : How to play X hero, by User

    [color=#ffa500]Introduction :[/color]
    A small paragraph about the hero and subjects you will attempt to cover.

    [color=#ffa500]Pros and Cons :[/color]

    [color=#ffa500]Abilities :[/color] Attempt to discuss Skill builds, common, and situational ones. In which situations you would use these builds or variations, and how some pub players commonly might skill, that you believe is incorrect or inefficient. Try and mention situations in which you should be using a spell IE black hole and when to suggest you're going to cast but not.

    [color=#ffa500]Roles :[/color] Talk about which roles the hero can play successfully, and which they excel at. (1-5, Hard carry, Mid, Offlane, Lane support, Jungler, Roaming, and Hard support.) If there are skill build differences, you can touch on that as well.

    [color=#ffa500]Item choices :[/color] Some suggested starting items, laning items that are common and when you might want them. Item progression, core items and situational items. Try and list items that lesser experienced players build that you feel is wrong. Touch on subjects such as boot choice, when to upgrade from brown to another pair, controversial items such as Hand of midas, Battlefury, Aghs, and other items. Touch on Items you should avoid even though they might be tempting for lesser experienced players.

    [color=#ffa500]Laning, Mid and Late game play styles :[/color] Things you should be doing in game, things you believe are crucial for success, common mistakes players make or believe is correct. If you should be roaming, or checking runes, items you should be looking if the enemy is buying, and how you should position your hero when ganking, laning, and team fighting.

    [color=#ffa500]Problems :[/color] Heros that this Hero might have issues with, and ways you feel to overcome that. Situations that you feel are difficult but can be solved IE : The aggressive / Defensive Trilane.

    [color=#ffa500]Knowledge :[/color] Tips you might have for newer players, or things that average players can do to improve. Things that you have tried and have or have not had success with. How long you have been playing this hero and your accomplishments/credential. Situations you should and should not play this hero in. Anything else you would like to add.

    [color=#ffa500]Suggested material :[/color] Other articles you should read or games that you would watch, via either you or a Professional player.

    Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ
      This comment was edited
      Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

        Minor edit + bump~ 2/19/14

        Thank you for all that have submitted

        This comment was edited
        Hopeless

          would it not potentially be easier to use dotafire links for these?

          Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

            Meh~ What happens in Dotabuff stays in Dotabuff.

            All I heard you say is that you wish they would implement some sort of hero guide submission here on Dotabuff. That's possibly true and could me more effective, but it includes that site hopping thing I mentioned~

            Satellizer

              I could, but I think the thread "Luna general" covers a lot of the things mentioned there

              countering Luna, unconventional build discussions, Midas x HotD, Glaive interaction, Gyro x Luna discussion

              Hopeless

                They just end up being easier to craft with visual templates and stuff. These guides can be written without it though.

                To differentiate I would suggest asking the people writing the guides to not include really basic stuff, and just stick to potential skill build considerations, item progression and advanced tactics.

                alot of stuff that ends up in guides are kinda duh.

                Satellizer

                  Concede has sweet stats with Bristleback, you should add him Melody-sama.

                  Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                    @ Concede

                    I can see how repeating a lot of this can be really redundant, but for newer players that would like to learn a hero they may not see the difference to what us may see like "I knew this shit coming out of the womb. Look at you telling me how to A move on dota. You think I'm dumb?" There was a guy that messaged me after I posted a piece of the micro thread asking me what a "Dota Console" was. Sometimes the basics are needed =/

                    Hopeless

                      fair enough. Perhaps a tl;dr at the end :)

                      Vaeldiithia

                        For newer players, there is dota-fire... id appriciate to read more advanced tactics here, even if i cant use them, just.. interesting. Also I guess most people here dont like to write that many things as you do... sooo just let them write the advanced parts, leave the basics to other sites. If someone wants to, go for it, but encourage them to write intermediate guides, dont need to start from basics.

                        Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                          Fine fine~ Zzzz. I'll add an additional section to the first post discussing what an advanced guide should cover.

                          Vaeldiithia

                            I like how much effort you put into these things. :) I used to do the same (even with the nice lovely formattings :D) when I played a game I was actually decent at + was in a hungarian community, so easier for me to write wall of texts. Hardest part is to get others cooperate, so gl with that. :D

                            [Lk].Zano

                              Yes, yes, more of these. I'm still waiting for reliable guides on some heroes...I don't trust dotafire :/

                              Oh, and you could suggest sano to do a Tinker guide :P

                              This comment was edited
                              Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                Sure I'll mention, but you have to write an advanced guide on a support of your choice. See you!

                                (Added you on steam as well if you need help formatting.)

                                Wink

                                  nub you forgot to ask me about my prophet

                                  KawaiiSocks

                                    Hmmm... Melody-San has got my attention once more.

                                    So, I really like the idea and I think a lot of people on dotabuff could really help the larger community to improve. After all, from what I understand from the forums, everyone here is at least 5k MMR))

                                    I decided it could be cool to have a "guide" competition. It should not be a guide in the common sense and rather something like http://dotabuff.com/blog/2014-01-21-dazzle , but from an exceptional player on the hero (my Dazzle is somewhat good, but definitely not exceptional).

                                    The best one will be published and immortalised as a blog. (with all the credits and some prizes)

                                    Some general tips:

                                    The template Melody-San gave is good. My blog post on Dazzle is very similar to it in structure, so you can refer to either.

                                    Don't describe the skills in too much detail (a general idea of a skill, rather than a detailed tooltip for every level) - there is a wiki for it, and it is a tedious task. (+ I will add the tooltips when I will be publishing it) Rather concentrate on something really cool and/or overlooked on the hero.

                                    Don't make the paragraphs too long - it looks scary.) One sentence-paragraphs may not be fine for your uni coursework, but it is more than ok in a blog format - as long as it provides some point.

                                    Try to make it somewhat entertaining - one of the things I struggled a lot with in my first couple of posts is that my writing was way too academic. It looks boring and is hard to read. Keep it simple)

                                    Use some stats - just a general tip. Substantiating a claim with the empirical evidence, rather than subjective opinion of the author, will result in higher credibility of the text.

                                    Hope you are as excited about it as I am) Good luck!

                                    Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                      [color=#FF0059]Th[/color][color=#FF0026]an[/color][color=#FF1100]k [/color][color=#FF4300]yo[/color][color=#FF6F00]u [/color][color=#FE9900]So[/color][color=#FEC600]ck[/color][color=#FFFA00]s-[/color][color=#CBFF00]Sa[/color][color=#99FF00]ma[/color][color=#67FE00]!
                                      [/color][color=#31FF00]Th[/color][color=#00FF0E]is[/color][color=#00FE4A] i[/color][color=#00FE7D]s [/color][color=#00FFAF]"S[/color][color=#00FEE2]we[/color][color=#00E2FE]et[/color][color=#00B2FF]" [/color][color=#0087FF]as[/color][color=#005CFF] a[/color][color=#002EFE]ll[/color][color=#0700FF] g[/color][color=#3D00FE]et[/color][color=#6F00FF] o[/color][color=#A100FF]ut[/color][color=#D900FE]![/color]

                                      This comment was edited
                                      Winter

                                        Can I try to write one for Rubick? :O Any suggestions will be super welcome too as I know that there are quite a few good Rubick players here.

                                        [Lk].Zano

                                          ^ Include that for maximum fun, you should always pick Rubick against heroes with good mobility spells. Specially AM and Weaver who are not likely to use another spell fo prevent you from stealing it :)

                                          This comment was edited
                                          Winter

                                            Cheers, Zano! :D Too bad you're in US (right?) and we can't play together. :C U r awesome <3

                                            [Lk].Zano

                                              Heh, I'm not sure why I don't play in EU. I suppose I was scared of the lags, but then I noticed that there are some EU games among my first few matches which I don't remember getting lagged...must have been all those russian comments then. :P

                                              And no, I'm not in the US, I'm one of those SA players who always play in US because I HAD lag in SA for some ungodly reason, I don't think I have that issue anymore, but I got used to the US servers :P

                                              This comment was edited
                                              Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                Go for it haha. The more positive posts we have the better.

                                                mwsqz

                                                  ^careful with those images, some kids could fap on it ..(wave)

                                                  Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                    Hahhahaa. It was for Socks-Sama, considering he is yet to reveal his socks which we all know are for sure unkawaii.

                                                    sano

                                                      Maybe someday I can make something about Tinker, but I don't think I'll do it so soon

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                                                      Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                        We would appreciate it greatly! Whenever you have free time~

                                                        Satellizer

                                                          sano is one of the best tinker players in SA (maybe in a top3 behind HNS and Alemao), so a guide by him would be great

                                                          but he still is a fgt

                                                          sano

                                                            ^ I'm flattered by that compliment <3

                                                            Wink

                                                              Dibs on Omni

                                                              Chris.

                                                                Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                                  It sucks you have that "This player is not eligible for inclusion top player rankings." Tag man, I would really like for someone that has an extremely successful Mirana player to write an advanced guide for her :(

                                                                  [Lk].Zano

                                                                    "Sure I'll mention, but you have to write an advanced guide on a support of your choice. See you!

                                                                    (Added you on steam as well if you need help formatting.)"

                                                                    Oh wait, were you talking to me? :P I noticed you added me on steam, but I thought you were talking to Vaeldiithia.
                                                                    I'm not sure how people would take a guide by me. I mean, I haven't read that many guides and I've never ever watched pro streams of tournament matches (would you beleive it?)...so yeah, I mostly play by instinct :P

                                                                    King of Low Prio

                                                                      lazy fuks need to edit my drafts alrdy

                                                                      Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                                        Yes I was talking to you Zano. Hahaha. If you feel you could write an adequate guide for a hero you like give it a shot.

                                                                        @ Sampson, typing atm~

                                                                        sano

                                                                          well you guys actually convinced me to start typing something about Tinker and after 30 min I've already typed 4 pages rofl
                                                                          guess I'll post it today or tomorrow. I thought it would take a long time but it's easier than it looks.

                                                                          Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                                            =D super excited to see this

                                                                            King of Low Prio

                                                                              Sano the trick is to have someone else do all the hard work :D

                                                                              sano

                                                                                posted it. kind of a wall of text but that's the way I did it. maybe I do some editing later.

                                                                                Quick maffs

                                                                                  I am pretty sure that Sam could do a guide of a lot of heroes

                                                                                  Jʌy Δshʙoʁnɘ

                                                                                    I am pretty sure a lot of players can do a lot of hero guides however I figure no one really wants to delve days on days of somewhat journalistic posting, syntax editing and references.

                                                                                    Thanks Sano! I'm heading off to bed for the night (Depends if my medicine allows me to sleep or not) Regardless I'll add it to the collection of posts whenever I wake up~.

                                                                                    Hopeless

                                                                                      i'll try to find the motivation to do a BB guide....

                                                                                      frostychee

                                                                                        I think it doesn't matter what you write as long as it's a....[color=#ff0000]R[/color][color=#ffa500]a[/color][color=#ffff00]i[/color][color=#008000]n[/color][color=#0000ff]b[/color][color=#ee82ee]o[/color][color=#800080]w[/color]

                                                                                        Satellizer

                                                                                          Gonna write a luna guide
                                                                                          just gathering information first
                                                                                          gonna make it colorful

                                                                                          quick edit: okay, I'll need melody's help

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                                                                                          KawaiiSocks

                                                                                            If you could link your work in this topic, I'd be great. Thanks!

                                                                                            King of Low Prio

                                                                                              prob, Melody is good at making things look pretty and that is a talent that I lack :P

                                                                                              Winter

                                                                                                Starting work on the Rubick's guide. Hopefully I would be able to figure out the formatting and colouring (if it's as hard as Dota I will need help).

                                                                                                Totentanz to The King: M ...

                                                                                                  I guess I'll write one soon as well. Not gonna do any editing though, just pure wall of text.

                                                                                                  -apm 400 player

                                                                                                    as if we can understand that slark guide

                                                                                                    salt enjoyer

                                                                                                      @Sam give it to melody and he/she/it will edit it for you (hopefully)