Frozen Throne - The Clash of the Titans!

"Just when you were losing interest in Warcraft III Frozen Throne, someone very creative & imaginative develops a custom map. No one really knows why it’s called DotA, maybe a name inspired by the Orcs who most likely abducted the creator. Since its release DotA is the most appreciated multiplayer map Warcraft III has offered. For those of you who are unaware of DotA’s existence, thank god and don’t step foot in Gaming Cafes in Islamabad or you are bound to be gripped between the collision of good & evil forces. DotA is almost similar to an RPG where all the strategic factors involved in Warcraft III are revised. In DotA you cannot create units or buildings and neither can you economize collecting wood. Although gold is an important commodity and plays a key role. When the game commences you have a pool of heroes or mercenaries to choose from. Every individual has its own set of attributes and an inventory. For knuckle heads out there, you are only granted control of a single unit, which you have to upgrade throughout the game or the other players won’t resist clobbering you every time you show up.

There are two teams to choose from, the refined but overpowered Night Elves & the bad ol’ Undead. A single game supports a maximum of five players on each side with the sixth player being the AI. The AI is totally undefined since all it does is send a cluster of creeps to assist your hero in battle although a good player would know how to use them effectively. Oh and one thing DotA is NOT a single player map. The single player experience would resemble stealing candy from a baby. Now the objective is to penetrate deep behind enemy lines and destroy their main structure, which in case of Night Elves is the World Tree and for Undead it’s the Frozen Throne. There are three paths leading to the opponent’s base and the AI on both sides sends out creeps in battle. This is where your hero comes in; the faster you kill the opponent’s creeps the faster you blow up their defensive structures and infiltrate their base. Sounds easy don’t it, but remember you are playing a multiplayer map and the opponent is bound to sneak up on you and slay you.

As you kill creeps and slay heroes you gain experience And as your level advances you can learn spells or increase your hero’s attributes. You earn gold by getting the last shot that kills a creep/hero. What do you need gold for when you can’t construct buildings or produce units? The purpose of gold is to build your inventory that can support a maximum of 6 items. Depending on the item you can increase your mana, hit points, attack speed, agility, intelligence, strength, regeneration, armor & damage. Items can also be merged with each other using recipes giving you added spells & characteristics such as evasion, cleaving attack, hex, auras etc. That’s all for the basics and for those of you who are new to DotA, I assure you that once you are started you are addicted.

Game Tips:

• Always take the killing shot on a creep and whenever one of your own creeps is low on hp and an opponent is nearby, slay that particular creep using the forced attack feature. This way you’re prohibiting your opponent from earning gold & gaining experience.
• Build your primary attribute so your damage increases along with that attribute.
• Build your inventory looking at your opponent. See what you lack because there’s obviously a reason behind him bashing you every time you appear! A simple example would be increasing your armor if the opponent’s attacks reduce your armor.
• Back dooring can be very effective in demolishing enemy structures. A good tip would be purchasing a chicken, sending it near the opponents base and teleporting yourself there using boots of travel. Manta style would be a useful inventory item for back dooring. Happy Gaming!

The writer is an IT graduate & currently doing his Masters from University of East London, England. He can be contacted at habib@itinsight.info