Dota 2 Getting Commends by Being Considerate Guide

Dota 2 Getting Commends by Being Considerate Guide by Lord Wisp

Introduction

Dota 2 is, without question, a game of tactics. Because of this, there is a lot of varied strategy, and a lot of varied opinions. This causes tension between quite a few people, and ends up turning what should have been a fun match of a fun game into something excruciating. So, I thought I would write this rather short guide on how to be considerate towards other people, even if they’re playing very badly.

People Play Differently

Dota rewards players for being creative. It isn’t the rigorous law-driven world of other games of its type. If someone shows you an item on a hero that you’ve never thought of before, or a tactic that seems stupid at the surface, don’t be too quick to judge. The people demonstrating this must have a reason as to why they’re doing it, and if it turns out to work, it becomes extremely rewarding.

There are many different play styles in Dota. If you are playing with someone who doesn’t do what you think they should be, try to be open to suggestions.

Everyone Has Bad Games

Every Dota player I know has stories of their worst games. Everyone has them. We all have those nightmarish games where we went 0-10 with our best hero, and were incredibly frustrated by the end of the game, as everyone else was yelling at us and calling us noobs. This should be evidence enough that if someone is doing badly, they’re probably just not having a good game.

There are many reasons as to why this could be so. They could have recently had a bad life event, and wanted to relax with a match of their favorite game. Maybe they’re trying a new hero, and would benefit from a kind word of advice on items or skills. (And if you’re in that situation, don’t be afraid to ask for help). They could just be having a hard time with the other team shutting them down. In all of these cases, a little bit of encouragement, and a kind word, can go a long way. It might even turn their game around for them.

Don’t Be Rude

When you’re rude to your teammates, it will lower everyone’s moral. yourself included. Nothing could be worse for a team than being angry at the people you need to be working with. Even if someone is being rude to you, it will only make it worse to retaliate. It won’t accomplish anything good, and will only put you in risk of receiving a report. I know how hard it can be at times to just say nothing in the face of an infuriatingly mean player, but it’s always best to just say nothing.

The Report/Commend System

The report and commend system are not for judging someone’s in-game ability.
When reporting someone, don’t do it because they’re bad at the game. Likewise, when commending someone, don’t do it because they’re good at the game. I will list each report and commend, and a short description of when they should be used.

Reports:

Communication Abuse
Report someone for this when they’re being rude.

Examples of when to use this: After giving sincere advice to someone, they responded by calling you an idiot, or other such rudeness; spamming pings for no reason; spamming the chat; spamming music into the microphone.

Intentional Feeding
Report someone for this when they are intentionally letting themselves die for the purpose of feeding the other team.

Examples of when to use this: Someone ran into the enemy’s base for no reason; Someone ran head first into a group of enemies and didn’t do anything but stand there.

DO NOT use this to report people for playing badly in general. This report is not about the quality of play, it’s about the intent behind play.

Ability Abuse
Report someone for this when they are using any of their abilities to deliberately hinder the team.

Examples of when to use this: An Io uses his relocate ability to teleport a teammate into the enemy fountain, killing him; A Pudge uses his hook to prevent teammates from getting kills, letting the enemy team get away alive.

DO NOT use this to report people for: “kill stealing”; misjudging when to use a powerful ability; making a genuine mistake via hitting the wrong button, or something similar;

Commends:

Friendly
Commend someone for being friendly when they talk with the team happily, and make generally good, fun company.

Forgiving
Commend someone for this if he forgives a teammate for any wrong-doing, be it game-related, or meta-game.

Teaching
Commend someone for this when they give others good advice on heroes or tactics.

Leadership
Commend someone for this when they take charge in a game, and lead you on to victory.

Reports and commends are of equal value. Reporting a rude player is just as important as commending a kind player. Do remember to report or commend anyone who deserves it. Also, whenever you report or commend someone, add a note. Valve will pay more attention to a report or commend that has a note on it, as it shows that you truly wanted to take the time to report or commend this person.

And one final note: Don’t report people for abandoning a match, simply because an abandon is already worse than a report, and there’s no report category that accurately represents an abandon.

Matchmaking

If you’re going into a public match, you have to be prepared to play with strangers. If you’re going to be playing a new hero, you should at the very least have done a few minutes of research into their abilities and items so you know how to play them. I recommend the guides and overviews from DotaCinema on YouTube. A bot match or two also can go a long way in preparing yourself for pub. If you don’t like bot matches, a least played match works just as well. Nobody expects you to play your heroes expertly in least played.

Also, if you do not speak a language, please do not check that as a spoken language in Dota. It’s not just harming your teammates, it’s harming yourself. Communication is key in Dota, and if you cannot get through the language barrier, then the game goes out the window.

Spread The Word!

If you liked what I had to say in this guide, then I urge you to pass it on to anyone and everyone. If we can, as a community, become more considerate and kind toward everyone, then Dota will become even more popular. I know of several people who said they don’t like Dota because when they tried it, everyone else was consistently rude to them. This is the kind of message that this great game can give off at times if we’re not careful.

So, for the sake of Dota, be considerate!