Build structure
A build consists of:- Hero — the body your abilities sit on. The hero determines base stats, stat growth, attack animation, model, and any built-in perk granted by the hero-perks system.
- Ability slots — the standard Q/W/E/R slots plus any bonus slots allowed by the current options. Each slot holds one ability.
- Passive limit — some map options cap the number of passive abilities you may include. Abilities flagged as semi-passives may be treated differently.
- Balance Mode budget — when Balance Mode is active, the combined point cost of all chosen abilities must not exceed 120 points.
Choosing a hero
DuringPHASE_SELECTION you pick your hero from the hero pool. Heroes can be banned during the banning phase, which removes them from the pool. The hero you choose affects:
- Base attributes and stat growth
- Hero perks (unique passive bonuses defined in
scripts/kv/hero_perks.kv) - Model scale for cosmetic effects like the Fat-O-Meter
- Certain ability synergies (e.g. Invoker’s Invoke mechanic)
Picking abilities
With a hero selected you move to ability selection. The pick UI shows the full ability list filtered by the categories defined inscripts/kv/abilities.kv. Use the category filters to narrow the list:
Filter by category
Use the category tabs (nukes, stuns, passives, ultimates, etc.) to narrow the ability list to the type of spell you want.
Check point cost
If Balance Mode is on, the ability’s point cost is shown. Keep a running total against your 120-point budget.
Watch for troll-combo warnings
If a selected ability would form a banned combination with one you already have, the UI will block the pick and highlight the conflict.
Balance Mode
Balance Mode assigns a point cost to every ability. Your total spend across all slots must be 120 points or fewer. The constant is defined inconstants.lua:
Saving and loading builds
The game supports persisting builds between sessions. When you lock in a build the server stores it under your Steam account. On your next match you can load a saved build to skip the selection process, or use it as a starting point and adjust individual slots. Builds are stored server-side. The build backup system is initialised inpregame.lua (local buildBackups = {}). Saved builds respect the current option set — a build saved with Balance Mode off may not be loadable when Balance Mode is on if its point total exceeds the cap.
Ingame Hero Builder
If all players vote to enable the Ingame Hero Builder (via the-enablebuilder chat vote), you can modify your build mid-match. A penalty of 30 gold per second applies when both teams have active human players, to discourage abusing the feature during live play.