3v3v3 game with lots of contestable economic objectives for players to battle over.
Players pick two heroes and play as a tag-team. Has fluid and unpredictable hero combat.
The original 'DotA 2'. It has a large battlefield with distinct towns to capture: each contributing different lane troops and selling its own items.
Light-hearted game that experimented with lots of gimmicky mechanics and unusual heroes. The battlefield has bridges which can be raised and lowered using levers to block and open paths.
Heroes can engage in optional side quests, or pick up one of several sub-categories of items which have unusual rules. There are also modest army-customisation options, as well as a selection of powerful tower upgrades.
All heroes are designed to use and interact with 'conditions', a fixed set of debuffs that can be manipulated in complex ways.
An immersive and hectic battle of attrition, with a rich variety of playable heroes and heavy emphasis on world-building and lore.
An ambitious and heavily-featured game of grand strategy. Teams first select one of four factions (Elves, Orcs, Creeps, Undead) which each have their own armies and hero pools. They then battle on one of five maps of wildly varying sizes, each with different objectives.
Players can destroy and rebuild outposts, construct towers and fortify their bases, reinforce specific lanes with extra troops, or re-route lanes to different locations. The heroes each have six abilities which can be empowered with a range of talents, while upgradable items can shore up weaknesses or bolster their strengths.
EotA: Twilight shares a universe with two other games: a co-op survival called EotA: Exodus and a team escape called EotA: Maze.
Emphasises rich and engaging hero combat. The game has many unusual skill-shots, and there no stuns or randomness. Combat instead focuses more on displacement and environmental or situational damage.
The jungle is a persistent team objective rather than an economic space for a single hero to occupy, and a variety of different creep camps and reward structures have appeared in the game over the years.
The game had an unusually refined item system, with a fullscreen shop interface, typed shortcuts, recommended items, recipe autocompletion, all items stacking with each-other (at reduced efficiency), and custom item stats like bonus ability radius or duration.
Had unusual criss-cross lanes, and emphasised the jungle as a critical team objective.
The moment where RTS started to blend into lane-pushing games. Players control a hero and an army, but don't have to worry about tech trees or base management.