Terrain is what makes up the entire base map of DotA. Terrain is comprised of cliffs, walkable ground, the river, and trees.



Trees

Trees make up a very large part of the DotA terrain, they form the boundary around most of the map, and are also used to create forested areas. Trees block vision, and can be used to help escape from pursuing enemies. Many of the AoE spells in the game destroy trees. All the dead trees on the map respawn at the start of every fifth minute from the first creep spawn. Trees will not respawn if there is a hero near them.

Cliffs

Cliffs create differences in terrain, a height difference in terrain has several effects. First of all, a unit at a higher elevation can see farther than it normally would be able to. Additionally, if a ranged unit attacks a unit that is at a higher elevation than it, it will have a 25% chance to miss its attacks.

River

The river in DotA spans across nearly the entire map, from near the north-western corner, down to near the south-eastern corner. The river is a very important part of the map terrain, as it is very useful as a way to get around the map. The two rune spawning locations are also located in the river.

Vision

 Vision determines how far your hero can see in game. Each hero in the game has statistics for how far they can see during the day, and how far they can see at night. Heroes at a higher elevation of terrain are not as blocked by doodads or other elements as those that are in an inferior height level. The vision of flying units is unobstructed. Most heroes in the game have a day vision of 1800, and a night vision of 800, however, there are some exceptions, they are listed below.

Heroes that do not have the normal vision range

• Hero title, vision range at day/vision range at night


• Enchantress, 1800/1800
• Sniper, 1800/1000
• Treant Protector, 1800/1200
• Bounty Hunter, 1800/1000
• Alchemist, 1800/1400
• Priestess of the Moon, 1800/1200
• Faerie Dragon, 1800/1200
• Tormented Soul, 1800/900
• Night Stalker, 1200/1800
• Geomancer, 1800/1800
• Ancient Apparition 1800/1400
• Nightcrawler 1800/1800
• Drow Ranger 1800/1700

True Sight

Additionally, there is another type of vision in DotA, it is called True Sight and it reveals invisible units in an area around the unit that has True Sight.

Units with True Sight

There are many units with True Sight in DotA, some of them are listed below.

• Towers
• The World Tree
• The Frozen Throne
• Necronomicon Warrior (level 3)
• Sentry Wards

A hero can gain True Sight by carrying a Gem of True Sight.
Dust of Appearance prevents units that were within 1250 AoE of the unit that activated it from becoming invisible for 12 seconds (though if they are in fog you won't be able to see them).