Story:
DotA is a custom map for Warcraft III – Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III – The Frozen Throne. The date of the map’s first appearance is not 100% clear, but it was sometime in 2003.
There were many different maps that were developed in the first DotA mod, but the one that eventually became dominant was developed by Steve Feak aka “Guinsoo”.
After about 2 years, the development was handed over to a cartographer with the nickname “Icefrog”, who has been working on it ever since.
How to Play:
Unlike most RTS games, you don’t control a race and have to build a base, gather resources, expand, etc. At the beginning, you can choose one of 104 unique heroes, which are classified into 3 main attributes; strength, intelligence and agility. There are different game modes that give you a certain group of heroes to choose from or similar, but I won’t go into details as it would take a long time to explain each mode.
After you have chosen a hero, you buy an item, start with gold, and move to a lane. Approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds after the game has started, your allied creeps will spawn from your base. There are 3 different lanes that creeps will enter, in each lane there are 3 towers. These towers are very strong at first, but they lose importance the longer the game lasts, since the heroes also increase in strength. Then, from both teams, “Sentinel” and “Scourge”, creeps appear. Creeps are controlled by the computer and balanced evenly if no hero interferes.
The main objective of the game is to push one, or all, of the 3 lanes, enter the opponent’s base and destroy their main building, for the Sentinel it is “The World Tree” and for the Scourge it is “The Frozen Throne”. Before you actually destroy the opposing team’s main building, you can also destroy their “barracks”. Each lane has 2 of these, and for every 1 you destroy, your own creeps will get stronger giving you an advantage.
To achieve your goal you have to level up your hero, do this by standing near enemy monsters to gain experience. For every level you win, you get a skill point. You have 3 different abilities and 1 maximum ability. You can level up each skill to level 4 and your ultimate to level 3. The other 10 skill points are used to improve your stats.
Besides leveling up, you also have to farm gold to buy yourself powerful items. You can do this by hitting enemy creeps one last time, or neutral creeps that are placed around the entire map.
Other information:
Average DotA games take around 40 minutes, although some are decided after 10 minutes and others take around 90 minutes! There are many games hosted on b-net by both players and host bots, but like any other major esports, there are also leagues and tournaments with hefty prizes.
In order to play DotA on Warcraft III’s own battlenet, you simply have to purchase Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne. Both are available for 10 euros each in almost all the major PC stores.
Hope you enjoyed this short DotA review, maybe you are inspired to give it a try.
