A newbie's Prespective on DA,and some Qs

DA sucks at holding lanes against real builds and he sucks at farming. (this is not to say that he can't do it, but you need to understand how the games works to use DA well)

So... DA is not for new people and he does best when there is an odd number of players on each side. (3vs3 or 5vs5)

When he gets higher he is great at ganking other DGs since in an odd player game there is always going to be a 2vs1 or 3vs2 situation often.

You should always have 1 point in Swap, because if you have warp strike, you can always feed an enemy to a teammate easily.

Best build I think(there are other opinions of course) revolves around Essence of Magic and stacking as much life as possible.

Essence of magic enables a 2,1,3 skill combo for free, so that alleviates one of DA's 1st problems, mana. This leaves you free to stack health to alleviate his other problem, weak life. So now you have a DG with acceptable life and regen who can inflict massive damage in cycles, hopefully allowing you to kick people out of the lane without getting horribly mangled yourself. Later you get a DG who can inflict massive damage in one shot and then pull the enemy towards your teammate, which is usually a kill.

Never thought of it this way,prolly cause I didn't get to play much online.

So far equipment wise,I tried to stick to the Plenor crown and Vlemish helmet for mana,the gloves and boots that give Attack Speed and dodge,and the armor which adds another 10% crit,which I thought is cool,since it gets me to 50%.

Can a special skill,say Warp area, hit Critical?

These are all basic questions that are answered in the strategy guides, but I will answer since we like to help new people.

Without life you can't stay in your lane and regen next to a tower after a few engagements. If you lose the lane, you lose the XP provided by creeps and give your opponent an opportunity to attack your towers. The trick is to at least be in the general vicinity of a dying creep wave to get XP if you can't kill them all on your own.

I don't see Plenor and Vlemish helping you live, I use these 2 only with QoT only because mana = life through shield.

Try the standard items that give + life and regen as you can afford, and buy 1 mana item as you can afford.
Banded -> Unbreakable (best item ever) -> Hauberk -> Nimoth -> Upgrade Banded to Slayer's Wrap
Scaled -> Vlemish (replace)

Instead of buying non-life gloves or boots early etc... when you have a spare couple hundred gold after buying the items on the above list, use that money to buy life and mana potions, and use them as needed to hold your lane.

Nope, only autoattack.