an idiot guide to dotA

Copyright (c) 2006 by WCReplays.com. Please do not quote, copy, or distribute without written consent. The Idiot's Guide to DotA Over the course of any players gaming career he has endured many insults for a range of reason but I've never heard the term used more than in Defense of the Ancients. What if I told you that I could turn you into a well versed pro in just one article? Well, I'd be a dirty liar so I will leave you no allusions as to what this article is going to do for you. This is guide is entirely general and is intended to soften to blow of making a transition into the world of Defense of the Ancients. TABLE OF CONTENTS BEGINNER'S QUESTIONS  What is DotA?  Where Can I Get DotA?  Where Can I Play DotA?  Game Requirements  How Do I Play DotA? GAME MODES  All Pick  All Random  All Intelligence  All Agility  All Strength  Short Mode  Death Match  Item Drop  Super Creeps  League Mode  No Power-Ups  Team Random BASIC MECHANICS  Experience  Leveling  Stats  Abilities  Gold BEGINNER HEROES  Doom Bringer  Lich  Venomancer  Moon Rider  Pandaren Battlemaster  Lord of Olypmpia INTERMIDIATE CONCEPTS  Hero Killing  Ability Effects  Cool Down  Farming ITEMS & RECIPES ADVANCED CONCEPTS  Proper Micro  Mini-Map  Harassing  Team Pushes  Team Defence  Roshan  Ambush/Ganking  Avoiding a Gank PROFESSIONAL CRAFT  Denying Experience  Denying Hero Kills  Creep Blocking CONCLUSION  Team Pick  Mode Random OTHER COMMANDS  Match-Up  Move Speed  Creep Stats  Creep Stats Board  Unstuck  Recommended Items  Items to Avoid  Items to Love Beginner's Questions What is DotA? Defense of the Ancients, or DotA as it will be called throughout, is a custom map for Warcraft III that has been developed over time. The concept for DotA originated with a map named Aeon of Strife used in Starcraft many years back. Over the past few years it has developed, and many different versions and variations have spawned from it. The most common amongst these versions is, by far, DotA Allstars. The official site can be found at http://www.dota-allstars.com/. The main objective of DotA Allstars is really quite simple; you attempt to kill the other team’s Ancient Throne, which is the World Tree for Sentinel and the Frozen Throne for Scourge. At the beginning of every game you will decide which team you want to join, you may side with either the Sentinel or the Scourge who start in the bottom left and top right respectively. The map is composed of three lanes that are each cut in half into Scourge and Sentinel sides. Starting at the 1:30 mark creeps will begin to spawn in sets of 4 in every lane and push automatically. They will meet in the middle of every lane and it is your job to assist in their battle. It's harder to attack a base than it may seem at first glance. Each lane has three towers, each increasing in power as you move closer to the enemy base, and two final towers protecting your respective ancients. At the beginning of every game you are given the opportunity to either select your own hero or have one selected at random for you. If you are reading this as a player who is just beginning to learn the concepts of DotA I strongly suggest you pick the same hero for quite a few games until you can get the hang of them. Randoming all of the time will not be beneficial seeing as you will play different heroes every game and never truly understand one. As you begin to gain in skill and understand the game you can make the transition to randoming quite easily, which will make you a more versatile player. Where can I get DotA? DotA Allstars is available at quite a few different locations. http://www.getdota.com/ and http://www.dota-allstars.com/ are the most common and reliable resources for downloading the map, while we do keep the most up-to-date version available for download in our DotA Forums (in DotA General Discussion). You can, occasionally, find a host on battle.net that will allow you to download the game directly but it is generally a very frustrating process seeing as how impatient the general DotA community is. Where Can I Play DotA? DotA is not intended for playing by oneself, though it is possible. The most common location for finding games is just pure public players that fill up quite easily. On most of the realms and nearly all day you will find ten or more DotA games on your custom game list, though the real trick is discovering how to find a good host. There is massive amount of game type variations, some of which you want to avoid like the plague (more on this soon.) There are other ways to play DotA besides public games. Many clans have channels where you can meet up and play in-house games. You are assured that the players will not be terrible or quit, which is a security measure everybody loves to have. Alternatively you can play at Clan TDA on Azeroth which is a format of games that bans leavers and abusers of all degrees. Though the skill level may not be as high as in-house games, it is more accessible and more variety amongst players. Game Requirements There are very few "requirements" to play DotA outside of that fact you need players on both Sentinel and Scourge (the two teams in DotA). The most common format, by a large gap, is 5vs5 games. They provide a lot of variation in games because they usually are composed of a lot of skill levels and strategies. Starting with fewer players on both sides will result in a increase in starting gold for you and your fellow players. I'd advise away from playing anything less than 4v4 as it makes for very boring games. How do I play DotA? This may seem like the simplest topic out of these all. You right click on stuff and try to kill people. I wish it was that simple, but frankly, it's game with a very high learning curve which I hope to cushion a bit via this article. Game Modes In the game of DotA there are a variety of game modes which can be enabled by the host in the first few seconds of the game. Each of these game types presents a different way to play and all have their pros and cons. These game modes are with their respective advantages and disadvantages: All Pick (-ap) Allows you to pick heroes from any tavern regardless of their allegiance. This is the game type you will be looking to play constantly as a beginner and has no downside outside of the fact that there are very common hero choices so games may begin to get repetitive. All Random (-ar) You will be given a random hero from any tavern regardless of their allegiance With all random games you will see much more variety and interesting combos between heroes. The large downside for the majority of players is you won't be able to use the same set of heroes over and over to really get down their abilities and play styles. I'd advise away from all random games until you understand the game more. All Intelligence-Based (-ai) All non-intelligence heroes are removed from the taverns. This leaves you with just intelligence heroes which make for some interesting match ups. This game type is a load of fun but can be quite imbalanced if a few specific heroes are taken by one team. All Agility-Based (-aa) All non-agility heroes are removed from the taverns. Fairly boring game type as it is a race to be the first that buys a power damage item. I'd advise against this game type. All Strength-Based (-as) All non-strength heroes are removed from the taverns. Games turn into a battle of the mass-health-with-blade mails. Another boring game type, I'd avoid this one as well. Short Mode (-sm) In Short Mode, players are given more gold and experience for each creep kill. On top of that, your towers are all much weaker so it is incredibly easy to push. Alright, everybody, let me get this out on the table. Short Mode is terrible. Avoid this game type at all costs! All Short Mode leads to are heroes that do not have the ability to make a large amount of cash income become killing machines very fast. This practically removes the early and mid game so many heroes become too powerful very fast. Please, do not play this game type as it will kill a large portion of your skill as well as a small kitten showing disapproval from the DotA Gods. However, if you aren't down for a long, serious game of DotA, Short Mode is the way to go. It's a good way to quickly pass the time and you can pull off some really crazy things with the extra income and experience. Death Match (-dm) Players are given the chance to choose a new hero on death. This is most commonly played in conjunction with all random games which make it very interesting. Another game type to play once you have mastered the basics because of its variety of heroes used. Item Drop (-id) Upon death, the hero drops an item from a random slot in his or her inventory. Makes for interesting games and more cautious play styles. Only downside I see to this is the frustration of losing an expensive item and hero killers being able to buff themselves up very quickly with your items they steal. Super Creeps (-sc) Super Creep mode creates the game so that at random intervals of time, a Super Creep will spawn in a random lane for either the Sentinel or Scourge. The Super Creeps vary depending on the time of the game from a big fish to a Hyrda. Super Creep mode is not often used, as the creeps are extremely strong and can vastly swing the momentum of a game. It is also thought that the 'random' spawns are not that random, as the Sentinel is said to have more spawns early game, whiel Scourge is said to have more later on. League Mode (-lm) This is the equivalent of playing with no game modifiers on. League Mode will allow for a hero drafting method as opposed to the regular frenzy to pick your hero. Sentinel picks one, scourge picks two, sentinel picks two, scourge picks two, sentinel picks two, and scourge picks one. That's how the hero selection is formatted and it allows for both teams to counter their opponents’ strategies. Don't play League Mode unless, and this should be obvious, you are playing in a league. No Power-ups (-np) Shuts off the spawning of power-ups on the map. Alright if you want to play without the randomness of game breaking Runes and has no real downsides. For those of you unaware of what a Rune does, it grants one of 5 random powerups to boost your hero for battle. These runes include the following:  Double Damage - Double damage runes are recognized by their dark blue color. They will increase your attack damage by a large amount based off of a couple factors. The bonus damage recieved is your base damage plus the amount of points you have in your primary attribute. For instance, say a hero does 80 damage and has 55 strength. The bonus damage added from picking up a double damage rune would be 135 for a total of 215 plus any addtional damage you have from items.  Haste Rune - Haste runes are recognized by their red color. They will increase your move speed to the max allowed in DotA, 522. If you are affected by any ability that has a slow you will maintain the maximum move speed regardless.  Invisibility Rune - Invisibility runes are recognized by their purple color. Invisibility runes will turn you invisible to the enemy team for 60 seconds. They will still be able to see you with the use of sentry wards or any other form of invisiblity detection. When you attack or cast a spell the invisibility will be broken. Also, unlike wind walk abilities, invisibility runes will not remove your collision size, so you can be noticed if you block a units path.  Image Runes - Images runes are recognized by their orange color. When you pick up an image rune an image of yourself will spawn that deals 30% damage and recieves 200% damage from all damage and will be immediately destroyed if it is hexed. Images from these runes are most often used as a way to draw fire from enemy heroes or as a distraction while forming an ambush on the other team.  Regeneration Runes - Regen runes are recognized by their green color. Regeneration runes will increase your health and mana regeneration by a massive amount. Picking one up at any point in the game will bring you back to full health and mana in a matter of seconds. Being harmed by anything, physical or magic, will disable the regeneration effects of the rune. Team Random (-tr) In Team Random, players will be given a random hero from their respective allegiance This limits your choices but can also prevent some imbalances that arise from multi faction hero combos. Team Pick The game type by default. You are only allowed to pick heroes from your respective side of the taverns. This is a good game type to play except for the fact it limits peoples hero choices which isn't always beneficial in learning the game. Mode Random (-mr) Will select a random main game type (ar, ap, tr, tp). Can be interesting to mess around with on occasion but has no effect outside of it adding some variety to games. Other Commands There are also many in game commands that give you little tidbits of information. Match-Up (-ma) This command shows what heroes the enemy team possesses, sometimes if the enemy choose their heroes quickly you can use this command to determine which hero to use to best counter them. Move Speed (-ms) This command gives you your hero’s movement speed. Starting move speed varies but the average is likely around 300 but can range from anywhere between 275 and 325. Move speed can be modified by the use of Boots of Speed and certain items like Yasha or the Endurance Aura of Necronomicon minions. The cap on movespeed is 522 and can only be achieve through the use of haste runes or some heroes abilities such as Lycanthrope in Wolf Form, Balnazzar at night and Bone Clinkz in wind walk. Creep Stats (-cs) This command gives you the number of creeps that you have killed and the number of allied creeps you have killed in order to deprive the enemy of experience. Great for keeping track of your farming progress but has been outdated due to the next command. Creep Stats Board On (-csboardon) The greatest thing to happen with DotA since... ever! This will cause a board to be displayed constantly updating your creep stats which allows for very easy tracking of how you are doing. Type -csboardoff to turn off the board. Unstuck (-unstuck) On occasion you will encounter situations where you can't escape. Typing -unstuck will initiate an ability that takes 60 seconds to cast and will teleport you back to your respective fountain. Basic Mechanics Experience When enemy creeps die to either your attack or a friendly creeps attack you will receive experience. Depending on if you have a solo lane or a shared lane you will level up at different rates. Gaining experience is extremely important early game, even more so than gold. Early on a very large percentage of your damage output is spell based. The only way to level your skills up is gaining enough experience to cast them. If you find yourself being against a very aggressive opponent hang back behind your ranged creep and soak up experience. Leveling Levels are your heroes rank and can range from level 1 to 25. As you level up you gain access to higher levels of your abilities. As time goes on you gain levels slower and slower depending on the game type and level of enemy creeps. Stats Every hero has a main attribute that, in most cases, reflects their play style The attributes each provide different benefits as well as an additional one damage if it is your main attribute:  Strength – Provides 19 health per strength point as well as bonus .03 health regeneration per second.  Agility – Increases attack speed by 1% and armor by .14. Seven points of agility is equal to roughly one point of armor.  Intelligence – Provides 13 mana per intelligence point as well as bonus .04 mana regeneration per second. Abilities Every hero has a set of four abilities, three regular and one ultimate, and an option to boost stats. These abilities are what determine a hero’s play style and your choice of abilities will determine when and how effective you are. There are multiple builds with every hero, but I will not be including those today. The best suggestion I can give is to experiment and find what works for you. Everybody plays differently and there is no reason to lock a hero in a box with a specific build that everyone recommends. Depending on the situation it can be very beneficial to focus on one skill and bonus stats for increased mana, health and armor. Gold Gold is probably the single most important factor towards the end of the game. The longer games drag on the less abilities matter and the heroes that deal the most pure physical damage are going to dominate. Because of this, farming is ridiculously important. You don't have to kill creeps to get gold. You can farm neutral creeps or heroes if you are able to with certain heroes like Butcher, Venomancer and Shadow Shaman. Beginner Heroes As a beginner there are many concepts that you may not entirely understand and utilize so it's best to learn a hero that is effective yet simple. You can learn basic concepts like farming, proper items, harassment, denying and pushing while using a hero that doesn't take too much focus to use properly so you can absorb the rest DotA has to offer. Below are a few good examples for Sentinel and Scourge. Scourge Doom Bringer Doom Bringer has one of the easiest times farming due to him being able to devour a creep for extra gold. His spell combo is also one of the highest single target nukes in the game (a nuke is a spell with the sole purpose of dealing lots of initial damage) if used at the correct level, all for a relatively low mana cost. The best way to play him is as a tank with Hearts of Tarrasque and Sange & Yasha. Be careful not to try and ambush heroes while devouring a creep as it gives the enemy team vision of your hero. Lich The best early game harassment hero by a gigantic margin. You have an unlimited amount of mana due to Dark Ritual and his nuke (Frost Nova) is one of the highest damage single target regular spells in the game. On top of being effective he is very good later in the game with Chain Frost, which is one of the best area of effect nukes in the game. With Lich, you need to focus on getting more health and means to survive since you have a lot of damage output but not much survival. A Mekansm is always a good item for Lich, as is Aghanim's Scepter. Venomancer Another one of the best early game heroes. Shadow Strike combined with Poison Sting damage is usually enough to net a kill in the early game. People tend to stay away from Venomancer because of his ability to kill you even after he is dead. Your role in games will usually be as a slower (someone who keeps heroes from running away) with Shadow Strike and a mass damage dealer with Poison Nova. Note that Poison Nova can not kill but only bring heroes down to 1 health. Also, always use nova before shadow strike or it will wear off before the Poison Nova is finished and not kill the hero. Sentinel Moon Rider The only down fall to the Moon Rider (a.k.a. Luna) is her lack of health in the early game which can make her a prime target for harassment.