Lock the HP flag on cataract every 45 seconds and you auto-win. Locks are just another item that must be abused if you want to win the game, like sigils. For added fun, spam lock the HP flag AND use sigils.

Welcome to the community!  So, 1 - congrats on getting a great deal on DG.  Its a fun game, but certainly not without its flaws.  The community is small at this point.  The flaws have unfortunately led to that, but as Stardock continues to market the game, we do get more new people involved.  One of the issues with demigod, which really isn't an issue, is that 1 person can cause an entire team to lose a game.  And as their are quite a few highly experienced people, if you join their game where they are fighting against another highly experienced team, you are generally ensuring that they will lose.  As a result, people host games with titles like XvX BE Good or XvX No Noobs.  Some people don't do this, but we all should.  For your part, if you are a new player, you should be trying to only join NOOB games while you are learning the basics and getting better at team play.  If there aren't any noob games out there, please host one.  People will join and you'll be on your way to getting more experience and presumably having much more fun than joining a lobby and getting kicked, often without an explanation. 

Matchmaking is, realistically, completely non-existant.  Our matchmaking system doesn't match based on skill.  It matches by who is on light or dark in the pantheon at that time.  So, it doesn't care if you are the newest player in the game.  It will match you with whoever is available.  Personally, I'd recommmend you steer clear of pantheon because of this. 

So, join/host noob games while you are learning.  Get some pratice in against the AI.  If you can't beat the AI on hard/nightmare, odds are you won't do all that well in multiplayer.  But you can even host 2v2comps games if you like and learn with another buddy online.

It's all about winning with the online crow in this game Al.  You will find "some" nice people, and a few that may help you grow/learn, but the vast majority want to win.  Period.  Anything or anyone that even suggests or hints that they might not actually "win" a game will either get you kicked, cussed, or they will rage-quit at the first sign of a loss.  Even if your a good or great player, if someone sees your win rating is not high enough, you'll never even be allowed into a game most the time.

And since the geniuses at GPG decided ONLY having ranked games is the way to go, there is almost no way to "practice" without aquiring a high lose rating; meaning if you ever do get decent or good, you will rarely be allow into a game anyway.

As for hosting a "Noob game", that works half the time, the other half get ready for some very expierenced players to come in and wipe the floor with you just for some easy stat increases.  Heck, I'd beware of people hosting noob games, as half the time they are good players looking to lure in some easy kills.

Your best bet is Lan, if you have more than one computer.  Or a very careful screening and friends list of helpful people.

Sorry... double post.

Your reaction to Demigod is the same I had towards DOTA several years ago.  Thought I'd never get the hang of it since the few games I joined were filled with assholes who were really good (or maybe they weren't and I reallllly sucked lol.. dunno).  I never played DOTA after that.  I've heard it's a great game tho.  Kind of depressing to just throw out a game because you never bothered to stick through the beginning noob part.

I decided to change that mentality when I picked up Demigod.  I was god awful in the beginning, but steadily learned, read a couple strats, and now I'm good to go.

Bottom line is.. you will never get into a similar type of game unless you bother to learn how to play well, which takes a little effort.  There are assholes in every game online, singling them out as the reason the game sucks is like saying Asian people suck because they have hair.  

to the point that you dont get a game going because of balance issues. if you say: "someone move up, someone move down" there wont be anyone doing anything. talk to them directly if you think you have a good idea to balance a game (pacov up, rawr down). well there are some who will leave or dont want to change. sollution: open up your own lobby... then you can kick.

sometimes the people just dont understand what you say. i dont know why (bad schoolsystem?!) but i met several russians so far that didnt even understand "move down please". so really: host your own games. they host their own "RUS" games. you wont have fun in these games because you cant communicate.

Fixed the fix!

Though honestly if you aren't a jerk and you actually try to get better on vent then people will probably play with you, also its easier to teach people when they play on vent as opposed to typing while getting ganked

Fix'd