Custom Hero Chaos: The Biggest Game Inside Dota 2

The best game you've never played.

Explanation

“Custom Hero Chaos” is the biggest game inside Dota 2. Dota 2 has these “custom games” that show up under the button “Arcade” (a bit confusing – I know!).

There you will see a list of the most popular custom games. “Custom games” are, generally speaking, made by fanboys and modders.

Ambitious guys who like to explore their creative side. This is how “Dota” came to be. A guy under the name of “Icefrog” made a custom game inside Warcraft 3 – and it became really popular.

Ursa Deathmatch

It ended up being one of the more played Warcraft 3 custom games. I actually played it back then, before it became THE BEAST – it is today.

I lived in Edmonton, Canada, and I was attending Harry Ainlay High School, which was the biggest high school in western Canada (1500 students). Made from a World War 2 bunker, it had absolutely zero windows.

I had moved there with my family. But I grew up in Sweden. I moved back to Sweden after high school, for various reasons.

I remember playing this game in a basement (my room) in Edmonton, and I played Ursa, and it was a “Deathmatch”, which meant that every time you died – you came back as another hero.

My whole team left, but I was really strong. And I killed off the opponents one by one. They came back as new heroes. It was 1 vs 5 (or maybe 4).

It was an adrenaline rush, as playing “Dota” (a team game) by yourself is generally a DEATH SENTENCE.

Impossible!

Dota Allstars

Valve bought the rights to “Dota” from Blizzard (who owns Warcraft 3) back in 2009.

According to this Quora answer, the “Dota” custom map back then was called “Dota Allstars”, and it was made by a team of independent developers. When Valve wanted to buy the rights, “Icefrog” was the only one still working on the game.

I tried to find out what they paid, but it appears to be a secret. Probably because it was not much, and it would make Blizzard look stupid.

To them, back then, it was one of many successful custom maps. The people who sold the rights had probably not played this specific custom game themselves.

But buying those rights sure seems like a BRILLIANT idea – NOW!

Icefrog

“Icefrog” was recruited by Valve as a lead designer of the game. It is unclear exactly what he does, but the game is very well managed, and is moving in the right direction.

A couple years ago (back in 2019), the player base had stagnated, but then they revamped the game (new 40% larger map, added neutral items, new features) – and a lot of players came back to the game.

I was already playing the game, often with my childhood friends from Ekerö, and my playing time definitely increased.

Death Spiral

Games that have been out for a long time often “stagnate”. 

The player base drops.

This causes further hesitation within the company to spend money on managing the game – which appears to be a sinking ship.

This is a – DEATH SPIRAL – which has killed many promising games.

The strategy game Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars was one of the best strategy games I have ever played. And I am a strategy game FREAK.

But it had a couple bugs and unbalanced units, like, the “worms” for the alien race was far too strong, and an “auto-win” in multiplayer mode.

That’s fun.

Nothing got fixed. And the game did not become the SMASHING hit it deserved to be. 92% (!) of the user reviews on Steam are positive for this game.

Yeah.

Dota 2 is still EXTREMELY profitable, and had an average of 480 000 concurrent players – over the last 30 days.

“Concurrent” means they are actively playing the game. The monthly peak was 801 000.

This is a different number from a game’s Player Base, which is how many people log into the game over the last month (or so).

I did a Google Search for Dota 2’s “Player Base”, but I couldn’t find any useful information.

As a rough estimation, I would calculate that a game’s “Player Base” is about 100x the “Average Concurrent Players” – over the last 30 days.

480 000 x 100 = 48 Million.

This would give Dota 2 a player base of 48 Million.

Either way.

Dota 2 runs NO RISK of falling into this so-called “Death Spiral”.

Absolute Control

I actually wrote a whole text about what I would do with Dota 2, if I gained Absolute Control over the game.

• Here it is on Substack: Billion Dollar MOBA: My Dota 2 Overhaul

• Here it is on Medium: My 3443 Hour (!) Dota 2 Overhaul

I wrote a similar text about Starcraft 2.

• Here it is on Substack: Billion Dollar Strategy Game: My Starcraft 2 Revamp

• Here it is on Medium: This is how I would Revamp Starcraft 2

I also created the theoretical foundation for a new mobile PVP game called “Chaos Arena”.

• Here is that text on Substack: The Ultimate Mobile PVP Game: Chaos Arena

• Here it is on Medium: The Ultimate Mobile PVP Game: Chaos Arena

Playing Preferences

I played “normal” unranked Dota 2 for many years. After a break from the game – I came back and started playing “Ability Draft”.

In “Ability Draft”, you build a new hero every single game. The games are highly unpredictable, and the matchups are often uneven.

Since one hero with a strong build will dominate the whole game. And the skill builds of the OTHER heroes are usually bad.

Many matches end up being a STOMP.

From there, I started playing various custom games. It was here, that I found THE SUBJECT of this article – Custom Hero Chaos.

We have arrived.

Want More?

Custom Hero Chaos

I have actually played Dota 2 for 3450 Hours. Here is a link to my Steam Profile.

I currently only play Custom Hero Chaos, and I have played that game for 67.4 Hours over the last 2 weeks.

My Custom Hero Chaos rating hovers around 4300, which is within the top 10% of the player base. I am usually the highest – or second highest – ranking player in the game (but not always!).

This game is built on a very strong foundation. It does the most important things right.

The first gaming company that takes this concept – and turns it into a REAL GAME, an independent game, will be rich.

A “first-mover” in any field – has a huge advantage. They take control over the whole market.

Although this game is extremely unbalanced, it is still very fun to play. About 1 hero in 3 is “playable”. About 1 hero in 6 is “good”. About 1 hero in 10 is “great”.

“Great” in this sense – means OVERPOWERED!

Because the heroes were made for Dota 2, and were imported, without changes, into this custom game. A custom game which has very specific needs and demands.

In this game, you need to be able to do Three Things.

They are:

1. Kill minions quickly

2. Survive lots of physical damage

3. Win duels

Resources

Here are some Custom Hero Chaos links:

1. Here is the Steam Page for the game itself.

2. Here is their Steam Change Notes page.

3. Here is a Youtube Video where Dota 2 streamer Admiral Bulldog tries Custom Hero Chaos.

4. In this video (62k views) Youtuber Baumi plays Custom Hero Chaos.

5. A Reddit Page about various builds.

6. Here is their Discord Channel.

There isn’t a lot of useful information online about this game. This might be the first longer text written about this game.

Balance Issues

The game is not being managed in terms of balance. Everyone knows which HEROES, which SKILLS, and which ITEMS are too strong – but it does not get fixed.

I actually contacted the team behind this game, and offered them my services.

I could literally sit down, and in one hour, list all the things that should change, and send it to them.

They could take my list, then go into the game editor and fix it. The entire game could be well-balanced from just two hours of work.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

There are new items in this game. You mostly buy the items that were made for this game, because they are 3-5 times more powerful than the other items.

But all the items from Dota 2, are available in this game. The problem is that they are too weak. They need to be upgraded – it would not be hard to do.

But for whatever reason, it is not being done.

This game is often at the top of the charts in terms of playing time. It has about 7000 active players in peak hours, which translates to a player base of about 700 000 people.

There is a lot of money in this game, compared to a regular Dota 2 game. The items are bigger, badder, and much more expensive.

The best CARRY ITEM costs about 13 000 gold.

It gives:

• +120 damage

• +80 attack speed

• +30% evasion

• +30 armor

• +15 hp regeneration

• It increases all physical damage against creeps by 80%

• It gives +400 attack range for melee heroes when attacking minions

This item is so much better than the alternatives, that you end up filling up 2-3 slots in the late game with this item.

This damage item gives +30 armor and +30% evasion, which is extremely valuable, since the minions do Physical Damage, and do not have True Strike.

Damage-Over-Time spells are slightly overpowered.

Both against creeps – and in duels. There is a big item called “Torture Pipe” which increases ALL Damage-Over-Time Spells by hundreds of percent. Even more than 1000%, in the late game.

This item needs a slight damage nerf of about 10%.

You can buy 4 hyperstones which combine into a “Dark Moon Shard” which gives 290 Attack Speed. So for 8k gold, which isn’t a HUGE amount in this game, you can almost max out your attack speed.

This makes percentage-based bashes too good in duels. Since you attack with 700 attack speed, which is now max. Max used to be 999, they recently changed it.

Slardar’s bash, and Voids bash, are automatic wins, assuming you land THE FIRST bash. Since, after that, the opponent will be “perma-bashed”, as in permanently stunned until they die.

These bashes often get banned. Barathrum's bash is also good, but it is only a 17% chance on strike. And it has an internal cooldown, which makes perma-bashing difficult.

All percentage-based bashes should have an internal cooldown, slightly longer than the bash itself. Slardar’s bash is 1.1 seconds, the cooldown should be 1.2 – or 1.3 seconds.

But even a cooldown SHORTER than the bash prevents permanently bashing the enemy, for a long period of time. Because, unless you hit a bash in that 0.1-0.2 second window, the bash runs out.

The item “Skull Basher” also has an internal cooldown of 2.3 seconds. The bash lasts for 1.2 seconds. So you cannot permanently bash an enemy with this item.

Not even close!

It is still extremely strong on melee heroes in duels, since you have so much attack speed, that you will land a bash quickly, if it is off cooldown.

Earthshakers “Earthshock” – and Tinkers “Rearm” is a pain in the ass, whenever spellcasters get these skills. Because they permanently stun you, until you die.

The problem with “Stuns” from attacks and spells, is that there are no good “Status Resistance” items to buy in the game. The most Status Resistance that you can get from one single item is 25%, and that is not enough.

There needs to be – at least – one single big Status Resistance item in this game. I would make the following item. 

Remember that items in this custom game are bigger, badder, and MORE EXPENSIVE than traditional Dota 2 items.

The Anti-Stunner

• +10 All Attributes

• +30 Armor

• +30% Evasion

• +30% Status Resistance

• +30% Slow Resistance

• +30 Movement Speed

Passive Effect: Whenever you are stunned, gain +20 Armor and +20% Status Resistance. When you are rooted or ensnared, gain: +10 Armor and +10% Status Resistance.

This item would cost 12-15k, and would be highly useful. This item would be a valid counter to these “Perma-Stun” builds!

This custom game also lacks a big defensive item. Spellcasters are forced to avoid getting hit at all, in order to survive the late game.

This item would be highly useful to survive the high amount of physical damage from the creeps in the late game.

When you get to about Round 50, you HAVE TO have at least one defensive ability, which reduces incoming physical damage.

Preferably two, but bare minimum – one.

How It Works

Let me explain how the game works – from a first person perspective!

As this game starts, you can ban ONE Hero and ONE skill. You get to pick your hero. Done.

You have your hero, and you are going into Round 1. You start with 600 gold. You spend the next couple rounds killing minions.

You try to kill them as fast as possible, as this gives you the most gold. You land somewhere in the middle, which is okay.

The fastest clearer might get 500 gold. The slowest only 50 gold. You got 250 gold.

The game progresses from Round 1, to Round 2, to Round 3, and so on. The rounds get harder and harder, but the first 20-25 Rounds are pretty easy.

Even a completely new player who is not buying any items whatsoever, is going to survive the first 10-15 Rounds.

But they will fall behind in net worth, lose the duels, and then get kicked out of the game.

When you are unable to kill the computer generated minions, you lose – and are kicked out of the game.

You can stay and watch – if you like! It is a great way to learn the game. A game is played with 8 People. Each player control 1 Hero.

At the beginning of a game, there are 8 Heroes. Then it gradually becomes less and less.

You will do 4 rounds of killing creep, followed by 1 duel. Then another 4 rounds, followed by 1 duel. As the other players leave the game, the duels will be more frequent.

While you duel another hero to the death, the OTHER human players are busy killing creeps. The winner of this duel gets a MASSIVE amount of gold. The loser gets NOTHING.

It is a tough game, in that regard!

It is very important to win the duels. You want to win at least some of them. Some items and skills are good for duels, and some are good for killing minions.

The same skill is rarely good for both.

When it comes to killing minions, you want CLEAVE, or SPLASH, or AREA OF EFFECT damage. But when it comes to killing one single hero? You want STUNS and a massive amount of SINGLE TARGET damage.

You will also face Roshan sometimes, about every 10th round. In this case, you want enough survivability not to die, and a MASSIVE amount of single target damage.

Physical damage dealers do better with Roshan. 

Spellcasters have a harder time. Roshan used to be IMPOSSIBLE for spellcasters at the higher levels. Roshan would spawn, and all the spellcasters (magicians) would fail, and leave the game.

These days, Roshan has become somewhat easier for the spellcasters. It is still an ADVANTAGE to be a carry, but not a huge one.

Killing Roshan fast gives you lots of gold. Killing him slow gives you little gold. In duels, the time does not matter. WINNING is the only thing.

The furthest I have gone in this game – is to Round 84.

I think I was Vengeful Spirit.

Her 1400 gold shard will make her stun “Avenging Missile” bounce to 20 (!) different minions, and do 50% EXTRA STUN and DAMAGE if they were attacking you (which, they were!).

If you buy the big spell amplification item for this, then each stun will do several thousands of damage.

This item can give 500-1000% spell amplification in the late game. She also has a damage talent for her stun, which makes it even stronger.

She also has a talent which makes her unleash an “Avenging Missile” every 8th physical attack. This missile will then bounce around 20 different minions, stun them, and damage them.

With this POWERFUL talent, she can slow down and stun a large crowd of minions. Melee minions will not even reach her. Ranged minions will be stunned 70% of the time!

When there is only one player left in the game, then, that player wins the game.

In order to win a game, you usually have to survive to Round 55-65. This is the normal “winning range” – if you will!

After each battle, you have about 15 seconds to buy items – and prepare for the next round. Your hero gains one level every single round. At Round 60, your hero will be level 60.

So level-based skills and bonuses are very strong, since they were made for the Dota 2 game, where you max out at Level 30.

The Late Game

In the later game, physical damage dealers will do 500-1000 damage per strike. That is not counting OTHER abilities which increase damage. That only accounts for the physical damage of each strike.

Skills which give bonuses in FIXED NUMBERS are completely useless, since minions will have hundreds of thousands of hit points in the later rounds (I’m not kidding!).

I looked at a minion in the last round, of my last match, and it has 791 000 Hit Points. I finished that round, but the other guy did not. I was playing Jakiro, who is really strong right now, he was playing Tusk.

PERCENTAGE BASED skills are overpowered, since they work really well against all types of minions.

Lifestealer (Naix) skill “Feast” will do 1.9% of the enemy’s Max Health as damage every single strike. With the talent, it is 3.1%. And the heal is about 50% stronger than the damage.

“Feast” needs a nerf of 25-35%, both against creeps – and in duels. “Feast” does not work against Roshan. It does literally nothing against Roshan.

In this game, you will have massive amounts of attack speed. You will get that “proc” on every single attack. “Attack speed” used to be 999 as max, they now changed it to 700.

This gives you about four strikes per second. But you can consume a “Dark Moon Shard” – and reduce your Base Attack Time by 30%. This will give you about 5 attacks per second.

Enigma’s “Midnight Pulse” will do 10% of all minions CURRENT hit points every single second. It has a low casting time, and a very large surface area. This skill is a bit too strong – in the late game.

It will wear minions down to half health in just a couple seconds. The radius is large enough to affect all minions on the battlefield.

In the late game, you will change your items for dueling specific heroes. The item “Blade Mail” scales very well, since about 70% of ALL absorbed damage (physical, magical, pure) is reflected back to the caster (while activated).

The item “Ghost Scepter” is highly useful for magicians, since it makes you untargetable for 4 seconds. You can still cast spells during this time. My rating increased a lot when I started using this item on my spellcasters.

It is EXTREMELY useful to survive Juggernaught’s Omnislash, or Slark’s Shadow Dance, or Willow’s Shadow Realm.

If you have “Shadow Realm”, then the Scepter Upgrade allows you to ATTACK without stopping it. This skill gives you massive amounts of magical damage.

This effect needs a damage nerf of about 25% in duels, but not against minions. You need a Ghost Scepter to survive this.

Losing several duels in a row is not just bad for business, it is also bad for YOUR HERO.

When you lose several duels in a row, you get a debuff which:

1. Increases all incoming damage by 10%

2. Reduces your outgoing damage by 10%

3. Reduces all incoming gold by 10%

This debuff DOES stack, so another duel loss, another stack. “2 Stacks” means all those numbers become 20%. “3 Stacks” makes them 30%. The game becomes unplayable at 2-3 of these stacks.

These stacks do not exist in the early game – or midgame. They only come into effect in the late game.

I actually think these “Stacks” are a little too strong. I would nerf them down to “7-8%” per stack, or something in that range.

But this “Duel Loss Debuff” – is yet another mechanism, that might be unique for this game. I have not played another game with a similar mechanism.

It forces you to focus on winning your duels. To have skills – and items, whose only job is to win your duels. Because the late game becomes UNPLAYABLE – if you keep losing your duels.

Bans

As we have mentioned, percentage-based bashes are too strong. Because your hero will have 700 attack speed in the late game. This amounts to 4 attacks per second.

Slardar’s “Bash” and Void’s “Time Lock” become overpowered in duels. But, they are not very useful in killing creeps. It is a duel specific skill. It is also decent against Roshan. Not for the damage, but the disable.

As a result, these skills will often get banned. The problem? There are about 15-20 overpowered abilities in this game. Each player only gets 1 ban each. There are 8 players in the game. This means 8 bans.

If every single player USED their ban, which they don’t. I usually see 5-6 skill bans, in a normal game. You can also ban heroes, and about 3-4 heroes get banned.

If the game gave every single player 2 bans instead of 1, this problem would get fixed. 8 bans for 15-20 overpowered abilities, is a recipe for disaster.

It is good that the bans exist, but each player should get another skill ban. This would GREATLY improve the game.

Giving the players more bans, is a WIN-WIN, and it outsources the balancing to the players. The players don’t mind, since we get a BETTER game!

Spellcasters (or magicians) also have overpowered abilities. An ability can be overpowered for clearing creep, and it can be overpowered for winning duels. They are rarely the same ability, since they require different things.

Tinker’s “Rearm” gives a spellcaster the ability to permanently stun you. It takes a lot of mana, so it does not come into effect until the early midgame.

Earthshaker’s “Earthshock” can also permanently stun the opponent. Both “Rearm” and “Earthshock” often get banned, for this very reason.

Shadow Shaman’s “Summon Serpents” also scales well into the midgame, and late game, and it is very strong in duels. A bit TOO strong, in fact! It will also get banned, quite often.

Wraith King’s “Summon Skeletons” are balanced against creep, but too strong in duels. Their damage and hit points should be nerfed with about 35% in duels.

The most overpowered ability might be With Doctor’s “Death Ward”, as it kills you before you can even see it coming.

It is not, I would say, overpowered against creeps (remember, they have millions of hit points in the late game!), but in duels it is RIDICULOUS.

This ability will literally kill me before I can even activate my Ghost Scepter. And I have my finger on the button as the duel begins.

I am not kidding, here. Not at all.

“Death Ward” needs a damage nerf in duels by about 75%. It does PURE damage, so all that magical resistance does absolutely NOTHING.

It is not uncommon to have 60-70% magical resistance in the late game. There is a lot of money going around in this game, and the items are really big.

A big item will cost 12-15k gold.

Giving each player 3 skill bans, would produce the most balanced type of games. If I was in control, I would give each player 2 Skill bans, and go from there.

I also would not mind giving each player 2 Hero bans. This would produce more varied and balanced games. As some heroes – are simply – too strong!

But if I was in control of this game, I would literally sit down and list:

1. All the abilities that needs a boost (that aren’t getting picked)

2. All the abilities that needs a nerf (that gets picked all the time)

I would then adjust the numbers, and go into the game editor and fix it.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Picking Hero

When the game starts you get served 4 heroes. If you re-roll, you get served another 3, but one of the heroes stays the same.

You know which one, it is the one furthest to the left.

If you get a good hero on the left side, you can re-roll, because you know you ALREADY got a good hero. If you only get bad heroes – you ALWAYS re-roll.

Re-rolling exposes you to a total of 7 heroes.

This usually works out.

Because about:

• 1 Hero in 3 – is playable

• 1 Hero in 6 – is good

• 1 Hero in 10 – is great

Leshrac is extremely good right now. Pudge is also very good. Lifestealer is very strong because of “Feast” – and his talent for it.

Jakiro appears to be too strong. His scepter upgrade to “Macropyre” – is an automatic win in the duels.

Jakiro has TWO skills which do MAXIMUM hit point percentage based damage. Liquid Frost – and Liquid Fire. 

They both have a 4 second cooldown, which becomes 3 seconds with Octarine Core (25% cooldown reduction).

Once you have your Hero, you will play the whole game with that hero.

Some heroes have great Shards, some have great Talents, and some have great Ultimate Upgrades. 

Juggernaut has very high armor, very high attack speed, high movement speed, good stats gain, and pretty good skills. He is “good” – but he isn’t “unbalanced”.

His Critical Strike is very good with the lifesteal talent, and his Omnislash is very good in duels.

Even his Bladefury has become stronger with the recent changes. The shard now gives 35% enemy slow, and +35% bigger radius. The damage tick also scales with his Attack Speed, which is naturally high.

He has an “Innate Skill” – which allows the Blade Fury to Critical Strike. He can also stun with the item skull basher, while spinning.

A good strategy in duels, is to run in with an activated blade mail, which returns 70% of absorbed damage, spin, then silence with Bloodthorn – and pop the Omnislash.

The Omnislash will now have “True Strike” and amplified damage. The enemy is also silenced, and cannot use whatever escape skills they might have.

Picking Skills

Right when the game starts – you get served 16 Different Skills. You pick one of them. This is your first skill.

You do Round 1. You now get served another 16 skills. You pick one of them. This is your second skill. You now have 2 out of 5 skills.

As you rise in levels, you quickly get served another 16 random skills — until you have your 5 skills. You can eventually buy another skill for 13 000 gold, which is a lot of money in this game.

The most expensive item costs about 13 000 gold.

Skill Tokens

There is a mechanism in this game, which helps players come back into the game. Without it, the game would fall apart.

Allow me to explain!

A player that is struggling, will get served certain “Tokens”. The first one allows you to re-pick one RANDOM skill. I call this token a “Random Skill Token”.

The second one allows you to re-pick a CHOSEN skill. You pick which one of your skills, that will be replaced by another skill. I call this a “Chosen Skill Token”.

A player that is struggling, that has a low net worth, will get served these tokens. This player will get TWO “Random Skills Tokens”, and ONE “Chosen Skill Token”.

With these three tokens, you can replace two random skills and one chosen skill.

Once you activate your “Random Skill Token”, the game unlearns one of your skills (at random), and serves you 16 skills to replace it. The skill you pick is your new skill.

You do the same things with your second “Random Skill Token”. You got another new skill.

It is now time to use your “Chosen Skill Token”. When you activate it, the game asks you which skill to unlearn. You pick your worst skill, and unlearn it. You then get served 16 skills, and you pick which one you want.

This is your new skill. You now have better skills to win duels and kill creeps.

The game will serve these 3 Tokens to any player that is struggling, that is playing with a low net worth.

You keep getting served these 3 Tokens, about every 10 Rounds, until you start doing better. That is, until you start killing creeps quickly, and start winning your duels.

I have never played a game with such a balancing mechanism. It rewards poor play, if you think about it! The worse you do, the more the game helps you.

You can also buy these Tokens at the store. The Random Skill Token costs 1200 gold. The Chosen Skill Token costs 2900 gold.

But there are levels to this game!

The world of “Skill Tokens” – contains Four Levels, in fact!

LEVEL 4:

If you are at the BOTTOM of the hierarchy, you will get TWO Random Tokens – and ONE Chosen Token.

LEVEL 3:

If you do slightly better, you might be second last, or third last, you will get served ONE Random Token and ONE Chosen Token.

LEVEL 2:

If you do slightly better you will get served ONE Chosen Skill Token. You cannot sell it, but the cost of it would be 2900 gold.

If there is no immediate need, I usually save it for the late game. Because as the game progresses, you have to gradually change your skill build.

LEVEL 1:

If you are in third or fourth place, you will get served ONE “Random Skill Token”. Using it might remove one of your valuable skills, so often I just sell it for 600 gold.

I have simplified it a little bit, but this should give you a basic understanding of how it works.

Using the “Random Skill Token” really is a big gamble. Because your entire skill build might fall apart, if you lose one key skill. There is a 20% chance of losing that skill, if you use it.

I should mention that your hero will get served their own skills more often. If you keep re-rolling, you will eventually get that key hero skill. Talents, Shards, and Scepters usually upgrade an existing skill.

Those things come into play, as well. It is not fun to have bought Aghanim's Scepter, and then LOSE the skill you UPGRADED!

This mechanism does work well, over all. I do not know what caused them to invent this mechanism – and install it into the game.

I am not aware of a predecessor.

The mechanism is well-balanced. It waits for a player to perform poorly over a long period of time, before helping them out.

If you wanted to remove this balancing mechanism from the game, you would have to make the Random Token (1200 gold) and the Chosen Token (2900 gold) much cheaper.

A price drop of 25-35% would work. I also like the idea of getting a 25% discount on the first Random Token + Chosen Token you buy every 10th Round.

With this system, even a struggling player could save up their money, buy these tokens, and change their skill build.

Since every 10th Round there would be a good 25% discount.

You know you are WINNING when you start clearing creeps fast, and start winning your duels.

Duels

A similar balancing mechanism exists in the duels.

You get NO help from the game to win your duel. You might be fighting a hero with TRIPLE your Net Worth, and get STEAMROLLED.

Happens all the time.

But, if you would win such a fight, you would make a MASSIVE amount of money. I believe this money is based on the net worth DIFFERENCE between you.

It could also be based on the betting. The more people bet AGAINST you, the more money you make – if you win. 

There is a full chapter on “Betting” down below.

The FAVORITE might make 2000 gold in a duel, the UNDERDOG might make 10 000 – if they win. I have made as much as 15-20k – from ONE SINGLE DUEL.

I was at the bottom of the charts, and I was fighting the game leader. My net worth was 15k, and his was 40-50k. I managed to WIN, and became RICH! =)

The game has two “Balancing Mechanisms”:

1. The “Skill Tokens”

2. The “Duel Reward Bonus”

Betting

Betting is a BIG part of this game.

Very big, in fact!

Because you can bet HALF your gold (not net worth) on a given hero. If that hero wins, you at least DOUBLE your money.

If you bet on an underdog, and it wins, you will get several times your money back. Understanding which hero is going to win a duel, is a HUGE advantage in the game.

If there is a big difference in Net Worth, which is clearly visible at the top of the screen, where all heroes are ranked by net worth, you should bet on the leader.

This hero will win 80-85% of the time. “Net Worth” is the total sum of all your Items and your Gold. 

When you play this game at the higher levels, you start to do certain things.

You need Skills and Items to clear the creeps quickly, in order to make a lot of gold each round.

You bet half your gold each round on the winner, and hopefully increase your bank by 50% (as you can only bet half your money).

Then, when it is your time to duel, you spend all that money on items that will win you the duel. You have 15 seconds to buy all your items, after the duel is declared.

You do not know WHEN your duel will take place, and you do not know against WHICH HERO. But when the duel is ANNOUNCED, you see the hero, and you can form your strategy.

You have 15 seconds to:

1. Look at the opponent

2. Their skills

3. Their items

4. Make your strategy

5. Buy your own items

If it takes more than one second to buy a key item, the time schedule compresses, and you will probably lose the duel. This might spiral into you losing the entire game.

YOU ARE FUCKED.

If it works out: If it all works out, you spent ALL your money on the right items, fought well, won, and walk away RICH.

If the opponent is weak, like half your net worth, then you might not NEED all those big items to win. You can SAVE your money – and bet on the next 3-4 duels – and make more money that way.

But the most important thing is to win your duels. As this makes you more money than killing any amount of creep.

The goal is to make as much money as possible before your first duel is announced. You need a “Farming Skill” to clear creeps in the early game. Something that gives cleave, splash, or area-of-effect damage.

I will also save skill points, and skill specific skills, depending on who I am facing in the duel. Some skills are good at FARMING, and some skills are good for FIGHTING.

At the end of every game, you can see how much money you made on bets. You can also see how much the OTHER players made on bets.

It is not unusual to have made over 100k on bets in a really long game. If you lose the bet, you lose all the money that you betted.

It is just like real life!

After I started betting, and understanding which hero would win, my rating rose from 3000 to 4000.

It was a BIG jump!

Remember, you only have 15 seconds to place your bet before the duel starts. The duel is announced, and the COUNTDOWN BEGINS!

Here are some tips.

If a physical damage dealer fights a magician, and the carry has the skill “Guardian Angel”, which prevents all physical damage, then that skill is useless in this matchup.

This skews the odds towards the magician, since they only have magical damage.

Another tip is looking at cooldowns for the big spells. Some spells in Dota 2 have a cooldown of several minutes. Sometimes, a player has USED one of their long cooldowns in the rounds before the duel.

They will not have this key spell in the duel. This skews the odds towards the opponent.

You make the most money if you bet on an underdog, and that underdog wins.

It is the same with dueling. You make the most money if you were an underdog, and you win the duel.

I have never played a game where betting played such a key role. You literally cannot win this game if you lose all your bets.

Because you will have no money, no items, you can’t kill the creeps, and you cannot win the duels.

GOOD LUCK!

Item Changes

Here are some suggested item changes.

The item “Shiva’s Guard” is identical to the Dota 2 game. It is highly useful, as you can slow ALL creeps in the arena by 40%, run around – and not get hit.

Since the minions have a low base attack speed, that -45 attack speed aura is also highly effective. Magicians are also DESPERATE for armor in this game, and that 15 Armor comes in handy.

This game has no good defensive items for magicians. Physical damage dealers have items (described above) which gives lots of damage, attack speed, evasion, and armor.

But magicians have to rely on “Ghost Scepter”, and various tactics, to avoid getting hit at all.

There is an OVERPOWERED Tier 5 Neutral Item, “Book of Shadows” – which makes you untargetable for 4 seconds, with an 8 second cooldown. Down to 6 seconds with Octarine Core.

This item allows you to cast your key spells, become untargetable, run around for 4 seconds, cast them again, and so on.

Many magicians would not even make it into late game without this Neutral Item.

I would increase the cooldown of this item to 12 seconds, and offer Spellcasters better defensive options in the store. 

Magicians are desperate for a high armor – high evasion item. My item “The Anti-Stunner”, described above, would suit their needs PERFECTLY.

Shiva’s Guard

I would give Shiva’s Guard two upgrades.

The FIRST upgrade would give:

• +10 All Attributes

• +25 Armor

• -55 Attack Slow Aura (has double effect in duels) + Health Restoration Reduction is -30%

• 300 Magical Blast Damage + 20% Increased Magical Damage + 50% Slow

The SECOND upgrade would give:

• +15 All Attributes

• +35 Armor

• -65 Attack Slow Aura (has double effect in duels) + Health Restoration Reduction is -35%

• 400 Magical Blast Damage + 25% Increased Magical Damage + 60% Slow

These upgrades would be expensive. They might cost 5-6k each. Magicians would need a strong defensive item to compensate for the nerf of “Book of Shadows”.

Assault Cuirass

The item “Assault Cuirass” is unfortunately unusable in this game. Remember that the best ATTACK DAMAGE item in this game gives: +30 ARMOR and +30% EVASION.

Many items need to be “upgraded”, or “boosted”, in order to be usable in this game.

I would give Assault Cuirass two upgrades.

The FIRST upgrade would give the Item itself:

• +20 Armor

• +40 Attack Speed

And the Aura would give:

• +10 Armor

• +40 Attack Speed

• -10 Enemy Armor

• +15% Evasion

I would give the item an active ability which reduced damage taken from ALL SOURCES by 25% for 5 seconds. 45 second cooldown.

The SECOND upgrade would give the Item:

• +30 Armor

• +50 Attack Speed

And the Aura would give:

• +20 Armor

• +50 Attack Speed

• -10 Enemy Armor

• +30% Evasion

This active ability would now reduce damage taken from ALL SOURCES by 50% for 5 seconds. 45 second cooldown.

Manta Style

The item “Manta Style” works in the early game, but is unusable in the midgame – and late game. Because the illusions take 300% damage, and the minions do several thousand damage each.

I would give it two upgrades.

The FIRST upgrade would increase item stats by about 50%, and reduce illusion damage taken to 250%.

In Dota 2, 200% damage taken is double damage. 100% damage taken – is the normal damage a hero takes in a game.

The percentage uses 100% as an “index”, if that makes sense! So 100% damage taken, would be no increased damage whatsoever.

I would also give “fresh” illusions made in the last 5 seconds, a 35% damage reduction from all sources.

The SECOND item upgrade would increase item stats by the same amount again, and reduce illusion damage taken to 200%.

Newly made illusions within the last 10 seconds, gains 35% damage reduction from all sources.

If you don’t have this effect, the illusions will just die before you can do anything, in the late game.

Because the creeps start attacking right as you spawn. And the illusions do not have all these skills – to negate damage and move away.

A LITTLE DETAIL: Custom Hero Chaos also has a bug right now, which allows enemy heroes to attack your own illusions at the store (does not apply to summoned units).

So they can never survive from one battle to the other. I lost a game because of this with Chaos Knight, who has strong illusions which last a long time. The spell is called “Phantasm”.

I even had his build in skill, which reduced illusions damage taken by 20%. These illusions do the same damage as the hero.

They are very good for farming in the low and midgame levels. But you have to replace this skill in the late game.

Desolator

The item “Desolator” is currently unusable, because you ONLY build damage stacks when you kill ENEMY HEROES. 

These stacks should build even though you kill enemy creeps. If this was the case, then, this item would be somewhat usable.

Enemy minions have lots of hp, but low armor. Most of them have 0-10 armor. So armor reduction items – and spells – are highly useful.

At max charges Desolator does +80 damage. Its passive “Corruption” reduces armor by -6.

The item itself needs to be stronger and more expensive. I would give the item itself +120 damage and -10 armor for 10 seconds.

The first upgrade would give this item +150 damage, +20 armor, and +20% evasion. “Corruption” is increased to -12 (has double effect in duels).

The second upgrade would give it +35% Status Resistance and 35% Lifesteal. “Corruption” is now -14 (has double effect in duels).

This would make this item useful, even in the late game. It would give players another option for Lifesteal – and Status Resistance.

Satanic

I would give the “Satanic” two big upgrades.

The FIRST would increase Strength to +50, Damage to +50, and Lifesteal to 50%.

It would also give the active “Unholy Rage” +35% Status Resistance and 35% Slow Resistance. Lifesteal bonus would be the same at +145%.

The SECOND upgrade would give the item +75 Strength, and +75 damage, and 75% Lifesteal.

“Unholy Rage” would now give you 50% Status Resistance and 50% Slow Resistance.

Both these upgrades would cost about 5k each. This would turn The Satanic into a 15k item.

Radiance

The item “Radiance” is useful in this game, but it falls off in the late game. Because you run out of item slots, and this item does not give enough stats.

The Radiance aura does work with spell amplification, which is good for killing creeps in the early game and midgame.

But you have to replace this item in the late game. For this reason, I want it to have two upgrades.

This FIRST upgrade would give the item itself:

• 30% Evasion

• 75 Attack Damage

• 15% Physical Damage Reduction

The aura would do 75 magical damage per second (up from 60), and give a miss chance of 20% (up from 15%).

The SECOND upgrade would give the item:

• 40% Evasion

• 100 Attack Damage

• 25% Physical Damage Reduction

The aura would do 90 magical damage per second, and give a miss chance of 25%.

There are MANY other possible item upgrades, but I do not want this text to become TOO LONG! =)

New Items

The Anti-Stunner:

• +10 All Attributes

• +30 Armor

• +30% Evasion

• +30% Status Resistance

• +30% Slow Resistance

• +30 Movement Speed

Passive Effect: Whenever you are stunned, gain +20 Armor and +20% Status Resistance. When you are rooted or ensnared, gain: +10 Armor and +10% Status Resistance.

This item would cost 12-15k, and would be highly useful. This item would be a valid counter to these “Perma-Stun” builds!

Magicians and Spellcasters are in DIRE need of a big defensive item, which do not exist right now. 

This item would SOLVE this problem!

Want More?

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

I also wrote a text about Dota 2. It is called: Billion Dollar MOBA: My Dota 2 Overhaul

I outlined a mobile PVP game called “Chaos Arena”. That text was called: The Ultimate Mobile PVP Game: Chaos Arena

I also publish texts on Medium under the Billion Dollar Company name.

Here is a link to all my published articles here on Substack.

Here is a link to my Facebook profile.

This text was written by Theo Alexander Gerken.

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