DOTA, short for Defense of the Ancients is a map made by IceFrog as a mod for Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. It is a team strategy where players choose one of two sides an unique hero. The sides are Sentinel and Scourge. Players on one side fight the opposing side to get into base and destroy it together with AI controlled units called creeps. Player's heroes level up to level 25. Heroes gain experience and skills by killing opposing heroes and creeps. Dota is played starting 1v1 up to 5v5.

The objective of DotA Allstars is to destroy the opposing teams Ancient. If you're the Sentinel, your objective is to destroy the Frozen Throne. If you're the Scourge, you need to destroy the World Tree.

When the game starts, the host (red player) first chooses the game mode (more info below). Now, you have either choosen a hero, or been given one by random. Then it's time to buy items, and select which one of the three lanes you want to go; Upper left, bottom right, or in the middle. At each camps side, Sentinel and Scourge, theres a barrack at the beginning of the lane, sending creeps down the lane towards the opponents base. You earn extra gold and experience when killing the opposing teams creeps.

Theres 6 towers placed at each lane, 3 to each side, Sentinel and Scourge. These towers are really powerful in the beginning, but later in the game, it's up to the heroes of each team to destroy them, and push with the forces down the lanes. By killing enemy heroes, you gain extra gold, and experience, to help you further push down the lanes. With your gold, you can improve your hero with many different items, where theres a wide range between the power and prices.

There's a wide variety of items in DotA Allstars. In order to make the most powerful items, you must combine items, and merge them inte new ones using Recipes. There are four merchants selling recipes in each base.

The higher level on the recipes, the more the items needed cost, as well as how powerful the items get. Sometimes, you don't need to buy the recipes, since the items merge by themselves. Otherwise, you need to buy the recipe.

Since the DotA Allstars homepage got a complete items listing, we won't bother to put one up here, we just go over the basics.