In the latest of our crash-course series, find out all you need to know about one of the most popular eSports games around
Competing with League of Legends for the title of most popular game in eSports today is the massively popular Dota 2 (Defence of the Ancients) – a franchise that started life as a humble mod for Warcraft 3.
This multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game features an eclectic cast of characters and a hugely-dedicated following.
Those new to playing, spectating and betting on Dota 2 may find the complexities of the game hard to understand at first, but fear not – our handy guide will help you get to grips with the basics in no time.
Vital statistics
Complexity: 5/5
Longevity: 5/5
Length of game: 5/5
Global reach: 5/5
Betting choice: 5/5
Gameplay
The aim of Dota2 is simple.
Two teams of five, referred to as either the Dire or the Radiant, are pitted against each other in a three-lane map, starting at opposite ends.
Each team has a base – a safe zone – with a central structure called an Ancient.
As the name of the game suggests, your objective is to defend your own Ancient while outmanoeuvring the opposite team and destroying theirs.
The two strongholds are connected to one another by three lanes, which is where the early and mid-game takes place.
Depending on the skill level of those playing, games last usually between half an hour and an hour, with between 38 and 45 minutes being the average.
The early game is usually spent farming the enemy ‘creeps’ – AI-controlled foot soldiers that each team has in abundance.
This helps your hero accumulate experience (XP) and gold to buy items, making them more formidable.
Once the heroes are sufficiently levelled the dynamic of the game changes, shifting towards destroying enemy towers and pushing further up the lanes towards the opposition stronghold – in other words, it’s time to go on the attack.
Killing enemy heroes is lucrative, both financially and for levelling up, but most importantly you are gaining an advantage over the enemy team.
Enemy heroes drop gold which is denied to them upon death. Stay one step ahead, and it could very easily throw the game in your favour.
As much as Dota2 is about your team’s progression, it’s just as important to suppress the enemy and deny them gold and XP.
Doing this will secure you a significant advantage during the late game, and ultimately help you to win.
Heroes
Dota 2 can appear complicated and opaque to any casual observer or entirely new player, and the sheer number of options for heroes to play as only accentuates this.
There are over 100 playable characters, each with their own unique style, stats and abilities – and it is important for competitive players to know their hero inside out if they hope to triumph.
There are three stats in Dota 2: strength, agility and intelligence.
Each hero specialises in one of these three areas, but perhaps more important is each hero’s unique abilities.
Some have exceptionally powerful attacks, whilst some can teleport or rush, enabling them to outmanoeuvre their enemies in defence.
Others have the ability to heal team mates – or to ‘silence’ opponents – meaning they disable their abilities.
There are a huge array of different abilities across the various characters and as the game goes on, your hero will level up, unlocking abilities and upgrading stats.
However, it’s important to remember that Dota 2 is a team game, and a good team will need a careful balance of heroes in order to succeed in competitive play.
There are different roles that need to be fulfilled for a team to be truly effective and each hero is best suited to only a couple of roles.
For instance, heroes such as Naga Siren, Leshrac and Medusa are popular ‘carries’.
Though initially weak, carries are extremely powerful towards the end of the game after farming and obtaining power-boosting items.
Carries are usually paired with a ‘support’ hero, who can protect the carry as they gather gold.
Meanwhile, Lifestealer and Lone Druid are good options for the ‘jungler’ role. With high survivability, they can slaughter the neutral creeps for gold in the map’s jungle areas.
Items and economy
Levelling up your character as you play is one matter, but it is also important to know if your hero is item-dependant.
Items can play a crucial role in swaying the game in your team’s favour. They range from healing you and your allies to adding hero buffs and extra abilities.
You can buy items from a number of places: at your base, side shops and secret shops, of which there are two.
Gold is more or less the only way to obtain these items, which is why it is important to secure as much of it as possible through killing enemy heroes, enemy creeps and neutral creeps.
Each team has their own section of the map called the jungle, which is where you will find the majority of the neutral creeps.
The neutral creeps differ in strength, but are a great way of gaining gold and XP. There are numerous tactics for optimising this process, helping you to gain bursts of both.
Vital to choosing the correct items and using the game’s economy to your team’s advantage is understanding your hero and your role.
As mentioned, it is the support’s role to ensure the carry has sufficient gold and health to reach their late-game potential.
Some heroes, such as Ursa, must farm early on in the game in order to buy the items needed to have a huge impact on the game’s final stages, while other roles require other types of items to play their correct part in the match.
As with all other things in Dota 2, the team should come first.
Betting
So you’re having fun playing or watching a Dota 2 game, but what about betting on it?
As one of the most popular eSports games in the world with massive tournaments and matches taking place every week, Betway have a wide variety of markets to bet on.
There’s the standard ones, like ‘tournament winner’ or ‘match winner’, and more specific markets like ‘first blood’ (or kill) and ‘kills odd or even’, which is basically betting on the score being an odd or even number.
There is plenty on offer to satisfy your curiosity, meaning that no matter what it is you love about Dota 2, we can help to make your experience even more thrilling.
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