The Map is the playing field for all Dota 2 matches. It is comprised of two sides, one for the Radiant icon.png Radiant faction, and one for the Dire icon.png Dire faction. To win, players must destroy the opposing side's Ancient, an important building at the center of each team's base. The map is represented in the interface by the minimap.
The Map https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dota-2-map.jpg
Radiant base - On the bottom-left of the screen
Dire base - top-right of the screen
Ancient - located at the furthest red or green spot from the enemy base.
Lanes - three big paths going from one base to the other. Usually differentiated in game as “top”, “middle”, and “bottom”
Towers - two green dots and two red dots along each lane.
Jungle - sections of the map which can be moved through, but which aren’t on the main lanes.
shops - sell a few of the items that you can acquire from your base.
Secret shops - sell powerful items that can only be acquired from there.
Roshan - the red mark to the right of the Dire tower in the middle of the map.
Creeps
Neutral Creeps - enemies hidden in the jungle. They’re a good source of gold and experience
Contents
- 1 Factions
- 2 Lanes
- 3 River
- 3.1 Runes
- 3.2 Roshan
- 4 Jungle
- 5 Buildings
- 5.1 Towers
- 5.2 Barracks
- 5.3 Ancient
- 6 Shops
- 7 Minimap
- 8 Vision
- 9 Lore
- 10 Trivia
- 11 History
- 12 Update history
Factions
Each faction occupies a diagonal half of the map, separated in the middle by the river. The Radiant icon.png Radiant is based at the lower left corner of the map, while the Dire icon.png Dire is based at the upper right corner. The Ancients are located inside strongholds at the heart of each faction's territory.
Lanes
Main Article: Lane
The map is segmented into three different lanes, the top, the bottom, and the middle lane. Each one of these lanes leads to the other team's base, guarded by towers along the way. During the early laning phase of the game, most gameplay is centered around the lanes.
The bottom lane for the Radiant, and the top lane for the Dire, are considered safe lanes. Creeps meet each other close to the towers, which provide greater protection from enemies. These lanes are recommended for beginners, as they provide some added protection against ganking.
River
The River separates the two factional sides of the map. It is surrounded by high ground, which blocks players' vision on both sides.
Runes
Main Article: Rune
At the start of the game and every 2 minutes onward, Runes will spawn at two points in the river. Runes grant players bonuses or bounty. There are six possible runes that can spawn:
Rune icon Bounty.png Bounty Rune: Grants hero gold and experience which scales as the game progresses.
This rune spawns on both sides of the river at the start of the game, worth 100 gold each.
Afterwards, this rune will always spawn at the side opposite the other rune.
Rune icon Double Damage.png Double Damage Rune: Grants 100% of a hero's base damage as bonus damage.
Rune icon Illusion.png Illusion Rune: Creates two Illusions of the hero.
Rune icon Invisibility.png Invisibility Rune: Grants hero invisibilty after a 1 second fade time.
Rune icon Regeneration.png Regeneration Rune: Fully restores hero's health and mana. Stops if hero takes damage.
Rune icon Haste.png Haste Rune: Grants hero maximum movement speed and immunity to slows.
Roshan
Main Article: Roshan
Roshan is an exceptionally strong creep located at the eastern end of the river. If killed, Roshan will grant gold to the entire team, as well as drop the Aegis of the Immortal, which will automatically resurrect the holder upon death. Later in the game, Cheese can also be dropped after Roshan is killed three times, which will fully restore a hero's health when used. Fighting Roshan usually requires more than one player.
Jungle
The Jungle refers to the forested area between lanes. This is where neutral creeps can be found, which can be killed for gold and experience. It is possible to level up by killing creeps in the jungle instead of in the lanes. This practice is called jungling.
Buildings
Main Article: Buildings
Buildings are scattered throughout the map, and can be destroyed by the opposing side for gold and experience. To reach the Ancient, buildings must be destroyed in order from the outermost to the innermost. Buildings may be given temporary invulnerability with the Glyph of Fortification.
Players can teleport to any building with a Town Portal Scroll icon.png Town Portal Scroll or Boots of Travel icon.png Boots of Travel.
Towers
Each faction has defensive towers placed along the lanes leading to the Ancient. Towers deal single target damage to heroes and creeps. In the early stages of the game, a hero can only take a few hits from a tower before dying, so one must be careful as to not get too close to towers until they have gained enough strength. Towers have True Sight, and can detect invisible enemies.
Barracks
Each base has three pairs of barracks, placed behind towers. One is for melee creeps, and one is for ranged creeps. If the barracks is destroyed, the opposing team's creeps will become stronger. If all 6 barracks are destroyed, all opposing creeps will gain an even larger power-up, which makes them very difficult to defend against. These mega creeps can usually assure victory because of their high health, damage and numbers, and can kill a Hero quickly if they are reckless enough.
Ancient
This is the main building in both bases. If one team destroys the other team's Ancient, the game is over and the destroying team has won. This building does not attack and will slowly regenerate health over time. It is defended by two towers and cannot be attacked until those towers are destroyed.
Shops
Six shops exist on the map, three for each side.
Base Shop: This shop is located in the Fountain, and sells all basic items and recipes.
Secret Shop: This shop is located near the short lane for each side. It sells costlier items needed as ingredients for late-game items.
Side Lane Shop: This shop is located at the edge of the long lane. It sells some items from the base shop and the secret shop, mostly ones useful for laning.
Minimap
Main Article: Minimap
The Minimap is located at the corner of the Head-up display. It gives players an overhead view of the entire map, as well as the ability to issue certain commands. Constant awareness of the minimap is crucial to skilled gameplay.
Vision
Main Article: Vision
Vision defines which areas of the map is visible to the player's team. Areas that are not visible are covered by the Fog of War. Visions can be granted by allied heroes, units, and wards. Trees, walls, and higher terrain will obstruct vision.