My 3443 Hour (!) Dota 2 Overhaul

Explanation

Here is a list of things I would do, if I was given complete control over Dota 2. I have played this game for 3433 Hours (!), and watched 500–600 Hours of professional play.

Here is a screenshot from My Steam Profile. You can click the link to verify it yourself.

Guilty as charged.

New Items

BLOOD DAGGER: With this cheap item you sacrifice a percentage of your max health to teleport to another destination. There is a trail of blood following you, visible even if you are invisible.

NEW RADIANCE: There should be a cheaper version of radiance that can be used as a farming item. There needs to be other alternatives than Maelstrom and Battle Fury. This item would do 40 dmg/second to enemies, and 50% bonus damage to creeps.

THE BERSERKER: This item will give 80 dmg, 10 armor, 25% lifesteal.

Active gives +75% lifesteal, 150 attack speed, and 150 attack range for 3 seconds (12 second cooldown). Any target hit beyond 100 range during active will get sucked in by 50 units and slowed by 90%, and 90% attack speed for 0.2 seconds.

This effect is inverted when the carrier is ranged. It pushes the opponent away by 50 units (but not beyond 400 units). It still gives +150 attack range. Cost would be 6–7k, for this item.

I would like there to be an upgrade which gives this item 35% cleave for melee — and 35% splash for ranged. This effect increases by 65% during active (up to 100%).

This upgrade also gives the carrier 35% damage reduction from all sources during the active. It also gives 35% status resistance. Reduces cooldown to 10 seconds.

With the upgrade, the closest friendly hero gains a weaker version of the active effect. They gain 35% lifesteal, 75 attack speed, 75 attack range, and 25% damage reduction from all sources for 3 seconds. They also get 25% status resistance.

The friendly hero has to be within 600 range to get the bonus.

WHITE QUEEN STAFF This item is the “brawler” version of BKB. The hero becomes silver-colored when active. It gives 40% damage reduction from all sources (physical, magical, pure), 40% Status Resistance, and 60% slow resistance. Duration is 7 seconds with a 45 second cooldown.

The item itself gives +35 damage, +35 movement speed, +10 to all attributes. The item itself passively gives 20% status resistance — and 30% slow resistance. The active gives you more of each.

UBERGUARD: I would like two Vanguards to automatically combine into this item. This gives 750 life, 25 hp regen, 75% 75 dmg block. 75% 50 for ranged.

The passive always procs on critical strikes and the effect is doubled (up to 150). This makes this item viable in the midgame and late game.

The item has an upgrade which gives it the ability to block 200 damage from a magical spell every 10 seconds. The damage has to be 200+ for it to proc. It applies to single target and area of effect spells. Think of it like a “poor man’s” Linken Sphere.

UBERBASHER: This is an upgrade to the Skull Basher. This item would give +20 strength and +60 attack damage.

The bash would do +150 physical damage and last for 1.5 seconds. It would have a 2.5 second cooldown. This item would have 50% true strike, and 100% lifesteal on the bash damage. If the enemy hero has 0 armor, this would be a 150 hp heal every time.

Each bash would reduce target armor by 5, for the next 15 seconds. This armor is given to the attacker. Separate bashes fully stack. Three bashes means -15 armor on the enemy, and +15 armor on you.

Roshan cannot have more than 2 stacks at the same time.

Item Upgrades

Slot Efficiency is a big problem when it comes to late game Dota 2. For this reason, I would like to see “upgrades” for many of the big items.

In my humble opinion, most expensive items should have 1 or 2 possible upgrades. It’s another thing to do, and it makes the game more fun.

The company behind Dota 2 has been introducing new items fairly slowly, in the last 5 years. Buying the same items every game becomes boring and repetitive.

I mean, I have 3400 hours in this game!

I would like this game to have twice as many items, as it has right now. Especially mid game and late game items. Everybody who has played Diablo 1/2/3 — knows how important ITEMS are!

Items even played a role in Warcraft 3, actually, and this is what paved the way for Dota 2!

BLADE MAIL UPGRADE: The problem with blade mail is slot inefficiency. It does not give enough stats for the late game. Buying two blade mails automatically combines it to this upgrade.

It gives: 10 Armor, 40 Damage, 25 + 25% passive dmg return. 100% extra dmg return during active (125% in total).

+10 bonus armor when active. Duration is 6.5 seconds (up from 5.5). The dmg return does 100% increased damage to creeps (passive + active). Even Roshan. This makes this item okay for farming, as well.

BATTLE FURY UPGRADE: The upgrade would give this item +25% Status Resistance and +50% Slow Resistance.

The active would place a debuff on the enemy hero which slowed movement and attack speed by 35%, and reduced spell damage by 35%. Duration is 3 seconds. 15 second cooldown. The duration is doubled against creeps.

The changes would make this item more useful in battles with the enemy team. It would also introduce a convenient way to get status resistance and slow resistance. In my version of the game, the Battle Fury gives 50% splash damage to ranged heroes (in a 250 radius).

ASSAULT CUIRASS UPGRADE: The upgrade increases bonus armor to +15 and attack speed to +45. It also gives +15% evasion. There would also be a 3.5 second active ability with a 25 second cooldown.

This active ability reduces damage taken from all sources by 30%, and gives +30 hp regen, +30% healing & regeneration boost. This should allow heroes to jump into a crowd and pop the active.

HEART OF TARRASQUE UPGRADE: This upgrade would give +60 strength, and a 2% of max hp regeneration (up from 1.6%).

You can “donate” this 2% regen to teammates, by clicking on them. This lasts for 10 seconds. This heal is based on the carrier’s max hit points.

You can also put this on the enemy. This powerful heal turns into a powerful curse. It does magical damage, and reduces healing, regeneration, and lifesteal of the enemy hero by 25%.

FORCE STAFF UPGRADE: This item would give +25 intelligence, +25 movement speed, and +400 life.

It would give the active ability “Force” another +100 range, and +15% speed. It would heal teammates by 150 — and do 150 magical damage to enemies.

After 90 seconds of inactivity, it would gain another charge. After 180 seconds, it would gain a third charge.

PHASE BOOTS UPGRADE: The upgraded version would have: 7 armor, 30 damage (melee), 15/30% increased movement speed with active. The hero also gets 100% evasion on the first absorbed physical attack after activation.

I would give Phase Boots another upgrade which gave them 10 armor, 40 damage, and 20/40% increased movement speed with the active. The hero would get 100% evasion on the first two absorbed physical attacks after activation.

AEON DISK UPGRADE: This upgrade would give Aeon Disk +500 life and +500 mana. The “Combo Breaker” cooldown would be reduced by 25%.

The carrier would get +10 armor, +10% magic resistance, and 20% status resistance while the active was on cooldown (assuming the item is not in the backpack).

This upgrade would make this item useful, even when the active was on cooldown.

HEAVEN’S HALBERD UPGRADE: This upgrade would give the item +30 strength, +35% evasion, 20% status resistance, +30% health regen amp, +30% lifesteal amp.

The “Disarm” active would last one extra second (4 seconds for melee, 6 seconds for ranged), and reduce spell damage by 50%.

It would also sap 1% of max hp, and 1% of max mana each second. This life and mana goes directly to the caster.

This change would allow the item to counter carries and casters. It would make it more versatile.

Item Changes

BATTLE FURY: Add ranged splash damage to Battle Fury. This could be 50% on a 250 radius. Ranged heroes need another farming item than Maelstrom!

THE SATANIC: I would give it +30 strength, +30 damage, 40% lifesteal, and +110% lifesteal with active. This creates a better balance between active and passive lifesteal. I would also give the carrier 35% status resistance — and 50% slow resistance during active. Price would be increased to 5500 with these changes.

MJOLLNIR: Give the active “Static Charge” 15% damage reduction from all sources, and reduce duration to 10 seconds from 15. The passive and active lightning should also have 25% inherent spell lifesteal.

HURRICANE PIKE: Give it +75 attack range to melee heroes. Make the active for melee heroes a weaker version of Mar’s God’s Rebuke.

Make it a 250% splash crit with pushback. This would make this item viable for melee heroes, as well. This melee crit would do 50% extra damage to creeps.

When a ranged hero uses the active on a creep, the hero gets 75% splash damage around that creep, for those 5 special attacks. It also gives vision of that creep, during the next 3 seconds. This way, you can farm with the active.

MONKEY KING BAR: Increase damage and attack speed to +50. Reduce true strike to 70% from 80%. The magical proc damage is doubled against creeps (to 140), and has 50% built in spell lifesteal. Increase price from 4700 to 5200. This makes this item a viable farming item.

OVERWHELMING BLINK: I would reduce the damage and slow of the active, reduce its duration by 1 second (down to 5), and instead give the caster 40% damage reduction from all sources for 5 seconds. Cooldown would be increased to 25 seconds.

Neutral Items

The addition of neutral items, to Dota 2, was a BIG HIT! Everybody loved it. It has a random element, it is exciting, yet still balanced.

If I was given ultimate control of this game, I would introduce a secondary neutral item slot, which had to be two levels below the primary neutral item.

A hero could have a level 5 neutral item in the primary slot, and a level 3 neutral item in the secondary slot. This would introduce another item slot — without disrupting the game.

This effect would come into effect on level 3, since, at that time, you could have a lvl 1 neutral item on your secondary item slot.

It’s not a huge change, but it would improve the game.

There is another thing I would do. I would introduce a slight time-based boost to neutral items of the lower levels. I want these items to be used in the midgame — and even late game.

The numbers of these items could be improved by 1% each gameplay minute. This timer would start as soon as the next round of neutral items drop.

This would mean that “Poor Man’s Shield”, a Level 1 item, would start getting upgraded at minute 17, when Level 2 neutrals drop. At minute 27, it would have a +10% boost. At minute 37, it would have a +20% boost.

+20% would increase bonus agility from +8 to +10, and increase passive damage block from +30 to +36 for melee heroes.

I would give neutral items a secondary item slot, and a slight time-based boost.

Innate Abilities

Dota 2 just introduced “Innate Abilities”, one for each hero. I love it! But I would like to take this concept one step further.

Did you play Guild Wars? Or the MMORPG Rift?

In those games, you could pick a primary and a secondary profession. This improved the game by a landslide, as it opened up many new builds.

I would do the same with Dota 2.

You get your own hero’s Innate Ability when you pick your hero. In a regular Dota 2 game, you would get to pick your secondary innate ability at level 10 (at 65% strength), and your third innate ability at level 20 (at 50% strength).

You cannot pick an innate ability that is already in your game. Apart from that rule, you can pick anything. This would make the game a lot more fun — and interesting!

I really think so.

If you look at the general trajectory of Dota 2, they are always adding new things into the game; new options, new item slots, new abilities, new items, new heroes, new games.

Even though Dota 2 has been out for a long time, Valve is staying aggressive in introducing new features into the game. They take risk, and I respect that!

There was a HUGE BOOST in players when they introduced the new map, with the neutral items. It was a significant improvement to the game. They also increased map size by 40%, which made the game more enjoyable.

Before this, it was almost impossible to come back once the enemy team had “taken over” the map. Now, it is possible to farm, even though you belong to the weaker team.

I LOVE IT!

Stats

I would like to see different options when it comes to picking “stats” — or “attributes” (+2 of each).

Here are some examples. The numbers would have to be tested and balanced, of course (like always!).

The three additions I would like to see are:

1. Durability Upgrade
2. Resistance Upgrade
3. Damage Upgrade

Durability Upgrade:

• +1 hp regen
• +1 armor
• +1 magic resistance
• +1% healing & regeneration boost

Resistance Upgrade:

• +1.5% status resistance
• +3% slow resistance

Damage Upgrade:

• +4 damage
• +2% spell amplification

This would introduce a lot more choice — when it came to building your hero. I also realize that Dota 2 has to be well balanced to function as an Esport.

Dota 2 is currently the biggest Esport in the world.

Revenue Sharing

I would introduce “Revenue Sharing” to the top 250 Arcade games in Dota 2. It would start at 25%. It would be increased by 5% for every game tier.

• Games 200–250: 25%.
• Games 150–200: 30%.
• Games 100–150: 35%.
• Games 50–100: 40%.
• Games 25–50: 45%.
• Games 2–25: 50%.
• Game 1: 100%.

The most popular arcade game each month would get 100% of the player based revenue. It would also get promoted within the game itself.

Contribution Fund

I would also start a Contribution Fund for the Arcade games in the 250–500 range (in terms of popularity).

I would reach out to these game makers, and ask them what they need to improve their game. They might need money, technical expertise, a mentor, or something else.

I might offer them a “development contract”, where they received money in order to work on their game. Progress would be evaluated by an expert, and beta testers, and the contract would be extended based on that.

They might get bonuses based on how much their game was played.

I might also reach out to the makers behind the games 500–1000, as they showed a lot of expertise and motivation to make this game (probably for free).

Teams

I would create 10–15 professional teams, with 3–5 people in each team, and their only job was to make Arcade games for Dota 2. They would get bonuses based on how popular the games became.

Any team who did not perform would be replaced by another team. It is easy to see playing time within the game itself.

Once these Arcade games gained a player base, and started making money for the company, I would start more teams.

Monetization is already taken care of, you just want to keep players on the platform itself. This is how Facebook makes money on its FREE Marketplace service, it keeps people on the platform.

Stipends

I would offer “stipends” or “development contracts” for Arcade game ideas. You would apply, describe your idea, and get the money.

I would also offer help along the way. And create a community where everybody helps each other out.

Free Promotion

Well made arcade games could be featured by the company and promoted in various ways. This is a win-win. This is already being done by Valve, to a degree.

I’m a blogger, so I would start a blog where arcade games were reviewed in an honest way, you could pay various Youtubers and streamers to play these games, as well.

If the game is good enough, it will promote itself.

Free Education

Since learning the tools is a big obstacle to start making your games, I would offer free educational resources, where you learn to use these programs.

I would create a well-made, and professional, free online video course. You might want to have a course for beginners, for intermediates, and for advanced users.

Gaming Companies

The end goal with the “Revenue Sharing” system is to attract small effective teams — and gaming companies to the platform.

As soon as Dota 2 Arcade games become a viable source of money, the professionals will come.

Dota 2 has the perfect platform to become an early mover in a field like this. The early mover takes control over the market, gets the players, makes the money, and wins the game.

Feedback Groups

To make things more professional and effective, I would institute special “Feedback Groups” — where people and groups give feedback to each other.

Each group would have a leader, which is an experienced game maker appointed by the company. This person would get a 5% commission on any revenue from the games they are coaching.

There would be three different “Feedback Groups”.

1. The first one is FREE and is once a week (Monday).
2. The second one costs 75 dollars a month, and is twice a week (Monday/Thursday).
3. The third one costs 150 dollars a month, and is three times a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday).

I would also schedule beta testers to test these games early in development, in order to recognize a failed idea. Every 2–3 months, 5–10 people would play this game — and give honest feedback.

The other people in the feedback group would also play the game, and give valuable feedback.

Talents

The addition of “Talents” was a good thing for Dota 2. It gave players another option, another choice, another level of complexity.

What I would do with Talents, is to add another option on each level (Level 5, 10, 15, 20, 25). So 3 options, instead of 2.

I would introduce a system where every level had three types of talents.

TALENT 1: The first of those talents gave Utility. Movement speed, slow resistance, status resistance, money, cooldown reduction, and so on.

TALENT 2: The second of those Talents gave Offense. Attack damage, attack speed, spell amplification, casting time reduction, casting range increase.

TALENT 3: The third Talent gave Defense. Armor, magic resistance, evasion, hp regeneration, damage reduction, lifesteal, spell lifesteal.

This would give the Talent system more variation — and make it more balanced, at the same time.

There is no logical reason why you could not have four options each level, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

I would start by adding one, making it three talents. Once that was working well (in terms of balance), I would add another talent, making it four.

In my system, the fourth talent would always be gold or farming related.

TALENT 4: The fourth Talent gives Gold. This talent would generate gold, or increase farm in some way.

This Talent is extra useful for players that are struggling.

Dota 2 has always been a hardcore game. It has always been tough for the players who fall behind. Valve has done many things to help these guys out (bounty runes, philosopher’s stone, larger map, personal animal courier, so on).

• Talent 1: Utility
• Talent 2: Offense
• Talent 3: Defense
• Talent 4: Gold/Farm

Arcade Game Monetization

To increase the revenue potential for successful Dota 2 Arcade games, I would open up in-game monetization.

This has to be done right, or it will ruin the gaming experience, and even damage the Dota 2 brand. It cannot, under any circumstances, be “pay to win”.

You can offer the players new heroes, new maps, new features, new skins — things like this. Dota 2 and League of Legends — already do this very well.

I would split the money made this way 50%/50% with the map makers. In game monetization should only be used on maps that are proven to have a player base. That are already doing well.

This type of monetization has to be manually approved by the hosting company.

If a successful gaming company contacted me, and wanted to make a professional Dota 2 Arcade game? I would offer them up to 75% of in-game monetization.

Imagine how small mobile gaming would be, if you could not make money within the game itself?

Final Thoughts

My conclusion is that Dota 2 is one of the biggest computer games of all time, and the biggest Esport of all time!

Valve is doing 9/10 things right. I respect that.

Here are some ideas, after having played this game for 3400 Hours.

I know that many of the things suggested in this text would not work, in practice. The changes would have to be rolled back, once installed.

I know that.

This is my attempt at making my favorite game even better. I am currently addicted to the Arcade game Custom Hero Chaos. I play it every single day.

I also watch The International, the semifinals, and the finals of the big tournaments. I might have watched 500–600 hours of professional Dota 2 play.

Dota 2 is the greatest MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) ever made, better than League of Legends — but I still see room for improvement!

Starcraft 2

Did you like this text?

I actually wrote a similar text about Starcraft 2: Billion Dollar Strategy Game: My Starcraft 2 Revamp

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This text was written by Theo Alexander Gerken.