Beginner guide and some tips
pls read general guide by Koi. this one is just an extension and (a little bit) further tips.
i just want to share how i am playing this game, rare item drops, and some tips i learned.
1. how the game works
defend your ancient the one located at the center of the map

getting skill levels gears to defend against further waves

2.what should i do? early game phase
first of all get to the npc botom left of where you spawn. stay there until there's an item drop collect it and use it right away.
you'll get bonus for surviving early game. as far as i know you'll get one of these
exp -> make you lvl 9 instantly
3000 gold
200 virtue -> you'll need this for the quest. it is shown in blue number right side of your gold (top left of the UI)
3 piece set -> early game set
2 bonus mastery -> give you permanent mastery point. this value affects your skill damage
50 all stat -> give you 50 permanent all stat

after that go to storm spirit on the right side he'll give you main quest. main quests give you money, exp and state. you have to do this to get stronger.
storm spirit will tell you to kill 15 wolves for him. TP to the bottom right of the map, go to an npc (shopkeeper of normal dota 2) he'll give you the same quest storm gives you, so you can do it along with your main quest.
after you finish killing 15 wolves, get back to the npc, he'll give you 200 gold and sometimes an item.
then, get back to storm, he'll tell you to kill the demon wolf king, the big lycan on the exact same spot you've just gone.
so, TP to that area and before you kill the demon wolf king, walk to tiny on the south of the area npc.
he'll tell you to give him a demon wolf pellet, a drop item from demon wolf king, and he'll give you a permanent 50 all stat. then, kill the demon wolf king.
it doesn't matter if it drop the pellet or not. get back to storm for the next quest.

the storm will tell you to kill 15 fishies. TP to the right side of the map, where there's a lot of nagas. talk to the npcs, one above the TP spot and one below)
then kill 15 nagas. if there's any eastern sea pearl dropped, take it and give them to the npc above the TP spot. you'll get 200 gold +20virtue for each pearl handed in.
If you kill the fishie king (slark), go back to the npc below the TP spot and get 200 virtue for that.
get back to the storm, he'll tell you to return to him when you have 600 virtue if you still haven't reach 600 virtue. but if you have it already. he'll tell you to kill the fishie king.

so, to proceed, you'll need about 200-400 more virtue if you haven't kill the fishie king yet. now, go to the little monster(riki) area at the bottom of the map.
talk to 2 npcs, you'll probably reach lvl 15 (if you're not) and get your 2nd skill. kill 15 riki and submit it to the lone druid bear form npc.
he'll give you items. the item that really help you early game is penta ghost shoes (imo), so keep it if you got one. then, go to another npc in this area, he'll tell you to kill mountain monster king for him.
kill it and get back to him. he'll give you 200 virtue and a stealth robe which together with penta ghost shoe give you a bonus set attributes.
with this set, a class E weapon, and trinkets dropped from earlier mobs, you should be able to pass through wave 5 in any difficulty.
go back to kill the fishie king unless you've killed it. after submit the quest, you should be able to continue your main quest.

After this just follow the main quest. be sure to go to warlock when you get to lvl 30. warlock is located at the south east of the storm.
his quest gives you virtue and rare item which will be obtainable from TD points and boss points only.
doing his quest will also grant you your 3rd skill.

for you 4th skill read Koi guide.

wing should be obtained before wave 10. in easy mode before first boss wave.

items
the first challenge in the game is how fast you obtain your 3rd skill. i find it very hard/impossible to kill phoenix, white tiger, dragon, and tortoise in early game (hard and above mode)
my way of solving it is to get class S set from your hero master.
this S class set can be forge into EX class set.

so to get the quest go to your hero master npc located around where you spawn.
find bow master for phoebe. rod for rondu .....
their quests are depend on your hero

phoebe kill 8 trial demons and hand in ancient tablet sky and letter (drop from trial demon)
rondu kill 16 trial demon
cloud hand in 4 types of ancient tablet
morrow hand in other 4 types of ancient tablet
foxy kill 1 trial demon and go to skywrath he'll give you items. colllect 4 types of the item (head piece, armor, shoe, trinket) and hand them all together

i recommend you to obtain at least 2 state before doing this (hard or above mode) since you can kill them much faster with +2 state

EX weapon
there is only 1 ex weapon for each hero.
to obtain it you need

1. drop from omniknight - must be your hero's weapon

2.quest item - once you're lvl 20, TP to spider area. head north you'll find an old man standing there. get the quest from him
he'll tell you to hand him a set of item one of the follow

2.1snow set drop from snow demon king include hat cloth shoes and necklace
2.2wyvern set drop from dragon of the eastern sea (winter wyvern) TP to fishie and walk to the warp spot (the X sign) wyvern is in the deepest area
the set include hat, cloth, and shoes
2.3monkey king set drop from the monkey king(PL) (dystopia shako, hat), lion camel king (ursa) (thousandquake boots, shoes) and dragon demon(tidehunter) (dragon torrent armor)

3.rare weapon from TD points or boss points or warlock drop (if you're lucky). you need class B, A, and S weapon.

4.weapon drop from bosses. For S class weapon, you need drop from monkey king. for Z class weapon, you need weapon drop from mahesvara(lich, top right of the map, bottom right of the area). for EX class weapon, you need weapon drop from earth spirit(snow demon TP, go down) and a hua yuen or something stone only from TD and boss point. access by clicking point bottom right of you UI


EX set
1. EX set from forging. you need
1.1 S set from your hero master.
1.2 pendant depend on your hero. pendant is forged from essence which can be collected around the map.
1.3 the 200 TD points or 100 boss points stone for each piece.
does it worth? i don't think so. the exclusive of this set is mastery and magic immunity. magic immunity is useless defending waves. the mastery you get is about 5 point more than others sets.
2.EX set from saint.
dropped from saint.
to fight saints, you need 16000 virtue, hard or above difficulty, a heaven patio key forge from big silencers' drop.

TIPs
boss
there's portal at the south east of the ancient. it leads to an area containing 1 boss (random, i think depends on your hero lvl). when warlock ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on you, this portal may be a help. first time you enter this portal there is a demon wolf king.

virtue
virtue is needed for the main quest. the requirement is
600, 1500(but actually 1800), 3000(~3.6-3.7k), 6000(7k), 9000(11k), 14k(16k)
ok, the way you get virtue is warlock. but when warlock give you 7 tota king in a row like what he gave me and give my friend 4 tota king in a row at the same time. your way earning virtue is completely shut down.

so, is there any other ways to earn virtue? As i know there are:
1. 15 wolves 20 virtue
2. eastern sea pearl 20 virtue
3. trees 15 virtue, 1 for each
4. spider boss 70 virtue

these are all repeatable virtue farm as i know. if you're doing the main quest faster than warlock, you may confront a virtue crisis.
for example, in my case storm need 7k virtue and i had 4.2k. so i want to share these virtue boost quests.

1. wyvern - after you kill the fishie king and talk to the npc to get 200 virtue, he'll ask you to kill a wyvern. this quest gives 800 virtue and a 3x crit 100 all stat trinket which helps a lot in getting wing.

2. wing quest - im not sure how much exactly it gives but around 500-1000 virtue.

3. evil-god quest - if you get god wing, go to buddha area, before you reach the earth spirit, there's an npc standing. he'll give you a quest of 800 virtue.
if you get evil wing, go to the blood sea area (top right) before a portal to krishbara or whatever it called the dark seer, there's an npc giving you quest of 800 virtue.

4. continuous quest from snow demon king - npc in the snow demon area require you to hand him a sentiment bracelet (drop from snow demon king). he'll give you heartless ring (actually useless ring lol)
give the ring to luna in the dark seer area. she'll give you virtue and demand a wheel of life (drop from dark seer). hand it to her and you'll get more virtue. about 1.2k virtue from this quest.

SETs, items, weapons.
it is clear that the best weapon in the game is EX class weapon.

what about set? item? S class items don't seem to carry me pass wave 27 (lich).

buddha is so hard to kill with just a S class set.

the set im using now is the drop from haotian god (Z class) to pass the impossible mode.
however, I haven't managed to kill the saint.

the trinket

i really like A class forged trinket which grants 10x crit and 20% crit chance but i doubt that does an S class trinket(magic omniscience) which grant mastery is better or not.
what are the sets you guys use to clear impossible saint?

Last thing i want is the **************** dedicated servers. WTF? valve? this game has more players than spin TD or your colloseum. yet, no dedicate server, not even in the popular game.

The main reason i dont want to play this game with others is that it lagging so hard. im just LAN-ing with friends. so valve pls, server.

This game is good. I like it. I also find some items that haven't been added yet by cheating in private lobby. Hope they add them soon.


ps. how can i stop memory leak? i crashes a lot after 90 mins (trying to clear main quest)