Contents
I. AoS Gameplay
- Objective
- Heroes
- Items
- Lanes
- Bases
- Outposts
- Observatories
- Creeps
- Pushing
- Assassin
- Nuker
- Pusher
- Support
- Tank
I. AoS Gameplay
SMotA is an Aeon of Strife (AoS) type map, where each player controls a hero that can grow stronger over time. A familiar map that is also an AoS would be DotA. AoS originally came from StarCraft; however, the WarCraft III map editor is simply much stronger, allowing for functions impossible to make with the StarCraft editor.
1. Objective
Destroy the enemy base structure.
The High Elves must raze the Demonic Portal, whereas the Demons must eradicate the Well of Eternity. Both of these structures have an extremely high amount of hitpoints and armor, and also quite a bit of regeneration. The easiest way to bring these down is to first destroy the barrack structures, allowing upgraded creeps and even Mega Creeps, the strongest level of spawned creeps. Mega Creeps can kill the otherwise invincible fortresses in a matter of seconds. These are much stronger than their counterparts in DotA.
2. Heroes
To help reach the objective, each player picks a hero from one of the taverns in the beginning of the game. They can also use the -random command, giving them a random hero. If the decision is made within the first two minutes, a player can type -repick, relinquishing their current hero and allowing him to repick another.
Each hero has a primary attribute: strength, agility, or intelligence. Strength heroes tend to have more hitpoints and be difficult to kill, agility heroes are generally faster and can deal more damage, while intelligence heroes normally have a wide range of spells available to help with many aspects of the game. For a more detailed explanation of these, take a look at the Attributes article.
3. Items
In SMotA, many items can "upgrade" or combine with other items into more powerful versions.
In the early game, it is important to have a source of hitpoint and/or mana regeneration and also bonus stats. It is not a surpise then that one of the most popular starting items for advanced players is the Keg of Ale, which provides hitpoint and mana regeneration, armor, and a bonus to all stats. It is created from 4 items that each provide one of the bonuses of the original item: Ring of Regeneration, Sobi Mask, Ring of Protection, and Circlet of Nobility.
Another important aspect throughout the game is movement speed, which is given by the Boot/Gauntlet tree. A simple level 1 Boots of Speed is sufficient in the early game, but a level 3 Boots of Speed can later combine with a level 3 Gloves of Haste, resulting in a level 1 Power Gauntlets, which in turn can also be upgraded to level 3, providing a whopping 110 movespeed. There are many more items for the beginner to explore, and it must be mentioned that a secret shop exists, despite the fact that it doesn't sell anything.
4. Lanes
A lane is a path that is taken by spawned creeps from its own base to the enemy's. There are three lanes, which are commonly referred to as top, middle, and bottom. The top and bottom lanes each possess an Outpost, while the middle lane contains two. Observatories also exist between the middle lane and either side lane.
5. Bases
Each team begins with one relatively large base. Players are normally safe once inside their bases, that is, unless oppoenents have taken down base towers and such. Bases contain shops that sell important items. The High Elves begin with a base on the Southwest, while the Demonic base resides in the Northeast.
6. Outposts
Outposts are mini-bases that are located near the center or at the other two corners from the main bases. The top lane outpost is initially controlled by the High Elves and is located in the Northwest, whereas the bottom lane outpost is controlled by the Demons in the Southeast. Additionally, two Outposts are located in the middle lane, each team controlling the closer one in the beginning. Outposts spawn special creeps, provide sight, and come with teleporters back to base. Outposts can be captured by either team. If a team can hold all four Outposts for an extended period of time, they are normally at an advantage.
7. Observatories
Observatories, like Outposts, can be traded back and forth between the two teams. Observatories do not offer as many benefits such as extra creep spawning and teleporters, but they provide an enormous area of sight, hence their name. See the article on Observatories for more information.
8. Creeps
Creeps are spawned primarily from the two main bases, however, the Outposts will spawn bonus creeps once in a while. Outpost creeps are stronger than normal ones, but are small in number. Main bases also periodically spawn bonus creeps themselves, including magical and flying ones in addition to the normal melee and ranged creeps. Neutral creeps exist at several sites across the map; these fight for neither side and are hostile to anyone who crosses their path. However, they often give more bounty than lane creeps, and tougher ones can give more experience as well.
9. Pushing
Pushing is simply the act of advancing along one or more lanes; this normally involves destroying towers. On the map it looks like one team is pushing the other one back, hence the name. A win is impossible without pushing, because a player must advance into the enemy base to achieve victory.
II. Hero Classifications
Note: one hero can fit into more than one classification.
1. Assassin
Assassins specialize in quickly killing other heroes, especially ones with low hitpoints. Assassins are generally agility heroes and many have ambushing abilities like some form of invisiblity or quick movement. Many assassins also have skills that improve their damage output.
Subcategories:
- Invisibility Heroes: can become invisible in some way, useful for ambushing and escaping; check out the Invisibility article for a comprehensive list of these heroes
- Chasers: can move at very high speeds and outrun fleeing heroes, or can slow down or even stop enemies with spells and bashes
- DPS'ers: have high damage per second (dps)
- Elven Hunter: can become passively invisible with Hunter's Cunning and can slow enemies down with Poison Arrows and Speed Drain, of which the latter speeds up the Elven Hunter as well
- Raider: can move quickly with Accelerating Warp and Blazing Speed and deal massive damage with Blood Pact, also can slow down enemies with Gushing Blade
- Troll Beserker: can increase attack speed with Beserk and damage with Spear Mastery
These heroes nuke or use spells to deal massive damage as opposed to using physical attacks. Almost all nukers are intelligence heroes.
Examples:
- Tuskarr Mage: can deal spell damage with Frost Bolt, Snowball, Winter Chill, and Nova of Frost
- Warlock: can deal spell damage with Immolate, Incinerate, Shadowfury, and Conflagrate :D
These are heroes who excel in destroying large waves, or groups, of enemy creeps and can also empower allied ones. And as the name suggests, these heroes are also able to advance quickly along a selected lane; any abilities that help kill towers help as well. A successful pusher can often win the game for their team if they succeed in infiltration of the enemy base.
Subcategories:
- AoE (Area of Effect) Heroes: can deal damage to multiple targets at a time, facilitating annihilation of creep waves, includes both AoE physical and magical damage
- Summoners: can summon their own special creeps to attack enemies
- Tower Killers: can kill towers more easily than most heroes
- Mountain Giant: can hit multiple creeps in one attack with Mighty Attack
- Skeletal Mage: can summon Zombies and cause AoE damage with Soul Barrage and Crippling Void
- Goblin Sapper: can raze enemy structures with Demolition Bot and Land Mine
These heroes will help their allies and hurt their enemies with support skills, not necessarily dealing damage. This is perhaps the widest category of heroes.
Subcategories:
- Healer: can heal allied heroes
- Enchanter: can place powerful buffs on allied heroes, including auras
- Disabler: can cast spells that reduce or neutralize enemies' combat abilities, including damage output, defense, movement, and spell-casting
- Stunner: can stun enemy heroes, stopping them and rendering them unable to attack or cast spells shortly
- Holy Priest: can heal allies with Touch of God and Global Heal, and can provide two buffs with Brilliance Aura and Divine Intervention
- Paladin: can heal allies and remove harmful spell effects with Purify and can siginificantly improve their defense with Divine Empowerment
- Tree Goddess: can Rock Hex enemies and also immobilize them with Grasp of Nature
- Tauren: can stun enemies with Split Earth and Global Stomp
These are heroes who can tank, or withstand a lot of damage, usually with high hitpoints, armor, or healing. Tanks are used to draw enemy fire away from more fragile targets like assassins or nukers. They are also used to lead pushes. Most tanks are strength heroes.
Examples:
- War Golem: can heal with Reassemble and can improve hitpoints and armor with Nanoplating
- Sludge King: can have an enormous quantity of hitpoints and armor with Sludge Composition
1. Try to avoid dying. And by that I mean be alert, look around often for enemy heroes, etc. It is normally more important to keep yourself alive than to kill an enemy.
2. Look through the heroes on single player. SMotA allows unlimited repicking in single player, so it is possible to go through many heroes in a single session. Generally beginners find agility-based ranged heroes easiest to play.
3. Look through the items on single player as well. Knowing the types of items can help with various aspects of the game.
4. Don't try to fight someone several levels above you, unless they are on low hitpoints and you know you can kill them.
5. Know when to retreat. If you are chasing a nearly dead enemy and they reach their base or another hero, it is normally time to give up the chase and return home.
6. Level really matters!
7. Try not to let creeps attack you in the early game. If you follow this, you will almost always have more hitpoints.
8. Do not fight when outnumbered. I had a game where an ally and I were pushing a lane with about 10 creeps, and suddenly an enemy popped up to face us both with the creeps. He ran into the midst of the creeps and we killed him in about 5 seconds. Which brings us to:
9. Do not underestimate creeps. You can face them in the late game, but trying to solo a creep wave is suicidal early on.
10. Keep your health up. If you are running low on health, go back to base as quickly as possible (i.e. via Teleporters), heal, and get back in the lane. Many beginners die because they think they are safe even when they have only a small amount of hitpoints left. Generally, if you are ever at less than 33% health, a fountain heal is recommended.
11. Keep your team in mind. If an ally deserves a kill, don't steal it. If you have a healing spell, heal your allies when they are low on health. Use beneficial spells on them, etc.
12. Know that spells deal 75% damage to heroes. Suppose you want to finish someone off with a 400 damage spell, and you are attacking the enemy. Wait for his hp to go below 300, then cast the spell; this will kill him. If you cast the spell first, they will immediately run and depending on the situation, it may or may not be possible to chase them.
13. To get gold for killing a creep, you must provide the final hit. In other words, if you took down a creep from 500 to 10 health and a nearby allied creep with more than 10 damage hits it, you will not get any gold. A good player will turn that around, letting allied creeps do the damaging and then time a last hit to get the gold. You get experience either way.
14. You can deny an allied creep, causing it to not give gold or experience to your opponents. This is done by attacking and killing one of your allied creeps when they are at low health.
15. Get a Keg of Ale in the early game. It will help you survive immensely.
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