Ability Draft

'Create a Custom Hero via 4-Round Draft. You Can Choose Up to 3 Regular Abilities and 1 Ultimate.'

Ability Draft is an official core game mode that vastly differentiates from all other game modes, with practically infinite possibilities and a unique matches.

Description
In Ability Draft, each player is given a random hero. However, the abilities of these heroes, plus two additional random heroes' abilities are thrown in a pool from which the players then take turn drafting the abilities they want. The players can choose any of the abilities in the pool, and have to choose 3 regular abilities and 1 ultimate ability.

Drafting

 * Players have their player slots shuffled within their teams.
 * An initial 60-second planning phase begins, during which the teams can see which heroes everyone got and which abilities are available. Players can use the chatbox or voice chat to plan out their picks.
 * After the planning phase, the picking phase begins.
 * The pick order consists of 2 phases that repeat twice, so that every player gets to pick 4 times.
 * Radiant always gets to pick first.
 * Each player has 7 seconds to pick an ability on their turn.
 * The picked ability is removed from the pool, so no duplicate abilities can exist.
 * If the player does not pick an ability in time, they ar assigned a random ability from the remaining pool.
 * If the player picks an ability, the 7 seconds still have to elapse before the next player's turn starts.
 * This means each phase takes a total of 70 seconds.
 * After each phase, there is a 5-second break before the next phase starts.
 * Overall, there are 4 picking phases and breaks, resulting in a drafting duration of 300 seconds.
 * After the picking phase, there is a 5-second long waiting period before the 30-second long strategy phase begins.
 * At all times, the players can communicate with their tema via the chatbox or voice chat.
 * In total, the drafting takes 395 seconds, or 6 minutes and 35 seconds.

Available Heroes
Every hero is available in Ability Draft, however, not all abilitie are.

Ability Pool
The ability pool consists of the abilities of the 10 randomed heroes each player got. On top of these, 2 additional heroes get randomed as extras. These extra heroes themselves do not appear in the match, only their abilities get thrown within to the pool. This results in a total of 48 regular abilities and 12 ultimate abilities to pick from.

However, some heroes have do not have all of their abilities in the pool, some abilities are restricted from the game mode for varying reasons. If a hero with an unavailable ability appears in the pool, a replacement ability from another random hero is added in. Only one hero that requires a replacement ability can be within the pool of 12 heroes.

Unavailable Abilities
The following abilities are not available in Ability Draft for varying reasons.

1 Disabled for balance reasons. 2 Only ultimate abilities are allowed to use up to 3 ability slots, due to hotkey issues. 3 Due to 's uniqueness, his abilities are implemented differently in Ability Draft. 4 Possible technical issues. May cause broken interactions with other abilities that affect attack range and range type.

Adaptations
Due to the very chaotic nature of Ability Draft, several abilities and heroes have received some changes to work within the game mode.

Talents
Generic talents like plain stats bonuses are unchanged. Talents that affect specific abilities which have not been drafted by that hero are replaced by an instant gold boost.

Specific talents that are not bound to any ability, such as and  are still available regardless of what abilities are drafted by that hero.

Innate Abilities

 * is bound to, instead of being innate to , so the player that drafts it can infuse Aghanim's Scepter.
 * keeps his innate ability to attack any unit. The hero who drafted Nightmare can attack Nightmared units as well.
 * is bound to, and granted to the player that drafts it, instead of being innate to.
 * keeps his innate ability to walk inside any . The haste effect, however, is limited to the hero (and their units) who drafted Chronosphere.
 * 's  is bound to, instead of being innate to Gyrocopter.
 * gains, , and as innate passive buffs.
 * On level 1, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 19.
 * On level 2, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 20.
 * On level 3, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 21.
 * 's is part of, instead of being innate to , and works with any drafted ability that triggers on-cast effects.
 * is bound to, and granted to the player that drafts it, instead of being innate to Techies.
 * does not have, neither is it bound to any of his abilities.

Changed Abilities

 * upgraded checks for the ultimate ability's level, instead of checking specifically for.
 * have a minimum attack range of 500, to make it more usable on melee heroes.
 * 's cooldown cannot be reset with.
 * For, a copy of all his invoked abilities got created, from which 3 are added to the pool if he is included.
 * These copies work like the original, but are changed to follow the default 4-level system.
 * does not remove the buff if they are not drafted by the same player.
 * upgraded allows casting any other non-channeling ability during it (including item abilities), and is not limited to 's original abilities.
 * does not require to be drafted to gain  and . Their levels equal the level of True Form +1.
 * works for melee units as well, using a projectile after the primary attack.
 * can be cast on any allied unit within 2000 range. Can still globally target illusions and clones of self.
 * upgraded grants charge-based abilities a single charge back upon getting a kill, instead of doing nothing.
 * on  illusion uses the hero proc value, instead of the illusion proc value.
 * grants charge-based abilities a single charge back, instead of doing nothing.
 * upgraded does not require  to be drafted to cast the active it gains, even though it is based on.
 * 's and 's Bash are not disabled and fully stack with, and.

Abilities Requiring Multiple Slots
To prevent hotkey conflicts, regular abilities are limited to 1 ability slot at max, while ultimate abilities can use up to 3 ability slots. This means a hero cannot have more than 7 ability slots occupied at a time.

To accomodate for this, abilities that require multiple slots have been adapted to fit this scheme.
 * comes as a stand-alone ability, without . The Hawk is therefore not available in Ability Draft.
 * does not grant active abilities of devoured neutral creeps. With the exception of, their passive abilities are granted as status buffs.
 * takes 's place while active, instead of being in a separate ability slot.
 * takes 's place once reaching the tree, instead of being in a separate slot. This means jumping between trees is not possible.
 * and are both available as stand-alone independent abilities.
 * does not have the sub-ability, so that only turning in place is possible.
 * takes 's place while the orb is in flight, instead of being in a separate ability slot.
 * does not have . Instead, it uses autocast, which automatically toggles on if enemies are debuffed. When toggled off by the player, the poison gets released.
 * only grants . The Near and Far versions are not available. To compensate, Shadowraze (Medium) has 3 charges, instead of a regular cooldown.
 * and are both available as stand-alone independent abilities.
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 * does not come with the sub-ability on the hero.

Aghanim's Scepter

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Aghanim's Shard

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Ability Dependencies
Dota 2 is full of synergy. Sometimes, the synergy requires multiple abilities to be present at the same time on the same hero. In Ability Draft, since one is not guaranteed to get all required abilities, this can be a nuicanse. The following abilities have effects that require on other abilities and should be drafted with consideration.


 * requires to be drafted to passively release quills.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Frost Arrow's effects.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the magic resistance reducing debuff.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the buff on the caster upon victory.
 * requires to be drafted to grant the Spirit Bear Savage Roar.
 * requires to be drafted to deal damage with its beams.
 * requires to be drafted to work, as it still relies on the amount of souls gathered.
 * requires to be drafted for them to apply Poison Sting on attacks.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the area bash. Without it, it applies the regular stun on the primary target.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the bash on the target. Without it, Nether Strike just deals its damage.
 * only works with, , and . Other abilities do not trigger Static Field.
 * only affects the drafted hero and the if they drafted it. Other summons are not affected.
 * and only affects the drafted hero and the  if they drafted it. Other summons are not affected.


 * requires to be drafted to release coils onto allies.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Battle Hunger on enemies within its area.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Jinada on enemies it hits.
 * requires to be drafted for the  to get the Searing Arrows as well. Otherwise, they just attack with regular attacks.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Frostbite on enemies within its area.
 * only works with, , and . Other abilities do not trigger the ghosts. Regular attacks still trigger them normally.
 * requires to be drafted to launch the Impetus attacks. Does not perform regular attacks if it is not drafted.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the Time Lock on enemies within the area.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the petrification on hit enemies.
 * requires to be drafted to hit enemies with Starstorm as it travels.
 * requires to be drafted to release reduced Swashbuckles around it during the jump.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the Caustic Finale on hit enemies.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Spectral Dagger on the target.
 * requires to be drafted to hit enemies with Lightning Bolts.
 * requires to be drafted to hit enemies with Lightning Bolts.


 * and require  to be drafted to apply the curse on hit enemies.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Sticky Napalm within the area.
 * requires to be drafted to create the Phantasm illusion.
 * requires to be drafted for the  to get the Searing Arrows as well. Otherwise, they just attack with regular attacks.
 * requires to be drafted to create the brambles around the target.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Aftershock along its path.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Rocket Barrage around it.
 * requires to be drafted to create the.
 * requires to be drafted to create  around the target.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Corrosive Haze on enemies within its area.
 * requires to be drafted to create the Haunt illusion.
 * requires to be drafted to summon  for attacked enemies.
 * requires to be drafted to apply Enrage on cast.
 * requires to be drafted to summon  on hit enemy heroes.
 * 's active component does not require to be drafted to work.
 * requires to be drafted to release the Splinter Blast projectiles.
 * requires to be drafted to summon the  upon triggering.
 * requires to be drafted to summon the  upon triggering.

Console Commands
The following console commands can be used while on the dashboard to create custom settings for private Ability Draft lobbies.

Note that all these commands are considered cheats and therefore only work on local lobbies.

The following console commands result in what is shown in the image.
 * Example

This sets the hero pool to, , , , on the Radiant side, , , , ,  on the Dire side, and ,  as extra heroes.

Techies and Riki are not assigned to any player, but have their abilities included in the pool. Invoker does not have an ultimate ability in the pool, so was randomly added as a replacement.

These commands allow for easy testing of combinations and interactions, without relying on luck to get the right abilities one wants to test.