(UPDATED 5-19-2010)
Welcome! So you're a new player and looking to improve your play. Maybe you've started playing online and gotten frustrated after being beaten consistently by more experienced players. Maybe your own teammates have been rude to you, calling you Noob and yelling at you to stop feeding the enemy. No worries. We've all been there. Here's a compilation of the best strategy articles in the Demigod community to help you get up to speed.
(I take no credit for writing these articles myself, except for my "New Player Survival Guide." I should also note that this is an updated/extended version of the Demigod Guide compilation, which has lapsed since last year. To make perusal easier, I'm going to highlight new entries).
Want basic info on rules, skills, demigods, reinforcements, maps and such? Try starting with the Demigod Wiki.
DemigodDB is invaluable in planning out new builds. You can add in skills and items and have it calculate your HP, damage/second, etc. And it's been recently updated to incorporate the new DG's (well, no longer so new) and patches.
I purposely haven't included any Demigod builds in this compilation. There are just far too many (good and bad) posted in the forums for me to cull through them. The strategy articles linked to here should help you, no matter what Demigod you use. However, if Builds are what you're interested in, I strongly suggest you start with: Compilation of Demigod Guides
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Basic Strategies:
Survival Guide for New Players: my tips for basic noob-survival. Don't die!
An Intro to Kiting, Exposure, and Dancing: required reading for players not familiar with this type of game
Transitives' New Player Survival Guide, Part 1: a discussion of over-extension. Probably the biggest mistake you'll make in your first 20 games.
Transitive's New Player Survival Guide, Part 2: a discussion of traps and ganking (how to avoid getting ganked!)
Kestrel's Tips: more great info from Kestrel - I suggest esp. paying attention to the minion micromanagement tips, if you like to play generals/minion-builds.
Really basic strategies: by Aias
A compilation of strategy articles on GameReplays: a nice collection of strategy articles, all well-presented. Read through them all!
Demigod Strategies FAQ: some useful tips by Epiphenomenon (i should note here that many players have changed their assessment of when to buy the Citadel Priest upgrade - it is now strategically more viable to buy them earlier than it used to be)
The Cute Guide to Demigod
The most important flags: know which flags to concentrate your efforts on! These differ between maps, so it's also good to learn which flags occur on which maps, and where they are located.
Citadel Upgrades for Beginners: wondering when you should purchase upgrades, and which are the most useful?
The Strangler's guide to teamplay: one of the best simple hints here is for someone (hopefully the best player) to immediately take on the role of coordinator, esp. in games with inexperienced players. Listen to your best player! If he's good, he'll give you good advice and facilitate coordinating your attacks.
How to become a better DG player
Push Builds & Team Push Strategies
From average to pro: a nice set of tips by epiphenomenon, esp. designed for "intermediate" level players
Common Mistakes: another guide that will help you make the transition from intermediate to expert
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Advanced Strategies:
Comprehensive Demigod Strategies: a lot of good info
Cataract Advanced Strategies: somewhat map-specific, but really an excellent article by RAWRRRR that will teach you things you haven't thought about (make sure to watch the replay to get the most out of the article)
Specific counters for each demigod
Run Speed Arms Race: learn to counter run-speed addicts
Learning your interrupts: truly a great guide for a critical aspect of the game
A guide on Synergy: when you're ready to take your premade to the next level
XP and Gold mechanics: for those who want the details
Turning around a game from a loss to a win: yes, it can be done! Comebacks are awesome but you need a strategy.
How to feed your team items: an advanced strategy that can be very effective
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Map-Specific Strategies:
Cataract (by Kestrel): very useful, esp. since Cataract is the most popular online map
Cataract
Cataract (by Yeodan)
Zikurat
Leviathan: part I
Leviathan: part II
Prison
The Brothers
(couldn't find anything on Crucible, Exile, or Mandala, so let me know if they exist!)
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Useful Tables & Graphs:
Stats on all the units and DG's: a google-doc spreadsheet (not updated to 1.19 yet)
Demigod Comparison: ever wonder which Demigod has the best base armor rating at level 10? Tons of great info in these graphs.
The best damage mitigation for your gold
The best DPS for your gold
Armor & Evasion: a nice set of figures on how armor and evasion interact and increase your effective health
Ability Numbers: that aren't clearly indicated in-game (did you know that when Erebus dies, allies in death radius get +10% life steal for 15sec?)
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Anyone have suggestions for great guides to include here? Let me know! I'll try to update as necessary.
