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Defense of the Ancients, commonly referred to as DotA, is a popular Aeon of Strife-style custom map created for the game Warcraft 3 (by Blizzard Entertainment). The original version of the map was developed for Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos by "Eul," though it was later unofficially ported to the Warcraft 3 expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Several variants of the map exist under the name of Defense of the Ancients.

Gameplay

As Defense of the Ancients is a custom map, many of the game concepts are very different from the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos or The Frozen Throne. Warcraft III and Defense of the Ancients, do share some similarities, however, such as usage of modified Warcraft characters, adaptation of Warcraft spells such as Heal, and items such as Boots of Speed.

In Defense of the Ancients, two bases owned by two separate teams are set at opposite corners of the map. In each base is situated a central building known as the "Ancient," from which the map derives its name. The goal is to destroy the Ancient of the opposing team and to defend one's own Ancient. Three "lanes" through the wilderness join the two bases, and a river runs diagonally through the center of the map, perpendicular to the three lanes. Each team has a number of defensive towers in each lane, placed on their side of the river.

The teams consist of up to five players, each controlling a single hero character, and a computer player which controls "creeps." Standard variants do not support the artificial intelligence for computer controlled heroes. (A variant known as "DotA Mercenaries" has allowed for more computer controlled players, and is commonly used for training purposes or when other human players are not available to play with. Some developers are coming up with test versions of Defense of the Ancients maps with variable-skill computer players - the latest being "Cloud_str," who created "Defense of the Ancients Allstars 6.27b AI.")

The opposing bases produce troops, every 30 seconds, beginning at 1 minute 30 seconds. The "creeps" are produced in sets composed of a number of melee units and, initially, a single ranged unit, and path down the three lanes available on the map towards the opposing team's base. In some variants of the map, the number of creeps increases as the game continues, as do their hit points and damage. The creeps for the "Scourge" team are generally composed of Ghouls and a Necromancer, while the creeps for the "Sentinel" team are composed of different units depending on the varianto of the map - for example, while the popular Defense of the Ancients: Allstars uses Treants and a Druid of the Talon, Defense of the Ancients: Classic uses Huntresses and a Dryad. As the creeps travel along these lanes they will automatically assault any opposing creeps, heroes, or towers they meet. Towers possess superior firepower compared to the creeps, so it is difficult for creeps to advance past towers without the assistance of a hero.

Without the influence of heroes, a game of Defense of the Ancients cannot quickly be won by either team. Creeps will combat each other and generally be unable to destroy the defensive towers guarding their enemy's lane. However, in practice, there will usually be a slight imbalance of power over time due to the specific placement of towers, creep paths, and other variables (although, due to slight tweaks over a number of versions, the advantaged side may vary). This imbalance, however, is very slight and the presence of even a single hero for any amount of time will usually negate it.

Heroes

The hero system used in Defense of the Ancients is much like the one used in WarCraft III - heroes are ranked by level; and upon gaining a level, heroes receive bonus attributes and a skill point to be spent in learning a new or upgrading an existing skill. Heroes may gain levels during a game by earning experience. Experience is earned by being within a certain range when an opponent unit is killed, be it a creep or a hero (which gives more experience.). Creeps not controlled by a computer player are also planted throughout the map, and they may be killed for experience points and gold. These "neutral" creeps are not programmed to do anything except assault other units that come close to them; as such, they exist only to be killed for experience points and gold. These neutral creeps vary in strength from very weak, "level one" creeps, to, in some versions, very powerful ones which require a whole team of high level heroes in order vanquish (e.g. Roshan, in Defense of the Ancients: Allstars).

Hero Attributes

As in WarCraft III, heroes possess three main statistics, known as "attributes" (Strength, Intelligence and Agility) with every hero having a "Primary Attribute." The Primary Attribute can be determined based on icons shown on the status panel, as depicted here (Strength depicted by a 'fist' icon, Agility by 'foot' and Intelligence by 'mind'). Increasing the Primary Attribute of a hero will increase the damage it deals when attacking. In addition, increasing the attributes of a Hero will enhance corresponding statistics.

• Strength enhances hitpoints and hitpoint regeneration. 1 Strength point = 19 HP, 1 Strength point = 0.03 HP/sec regeneration increase
• Agility enhances attack speed and armor rating. 7 Agility points = 1 armor, 1 Agility point = 1% IAS (increased attack speed).
• Intelligence enhances mana points and mana regeneration. 1 Intelligence point = 13 MP, 1 Intelligence point = 0.04 MP/sec regeneration increase

(the effects of an improvement of a hero's attributes may vary among heroes. )

Hero Statistics

Heroes also possess a variety of statistics that may be altered by inherent skills, purchased items, or changes of attributes:

• Attack Damage - the indicator of how much a hero's attack subtracts from the recipient's hit points. Increasing the Primary Attribute of the hero will increase its attack damage, where every point of increase in the Primary Attribute increases the attack damage by one point.

• Attack Speed - the determining factor in how fast the hero uses its attack. A hero with double the attack speed of another hero would, therefore, strike twice as often in a given window of time. Attack speed is determined by a base speed for each hero, and it is increased by agility. 1 agility = 1% IAS(Increase in Attack Speed).

• Hit Points - the representation of how much damage a hero can absorb before it is killed. Hit points regenerate overtime to a maximum number. The maximum number of hit points a hero has and the rate at which it regenerates is a function of the hero's Strength attribute. Higher strength heroes have a higher maximum number of hit points and regenerate faster. Hit points are indicated by a current and maximum value.

• Mana Points - a hero's mana points is the amount of magical energy the hero has for utilizing abilities or casting spells. Most (but not all) abilities are powered by mana. Mana is also regenerated over time. The maximum amount of mana and the rate of mana regeneration is a function of the intelligence of the hero and it's items. Mana points are indicated by a current and maximum value.

• Armor Rating - a hero's armor rating is how much physical damage to the hero is reduced, where physical damage excludes damage from spells, however magical damage done to a hero is reduced by 25% (which can also be stacked diminishingly with specific items and skills). The amount of physical damage reduced by armor is viewed as a percentage and will have diminishing returns as the armor count becomes higher. Armor can be raised by items and agility points.

• Movement Speed - the determining factor of how quickly the hero travels over a given distance, excluding the effects of spells. The movement speed is a base value of roughly 300, which is different from hero to hero, but may be modified by abilities or items. There is, however, a specific cap around 522 to movement speed that cannot be exceeded, though most heroes will not encounter this cap unless they use the Haste rune (which can be found along the river, although this case is more common in DotA: Allstars).

External programs

Cheating

Cheating is when a program is written and used to unfairly give an advantage to the user. The effects of a cheat can range from revealing unexplored and hidden areas of the map, to "name spoofing," in which a player "banned" through use of a banlist can alter his or her screenname so it appears to be from a different account. Another example is a cheat which displays the private text messages of opponents, revealing stategies. None of these are controlled by Battle.net itself, but can easily be discovered by users. WC3Banlist can notify its user of the use of a "name spoofer" cheat, if a player using one joins a game of Defense of the Ancients currently occupied by a user of WC3Banlist. Furthermore, although no message is given in-game that a map revealing software is in use, all clicks and actions are recorded in the game replay, which can be freeely accessed by any of the players after the game has finished. This can be run though a Warcraft III replay viewer, which displays such statistics such as actions per minute (APM), items bought, units trained, buildings used and build order. Excessive clicks and actions outside of a player's normal field of view can be spotted in this way. The player may then be reported to Blizzard Entertainment, and their CD-key will be banned from Battle.net. Another possibility is a player simply adding the cheater to his or her banlist with related comments.

Map variations

Defense of the Ancients: Classic

Defense of the Ancients: Classic is the original Defense of the Ancients map series, of which "Eul" was the creator and first editor. This map is considered by some players to be the best and most balanced map series for Defense of the Ancients. During its history of official versions, it was edited by several different people - most notably "Kegsta," who had the longest stint as an editor aside from that of Eul's. Together with Kegsta and Ryude, "raydex2000" made an effort in spicing up the graphic theme with a Minimap Preview or a 1600x1200 Desktop also he reworked six of the heroes' skins. Eul has since abandoned this project and declared it to be open-source, and thus there is no official editor for the Defense of the Ancients: Classic series.

However, there are still unofficial editors whose maps are hosted frequently. The most notable current editors are "Quantum.dx" (responsible for versions 3.6d, as well as 3.95C, and 4.0 for The Frozen Throne), "Fluffy_Bunny" (creator of versions 3.7, 3.8x, and 3.9x), "Ryude" (creator of the 3.7x series), and "Danite" (creator of the Rumble 3.x series, Danite's Hell, and Multimode 4.0). Defense of the Ancients: Classic for still has clans that continue to play against each other, as well as hold tournaments.

Defense of the Ancients: Allstars

Main article: Defense of the Ancients: Allstars

Development and controversy

Currently, in most versions of Allstars, the map contains many more heroes and items than Defense of the Ancients: Classic. It is also updated quite frequently, which may explain its ongoing popularity. However, this popularity sparked a controversy over who ought to be credited for its fame. For instance, a number of Classic players resent Allstars' editor, Guinsoo, for having 'stolen' their map, especially since he is alleged to have similarly 'borrowed' most of his triggers, spells, heroes and items from other people; Guinsoo, for his part, maintains that, aside from the nearly identical map layout, the map was created from scratch and based only spiritually on Eul's work. Regardless, Allstars remains widely played on The Frozen Throne, and is the most popular Warcraft III custom map.

Bugs in version 5 of Allstars prompted many to offer fixes to Guinsoo, but the map development was opaque and release schedules were discretionary. As such, the map forked in version 5.84b. Guinsoo joined the mass movement to the popular MMO World of Warcraft, and "IceFrog" took over as the head of project since version 6.

Current player trends

Currently, players have shown increasing interest in the 6.xx versions as with each consecutive version, more bugs are fixed and the map is believed to be more stable and balanced. Version 6.32b, the most current official version, is the most frequently played on Battle.net and LAN parties.

Currently, Defense of the Ancients: Allstars is popular among many players around the world, as observed on the Battle.net servers and the PvPGN network of private servers. Games are also hosted on servers not sanctioned by Blizzard such as Blueserver Malaysia and Eurobattle.

Players of Defense of the Ancients: Allstars, particularly in Asian regions, often go to cybercafés or lan centres for friendly matches. In Malaysia, version DotA Allstars v5.84c is still frequently played.

Cash tournamounts are also common in the Asian region. In Aug 2006, the official Malaysian distributor of Warcraft III will be offering RM30,000 to the winner of the DotA national championship.

DotA Allstars v5.84c was also featured in the Malaysian and SingaporeanWorld Cyber Games 2005 national finals.

CHAOS

CHAOS is a Korean-language port of Defense of the Ancients, and is not popular outside of Asia, though it enjoys cult-like popularity there.

Danite's Hell

Defense of the Ancients: Danite's Hell is a version of Defense of the Ancients 3.7 in which all hero skills are randomly chosen. Some skills are left out, however, such as those which need only be leveled up once or twice, or would be impractical on a large amount of heroes. This version is popular with many players because of the new level of uncertainty.

Outland

Defense of the Ancients: Outland is another The Frozen Throne variant of Defense of the Ancients, mostly maintained by "Softmints" and "JackOfBlades," but with work currently passed onto "emjlr3." It is less well-known than Allstars, but updated more frequently. It is more hero-based than item-based, a slightly slower-paced game than Allstars, and the heroes are entirely different. Development has re-started after much time was taken in fixing the lag spikes created in 4.4b.

Challenges

Challenges, much like the Rune powerups in Allstars and the quests in Defense of the Ancients II: Thirst for Gamma, are an aspect of Outland. A player picks up a rune, and is then given a challenge to complete. If the player succeeds, he or she gains seven hundred and fifty gold; failure will cause the loss of a level, which is more significant in Outland than other variants of Defense of the Ancients. This puts pressure on the player to complete the objectives.

The current Challenges are:

• Slaughter - A hero on the enemy team is singled out, and must be killed within 3 minutes.
• Survival - Survive for 3 minutes, with a 1000 gold bounty on your head, you are enemies to both your creeps and towers, and their creeps - no hiding in your base. Your location is pinged for all players every second.

Only one challenge of each type can be active at a time, but two challenges can be held at the same time by a single player.

Heroes

The heroes of Outland differ from other Defense of the Ancients variants in many ways. Firstly, experience point-gain is slower at the start of a game, and items take priority. Secondly, the heroes are much more functional towards their purpose - for example, the "Red Stain" hero is excellent at killing other heroes, yet its ability to lead a charge up a lane is weak, unless its entire selection of items is focused upon it, causing it to become only moderate at both.

Hero killing is also a harder task than in other variants, as heroes are generally more resilient, and all heroes have access to an ability which aids in escaping from imminent death. There are many "special" hero types in play from other heroes, most notably the "Shadowdancer" hero, whose movement style is based on short distance teleportation, and the Focus Monk, which needs to go into a "Trance" every sixty seconds to replenish his energies. This takes five seconds to activate, and his skills gain bonuses upon activation of this skill.

External Links

• DotA Allstars
• Official DotA Allstars Downloads
• DotA Portal
• DotaAS - DotA AllStars Resources
• Chinese DotA Community
• Russian DotA Community - one of the best dota-teams in the world
• DotA & Warcraft3 Romanian portal
• Biggest French DotA portal
• Spanish - DotA community
• Malaysian Warcraft III server and DotA hub
• DotA community for Filipinos
• DotA Classic

• Pages for deletion
• Warcraft custom games