Map





The Map is the playing field for all Dota 2 matches. It is comprised of two sides, one for the faction, and one for the  faction. To win, players must destroy the opposing side's Ancient, an important building at the center of each team's base. The map is represented in the interface by the minimap.

Factions
Each faction occupies a diagonal half of the map, separated in the middle by the river. The is based at the lower left corner of the map, while the  is based at the upper right corner. The Ancients are located inside strongholds at the heart of each faction's territory.

Lanes
The map is segmented into three different lanes, the top, the bottom, and the middle lane. Each one of these lanes leads to the other team's base, guarded by towers along the way. During the early laning phase of the game, most gameplay is centered around the lanes.

The bottom lane for the, and the top lane for the , are considered safe lanes. Creeps meet each other close to the towers, which provide greater protection from enemies. These lanes are recommended for beginners, as they provide some added protection against ganking.

River
The River separates the two factional sides of the map. It is surrounded by high ground, which blocks players' vision on both sides. The river interacts with 2 spells in the game: (heals  HP per second and restores  mana per second while in the river) and  (amplifies movement speed bonus while in the river and, if, provides a status resistance bonus).

Spots of the river can be created manually by with. In this case, when is cast, a puddle of water is created around, which is considered river.

Runes
There are two types of Runes that spawn in 2 minute intervals at different locations on the map: Power-up Runes and Bounty Runes. As their names imply, Power-up Runes grant players bonuses and Bounty Runes a bounty.

From the start of the game onward, Bounty Runes will spawn at four different locations on the map, two of which on the Radiant, and the other two on the Dire side.
 * : Grants gold to the entire team, which scales up by  gold per 5 minutes.

From the 2 minute mark onward, a Power-up Rune will spawn randomly at one of two points in the river. There are six possible runes that can spawn:
 * : Grants cooldown reduction and  mana loss reduction for  seconds.
 * : Grants attack damage bonus for  seconds.
 * : Hastens movement speed to for  seconds.
 * : Creates illusions of the hero which last for  seconds, which deal  damage and take  damage when melee, and  when ranged.
 * : Grants invisibility for seconds, with a fade delay of  seconds.
 * : Grants health regen and  mana regen, based on the maximum health/mana pools, for  seconds. Effect stops upon taking player-based damage.

Roshan
Roshan is an exceptionally strong creep located at the western end of the river. If killed, Roshan will grant gold to the entire team as well as drop the, which will automatically resurrect the holder upon death. Later in the game, Roshan also drops a after killed the second time and onward, which will greatly restore a hero's health and mana when used. After the third kill, Roshan will drop an or  which acts like a. Fourth kill will drop all four items. Fighting Roshan usually requires more than one player.

Jungle
The Jungle refers to the forested area between lanes. This is where neutral creeps can be found, which can be killed for gold and experience. It is possible to level up by killing creeps in the jungle instead of in the lanes. This practice is called Jungling.

Buildings
Buildings are scattered throughout the map, and can be destroyed by the opposing side for gold and experience. To reach the Ancient, buildings must be destroyed in order from the outermost to the innermost. Buildings may be given temporary invulnerability with the Glyph of Fortification.

Players can teleport to any building with a or.

Towers
Each faction has defensive towers placed along the lanes leading to the Ancient. Towers deal single target damage to heroes and creeps. In the early stages of the game, a hero can only take a few hits from a tower before dying, so one must be careful as to not get too close to towers until they have gained enough strength. Towers have True Sight, and can detect invisible enemies.

Barracks
Each base has three pairs of barracks, placed behind towers. One is for melee creeps, and one is for ranged creeps. If the barracks is destroyed, the opposing team's creeps will become stronger. If all 6 barracks are destroyed, all opposing creeps will gain an even larger power-up, which makes them very difficult to defend against. These mega creeps can usually assure victory because of their high health, damage and numbers, and can kill a Hero quickly if they are reckless enough.

Outposts
Outposts are indestructible passive buildings that grant experience in a fixed time interval. Enemy heroes can right-click an Outpost in order to conquer it, denying experience to their enemies. The Outposts are located within the primary jungles of both teams, close to their safelanes between the tier 1 and tier 2 towers. Outposts grant vision and True Sight to the team they belong to, in an area around them.

Effigies
Each base has 7 Effigy Buildings which can block enemy creeps before reaching the tier 4 towers or the Ancient. Five of the seven Effigy buildings are customizable with Effigy.

Ancient
This is the main building in both bases. If one team destroys the other team's Ancient, the game is over and the destroying team has won. This building does not attack and will slowly regenerate health over time. It is defended by two towers and cannot be attacked until those towers are destroyed.

Shops
Four shops exist on the map, two for each side.


 * Base Shop: This shop is located in the Fountain, and sells all basic items and recipes.
 * Secret Shop: This shop is located near the short lane for each side. It sells costlier items needed as ingredients for late-game items.
 * Side Lane Shop: This shop was located at the edge of the long lane. It used to sell some items from the base shop and the secret shop, mostly ones useful for laning.

Minimap
The Minimap is located at the corner of the Head-up display. It gives players an overhead view of the entire map, as well as the ability to issue certain commands. Constant awareness of the minimap is crucial to skilled gameplay.

Vision


Vision defines which areas of the map is visible to the player's team. Areas that are not visible are covered by the Fog of War. Visions can be granted by allied heroes, units, and wards. Trees, walls, and higher terrain will obstruct vision.

Terrain

 * For alternative terrain appearances, see Terrain.

There are six different height levels that have gameplay relevance:
 * River
 * Lowground (mid lanes)
 * Highground (base, side lanes)
 * Elevated (fountain / few cliffs)
 * Cliffs (most other cliffs)
 * Valley (side lane tinker ward spots)

One height level can be connected to another by a stair (passable) or a cliff (obstructed).

If an attack projectile is released, the uphill miss Evasion is calculated depending on where the two units are standing on the impact time.

Pathing
Every time a player sends a move command, the pathing takes care of finding the fastest way possible. The path can be blocked by cliffs, Trees, Iron Branches, other units (also known as Body Block) and Traps.

Cliffs are the major component to limit the movement on the map. They can only be surpassed by Forced Movement, Blinks or Unobstructed Movement. Trees define the lane and jungle contours for the most part. They can be destroyed by various means and allow juking in the Fog of War. Body blocking is very important to keep the creep equilibrium at a favorable position in your Lane or to prevent an enemy from escaping until your allies catch up. Traps are mainly intended to cut off the route for chasing or escaping heroes, but they can be used for unconventional pulling methods as well.

Trivia

 * The map's total size is approximately 20,000 x 20,000 game units.

History
The Dota 2 map is ultimately derived from the Starcraft custom map Aeon of Strife, which also featured multiple lanes and a final objective to destroy. The map's current diagonal format was created for Defense of the Ancients, the Warcraft 3 custom map upon which Dota 2 is based.

Version history
Mapa Карта 地图