DotA Allstars is a variant of the custom map Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is a team strategy game focused on hero combat. The objective is to destroy the opponents' base using one's own hero along with allied heroes and allied AI-controlled fighters called "creeps". The most recent version is 6.43b.

Each player controls a single hero, which is a powerful unit with unique abilities. Players choose one of the eighty-two heroes available between the two teams, as of version 6.42. DotA allows for a maximum of ten players in a five versus five format and an additional two slots for referees or observers, and games are usually played with even numbers of players on each side. Along with his or her teammates, a player fights alongside one of the two battling computer-controlled powers—the Sentinel and the Scourge, which are thematically represented as good and evil, respectively. Each team has a computer-controlled base on opposing corners of the map. The objective of the game is to breach the other team's defensive base towers and destroy their main structure (World Tree if one is affiliated with the Sentinel side or Frozen Throne if one is affiliated with the Scourge). The towers act as fortresses and are very important to the game, as they must be destroyed in order to reach the main base.
As Dota Allstars gameplay revolves around the use of individual heroes, it does not require one to focus on resource management and base-building, which is common in traditional Real-time strategy games. Instead, a player's attention is focused on their hero, and their time is devoted to gaining experience by killing weak enemy units, gaining gold by getting the killing blow on these units, and skirmishing with the opposing heroes. The typical resource-gathering of Warcraft III is replaced by a combat-oriented money system. In addition to a small periodic gold income, heroes earn gold by killing creeps, base structures, and enemy heroes. With their gold, players buy items to strengthen their hero and gain additional abilities. Certain items can be combined along with 'recipes' to create more powerful items. Buying items to suit one's hero is an important tactical element of the game.
A typical DotA Allstars game lasts between thirty and ninety minutes, depending on the players' skill, their heroes and the game mode. The variety of game modes available dictate whether people can choose their own hero or be assigned one randomly, or can change the difficulty of the game. Additionally, game modes can be combined, leading to extremely flexible game rules.
Although there are heroes that have an edge over others, the game is designed with balance in mind and no invincible heroes. At times, or in certain line-ups, some heroes may appear imbalanced, either seeming too weak or too powerful. In most cases this only depends on the player's skill or the heroes that have been chosen, but when a hero is indeed too strong or too weak, the next version of the map will most likely address the issue. However, even a hero that seems underpowered to some players can incline the balance of the game through wise skill and item choices .