Changes from DotA

DotA, or Defense of the Ancients, is a custom map created for the Blizzard game, Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. Many elements were borrowed from the game and it is 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 Unstable Concoction cannot explode while in mid air. It will always hit the enemy.
• Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast now stops Fountain healing.
• Bounty Hunter's Track will no longer award gold after it has been dispelled.
• Brewmaster can keep auras during his Primal Split, so Gem of True Sight, Radiance, Drum of Endurance and others all properly function. The auras are first transferred to the Earth. If the Earth is killed, it will transfer to the Storm and then the Fire if killed.
• Bristleback's additional Quill Spray has an effect indicator.
• Broodmother can now walk properly in her web while in trees.
• Clockwerk's Hookshot (without Aghanim's Scepter) will latch to neutrals.
• Crystal Maiden's Frostbite cannot freeze the enemy's Fountain
  • Frostbite and Overgrowth now also work on Batrider using Firefly (as well as Invoker's Tornado and Eul's Scepter of Divinity).
• Death Prophet's Exorcism can hit invisible units and those in fog.
• Earth Spirit can no longer cast Stone Remnant while silenced. (Also with the cast backswing disabled in Dota 2, he can cast spells and attack much faster)
• Elder Titan's Astral Spirit can no longer intercept any spell.
• Faceless Void can no longer kill Forge Spirits with Time Walk.
• Faceless Void's Chronosphere now applies a regular stun, as opposed to a pause effect. So bashed units coming out of Chronosphere won't have the additional stun time, and heroes with toggleable abilities such as Morphling and Witch Doctor can continue using their abilities inside Chronosphere. Another effect is that cycloned units won't fly for the full duration inside the Chronosphere.
• Gyrocopter can no longer kill couriers with Flak Cannon.
• Huskar now stops when the distance between the target of Life Break and him becomes more than 1400.
• Invoker's Sun Strike delay effect cannot be seen with True Sight.
• Io can no longer follow Spirit Breaker across the map while charging with Tether.
• It is now much easier to surround heroes with Shadow Shaman's Mass Serpent Ward.
• Kunkka's Ghostship now has a marker at where it will crash.
• Kunkka's X Marks the Spot now leaves a trail.
• Luna's Eclipse no longer cancels Night Stalker's Dark Ascension.
• Luna's Moon Glaives no longer has strange interactions with various orbs and critical strike effects and will not break on acquiring them or proccing them.
• Mirana's Leap can now dodge projectile stuns even when under True Sight.
• Morphling can morph an attribute to 0.
• Naga Siren's Mirror Image does not dispel any buffs/debuffs from hero that can be used to locate the real hero (e.g. Viper Strike, Poison Sting, Demonic Purge, etc.).
• Night Stalker won't receive a temporary 3 second Hunter in the Night buff when you level the ability for the first time.
• Orb walking with Frost Arrows and Poison Attack while having lifesteal works correctly now.
• Outworld Destroyer's Astral Imprisonment now has a visual indicator that shows when its duration will end (via an expanding red ring).
  • Stolen intelligence from Astral Imprisonment is now displays as a buff.
• Phoenix's Fire Spirits no longer use the actual spirit models orbiting Phoenix as projectiles, causing minor variations in the delay when the Fire Spirit would hit its destination.
• Pounce's leash can now be broken by a multitude of spells such as Ball Lightning, Shukuchi, Blinding Light, Charge of Darkness, etc.
• Pudge's Meat Hook can be canceled.
• Pudge's Dismember duration and damage do not get reduced against tougher creeps (no level 6 penalty in Dota 2).
• Pugna's Decrepify no longer lets affected units attack if they possess an orb effect like Desolator or Maelstrom.
• Riki can be seen while attacking when under Moonlight Shadow and under their own invisible buff.
• Riki's Smoke Screen does not interrupt Town Portal Scroll.
• Silence no longer stops Riki's Cloak and Dagger.
• Rubick's Spell Steal now works on all abilities, whereas engine limitations prevented Rubick from stealing some abilities in DotA. (See Spell Steal Interaction for more information)
• Shadow Fiend's Necromastery now gains souls immediately upon killing a unit instead of needing to wait for it to reach him. This also applies to Silencer's Intelligence Steal.
• Sniper's Assassinate can no longer be evaded with invisibility.
  • Assassinate's stun now also goes through magic immunity.
• Sniper's Headshot does not proc Linken's Sphere.
• Spectre can now walk properly through Spectral Dagger's spectral path.
• Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness is not interrupted by instant cast items like Black King Bar or Shadow Blade.
• Spirit Breaker's Greater Bash occurs AFTER the attack animation finishes, instead of before.
  • Greater Bash's area of effect while Charging is smaller (possibly due to above change).
• Storm Spirit's Static Remnant's visual effect no longer shortly reveals where hit invisible or fogged enemies are.
• Templar Assassin's Psi Blades can no longer splash damage of abilities (e.g. Dagon, Diffusal Blade).
• Tinker's March of the Machines is centered on the cast point instead of himself like in DotA. You'll have to cast it on himself to reproduce the same effect as in DotA.
• Tiny's Avalanche + Toss combo does less damage than in DotA and damage occurs with less instances. (Max 5 in Dota 2 vs 10 in DotA).
• Tiny's Toss can cancel Huskar's Life Break and Pudge's Meat Hook.
• Ursa's Fury Swipes stacks only lasts 6 seconds on Roshan.
• Weaver's first attack after Shukuchi can proc Geminate Attack.
• Vengeful Spirit can interrupt Flaming Lasso with Nether Swap.
• Zeus's Thundergod's Wrath now goes through Linken's Sphere.

Fog of War changes

• Losing sight of the enemy in the fog no longer "stops" your unit. Instead it will keep following them to the last seen location, it will keep using basic attacks without any additional input if you regain vision of it. If the unit is ranged, any projectiles in the air will follow them through the fog, allowing you to track the location (although the models of these projectiles sometimes stop rendering after entering the fog).
  • To DotA players, this means you are often better off leaving your hero on auto-attack rather than clicking ahead. After you cast a spell, reclick to keep your hero "locked" on. This also means juking is harder to perform.

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.
• Black King Bar now removes Dust of Appearance as well.
• Blade Mail no longer damages the owner of wards. Eg Shadow Shaman, Venomancer and Witch Doctor.
• Hand of Midas no longer has a projectile (no double gold trick).
• Hand of Midas can now also be used by Lone Druid's Spirit Bear.
• Armlet of Mordiggian can now be used by Lone Druid's Spirit Bear and is normally affected by the health drain but does not benefit from the strength bonus.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity's bonus speed now stacks with other scepters.
• 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 Firefly.
• Phase Boots can be used in conjunction with Spectral Dagger.
• Phase Boots do not prevent Skull Basher, Monkey King Bar, or items that grant Critical Strike from proccing.
• Phase Boots no longer grant invisibility through Nature's Guise outside of tree range during phase duration.
• Quelling Blade now works with Unique Attack Modifiers. (Also works on Kunkka's Tidebringer, but only on the main target), in DotA the extra damage was disabled when you had an orb.
• Ring of Basilius no longer grants the mana aura to creeps while toggled off.
• Shadow Blade's backstab damage and other critical strikes stack, so instead of either one proccing, both are applied.
• Shadow Blade can be used in conjunction with Firefly.
• Storing a rune in a Bottle is now done by picking up the rune with the Bottle in the inventory, instead of using the empty Bottle on the rune. This also allows the Bottle to store runes even when not empty.
• A Bottle with a rune in it is no longer a shareable item (in DotA it could not be used anyway).
• You can instantly refill a Bottle by giving allies the bottle as soon as they teleport in from the fountain (since allies retain the fountain regen aura for a few seconds).
• Desolator now stacks with Geminate Attack.
• Ghost Scepter can be used with Boots of Travel and Town Portal Scroll.
• Items can be combined even if you don't have to slots for it.
• Lightning attack modifier ( Maelstrom and 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 recipe, no longer needing the courier to pick it up.
• Courier control is shared automatically, there's no option to take away control.
• Flying courier can no longer be flown close enough to give vision to enemy fountain area without been killed.
• Couriers can no longer use or gain stats from any items.

Misc. changes

• The original teams names have been changed, the Sentinel has been changed to the Radiant and the Scourge has been changed to the Dire.
• Individual heroes are no longer affiliated with Radiant or Dire. (Refer to these pages for lists of heroes formerly affiliated with each faction.)
• All changes from patches 6.82 onward were not applied to DotA (except for 6.83c and 6.83d).
• Neutrals spawn 1 second later rather than exactly at the full minute mark like in DotA. (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.
• Bonus gold is no longer granted to assisting heroes if First Blood is taken by a tower or creep.
• Casting backswing animation no longer occurs when auto attacking. (e.g. 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 noticeable on heroes with long animations are Crystal Maiden in DotA.)
• You can pick up runes while Doomed.
• Cleave works against flying units (except Visage's Familiars).
• You cannot cancel attacks while under Berserker's Call and Duel.
• You are no longer blocked by items while invisible.
• You cannot cancel Meld with X Marks the Spot, Sprout or Fissure.
• Spirit Bear Entangling Claws does 60 more damage than DotA, 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), making Omnislash less effective against Living Armor, Refraction and Vanguard (and other like items).
• Using Burrowstrike, Pounce or Leap across certain map areas have been removed, while Batrider can go out of the map boundaries.
• Teleports (notably that of Boots of Travel) will be broken if the unit being teleported to has been dominated by the enemy.
• Projectiles are coded to take effect when it hits rather than when its cast, so you could have things like a ranged Troll Warlord triggering bash or cleaving with Empower or using Lifesteal auras by switching it to melee before it hits.
• If somebody is marked by X Marks the Spot 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).
• Sounds from different lanes outside of screen range can be heard occasionally.
• All Neutral Creeps now spawn with full mana, though the creeps that started with 0 mana (Satyr Banisher, Satyr Mindstealer, Ogre Frostmage, Harpy Stormcrafter) will still not cast their abilities unless player-controlled.
• Creeps will not run while under effect of the Wildwing Ripper's Tornado.
• Dark Troll Summoner can raise Skeleton Warriors from ability kills that normally don't produce corpses (eg Devour, Caustic Finale, Hand of Midas, illusions).
• The Ghost's Frost Attack is now a passive ability instead of an autocast attack modifier that costs 12 mana on each attack.
• The Ancient Black Dragon and Ancient Black Drake are no longer classified as flying units.
• The Dragonspawn Camp has been reworked into the Prowler Camp, and the Jungle Stalker Camp has been removed.
• You can't tell when Roshan has respawned with the neutral green indicator anymore as in DotA.
• Roshan's Spell Shield doesn't trigger on Untouchable or Headshot.
• There are no messages to tell when the Aegis of the Immortal will expire.
• You can now see the cooldown timers, mana bars and abilities of your allies.
• Hotkeys are customizable without custom keys or 3rd party programs
• Abilities can be leveled up while dead.
• Circles of Power have been removed.
  • Glyph of Fortification can be accessed directly from the UI, as can your item stash while it contains at least one item.
  • Disassembly of items is now done from the player's inventory, through the drop-down menu accessed by right-clicking the item.
• Glyph of Fortification now properly makes buildings immune to damage instead of granting +9999 armor and spell immunity.
• 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.
• The Fountain is now invulnerable.
• 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) and are retained between games.
• Heroes and items now have entirely new lore.
• Most abilities now stack. For example, abilities that apply the common 30% MS 20% AS slow: Crystal Nova, Frost Blast, Dual Breath; also with Penitence and Crippling Fear.
• Extending the previous point, many ability and item interactions that existed due to its hard-coded nature don't exist anymore. For example, Ghost Scepter does not remove Poison Nova.
• Damage and stun types of bashes now depend on the source of the bash instead of the range of the hero (used to be magical damage / physical stun on melee and the opposite for ranged). Abilities from heroes work like in DotA, 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 Spell Steal's projectile displaying which spell was stolen in Dota 2.
• Most healing/mana regeneration sources (such as Bottle, Fountain regeneration, and the Regeneration Rune) now restore health and/or mana in the form of HP/mana regeneration (with 10 regeneration instances per second) instead of applying a single instance every second.
• Fountain regeneration now lingers for a full 3 seconds after leaving the fountain area.
• Abilities based on Chain Lightning do not have effect delay anymore. (Except for Laguna Blade and Finger of Death)
• Lane creeps now spawn facing east, instead of south.
• 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 ability interactions you may find the gameplay and power of different heroes very different to DotA!

Items name changes

Due to copyright concerns (or for other reasons), some items and heroes in Dota 2 have different names from their DotA equivalent.

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

Hero name changes

• Aggron Stonebreaker the Ogre Magi is now simply Aggron Stonebreak the Ogre Magi.
• Alleria the Windrunner is now Lyralei the Windranger.
• Anub'arak the Nerubian Assassin is now simply the Nyx Assassin.
• Anub'seran the Nerubian Weaver is now Skitskurr the Weaver.
• Aurel Vlaicu the Gyrocopter is now simply Aurel the Gyrocopter.
• Azgalor the Pit Lord is now Vrogros the Underlord.
• Cairne Bloodhoof the Tauren Chieftain is now Elder Titan, the Worldsmith.
• Centaur Warchief is now the Centaur Warrunner.
• Clockwerk Goblin is now simply the Clockwerk.
• Darchrow the Enigma is now simply the Enigma.
• Daelin Proudmoore the Admiral is now Kunkka the Admiral.
• Doom Bringer is now simply the Doom.
• Dwarven Sniper is now simply the Sniper.
• Eredar the Shadow Demon is now simply the Shadow Demon.
• Furion the Prophet is now simply the Nature's Prophet.
  • Formerly had the name Tequoia. It has since been omitted from Nature's Prophet's bio.
• Goblin Techies are now simply the Techies.
• Icarus the Phoenix is now simply the Phoenix.
• Jin'Zakk the Batrider is now simply the Batrider.
• Kael the Invoker is now simply the Invoker.
• Kel'thuzad the Lich is now Ethreain the Lich.
• Leoric the Skeleton King is now Ostarion the Wraith King.
• Lina Inverse the Slayer is now simply Lina the Slayer.
• Luna Moonfang the Moon Rider is now simply Luna the Moon Rider.
• Lycanthrope is now simply the Lycan.
• Magnus the Magnataur is now Magnus the Magnoceros.
• Magina the Anti-Mage is now simply the Anti-Mage.
• Mirana Nightshade the Priestess of the Moon is now Mirana the Princess of the Moon.
• Necrolyte is now the Necrophos.
• Nessaj the Chaos Knight is now simply the Chaos Knight.
• Obsidian Destroyer is now the Outworld Destroyer.
• Pandaren Brewmaster is now simply the Brewmaster.
• Pugna the Oblivion is now simply Pugna.
  • Although "oblivion" is still referenced in his lines and lore, he possesses no title in Dota 2.
• Rexxar the Beastmaster is now Karroch the Beastmaster.
• Rikimaru the Stealth Assassin is now Riki the Stealth Assassin.
• Rizzrak the Goblin Shredder is now Rizzrack the Timbersaw.
• Rylai Crestfall the Crystal Maiden is now simply Rylai the Crystal Maiden.
• Shendelzare Silkwood the Vengeful Spirit is now Shendelzare the Vengeful Spirit.
• Slark the Murloc Nightcrawler is now simply Slark the Nightcrawler.
• Syllabear the Lone Druid is now simply Sylla the Lone Druid.
• Terrorblade the Soul Keeper is now Terrorblade the Demon Marauder.
• Thrall the Disruptor is now Disruptor the Stormcrafter.
• Tuskarr is now simply the Tusk.
• Vol'Jin the Witch Doctor is now Zharvakko the Witch Doctor.
• Zeus the Lord of Olympus is now Zeus the Lord of Heaven.

While not as noticeable of a change as the rest, Dragon Knight's name in DotA changes from "Knight Davion" to "Arc Honist" during his Elder Dragon Form. This has been scrapped in Dota 2.

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.

See also

• List of intended fixes