I played a few games today, one on each gameplay speed setting. Here's what I found:
Fast: Ridiculously fast. It's like watching everything in fast forward. There's no reason you would ever want to play in fast, it's insane.
Normal: This feels like what 'fast' speed ought to be. Stuff doesn't happen super fast, but it does tend to happen too quickly for you to think about it or do a whole lot about it.
Slow: This feels about right. It's a tad too slow, but for the most part it's good. At this speed I found myself being able to take more time moving in and out of battle, selecting targets, and using skills at certain times.
On the other side of the coin:
I found that games in general seemed to last rather too long. I'd prefer if a game lasted around half an hour on average. As it stands, I could see a game lasting over an hour. This is one aspect of DotA that I didn't like that much.
So in summary: Gameplay needs to be slower, but games ought to be shorter.
That's my opinion based on my impressions of the game so far.