The differences between DotA 2 and LoL

Which is better? Defence of the Ancients 2 or League of Legends? This debate is one I've seen countless times, and it's a complete waste of time. Once in a while someone who isn't out to pick an argument points out that the best MOBA game is the one that you enjoy the most. No truer words have ever been spoken. Preference dictates to you and your friends which game is better.

I think the DotA 2 pregame screen is much better.

DotA is unquestionably harder to play than LoL, for numerous reasons. However, LoL does have many qualities that require a good amount of gamer skill and experience to succeed. At high levels of meta play, both titles are unique and challenging. While both games take place on the similar maps with the same goal and route to get there, with some experience you will see they are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

That's not to say this UI isn't aesthetic and pretty.

If you're trying to decide which game is flat out better, you're in the wrong place. This article will outline how both DotA and LoL aren't the same game. If you're curious to find out exactly what separates these two addictive MOBA titles, you're in the right place. People who want to know which game would suit them better, take a look at this list and see if it narrows your choice down.

Differences between DotA 2 and League of Legends

- Runes and Masteries. On LoL, you can customize your champion before the game even starts. With runes and masteries, you can make characters tankier, faster, or hit harder. On DotA, you cannot do anything to adjust your champion before the match begins.
- Passives. LoL champions essentially have 5 abilities. 4 spells to use, and one passive. Most characters on DotA only have 4 abilities, so if they have a passive it will take up a slot.
- Attack animations and last hits. DotA is much harder to last hit. Not only do you have a slow animation to hit minions, but you also have to deny your own creeps. Put it this way: I was getting 5-6 minions every wave on LoL, but when I started DotA, I was proud to get 1-2 last hits each wave.
- Length of the laning phase. In my experience, LoL has a short early game. It's common for somebody to leave their lane at level 3-5. DotA's laning phase extends beyond the 20 minute mark in most matches, because the items are more expensive.
- Active items. DotA has countless items that you can use in combat. Every character you play will use at least one active item. LoL only has a couple of items you can use, such as Gunblade or Ghostblade.
- Summoner spells. There aren't any summoner spells on DotA, which is actually kinda cool. You don't have to worry about people flashing away when you gank them, or igniting you in a close 1v1.
- Brutal Punishments. If you die on DotA, you lose gold. There's no recall to teleport back to base. On LoL, most of the harsh punishments have been removed for a more fun experience. Personally, I like the vindictive loss of gold when you die, and having to buy teleport scrolls to get around.
- Ability Power. When playing a caster champion on LoL, ability power is vital to increasing your damage output. DotA doesn't have ability power. There's nothing to increase the damage of your spells. The closest thing is refresher orb, which resets all of your cooldowns.
- Jungling. In the current meta on LoL, a jungler is necessary. You will rarely play a match without someone in the jungle, because it's a very important role. DotA doesn't require a jungler. Most of the time, you will have 2 people in both of the sidelanes, and it doesn't ruin the match.
- Character availability. When you create an account on LoL, you can only play several select champions until you earn the points to buy more. Playing DotA immediately gives you access to every hero, without exceptions.
- Minimap placement. On LoL, the minimap is on the right side and out of the way. DotA has it on the left, which is bad placement. Whenever you're playing on the radiant team, moving your mouse to the bottom left to escape in a dangerous situation can lead to a missclick on the map, sending you running straight back towards your enemies resulting in death.
- Terrain. There are small differences to the maps, LoL has bushy areas that make inhabitants invisible to the outside eye. DotA has 'juke' points and secret passages between the trees to escape.
- Community. As a general rule, the community of DotA 2 is more elitist. However, the LoL crowd is far more ruthless and spiteful. Both sides have their ups and downs. I can't say which one is better, that's for you to decide. Also, DotA has voice chat ingame.

I'm not entirely sure I've managed to list everything. If you have something to add, please comment! Remember, I am trying not to be biased against either League of Legends or Defence of the Ancients. Sorry if I leaned towards one.

How long until the MOBA market dies?

Ever since DotA was initially released as a mere custom map for Warcraft 3, a new era for RTS games was born. Aptly named MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), this new genre has exploded in popularity in the last couple of years.

I enjoy playing League of Legends and DotA 2. In the past, I've even put a lot of hours into Heroes of Newerth whilst it was in beta. Because the MOBA community numbers in the millions, lots of game developers are trying to seize a piece of the cake.

In fact, there are so many of these games in production, that within the next year the market will be flooded and diversified to the point of ruin, just like the MMORPG genre. People say you can't have too much of a good thing. Take one look at the MMO market and say that again. Sure, there's a lot to choose from; but the premise behind Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games is to play online in with a huge playerbase. In fact, the term massive is getting more redundant by the day. Why? Because with every shit developer in the world looking for some easy money, new MMORPG games come out weekly. With each new release, a chunk of the people who play MMO games peel off to play it. Eventually, there will be so many games that when you finally find one you enjoy- you will be annoyed to discover that there are only 10 other players.

The reason I'm ranting about the MMORPG market is because this is happening to the MOBA market. Slowly but surely the genre is being overpopulated with bad titles. There's a Lord of the Rings MOBA, even Marvel and Blizzard are making their own versions for a slice of profit. And that's what it comes down to. The gaming industry is happy to kill off a brilliant genre of game for a little bit of money.

You can argue that more battle arena games are better and you would be partly right. It's like the arms race. More competition means developers have to step up your game and beat the other companies to the next level of content. However, that's not what will happen. Instead, all you will see is clones of LoL and DotA with copyrighted characters from another franchise. Instead of trying to innovate the MOBA genre, companies will simply fall into complacency and copy the others.

It's happened since the beginning of the gaming industry, someone makes a popular game that breaks ground and pushes the industry to new heights. For the next year, every major developer tries to copy them on the simple principle: 'If they can make money from it so can we!'. One step forward, two steps back. Up until recently, this shameless copycat behavior can be seen as nothing but an annoying tribute to some of the greatest gaming experiences ever produced.  However, with gaming becoming deeply tethered to the internet in the last few years, reproducing the same game with a different cover is damaging the online community and the industry. The worst part is that ultimately, there's nothing anyone can do about it.

I understand my article may make the issue seem more serious than it is. It's not killing the gaming industry, you will still be able to play your favorite MOBA games and enjoy them with your friends. They will still be fun, and you will still have people to play with. But in a few years when you're waiting for 30 minutes in a queue to play one match, how long will it take for you to find another genre and drop MOBA's altogether?

I'm sure this is a topic lots of people have an opinion on. If you have any input leave a comment and let us know!

Zac is pretty awesome

After barely playing LoL over last couple of weeks, I really enjoyed coming back to play Zac. He's not half bad for a flubber on steroids. I didn't expect him to be an ability power champion, I assumed he'd be AD.

Now I've only played a couple of matches on him, but I already feel like he's better at top lane instead of the jungle. He scales well throughout the game, although his potency drops a little once the laning phase ends. If you can dominate top, it's really easy to pressure other lanes with his catapult. Once you get your ultimate, you can put an end to any team skirmishes very quickly.

Zac's abilities cost a fair percentage of his current health, which can be restored by picking up pieces of goo that peel off him. This is a great mechanic, because it restores you based off the percentage of your maximum HP. When you're on low health you can sustain yourself fairly well by landing abilities and grabbing blobs of yourself.

So far I've only built Zac with items to keep myself alive while boosting damage, such as Rylai's and Abyssal scepter. If you can pick up an early Warmog's he becomes a great diver. However, I'm quite eager to see someone build him straight up AP. A glass cannon build on him could be very scary, but you'd be melted in a teamfight.

I've seen a few calls of OP in matches and on the forums, but I think he's quite balanced. His passive that brings him back to life is annoying to deal with, but with a couple of people that slime dies instantly. It's also got a very long cooldown.

I think Zac is a good addition to any team at low to medium elo. At high levels of play I don't think he'd be that useful with anything but a solid tank build. Once everywhere on the map gets warded, he can't get into a good location to land a slingshot. Let's just hope Lissandra is just as fun.

Girls Generation Ahri!

This skin has been floating around the LoL forums for quite some time now. Every Ahri player and his dog are out showing support for this amazing skin. It's not even the kind of skin I'd like, but I'll buy it just because it looks so amazing.

Adorable. A fine example of how sex sells.

If you like the look of Girls Generation Ahri, go to the forums and give it an upvote and a comment to increase the chances of Riot making it. It really does look nice, I'll buy it just because it looks unique. It's a brilliant concept, awesome design, and the support in the threads proves it.

It looks amazing ingame too!

Come on Riot, the artist has practically done all the work for you. You guys can do this, just like Pool Party Ziggs! Girls Generation shouldn't just be an Ahri skin, I want to see one for Caitlyn, Vi, Soraka, even the male champions!

League of Legends comics, again.

It's been a while since I posted some of these. LoL comics get better as time goes by. If you want to view some of the other comics I've posted over the years, check this out. Everyone loves League comics, including me. Enjoy!

Oh Teemo. That face.

I salute anyone who tried this.

Dear god, I want this champion. He needs a few nerfs though!

This is less common now, but honor whores are everywhere.

Every time. Every damn time.

Who honors people anyway?

Oh plagiarism, you so shameless.

So many people do this, it's the very reason I don't harass bad players.

I've won games with this very method. Play Singed. Laugh at other team. Win.

I hate it when people ignore the new pings, they are useful when your team isn't retarded.

All the champions 2.0

I found this on my searches among the internet. It's amazing how somebody manages to do all this! I posted another image with all the champions a while back, be sure to take a look at it too.

I can't seem to find the source for this image, if anyone knows and wants to comment so I can give them credit, be sure to!

See if you can find your favorite champion!

I''m having less fun on League lately

After progressing to gold and then finding out that winning four games and losing one sets me back down to zero points, I'm taking a break. I really enjoy League of Legends when I know I can slowly climb up the ranks, but I don't have the time to make it out of gold 5 if I'm only going to earn 5 LP for a win and lose 20 LP when I get a bad team or don't play well. It would take weeks of effort to move up through this.

At heart, I believe I can reach platinum. Everyone says that and gets ridiculed for it. I don't mind being laughed at, I watch streams; my own replays, read guides, and am always looking to up my game. I know I could reach that level but I just don't have the time especially when it isn't enjoyable to battle it through division 5 hell. With it being so hard to even make it up to my series, I've decided to take a break and play some other games. That way I can actually enjoy myself, and maybe get some perspective on improving my League play even more.

If you actually enjoy reading my content or feel the same, take a look at my RPG blog. I post updates more frequently there, and you might find a good game to play in the process! For all of you ranked players in the same position as me,  good luck climbing the rosters!
 

The new League system heavily favours luck.

After playing a good 500 ranked matches with the new system, I can only draw one conclusion. The new divisions and tiers are impossible to climb without a fair degree of luck. No, it's not Riot's fault. With the established meta and guides and videos everywhere telling you how to play; it's hard to be outright bad at LoL these days. Sure, there's still plenty of awful players; but compared to a year or two ago everyone has stepped up their game immensely. With the playerbase being marginally better than it used to be, it's much harder to carry a game successfully.

So with everyone playing their roles in at least a half decent capacity, it's much harder to stomp your way up the solo queue ranks. You have to rely on your team being at least half competent, at any rate. For example, yesterday I went 12-3 on Jax at top in 25 minutes. Game over, right? However, we had a Corki and a Thresh who both kept getting caught outside of our base. We never once had a 5v5, because before the fight started these two would get themselves killed. I tried to ward for them, I asked them to play safe- but all I got was insults in return. You can't win them all.

The new divisions place a large reliance on luck to move up for all but the best of players. This isn't Riot's fault. A year ago someone on your team could feed the enemy team 10 kills in the lane and you could kill your opponent in a different lane just as much. However, since everyone is better at the game chances are while you are stuck playing against someone with equal skill, the rest of your teammates are dying repeatedly.

Quite simply, even if you play your best and perform well early game in every single match- it still boils down to your team in the end. That's where the luck comes in. You can't win a teamfight unless your allies do their jobs properly. You can only help influence your team in the right direction. Ultimately, if you want to raise your rating- just keep playing as many games as you can and luck will get you there eventually. So, good luck folks!

Quinn and Valor

Her helmet looks pretty gay.

Quinn hasn't been out for long but it seems she's not a typical attack damage carry. In fact, all the research I've done indicates she would perform better at top or mid as a counterpick. Her short range makes it hard for her to beat a fair few carries at bottom lane. Don't get me wrong, if you know how to play her you can succeed anywhere on Quinn, she's not a bad champion. She's the second character on LoL to have a blind, following in the footsteps of Teemo.

There are already several ways to play Quinn, she works well as an AD caster mid, or a bruiser top. With the incredible speeds she can achieve with her ultimate she can gank other lanes with ease. I've personally been taking her top most games, because she can deal with almost every common top laner without too much trouble. She can bring a fair amount of utilitiy to mid and late game team fights, however she's very squishy and her ultimate is on a very long cooldown.

Regardless, Quinn is a fantastic champion. Expect to see her incorporated into the meta in the next few months. Try her in different lanes, see which one you prefer. Also, if you have any additional information on how to play her- let us know with a comment!

It's taken awhile but I've hit gold.

When I first got placed in ranked I was in Silver 3. After a little work I managed to work my way up to Silver 2. Sadly after that I was knocked back down to 5 by a long losing streak. Sometimes it is impossible to get out of a losing streak and you just have to persevere through it. There's a reason I haven't been posting much, and that's because I wanted to at least get gold for a little credibility.

I'm a little proud of myself.

Being in Silver 5 for an extended period of time has definitely made me a better player. You have to carry pretty much every single game to get out of there. I found that if I didn't take a leading role such as top or mid, we lost almost every time. For those of you wanting to get out of division 5, my best advice is to be patient and work your way out of there slowly. Make sure you play your best champions, and tell your team what to do if you have to. If you have a choice between an inhibitor and baron, take the inhibitor because then you can take baron easily. Don't get frustrated, you will lose more if you do.

Once I got back up to Silver 4, I climbed my way up to 1st division in a few days. A large factor in that was luck, but I managed to win a lot of the games for my team by playing hyper carries such as Jax and Diana. Finally, yesterday I undertook 3 series in the space of 10 hours. I was determined to get gold, and after a large amount of matches I made it. Now I need Platinum, yay. Good luck to everyone else trying to climb up the ranks!