Warcraft-III DOTA Guide For Noobs

[Rapchik Killer]

This is a simple guide for beginners/n00bs, especially for those who have hopped on to the DOTA wagon without even playing through the actualy WC3 campaign.

What is DOTA?
DOTA stands for 'Defense of the Ancients' which is a custom map for Warcraft 3. Players are split into 2 sides. Each with 6 players, 5 of which are human controlled and 1 AI controlled. The ultimate goal is to destroy the opposition Tree of Life or Frozen Throne. You choose from a list of heroes and battle it out for victory.

Gameplay:
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]The game plays fairly simple. There are three main lanes of traffic and a whole bunch of side routes to skirt from lane to lane and often (hopefully) surprise other players. There are two bases - sentinel and scourge - located in the bottom left corner and top right corner of the map, respectively. Also, note that the first five slots in the join game screen are assigned to sentinel and the last five slots are assigned to scourge. Teams are thus determined in advance.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]There are continually spawning computer-controlled waves of creeps (four melee units and one ranged unit) that are sent along the three main lanes of traffic. Left to their own devices, these creeps would accomplish almost nothing, as they are balanced in power except for the potential randomness in their damage.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Along each of the three lanes are three towers for each side. The towers do large, large amounts of damage. At the beginning of the game one tower could kill several heroes at a time without taking sigificant damage.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]The entire purpose of the game is to assist your own creep waves and drive those waves into the enemy towers, defeating them, and eventually into the enemy base, destroying it.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Another thing of note is that there are a few select buildings of important in each base (for each lane, as well) that give bonuses to the opposing team when destroyed. These buildings cannot be destroyed until the nearby tower protecting them is first razed.

-Sentinel Ancients of War or Scourge Crypts
Destroying an AoW or Crypt causes all melee units for the opposing team in the corresponding lane to spawn with twice their normal attack damage for the rest of the game. This cannot be reversed.
-Sentinel Ancients of Lore or Scourge Temples of the Damned
Similar to the previous effect, except affects the ranged units instead of the melee ones.

Victory occurs when the main building near the back of either base is destroyed. It has a lot of life and almost never dies unless most of the base is already destroyed.

The other, most important detail of the gameplay: Money. You get money for killing heroes(usually 100, although the hero you kill usually loses a lot more than you get), killing units(30-45 IIRC), and killing towers(400-500). No matter how much you help, getting the final blow is all that matters. There is also a continually generating source of money that all players receive: 8 gold every 5 seconds or so.

Money can be spent to purchase items at shops. There are five shops. The first four are near the fountain of healing: The Mountain King, the human female, and the two closest buildings. I suggest you look through each of these buildings to read each item and what it does. You'll be buying them every game, and finding them quickly can make a difference.

The last shop is located in two places: About 1/2 up the map, and either 1/3 from the left edge or the right edge of the map. They are halfway hidden in the trees, but you are expected to know where they are, and what they sell. Check (and try to remember) what they sell, as well.

The last important detail of the base is the fountain of healing. It is a fast-acting life and mana regen fountain. When you are fucked the hell up(and don't want to die) go to the fountain.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Game Modes
These Commands are to be typed by the blue player in the first few seconds of the game.

AP - All Pick
AR - All Random
SC - Super Creep
ID - Item Drop
SM - Short Match (Players earn more gold and towers have less hp)
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]What are heroes?
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A hero is the ‘avatar’ of your choice in the game. In other words, the character you choose to play. Heroes can gain levels by gaining experience (exp) from killing creeps or heroes, up to a maximum of 25 levels. Upon levelling up, a hero gains a skill point to ‘invest’. Every hero has 3 normal skills up to 4 levels, 1 ultimate skill up to 3 levels and 10 levels of stats. Heroes have 3 stats: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. Heroes may carry up to six items.

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]First: When you die, you respawn at the fountain after a timer expires which increases with your level.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]There are basically four types of heroes: Melee, Ranged, Caster, and Stealth. They operate similar to most other games. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Melee heroes are usually the most dangerous heroes in the end of the game, and the price for this is that they are usually the weakest heroes at the beginning. Mostly, this occurs because of their main stat usually being strength and resulting fact that they get a lot of life while still increasing their damage.

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Near the beginning of the game, heroes don't have a lot of life. Because of this, melee heroes are susceptible to potshots from ranged heroes and casters. They try to get close enough to attack the dueling creep waves(and hopefully get a unit kill for some extra cash) and the ranged units get in a few shots, forcing the melee unit to retreat.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Melee heroes get powerful abilities. Most melee heroes get a stun or snare of some kind to allow them to chase down retreating heroes.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Ranged heroes are the easiest to succeed with, but they cannot afford to fall behind. They are more item-reliant than the other heroes, but if they become powerful quickly they can be very, very hard to stop. Late game, they can get huge damage and attack speed, in some cases allowing them to kill heroes before the player has a chance to react. Because of the quality and diversity of hero skills, however, a competent team can defeat a hero of almost any power if they work together and have an even halfway diverse selection of heroes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ranged heroes get the least interesting selection of hero abilities. Most of their abilities are movement/attack speed hastes and snares, or direct damage.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Caster heroes are the most interesting heroes to play, and the most powerful in the early to middle game. The problem with caster heroes is that most of their spells are locked damage, and can, given enough time, become almost insignificant in the late game. For instance, a 300 damage nuke in the early game can devastate a 500 life hero, but a 2500 life hero with 33% magic resistance and 15 life regenerated per second can just shrug it off.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Most lockdown comes from casters, however, and at least one hero with quality lockdown is very good for each team to have.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Stealth heroes are, by many, considered the most fun heroes to play. They succeed mainly by killing other heroes in surprise confrontations. Because of the availability of stealth detection, however, most stealth units are effective because of their interesting skill sets as opposed to the usual single cloaking skill they have.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]I'm not going to get into each hero's abilities, simply because there are far too many heroes to do that. You're best bet is to learn that as you play, and remember the abilities of the heroes that you've played. Don't pick the same hero over and over again; knowing what each hero does allows you to fight against a random team much better.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Stats
Strength
Each point in strength gives…
- 19hp
- Increased hp regeneration (About 0.03)
- Additional 1 damage (Strength Heroes)

Agility
Each point in agility gives
- 1% increased attack speed
- 7 points of agility gives 1 point in armour
- Additional 1 damage (Agility Heroes)

Intelligence
Each point in intelligence gives
- 13 mana
- Increased mana regeneration (About 0.04)
- Additional 1 damage (Intel Heroes)[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Orb Effects[/FONT]
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Special notes on ranged:
Cold Attack isn't really an orb effect on ranged units, it only adds a debuff on hit to your attack, and as WC3 is coded, each attack may only place one debuff each attack. This leads to some special cases with Cold Attack on ranged:

Feedback and Cold Attack: If the target has mana, feedback will take effect. Otherwise, Cold Attack will take effect.
Chain Lightning and Cold Attack: If Chain Lightning activates, Chain Lightning will take effect. If Chain Lightning doesn't activate, Cold Attack will take effect.
Maim and Cold Attack: If Maim activates, Maim will take effect. If Maim doesn't activate, Cold Attack will take effect.

Maim
Effect: Slows down target slow and causes it to take extra damage. (% wise anyone knows?)
Item/s: Sange and Yasha

Lifesteal
Effect: Lifeleech of X%, as listed on the items
Item/s: Mask of Death, Helm of Dominator, Mask of Madness, Satanic

Feedback
Effect: Every attack burns X mana and deals X damage, as listed on item.
Item/s: Diffusal Blade, Manta Style

Chain Lightning
Effect: 20% chance of releasing a 150 damage chain lightning
Item/s: Maelstrom

Corruption
Effect: -6 to Armour
Item/s: Stygian Desolator

Cold Attack
Effect: Slows down the target. (% wise anyone knows?)
Item/s: Eye of Skadi


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]What are items?
Items boost the stats of your hero or give them special abilities. Items can be bought from shops in your base and a secret shop. Certain higher level items created just by possessing some specific ones. Some higher level items require a recipe to create. NOTE: THERE IS NO WOOD IN THE GAME. You don't have to find wood to make the higher level items. They will automatically form when you have the necessary ingredients.
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There are three ways to get items: The starting shops, the "secret" shop (not a secret), and combining items into new items.

Poor item choice is perhaps the biggest fault of newer players. I have a few big suggestions for those people.

1) For the love of god, do not purchase boots of speed with your starting money. Just don't do it. There is always, always something better at the beginning of the game.

2) I cannot emphasize enough how important life and mana regen is. Leaving the area of combat to run back to town and buy items or heal causes you to get less experience and money. Return to town as little as possible. The best way to avoid this is to have some initial life regeneration, so that you can avoid getting hit by standing at the edge of the combat, and still get experience from the dying units while you heal.

The best regen items are either a ring of regen from the main shop or a ring of health from the secret shop. If your hero cannot heal himself with a spell or increased regeneration, you will require a regen item.

Mana regen items are slightly larger in variety. The most common one is a Void Stone from the secret merchant.

3) Get the right items for your hero. This comes down to two simple things: Don't get items that focus in a stat that isn't your hero's main stat (thereby doing nothing to increase his damage) and do not get items that have an orb effect if you already have a skill or item with an orb effect(each such item has a tag in it's description of "Orb Effects do not stack". These effects do not stack.

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Most items simply have to be looked at and determined if they are the right kind of item for your hero. They are all described fairly well in their tooltips.

Common, Quality Item combinations
There are four merchants in the main base with recipies on them. You can combine the listed items (and you have to buy the recipe, unless it's cost is 1 wood instead of a gold amount in which case the items combine automatically and for free) by having them all in your inventory at once.

The following is a list of common items that each hero makes at least one of almost every game.

Perserverance:
Made with: Ring of Health(Secret Shop) and a Void Stone(Secret Shop).
Provides 4 life regen per second, 100% increased mana regen, and 7 damage. Costs 1775 gold in total.

Bracer/Wraith Band/Null Talisman:
Three incarnations of a similar item.
Made with: Circlet of Nobility, appropriate recipe, Gloves of Strength/Slippers of Agility/Mantle of Intelligence (respectively to the recipies). Provides +6 to one stat and +3 to the other two stats.
Costs 510 gold.

Power Treads:
An enhancement on Boots of Speed(which every hero needs eventually or they are too easily overtaken in combat).
Made with: Boots of Speed, Gloves of Haste, recipe Provides +60 to movement and 30% increased attack speed. Costs 1530 gold in total.

Soul Booster:
Is itself a component for Aghanim's Scepter, an item which is great for a few caster heroes which it uniquely effects. These heroes are listed in Aghanim's Scepter's description.
Made with: Point Booster, Energy Booster, Vitality Booster.
Provides 450 life, 400 mana, 1 life regen per second, 30% mana regen.
Costs 3300 in total.[/FONT]

 

[Rapchik Killer]

Hero(s) Stacking of Effects
Critical Hit
Bashing
Cleaving
Armour
Evasion
Magic Resistance
Attack Speed
Movement Speed
Misc

Commands:
Some commands are available to all players. Just press enter and type "-(Command)".

Matchup - Displays what heroes are on the opposite team and who is using them.
Movespeed - Displays the current movement speed of your hero. 522 is the maximum top speed achievable.


List Of Heros:
Here is the list of all the heroes with the names most people use for them. Vorago and Inferno can do a Good/bad with them if they want.

Sentinel Heroes

• Earthshaker
• Enchantres
• Crystal Maiden
• Zues
• Vengeful Spirit
• Juggernaut
• Naga
• Stealth Assassin
• Lone Druid
• Morphling
• Sven
• Lina
• Trent Protector
• Keeper of the Light
• Ogre Magi
• Tiny
• Tinker
• Prophet
• Ursa
• Phantom Lancer
• Engima
• Techies
• Silencer
• Anti-Mage
• Drow
• Pandaran Brewmaster
• Omniknight
• Dragonknight
• Bounty Hunter
• Shadow Shaman
• Dwarven Sniper
• Troll Berzerker
• Centaur
• Luna
• Bristleback

Scourge Heroes

• Leshrac
• Phantom Assassin
• Lich
• Soul Keeper
• Venomancer
• Demon Witch
• Broodmother
• Lycanthrope
• Magnataur
• Necro'lic
• Chaosknight
• Death Prophet
• Nightstalker
• Nether Drake
• Leoric
• Faceless Void
• Doombringer
• Lightning Revanent
• Naix
• Queen of Pain
• Nerubian Assassin
• Clinx
• Slithereen
• Medusa
• Tidehunter
• Bane Elemental
• Shadowfiend
• Bloodseeker
• Axe
• Nerubian Weaver
• Sand King
• Spiritbreaker
• Oblivian
• Necrolyte
• Pudge (Butcher)

Some Information about various Heros:

Crystal Maiden - Probably the best hero in the game. Amazing early game and great mid game. Her freeze+damage make her good at stopping heroes and her ultimate spams frost nova all over the screen killing most heroes. Late game it she cannot deal with strength heroes but her ultimate can still kill most stealthers and other casters.

Zues - Burst damage king. All his spells are very cheap and can be spammed. His ultimate does around 600 damage to every enemy hero on the map so if your ally gets his opponent down to low and gets away, you can zap him and take him out. He has static field which does percent based damage making him the only feared pure caster to STR heroes. Unfortunatly that means he gets targetted first.

Sven - Decent early game, good mid game, amazing late game. He's got stun, cleave, and devotion aura. His ultimate is insane giving him +75% STR for 12 seconds. Combined with his cleave attack and stun he will take out enemy heroes and the creep wave together.

Lina - Crazy AoE DD spells with a crazy single target DD ultimate.

Trent Protector - ANNOYING AS ALL FUCK TO KILL. Huge amount of base HP, great melee damage, can invis as long as he is near trees, can put up sentinels with true sight and his ultimate does around 300 damage freeze to every enemy around him for 4-6 seconds.

Keeper of the Light - Second best tower pusher next to Prophet. His main attack is a charged AoE DD that will take down all creeps to about 10 health. It does 550 damage in a VERY long, VERY wide shockwave. You will usually hit the enemy hero with it making him weak enough to not have to worry about most of the time.

Tinker - Crazy hero killer. He has 3 screen wide hero only targetting missles that deal around 400-500 damage on impact. It can hit multiple heroes at once. It basically means you cannot run from him. If you ever get low life while he is close enough to missle you, it's GG.

Prophet - Two ways to play this guy. Tower pusher with his summoning of trents which basially doubles your creep wave, or hero killer. He has an ability that puts up trees around a friend or foe for 6 seconds. If it's a melee hero you basically have 6 seconds of free attacks on him. You can also use your summon trent ability on those trees to get in that extra damage and push a wave of creeps to boot! His ultimate starts off dealing around 250 damage but bounces around 14 times hitting any opponent on the map.

Techies - The most irrating to fight enemies in this game. They plant land mines and remote mines. Both of which do some serious, serious damage. The remote mines (his ultimate) last for 5 or 10 minutes each (I can't remember) and can be cast every 5 seconds. Each ones does 450-600 damage each depending on the level of ultimate. Remote mines are invisable so most of the time you will be walking and you will just be dead from 5 remote mines exploding next to you. Techies also have suicide. They explode themselves dealing a FUCKTON of damage to anyone in proximity (distance matters). This attack prevents opponents from getting exp from your death (since you killed yourself) and also robs them from getting the final hit to get gold.

Drow - Every newbies favourite hero. Her attacks are frost arrows, silence, and trueshot aura. Her ultimate gives a 15% chance to outright kill a creep. She is great on getting the drop on enemies and just killing them since they cannot run away.

Dwarven Sniper - Crazy AoE damage, ranged bash attack, and increased attack range. His ultimate is a long range (and I mean long range) sniper shot that can do 625 damage.

Troll Berzerker - Range attacker who attacks very fast. Can switch to a meleer and gain the bash ability.

Lich - This hero WANTS to have two heroes fighting him. He's got frost nova, dark ritual and frost armor. His ultimate is a chain frost nova which bounces back and forth between enemies 5/6/7 times (depending on ultimate level). So if you get two heroes alone, one WILL die and the other will be finished off by your frost nova and standard attack. He's great for sneaking up behind two heroes who have been pushed back from a creep push.

Demon Witch - Solid ranged hero. He's got impale, mana drain and hex. His ultimate is a 600 damage DD. His hex and impale makes him a force to be reckoned with at any stage in the game.

Chaosknight - Insane late game hero. His stun randomly stuns opponents from 1 to 5 seconds. He's got crit chance and blink strike. His ultimate makes 1/2/3 copies of him exactly with the exception that they take +50% more damage. So when you have 4 of you hitting a tower, it goes down really fast.

Death Prophet - Great tower killer. Her carrion swarm ability makes her a great early game hero. She also has silence so in group combat she can shut down the enemy heroes for about 4 seconds. Her ultimate creates tons of little green things that fly around and damage anything they pass through including buildings.

Nightstalker - During daytime he's shit, but during night he's a fucking monster. He gets a 300 damage snare, a silence, and an aura that gives him +30% movement and 65% attack speed. He will chase you down and kill you. Very few heroes can deal with him late game.

Leoric - This is one of the heroes that can deal with Nightstalker late game. He's got stun, life leech, and critical strike. His ultimate is Reincarnation.

Faceless Void - A strength based hero that can be very difficult to beat. He's got blink/blink strike (depending on if you clicked a unit), 20% bash, and his ultimate stops EVERYTHING, friend, foe or building, in which you can freely hit them or flee for 6 seconds. Long recast time on his ultimate.

Doombringer - Also known as the money Abuses will lead to ban. He's got flamestrike, Level ? Death (damage based on if the opponents level is a multiple of the number in this spell effect text), and Devour. Devour WILL kill any creep that gets eaten but the recast timer only starts when the creep dies. So devouring low life creeps is preferred. You get the gold for killing the unit. His ultimate is Doom. Silences the enemy and deals a crazy amount of damage over time.

Naix - The Lifestealer. All his skills are passive with the exception of his ultimate which is Avatar. He's got haste, self lifesteal, and snare on hit. He's a low life hero but he gets back 65% of his damage back per hit. Casters kill him early game, ranged heroes mid game and STR heroes with stun are the only thing that has a chance to kill him late game.

Medusa - Great ranged hero. She has split shot which makes her deal 70% of her damage to up to 3 targets at a time. She also has chain lightning and mana shield. Her ultimate is purge.

Axe - You don't want to be this hero. He's a strength based hero with no kind of movement impeeding effects. His abilities make him a piss poor creep pusher and that's it. His ultimate deals 250 damage to a target but will outright kill him if that target has less than 650 life.

Nerubian Weaver - One of the more interesting ranged heroes to play. His ability is a super speed wind walk that lasts for 4 seconds. Any until that he passes will take 90 damage. His other ability lets him get a free attack every 3 seconds. His ultimate lets him warp back in time 5 seconds resetting his HP and mana back to whatever they were then. This can be used every minute. The basic strategy is to use his wind walk to weaken his opponents, get 3 attacks in (2 + extra attack), and then wind walk out. You can also use your ultimate to get free HP and mana since it comes back pretty fast and hit him a couple more times.

Spiritbreaker - Melee hero. He has GREAT abilities however he has piss poor stats which makes him pretty shitty 1 on 1. His main ability is charge. You select and enemy unit and he will move faster and faster until you are next to him and then you will stun your opponent for 2.5 seconds. However this skill doesn't do any damage like all the other stuns in the game. His other skill is +damage aura based on his current movement speed and Greater Bash. It's a 17% chance to deal 100 damage + knockback. His ultimate is a 300 DD that puts you infront of your opponent. If you have Greater Bash learned, you will also Greater Bash him.

Pudge (Butcher) - Ahh Pudge. One of the more fun heroes to play as if you get used to him. He has meat hook which throws out a hook to wherever you clicked. Whatever unit it comes into contact first will be dragged to Pudge. If an enemy is dragged it takes 400 damage. His other ability is Flesh Heap. For every non hero you kill you will get 0.12 Strength. For every hero you kill you will get 1.2 Strength. Also this skill gives him -16% damage reduction from spells. His main skill is called Rot. It's a PBAoE aura that damages ANY unit including pudge and friends for 100 magic damage per SECOND. This attack costs no mana to use, will not interrupt channeling, and can be turned on at any time as long as Pudge is alive. His ultimate is Dismember. A channeling attack that roots a unit and deals 200 damage per second to the target.

 

[Rapchik Killer]

MY HERO IS DEAD! What now?
Relax. Your hero will spawn back after some time at your base. Just look at the hero scores at the top right hand side of the screen to see when your hero will come back. The higher the level, the longer he takes so spawn. If you can't wait and you want your hero back immediately, you can buy back your hero from the tavern at a cost.

 

[k4ux]

Thanx Buddy 4 such a Nice DoTA Guide...
Im Not a Noob...
But Good To C The DoTA Guide For Noob's...

 

[devilscallmedad]

Dota guide for Noobs

Pick the Sand King.