Why I have stopped playing Dota 2?
I have spent around 4.2k hours playing dota 2. And to be honest haven’t crossed 1500 MMR from last 1 ½ years (Yes, I’m noob). I think, one of the key aspects of not being able to succeed in gaining MMR is my will to not play a hero too often. So, I never I get the hang of any hero and the second reason I found out recently was that I primarily liked the last hitting mechanic and since I’m busy scoring last hits and earning gold I end up paying less attention to the map. As a result, I do die a lot.
I tried to improve on these aspects but due to work commitments and so-called real life, I couldn’t improve my game. These things led me to conclude that I can’t be a good DOTA 2 player and I should stop putting in hours and hours into the game gaining nothing but spending time on a not so fruitful desire, that is — someday I will climb up the MMR ladder and feel good about myself. This downfall has led me to focus on the other aspect of this beautiful game. That is the design of the game. There are so many elements in the game which makes this game (according to me) one of the best game in history. Here are some of the key elements which I think contribute towards the greatness of the game and some questions which popped in my mind while thinking about these elements.
Heroes — Every hero is unique and adds a new dimension to the gameplay.
The Mechanics — the Last hitting is a very important mechanic in the game. What other unique mechanics exist in the game that are core to the experience it offers?
World Map — A lot of hiding spots. Invisible warding spots. They keep changing the World map to change the gameplay and player. What is the reasoning behind these changes and what do they achieve with this?
These were the initial questions that popped into my mind. These things led me to dive deep into the game and I was mind blown by the details of the game.
After spending some time into the game from a different perspective. I listed down a few more questions to which I was very keen on finding answers.
1. How each hero has a unique place in the dota universe? and still is balanced at every point of the game.
2. How the cost of every item is calculated?
3. What makes a hero unique from other units in the game?
4. How do they design new items, how do they find out if an item is required in the game?
5. What is unique for every attribute type and how other hero stats are affected by that.
6. How hero roles and their relationship with other hero stats are balanced?
These are the questions for which I would be finding answers over the next few weeks. These questions are barely a scratch on the surface. There are thousands of things that I will find out once I start seeing the game with a designer’s lens. But I’m so excited about writing this.
This post will just cover very basic stuff about heroes and hero types. This post is more of an information post for those who haven’t played Dota 2 before. So you can skip this if you have played Dota 2.
Below I’ve tried to explain what heroes are and what makes a hero different than other units in the game.
Heroes and Relationships
There are a lot of heroes in Dota 2. 118 to be exact. As a player, these are great choices to have fun. But as a game designer, this becomes a nightmare to make sure that every hero is balanced. So, the first question came to my mind is how you define if a hero is balanced or not?
To answer this question. I first explored what exactly are heroes. I mean there are a lot of unit types in the game. There must be something different about a hero. So how do you identify if a unit is a hero?
So putting the shortest description of heroes here. Functionally –
- A hero is a primary unit controlled by the player.
- Each Hero has baseline stats which are strength, agility, intelligence.
- Each hero is associated with one of these attribute also known as the primary attribute.
- Heroes are the only units in the game that level up.
Apart from this, a hero has some stats as well. Below is the list of stats and a short description of what it does. You can skip this part if you know the game. Knowing these stats will be very helpful in understanding the upcoming posts as I will use these stats to explain how a hero is balanced.
Movement Speed — The speed with which a unit moves across the world space
Turn Rate — The rate at which a unit’s model turns. Some abilities change this behavior so it is important.
Armor — This reduces the physical attack damage a unit takes.
Vision Range — How far a unit can see in the fog of war
Attack Range — Distance from which a unit can attack.
Damage, Base Damage — Amount of damage a unit does to other units in the game
Attack Speed — The number of physical attacks a unit can land in second
Base Attack Time — The time it takes for a unit to land a physical attack.
Attack Point — The animation a unit performs before landing an attack
HP Regeneration — The number of HIT points a player gets in
Each Hero has these attributes at level 1. A hero has base stats at level 1 for all these attributes
There are some secondary attributes as well which are affected by these attributes. Like
Spell Amplification — Extra magical damage a unit deals depending on his intelligence.
Note — ranged heroes have one more attribute which is projectile speed
Next, we are going to discuss these hero roles. Hero roles are defined by the abilities a hero possesses. The most known hero roles are Carry, Support. There are a few more roles that are not used often in general discussions and are mentioned below.
Nuker — Heroes who have high damage spells and lower cooldowns
Disabler — Can disable non-friendly units
Jungler — Can farm in the jungle on the early stage of the game
Durable — Can survive in the team fights for longer
Escape — Can quickly escape death using their spells
Pusher — Pushes the objectives faster at any point in the game.
Carry — Becomes more useful in the later stages of the game if they have a gold advantage
Support — Uses their abilities to gain an advantage for the team.
I hope this much is info is enough to explain about heroes. Please leave a comment in case I’ve missed out something.
In future posts, I will explore the relationship between hero stats and hero roles. I mean if a hero’s role is “Carry”, do they move faster on the map? Do they deal more damage in a second? Is there a pattern about how they level up or gain attribute points? Do all the carries get the same amount of attribute points? What type of abilities do they possess?
All these questions will be answered in the upcoming blog posts and I’m going to explain about other hero roles. So stay tuned.