Q: I was sort of excited for Magic Stick, but I've rarely seen it in games, and when I have, it's been terrible. Are there any circumstances where it doesn't suck? A: People don't remember that it's only 210g. Buy it from a sideshop when you have the money. It's useful when facing a dual lane heroes with active spells(or a soloing serious spammer like zeus and bristle). Everytime PA blinks or slows, you get a charge. Everytime Phantom lancer...>

What is APM?  Actions Per Minute. APM in DotA means absolutely nothing in terms of skill. In SC and WC3, yes APM matters. If your APM is anything under 200 in SC against a good player you will lose almost 100% of the time. People who have an APM of 200 in DotA are silly. There's no reason whatsoever why you should be making one single unit perform that many actions.Anything around the 70-120 range is enough for DotA but keep in mind it...>

Overview Stuns will cause a victim to be unable to move or perform actions for a period of time. Any actions in progress, such as channeling and spell casting, are also interrupted. Stuns are significantly more effective than Ensnare or Entangling Roots-based effects, since they prevent the victim from taking any action. Consequently, stuns very rarely last more than one or two seconds. Ministuns, stuns which last for an extremely short...>

Overview Hex is an active base ability that when used, transforms a unit into a random critter. Notes on Hex A Hexed unit: Has the same amount and type of armor, the same amount of Health, Mana and Regeneration and still have some passive skills. Can't attack or cast spells. Can't use items. Can't deactivate De/activate abilities such as Pudge's Rot or Armlet...>

Overview Farming is doing nothing but killing a certain type of monster, Creeps and Neutrals in this case, for the express purpose of getting gold. Farming, along with ganking and pushing, is one of the main aspects of any DotA game. Put simply, killing creeps and neutrals repeatedly is the most common and effective means of amassing gold for items, far surpassing that received from Hero killing and Tower destruction. Since items in turn...>

Overview A Disable is an action which allows a hero to temporarily incapacitate an enemy, incurring interruption. Disables are typically active hero spells, such as Storm Bolt, Ensnare, and Voodoo, although passive disables (Bash, Last Word) and Item disables (Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse, Eul's Scepter of Divinity) exist as well. The purpose of a disable to is stop an enemy from taking a certain action, ranging from silencing enemy spells to stopping...>

Tank A Tank is a hero (typically a Strength based one), whose primary role is to absorb large amounts of damage from enemies and draw attention away from allies. To achieve this, they generally have several defensive abilities that grant armor, regeneration, or bonus damage (e.g. Dragon Knight's Dragon's Blood, Centaur Warchief's Great Fortitude, Bristleback's Bristleback, Tidehunter's Kraken Shell), as well as a high Strength gain. Also,...>

A nuke generally refers to a spell that causes ranged magic damage. Nukes generally deal all or most of their damage immediately rather than Damage Over Time. As they cause proportionally high damage early game, they are generally the first skill to be leveled. Although their power normally diminishes late game, there are two notable exceptions: the Demon Witch's Finger of Death, and the Slayer's Laguna Blade. As most heroes with nukes...>

G.A.N.K. is an acronym for Go Around N'(And) Kill. To gank, or to go on a gank (or gangbang) is to carry out a sudden attack on a disadvantaged enemy force for the purpose of killing one or more heroes. Ganks usually involve greater numbers of attackers and fewer of victims, but depending on the context a gank can involve any balance of attackers and victims as long as the intention was a fast hero-killing assault. The big difference...>

Deny To deny means to kill an allied creep (normally one with low hit points left. Denying a creep reduces (or in the case of denying with a skill completely negates) experience gain for enemy heroes. A denied creep gives 66% of its normal experience value to the enemy hero if its a melee hero, and 33% if he is ranged. A creep must have below 50% life to be deniable. Buildings can also be denied; defense towers, for example, are often denied to...>