DoT =/= Damage Per Second

[LSD]

Why are all the Damage Per Second abilities listed as "Damage Over Time"? DoTs are things which deal a certain amount of damage over the time specified.
Damage Per Second (for spells) is damage dealt per second.

Firefly for example:
Damage Over Time: 20/40/60/80
Duration: 18
That SHOULD mean up to 80 damage over 18 seconds. That's about 4 damage per second.

All the ability descriptions are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a mess, but the whole "DoT vs DPS" thing has always annoyed the ♥♥♥♥ out of me. Is this just a regional thing? Cos in Europe, that's what DoT means. Maybe in America it means something completely different. You know, like how you all think a fanny is a bum. It's a kind of bum, only it's at the front.

[2 for 1 Tuesdays]

Because it's doing its damage over time, and not doing its damage per second...? Damage over time spells do damage over time, regardless of the damage interval (which, coincidentally, is 1 second for Batrider).

It makes more sense to read 80 DoT, than 1440 DoT. Maybe its because when you're in firefly, it does 80 DoT with an instance every 1 second?

In the same way, Huskar's spears, Pudge's rot and ion shell are listed as "Damage", while Ember's flame guard is listed as "Damage Per Second".

They're just tool tips, and from what I can tell, they rarely get updated. If you're unsure about an ability, just test it.

[Ninjabutter]

This confused the hell out of me when I first started, too. Traditionally in games, DoT means the listed amount is the sum of the damage over the full duration. Dota sort of broke convention on that one.

[LSD]

Forgot the most important part in the OP: a damage over time is essentially a curse or whatever that afflicts the person it's cast on for the duration. WD's Maledict is a perfect example of a DoT.

Originally posted by Ninjabutter:

This confused the hell out of me when I first started, too. Traditionally in games, DoT means the listed amount is the sum of the damage over the full duration. Dota sort of broke convention on that one.

This put me off a bunch of heroes completely until i finally worked it out. Batrider especially. What's worse is how half of them say DoT, the other half DPS.