Dota Basic

->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 has no correlation with skill still.

Sometimes it depends on the hero. Some heroes require more clicking. With Luna I tend to get 100 APM or so. Just from clicking on the ground so much and controlling all my dominated creeps and that's IF I have creeps. Now Silencer, that is a very apm intensive hero imo. Rexxar is another one. Control Hawk and Boar at the same time.

The thing is with some heroes like Chen and Meepo even noobs can get a high apm because when you select 4 meepos and right click once that counts as 4 actions. That's where some of the ridiculously high apm numbers come from (not that a pro couldn't get 200+ with any hero but it's mostly unnecessary).
On the other hand a good Meepo or Chen NEEDS a high apm in order to be effective and the apm difference between an auto-attacking noob and a skilled player that moves in for last hits, moves back again, cancles his attack animation just to make his opponent attack too early and generally keeps moving not to be an easy target for heroes like PotM or Pudge is HUGE.

It's not like high apm = pro, low apm = noob but with 50 apm you really can't be doing well, 90 seems pretty low as well but I've seen pros having around 90 in some games, sometimes a high apm is just not needed as the people above me said.

->What is Farm

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 often decide games, knowing when and how to farm is an essential skill for every player.

Farming Techniques
Arguably the most crucial skill in farming is the ability to Last Hit. Since players only receive gold if they deal the killing blow to a creep (or hero), waiting until the enemy unit's health is low before attacking or using a spell allows players to ensure that they receive the bounty. This technique is most frequently utilized early in the game, during which last hitting competes directly with Denying creeps, but should be practiced throughout the entire game to maximize farming efficiency.

While all heroes are capable of farming, some are clearly better than others thanks to their spell sets. Spells that deal damage to multiple units or in an Area of Effect, e.g. Pugna's Netherblast and Leshrac's Lightning Storm, can easily net the player several creep kills in a single wave if timed correctly. To maximize the effectiveness of such skills, the player should wait to use the skill until as many enemy creeps as possible are weakened to the point that they will die immediately to the spell; this is often achieved by having the hero attack enemy creeps that friendly creeps are not currently focusing on.

Skills and items that grant extra AoE damage are also highly valued in farming for their utility in quickly clearing entire creep waves. Cleave from Battle Fury or a skill (e.g. Magnus' Mighty Swing) is an excellent farming ability that becomes stronger as the game progresses and the hero's damage increases. Radiance is perhaps the best farming item in the game, granting a damage aura that often nets unintentional creep kills in addition to greatly increasing damage. Shiva's Guard deals damage to every unit in a large area; when coupled with another AoE spell, entire creep waves can be quickly destroyed.

Farming creeps is inherently negatively coupled to the process of pushing lanes. The ideal position to farm is next to an allied tower, close enough to retreat to but far enough away that the tower itself does not attack and steal enemy creep kills. If done carelessly, however, farming the same lane will cause the creeps to move away from allied towers and closer to enemy towers, which both slows down farming and renders the hero vulnerable to ambush. Maintaining the position of the creep line and not pushing is therefore crucial to safe and efficient farming. To preserve the equilibrium, a player should refrain from using damaging spells and instead kill solely through last hitting. Furthermore, friendly creeps must be denied whenever possible, or else the creep line will inevitably shift towards the enemy's side due to the player's attacks. While seemingly boring, this process is the most effective means of farming over a long period of time, and should be practiced by any heroes not actively involved in ganking.

->What is 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, tank can be used as a verb, meaning to absorb large amounts of damage (namely, to tank it).

A tank ideally needs some form of threat or significant damage output in order to draw the enemy fire. It is for this reason that tanks often aquire a radiance, giving the enemy the option of trying to take down the tank, or take the damage.

Given the variety of items in dota, almost any hero can be built as a tank, and having one in the team is advised, there is no point in having a huge damage output if your whole team is already dead.

Common tanking heroes
Common Tanking heroes are the Bristleback, Dragon Knight, Centaur Warchief, Stone Giant, Axe, Tidehunter, Treant Protector and Pandaren Brewmaster. All of these heroes possess at least one defensive spell.

Other noticeable tanks
However, certain other heroes are also considered tanks, without necessarily having an ability that increases survivability. Such heroes include the Axe, whose Counter Helix, while not negating damage, can synergize with Berserker’s Call to deal heavy damage to nearby enemies. Another noticeable Tank was the pre-6.50 Spectre, whose Dispersion ability allowed her to deflect damage to enemies. A hero does not however need to be strength based inorder to tank, Medusa, an agility based hero is capable of tanking using Mana Shield, which depletes her mana rather than life when she takes damage.

->What is Stun, how stun stacks?

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 period of time (<1 second), are also common in a wide variety of spells and have the sole purpose of interrupting enemy skills.
Stacking Stun
If a unit is already stunned and then struck with another stun, the damage will still occur and the longest remaining stun duration will apply. For example, if a unit is hit by Vengeful Spirit's level 4 Magic Missile and, one second later with 0.75 seconds of stun remaining, by Sven's level 4 Storm Bolt, then the unit will be stunned for 3 seconds total and receive a total of 575 spell damage (325 + 250).

Base Abilities of Stuns
There are a variety of Base Abilities which trigger stun. They are:

* Storm Bolt
* War Stomp
* Bash
* Statis Trap (Namely, Statis Trap on Goblin Techies)

Stuns on Roshan
Roshan will dispel any stun with the standard stun buff within a short period of time. However, stuns with a different buff are exceptions to this rule, namely Ice Path, Poison Touch, Malefice, and Unstable Concoction.

->What is 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 prevent the opposing team from gaining the large amount of gold it gives the opposing team when destroyed. Buildings, however, must have 10% or less of its maximum hit points in order to be deniable.

An allied hero can also be denied, but only under certain circumstances. Usually, when the hero is affected with a Damage Over Time skill and is at or under 25% of his maximum HP, you can deny (attack and kill) the hero in order to stop the opposing team from getting gold and experience. Some examples of such buffs that can make a hero deniable are:

Doom
Shadow Strike (units afflicted by Viper Strike cannot be denied)
Shadow Word
Curse of the Silent
Denying will also trigger skills that trigger when killing an enemy creep, two examples are Sadist or Blood Bath.

Skills for denying

Several abilities allow the user to kill an allied creep. Denying with such skills makes the creep give absolutely no experience to enemy heroes. These skills are:

Dark Ritual
Death Pact
Conversion
Infest
You could also type in -di or -cson any time in the game in order to activate the deny record chart. The deny record chart shows you how many lanes creeps did you kill and how many did you deny.

Exception:
Toss
By tossing a creep, you deal damage to him, but if you kill a creep with a Toss, it is counted as a normal deny.

->What is Gank

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 between ganks and other fights is that the intention of the gank was purely for gaining gold, experience, and time-fielded advantage over the victim as opposed to a battle during which the fight initiator was attempting a push or other situation involving a direct attempt at a strategic goal such as killing a tower.

However, after a successful gank, the enemy team has fewer heroes to defend, so ganking can enable team pushes against the disadvantaged opponent.


It is important to note that you should only gank if there is someone to gank. Just wandering around the map is pointless and will hurt you late game.

->What is Last Hit

Last Hit means doing the final blow to an enemy creep, in order to get the gold. It is an essential skill for every good player.

Last Hitting is important for lane control. When you are last hitting and denying effectively, then you can keep creeps close to your tower, which is helpful when avoiding ganks.

Strategy
A good friend for any last hitter is the ALT key. By pressing the ALT key, the health bars of every unit on the screen is shown, allowing you to notice and choose which unit you want to last hit.

It is important when last hitting to remember that there is a difference between last hitting with a melee hero and last hitting of a ranged hero.

With a melee hero you must stand a little ways away from the creeps and hold, only going up to last hit. You must also know the melee hero's Attack Animation. Since different heroes have different Attack Animation times, it is important to familiarise yourself with them.

With a ranged hero, you must move your hero around, and hitting the creep for the last hit from time to time. One important thing to take note about a range hero is the projectile speed. Since projectile speeds are different for different heroes, you must familiarise yourself with them. Ranged heroes also have Attack Animation times.

Another important thing to take note of while last hitting is your hero's damage. Of course, heroes with higher damage can last hit creeps when they have a higher health. You must know approximately how low the creep's health is before you last hit it.

(taken from http://dotatips.tipsabc.com)