DotA vs LoL...which is better?

[Draken Steel]

DotA is more tactical, hardcor,e with a higherskill cap. LArger variety in skills, some really neat ideas an uniquie champions. The sheer variety of abilities, chaampions, and items in DotA is quite nice, tho very daunting to fight.

LoL feels far more responsive, is far more forgiving, you are not punished nearly as hard for deaths, and the champions are balanced more evenly across all times (obviously osme are better early, while soem sclae late game, but dota has this to the extreme). overall it feels more fighty, with more skirmishes and harassing and small fihts, as oppsoed to DotA's mana making it feel very all in.

Overall, I vastly prefer lol. I like DotAs variety, but losing gold on death , denying creeps and towers, the extremely limtied mana, the caster scaling, and above all the character sluggishness, are all big turn offs for me.

 

[DazZ.]

No I mean they practically copy pasted how the original Warcraft 3 engine felt onto Source and HD'd it, that's almost the same shut up.

Ahh right, yes that exactly. They have tried to emulate it pretty much precisely, bugs and all.

Zero effort to make things not sluggish as fuck. Hey maybe some people are into that kinda thing, I just prefer controls that you do not have to fight through to reach the fun.

I started with League, and played the hell out of it for a good few years and I've played Dota for most of this year. The turn speed is something I've got used to and now prefer, mostly for the following reason. Abilities have a punch behind them in animations sound and feel. The main one I think of whenever I say that is Earthshakers Q, when he slams it into the floor it just feels so much beefier, also his turn speed is fairly low so he just feels tankier. I don't like the whole zippity doo bop movement of not fumbling about in LoL when I'm a tank, Lulu it suits, Earthshaker it doesn't.

It's the same as "gun feel" as I attempt to describe it, the guns in CSGO have huge recoil and all of them can kill with 1 bullet to the head and just feel lethal to use. However the guns in say Payday (worst offender) and to lesser extents BF3 and CoD feel like peashooters, but they're much more easier to hit with. It's like that with the game feel of Dota and LoL, one is forgiving but doesn't feel like the character is a big burly tank, it feels like he's a dainty ballet dancer who can zip about wherever whenever.

But the whole "Reach the fun" part is completely subjective, I adore the feel of Dota over LoL and going back and being Ahri or even J4s ult, all abilities just feel weak in comparison, certainly when CC is just a tickle. Again, opinion which is why I left this stuff out of my first post.

Oh and on a personal side, I find DOTA's characters more boring somehow. No idea how. They all have some cool as hell moves, 1000+ crit damage, timestop field, AntiMage in general everyone has like a 5 second stun or some such thing yet I can never get into the characters themselves.

I love some of the background stories of LoL characters, but their abilities all seem to be the same sets of things, ADCs mostly have this problem where they all have 1 mini cc, one dash getaway a burst and an ult that sets them apart. Junglers seem to be most different where they can be more flexible with the kit but the whole insanely strict meta means you can't have people that are complete gamechangers like Wisp or Spirit Breaker.

Their move and attack quotes are just one or two words taken from a general stock, they spend more time commenting on that one last hit they just got or how they totally denied a minion lolol, I dislike how every bloody character only opens their fat mouths properly every time a kill or death happens, the voice acting is mostly dismal except AntiMage. If I have to listen to Luna or Witch Doctor again I will have to hurt something and there are no emotes.

Luna's voice is horrendous. Well her voice is ok, her fake Scottish accent is horrendous. Witch Doctors is glorious though. Best thing about Dotas voice acting is the interaction between heros, if you put enemies like Tidehunter and Kunkka in the same lane they'll mention they don't like each other. Also just look at the amount of responses [http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Kunkka_responses] there are for Kunkka killing Tidehunter. That's not uncommon between heroes that they'll speak to each other about lore and reference stuff, and I wish LoL had more of it.

There are taunts, and they come with animations but they're an unlock, also you make the hero laugh if you type lol, but it's not nearly as spammable as league. So plus side there are more varied taunts, downside they're unlocks and less spammy, along with no /jokes or /dance.

To sum up, main reasons I switched was abilities feel beefy, supports have a fuck ton more to do early game (as in, they have something to do other than stand in a bush and ward once every 2 mins), there isn't a set meta that forces you into 1 team lineup, heroes have much more interesting abilities, you'd never see Pit Lord where he can teleport his entire team to anywhere on the map in LoL, also Heroes don't NEED only 4 ability slots (Outside of Elise, Jayce & Troll Warlord melee/ranged switch style) like Invoker who has around 10 spells. Control groups like Starcraft and other RTS games where you can control more than 2 units at once (holding alt for Annies ult is controlling 2, but Dota you can have at least 20 with Broodmother or PL). Heroes don't sort of die out to make way for new ones, where there was like a good year or two where Eve wasn't played, during TI3 I think it was only around 10 heroes weren't picked or banned, I'd put a fairly hefty wager you wouldn't see that sort of verity in LoL comps although if someone could link me stats that would be lovely, I'm interested. I don't know much about the current LoL meta but I can guarantee there will be people who aren't picked because they're nerfed to the ground and you'd get shouted at for picking them, currently I can't think of anyone in Dota that doesn't have a use, it may be a niche use like Broodmother early tower pushing and countered easy but it's something unique, and with League characters being so similar the nerfed ones just lay dormant with someone else doing exactly the same as them but better.

This was much longer than I intended it to be...

Edit:

Just like 10 different variations on how to pick and ban... also some people managed to unlock the 10 Champion lobbies and practically wreck EU West. It is a really funny thing though.

Yeah there is no ranked system, but if you're into those sorts of all one character funny games that's built into the lobby system in Dota, where everyone can be the same character or you can just have as many of anyone you want, you can even have a team of Roshans vs another team of Roshans.

Also there's wtf mode, where everyone has infinite mana and no cooldowns, which is just ridiculous(ly funny).

 

[Shinsei-J]

Personally after many years of playing the original DotA, then LoL, then DotA 2 for a bit, then back to LoL, I like LoL the most.
Unlike most people on this thread I can't give you such a straight out "objective opinion" but I can say I believe LoL to be the better design game. Though in saying that, these are just my opinions and I think you should eventually try both but to start off with go to which ever you have better or more friends in because in the end these games aren't just competitive they're cooperative too, and a whole lot more fun with friends.

OT: In the Dota vs LoL debate, I would pick Awesomenauts. It is a lot more fun and a lot less complicated or stressful then either of those. And it has a bitchin theme song.

Spoiler: Pssh, please. DotA has Sweden on there side, you don't think they wouldn't have a kick ass tute too?

Pssh, please. DotA has Sweden on there side, you don't think they wouldn't have a kick ass tute too?

 

[5ilver]

If you're gonna play both, start with DotA.

Seconding this. You can immediately test out all the heroes in Dota and you'll have the exact same stats and a similar experience to everyone else.

With league, you have to grind for 500+ games to get a few rune pages and some of the heroes (<20%). The game plays *very* differently with just the free champions and no rune pages (as an example, jungling is nigh-on impossible), not to mention ranked play is completely locked off.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Depends really. I hate that DoTA has voice chat. I've never once been playing league and thought "I really wish these whiny cocksuckers could assault my eardrums." I always use skype instead of in game chat anyways.

The games are very similar, but DoTA has a much higher learning curve and much more things to manage.

Also the parameters of what a character is able to do in dota is much different from LoL. LoL's characters are more contained and precise. In DoTA all the characters are constantly throwing around game changing super moves like its nothing. For example in league there's a character who can teleport anywhere he wants on the map, but it's his ultimate (meaning he cant use it until lvl 6) and it has a 3 minute cooldown time, and before he uses it the other team is alerted that he's using it, and it shows them where he's teleporting in in the few seconds it takes him to cast it if the spot is in vision range. In DoTA there's a character who can sprint across the map to any enemy he wants without warning at level 1 and it only has a 30 second cooldown.

DoTA takes a much bolder design approach than LoL does. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't personally like it. I get that if EVERYONE is overpowered bullshit then it eventually forms into something that resembles balance, but I still find it more frustrating to play.

 

[Tien Shen]

If you're gonna play both, start with DotA.

Seconding this. You can immediately test out all the heroes in Dota and you'll have the exact same stats and a similar experience to everyone else.

With league, you have to grind for 500+ games to get a few rune pages and some of the heroes (<20%). The game plays *very* differently with just the free champions and no rune pages (as an example, jungling is nigh-on impossible), not to mention ranked play is completely locked off.

Ranked play is locked off to new accounts cause nobody wants brand new players just jumping straight into Ranked without first getting a handle on how to play the game. Normal queues are available from the start to new players. Also I think saying you need 500+ games to fill a few pages is a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[DelinquentTurtle]

Depends really. I hate that DoTA has voice chat. I've never once been playing league and thought "I really wish these whiny cocksuckers could assault my eardrums." I always use skype instead of in game chat anyways.

The games are very similar, but DoTA has a much higher learning curve and much more things to manage.

Also the parameters of what a character is able to do in dota is much different from LoL. LoL's characters are more contained and precise. In DoTA all the characters are constantly throwing around game changing super moves like its nothing. For example in league there's a character who can teleport anywhere he wants on the map, but it's his ultimate (meaning he cant use it until lvl 6) and it has a 3 minute cooldown time, and before he uses it the other team is alerted that he's using it, and it shows them where he's teleporting in in the few seconds it takes him to cast it if the spot is in vision range. In DoTA there's a character who can sprint across the map to any enemy he wants without warning at level 1 and it only has a 30 second cooldown.

DoTA takes a much bolder design approach than LoL does. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I don't personally like it. I get that if EVERYONE is overpowered bullshit then it eventually forms into something that resembles balance, but I still find it more frustrating to play.

For the first point I'm pretty sure you can just mute the person if they are assaulting your eardrums. Voice chat is really useful on the occassion where you are just in a random pub and your teammates actually try to be a team and communicate (it does happen folks)

Also for the example of the teleporting character, that is where Dota rewards you in the picking phase. The teleporting character you are talking about (Natures Prophet/Furion) doesn't have an escape or a stun until he gets items so if you catch him out of position after a teleport he's good as dead. There is a hero you can pick who can charge across the map at any target in vision from level 1 so he becomes a prime counter for Furion from level 1 onwards if the Furion is aggressive with the teleports.

Overall it the choice between the two depends on what kind of experience you are after. LoL is a lot easier to get into and learn but you will be locked out of a fair bit of the content until you grind a lot. On the other hand Dota will overwhelm you with the choices and intricacies of the game and beat you down and punish you hard for mistakes. But if you suffer through it and learn then IMO it offers a much deeper tactical gameplay than LoL. Also the new Limited Heroes mode is a good starting point for newer players in that it's restricted to the more basic heroes with easier to understand abilities.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Dota is better in every way

Yea, no.
Dota 2 character control is sluggish, whereas LoL feels tighter and more responsive. It's like controlling CoD vs. controlling TF2.
Also, LoL CC doesn't last as long as the insane times on some of the Dota spells. Along with that you generally don't dump your entire mana in the space of a few seconds. While Dota may be the "deeper game" due to its extra complexities, that makes it far less accessible. LoL is also much, much easier to run on weaker PCs.

Anyway, those are just one of the ways that Dota 2 is inferior. However, both games have advantages and disadvantages, many of which have been listed in this thread. Dota 2 heroes are free whereas LoL champions have to be bought with RP or earned with IP. Also, Dota 2 has Steam as a launching platform, which is better than the shocking LoL client.

Personally, I play LoL. Could you tell?

That "sluggishness" is deliberate turn rates. You know how a lot of people complain about how almost all melee champs are shit and ranged just dominates unless you're someone like Lee Sin? Completely different in Dota. Melee heroes are actually worth a shit, and most of the super hard carries are melee. They have a very large affect on balance, and every time I've seen a league player actually stick with Dota, even if they don't like the game they get used to and appreciate the turn rates. Those other negatives like CC lasting long and mana? Those aren't downsides... just means you can't spam spells without thinking and you can't just walk up to 4 enemies and be fine because lolflash


OP: I play both, more of Dota though. The main, big problem with me in league is how bad the spells are. Oh my god I just want to do stuff instead of either spamming shitty spells with no concern for mana or using a semi powerful spell with like 2 minutes cooldown. WHY ARE THE COOLDOWNS SO LONG. Ugh. Nature's prophet: 20 second global TP. Twisted fate: Long range TP with a fucking massive cooldown, and I see people complaining about its power all the time. I dislike how they balance everything by hitting them with the nerf bat rather than making other things good too. Just makes them feel boring. Oh. I have a 1 second stun, a 0.75 silence and a 2.5 second speed boost. Exciting

The attack and spell animations also feel quite a lot weaker. There's a lot of power behind the attacks.

Spoiler: Compare Elder titan's ult to... anything in League honestly

League is fun, and definitely more accessible, but I think as a game Dota is better.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Apparently they just took the original DOTA Warcraft 3 engine or what have you and HD'd up with zero attempt at improvement.

What? It runs on Source like every other Valve game from Half Life 2 to Portal 2, where did you get that information from as it's impressively wrong.

No I mean they practically copy pasted how the original Warcraft 3 engine felt onto Source and HD'd it, that's almost the same shut up.

Zero effort to make things not sluggish as fuck. Hey maybe some people are into that kinda thing, I just prefer controls that you do not have to fight through to reach the fun.

Are you referring to turnrates? Those weren't a limitation, Starcraft 1 had no turn rates. It's a deliberate change, and trust me even if it's annoying at first on its own, the fact that it makes most melee heroes not completely shit, it's definitely worth it. There are also heroes that intentionally have no (or almost no) turn rates. It only feels sluggish because you aren't used to it. Every time I see a league player play Dota without ragequitting cause it's not like League (one of my friends uninstalled because "the lanes were bendy and trees instead of walls are dumb"), after a small amount of time they get completely used to the turning.

It means there are actually... melee ADC's! More than just a few viable melee mids! What!?

 

[Frankster]

When it comes to the douches department, neither game can have the moral high ground whatever their respective supporters might say.

Dunno if its due to the MOBA genre, but whatever you play, you will bump into people who delight in trolling and making other people miserable. Regardless of your own attitude, being nice, not nice, whatever, it will happen.
If someone here tells you otherwise then says "they play with a friend" then ignore them because they are kinda cheating by having 1 player on their team guaranteed to back them up and be on their side no matter what

As for which game is better, it's a question of taste.

Im not a fan of dotas "every champions overpowered but in a different way" ethos, ultimately i make too many small mistakes as im a mediocre player and dota is much more punishing then lol when it comes to recovering from mistakes or bad starts or w/e. Despite the trolling, i have more fun with lol and find the fights more exciting as one slip won't screw me over like it would in dota making me more daring overall. But i can totally see someone like dota for the opposite reasons, with 1 nicely timed ulti laying waste to your enemy.

So it really is a question of taste.

 

[kingthrall]

if you like homogenized seamlessly endless hordes of enemies pouring at you with pre-destermined regions then buy this game.

If you like games where you have a hero with pretty much a stack of abilities that you wait on recharging , then attacking at the maximum range calling it micro. Then buy this game.

If you like a game with a decent plot, micro management and a sense that you really worked hard to earn a victory instead of a mindless level counter, then buy something else.

both games in a nutshell basically Diablo 3 with PVP on steroids.

 

[Demix]

Dota 2 vs LoL

Well I'm an LoL player so i may be a bit biased:

I tried Dota 2 and Dota does seem more complex and you do get every hero/champ it's not exactly my cup of tea. It has some neat things like that you can wait for dc'd people to come back, item courier services and some of the champs have rather interesting if not broken skills. I don't understand the cosmetic aspect of the game though. you can buy pieces of items to put on characters and stuff and it's an okay game I don't hate it but I simply prefer League of legends.

LoL is easier to learn and yes you have to play games to buy champs but they always have a selection of free champs to try and they are diverse enough to try different styles. I prefer LoL's easy to learn hard to master style of Dota's 2 thing. LoL's completely free though, except for different(extra) skins and if you're really impatient you can buy champions but you don't need to pay for anything to play and learn the game and nothing you pay for will ever give you an edge. LoL is the bigger of the two and I love what they have done with the ranking system. Their champions are all pretty interesting and I like the lore of each one. Riot does their best and yea you're gonna get some bad eggs but not all people are bad. If anything it's crime is bringing out an ultra competitive spirit in a lot of players.

Fair warning you're going to catch bad people no matter which you choose. Feel free to try both and pick your side though.

P.S I am not trying to sway you either way you should give both a try if you could but I've been enjoying riot's new champ and I can't wait to play her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0nlJuwO0GDs

 

[Alliancewolf]

Hello, I recently transitioned from having played LoL to start playing Dota 2 and I've got to say a few things about how it was, but first some background info.
I'd say that it's easier to start with LoL, since you learn the basics of basics there easier than in Dota2 and you also won't have to deal with the frustration that are the instantkill mistakes that happens in Dota2 and also the games in LoL 5v5 lasts abit shorter than those in Dota2 (about 10minutes atleast), so you'll get more games done in LoL than in Dota2 in the same amount of time (= more time to learn the game)

I've played roughly 3k games of LoL (3v3,5v5/normal-ranked combined) and during those all those games I'd say I had the opportunity to play with a varying degree of people and I'd scale the people I played with being as the following:
-50% unlikeable people that are still learing how LoL works and blames others for their own mistakes
-10% that knows how the game works and doesn't complain, but doesn't bother to help his teammates to improve
-10% that bothers to give advice to their younger LoLer's
-10% smurfs that knows how to play one role in ranked queue's
-20% the experimenting type that knows how the game works and plays with four fellow friends inorder to not have to suffer the random people that can get on your team.

What else about LoL? If you start with LoL you learn the importance of lasthitting minions, since without the last hits you won't do much in the game, since you won't get any gold (Can't really do much without items in LoL), unless you kill the enemy champions.
Also what most said about having to grind grind grind for IP inorder to buy a champion in LoL is pretty boring, but I find it pretty good that you have to grind for the IP, since once you buy that one first champ, you'll for sure play it until you've mastered it and the when you buy your second one, you'll get to master that one while you grind IP for the next and the next and so forth.

--->onwards to Dota 2


When I started playing Dota 2 I noticed that the champions were abit less reactive to your orders and that some champions are really insane, compared to the ones you can find in LoL, that completely decimates the beginner's, unless they happen to play with friends or are lucky and have one of the rare helpfull teammates on his/her's team.

So the first thing you notice when you start playing Dota2 is the "OP" factor at the beginning that gradually fades into non-existence, except for some champs.
The second thing is the how you farm gold inorder to buy items. You'll notice that last hitting minions doesn't really matter if you keep on dying repeateadly and also that it won't help that much if you kill someone and then you get killed afterwards, since you'll lose the gold you recieved once you die, unless you're fast enough to buy the item you wanted from the shop.
Thirdly there's the Hill&flat&river-planes that provides 3 different areas of line of sight, which you won't find in LoL, but you won't find any bushes in Dota2, but you'll find clusters of trees instead, which are the bushes of Dota2.


So once you get the hang of those things in Dota2 you're ready to start playing it with any champ you want, but I think I might have missed lots of important things, but you should've found them in the replys before this one.

One last thing. When I had learned how Dota 2 worked and then moved back to try playing LoL I noticed that I Dota 2 somewhat had improved my gamestyle in LoL, but not that much.

Thank you for reading my wall of text and hopefully it wasn't too boring to read.

 

[godofslack]

Apparently they just took the original DOTA Warcraft 3 engine or what have you and HD'd up with zero attempt at improvement.

What? It runs on Source like every other Valve game from Half Life 2 to Portal 2, where did you get that information from as it's impressively wrong.

No I mean they practically copy pasted how the original Warcraft 3 engine felt onto Source and HD'd it, that's almost the same shut up.

Zero effort to make things not sluggish as fuck. Hey maybe some people are into that kinda thing, I just prefer controls that you do not have to fight through to reach the fun.

Are you referring to turnrates? Those weren't a limitation, Starcraft 1 had no turn rates. It's a deliberate change, and trust me even if it's annoying at first on its own, the fact that it makes most melee heroes not completely shit, it's definitely worth it. There are also heroes that intentionally have no (or almost no) turn rates. It only feels sluggish because you aren't used to it. Every time I see a league player play Dota without ragequitting cause it's not like League (one of my friends uninstalled because "the lanes were bendy and trees instead of walls are dumb"), after a small amount of time they get completely used to the turning.

It means there are actually... melee ADC's! More than just a few viable melee mids! What!?

I hear that turn rates make melee carries viable but it's mostly untrue, in fact it's how they itemize. Due to how agility and strength work buying many offensive items gives you defensive stats too, for example Heart of Tarrasque gives you 1160 HP, 40 damage (if you are a strength hero) and 2% max health per second until you are hit by Roshan or an enemy hero, where it takes 4 seconds to recover, and it's extremely commonly built on carries. And that's the kicker most of the items that are built on carries in DotA have defensive and offensive bonuses, while in league carries build nearly pure offence, combine that with massive stat gain again the same stats providing defence and offence, you get carries that are more akin to bruisers in league. Hell the tankiest carries in league are comparable to the tankier carries in DotA before itemization, and that's excluding the fact the mages scale so they can kill carries.

As for the mid comment that's quite untrue right now, the most of the top mids are melee atm.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Apparently they just took the original DOTA Warcraft 3 engine or what have you and HD'd up with zero attempt at improvement.

What? It runs on Source like every other Valve game from Half Life 2 to Portal 2, where did you get that information from as it's impressively wrong.

No I mean they practically copy pasted how the original Warcraft 3 engine felt onto Source and HD'd it, that's almost the same shut up.

Zero effort to make things not sluggish as fuck. Hey maybe some people are into that kinda thing, I just prefer controls that you do not have to fight through to reach the fun.

Are you referring to turnrates? Those weren't a limitation, Starcraft 1 had no turn rates. It's a deliberate change, and trust me even if it's annoying at first on its own, the fact that it makes most melee heroes not completely shit, it's definitely worth it. There are also heroes that intentionally have no (or almost no) turn rates. It only feels sluggish because you aren't used to it. Every time I see a league player play Dota without ragequitting cause it's not like League (one of my friends uninstalled because "the lanes were bendy and trees instead of walls are dumb"), after a small amount of time they get completely used to the turning.

It means there are actually... melee ADC's! More than just a few viable melee mids! What!?

I hear that turn rates make melee carries viable but it's mostly untrue, in fact it's how they itemize. Due to how agility and strength work buying many offensive items gives you defensive stats too, for example Heart of Tarrasque gives you 1160 HP, 40 damage (if you are a strength hero) and 2% max health per second until you are hit by Roshan or an enemy hero, where it takes 4 seconds to recover, and it's extremely commonly built on carries. And that's the kicker most of the items that are built on carries in DotA have defensive and offensive bonuses, while in league carries build nearly pure offence, combine that with massive stat gain again the same stats providing defence and offence, you get carries that are more akin to bruisers in league. Hell the tankiest carries in league are comparable to the tankier carries in DotA before itemization, and that's excluding the fact the mages scale so they can kill carries.

As for the mid comment that's quite untrue right now, the most of the top mids are melee atm.

That definitely helps, but for an example of what I'm talking about, look at the new Jinx spotlight. Elise goes on Jinx in spider form and Jinx's speed just lets her stutter step until Elise is dead. It's only one example and it's designed to show off Jinx, but something like that wouldn't be possible at all in Dota. It's such a massive advantage that melee heroes don't get.

Oh ok, I haven't been keeping up with the meta much, just watching the occasional game on twitch. Back when I was learning about it it was almost entirely ranged mids.

 

[godofslack]

Apparently they just took the original DOTA Warcraft 3 engine or what have you and HD'd up with zero attempt at improvement.

What? It runs on Source like every other Valve game from Half Life 2 to Portal 2, where did you get that information from as it's impressively wrong.

No I mean they practically copy pasted how the original Warcraft 3 engine felt onto Source and HD'd it, that's almost the same shut up.

Zero effort to make things not sluggish as fuck. Hey maybe some people are into that kinda thing, I just prefer controls that you do not have to fight through to reach the fun.

Are you referring to turnrates? Those weren't a limitation, Starcraft 1 had no turn rates. It's a deliberate change, and trust me even if it's annoying at first on its own, the fact that it makes most melee heroes not completely shit, it's definitely worth it. There are also heroes that intentionally have no (or almost no) turn rates. It only feels sluggish because you aren't used to it. Every time I see a league player play Dota without ragequitting cause it's not like League (one of my friends uninstalled because "the lanes were bendy and trees instead of walls are dumb"), after a small amount of time they get completely used to the turning.

It means there are actually... melee ADC's! More than just a few viable melee mids! What!?

I hear that turn rates make melee carries viable but it's mostly untrue, in fact it's how they itemize. Due to how agility and strength work buying many offensive items gives you defensive stats too, for example Heart of Tarrasque gives you 1160 HP, 40 damage (if you are a strength hero) and 2% max health per second until you are hit by Roshan or an enemy hero, where it takes 4 seconds to recover, and it's extremely commonly built on carries. And that's the kicker most of the items that are built on carries in DotA have defensive and offensive bonuses, while in league carries build nearly pure offence, combine that with massive stat gain again the same stats providing defence and offence, you get carries that are more akin to bruisers in league. Hell the tankiest carries in league are comparable to the tankier carries in DotA before itemization, and that's excluding the fact the mages scale so they can kill carries.

As for the mid comment that's quite untrue right now, the most of the top mids are melee atm.

That definitely helps, but for an example of what I'm talking about, look at the new Jinx spotlight. Elise goes on Jinx in spider form and Jinx's speed just lets her stutter step until Elise is dead. It's only one example and it's designed to show off Jinx, but something like that wouldn't be possible at all in Dota. It's such a massive advantage that melee heroes don't get.

Oh ok, I haven't been keeping up with the meta much, just watching the occasional game on twitch. Back when I was learning about it it was almost entirely ranged mids.

Yeah melee mid is really new, and I do agree it's a substantial advantage, but I don't think turn rates are what stop melee carries from being viable in league, rather the idea of a squishy, low CC, high sustained damage but lowish burst melee characters aren't viable because it can't possibly offer enough damage for it's huge sacrifices and be balanced in both high and low level play.

 

[Retardinator]

Simply put, both games are crap. They're addictive, have a fair share of problems that just won't get fixed and are an evolution of the MOBA genre as much as Pikachu with fake cat ears is an evolution of Pikachu.

DoTA 2 is a competitive beast, which means that everything is turned up to eleven. Damage is of apocalyptic proportions, stuns last centuries and you need to be asian to keep track of what is happening on the map (yes, the entire map). Because the game is so competitive, it means that players enter it with a serious mindset and are more likely to either ragequit, troll, or, if you make a mistake, calmly explain what you're doing wrong (never happens) and the consequences of you doing so are humongous.
But because everyone's OP in DoTA, it makes for a balanced game, which is like saying that if everybody launched nukes it would be a fair war for everyone involved.

LoL is more casual in its approach, I'd even go as far as to say more user-friendly. It's slower, and it's easier to keep track of everything. But if you start losing, boy oh boy are you in for some acid. Teams fall apart very easily, where every mistake just makes players more pissed off and less focused on the game. This leads to losing streaks and more rage. While the game itself is still kinda OK, it suffers from balance issues. Because everything moves more slowly than in DoTA every single imbalance is all the more obvious, especially when new champions/heroes are released (and the game is broken in their favor, most of the time). The community probably got a bit cleaned up lately, but that still doesn't mean you won't see a fair share of idiots. Maybe you'll be one of them, at least for a short while if you're pissed, you never know.
The game is like a fuel tanker with a dented axle. It might be a little bumpy, but it drives just fine. Until the axle breaks and everything blows up.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I prefer LoL but it basically comes down to the fact that it runs better on my computer. I also like the greater champion variety. Yes here's where people complain about balance but honestly, unless you're in diamond you can make any champion work well for you if you're good with them and you aren't hard countered in lane.

I also find the LoL community to be less toxic. Contrary to popular belief, not every game ends in rage among your teammates. The rage in your team is very easy to control. Don't pick fights and if your teammate does something good, tell them! Positive reinforcement works wonders with teammates. Negative reinforcement usually in worse performance. Yes you will occasionally come across a player who is so toxic that all you can really do is just mute them but that rarely happens if you follow what I said above.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Apparently they just took the original DOTA Warcraft 3 engine or what have you and HD'd up with zero attempt at improvement.

The base game engine was completely changed, Dota2 runs on source. All the higher level stuff would've been rewritten at least.

Even then there are plenty of videos showing gameplay tweaks between the two versions. They are spammed all over YouTube.