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!

HoN going free to play

So S2 games have recently announced they are making Heroes of Newerth free to play. My first musing on this was the fact that all the people who have paid for HoN previously have now been royally screwed over. Unlucky guys. Anyone with a brain can see that this change is because of the success of League of Legends.

Plenty of games have recently taken up the f2p chalice, including popular Team Fortress 2. Hopefully this will pave the way to a new era of gaming; where the high production value games are fun and free.