Mechanics

The Mechanics of Dota 2 describe the inner workings of the game. These are elements that are not required to play or even play well, but will improve a player's understanding of Dota 2 and provide them with more streamlined play. This article and the articles it links to describe more intricate elements of Dota 2 and are written for new and experienced players alike.

Engine


Dota 2 runs on a new version of the Source Engine. This version builds upon features introduced with Portal 2 and the Orange Box versions of the engine, such as flowmaps and advanced particle rendering, by adding features such as improved spectator support and cloth physics. Dota 2 supports a matchmaking system and up to 10 players in game at one time, but allows for large numbers of spectators in any given game.

Heroes
Heroes are all unique characters within Dota 2. At the start of each game, players are split into two teams of 5 versus 5 and then select a Hero from the Hero Pool. Every player controls his own Hero and any units that Hero controls, such as a Neutral Creep under the effects of Chen's Holy Persuasion.

Heroes will gain experience when enemy units are killed nearby. They start the game at level one, and as they earn experience, will eventually level up. Each level a Hero earns will increase their Attributes and learn new Skills.

Skills
Skills are the abilities Heroes use to fight in the battlefield; they range from simple passive bonuses to powerful, devastating explosions. All Heroes have four or more Skills, with one of those skills being their Ultimate ability. Every time a Hero levels up, they earn a point that they can place into ranking up any available skill. Not all skills will be able to have ranks placed in them at every level. The table at the right shows when ranks can be earned. For instance, heroes can't take a second rank of any skill until level 3, and can't take their first level of Ultimate until level 6.

Attributes
In addition to unique skills and abilities, every Hero has a different set of Attributes which control their initial statistics. These Attributes are Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. In addition to bonuses earned by each Attribute, Heroes also have a "main" Attribute. Every point in their main attribute adds 1 to their physical attack damage. Typically, this will also be the highest Attribute at first level, and the one that receives the greatest increase as a Hero levels up.

Every point in Strength will... Every point in Agility will... Every point in Intelligence will...
 * Increase the Hero's maximum Health by 19.
 * Increase the Health regeneration of the Hero by 0.03 Health per second.
 * Increase the damage of Strength based Heroes by 1.
 * Increase the Hero's Armor by 0.14 points.
 * Increase the Hero's Attack Speed by 1 point.
 * Increase the damage of Agility based Heroes by 1.
 * Increase the Hero's maximum Mana by 13.
 * Increase the Mana regeneration of the Hero by 0.04 Mana per second.
 * Increase the damage of Intelligence based Heroes by 1.

Heroes will earn additional attributes whenever they level up, but can also receive bonuses and penalties from Items and some Skills.

Experience
In order to level up, Heroes must earn Experience. When a unit dies in Dota, it gives experience to all Heroes in a 1200 AoE based on its level. Experience is split among all Heroes in the AoE. If a Hero is killed more than 1200 units away from their killer, the killer still gains a share of Experience. Allied unit deaths do not grant Experience.

Denied units will grant a fixed amount of Experience, either 36 for Melee Heroes or 18 for Ranged Heroes. This Experience is still split among all Heroes in the area. Additionally, summoned units will only give half of their normal Experience when killed.

For more information on Experience, please see the main article here.

Last hit & Deny
Last hitting is the act of landing the last hit on a (neutral) creep, enemy hero or tower. This is very important because you only get gold from creeps if you are the one to deliver the last hit. Likewise the kill of an enemy hero goes to the one with the last hit and the one who places the last hit on a tower also gets a chunk of bonus gold.

Denying is when you last hit one of your own creeps, friendly heroes or towers. In effect by last hitting your own creep you 'deny' your enemy from getting the last hit on that creep. That way he won't be able to get the gold from that creep and he also will not get the full xp for that creep. Keep a good eye on this you or your enemy might get a level advantage from just this.

Buildings
Buildings are special units in the game. There are several types of buildings. They are immune to almost all spells, which makes them very strong earlier in the game.

Ancients
Ancients are powerful structures. The goal of each game is to destroy the enemy's Ancient. Ancients have 4250 Health and 15 Armor. They're guarded by 2 Towers that must be destroyed before they can be damaged.

Towers
Towers are defensive structures that guard the lanes and base of each faction. Towers will fire high damage projectiles at nearby enemies, but provide large amounts of Gold when destroyed. Either faction has 3 towers in each lane that become progressively stronger the closer they are to the main base. To attack Towers further in the lane, the outmost ones must be destroyed first. Additionally, each faction has 2 towers defending their Ancient. When any lane's towers are down, these become vulnerable. Both must be destroyed before damage can be done to the main structure.

Barracks
Barracks are structures inside each faction's base, near the ramps. When a Barracks is destroyed, the creeps of the opposite faction receive a health and damage boost, and provide less experience and gold when killed. This means that destroying a Barracks will ensure that your creeps will continue to push a lane without the intervention of Heroes.

There are two separate Barracks at each entrance, the Melee Creep Barracks, and the Ranged Creep Barracks. The Melee Creep Barracks will power up Melee Creeps, while the Ranged Barracks will improve Ranged and Siege Creeps. When all Barracks at each entrance are destroyed, the opposing team will receive Mega Creeps, which are far more powerful than their normal counterparts.

Fountains


The Fountains will regenerate Heroes back to their maximum Health and Mana over a very short period of time. Additionally, Fountains will attack enemy Heroes that attempt to enter their range, dealing 190-199 physical damage over 800 range and firing very rapidly. Fountains will fill Bottles back to full, if they are not already.

Cleave Damage
Cleave makes a melee units attack to deal a portion of their physical damage to the enemy units in an AOE. The damage dealt by Cleave is reduced by armor type but not by armor value that is and derived from the actual damage of the attacking unit as opposed to the damage that the primary target took from the attack. Also, cleave does not affect the primary target of the attack. Cleave damage does not increase based upon the effects of most orbs/buff placers you may have. If you have a Stygian Desolator and a source of Cleave and you attack a unit, only the main target of your attack will receive the Corruption buff from Stygian Desolator. The only buff placer that affects Cleave is Critical Strike. If you proc a Critical Strike when you cleave, the damage multiplier will affect all units hit by the Cleave. Multiple sources of Cleave work completely independently from each other. If you have a 500 AoE 50% Cleave, and a 250 AoE 35% Cleave, you will deal 50% of your damage in 500 AoE, and 35% of your damage in 250 AoE. Each Cleave source causes another instance of damage for the affected units. Cleave AoE is a circle with radius equal to the Cleave range, and its center at a distance equal to the Cleave away from the attacking unit, towards the primary target of the attack.

Orb Effects
Orb effects in Dota 2 refer to attack modifiers that alter your heroes basic attack to provide an additional effect. An example of this is Helm of the Dominator, which gives your hero lifesteal. For balance and legacy reasons, orb effects, with very rare exceptions, do not stack. Having more than one at any time is generally considered useless. Certain hero abilities, such as Broodmother's Incapacitating Bite, also count as orb effects. Not all attack modifiers count as orbs.