DOTA2 or LoL?

[linkmastr001]

Personally I like LoL more. Dota2 just has a lot of frustrating mechanics in it and the much smaller amount of champions makes it get a lot more repetitive for me

LoL: 109 Champions and counting.
Dota 2: 96 Heroes with 15 still in development, 2 about to be released, which totals at 111.

More or less even, really.

If you're going to count champs in development, you should count them for LoL too, who has 8-10 champs in development at a given time, one of whom will be released soon, making their total at least 117.

OT: I prefer LoL personally, after having played both, but I would suggest you try them each out yourself. Currently, DOTA 2 costs money to get into, but I have several free copies if anyone wants one (just PM me). Here's Why:

With LoL, overall I like how most of the champs and the map are balanced, one of my issues with DoTA being that both sides aren't mirrored, so I feel one side is always at a distinct advantage, while with LoL you could draw a line across the map and find it's symmetric. Are they both perfect? no, but LoL's is closer. Also, LoL has a Mastery and Rune system which allows further customization of your character to better match their role, fix any issues you have with a champion, or to help you have a champion go outside of their normal role. There are also two special spells (called Summoner Spells) you can have access to and can be potent additions to your arsenal.

DoTA 2 is still in beta, so it is hard to make true judgements on it until it is released. For example, right now all champs are available at the get go, but I feel that is only until they release it, since they need people to test the champs. However, there are mechanics they have that I don't like, for example, the multiple shops. There are two shops that they have, a "secret shop", which has some exclusive items, and a side shop and standard shop at your base, which has it's own exclusive items. I find it annoying to have to manage the two myself. On a more positive, related note, I do like the Courier and how you can purchase items in lane and have them shipped to you. I don't like how you have to run back to base if you need to recover. My biggest issue with DoTA currently though, is the gold loss on death. I currently feel DoTA games are determined way too often in the first 5 minutes of the game due to that simple mechanic, whereas in LoL, you can turn around a game you're losing in the mid or late game.

TL;DR I prefer LoL, but suggest you try both and pick the one you prefer more.

EDIT: Oh, another thing I don't like about DoTA is the mana pool, the resource available to most champs to use their abilities. It's just waaay too small. In both games, you can only use a few abilities in the early game before it's depleted, but in DoTA this is always the case, while in LoL, every champ will be able to use their abilities many times at the higher levels without needing extra mana or mana regeneration. Another thing I don't like about DoTA are the stats, there are only three: Strength, Agility, and Intellect. There are also three types of champs, one for each stat. Each of those champs should, for the most part, only build their respective stat since it gives them everything they could ever want.

 

[Uszi]

@SmashLovesTitanQuest @WoWKiller

Smite and LoL have a scaling system where spells become more powerful with item purchases as the game goes on. LoL has AP and Smite has, what, magic power, or something.

Anyway, DotA does not have this. By definition, all characters that rely on abilities taper off towards the end of the game because there is no scaling, and this is also true of heals. When you hit the end of a long game, Dazzle's 140 HP heal [http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Dazzle] in and of itself is not going to save someone who's eating 1200 damage criticals from a fed Phantom Assassin [http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Phantom_assassin].

By design, just about any intelligence hero becomes a support late game to set up kills for characters that scale better into the end. Doesn't matter how good you play as Lina or Lion or Witch Doctor, if the game goes on long enough you cannot carry your team.

A lot of the Heals in LoL got nerfed due to AP scaling, if I remember. In my time playing I know Nidalee and Kayle took really hard hits to their heals, and that's because with AP scaling these skills become broken. I also love AP Gangplank [http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Gangplank] specifically because his heal, Remove Scurvey, hasn't been nerfed because AP Gangplank is a stupid build. But it's not hard to heal for 8000 HP for 65 mana every 11 seconds if you get fed as AP Gangplank.

 

[Vigormortis]

Spoiler: Shrunk using convenient space-saving forum technique...

- Fortunately it's not a subjective subject where you can agree or disagree. We have win rates for both games, and LoL has a lower cealing and a higher baseline for win percentage having also more heroes. That is more balanced is a math fact, what you are arguing I think are the reasons, which i didn't delved into.

Wait, maybe it's how you typed that, but I'm not getting what you're saying. Are you implying LoL is more "balanced"
because it has more heroes? Because, if you are, that's ludicrous.

Besides, it's irrelevant anyway as both Riot AND Valve tend to spend mostly equal amounts of effort in balancing.

- Yeah, but only at it's most basic level. I would assume anyone who thinks himself decent at dota knows all the heroes, skills, posible roles, has map awarness and the optimal builds and niche builds for his core heroes. LoL i can't comment, because i just play it once in a while with friends, know it well enough but aren't good enough to be insightful.

From my experience, and from that of people I know who regularly play both Dota 2 and LoL, victory in LoL is often independent of the tactics and teamplay of those playing in any given match and more on the awareness of the rigid meta-game "rules".

This makes the game far more "forgiving", in principle, to new players. And, given that, it would be the game I recommend first to any curious new players.

However, the limited options presented to a new player are quite off-putting. I particularly hate to have to tell new LoL players that they can't pick every hero they want but rather have to buy or "unlock" most of them. (which is really lame)

- Note that i said shit about "players", I said teams. The best DotA players lose on a regular basis when playing pub matches, so? This is all about the team, take the WCG for example, Tong Fu won convincingly over iG and LGD on WCIII DotA because Tong Fu were more focused and up to date in the WCIII DotA mechanics and metagame, but AFAIK they have NEVER win against LGD and iG in DotA2, certanly not a whole torunament over the other two.

Granted, but your example is on teams facing off in Dota and Dota 2, not Dota 2/Dota versus LoL; which was what your previous example was about.

What I was referencing was tournament wherein a handful of top-tier Dota teams were to face off against a handful of top-tier LoL teams in each respective game. The caveat being each team had only played one of the games before. I.E. the Dota teams had never played LoL and the LoL teams had never played Dota.

Each team was given maybe a week at most to "practice" each game in preparation.

By the end of the tournament, the Dota teams collectively racked up more wins in both games than the LoL teams had. (by a small margin, though) That's all I was saying.

- In pubs every carry is op (even if it's ture that Drow and Sven are particulary good at snowballing and stupidly easy to play), the lower you go the worse because they will be left alone to freefarm and the support players are not good enough to shut them down early either. You could also have said for example "Necrolyte, Luna and PL are OP". In the tournament scene Sven is certanly not OP, nor I would think Centaur but he aint in CM so who knows, Drow... might be nerfed not because he can get fat (every carry can) but because her global aura for ranged heroes; I am very doubtful they will be nerfed soon. In the pro scene I would say Wisp, Batrider, Nerubian Assassin and PL are too strong, but after the recent patch PL might drop a little probably replaced by Magnataur.

No, a carry only becomes "op" if it's over-fed. And, this only happens if you have the combination of a decent player (as the carry) and a bad opposing team that fails to understand the principle of slowing an opposing carry.

Sven most certainly is OP in the tourney scene. He's a very strong pick, namely because of the buff Valve gave to his ultimate. (going from 200% to 300% at level 3) I've regularly seen Sven decimate opposing teams off of cleave damage alone, even while he's at an equivalent or lower level.

And last I looked, in some tourneys, Drow is out-right banned as it's almost impossible to push against her in any given lane. Namely due to the combination of her global aura and her ultimate; the latter of which grants an insane amount of bonus agility.

Again, I've had Drows in my matches hit 200+ agility before they pass level 16. That's ridiculous.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I prefer LoL a lot more than Dota 2 so far but I haven't put a lot of time into Dota 2 to be certain but certain design decisions about it bug the fuck out of me. To me the excuse that is was in Dota so it must be in Dota 2 doesn't fly with me. I would love if all the crap killstreak and death stuff was taken out of it. Now not the gold loss that is fine just the X pwned Y and all the obnoxious killstreak titles as I hated it in every other game that has it so I will not like it here and it makes the game seem much less mature. You would think it would have a certain level of maturity if it is supposed to be a big E sport title and I personally don't want it being an e sport title with that crap. That is just my opinion on it and I accept that I am not fully right it just annoys me a lot.

The mini map is placed in an awful spot. Hopefully there is an option to change this put in eventually as no one should have to adapt to obtuse or badly laid out interfaces. From clicking on the minimap on the Radiant team I've had to change my settings to give me a grace period of a few seconds to delay movement from accidental map clicks and while it is great having the option to do this I shouldn't have to.

I have liked the things like the couriers and while annoying to get the hang of the denying is another nice aspect. So as others have said I'd try both for awhile and then see which one you like and as I said I am still trying out Dota 2 but these are my first impressions of the game.

 

[Uszi]

EDIT: Oh, another thing I don't like about DoTA is the mana pool, the resource available to most champs to use their abilities. It's just waaay too small. In both games, you can only use a few abilities in the early game before it's depleted, but in DoTA this is always the case, while in LoL, every champ will be able to use their abilities many times at the higher levels without needing extra mana or mana regeneration.

Spell spam is one of the most noticeable differences between LoL and DotA. In DotA it's generally inadvisable to cast any spell before it's rank 2, so you normally don't cast a spell till you hit level 3 ---- with exceptions, of course. Rank 1 spells in DotA are a trade off where the damage they do for the mana they cost you is usually not worth it, but obviously can be worth it if you're in a situation where you get a kill.

But then again, that's DotA. It's all trade offs.

LoL, on the other hand, is all about spam. I think the difference gets really highlighted when you compare LoL characters that were clearly based on DotA characters, i.e. Blitzcrank [http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Blitzcrank] and Pudge [http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Pudge].

Blitz Rocket Grab is 110 mana at all levels. Pudge Hook 110, goes up 10 each level.
Blitz starting mana is 260 (no runes). Pudge starting mana is 182.
Blitz gets 40 mana per level. Pudge gets 19.5 mana per level.
Blitz level 1 mana regen is 1.32/s. Pudge level 1 mana regen is 0.56/s.

And like, I said, without runes or masteries, and considering how awesome mana shield is on Blitz I normally stack mana on him (Manamume, frozen heart, etc).

It just translates into Blitz being able to Rocket Grab more often than Pudge, and missing an individual Rocket Grab is less painful to Blitz than it is to Pudge.

Uhm, not to say one is better than the other, personally. If you think casting abilities is fun and you want to do more of it, then stuff costs less mana and characters have more mana to work with in LoL, and abilities scale into late game with AP. If you like the trade off, then DotA is more fun.

 

[kortin]

Dota 2 is needlessly complex in some sort of attempt to appear more than it is.

LoL is fun.

Pick which you'd prefer.

 

[Uszi]

... denying must be the most anti-fun gameplay mechanic in the history of anything. More anti-fun than YORICK.

Yorick is one my favorite LoL champions. He pwns the snot out of everyone early and then makes any 5v5 a 6v5 by making a ghost of the carry.

Yorick is a boss. Supporick bottom is a double boss.

Dota 2 is needlessly complex in some sort of attempt to appear more than it is.

LoL is fun.

Pick which you'd prefer.

Meh, maybe my opinion is a minority opinion, but I still don't think DotA is "more complex," than LoL. The basic mechanics of both games are the same. What's different is that LoL has more items, more champions, and more spells, especially since a lot of LoL spells have multiple effects (i.e., Shaco's Two Shiv poison is a passive attack modifier, or an active ability, but using the active ability disables the passive attack modifier for the duration of the active). LoL also has a system of masteries and runes which are not part of DotA.

 

[Kicksauce]

I weep over the comparatively miniscule popularity of HoN

 

[joshthor]

They both have their place. I prefer league of legends. Here are the facts:

1. They both have terrible communities because mobas bring out the worst in people.
2. Dota 2 has better graphics and take more power to run - you can run LoL on a toaster.
3. LoL has more champions - however not by much, and all of Dotas champs are free - LoL you get a rotation of 10 free champs you have to buy the rest - either through playing games and earning IP or spending money.
4. LoL is more newbie freindly - its a much easier game to pick up and it doesnt punish you for mistakes nearly as much as Dota does (this is what makes LoL more fun for me. In LoL if you do bad you have a chance to come back, in Dota if your doing bad you will probably never catch back up)
5. Valve is a better company. Dont get me wrong, I love Riot but Valve is much more likely to do free events where riot is not, however, riot has much better communication with thier players than Valve does. Valve takes the standard company approach where PR or Gabe does all the talking, but in LoL all the employees talk to the gamers (for better or for worse, its got them in trouble alot)
6. Dota 2 has a lot more mechanics that can frustrate your team or opponents (for instance, you can kill your own creeps or towers to deny gold from your enemies, you can manipulate your allies, CC is much much much stronger than in LoL
7. League of Legends has better balance (this will probably get me yelled at) Dota is pretty well balanced however there are much fewer viable champions/heroes than in LoL
8. LoL is much more rigid with roles than Dota is.

All in all, they both have their place. its up to you. I recommend League of Legends, however, Dota is also good. Whatever you do though... play bot matches or mute all communication until you figure out what you are doing because the communities are merciless. (on par/possibly worse than counterstrike)

 

[joshthor]

EDIT: Oh, another thing I don't like about DoTA is the mana pool, the resource available to most champs to use their abilities. It's just waaay too small. In both games, you can only use a few abilities in the early game before it's depleted, but in DoTA this is always the case, while in LoL, every champ will be able to use their abilities many times at the higher levels without needing extra mana or mana regeneration.

Spell spam is one of the most noticeable differences between LoL and DotA. In DotA it's generally inadvisable to cast any spell before it's rank 2, so you normally don't cast a spell till you hit level 3 ---- with exceptions, of course. Rank 1 spells in DotA are a trade off where the damage they do for the mana they cost you is usually not worth it, but obviously can be worth it if you're in a situation where you get a kill.

But then again, that's DotA. It's all trade offs.

LoL, on the other hand, is all about spam. I think the difference gets really highlighted when you compare LoL characters that were clearly based on DotA characters, i.e. Blitzcrank [http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Blitzcrank] and Pudge [http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Pudge].

Blitz Rocket Grab is 110 mana at all levels. Pudge Hook 110, goes up 10 each level.
Blitz starting mana is 260 (no runes). Pudge starting mana is 182.
Blitz gets 40 mana per level. Pudge gets 19.5 mana per level.
Blitz level 1 mana regen is 1.32/s. Pudge level 1 mana regen is 0.56/s.

And like, I said, without runes or masteries, and considering how awesome mana shield is on Blitz I normally stack mana on him (Manamume, frozen heart, etc).

It just translates into Blitz being able to Rocket Grab more often than Pudge, and missing an individual Rocket Grab is less painful to Blitz than it is to Pudge.

Uhm, not to say one is better than the other, personally. If you think casting abilities is fun and you want to do more of it, then stuff costs less mana and characters have more mana to work with in LoL, and abilities scale into late game with AP. If you like the trade off, then DotA is more fun.

in fairness to pudge while blitz can certainly spam more, pudges pull range is so far you can completely blindside your enemy where blitz its harder to do.

 

[Vigormortis]

Dota 2 is needlessly complex in some sort of attempt to appear more than it is.

LoL is fun.

Pick which you'd prefer.

Funny, I've had the opposite experience.

Dota 2 is fun and LoL tends to be the one that fakes complexity in an "attempt to appear more than it is".

That, and I've been insulted, yelled at, received death threats on myself or my mother, and had my sexuality called into question FAR more often in League of Legends than I have in Dota.

Honestly, there are times I'd rather be playing something like Halo or Call of Duty on Xbox Live than listen to my fellow players in a match of LoL.

 

[Larcenist]

That, and I've been insulted, yelled at, received death threats on myself or my mother, and had my sexuality called into question FAR more often in League of Legends than I have in Dota.

Your sexuality is apparently a big part of how you play MOBA games, something the League community never fails to inform me of.

One thing I've noticed since I've always been a massive ricer when it comes to MOBA games is that, since most games are balanced from a professional tournament standard (DotA, HoN and LoL alike), DotA offers a lot more items that allow you to fall completely out of control given the enemy team fails to stop you (and no one player can be everywhere at the same time so should your top and mid laners fail to stop an enemy top laner while you're bot for example, you can't really help it). This might be one of the reasons why LoL seems more appealing to new players since there are no items of the same caliber in LoL (short of the top lane which can make or break the game completely).

 

[maxmanrules]

Then you get dived because towers are considerably more shite than the LoL ones. Only a select few people in LoL are exceptional 1v1 divers. Garen can fearlessly tower dive because he's a *****, Jax can dive because lol Counterstrike, Akali has too many teleports and too much damage to care and Darius is Downright Dunkmaster Darius. It's much more risky for entire rest of the cast

You forget tower party pantheon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXaa0jryy0

 

[The Wykydtron]

... denying must be the most anti-fun gameplay mechanic in the history of anything. More anti-fun than YORICK.

Yorick is one my favorite LoL champions. He pwns the snot out of everyone early and then makes any 5v5 a 6v5 by making a ghost of the carry.

Yorick is a boss. Supporick bottom is a double boss.

Dota 2 is needlessly complex in some sort of attempt to appear more than it is.

LoL is fun.

Pick which you'd prefer.

Meh, maybe my opinion is a minority opinion, but I still don't think DotA is "more complex," than LoL. The basic mechanics of both games are the same. What's different is that LoL has more items, more champions, and more spells, especially since a lot of LoL spells have multiple effects (i.e., Shaco's Two Shiv poison is a passive attack modifier, or an active ability, but using the active ability disables the passive attack modifier for the duration of the active). LoL also has a system of masteries and runes which are not part of DotA.

Sure playing AS Yorick is fun I would imagine but playing AGAINST Yorick? Is so god damn awful. Annoying little FUCKING ghouls and their slows and shit. I don't even know what his abilities are exactly only that the little green slowing ghoul is a WHORE. They don't even DO much on their own either, he just spams them all day then grows mysterious burst damage once you decide to all-in him due to rage.

You can't win against a good Yorick. You can only not die and attempt to maintain farm.

He's like a bullshit version of Teemo. At least you can kill Teemo through the harass. Teemo can't revive himself with the Fuck You Button either.

Oh you want ghost shenanigans? Try this:

 

[The Wykydtron]

Then you get dived because towers are considerably more shite than the LoL ones. Only a select few people in LoL are exceptional 1v1 divers. Garen can fearlessly tower dive because he's a *****, Jax can dive because lol Counterstrike, Akali has too many teleports and too much damage to care and Darius is Downright Dunkmaster Darius. It's much more risky for entire rest of the cast

You forget tower party pantheon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXaa0jryy0

I have yet to see that tower diving item once. ONCE! Nobody buys it, not even the top lane bitches bruisers who can tower dive well anyway. I mean a jungler could buy one then pull off some ridiculously easy ganks. I guess the cooldown must be long and I don't know where you would fit it into a build but I want to try it.

Next jungle Hecarim game i'm going to rush it and see what happens.

Also Siv HD is awesome. I actually tried Atmog's Fate back in S2 and it works as this amazing late game carry if you can drag the game on long enough.

You don't get much damage with just the Atmog's and you deal fuck all damage with just the Warmog's but the moment you get a Phantom Dancer you become this beast of a character. Teleporting into, or in front of the enemy team. Forcing a teamfight, whenever you please.

 

[WoW Killer]

snip

Ah yes, I'd heard there was a bigger emphasis on active items in DotA 2, but I hadn't twigged how that effects the meta. If you can give situational healing and tanking abilities to any character, then that gives you a lot more freedom in team composition I guess. I'm liking the sound of that.

Smite and LoL have a scaling system where spells become more powerful with item purchases as the game goes on. LoL has AP and Smite has, what, magic power, or something.

Funnily enough a lot of SMITE players still use the terms AD and AP, though it's physical power and magical power in game (at least I think those are the equivalents; I'm not entirely sure what AD and AP refer to, particularly with regards to the difference in an AD and AP carry). They recently put a Focus stat in SMITE which is supposed to buff utility, like longer stuns and such. IIRC, Hel's heals are currently running off magic power rather than focus, which might be where the imbalance comes from. I think they're still playing around with the focus stat and the items that come with it.

Oh, another thing I don't like about DoTA is the mana pool, the resource available to most champs to use their abilities. It's just waaay too small. In both games, you can only use a few abilities in the early game before it's depleted, but in DoTA this is always the case, while in LoL, every champ will be able to use their abilities many times at the higher levels without needing extra mana or mana regeneration.

I've noticed that in the DotA 2 videos I've been watching. In SMITE it's kind of expected of you to use mana/abilities to kill creeps and push towers, even in the very early game. There's even some gods that'll use their ultimate to kill creeps (e.g. Ra can kill an entire wave with his ult as soon as he gets it at level 5). What ties into that is that pushing a tower early on is a very viable strategy (which I gather it isn't in DotA). The minions are pretty powerful early on so you can keep someone pressed against a tower and unable to respond if you've got a good push. You often see matchups like Ao Kuang versus Anubis in the mid lane; Anubis is way more effective at killing players, but Ao has a much better push. So Ao's best defence is to keep Anubis at his tower. Good example here (from Anubis perspective):

Spoiler: well, Ao gets destroyed, but you get the idea

 

[Lunar Templar]

I play LoL (rarely) cause i have friends that play it and occasionally they want the extra challenge carrying my ass through a match, cause i suck horribly at it xD (least i assume that's why they ask me to join a game, it's not for company, we can chat with out LoL)

can't say its done much to endear the MOBA genera to me, i like some of the champions and accompanying skins though, other then that, it's decent enough game.

 

[42Weasels]

Having played both, I answer you this way: Play both if you have the time.
They are similar enough that you don't have to relearn everything to try the other, but different that they give very different experiences. They are both free to play, so there's no cost involved in trying one or the other. Personally, if I was better at Dota 2, I would play LoL much less, because I enjoy Dota 2 more. On the other hand, though, when I'm in the mood for a couple relaxed games, I boot up LoL

 

[TheKaduflyerSystem]

Well, I love playing LoL with friends, but without a friend to help make it fun and that you can work with, games can become a veritable clusterfuck of raging, accusations and general bitching. That said, you can also have random games were everything turns out wonderful and you have a really great, hard fought game.
Unfortunately I haven't played DOTA 2 yet, but I've been keeping up with it as much as I can, and I'm looking forward to when I can actually play it. It seems much easier to co-operate as a team in DOTA 2 than it is in LoL, thanks to the addition of a VOIP and... I'm not quite sure what to call it, but it's like a quick select wheel to call things out, such as 'missing' or 'good job'.

Both games have their upsides and downsides, and they really shouldn't be compared alongside each other in the way that they constantly are, seeing as even though LoL evolved from the original DOTA, it has become very much its own game.

 

[Rednog]

Jax can dive because lol Counterstrike

Uh, how old is your information on Jax? He hasn't been able to dodge tower hits with his counter strike for almost a year...