Gameplay

Defense of the Ancients is the match between The Sentinel and The Scourge are the two teams in which The Sentinel represent the Good side and The Scourge represent Dark side.The Sentinel base is located at the bottom-left corner of the map, and  The Scourge base is located at the top-right corner of the map. Both the bases are defended by strong towers and waves of units(creeps) which guards the main paths leading to their bases.The "Ancient" is a building which is located at the center of the bases of both the teams , which must be destroyed to achieve victory in the game.

Each  player controls a Hero, A strong unit with distinct abilities . Players on each side are supposed to choose one of these104 heroes, each with different abilities and different advantages over other heroes. This scenario is very highly team-oriented and it is difficult for only one player to lead the whole team towards victory. In DotA, it is allowed up to ten players to play in a five-versus-five format and two extra slots for  observers or referees,  with an equal number of players on both teams.

Because the game-play goes around strengthening the heroes, unlike most of the traditional real-time strategy games, DotA does not require player to focus on managing resources and building bases. Pawning AI-controlled or neutral units earns the player gold and experience points; when enough experience is collected, the player's hero levels up which improves the hero's toughness and the damage infliction, and allows to upgrade their different spells or skills. Players are also supposed to manage a single resource "gold".The gold is earned by killing enemy heroes, creeps or neutral creeps and base structures. Using gold, players buy items to strengthen their hero and gain abilities many of  items can be combined with recipes to create more powerful items which is also know as "item-building". Building items which is best for one's hero is an important tactics in the game. Choosing Item plays a vast role in this game since it can toughen up a hero ,improve its damage per attack ,attack per second,etc.

There are many modes for playing the game which should be selected at first 10 seconds of the game by the game host. Game mode-ar assigns all players a random hero and -ap mode gives a player privelage to choose any hero from any traven like wise there are many more commands like sd,cm,rd,so,nm,nt which has got different functions.