Lucifa
18th October 2004, 14:57
Since we have borged a few new dota players and the mod has a somewhat steep learning curve, I thought I'd do a quick guide.
The basics!
DOTA Allstars (Defense of the Ancients) is a mod for warcraft 3 made by Guinsoo. The website is located at http://www.dota-allstars.com this website is basically a big forum, great for dota talk and guides/strategies.
New versions come out all the time, it's recommended you download it from the web, rather than on battlenet as very few hosts let you download the map, plus there are a few fake/haxed versions around. Downloaded maps are to be placed into \warcraft3\maps\download.
You will need The Frozen Throne expansion pack to play.
Where/how to play
DOTA is a very popular custom game on battlenet so it's very easy to get a pickup game. Simply load up The Frozen Throne, log on to battlenet (you will need a valid cdkey for ROC and TFT) and then press on custom game at the top. Look for a dota game and join in.
Types of games you'll see and commands:
*-ar or -allrandom: This means you don't pick a hero, when the game starts, you'll be allocated a random hero from either side (meaning, you can be given a sentinel hero even if you are on the scourge side).
-repick: can be used in a pick game or allrandom - in pick game, type this to pick again - in allrandom use this to get allocated another random hero at a cost of 500 gold - must be used within 90secs and can only be used once.
*-pick: The default option, this means you get to pick a hero from one of the 3 taverns on your side at a cost of 250 gold.
-random: In a pick game, if you type this you get allocated a random hero from your side, saving you the 250 gold of picking.
-tr or -teamrandom: Only the person in the top slot of each team can type this at the start, basically like -ar except you will only get a hero from your own side.
*-reverse: A bit like pick but instead, the hero you pick will be randomly allocated to someone on the other team.
*-sm or -shortmode: increases the experience gained per kill and reduces tower/creep damage and health to make for a shorter game
* these commands can only be typed by the person in the top slot of the sentinels side at the start of the game- note this is not necessarily the game host.
A few notes on game etiquette.
Please don't leave the game, if you are getting owned or have a crap hero just wait it out, leaving a game once or twice isn't too bad, but do it all the time and you will be remembered and simply kicked from games. However, if everyone from your team (or the other team) has left, it's generally ok to leave. Certainly don't leave if you are hosting the game, as the game will stop.
If someone from your team does leave, his gold is spread equally between everyone on the same team and his hero becomes controllable by anyone. This also means his items, if any, can be taken off him. Usually, it's just a matter of first come first served, but don't be greedy :p
OMG so many heroes
Yes, the great thing about this is mod is the fact that every game is different because there are so many heros (about 70), this also ensures great replayability.
But which hero to pick? Well the game is actually very well balanced, there are NO crap heroes, just some are better at some things than others. All the heroes have their place though, and can be lumped into one or more of these types: Hero Killers, Farmers (creep killers) and Support. There are also no UBER heroes, though people will say otherwise. All heroes have their weaknesses, exploit those and you will win.
If you are new to the mod, don't take a support hero, they are quite hard to play, and you'll have a tough time helping your team. Take one of the easier heroes instead and learn the game. Some of these heroes are:
Drow Ranger (sent)
Zeus the Lord of Olympia (sent)
Dwarven Sniper (sent)
Clinkz the Bone Fletcher (scourge)
Razor the Death Rev (scourge)
Lion the Demon Witch (scourge)
General Tips
When starting, pick a lane and stick to it, no more than 2 friendly heroes to a lane (at the start) and try to match the numbers of enemy heroes so it's always 2v2 or 1v1.
Never leave an enemy hero alone in a lane for too long at the start, he'll out level everyone and reap the cash making it very difficult mid/late game.
If you're a melee hero and you are versus a ranged hero, then continually position the screen as you hit waves of creeps so that your hero is either at the top or bottom appropriate for your side. You'll be able to see the enemy hero easily, and as soon as he makes a move towards you, you can flee hopefully without taking any damage. You can use the minimap in this regard to move your hero backwards.
If you are having a lot of trouble with a ranged hero, then you can just Hold Position (key H) near your mage creep, this will keep you in range for experience, but out of range of the enemy.
Learn your characters keys! It's far far far quicker to press the appropriate key for a power/skill than it is to use the mouse, the mod has been adjusted so that for most heros you should be able to comfortably rest your fingers on each key.
Experience is gained through being range of any enemy that dies, hero, building or creep, you do not have to kill anything to get experience. The range is about 1000 I think.
Getting the last hit on a hero, building or creep gets you the cash. When killing creeps, hold down ALT to see those on low health.Try to get the last hit on a tower for around 300-500 gold.
You can not attack your own heros, buildings or creeps though try it and see what happens :) There is one exception however, you can attack any building if it is below 10% health, the reason you might want to do this is to kill a tower that's almost dead, it's going to die anyway and by killing it yourself you deny any enemy hero a large amount of cash - you get no cash yourself.
There are powerups on the map, located at the left and right ends of the river near the up ramps. They appear randomly from a choice of:
Haste (increased movement speed)
Regeneration (brings you to full health and mana over time- useless if you are already full)
Invisibilty (lasts for 20-30s)
Double Damage (lasts for 20-30s)
There are 2 'secret' shops on the map, one just beneath the middle enterance to the Scrouge base in the trees and the other just south of the very left of the river (main access from the left lane - sentinel side). You can use either shop regardless of side.
Don't track heroes all the way back to their fountain, there is a very nasty tower protecting the area.
Overflowing with cash? You can buy back your hero from the taverns if you die, or buy your teammates items.
Items
There is a number of items, which when combined make better and more powerful items. The receipes for these super items can be found next your fountain, 3 NPC's standing in a line. Some receipes require just the items mentioned in order to combine, some require you to purchase the receipe to finish the item off - rule of thumb: if the receipe costs 1 lumber, then you don't need to buy it.
The items you are probably most interested in are damage, health/mana and movement items. Here are a few you should familiarize yourself with.
Movement:
Boots of speed: a must for ALL heros - 500
Boots of Travel: enables you to teleport to any friendly unit or building with 30s cooldown - 3400
Power Treads: increased attack speed and movement - 1530
Health/mana:
Ring of health: +4 hps a second - 875
Void stone: 100% mana regeneration rate - 900
The 2 above combine to make Perservance, personally I always recommend getting this.
Ring of regeneration: +2 hps a second - can make a item from this that gives a health regeneration aura
Heart of Tarrassque: about 400 health and 11hps a second regeneration - about 5-6000 very nice item if you can afford it
Damage:
Crystalis (sp): +damage and chance of critical strike - 3200 - combine with demon edge to make
Burize: +damage and higher chance of critical strike - 6500 (inc Crystalis cost)
Monkey King Bar: +damage, increased attack speed and chance of dealing bonus damage - 5650
Battlefury: +damage and gives cleaving attack (splash damage - does not work on ranged attacks!)
Cranium basher: +damage and gives bash attack (chance of stunning - very low chance on ranged attacks!)
The Butterfly: +evasion, +damage, +increased attack speed and +agility - 5-6000
The Divine Rapier +250 damage - 8000 - The ultimate weapon, but beware it drops on the ground if you die, can't sell or drop manually.
That'll do for the moment I think, maybe I should get on with some work!
Lucifa
The basics!
DOTA Allstars (Defense of the Ancients) is a mod for warcraft 3 made by Guinsoo. The website is located at http://www.dota-allstars.com this website is basically a big forum, great for dota talk and guides/strategies.
New versions come out all the time, it's recommended you download it from the web, rather than on battlenet as very few hosts let you download the map, plus there are a few fake/haxed versions around. Downloaded maps are to be placed into \warcraft3\maps\download.
You will need The Frozen Throne expansion pack to play.
Where/how to play
DOTA is a very popular custom game on battlenet so it's very easy to get a pickup game. Simply load up The Frozen Throne, log on to battlenet (you will need a valid cdkey for ROC and TFT) and then press on custom game at the top. Look for a dota game and join in.
Types of games you'll see and commands:
*-ar or -allrandom: This means you don't pick a hero, when the game starts, you'll be allocated a random hero from either side (meaning, you can be given a sentinel hero even if you are on the scourge side).
-repick: can be used in a pick game or allrandom - in pick game, type this to pick again - in allrandom use this to get allocated another random hero at a cost of 500 gold - must be used within 90secs and can only be used once.
*-pick: The default option, this means you get to pick a hero from one of the 3 taverns on your side at a cost of 250 gold.
-random: In a pick game, if you type this you get allocated a random hero from your side, saving you the 250 gold of picking.
-tr or -teamrandom: Only the person in the top slot of each team can type this at the start, basically like -ar except you will only get a hero from your own side.
*-reverse: A bit like pick but instead, the hero you pick will be randomly allocated to someone on the other team.
*-sm or -shortmode: increases the experience gained per kill and reduces tower/creep damage and health to make for a shorter game
* these commands can only be typed by the person in the top slot of the sentinels side at the start of the game- note this is not necessarily the game host.
A few notes on game etiquette.
Please don't leave the game, if you are getting owned or have a crap hero just wait it out, leaving a game once or twice isn't too bad, but do it all the time and you will be remembered and simply kicked from games. However, if everyone from your team (or the other team) has left, it's generally ok to leave. Certainly don't leave if you are hosting the game, as the game will stop.
If someone from your team does leave, his gold is spread equally between everyone on the same team and his hero becomes controllable by anyone. This also means his items, if any, can be taken off him. Usually, it's just a matter of first come first served, but don't be greedy :p
OMG so many heroes
Yes, the great thing about this is mod is the fact that every game is different because there are so many heros (about 70), this also ensures great replayability.
But which hero to pick? Well the game is actually very well balanced, there are NO crap heroes, just some are better at some things than others. All the heroes have their place though, and can be lumped into one or more of these types: Hero Killers, Farmers (creep killers) and Support. There are also no UBER heroes, though people will say otherwise. All heroes have their weaknesses, exploit those and you will win.
If you are new to the mod, don't take a support hero, they are quite hard to play, and you'll have a tough time helping your team. Take one of the easier heroes instead and learn the game. Some of these heroes are:
Drow Ranger (sent)
Zeus the Lord of Olympia (sent)
Dwarven Sniper (sent)
Clinkz the Bone Fletcher (scourge)
Razor the Death Rev (scourge)
Lion the Demon Witch (scourge)
General Tips
When starting, pick a lane and stick to it, no more than 2 friendly heroes to a lane (at the start) and try to match the numbers of enemy heroes so it's always 2v2 or 1v1.
Never leave an enemy hero alone in a lane for too long at the start, he'll out level everyone and reap the cash making it very difficult mid/late game.
If you're a melee hero and you are versus a ranged hero, then continually position the screen as you hit waves of creeps so that your hero is either at the top or bottom appropriate for your side. You'll be able to see the enemy hero easily, and as soon as he makes a move towards you, you can flee hopefully without taking any damage. You can use the minimap in this regard to move your hero backwards.
If you are having a lot of trouble with a ranged hero, then you can just Hold Position (key H) near your mage creep, this will keep you in range for experience, but out of range of the enemy.
Learn your characters keys! It's far far far quicker to press the appropriate key for a power/skill than it is to use the mouse, the mod has been adjusted so that for most heros you should be able to comfortably rest your fingers on each key.
Experience is gained through being range of any enemy that dies, hero, building or creep, you do not have to kill anything to get experience. The range is about 1000 I think.
Getting the last hit on a hero, building or creep gets you the cash. When killing creeps, hold down ALT to see those on low health.Try to get the last hit on a tower for around 300-500 gold.
You can not attack your own heros, buildings or creeps though try it and see what happens :) There is one exception however, you can attack any building if it is below 10% health, the reason you might want to do this is to kill a tower that's almost dead, it's going to die anyway and by killing it yourself you deny any enemy hero a large amount of cash - you get no cash yourself.
There are powerups on the map, located at the left and right ends of the river near the up ramps. They appear randomly from a choice of:
Haste (increased movement speed)
Regeneration (brings you to full health and mana over time- useless if you are already full)
Invisibilty (lasts for 20-30s)
Double Damage (lasts for 20-30s)
There are 2 'secret' shops on the map, one just beneath the middle enterance to the Scrouge base in the trees and the other just south of the very left of the river (main access from the left lane - sentinel side). You can use either shop regardless of side.
Don't track heroes all the way back to their fountain, there is a very nasty tower protecting the area.
Overflowing with cash? You can buy back your hero from the taverns if you die, or buy your teammates items.
Items
There is a number of items, which when combined make better and more powerful items. The receipes for these super items can be found next your fountain, 3 NPC's standing in a line. Some receipes require just the items mentioned in order to combine, some require you to purchase the receipe to finish the item off - rule of thumb: if the receipe costs 1 lumber, then you don't need to buy it.
The items you are probably most interested in are damage, health/mana and movement items. Here are a few you should familiarize yourself with.
Movement:
Boots of speed: a must for ALL heros - 500
Boots of Travel: enables you to teleport to any friendly unit or building with 30s cooldown - 3400
Power Treads: increased attack speed and movement - 1530
Health/mana:
Ring of health: +4 hps a second - 875
Void stone: 100% mana regeneration rate - 900
The 2 above combine to make Perservance, personally I always recommend getting this.
Ring of regeneration: +2 hps a second - can make a item from this that gives a health regeneration aura
Heart of Tarrassque: about 400 health and 11hps a second regeneration - about 5-6000 very nice item if you can afford it
Damage:
Crystalis (sp): +damage and chance of critical strike - 3200 - combine with demon edge to make
Burize: +damage and higher chance of critical strike - 6500 (inc Crystalis cost)
Monkey King Bar: +damage, increased attack speed and chance of dealing bonus damage - 5650
Battlefury: +damage and gives cleaving attack (splash damage - does not work on ranged attacks!)
Cranium basher: +damage and gives bash attack (chance of stunning - very low chance on ranged attacks!)
The Butterfly: +evasion, +damage, +increased attack speed and +agility - 5-6000
The Divine Rapier +250 damage - 8000 - The ultimate weapon, but beware it drops on the ground if you die, can't sell or drop manually.
That'll do for the moment I think, maybe I should get on with some work!
Lucifa