Dota 2

Dota 2 a multiplayer action RTS game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2012 for Windows. It is a direct sequel to the original Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is developed by Valve as a stand-alone game with help from IceFrog, who is the most recent developer for the original DotA. Even though it's a sequel, most of the mechanics are taken straight from DotA.

Dota is now a trademark of Valve, though it's now just a random combination of letters instead of being the acronym of Defense of the Ancients. Therefore, references to the original mod will be referred to with the name DotA, while when referring to the game itself the guide will use the name "Dota 2", without a capitalized "a".

The game is currently in closed beta. To join, one must either sign up for an invite here or purchase an invite from the store.

Dota 2 takes place on a battlefield where to competing forces struggle for dominance. Players take on the role of powerful heroes that must level up and earn gold to become powerful enough to defeat the rivaling forces. A typical game involves five players on two teams. Each player gets to choose from one of the 92+ heroes available in the game. The goal of the game is to destroy the enemy Ancient, a large building defended by several towers which each team must destroy first.