Basic Information

Objective
The objective of DotA Allstars is to destroy the opposing teams Ancient. If you're the Sentinel, your objective is to destroy the Frozen Throne. If you're the Scourge, you need to destroy the World Tree.


Gameplay
When the game starts, the host (red player) first chooses the game mode (more info below). Now, you have either choosen a hero, or been given one by random. Then it's time to buy items, and select which one of the three lanes you want to go; Upper left, bottom right, or in the middle. At each camps side, Sentinel and Scourge, theres a barrack at the beginning of the lane, sending creeps down the lane towards the opponents base. You earn extra gold and experience when killing the opposing teams creeps.

Theres 6 towers placed at each lane, 3 to each side, Sentinel and Scourge. These towers are really powerful in the beginning, but later in the game, it's up to the heroes of each team to destroy them, and push with the forces down the lanes. By killing enemy heroes, you gain extra gold, and experience, to help you further push down the lanes. With your gold, you can improve your hero with many different items, where theres a wide range between the power and prices.

Check out our DotA Allstars Tactics article >>



DotA Items
There's a wide variety of items in DotA Allstars. In order to make the most powerful items, you must combine items, and merge them inte new ones using Recipes. There are four merchants selling recipes in each base.

Level 1 Human Recipes
Level 2 Orc Recipes
Level 3 Night Elf Recipes
Level 4 Undead Recipes

The higher level on the recipes, the more the items needed cost, as well as how powerful the items get. Sometimes, you don't need to buy the recipes, since the items merge by themselves. Otherwise, you need to buy the recipe.

Since the DotA Allstars homepage got a complete items listing, we won't bother to put one up here, we just go over the basics.

Offical DotA Homepage - Items database >>



DotA Powerups
Five different types of powerups exist in DotA, and only one at a time, and they may pop up on the two different places along the river, at the points between the three different lanes.

The different Powerups are :


Invisibility Rune : Works great for either sneaking up on unsuspecting heroes, or retreating. The invisibility lasts X seconds, or if the hero takes any damage.

Double Damage Rune : Hero killing rune. Can be used with an great effect with other damaging abilities or items, i.e. Svens God's Strength. Lasts X seconds.

Regeneration Rune : Sometimes, you want to avoid going all the way back to the base to heal, then this rune works perfectly. Also, when retreaing, this may give you the boost to survive, or, even turn the tides. Lasts X seconds, or if the hero takes any damage.

Haste : Maximazes movement speed. Can be a real pain, since you almost can't retreat from a hero with haste. Can also be used to quickly head to the base to buy, or heal. Lasts X seconds.

Illusion : Creates an Illusion of your hero, that deals a less damage than your hero, and takes extra damage. The Illusion does only have passive abilities from the real hero.


All of the powerups are very powerful, and players should be aware that, almost anytime, a hero whith haste may come running, so it's best to always be prepared. Powerups can be disabled by host typing in the nopowerup game mode (-np).


Options


DotA Allstars Game modes
There's several different game modes in DotA Allstars, where the most popular ones are Allrandom (-ar) and Allpick (-ap). The game mode is selected by the host (blue).


Primary game modes:
You can only select ONE primary game in the beginning of each DotA game.

* Allrandom (-ar) : All players recieve a random hero from both the Sentinels and the Scourges taverns

* Allpick (-ap) : Players pick from both the Sentinels and the Scourges taverns

* Teamrandom (-tr) : All players recieve a random hero from their own teams taverns (i.e. Sentinel or Scourge).

* Mode random (-mr) : The game randomly selects either:

Allrandom, Allpick, Teamrandom, or a normal game; Teampick

* Vote random (-vr) : The game randomly selects 3 combinations of heroes that is displayed to both teams. Then both teams vote for the hero combination they want to use. The combinations are showed like this:

"X, X, X, X, X vs. X, X, X, X, X" (the X represent a random hero).

To vote for a option, a player must write: "-option #" (the # represent the number of the option, ranging from 1 to 3)

* Leaguemode (-lm) : In league mode, there must be 10 players, and you cannot select any other game mode except Shuffle Players. Leaguemode is the same way as Allpick, but there is a special picking order.

The team that gets to start picking is random, which has recently been changed (v6.35)

Here's the picking order >>




Secondary game modes
Many secondary game modes can be combined in a DotA game. We've divided the secondary game modes into three groups, so that you can easily navigate.


Major Secondary game modes:
These game modes are are a bit more advanced. They cannot be combined with eachother. Deathmatch has some restrictions due to the need to use many heroes.

* Deathmatch (-dm) : When you die, you get a new hero (selected/randomed depending on the game mode). Items and experience are kept.

Cannot be combined with All Strength/Agility/Intelligence, Teamrandom, Mode random.

* Mirror Match (-mm) : Requires same amount fo players in each team. After the first game minute, each player pair,
Blue - Pink, Teal - Gray, Purple - Light blue, Yellow - Dark Green, Orange - Brown,
will have one of their heroes replaced with the other. In the end, each player pair has the same hero, i.e. the teams will have the same matchup.

* Same Hero (-sh) : All players will have the Hero that Blue picks.

Minor Secondary game modes:
These DotA game modes works with all other game modes, as well as with eachother.

* Easymode (-em) : Towers are weaker, experience is gained faster, and you get more periodic gold.

* Duplicatemode (-du) Let the same heroes be picked/randomed multiple times.

* Shuffle Players (-sp) : Shuffles around all the players randomly. This includes your colour and which side your on.

* Item Drop (-id) : When your hero die, a random slot in your inventory will drop whatever it holds. If no item is in the randomed slot, nothing happens. Gold is no longer lost when you die.

* No Powerups (-np) : Disables all the different powerup runes in DotA.

* Super Creeps (-sc) : Random Super creeps will spawn between set intervals.

* Terrain snow (-ts, -terrainsnow) : Changes the terrain to a snowy landscape, who will be the survivor of this landscape? Just kidding, gameplay is the same...mostly.

Attribute Secondary game modes:
These DotA game modes cannot be combined with eachother, as well as the Deathmatch mode.

* All Strength (-as) : Only heroes with Strength as primary attribute allowed.

* All Agility (-aa) : Only heroes with Agility as primary attribute allowed.

* All Intelligence (-ai) : Only heroes with Intelligence as primary attribute allowed.



DotA Player Commands
These DotA commands can be used anytime during the game by any player.

* Repick (-repick) : Repick your hero for 150 gold. In Teamrandom and Allrandom, the gold cost is 400

* Random (-random) : Select a random hero, giving the advantage of no money loss (picking a hero costs 250 gold)

* Swaphero (-swaphero) : Brings up a menu over your teams heroes. Select one and if that player agrees, you will swap heroes. Can only be used during the first 90 seconds

* Movement Speed (-ms) : Displays the current movement Speed of your hero

* Matchup (-ma) : Displays which opponent controls which hero

* Creeps Stats (-cs) : Displays a message of the amount of Creeps killed, and the amount of Denies

* Creeps Stats Board on/off (-cson/-csoff) : Displays a board over the Creep Stats

* Hide/Unhide Hero Death Messages (-hidemsg/-unhidemsg) : Hides/Unhides the hero death message spam



Help Commands
These commands does'nt need to be used in most games. Refresh is used automatically and thereby does not need to be typed.

Refresh (-refresh) : Refreshes PA’s blur so that if you were visible you will become transparent again. This does not affect evasion in any way

Unstuck (-unstuck) : Channels for 60 seconds, then moves your hero back to your base

Recreate (-recreate) : Available for N’aix, Terrorblade, Dragon Knight and Banehallow. Use when close to the fountain if you have lost control of your hero (metamorphosis problem). 200 seconds channeling

Disable Help (-disablehelp) : Makes Chen’s Test of Faith (teleports you back to base) unable to teleport you

Enable Help (-enablehelp) : If -disablehelp has been activated, -enablehelp will make Chen’s Test of Faith able to teleport you again


Game Info (-gameinfo) : Displays some information on the different game modes that are used.



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Comments
DotA is probably the best WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne map ever. A great variety of game modes, a very rich sortiment of items, 79 different heroes, each with carefully designed abilities to fit the hero. Balance changes are made often, to make sure that every hero have the chance to be great in the hands of a good player.

The DotA community has expanded a lot, and continue to grow all the time. Leagues and tournaments are played. Many professional gamers have formed teams, and started devoting their time to DotA. In the middle of this, I, an average DotA player (almost) am trying to describe it, and give comments about it. I am not worthy!


Pros +

* 25 Hero levels
* 4 levels on the abilities and 3 levels on the Ultimate
* Map is being balanced and bugs fixed with each new version
* Currently 77 custom heroes evenly distributed between Scourge an Sentinel
* Well made and varying abilities
* You can build many different kinds of weapons and items
* Many different game modes

Cons -

* Leaving players (though it does'nt have anything to do with the map)
* Too addictive (seriously!)


If you have any feedback, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to post it at our DotA ForDoum >>