DOTA 2 vs LOL: The Beginning of the End

Dota 2 vs League of Legends

The Fight

For all you MOBA gamers out there, the big dispute between the two big games: DOTA 2 and League of Legends is still out there for you people who want to reinforce that their own belief that their game is the best. Here we go!

Where It All Started

All MOBA games can trace there roots back to a custom-style Starcraft map invented 15 years ago. The map was created by a map-maker named AEON64 in his/her unpopular game AEON OF STRIFE in 1999. Blizzard entertainment took AEON's idea further creating Warcraft 3. Later, one fan named Eul, created a game he called, Defense of the Ancients. Additionally, Blizzard released the expansion: The Frozen Throne. Ultimately, these creations led two modders, Meian and Ragn0r, towards creating DOTA Allstars. After Meian and Ragn0r left their game to gain popularity, a play named Guinsoo, improved DOTA towards having the aspects of all MOBA's today adding: a boss monster, adding item tiers, and making the game more Player vs Player rather than Player vs AI. After having done this, Guinsoo passed the power over to a player/modder named Icefrog. Icefrog would be the one to maintain DOTA's popularity and success. Though Icefrog popularized DOTA Allstars into the millions, the player-base was not satisfied with it because after all, the game was just a mod, meaning that everything was done through the Warcraft 3 engine and there was no penalty system, etc. This led to the initial idea of League of Legends created by Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck. The two entrepreneurs would team up with Guinsoo and the owner of DOTA Allstars, Pendragon and create Riot Games. Since Riot Games had differentiate their game from the Warcraft 3 mod, they took DOTA: stripped out some mechanics, and added unique heroes, abilities, and items to the game.

Pendragon Incident

On July of 2010, Steve Mescon, the owner of the community website for DOTA Allstars also known as Pendragon, shutdown his website. He claimed, in his last post, that Icefrog was working with S2 Games in secret to help create Heroes of Newerth. Pendragon never stated why this was a bad thing but it did clearly illustrate the tension between the original Dota team, and also between Riot and their competitors.

Pendragons Final Words: 

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=256734

The Difference

Since Riot Games had differentiate their game from the Warcraft 3 mod, they took DOTA: stripped out some mechanics, and added unique heroes, abilities, and items to the game.

Turn Ratios: Turn rates are how fast a hero/champion can turn. Riot changed the turn ratios to make it more user-friendly for beginners when attacking. In Warcraft 3, the hero must turn before moving towards the direction you would like, thus, an increase in death chance. This is one reason why people tend to name League of Legends as a "casual game".

Stats System:  League of Legends introduces its own stats system differing from the original strength, agility, and intelligence such as: runes system and masteries which allow for additional stats to your account that affects everyone you play,the brush system, laning roles, map design, etc.

Death System:
In League of Legends, you do not lose gold when you are killed. Within DOTA 2, if you die, you lose gold, therefore becoming farther and farther behind in the game.

Character Design:
League of Legends- Wild colorful comic style of characters and map design.

DOTA 2- Darker, and more realistic but still fairy-tailish design.

Character Variety:
Even though more characters, the champions have a more generic and similar feel whereas in DOTA 2, the characters are VERY distinguished and each have their own unique abilities.

Skills:
The skills represented in League of Legends may seem to copy DOTA 2 but is justifiable because Guinsoo worked with Riot. In DOTA 2, the skills are bigger in many aspects. The mana cost is more, the damage is more, the stuns and silences are also increased. For example, people may say that it is unbalanced to have blink dagger because flash has a huge cooldown, but everything is balanced out to make blink dagger a possible item.

DOTA Block: 
In DOTA, a character is impassable (with the exception of phase boots and some others) making it a good feature to utilize for defensive and offensive tactics. You can block your creeps from in the "hard lane" from getting too far and you may also block enemy heroes who are chasing your allies to allow for an escape.

DOTA Jungle: 

In DOTA, you can place wards, place summons, or just be present at a neutral camp. This action will result in the neutral camp inability to spawn, this strategy is commonly known as "counter jungling". Preventing the enemy from jungling and forcing them into lane is a very effective tactic and will ruin your enemies strategy throughout the entire game.

In connection, when jungling, DOTA players may "stack" neutral camps thus gaining (essentially) two times the amount of gold in one run as opposed to waiting an additional minute for a neutral camp to spawn.

Conclusion

Each game is different in its own way. If you are deciding which one to play, try both to see which one you like the best, because overall, its not who says which is better, its what you think is better.

Personal Input:

While I have played HON, DOTA 1, DOTA 2, and LOL, I enjoyed LOL because of my friends but DOTA 2 just feels better to me. The huge downside, like HUGE HUGE, is the Leaver System in DOTA. If you have a hectic life, unpredictable weather, internet emergencies, or something like that, do not play DOTA 2. DOTA 2, if you leave, you get put into a low priority, basically you have a set number of games to play off, you get no exp for your account, or item drop chance. All in all, you get put into cardboard 5 community in low priority, and when you get in there, the player's in low priority will make sure you never get out.