HP = Health Points, MIA = Missing In Action, MP = Mana Points

Introduction:

DoTA stands for Defense of the Ancients. It is basically a balanced hero wars with 3 lanes. There are no tomes or buildings. You get control of 1 hero and any summons they can create through spells. There are only items and recipe items. The end-goal is to destroy the opponent's "main" and defend your main. The main for the Sentinel is the Tree of Eternity; the main for the scourge is the Hall of the Dead. They are constantly updating Renew with new versions so find the latest at www.dotarenew.atw.hu.

Get Started:

First, get the map! Downloading through Warcraft 3 is discouraged as it usually means you do not know how to play. Unless you know the host or other individuals inside the game lobby, do not expect to be able to download (unless it's a download game). Download it from the website instead. www.dotarenew.atw.hu.

Game Play Tips:

Do try to get the last hits. The main way to get gold advantage and thus item advantage is to get last hits. This means, do not continuously attack units. Learn to attack only once or twice and then cancel. Check for the HP by either clicking on them and checking the actual number or by holding alt. Alt brings up the health bar*. 3 last hits is roughly 100 gold. That accumulates quickly!

Do NOT tank damage. This does not necessarily mean do not take any damage, as that could be equally bad. This means try to minimize all damage intake. To do so, do not directly attack other heroes with your normal attack unless other units are targeting the hero. Any unit that targets a hero will be attacked by towers all creep units. This means they will focus fire on you! You do not want creeps to be hitting you because they do a lot of damage initially.

Do try to stay in EXP range at all times. This is about half a screen. If you have low hp, just hug your tower and make sure your opponent's spells don't kill you in one hit + 70. Expect them to be able to hit you with their normal attacks. If you are melee, just stay in the back except to go up to get the last hit.

Do NOT spam spells. At least, not in the beginning. No hero can afford to waste his mana. No hero has that much mana regeneration for the spells he has. However, this does not mean to not use any. It is okay to use 1 spell in the beginning to see your mana regeneration, however, do not use your level 1 spell more than twice as it is usually weak and not worth the strain on your mana. Wait for level 2 or level 3 spells then start spamming them as the damage:mana is better. Unless you realize that your mana regeneration is high enough to spam your skills, do not use all your mana. It is better to be safe than not have enough mana. Also, spells have cooldowns that you have to be wary of.

Do NOT target heroes when they are near their tower.

Do NOT take damage from towers. 1 tower hit does 40 damage. That's a LOT in the beginning.

Learn map vision. This does not mean map hack, which is highly discouraged and illegal in tournament play. This means to be wary of all units on the field. If anyone goes missing, tell your team mates with a MIA ___ where ____ is their name. Get to know the movespeed of every unit. Check your own movespeed (type in "-ms"). Know which items your enemies have and your allies so you know how fast they move. Don't expect them to "magically" be there. There are a limited number of moves a good player will make, thus highly limiting their moves and letting you know where they are within a small percentage of error. Map vision takes time to obtain. You only get it through practice.

If you are a range unit, then you can harass them by throwing your projectile in the air and then retargeting one of your units/buildings. Enemy units will start to target you only while you are targeting their hero, so if the projectile is in the air and you then cancel your targeting, then the creep units will then redirect to other units as well.

Team Play:

It is very critical that you play as a team. Certain heroes have advantages in hero killing while others are better at killing creeps. Others are better at tanking damage from normal attacks while other are better at tanking spell damage. Certain heroes are built for sieging while others are meant for defending. Basic rule of thumb: agility heroes are usually hero killers. Intel characters are usually disablers or defenders. Strength characters are usually siege or tanks.

Sieging:

When you're in range of the tower, go for it. It's better to deal damage to a tower and take some than to get the creeps damaged. The external towers do not recover hp so damage to them is permanent. Do not ever try to kill a hero near full at their own tower. Redirect damage to yourself as long as you can sustain the hit. If there are any heroes nearby do not proceed to do so unless they are in a more critical state. It is better to deal 50 damage to a tower than to deal 150 to a hero through normal attacks. Unless the hero is low hp or being attacked by other units, it is more critical to hurt a building. Buildings don't respawn. Also, if you are feeling pressured but do not need all heroes to defend, go get one of your team mates to pressure a lane.

Focus Fire:

Go for the guy with the lowest HP. This doesn't mean in critical state necessarily, this could simply mean they have the least HP. Tormented Soul, for example, has a very low base HP. FM and Shade have very low base HP as well. Also, prioritize to take out stunners. Do not go for the tanks unless necessary. Tell your team mates to hit one guy rather than another. Go for the healers first, unless you know how to draw their heals out. If they heal someone, that gives you a 15 second window to kill a hero. The cooldown time of the heal spell is around 15 seconds.

Item Tips:

If you find yourself dying...

>>>To physical attacks (normal attacks, not magic) then get armor. Every 1 armor is as important as the last. They are weighed equally, even if the reduction % decreases. The formula for it is (100/(100-ev%)) * (1+(arm*0.06)) **.

>>>To magic and spell damage then get health. Every 1 strength point gives you 16 strength. Therefore, a belt of strength (425 gold/+6 strength) gives you 96 additional HP. Some cheap HP items include belt of strength and strength bracer (510 gold/war artifacts level 1/+6 strength +3 agility +3 intel). Also, a Staff of Power (825 gold/mistical artifacts level1/+2 hp regen aura +175 hp) is relatively cheap. If you are not a strength character then the Staff of Power is a good item to get for an additional HP boost. The Ogre Axe is just 50 more gold, but it also is 15 less hp. Every point of strength gives you HP regeneration, however. If you have some gold to spare, get the Vitality Booster (1100 gold/ +300 hp). It gives the biggest gain for a single non-recipe item.

If you're running out of mana...

>>> and your spells have a long cooldown period or you have high base mana regeneration (high base intelligence), then you should think about getting mana regeneration. The Sobi Mask (325 gold/+50% regeneration) is the cheapest and usually a good choice. The second item of choice would be a Void Stone (850 gold/+100% mana regeneration).

>>> and your cooldown period is relatively low or you have little mana regeneration (low base intelligence), then get pure mana point boosters. You can get an energy booster (700 gold/+300 MP). That effectively doubles most character's mana pools for relatively low. The point booster is a good choice if you need the additional HP.

>>> and you don't have too much gold/want intelligence, get a Null Chain (510 gold/war artifacts level 1). It gives +3 all stats and an additional +3 intelligence. That gives 60 additional points of mana, which makes your unit have about half a spell for most characters. Assuming you don't spam, that additional load can be effective over time. The +6 intel also usually gives an additional 1/3 base intel to low intel characters, 1/4 to 1/5 for normal characters. That can be helpful.

Spell Choices:

Most characters have different skill builds so I can't cover this in much detail. I will give skill builds for characters separately. Overall, look at the damage:mana cost and compare that to cooldown time. Choose the one with a higher ratio, but the one with a shorter cooldown. Also, it is usually not good to get spells that do damage over time. You want them dead now, now later. They can recover HP, get healed through ally spells, or get a rune. Things happen, you don't want that. Get the instant damage. If you're using a character you've never used before, you should ask for help. If no one is willing to give advice, then get one level of each spell to test them. Then make the smart decision overall. Also, the spell choice you get depends on the laner you are laning. But be wary of the other heroes in the game.

Pushing a wave:

The key in Dota Renew that is similar to Allstars but different from Classic is the fact that creeps do a lot of damage and gain more damage over time. So why not use them against your enemy?

Learn to push a wave.

A Ring of Basilius (425 gold/sobi mask + ring of protection) gives +2 armor aura and +.65% mana regeneration. This can effectively gives your guys a bit more health points, which can effectively eliminate 3 from a tower (since the projectile will hit it or attempt to hit it even if it's at 10 hp). You can nudge the tower with 3 normal attacks. Even though that's only 40 or 50 damage, that stacks if you do it every wave.

A Staff of Power gives +2 regen aura, giving your units a little more hp. Not that effective as creeps don't live long enough to make use of the regen. At least in most cases.

Theron's Magical Cloak (2400 gold/Level 2 mistical artifact) gives an additional +5 armor to units and 16% vampiric aura. This only works for melee units. This means that your units initially gain 3 or 4 hp/hit. Stack that with hp regen and armor than that will effectively become 30 hp overall before going into tower range. This is, however, expensive as you can tell.

Stacking all 3 items together would mean you have very effective creeps.

Also other items would be Horn of Battle (3920 gold/+10 strength +10 agility) and +10% attack speed, +10% damage and +10% movespeed make your creeps very effective in lane as well as give yourself the extra hp boost and attackspeed. This makes use of the Bracer and Helm of Combat you probably bought earlier! So it "saves" 1020 gold.

Notes

*There is an option to permanently set the health bar on so you no longer needs to hold alt.

**http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/589475/28855