DOTA 2 is an online 5v5 multiplayer battle arena game played around the world. It consists of two teams who fight with the objective of destroying the other teams "Ancient" or home. Games typically last 30-45 minutes and all follow the same format on the same map. There are 122 different characters to chose from, all heroes belonging to a certain role. With 5 different roles and 208 items to pick from, every game has insane endings. The mechanics of the game have a really steep learning curve that do take time to master. While DOTA 2 is not the most known game out there, it does have some of the biggest tournamemt prize pools in the industry. This year the first place winner of their biggest yearly tournment "The International" took home 40 million United States Dollars. The teams who followed them also took home a nice chunck. With its popularity on the rise, this website gives basic information about the game to get a good understanding and be able to log into the world of DOTA 2.
The Fundamentals
The Map
- Fountain
- Barracks
- Lanes
- Ancient
- Creeps
- Rune Spawns
- Outposts
- Roshan
- Towers
- Secret Shop
The Fountain is where you spawn depending on what team you are on, The Radiant or The Dire. The Radiant is the green side and Dire the red. In the fountain you are able to shop for most items. A very few, but way more powerful items are able to be bought at the secret shops located on either sides. The Fountain also offers regeneration to health and mana and is where most players will head to when low in health or mana.
The Barracks play an important role in DOTA. They can only be attacked once the third tower in the respective lane is destroyed. Once they have been destroyed the opposing team will start having creeps spawn who are much stronger in the respective lane. If all barracks go down the enemy team gets mega creeps who are even more powerful and help close games out.
There are 3 lanes a player can play on. It goes top, middle, and bottom. Only 1 player goes middle and the rest spread out on the map according to who they are matched up against. During the picking process of the hereos, your hero may get countered and you may have to make changes due everyone having to go play in a lane.
The Ancient is locted right outside The Fountain. The only way it can be attacked is if both towers protecting it go down. Once The Ancient is exposed you can hit it and destroy it. Once destroyed the game is over and that team loses.
Creeps spawn when the game begins and then 30 seconds continuesly. They spawn in each lane and trot down until they are able to attack something. They are essential to taking down towers. A players small objective is to kill them in order to get money.
Bounty runes are the gold and orange emblems on the map. They spawn every 3 minute mark throughout the whole game. They grant the team and players expierence. The empty rune spawns are called power runes, power runes have random runes spawn (not including bounty) it only spawns on one side which is random. These began spawning on the 6th minute of the game and then every 2 minutes from then. There are currently 7 different runes and all have unique power-ups that last a few seconds but can be crucial during the game.
Each team has one outpost. These can not be destroyed. Outposts give teams vision, a location to teleport, and expierence. You are allowed to capture a teams outpost after you have destroyed a second tower in any lane.
Roshan is the boss in DOTA. Once killed he grants an object called the aegis of the immortal. This gives the player a second life. Where ever he dies he will spawn back to life after a 5 second timer. This item is crucial to winning fights and ultimitly getting into a base.
Each team has 11 towers. Towers attack anything nearby and grant a little bit of defense. These objectives must be taken down in order to get into a base. You are also able to teleport to towers. Once a tower destroyed it is removed and grants the team who took it down gold.
The secret shop is accessible to anyone on either side. Here you are able to purchase certain weapons not offered at the fountain. Most of these are components to complete a stronger weapon.