DotA: AllStars Part 1: The Basics

Well, it isn't as easy as it seems. The game also has money (referred to as Gold in game) and equips system. The game starts with every player receiving a small amount of gold. Over the time, every player generates a small amount of gold. Now this gold, can be used to purchase equips and stuff which can either help you in battles or boost your current abilities or even gain some new abilities. Killing or destroying the opponent's creeps, towers, buildings and even Heroes can also reward you with a small amount of gold. So, more you kill or destroy, more equips you can acquire, which keeps on boosting your abilities. Dying can also make you lose a small amount of gold, and hence one has to be careful while playing the game and avoid being a kamikaze. On dying, you can respawn back at your base near the fountain.

Each base has a fountain, which helps you regenerate your Hit Points (HP) and Mana Points (MP) at a very fast rate. HP indicates the health of the player and MP indicates the capacity to do special abilities. Every special abilities (spells) require a small amount of MP. Every player has a limited amount of HP and MP. It regenerates slowly when not near the fountain. There are equips in game which helps you boost the regenerating rate.

The game gets highly strategic when equipments come to use. At a time, a Hero can carry only 6 equips though there are ways to carry more. Now, one has to careful when selecting equipments. Every equipment is different and unique. The equips are also unique to the different heroes. It may not be necessary that one equip which boosts a hero's ability will be also produce similar results for other heroes. Before you select your equips, you have to be aware about various stuff like knowing the hero and the best suited equipment for him. The gameplay takes a bigger twist when combinations of equips come into play. Two or more different equips can be combined to have the best of the involved equips and also gain some more features. There are nearly 48 combinational equips in game and over 50 independent equips. Given the ability of most heroes to carry only 6 equips at a time, one has to be choosy when buying equips.

Well, that's about the basics of the game. Now, comes the fun part. The hero selection. You can choose a hero from a minimum of 36 heroes to maximum of 72 heroes depending upon the game mode. Every hero is different and unique in terms of stats and abilities. The hero's capability also depends upon his level. Every hero start at level 1 and can be increased to a maximum of level 25. Heroes level up by gaining experience and you get experience, when the opponent's creep or hero dies at the hands of your team. Now, after every level up, you become stronger as every stat of the hero gets boosted. Along with that your abilities also gets boosted. Every hero has 25 abilities to choose from, so getting to level 25 ensures that you have reached the peak point of every ability that can be possibly achieved by leveling up.