Defense off the Ancients

Defense off the Ancients , (DotA), is a personalized chart (Custom map) of the Video game Warcraft III of Blizzard Entertainment. Originally developed under Warcraft 3: Reign off Chaos by Eul, of another charts thereafter were created for the extension Warcraft 3 : The Frozen Throne .

Alternatives of DotA

There exist various alternatives of DotA , all deriving more or less from Aeon Strife, a chart of Starcraft, one can nevertheless quote:

DotA Allstars
Gamebox DotA
DotA Outland
DotA Darkness Falls
DotA Classic
DotA Extreme

5v5 gold 6v6 DotA (nonofficial version)
DotA Rumble

an alternative of DotA with only the lane of the medium incorporating more defensive structures.

DotA: Danite' S Hell.

Another alternative of DotA where a capacity of the heroes is replaced in a random way by another.

DotA AllStars is the most popular version by far on the waiters of Battle.net, so much so that many people employ the DotA term to refer only to the AllStars version. Information which follows is thus mainly applicable to Dota Allstars and can be inaccurate or incorrect for the other alternatives.

Gameplay of DotA Allstars

The charts Defense off the Ancients have a quite particular Gameplay based on the team game which makes clash 2 teams active from one to five players each one.

Each hero of the play has particular capacities which can be improved as the player gains in levels, the maximum being 25. These heroes, although some similar times do not find in the original play Warcraft 3 or in its extension The Frozen Throne : They all are personalized for the play DotA. Each one of these heroes has 3 basic fates which are spread out over 4 levels of development, of an ultimate fate (ultimate) which can evolve/move of 3 levels and option statistics which enables him to slightly increase each one of its three characteristics. The hero thus gains a point by level which it can distribute with the choice between these options.

the force makes it possible to increase the life (19 statement per point) as well as the passive regeneration of the life. It also allows the heroes of the type forces (Strength) to increase their damage (+1 with the damage by point).

the agility makes it possible to increase the armor (+1 armor for 7 points) and the speed of attack (+1% per point). It also makes it possible to the heroes of the type agility (Agility) to increase their damage (+1 with the damage by point).

the intelligence makes it possible to increase the mana of hero (13 PM per point) as well as regeneration passivates mana. It also makes it possible to the heroes of the intelligence type to increase their damage (+1 with the damage by point).

Each hero has of capacities and magic spells which are clean for him. It is to the player to define and find the strategy best adapted for its hero and his style of play. For example, it is sometimes interesting to assemble the statistics and a capacity rather than two capacities. Thus that makes it possible to improve the chances of survival in beginning and medium of part, without however losing too much in offensive potential.

There exist also objects making it possible to increase the characteristics, capacities and capacities of the heroes. They can be bought in various points on the chart. However a hero cannot carry more than 6 objects. Certain objects can thus be assembled whole by means of a formula (receipt) to give a more powerful object occupying only one space.

Each team is assisted by creatures controlled by the play (called " creep") and whose only objective is to attack the camps opposite. The campings are protected by defensive towers which it is necessary to destroy before being able to progress to achieve the main aim of the play: To destroy the principal building of the opposing team (the Throne of Ice for the Plague (The Scourge) and the Tree of Life for the Sentinels).

The runes are magic elements which appear with one of the two places determined on the chart and which confer to the hero who uses them special capacities for one short period of time. Every even minute (second, fourth, sixth minute etc), if a rune is not already present, a news appears in a random way to one of the two sites envisaged. Four types of rune exist:

Haste : the hero sees his speed reaching the maximum value and moves in a very fast way consequently.
Double Ramming : the physical damage inflicted by the hero is doubled.
Illusion : an image (a double) of the hero appears. It inflicts less damage and receives some more than the original.
Invisibility : the hero makes invisible to the adversaries.

Part of DotA can last 30 minutes with nearly 2 a.m. in the majority of the cases. It often happens that players leave in the course of part for varied reasons (bug, lag, bad losers, things to be made in the real life, etc), these people are called in the jargon of the medium of the “ leavers ”. This term comes from the English verb " To Leave " who means " to leave ".

Possible modes of play DotA Allstars

During the launching of the part, the 1st player, is the blue color, decides on a particular mode for all the duration of the play. With this intention, it will have a certain time (15 seconds) to type in the dialog box - followed abbreviation of the mode of desired play. It is also possible to combine several of these modes in order to diversify the part.

Classic (also called Pick or normal Pick): If, after a certain amount of time, no mode of particular play were decided, the part has mile in traditional mode where the players can choose a hero only among those available for each camp

All Pick (ap): All the players can choose any hero at the cost of 250 gold coins (gold), the respective team not affecting of anything the choices. The players have also the option to receive a hero by chance if they type - random in the dialog box.

All Random (ar): All the players receive a hero randomly. They can however type - repick in the dialog box in order to change by chance and definitively hero at the cost of 500 gold coins. They can also type - swaphero in order to exchange their hero with one of their fellow-member.

League Mode (lm): The teams choose in turn their heroes among those proposed by this mode in the following way: Equipe1 a hero, Equipe2 two heroes, Equipe1 two heroes, Equipe2 two heroes, Equipe1 two heroes and Equipe2 a hero. The heroes to be chosen correspond to those available by the ap mode except for the last heroes considered still as not balanced by Icefrog.

eXtended League (xl): It is an extension of the lm mode. The difference consists in the fact that the teams banish in turn a hero within the limit of three heroes (six heroes banished in all) then choose their hero while following the diagram of the lm mode.

TEAM Random (tr): Similar to All Random, except the players sentinel will have of the heroes sentinel and that the Scourge players will have of the Scourge heroes.

Random Mode (mr): This mode makes it possible to choose by chance a mode among Pick, All Pick, All Random or TEAM Random.

Random Draft (rd): The play randomly draws a pool from 30 heroes and each team chooses in her turn a hero in this pool. That makes it possible to have matches enough balanced while introducing variety.

Random Vote (vr): Three possible proposals of team (random heroes) are drawn and proposed, a vote is made by all the players to determine which is the combination which will be played.

Reverse Pick (rev): The players choose the heroes of their adversaries.

Death Match (dm): The players receive a hero by chance with their death. The function - repick is decontaminated and the teams do not have right which 40 heroes have. This exceeded figure, the dead players do not receive any more a hero and the team not having more heroes available will lose the part.

Easy Mode (em): The turns and the monsters controlled by the artificial intelligence of the play are weaker than the normal. The heroes gain also experiment and gold coins more quickly.

Item Drop (id): With died of a hero, the program chooses by chance one of the six boxes of inventory of the hero and makes fall on the ground the object being there.

Super Creeps (sc): Modifier of play involving the spawn super creeps in each camp. Super Creeps are units controlled by the computer but more resistant than the traditional units.

Duplicate (du): Modifier authorizing the selection of several heroes of the same type.

Same Hero (sh) : The 1st player chooses a hero who will be given to all the players present in the part.

Only Middle (om): Decontaminate the external lanes, allows to play in 1v1 or 2v2.

No Power Up. (Np): Decontaminate the runes.

Some elements and principles of the play

“Deny”

Deny is the fact of sum of money the allied units to prevent that the adversary does not gain gold or an experiment following the death of this unit. That can be applied:

with the combined creeps, when their life is in lower part of 50%, that makes it possible to slightly reduce the experiment which the enemy hero will gain, and to be sure that it will not collect gold.
with the combined heroes, when their life is in lower part of 25% and that they are under the influence of a fate making of the damage over the duration.
with the structures combined when they are in lower part of 10%, generally turns of defense, allowing to prevent that the enemy does not gain gold associated with the destruction with these turns.

“Last Hit”

It is the fact of killing the enemy creeps by delivering only the last blow. That allows on the one hand, to gain gold efficiently, and on the other hand, not to help the progression of allied vagueness and to remain meadows of its defensive structures, more in safety.

“Lane Control”

It is the fact of associating the two preceding techniques to harass or carry out a war of attrition on the resources of the adversary. More in difficulty the enemy will be put at the beginning of part, easiest will be the medium and the end of part. Certain heroes have facilities with this task, others not. One can quote “Viper” and “Silencer” which have a very good control of Lane, Lane being one of the corridors or the creeps combined and enemy will clash.

the “Push”

It is the fact of trying to destroy the structures adversaries, that is to say very early in the part, maybe in a planned way, the goal not being inevitably to kill the heroes adversaries, but to shave the structures without the latter not being able to be defended.

The “Gank”

Element impossible to circumvent of the play, the gank (abbreviation of gang kill ) consists in making a ambush with a hero with several (the excess being useful, but not obligatory). This technique is based on the effect of surprise caused by the massive arrival of a hostile force in the perimeter of survival of a hero who, very often, does not make failure. The gank is the one of most powerful strategies used and can thus easily irritate the team which undergoes it, often pushing the players touched to leave the part. A good coordination and communication between the players amongst other things make it possible to make more effective gangs and to avoid the unfavourable gangs.

The gang can be made either by the use of Stun or Sayable, effects stun a héro given so as to withdraw it combat, or by the use of fates or Ultimates for purpose of zone, withdrawing the opposing team of the combat if the tactics proceed correctly, or by the effect of surprised armature for example by the presence of invisible allied heroes allowing the excess, or by the use of element not suspected, the such use of a rune of double-damage.

Problem of the leavers

Equipped is played mainly 5 against 5. If a person leaves the part before it is finished, the balance of the involved forces is some broken. In the majority of the cases, the interest of the play is killed, camps dominating the other completely.

One then employs the term of “leavers” to nominate the persons leaving the part before his term. the word “Leaver” is drawn from English, " To Leave" meaning " quitter".

The reasons for which these players leave are generally puerile:

their hero died once or two.
their team lost some buildings.
they do not want to continue the part until the end under pretext which they think of losing.
they have a “urgent prevention” whereas one will find them in another part 5 minutes later.

This reasoning is puerile and idiotic because Dota is before a whole team game. The scores of the heroes do not determine the victory or the defeat of the team, just as the loss of part of the buildings. What determines the victory is the fact of destroying the principal building of the enemy. It is not rare even parts where a team seems to lead to the score and where the situation changes completely finishing by even the team abused to gain the part.

As Blizzard does not publish any statistics relating to the players on the personalized parts, there does not exist any means of knowing a priori if a player has already or will leave a part, contrary to Ladder de Starcraft or one can know the number of parts which a player lost, gained or left.

Wc3Banlist

One of the solutions to answer this problem and to increase the chances to finish a part with 5 against 5 is wc3banlist, It is a free software making it possible to keep the trace of a person having left a part before its term in order to be informed the next time that it tries to join a part in which one is. The goal being of not rejouer with him, the postulate being that it is likely to leave again and to ruin the part. This postulate is of course not infallible, the banished people being able to change their Battle.net identifier and thus not to be detected as a leaver. To change its identifier is however constraining and tends to limit in a certain manner this kind of behavior. The banlist (compilation/list of banns by user) is before very personal, namely that to be banished on the list of somebody does not mean that you will not be able to join another part using banlist, but only that of the person having banished you.

Banlist.nl

A system of division of banlist exists, using the services of banlist.nl, which allows any user registered (on banlist.nl) to reach the banns of another user.

Initially all banns were divided in banlist known as total, but which one realized with the use that it was unsuited because certain people will misuse wc3banlist, while banishing for nonacceptable reasons of the unspecified players (for example: To banish somebody leaving a part with 1 against 5).

In order to cure that a system of Approved Hosts was creates for each kingdom: “Approved Host”, literally “approved host” is recommended by the community of banlist.nl like trustworthy person and must conform to strict rules at the time which it uses wc3banlist. It must for example, not to banish in a situation of 5 against 3. It must also indicate clearly which rules will be used for the part.

Need for choosing people as Approved Host with armature the creation of “Sharing Group”, group of division, allowing to measure the potential candidates and to limit the risks of abuse, human Approved Hosts not being infallible and remainders.

There exists a system of call allowing a person banished to make call of its round of applause and to be likely to be withdrawn of the banlist in which she appears. The conditions to be débanni are not drastic or pitiless, it is generally enough to a proof of good will on behalf of the player to be withdrawn. Finally it should be noted that: - the reasons to be banished are generally nonthe compliance with the rule TDA, clan now up to date Dota. - it is sometimes simple to ask for the host of the part the permission of leave for reason of major force, after all the requirements of the life taking precedence over part of Equipped, that is generally included/understood and makes it possible not to be banished for a case of major force.

GoodList - DotArank

Goodlist was an alternative to banlist. Where banlist noted the people leaving the parts, goodlist noted those positively remaining in the part. Goodlist for various reasons technically died and is used very little on the extension Frozen Throne.

A similar attempt has goodlist was launched lately, called DotArank (see external bonds.) The goal always remains to note players positively, but the initiative of DotArank remains recent and one cannot still come to a conclusion about his effectiveness.

Private parts

Another solution to answer the problem of the leavers consists in playing only with people whom one knows. That thus consists in knowing other players of equipped and to organize parts where it is known that nobody will leave. It is necessary however to know people to take part in this kind of part. One can join private parts via clans such as Clan DCE on Northrend and Clan TDA on Azeroth. These parts function on the principle of a safelist, a list of people known not to leave. A not safelistée person not being able to play in a part unless it is guaranteed by a person safelistée present in the part. In the same kind of systems, one will note the existence of channels IRC such as #dotapickup.euro on Quakenet based on similar principles. Wc3banlist makes it possible here to check that a person is safelistée, or on the contrary banished, on the shitlist (one will speak about “French black list”) associated with the entity organizing the part. To be débanni of such a list it is generally necessary to contact the clan or the entity governing it, to contact banlist.nl will not generally be useful has anything here.

DotA-League

There exists also a system of part semi-private called equipped-league, making it possible to join private parts after subscription of an installment on the site of equipped-league. This site tracks the parts, and makes it possible to reduce the chances of the leavers. It offers Individual Moment Ranges, which make it possible to play a part quickly, with a team of recorded users, the distribution within the teams being based on the classification of the players on the associated site.

Leagues

There exist also leagues, public or deprived, allowing the players there being registered to play together. One will note the league CAL (anglophone), the MYM Prime Defending (anglophone) and the league Argh (French-speaking) which make it possible teams of 5 players to meet in matches organized with the fur with measurement of season, similarly with the sporting events, with rewards for the best teams.

GoodGame Customer (GGC)

GGC is an independent program which makes it possible to play, inter alia, in DotA without passing by BattleNet. Its principal interest consists of a significant reduction of latency between the various players on the same part and thus avoids the problems of Lag often met on the parts played on Internet.

Battle.net and third programs

Blizzard prohibits the use of hacks and of third programs aiming has to modify, cheat or deteriorate the jouability of the plays published by Blizzard on Battle.net.

Certain detractors of Wc3Banlist claim that this last is illegal because being included in the category of the third programs. In practice, Wc3banlist does not deteriorate the jouability of Warcraft III, therefore it is not prohibited by Blizzard. it can be considered same manner that one avoids fire or an antivirus, it is a third program, therefore not supported by Blizzard, which remains logical.

One can also note that Blizzard does not seem to worry in practice about the personalized parts, which include the parts of Equipped, and which it seems to supervise only Ladder. One of the possible reasons is that these parts are lodged by external thirds with Blizzard, unreliable because not third of confidence and who would probably pose too much problem for the advantages that they would have there. It is as advisable to note as to date, no known person of the community of banlist.nl was suspended for use of Wc3banlist, he always proved, that the use of true a hack or nonrespect of the netiquette was the real cause.

History of the development DotA Allstars

The Development of Equipped Allstars was carried out in several successive stages, what gave place to many versions that one can gather. The heroes and objects were often modified, in order to ensure the maintenance of the balance of the play.

Many people contributed to the development of this chart. One can in particular quote Eul and Guinsoo' which were the developers of this chart and currently IceFrog . The popularity of the chart was marked a long time by controversies about which brought the most to the latter and how.

One can distinguish several versions:

Old versions DotA Allstars (lower than version 6)

Eul was the first developer to off implement it on Warcraft III Reign Chaos. Guinsoo took again later the development, while being adapted, in a not very elegant way, the concepts resulting from other charts, from where the controversy previously evoked.

The bugs of version 5 of Equipped Allstars were several times corrected by Guinsoo, but the development of the code was opaque and the nonregular provisions of the chart. This branch stopped with the 5.84c when Guinsoo left version 6. It finished the development on version 5 with the creation of Equipped AllStars 5.84, who added new heroes and introduced corrections of bugs. Always it is that several errors and imbalances persisted in version 5.84, what involved the provision shortly after of the version 5.84b. A named person True. Rus developed a nonofficial branch, named 5.84c and 5.84d, to correct bugs induced by one of the patchs of Battle.net (several capacities of hero functioning then incorrectly). He also optimized the time of loading of the chart, reducing it by 5-10 minutes to 30s-2 minutes. One can also note, at that time, the introduction of the concept of Deny (Note: the French translation nearest would be refusal , but the term is not used as such), which consisted in being able to kill its own units damaged so as to reduce the experiment that the unfavourable heroes gain.

Versions 6

The branch 6.X began on February 28th, 2005. It presented many changes, of which: new heroes, new objects and a new ground (green grass plain) in the version 6.00 which was changed later to resemble that of version 5.84.

The changes have summers initially very drastic causing resistances among the players who partially returned on the version 5.84c. Shortly after the release of version 6.01, Guinsoo devoted its time to World off Warcraft and stopped the development of Equipped AllStars.

In the absence of Guinsoo , Icefrog took over with Neichus , which contributed some time to the chart. Icefrog is since the principal programmer of the chart, carrying out the implementation, the establishment of the balance, until the correction of the bugs. Since, in a regular way, each new version brings its batch of corrections of bugs and addition of new heroes and fates additional.

Versions 6.27b

October 31st, 2005, with the support of Blizzard Entertainment and the opening of the Cyberathlete Amateur League division dedicated to Defense off the Ancients, a new era of Equipped Allstars started.

With the introduction of DotA in League of play, new waves of strategy of team emerged evolving/moving differently of the traditional strategies previously played. The play passed gradually from strategies based on fates of zone to strategies of control of Lane making it possible to take the control of the part as soon as possible. One of the pillars of these strategies was the fact of being able sum of money its own units to cause a severe attrition on the level of the profit of gold and experiment of the adversary. That resulted in rather important differences in levels at the end of the part, making it possible to ensure the victory the team applying best the strategy. The choice of the heroes was thus done then according to the capacities of control of Lane and either according to the capacities of destruction in zone. Consequently, of the changes undervaluing the impact of Deny were realized, to reduce its impact and to again allow to play of the strategies more classiques.

Since the version, 6.27, there exist two charts, stable for the match in League and unstable, including the last versions and unstable because potentially imbalancée and bogguée.

Versions 6.37

Season 3 of CAL used version 6.37. This version was also employed in several major tournaments, including those of the CEVO and MyM3. Initially, the chart was regarded as good balanced, but towards mid-November, of the teams discovered that Sentinels were potentially stronger than Scourges. Several Sentinels heroes formed a combination surpuissante then. One can in particular quote the following heroes: Twin Head Dragon, Vengeful Spirit, Lone Druid, Bristleback and Beastmaster. These heroes formed the core of a strategy that much called 4/4 , referent with the predominance of Sentinels. That involved evolutions towards version 6.42, by reducing the force of the Sentinels heroes and by accelerating the evolution of the waves of Creep, so as to arrive more quickly in the phase of the medium of part.

Versions 6.42 and higher

Several new objects have summers introduced into version 6.42. A major change at summer modification of the object Aegis off the Immortal , if this last object always makes it possible to prevent the death of the hero carrying it, it does not make any more that and cannot be assembled or bought any more and must be recovered by beating Roshan, a neutral golem which has a considerable resistance increasing with the number of times or it réapparaît.
Roshan reappears every 10 minutes.

Versions DotA Allstars AI

Recently, of the versions integrating an artificial intelligence (club-footed) placed at the disposal. Although Dota Allstars is directed between human players, scripts AI that Cloud_Str has writing make it possible the computer to control the unfavourable heroes, what gives the possibility to the new players of improving while being involved. Charts AI also make it possible to test more easily of new objects and news capacités.

Even if the club-footed ones play in a correct way, they are not very dangerous for a human adversary, because they are not programmed to play together or to play of the complex strategies. It are in addition not very difficult to kill, because they have a very weak perception of the possible hazard at one moment donné.
The objects which they will buy will not never vary from a part on the other, therefore they will never adapt to the heroes but they combattent.

Functionalities were also added to allow to the players more control on the actions of club-footed, in fact, defending the base when it is necessary. Lastly, in order to compensate for their weakness, the heroes controlled by the IA can be parameterized to gain more experiment.

The most recent versions are of better interest because the club-footed ones have better tactics and strategies compared to the initial versions. A match in 1 against 5 could seem impossible to gain with the last versions.

Version AI is available here.

External bonds

Official site: DotA AllStars
Project French Encyclopedia DotA: WikiDotA
Site of information and French community of DotA
Site of the Argh clan, site of information and presence of a league

Random links: