14 DAY TRIAL // 
The wait has finally come to an end! An awesome map and a very long and impressive changelog awaits the fans. This release could be one of the biggest things that has happened to DotA in a while. The Hero Defense map is constantly taken higher and higher by IceFrog with new heroes, shops and items.
Story
DotA (Defense of the Ancients – as it was first called) has come a very long way from version 0.95c Beta to the 6.60 (6.59d stable map). Its success started with the 5.84c iteration and gained more and more fans ever since. The one who started the project was Eul and his idea was elaborated by Guinsoo. The current author is IceFrog and he is the one who made the most breakthroughs on the map by fixing a lot of bugs as well as adding new heroes and items.
Changes
The new map has a huge changelog, maybe the biggest one yet. Almost every major aspect of the game has been changed: the heroes, the items, the shops, the taverns, the magic, the game modes and commands, etc. Even the loading screen suffered a little tweaking, IceFrog changing the old dota-allstars.com website with the new playdota.com.
Even from the start of the game, we noticed a major change: the taverns were no longer placed at the end of each base, but like in the random draft mode (in the top-left corner of the map, hidden in the forest). There are now nine taverns instead of the usual eight – three for every class: Agility, Strength and Intelligence.
There are two new game modes that you can now experience: -cd (Captains Draft) and -rs (Random Side). You will be a little disappointed to find out that the Switch system doesn't work anymore (it's being replaced with a temporary command – so (Switch On), that will be eventually removed.
The new version has two new heroes: a strength-based character that replaces the old Tauren Chieftan and an intelligence hero, Batrider, with a very high strength level as well. There are many changed heroes, like Razor, who is almost completely reworked. He now has a Plasma Field, a Static Link and an Unstable Current. The old chain and purge of the Medusa are now replaced and named Mystic Snake (damage: 60/100/140/180 + 20% each successful damage jump) and Stone Gaze (speed factor: 2/3/5).
New items will also make the delight of the fans: three shiny ones and four recipes await them in the shops that are now called: - Gateway Relics (Misc items that are primarily early game upgrades); - Supportive Vestments (various support style items that will help the team); - Arcane Sanctum (castable or spell-related themed items); - Protectorate (defensive/survival style items); - Enchanted Artifacts (orb effect items); - Ancient Weaponry (all other weapon items). Also, don't be surprised if, on every side, you will find not one, but two goblin shops: Goblin Laboratory and Goblin Merchant.
As you will travel through the map, you will see that there are some new paths that you should learn in order to escape from your pursuers. The towers have a regeneration and armor system, but the backdoor problem hasn't been fixed yet.
DotA is now available in 9 languages: English, Czech, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Gameplay
Only the sensation that you're playing the new DotA 6.60 feels great! The new taverns make it more easy for you to pick a hero, while the new shops may confuse some of the old players (just a temporary feeling).
No matter what hero you choose (old or new, strength or agility, melee or range) you will find that DotA isn't the same as before. Even though many heroes remain unchanged, only walking on the map will reveal lots of new paths, as well as new shops hidden in the forest: one for the Scourge and one for the Sentinel. These shops now have more items and they will help you a lot if you don't want to waste precious xp.
Lots of notifications have been added, so, from now on, you will see what rune your enemy is carrying in their bottle, a thing that will remove some advantages, as well as what rune your allies have found, as soon as they find it. You will be informed if the allied hero has used the rune or decided to save it in their bottle.
The gameplay has been changed by the addition of a new type of armor that was given to buildings. The regeneration armor will disappear whenever there are nearby creeps (or corpses). It will get restored back, if 15 seconds will pass without a nearby unit. Should a tower or a barrack take damage without the regeneration armor, the lost life will never be naturally regenerated. With the regeneration armor, the building's HP will regenerate at a rate of 40hp/seconds.
You will be able to level up faster, as the non-splitting portion of the xp/gold was increased for standard gameplay from 8 level xp and 40 gold to 12 level xp and 30+5 level and doubled for easy mode. This affects the players that are not used to farming on neutral creeps, as they will find themselves with a more lower level and weaker items.
The removal of the -switch command may not have been such a good choice. Lots of people play from free battlenet servers, where quiting happens very often (sometimes even in the first minutes of the game). When two people from the same team will quit, the game will become instable and, without the -switch command, it will end very soon. Even with the GHost and Banlist programs, there is still a huge number of game wreckers. There are also a few bugs, like the one with Syllabear and the fact that you can buy 2 Quelling Blades. The bugs will probably be fixed in the 6.60b version or 6.61.
You can play this map if you have installed the original Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, the add-on Frozen Throne and the Frozen Throne 1.23a Patch on your computer. Just copy the map to the path: Warcraft3\Maps\Downloads and you're ready to go.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
