What is Dota 2?

July 15, 2022 0 1317

Dota 2 is one of the most popular esports titles, with some of the top esports events for Dota 2 crossing millions of views. While almost all gamers have heard about Dota 2, not many know what the game is or what its esports scene and gameplay are like. Here is our take on what is Dota 2, where we try to answer all questions you might have about Dota 2.

Firstly, Dota 2 is a hero MOBA game that launched on the 9th of July, 2013. It was launched as a sequel to the original Defense of the Ancients, or DotA, video game. Keep reading to learn more about Dota 2.

Key Takeaways

Dota 2 is a hero MOBA game that was launched in 2013 as a sequel to the original Defense of the Ancients game. It was designed by IceFrog and developed and published by Valve.
The gameplay of Dota 2 consists of two teams with five players in each team, each selecting a hero with unique abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and counters. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy team’s Ancient while protecting your own.
In Dota 2, there are certain roles that heroes are best suited for, such as Roaming Support, Hard Support, Mid-Lane, Off-Lane, and Carry. The roles help determine what play style is best suited for the hero and what items can prove to be most effective.
Dota 2 has a vast collection of skins for all the heroes, which players can equip and use in matches, changing the hero’s appearance and animations.
To become a top player in Dota 2, you need to be knowledgeable about all the heroes in the game, how they can be countered or used effectively, and what items to use in different situations.

Who Made Dota 2?

Dota 2 was made by both IceFrog and Valve Corporation. IceFrog was the lead designer for DotA: Allstars, which was a clone mod for the original DotA game.

IceFrog was recruited into Valve Corporation after some reputable Valve employees like Robin Walker and Erik Johnson started to like the DotA mod and started thinking about building a sequel for it.

IceFrog officially announced his new position at Valve in 2009, one year after which Dota 2 was officially announced. In short, Dota 2 was designed by IceFrog and developed and published by Valve.

When Did Dota 2 Come Out?

Dota 2 was first announced in 2010, just one year after IceFrog, the lead designer of DotA: Allstars officially announced his new position at Valve Corporation. After that, there were disputes between Valve and Blizzard until 2012 about who owned that Dota 2 name.

In April of 2012, the president of Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell, announced that Dota 2 would launch as a free-to-play title, and after one year of that announcement, on the 9th of July, 2013, Dota 2 was officially launched.

Dota 2 Gameplay Explained

While the main premise of Dota 2 is fairly simple, the game can get quite complicated, especially at higher skill levels. The main gameplay of Dota 2 consists of two teams, with five players in each team. Each player can pick a hero to play as in the match. There are over one hundred heroes in Dota 2, with each one having different abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and counters. As a hero is selected by a player, no other player, regardless of which team they are in, can pick that hero.

Which team you end up in and which players you are matched with, in a match of Dota 2, depends on your rank and skill level. The Dota 2 matchmaking system uses your rank and skill level to pair you with other players with similar rank and skill levels.

Once the players are matched, and heroes are selected, it is time for both teams to engage in combat using their abilities. Both teams spawn in their respective bases, which have a giant structure called the Ancient. The main objective of both teams is to destroy the enemy team’s Ancient and protect their own.

Right after getting out of the base, each player can go in whatever direction they want, but the most common paths taken are the top lane, mid lane, and bottom lane. Teams also need to protect several other structures called towers which are located in all three of these lanes. Towers deal a lot of damage, so a team can not enter enemy territory before destroying them.

Along with all that, both teams have access to several items that they can buy with funds collected during a match. They can use multiple combinations of these items and choose from multiple upgrade routes.

Dota 2 Heroes

Heros are actually the bread and butter of Dota 2. It is what the game is practically all about. If you are not knowledgeable about all the heroes in the game and how each one can be countered or used effectively, you will most likely get stagnant in terms of your skill level after a certain while. The top players for Dota 2 are extremely knowledgeable about Dota 2 heroes and know a ton about how they can counter each of them and how to have them perform most effectively in certain situations.

Heroes in Dota 2 can be categorized according to three main attributes, namely, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. While all heroes possess all these attributes, each hero has only one primary attribute, which is also their strong suit. For example, Phoenix, Undying, and Mars are all Strength heroes because their strong suit is Strength.

During a match of Dota 2, each hero can be leveled up using experience points. You can get experience points in a match of Dota 2 by either killing enemies, creeps, or summons. Or you can get experience points by staying within a 1500 radius of your teammate when they do the killing. The experience points are distributed amongst all heroes within the area. As heroes level up in a match, they get stronger and acquire more abilities.

In Dota 2, there are certain roles that heroes are best suited for. What role a hero is best suited for depends on the combination of their attributes and unique abilities. The Roles of heroes in Dota 2 help determine what play style is best suited for the hero and what items can prove to be most effective. The roles in Dota 2 are Roaming Support, Hard Support, Mid-Lane, Off-Lane, and Carry.

Dota 2 Skins

One of the best things about Dota 2 is the skins. Dota 2 has tons of skins for all the heroes that players can equip and use in matches.

These skins are super cool and completely change the aesthetic of the heroes. All the way from how the hero looks to its animations, almost everything gets changed when you apply certain Dota 2 skin on a hero.

If you are looking for Dota 2 skins, then the most common method for this is simply buying them from the Steam community market or third-party marketplaces.

What’s the Point of Dota 2?

The main objective for each team is to destroy the enemy team’s Ancient. However, that’s not the point of Dota 2. Dota 2 is a super competitive game. Dota 2 requires you to stay competitive for every match that you play. If you don’t do so, you will be outplayed by your opponents more often than you might think.

As you keep on playing the game and develop new strategies, you slowly start to get better, not only at the game but in terms of your thinking abilities too. That is what Dota 2 is all about.

Is Dota 2 Hard to Play?

The short answer is, yes, Dota 2 is definitely hard to play. The thing is, Dota 2 is a very complicated game, especially for beginners. There are over a hundred playable heroes in Dota 2, with each one having different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

Not only that, but there are tons of items you can buy within a match of Dota 2 to upgrade your hero, and there are tons of different combinations of these items that you can use to go on completely different upgrade routes. Also, Dota 2 is filled with super-competitive players who won’t have mercy on you, even in casual matches.

How to Get Better at Dota 2?

One of the most common mistakes that Dota 2 players make is that they keep on jumping from one hero to another. This won’t help you as you will never fully learn any hero. Stop switching heroes again and again, and spend at least a week before you decide to switch.

The next mistake that a lot of beginners make is they don’t experiment with different heroes. If you stick to one hero and do not try some other hero, how will you know if you are not missing out on a hero that could be your main? Don’t be shy to try out new heroes.

Dota 2 is a team-based game. If you play like a solo player and don’t support your teammates, you won’t be winning any matches. Play as a team, Also, communicate with your team. Let your teammates know about important information.

One of the best ways that you can get better at Dota 2 is by watching the pros. Learn how they move around the map, what builds they use, and how they attack an enemy. Finally, to get better at Dota 2, you have to keep practicing.

How Many People Play Dota 2 NOW?

Dota 2 is currently one of the world’s most popular games, and the average player count for it proves that. Depending on the time of the day, you can find anywhere from 0.23 million to 0.7 million concurrent players playing Dota 2.

While the concurrent player numbers for Dota 2 range from 0.23 million in non-peak hours to 0.7 million in peak hours, the average player count for Dota 2 for the last 30 days is around 0.45 million players. This number has stayed roughly the same for about a year now, so it seems it will stay this way for a long time.

Why is Dota 2 so Popular?

There are plenty of reasons why Dota 2 is so popular. The first and most common reason that comes to mind is that the game is free-to-play. Being free-to-play means that almost anyone can play it. It’s simply a matter of downloading it and then launching it.

Another thing that helps in attracting a ton of new players is Dota 2’s ability to run on almost any computer. Dota 2 is not a difficult-to-run game and does not require any expensive hardware. All that the game requires is a decent computer and a decent internet connection, which is what most people already have these days.

Even if you have an old gaming laptop, from, let’s say 5 or 6 years ago, you will still be able to run Dota 2 with respectable framerates. If you drop the resolution down to 720p, you will even be able to play the game without a dedicated GPU. All this makes Dota 2 an incredibly attractive choice for gamers that are not looking to spend any extra or unnecessary money.

However, a lot of other games are also free-to-play and provide a lot better graphics than Dota 2 despite being not that hard to run. So, why aren’t those games getting so popular? The main reason why Dota 2 became soo popular and why it still is soo popular is because of its competitiveness.

Dota 2 is a really competitive game, as we have already mentioned. It forces you to maintain your skill level or improve it so that you can hold your own in matches. If you make even the smallest mistake, you will be punished by your opponents. Overcoming this and getting better day by day is what makes Dota 2 so fun, which is also what made it so popular.

Is Dota 2 Dying?

Dota 2 launched back in 2013, and it has been around six years since then. By this time, most games usually start to die out as more and more players start getting bored with them. These players start leaving the game for much newer and fresher games. Some games die out even in two or three years.

When we look at the average concurrent player count charts for Dota 2 starting from 2016, it certainly seems that the players are slowly leaving the game. Also, if we take a look at player count charts from 2013 to 2016, it is clear that the average concurrent player count for Dota 2 peaked in March 2016. The down-trend since then is undeniable.

However, this certainly does not mean that Dota 2 is dying. The down-trend starting from the all-time high in March of 2016 has been quite steady, and the average concurrent player count numbers have been stable since mid of 2019. Since 2019, there have been around 0.7 to 0.6 million concurrent players playing Dota 2 on average, with the daily average ranging from 0.5 to 0.4 million players. All this confirms that Dota 2 is certainly not Dying.

Conclusion

The sheer competitiveness that Dota 2 offers is unmatched by other games. The game is also really fun. All this is why millions of players still play the game. If you have not yet tried Dota 2, then you are missing out on a competitive masterpiece.

Most people avoid Dota 2 because they think they would not be able to perform any good at it. However, it is not that difficult. All you have to do is give it some time, and you will get better. Who knows, maybe Dota 2 will become your new favorite game.