DOTA Reloaded.

If you don't already know what DOTA is, it's that immensely popular custom map in Warcraft 3 that surprisingly till today boasts a huge following of avid gamers and remains extremely popular. More so than the actual game itself. Defense of the Ancients or Dota as it is commonly known is basically a fast paced action game where two opposing teams of up to five players each pick a side (either The Sentinels or The Scourge) and battle it out for supremacy. What follows next is typically an hour long game where players focus on levelling up and getting gold by killing creeps (computer spawned mobs) or other heroes, all in an attempt to save up enough to buy the leet weapons and eradicate the opposition.

It's fast, furious and basically an orgy of action and bloodlust, a race to see who can kill more opponent heroes and top the charts; a race that is given more verve by the inbuilt voice over declarations of " Holy shit! XXX is unstoppable...Triple Kill! ..Godlike!.." everytime you kill an opponent after having surpassed a total number of kills. Which isn't as easy as it sounds because you need to remain alive (ie: no deaths) for the orgasmic oral declarations to climb the hierarchy of 'godliness'.

I suspect one reason why it remains so immensely popular is that it's fast, no need to level to lvl 60 (or level 70 now) like in WoW for pwnage, it's got loads of action, killing people is always fun, plus you get a sense of accomplishment when you get decked out and win the game. Which only ends when you destroy the main building in the opponent's base.

I haven't played Dota for ages. I think the last verson I played was Version 6.01 which was buggy and had very strange heroes, kind of like a works in progress thing. My favourite remained version 5.84c, the classic old hat version and I'd always use the same few heroes cause the playing styles appealed to me. Rylai the frost maiden and Lina Inverse the slayer for Sentinels and Kel thuzad the Lich and Rotund the Necrolyte for the Scourge. Intell heroes always appealed to me, though endgame, they certainly pale in comparison to a decked out agility based hero like the Gorgon or Drow ranger.

Clinkz was about the only agility hero I played regularly and I soon grew to appreciate just how cheap he was. Let him farm, get a few items and he's quite unstoppable. Nothing like backstabbing a half dead hero. ^^ Anyhow I decided to start on DOTA again after the Blog Master informed me that the maps could be played with decent and sometimes brutal (if you choose Insane computers) AI. Previously, one of the sticking points with Dota was that you needed actual human players to play the map and you could never be sure unless one was playing with friends that your team mates wouldn't be total retards. And if you happened to be in a LAN shop, one faced the additional difficulty of getting the correct number of people to play, etc.

AI certainly isn't as fun as playing against human players though the insane AI certainly gives you an awful run for your money, they buy the correct items quickly, come in a group to gang bang you, hit weak areas with startling alacrity; you could even say they're much better than a lousy poorly coordinated team of human players. So, I reinstalled the whole Warcraft 3 stuff and downloaded the necessary maps. I must say Dota now has really evolved, so many items and so many new heroes, some of which have really strange abilities.

My first attempt at a new hero, the Dark Seer for the scourge was so miserable, it's pathetic. The second attempt at the Shadow Fiend wasn't too fantastic, I still haven't quite figured out how to use his ultimate, Requiem of souls, effectively. So I just ended up playing the Lich again and didn't do too badly, 19 kills 0 deaths by the time the game ended. I must admit the 'Holy shit..somebody kill him!' exclamations did spur me on. After all with Dark Ritual and mana that never runs out, spamming frost nova and unleashing a chain frost on enemy hero gangbangs make for happy days.. and multiple kills.

Toss in Aghanim's Sceptre and an upgraded Dagon, they basically didn't stand a chance. Which left me (omgNOOB) 'beyond GODLIKE' sometime before the game ended, which was sadly just when I had enough for my Eye of Skadi. Boo. Dota is fun but I'm not sure I can bring myself to play on Battlenet anytime soon, still too rusty and I'm pretty sure there's a ton of pros out there. But for now, it remains a pleasant past time.