History VideoGame / DefenseOfTheAncients

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: Axe's ''Counter Helix'' and Juggernaut's ''Blade Fury''.

* BalefulPolymorph: The ability of Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse, as well as on some heroes like Rhasta the Shadow Shaman and Lion the Demon Witch.

* UpToEleven: Alot of skills are simply more powerful versions of items or other skills.
** Bash - Sprit Breaker's Greater Bash, Slardar's Bash, Faceless Void's Time Lock.
** Cleave - Kunkka's Tidebringer and Sven's Great Cleave.
** Critical Strike - Skeleton King's Mortal Strike, Juggernaut's Blade Dance, Chaos Knight's Chaos Strike. Phantom Assassin's Coup de Grace is this ability as an ultimate.
** Teleport - Nature's Prophet's Teleport.
** Endurance Aura - Spirit Breaker's Empowering Haste
** Vladmir's Aura - Wraith King's Vampiric Aura
** Cyclone - Invoker's Tornado

''Defense of the Ancients: Allstars'' (abbreviated to ''[=DotA=]'' or just ''[=Dota=]'') is a user map for ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII: The Frozen Throne''. Based on the earlier ''Defense of the Ancients'' user map for ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' which itself was based on the earlier ''Aeon of Strife'' user map for ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', [=DotA'=]s current popularity has given ''[=WC3=]: TFT'' a longer shelf life than intended (with ''[=DotA: Allstars=]'', as it was previously called, acquiring sponsorship from Creator/BlizzardEntertainment itself as a Spotlight Map in the Battle.net Hall of Fame).

''Defense of the Ancients: Allstars'' (abbreviated to ''[=DotA=]'' or just ''[=Dota=]'') is a user map for ''VideoGame/WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne''. Based on the earlier ''Defense of the Ancients'' user map for ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' which itself was based on the earlier ''Aeon of Strife'' user map for ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', [=DotA'=]s current popularity has given ''[=WC3=]: TFT'' a longer shelf life than intended (with ''[=DotA: Allstars=]'', as it was previously called, acquiring sponsorship from Creator/BlizzardEntertainment itself as a Spotlight Map in the Battle.net Hall of Fame).

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are currently 112 heroes in Dota, with more on the way.

** [[StarWars Boush]], the Tinker with the impressive HighTech weaponry should also count.

The mod [[GenrePopularizer popularized a new genre]]: dota-likes, also called "MOBA", {{Multiplayer Online Battle Arena}}, by ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' players and "ARTS" (Action Real Time Strategy) by ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' players. (Someone missed a bet by not calling them [[ShotoClone Dotaclones]]; but then, Riot Games invented the "MOBA" title largely to ''avoid'' having to refer to ''[=DotA=]''.) For a free mod, it has spawned an awful lot of "legitimate" gaming attention: those two games and Gas Powered Game's ''VideoGame/{{Demigod}}'' were the first wave of imitators, with the second wave consisting of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' by Creator/BlizzardEntertainment. ''VideoGame/Dota2'' is an official VideoGameRemake, published by ''Creator/ValveSoftware'' and still developed by [=IceFrog=], developer of ''[=DotA=] Allstars''. Both of the game's versions were produced concurrently with each other and maintained a near-perfect parity until support for the ''Warcraft III'' custom map was dropped, so the game would no longer have to be bound to its engine's limitations.

It also has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTJncWndUB8 an awesome song about it]].

*** His only escape ability 'Poof' allowed Meepo to teleport only towards one of his clones, and only as a sidenote, dealt a negligible amount of damage in both areas of departure and arrival. It was quickly realized, that [[{{NotTheIntendedUse}}by teleporting towards a clone standing right next to you]] (or even to yourself, the game engine considering it being a valid target), Geomancer dealt both instances of that to all enemies in a decent AreaOfEffect, turning it into a genuine weapon. When multiplied four-fold - once with each clone - this summed up to an amount of damage that, coincidentally, the game's most powerful single-targeted ''Ultimate'' ability dealt, and only when boosted with the specific performance-increasing artifact. 'Poofing' was very rapidly nerfed, but still remains a staple in the Meepo's gameplay and one of the strongest damage bursts in the entire game [[{{Videogame/Dota2}} and its eventual descendant]].

*** His only escape ability 'Poof' allowed Meepo to teleport only towards one of his clones, and only as a sidenote, dealt a negligible amount of damage in both areas of departure and arrival. It was quickly realized, that by teleporting towards a clone standing right next to you (or even to yourself, the game engine considering it being a valid target), Geomancer dealt both instances of that to all enemies in a decent AreaOfEffect, [[{{NotTheIntendedUse}} turning it into a genuine threat]]. When multiplied four-fold - once with each clone - this summed up to an amount of damage that, coincidentally, the game's most powerful single-targeted ''Ultimate'' ability dealt, and only when boosted with the specific performance-increasing artifact. 'Poofing' was very rapidly nerfed, but still remains a staple in the Meepo's gameplay and one of the strongest damage bursts in the entire game [[{{Videogame/Dota2}} and its eventual descendant]].

*** His only escape ability allowed Meepo to teleport only towards one of his clones, and only as a sidenote, dealt a negligible amount of damage in both areas of departure and arrival. It was quickly realized, that by teleporting towards a clone standing right next to you (or even to yourself, the game engine considering it being a valid target), Geomancer dealt both instances of that to all enemies in a decent AreaOfEffect, turning it into a genuine threat. When multiplied four-fold - once with each clone - this summed up to an amount of damage that, coincidentally, the game's most powerful single-targeted ''Ultimate'' ability dealt. 'Poof', as it was called, was rapidly nerfed, but still remains a staple in the Meepo's gameplay and one of the strongest damage bursts in the entire game [[{{Videogame/Dota2}} and its eventual descendant]].

*** His only escape ability allowed Meepo to teleport only towards one of his clones, and as a sidenote, dealt a negligible amount of damage in areas of both departure and arrival. It was quickly realized, that by teleporting towards a clone standing right next to you (or even to yourself, the game engine considering it being a valid target), Geomancer dealt both instances of that to all enemies in a decent AreaOfEffect, turning it into a genuine threat. When multiplied four-fold - once with each clone - this summed up to an amount of damage that, coincidentally, the game's most powerful single-targeted Ultimate ability dealt. 'Poof', as it was called, was rapidly nerfed, but still remains a staple in the Meepo's gameplay and one of the strongest damage bursts in the game [[{{Videogame/Dota2}} and its eventual descendant]].

*** His only escape ability allowed Meepo to teleport only towards one of his clones, and as a sidenote, dealt a negligible amount of damage in areas of both departure and arrival. It was quickly realized, that by teleporting towards a clone standing right next to you (or even to yourself, the game engine considering it being a valid target), Geomancer dealt both instances of that to all enemies in a decent AreaOfEffect, turning it into a genuine threat. When multiplied four-fold - once with each clone - this summed up to an amount of damage that, coincidentally, the game's most powerful single-targeted Ultimate ability dealt. 'Poof', as it was called, was rapidly nerfed, but still remains a staple in the Meepo's gameplay and one of the strongest damage bursts in the game [[{{Videogame/Dota2}} and its eventual descendant].

Creator/{{Netflix}} and Creator/StudioMir are working on an AnimatedAdaptation in the form of a series as of 2021, titled ''WesternAnimation/DOTADragonsBlood''.

* SincerestFormOfFlattery: The makers of ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' went so far as to [[http://www.leagueoflegends.com/learn/dota_and_lol list why they think their game is different]] from (read: better than) this one.

The mod [[GenrePopularizer popularized a new genre]]: dota-likes, also called "MOBA", {{Multiplayer Online Battle Arena}}, by ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' players and "ARTS" (Action Real Time Strategy) by ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' players. (Someone missed a bet by not calling them [[ShotoClone Dotaclones]]; but then, Riot Games invented the "MOBA" title largely to ''avoid'' having to refer to ''[=DotA=]''.) For a free mod, it has spawned an awful lot of "legitimate" gaming attention: those two games and Gas Powered Game's ''VideoGame/{{Demigod}}'' were the first wave of imitators, with the second wave consisting of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' by Creator/BlizzardEntertainment and an official sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'', by ''Creator/ValveSoftware''. It was previously being produced concurrently with ''[=DotA=] Allstars'' - in fact, its developer, [=IceFrog=], was hired by Valve for precisely that purpose - but patch parity has since been abandoned, and ''Dota 2'' has now evolved into a vastly different game with unique heroes, items, and game mechanics.

Creator/{{Netflix}} and Creator/StudioMir are working on an AnimatedAdaptation in the form of a series as of 2021, titled ''Defense of the Ancients: Dragon's Blood''.

* SuffersNewbiesPoorly[=/=]SocialDarwinist: The [[{{GIFT}} ugly side]] of [=DotA=]'s community. Somewhat understandable, in that newbies tend to die a lot, feeding the other team with extra gold and experience, and turning what would otherwise be a close game into a rout, ruining people's fun as much as a troll doing it deliberately.

Creator/{{Netflix}} and Creator/StudioMir are working on an AnimatedAdaptation as of 2021, titled ''Defense of the Ancients: Dragon's Blood''.

** Some choose to call it [[spoiler:A.S.S.F.A.G.G.O.T.S, Aeon of Strife Styled Fortress Assault Game Going On Two Sides.]] Named after Aeon of Strife, which the original Dota was based upon.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: Tiny's ''Toss'' skill. Some {{troll}}ing Tiny users usually use ''their own allied heroes'' to do this, intentionally putting them in harm's way.

** Critical Strike - Skeleton King's Mortal Strike, Juggernaut's Blade Dance, Chaos Knight's Chaos Strike.

The mod [[GenrePopularizer popularized a new genre]]: dota-likes, also called "MOBA", {{Multiplayer Online Battle Arena}}, by ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' players and "ARTS" (Action Real Time Strategy) by ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' players. (Someone missed a bet by not calling them [[ShotoClone Dotaclones]]; but then, Riot Games invented the "MOBA" title largely to ''avoid'' having to refer to ''[=DotA=]''.) For a free mod, it has spawned an awful lot of "legitimate" gaming attention: those two games and Gas Powered Game's ''VideoGame/{{Demigod}}'' were the first wave of imitators, with the second wave consisting of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' by Creator/BlizzardEntertainment and a Source Engine port, ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'', by ''Creator/ValveSoftware''. It is being produced concurrently with ''[=DotA=] Allstars'' - in fact, its developer, [=IceFrog=], was hired by Valve for precisely that purpose - and the two games play basically identically despite being on different engines. It also provides {{Retcon}}ned content for the characters.

The mod [[GenrePopularizer popularized a new genre]]: dota-likes, also called "MOBA", {{Multiplayer Online Battle Arena}}, by ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' players and "ARTS" (Action Real Time Strategy) by ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' players. (Someone missed a bet by not calling them [[ShotoClone Dotaclones]]; but then, Riot Games invented the "MOBA" title largely to ''avoid'' having to refer to ''[=DotA=]''.) For a free mod, it has spawned an awful lot of "legitimate" gaming attention: those two games and Gas Powered Game's ''VideoGame/{{Demigod}}'' were the first wave of imitators, with the second wave consisting of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' by Creator/BlizzardEntertainment and a Source Engine port, ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'', by ''Creator/ValveSoftware''. It is being produced concurrently with ''[=DotA=] Allstars'' - in fact, its developer, [=IceFrog=], was hired by Valve for precisely that purpose - and the two games play basically identically despite being on different engines. It also provides {{Retcon}}ned content for the character page.

* TakeThat: In [=DotA=], there is an item called "Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse", after Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, who used to manage [=DotA=] All-Stars (he created many heroes, as well as Roshan). Then Guinsoo moved to Riot Games and became ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends''[='=]s lead developer, ''LOL'' got a "Guinsoo's Rageblade", and ''DOTA 2'' got the "Scythe of Vyse".

It also has a [[Characters/DefenseOfTheAncients character page]] (in progress) that's [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters bigger than this very article]]. However, they mostly use the VideoGame/{{Dota 2}} portrayal.