Changes from DotA

DotA, or Defense of the Ancients, was a custom map created for the Blizzard game, Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. It borrowed many elements from the game and was based on its engine. Dota 2 is a complete game created by Valve on the Source Engine, however, and many differences exist due to copyright concerns, engine disparities as well as various bugs or intended changes to Dota 2.

Hero Gameplay Changes

 * Alchemist's stun can't explode while in the mid air. It'll always hit.
 * Ancient Apparition's ulty now stops fountain heal too(so you can kill low hp players easily since you know they'll stop there)
 * Ancient Apparition's ice blast projectile can't be seen with truesight. (Enemy can't dodge it now even if it goes though towers)
 * Antimage and QOP can now blink everywhere without the "can't blink to unexplored terrain" messages. This also affects Blink Dagger.
 * Batrider's sticky napalm will slow a unit's turn rate in addition to movement speed.
 * Bloodseeker's rupture goes through BKB.
 * Bloodseeker's rupture damage can be totally avoided by ball lightning instead of partially (damage ticks are calculated continuously instead of at set times).
 * Bloodseeker's bloodbath gets triggered even if unit was killed by midas.
 * Brewmaster can inherit truesight during ulty as well normal auras. So truesight from gems, burning aura from radiance, drums aura, everything all work.
 * Clockwerk's hookshot (without aghanims) will latch to neutrals.
 * Dragon knight can attack rosh outside of his pit using higher levels of his ulty (though this will prob be fixed soon).
 * Elder Titan's ancestral spirit can block Clockwerk's hookshot and potm arrow.
 * Invoker's sunstrike "pre-strike" effect can't be seen with truesight.
 * Luna's Eclipse no longer cancels Night Stalker's darkness.
 * Luna's Moon Glaive no longer has strange interactions with various orbs and critical strike effects and will not break on acquiring them or procing them.
 * Morphling can morph a stat to 0.
 * Naga's mirror image doesn't dispel many buffs/debuffs from hero, can be used to locate real hero. Eg Shadow strike, viper strike, poison sting, demonic purge, etc.
 * Riki and Broodmother can be seen while attacking when under Moonlight shadow, where as they can't in dota 1.
 * Riki's smoke doesn't stop TP
 * Riki can go invis instantly after silence wears off instead of after fadetime.
 * Pugna can no longer attack units under decreptify if he has an orb effect like desolator or maelstrom.
 * Night Stalker won't get a temporary 3 second hunter in the night buff when you level up the skill for the first time.
 * Gyro can not longer kill courier with flak cannon aoe shots.
 * Shadow fiend can no longer get souls from power cogs.
 * Slark's pounce have been nerfed, many additional spells can now break the leash. Eg Ball lightning 1&2, sukuchi, blinding light, charge etc.
 * Sniper's assassinate can't be evaded with invis.
 * Sniper's assassinate has a bkb-piercing stun. (can interrupt tp)
 * Sniper's headshot doesn't proc linkens
 * Lanaya can no longer splash damage with spells (eg dagon/diffusal) with psi blades.
 * Mirana's leap can dodge projectile stuns even when under truesight.
 * Void can no longer kill forged spirits with timewalk.
 * Bounty Hunter Track will no longer award gold after been dispelled.
 * Earth Spirit no longer need to turn to cast remnant around him. (also with the casting backswing disabled in dota 2, he can get spells off and attack much quicker)
 * Earth Spirit can't cast remnant while silenced.
 * Earth Spirit's rolling boulder cannot be interrupted by stuns, will warp to target's back even after stun if enemy was in range during the initial roll. Initial roll range for this can also be improved with a remnant placed beforehand.
 * Meepo's clones are affected by Wall of replica.
 * Wisp can no longer follow spirit breaker across the map (while charging) with tether.
 * Kunkka's Xmark leaves a trail
 * Kunkka's ship has a marker.
 * Additional Bristleback quill sprays refresh all previous quill spray timers (much easier to stack quills compared to dota 1). It also has an effect indicator.
 * Crystal Maiden's Frostbite cannot freeze the enemy's fountain
 * Crystal Maiden's Frostbite works on Batrider using firefly (as well as tornado).
 * Juggernaut's omnislash doesn't give flying vision. (can't chase units if they go up a ramp)
 * Juggernaut isn't invulnerable during 1st omnislash, eg can be killed with blademail if hp low.
 * Death prophet ultimate can hit sand king when he uses sand storm.
 * Death prophet ultimate can hit units in fog.
 * It's now much easier to surround heroes with Rhasta's serpent wards.
 * Rubick's Spellsteal now works on all abilities, whereas engine limitations prevented Rubick from stealing some skills in DotA.
 * Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness is not interrupted by items like Black King Bar or Shadow Blade.
 * Spirit Breaker's great bash occurs AFTER the attack animation finishes, instead of before.
 * Spirit Breaker's great bash aoe while charging is smaller (possibly due to above change).
 * Spectre can now walk normally through shadow path (in dota 1 you had to spam clicks).
 * However Spectre can only walk with 0 collision through the path, where as in dota 1 you can walk anywhere.
 * Broodmother can now walk normally through web while in trees (in dota 1 you had to spam clicks).
 * PA's blur is now much more visible, making her easier to spot.
 * Pudge's hook can be canceled
 * Pudge's dismember duration and damage does not get reduced against tougher creeps (No lvl 6 penalty in dota 2).
 * No global "fresh meat" sound during Pudge's dismember.
 * Legion Commander's duel cannot be stopped by hex or frostbite.
 * Heroes can walk away from Legion Commander's duel if they have a movement order before hand and cast a nontarget spell eg ES totem, doom firewalk at the same time as duel.
 * Drow and Viper orb walking while having lifesteal works correctly now.
 * OD astral now has an indicator that shows when astral will end (when inner ring touch outer ring).
 * Stolen intelligence from OD's astral now displays as a status effect as well as when it'll expire.
 * Heroes imprisoned under OD's astral will still take damage. Eg Pudge doesn't stop rotting while in the graphic.
 * Tide's ravage can no longer be avoided by blinking behind the outgoing spikes.
 * Timbersaw's timber chain can't be interrupted with stun.
 * Tinker march is centered on cast point instead of himself like dota1. You'll have to cast it on himself to reproduce the same effect as in dota 1. It also means that if you cast it on maximum range it will start 600 units behind Tinker and end 1200 units infront of him, further than normal. So tinker will be less effective doing backward facing marches that hit the enemy quickly and more effective doing forward facing marches that can hit further (abit slowly).
 * Tinker's rearm will refresh blink damage disable as well, so you can blink right away after rearm.
 * Tiny's avalanche + toss combo does less damage than in dota 1 and damage occurs with less instances. (Max 5 in dota2 vs 10 in dota 1)
 * Tiny's toss can cancel Huskar's lifebreak.
 * Tormented Soul can't turn off pulse nova when silenced.
 * Ursa's fury swipe stacks only lasts 6 seconds on roshan.
 * Weaver's first attack after invis can proc germinate.
 * Witch Doctor can deny himself with WD ulty.
 * Void's chronosphere now applies a regular stun rather a pause effect. So bashed units coming out of chronosphere won't have the additional stun time, and heroes that can use their abilities while stunned such as morph or wd can continue using their abilities inside chronosphere. Another effect is that cycloned units won't fly for the full duration inside the chronosphere.
 * VS can interrupt lasso with swap.
 * Zeus's ulty go through linkens.

Fog of War Changes

 * This is getting its own section because this is a HUGE difference compared to dota 1; Losing sight of your enemy in the fog no longer "stops" your hero! Instead you will keep following them to the last seen location, if you have vision again you'll keep autoattacking without any additional input. Also if you're ranged, any projectiles in the air will follow them in the fog, you can use that to track location.
 * To dota 1 veterans, this means you are often better off leaving your hero on autoattack rather than clicking ahead. After you cast a spell, reclick to keep your hero "locked" on. This also means juking is harder to do, and just going in and out of trees or using ramp los won't cut it anymore.


 * Note this only applies to auto attacks, targeted spell abilities still work as they do in dota 1 for some reason.
 * Some skills and items that give flying vision and can be used to peer into rosh pit/see into higher ground ward spots don't work anymore. Eg Sandstorm, dazzle weave, manta style and mirror image type skills, etc. A few skills still work though, like static remnant and firefly.

Item Changes

 * Soul ring additional mana can now give over your maximum mana pool, making it more useful. So now you can use soul ring then spell rather than spell, soul ring, spell when at full mana.
 * BKB now removes dust as well.
 * Blade mail no longer damages the owner of wards. Eg Rhasta, Witch Doctor and Veno.
 * Hand of Midas no longer has a projectile (no double gold trick).
 * Hand of Midas can now be used by Lone Druid's spirit bear (though it doesn't give xp).
 * Armlet can now be used by Lone Druid's Spirit Bear and is normally affected by the HP drain but does not benefit from the strength bonus.
 * Orb of Venom is now a Unique Attack Modifier.
 * Eul's Scepter's bonus speed stacks in Dota 2 from multiple euls, despite the Dota 2 tooltip claiming otherwise. (Though this might be fixed in the future)
 * Eye of Skadi (both ranged and melee versions) will now work with items that grant Lifesteal, but are both Unique Attack Modifiers.
 * Phase Boots can be used in conjunction with Batrider using firefly.
 * Phase Boots can be used in conjunction with Spectre's dagger.
 * Phase Boots do not prevent Skull Basher, Monkey King Bar, or items that grant Critical Strike from procing
 * Phase Boots no longer grant nature's guise invis outside of tree range during phase time.
 * Quelling Blade now works with Unique Attack Modifiers. (Also works on Kunkka's main target, not splash though), in dota 1 the quelling blade effect was disabled when you had an orb.
 * Shadowblade extra damage and criticals stack, so rather one or the other, both are applied. (Eg making Kunkka's tidebringer more effective compared to D1)
 * Shadowblade can be used in conjunction with Batrider using firefly.
 * Bottle can be filled with another rune even when full.
 * A Bottle with a rune in it is no longer a shareable item (in DotA it could not be used anyway).
 * You can insta refill Bottle by giving allies the bottle as soon as they tp in (since allies retain the fountain regen aura for a few seconds).
 * Desolator now stacks with weaver's germinate.
 * Ghost Scepter can be used with tp boots. But doesnt work for scrolls. Use ghost first then tp.
 * Items can be combined even if you don't have to slots for it.
 * Lightning attack modifier (maelstrom, mjollnir) only counts as an attack modifier when it procs, so it stacks with other orb effects.
 * Courier is automatically upgraded to a flying version when a player buys the flying recipie, no need for courier to pick it up.
 * Courier control is shared automatically, there's no option to take away control (trolls can be more of a pain).
 * Flying courier can no longer be flown close enough to give vision to enemy fountain area without been killed.

Misc. Changes

 * Neutrals spawn 1 second later rather than exactly at the full minute mark like in dota 1. (Spawn triggered at end of full minute mark rather than beginning)
 * Each tree has its own timer as to when it'll grow back as opposed to having a global timer for all trees.
 * Melee heroes won't miss even if target hero moves out of melee range during the swing animation. Eg Enemy force staffs away, storm ulties away, fast move speed + slow IAS etc. This is due to no melee range buffer in dota 2.
 * Casting backswing animation no longer occurs before auto attacking. Eg heroes will now ignore their backswing animation if an enemy hero is in attack range and will immediately start auto attacking or running towards them. Most noticable on heroes with long animations like cm compared to dota 1.
 * Glyph Buildings get 0 damage by physical attacks, but still get damaged by magic (in dota 1, buildings merely have increased armour and can still be damage by attacks).
 * You can pick up runes while doomed.
 * Cleave works against flying units (cept Visage familars).
 * You can't cancel attack while under battle cry and duel.
 * You are no longer blocked by items while invisible.
 * You can't cancel meld with x-mark, sprout or fissure.
 * Spirit bear entangle does 60 more damage than dota 1, also occasionally does 4 ticks instead of 3 for additional damage. Damage also bypasses damage block reduction.
 * Damage block procs when damage source is invulnerable (it doesn't in dota 1), making omnislash less effective against tree armor and vanguard like skills.
 * Juke methods with sand king and slark burrow striking/leaping across certain map areas have been removed.
 * Where as now batrider can go out of the map boundaries.
 * TP will be broken if the unit been tped to has been dominated. (no more chen fountain trick!)
 * Projectiles are coded to take effect when it hits rather than when its cast, so you could have things like troll bashing in range mode or cleaving with enpower or lifestealing with vlads by switching it to melee before it hits.
 * If somebody gets X'd and returns, it always cancels channeling spells, even if they didn't move. This is useful if you have to interrupt something like an Epicenter where Torrent would be too slow.
 * Right click follow on your allies' heroes does not auto attack the target of the followed unit (where as they did in dota 1).
 * Can no longer auto stack creeps due to missing patrol command.
 * Sounds from different lanes outside of screen range can be heard occasionally, including sounds not visible in fog. (Eg sounds from rosh pit when you have no vision)
 * Creeps will not run while under effect of wildkin tornado.
 * Troll warlord can raise skeletons from ability kills that normally don't produce corpses, eg devour, midas.
 * You can't tell when Roshan has respawned with the neutral green indicator anymore as in dota 1.
 * Roshan's spell shield doesn't trigger on untouchable, incapacitating bite or headshot.
 * There's no messages to tell when the aegis will expire.


 * You can now see the cooldown timers, manabars and skills of your allies.
 * Hotkeys are customizable without customkeys or 3rd party programs
 * Skills can be leveled up while dead.
 * You now have an item stash where only you can access.
 * Dissembling can be done by right clicking an item while in fountain without the lengthy placing in item circle then dissemble process in dota 1.
 * AI practice bots are implemented natively.
 * You can resell items within the first ten seconds for full price, if they were not combined or activated.
 * Fountain cannot be attacked
 * Hero can no longer be deselected (except for selecting other controllable units, such as Couriers or pets)
 * Observers and replays will show a circle indicating when Roshan will respawn.
 * Item shops are condensed (there are now only the main shop, side lane shops, and secret shops)
 * Orb Effects are called Unique Attack Modifiers.
 * Control Groups now save between summons for summoned units (even when they die)
 * Items and many heroes have entirely new lore.
 * Most skills now stack. For example, skills that apply the common 30% MS 20% AS slow: Crystal Maiden, Lich, Jakiro; also Chen 's Penitence with Night Stalker 's Crippling Fear.
 * Extending the previous point, many skill and item interactions that existed due to its hard-coded nature don't exist any more. For example, Ghost Scepter doesn't remove Poison Nova.
 * Bashes damage type and stun type doesn't depend on the range of the hero (used to be magical damage / physical stun on melee and the opposite for ranged). Instead, it depends on the source of the bash. Skills from heroes work like in DotA1, Monkey King Bar gives magical stun and damage, and Skull Basher works like melee.
 * Damage from multiple Monkey King Bars stack if they proc at the same time. It doesn't override any other on-hit effect either.
 * There is no text above Spellsteal's projectile displaying which spell was stolen in Dota2.
 * Various ability renames: most Wind Walk abilities were given alternative names, and a few ability names were changed to make their effect more obvious (Lion's Impale became Earth Spike, for example).
 * Due to different engine and skill interactions you may find the gameplay and power of different heroes very different to dota 1!

Items Name Changes
Due to copyright concerns, some items and heroes in Dota 2 have different names from their DotA equivalent.


 * Lothar's Edge is now Shadow Blade
 * Buriza-do kyanon is now Daedalus
 * Sobi Mask is now Sage's Mask
 * Ancient Janggo of Endurance is now Drum of Endurance
 * Kelen's Dagger is now Blink Dagger
 * Mask of Death is now Morbid Mask
 * Nathrezim Buckler is now Buckler
 * Khadgar's Pipe of Insight is now Pipe of Insight
 * Cranium Basher is now Skull Basher
 * Eaglehorn is now Eaglesong
 * Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse is now Scythe of Vyse
 * Circlet of Nobility is now Circlet
 * Headdress of Rejuvenation is now Headdress
 * Stygian Desolator is now Desolator
 * Planeswalker's Cloak is now Cloak
 * Ogre Axe is now Ogre Club
 * Messerschmidt's Reaver is now Reaver
 * Boots of Elvenskin is now Band of Elvenskin

Hero Name Changes

 * Anub'arak the Nerubian Assassin is now simply Nyx Assassin
 * Alleria the Windrunner is now Lyralei the Windranger
 * Leoric the Skeleton King is now Ostarion the Wraith King
 * Kael the Invoker is now just Invoker
 * Rexxar the Beastmaster is now Karroch the Beastmaster
 * Anub'seran the Nerubian Weaver is now Skitskurr the Weaver
 * Furion the Prophet is now simply Nature's Prophet
 * Dwarven Sniper is now just Sniper
 * Priestess of the Moon is now Princess of the Moon
 * Luna Moonfang the Moon Rider is now Luna the Moon Rider
 * Shendelzare Silkwood the Vengeful Spirit is now Shendelzare the Vengeful Spirit
 * Clockwerk Goblin is now just Clockwerk
 * Kel'thuzad the Lich is now Ethreain the Lich
 * Vol'Jin the Witch Doctor is now Zharvakko the Witch Doctor
 * Darchrow the Enigma is now just Enigma
 * Jin'Zakk the Batrider is now just Batrider
 * Jah'rakal the Troll Warlord is now just Troll Warlord
 * Murloc Nightcrawler is now just Nightcrawler
 * Magina the Anti-Mage is now just Anti-Mage
 * Aurel Vlaicu the Gyrocopter is now Aurel
 * Aggron Stonebreaker the Ogre Magi is now Aggron Stonebreak the Ogre Magi
 * Nessaj the Chaos Knight is now just Chaos Knight
 * Obsidian Destroyer is now Outworld Devourer
 * Pandaren Brewmaster is now just Brewmaster
 * Centaur Warchief is now Centaur Warrunner
 * Lina Inverse the Slayer is now Lina the Slayer
 * Rylai Crestfall the Crystal Maiden is now Rylai the Crystal Maiden
 * Rikimaru the Stealth Assassin is now Riki the Stealth Assassin
 * Doom Bringer is now just Doom
 * Eredar the Shadow Demon is now just Shadow Demon
 * Rizzrak the Goblin Shredder is now Rizzrack the Timbersaw
 * Cairne Bloodhoof the Tauren Chieftain is now Elder Titan, the Worldsmith
 * Necrolyte is now Necrophos
 * Tuskarr is now simply Tusk
 * Thrall the Disruptor is now Disruptor the Stormcrafter
 * Terrorblade the Soul Keeper is now Terrorblade the Demon Marauder
 * Icarus the Phoenix is now just Phoenix

Buff Placers
Buff Placers refer to a group of Items in DotA that applied a buff to a Hero's attacks. Typically, they were also Orb Effects. Unlike Orb Effects, which do not stack for balance reasons, the Warcraft 3 engine was limited in that it only allowed one buff to be applied per attack. This meant that Buff Placers did not stack. In Dota 2, however, Buff Placers will now stack with each other. For example, Venomancer's Poison Sting will now stack with Desolator, even though both of them were Buff Placers in DotA.