New player here.

If you are concerned about balance issues, this may not be the game for you.

Huh? What's that supposed to mean? Demigod is VERY balanced for being an online game.

Don't listen to ShakeNBake, balance is actually pretty good.  It could always be better but nothing is actually broken in Demigod

Multiplayer can be punishing at first.  Experienced players don't like playing with newbies because it's very difficult to carry your teammates against decent opponents, so your best bet is to host your own games with titles like NEWBS WELCOME or NEWBS ONLY.  

After 50 games or so you should have a decent idea of how to play and can start to join more experienced games.

I'd recommend starting your play with Erebus, Beast, Oak, or Sedna, and once you are comfortable with one or two of them branch out to one or two of the specialist DGs - Demon, Regulus, Torchbearer, Rook, and Queen.   Here's a recent thread about which DG to start with:

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/373293/page/1/#2500025

Here's a list of guides to DGs and gameplay

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349958

Here's a collection of all the guides I've put together since release

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/367404

Hope that helps

By balanced you mean that oak/sedna/le/ub can own any team in in combo than ya it is pretty balanced.

Yea only listen to synn and go UB  for your first hundred games

Your initial attempts at multuplayer will likely be unpleasant unless you are sure to play in noob games.  I've actually seen quite a few games up, so you should at least have some good opportunities to do multiplayer.  The one thing that is most important in games is communicating with your teammates (this is not the same as raging at them, that will only get you laughed at and ignored). You'll eventually pick up some strategies and tips from your partners this way.  The basics are pretty easy to grasp.  The difficult part of learning the game is understanding what each DG is capable of, what gear is best for your DG, and when (and what) to buy certain citadel upgrades.  There's quite a few guides on the forum that are very well written; I recommend reading them.

As others have mentioned, some DGs are a bit underpowered and need to be carried by other superior DGs.  UB, LE, Oak, and Sedna are all strong DGs.  The weakest are DA, QoT, and Reg.  TB and Rook can be very good when they are in the proper group.

This game is pretty balanced. There is a definite top 3, but there are tons of games where the balance is much worse (think hunters in WoW). As a general rule of thumb, don't play unless the demigod balance is reasonable. I'd like to see Demigod reach the level of balance I love in games like Warcraft III.

ShankeNBake plays a Hammer Rook which doesn't deal with tier 1 demigod builds very well. Don't listen to him.

My advice:

start with either UB or Sedna. Rook, Regulus, Queen, DA and TB are all poor demigods to start with. This is either due to power reasons (Queen and Reg being weak in general), they require excellent map awareness at all times (Reg, Rook), or just peak late and you have to play perfectly the first 10 minutes of the game or lose horribly (DA, TB).

There are a lot of crappy items and builds and skills in this game. However, once you learn not to get them, the game is quite balanced. There is certainly stronger demigods and weaker demigods but superior teamwork and superior gameplay can and WILL get past that. (this is one of the reasons I don't fully recommend UB for starter players. UB is typically the spearhead for the entire team and is responsible for punching the hole in the enemy team. You screw that up and you're useless).

Until you have more than 80 games or so. Always go Blood of the Fallen. No excuses. Later on you'll have enough of a feel for the game to do other favor items.

Anyway, your first few days probably will be miserable. Sorry :-/ It's rough to play as a newb and you'll probably get kicked until you have a decent number of games. I would esp avoid premade games or games in general with top-players until you get a better grasp of the game. Contrary to what you might think, you don't learn that much losing to a superior player when you have just a few games.

this is because there are a LOT of builds that are incredibley effective at raping newbs violently but won't work against good players (eg, Mard's Hammer Reg). Once you have 50 games or so, start seeking out better players with the intent of losing and winning. Before then... yeah don't. It'll just turn you away.

I do a lot of 1-on-1 newb training (meaning, I play 10 games with you and turbo you through the game and the basics). If you see a game that I'm hosting feel free to join and bug me about helping you out.

Kruegor from WIC?

Game is balanced in the sense that all characters are available to each side in a match (excepting Pantheon which is horribly unbalanced now).  Top three characters are UB, Erebus, and Oak.  Go with any of those if you want to remain somewhat competitive in a game.

The community is small but there is definitely a newbie community going.  Just make sure to host your own games with New players in the title and then check people's records before launching.  DO NOT join games that say good players or pro players.  This game is extremely unforgiving to the team with a weak player.  Basically you will be yelled at the whole game if you do not know what you are doing in one of those games.

I'll help if you want to play. I'll be on lagwars vent the info can be found on the New Voicechat Servers thread. Name's the same on vent...

Melric.

Contrary to what EVERYONE seems to think, Rook is more than competitive. Same with Sedna. However, on a poor team Rook just feeds like a motherfucker. Sedna performs worse once bigger creeps hit the table and her performance steadily decreases as they get stronger and her AoE cannot cope. That said, both of those characters can compete with Tier 1 characters up to about 12/13 + Catapults. Sedna can ninjaportal with Silence. Rook can hold an enemy port or a locked friendly portal the best out of anyone.

Issue is that most people seem not to understand how to play Sedna or Rook and so they screw up all the time.

DA and TB are both abesolutely fantastic late-game, the difficulty is just getting there. TB takes off once creeps hit the table and DA can gank like a mofo and has good counters to most tier 1 demigods, which typically gives his team a very nice gold advantage. He can't do anything 1v1 however, esp in a creep wave. Unless he has Akshandor

I just figured this out yesterday and thought I was the first one to figure this out.

This is just me, but I find life is a LOT easier before everyone had the first 3,000 to get Nim/Unbreakables

Edit: As TB.

Nah, old trick. Oak + Sed 2v2 Cata. Shield-Port and Silence Port.

ALL YOUR PORTALS BELONG TO US

You are new. Well done good to meet you. This game is fun, balanced and competitive albeit a small community

However (curse whoever invented that word), you WILL get completely fucking owned in your first 20 matches. Even if you read every guide on here. Its the way of the world

Play only noob games (be expected to still be kicked out by 13 year old hosts who dont want to lose)

Play only Unclean Beast or Oak for the first 30 games or so

Dont even attempt Demon Assassin or Rook until you have over 100 games

As for balance. There are some items that will make you lose because other items Are just that much better (a current patch cry) so read several guides and avoid items like Footman Sadans, Gladiator Gloves and the Vinlings Helmet

You should learn to do your best to capture flags and kill creeps for gold and experience and avoid dying AT ALL COSTS (this loses you gold and experience and feeds your opponent, pro games can be completed with zero deaths on each team)

Oh and playing as other DGs offline to learn their moves is advised so that you learn how likely you are to get killed within 5 seconds if you attack said DGs

Off topic - Are the Tyranids any good in DOW2?

yes and no, a small nerf for them and a medium buff for the "tier 3/2" dg's

I wouldnt mind sending them the way of ol' yeller, as long as I get to do it myself.

Hey everyone thanks for the reply's.

I'll continue to plat the demo here I'm having fun just playing the 3v3 match for now and keep reading the forums. I may eventually go in and pick the game up and give it a try online, though seems like a shame this game isnt more popular then it is. Thanks for some of the beginners tips there and I'll be posting again when I jump online in the game. Quick question though how long do you figure this Demigod community will be going? I mean are there plans for a Demigod 2? Or when Starcraft 2 hits the shelves (if it ever does) are people heading over there? Seems like alot of people are just trying to fill the time until SC2 hits.

no plans for demigod 2.
the community is down to a couple thousand players which is tiny compared to most games.

however you can probably pick up demigod for less than 10 bucks and if you have a good pc + internet connection its enjoyable.

hmmm i'd say at least a year cause enough players imo have stuck around through COD/Borderlands/DragonAge/LoL that they won't just up and leave... i hope... maybe...

umm as in story or abilities cause i know this game with a char called Torch Bearer who's a pretty beast mage imo.... lemme go see what game that was....

What! No way! Demigod doesn't have problems. It must be your computer.