What is Dota 2?

Dota 2 is a Mobile Online Battle Arena(MOBA for short) created by Valve Software and released in 2013. A typical game of Dota is played by two teams (Radiant/Dire) of 5 players and usually takes between 20-40 minutes (though the longest professional game was 3 hours and 20 minutes long!). The ultimate goal of the game is to get to and destroy the enemy teams ancient (A large structure in the center of each team's base), sounds easy enough, right? well, aside from the fact that the other team is trying to do the exact same thing that is.

-- Gameplay --

The Map

Both teams start in opposite corners of a square map; the bottom left (Radiant) and top right (Dire) specifically. Each base has a fountain where heroes respawn, a shop to buy items in, one ancient which is protected by two towers, and three entrances which connect to the other teams base via paths. These paths divide the map into three lanes; two which follow the outer edge of the map and one that directly connects the two bases. Each lane has 3 towers that attack enemy units when they move within their attack range. The third tower in each lane also protects a set of barracks. When destroyed, these barracks grant the destroying team a buff to the creeps they spawn in that lane.

Creeps

But what are creeps? The term creep is used to describe all units that are not hero's or buildings. At the start of the game and every 30 seconds after, each lane spawns a set of five allied creeps (four melee and one ranged) from the barack's. These creeps march down the lane they spawned in until they reach the enemy ancient or another enemy unit at which point, they will attack the enemy until one of them dies. There are also neutral creeps which respawn every minute in set locations around the map. When a player kills a creep they grant a gold and experience bounty depending on the type of creep and how long the game has been going for.

Heroes

At the start of each match players take turns choosing a unique hero to play as from a list of 123 different possibilities. Each hero has different spells, stats, and abilities. As each team has five players, they also have five roles or positions, each with their own respective skillsets and responsibilities. These roles are:

Role	Description
Carry	weak early game needs time to farm gold and XP but once farmed will deal the most dmg in fights.
Mid-Lane	1v1s mid for early advantage then roams map to help team.
Off-Lane	Strong early and mid-game. usually a high HP hero who initiates team fights.
Soft Support	Supports the Off-laner in lane. Usually a hero with some form of catch/disable and can scale with gold/lvls.
Hard Support	Supports the carry in lane. Usually, a hero with some form of heal/save that doesn’t need much/any gold/lvls.

-- My Favorite Hero --

The Best Hero in Dota

While there may be 123 different heros in dota; many of which I enjoy playing. my favorite hero in Dota is probably Void spirit. Void Spirit is a Mid-Laner who plays around high mobility and magic burst damage.