In a game as complex as DotA 2, there’s plenty of technicalities and exceptions that will change the tide of battle. However, even the most seasoned player has some cool details to learn. Here’s our 9 DotA Mechanics You’ve Never Heard of!
- Zeus’ ultimate damage is dealt in descending order on the scoreboard.
You heard right– while it seems to be instant, damage dealt by Zeus’ ultimate is done in order of the players on the scoreboard. On the Dire, the pink player gets hit first, and the brown player is hit last. On the Radiant, blue gets hit first and orange is the last.
Why does this matter? Zeus’ ultimate reveals invisible units, but doesn’t damage them. Say you’re teal, and you’re playing Bounty Hunter. Your buddy blue is playing Riki, and you’re standing right next to each other, invisible, when the enemy Zeus ults. The ultimate will hit your friend blue first, and while it will reveal him, he won’t take any damage. However, because he was revealed with True Sight standing next to you, you got revealed too– and when it’s your turn a fraction of a second later, you’ll get fried with 250 damage while your friend gets away unharmed.
- Lane distance influences creepwaves. If there were no heroes in Dota, the Dire would win.
Must try DotA Mechanics: Over time, a couple of curious players would start a match without any heroes and see what would happen if we left only creeps to fight it out. People on forums began to notice that the Dire (or the Scourge in DotA1) won almost all the time. Why? Well, there’s a couple different factors that go into it; creep spawn rates, movement speed, distance to the lane (safelane being the longer distance) and, when creep waves got big enough; tower attack speed. In Dota1 this revealed that the Scourge towers attacked a very tiny bit faster. In DotA2, we still have similar results, just for a variety of very tiny reasons.
- Kill orders Purge buffs.
Have you ever heard that Axe’s Culling Blade will go through Dazzle’s Shallow Grave? It’s because of kill orders. If the Graved hero is within the HP threshold, all buffs are instantly removed when the Cull goes through. Same thing with Techies Suicide. Oracle’s ultimate or Grave won’t keep him alive, because Suicide also purges buffs. No way to stop those deaths.
- AOE spells can overlap.
Yes, if Rubick steals Naga Siren’s ultimate and they cast it at the same time, they both fall asleep. Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that; since events can’t happen at the same time (see number 9) you’d have to cast it before getting in range of the other Song.
- Blademails don’t reflect off each other.
So, no, you can’t kill an enemy with a blademail by popping your own. Apparently this used to be the case in DotA 1, until it got patched. Now on this DotA mechanics If two people had their blademails on and one dealt one damage to the other, it would bounce back and forth and immediately kill both of them. Go figure.
You can, however, do this with 2 Vipers with Corrosive Skin in a 1v1 match up. The results are pretty funny.
- Phoenix CAN die inside the egg.
It’s rare, but it can happen. He won’t be reborn afterwards. For example; if Oracle’s ultimate False Promise is cast on Phoenix, and he takes more damage than his HP and he Supernovas right before death, he will pass away in the egg . Another example is if he’s in Wraith form (caused by Wraith King’s ultimate) and tries to cast Supernova. The egg will spawn, but no Phoenix will come out.
- Rosh really does reclaim his Aegis.
Sorry, guys– if you were to leave the Aegis on the floor, you won’t get a second one when Rosh respawns. An expiry time starts ticking when it falls on the ground, not when you pick it up.
- It’s actually possible to cancel Relocate’s return and Disruptor Glimpse with TP scroll.
This is something that happens so rarely because the timing has to be absolutely flawless, but with patience you can learn to do this in a lobby. If you’re playing Wisp and Relocate back to base in a dangerous fight, technically, if you time it properly, you can TP in fountain and complete it at the exact second you would otherwise return to the fight. Otherwise, you’d potentially return to your death after 10 seconds.
You can also do this to dodge Disruptor’s glimpse. Again, this is very unlikely to happen because the timing has to be flawless, but if your TP finishes the second before you get pulled to the Glimpse spot, you’ll avoid it. Pretty tricky DotA mechanics everyone.
- There is no such thing as a simultaneous event, and it gets very strange.
As proven by the Zeus mechanic and kills from the grave, in Dota2, it is impossible for two things to happen at the same time.
Here’s where this DotA Mechanics gets weird. If no two things can happen at the same time, then the first thing that happens gets priority, right?
Wrong. If two Spirit Breakers charge each other, the second player, who charged a bit later, gets the bash. Not the first!
Why? Because if actions happen too closely in a limited amount of time, the last action computed is the one shown to the players. Say what you want, coding mechanics isn’t easy.
Have you or your friends heard of these cool Dota mechanics? Do you have more we can add to the list, or stories about unexpected interactions? Let us know, or ask us your what-if questions below!
