Shifting from one game to another (LoL to Dota2)

[Don Savik]

I've posted but never made a thread as I didn't have a topic idea pop into my head. My thoughts are being drown out by a sea of sexism threads. So lets talk about games because games are fun.

So, I got into League of Legends at the start of the year. It was the first Moba I played (I did try it once when the game and I were both young, and I had no idea wtf it was and hated it) and it was quite engaging now that I know what is going on. Its like discovering the FPS or RPG genre for the first time. Needless to say I've played a lot of it already (currently lvl 21).

Buuuuut....Dota 2 is coming around the corner. Now, I haven't gotten around to playing it because Valve is picky with their beta keys apparently (except 40k people play it constantly according to Steam...so......) but from watching videos on it constantly I'm genuinely intrigued. I want to play it, but I don't like League of Legends any less. I don't think any of the games are worse or better than each other and I don't favor one art style over the other.

But seeing as its a game were you have to learn to get good with one character and the mechanics, I'm having problems deciding which one I want to play when both are available. Does anyone have this problem? I know I COULD play both, but the nature of the games really require some devotion and training, and I feel like the games are so similar I would get bored of playing both....as they're essentially the same game. Maybe its a case of "oooooh shiny new game", who knows. I just would like to know what you gals and guys think are deciding factors in choosing which game out of all the games you like to play.

 

[Zeriphor]

I've posted but never made a thread as I didn't have a topic idea pop into my head. My thoughts are being drown out by a sea of sexism threads. So lets talk about games because games are fun.

So, I got into League of Legends at the start of the year. It was the first Moba I played (I did try it once when the game and I were both young, and I had no idea wtf it was and hated it) and it was quite engaging now that I know what is going on. Its like discovering the FPS or RPG genre for the first time. Needless to say I've played a lot of it already (currently lvl 21).

Buuuuut....Dota 2 is coming around the corner. Now, I haven't gotten around to playing it because Valve is picky with their beta keys apparently (except 40k people play it constantly according to Steam...so......) but from watching videos on it constantly I'm genuinely intrigued. I want to play it, but I don't like League of Legends any less. I don't think any of the games are worse or better than each other and I don't favor one art style over the other.

But seeing as its a game were you have to learn to get good with one character and the mechanics, I'm having problems deciding which one I want to play when both are available. Does anyone have this problem? I know I COULD play both, but the nature of the games really require some devotion and training, and I feel like the games are so similar I would get bored of playing both....as they're essentially the same game. Maybe its a case of "oooooh shiny new game", who knows. I just would like to know what you gals and guys think are deciding factors in choosing which game out of all the games you like to play.

Once you have a chance to play Dota 2 I doubt you'll have a problem deciding what to play.

While it's true they have very similar concepts, the way they go about it are very different. Dota 2 is a very fast paced game where you can die really fast and has very unique heroes. LoL is much slower with much less chance to be instagibbed. The champions are mostly similar to each other, so it doesn't take as much investment to learn everything.

 

[Don Savik]

Yea maybe I just don't understand Dota yet, but from what I've seen the global or OP range skills like Pudge's grab and anything shot from Sniper seem game breaking. Maybe there is better mobility to avoid these? The game looks faster paced, especially in the early game for sure, but these moves look cheap mechanically. Especially when I read about stuff like Clockworks rocket with a global range. And least Karthas had a channel and insane cooldown for his global ability, with Clockwork you could hypothetically kill anyone below a certain amount of health. Like an infinite range Darius ult.

Besides these seemingly broken mechanics it might be more fun, but who knows.

 

[nu1mlock]

I've been playing a lot of LoL but not as much Dota 2, but what I can say is Dota 2 doesn't work as well with me due to the "zoomed-in" camera.

I actually like Dota 2 more than League of Legends but I do not like that the camera is so zoomed in that if another hero gets into the camera view, then you're pretty much dead (because I'm not that good yet, again, because of the camera).

It fells like most skills have a lot longer range than what you can see, which means in order to see the opponents and use a skill on them, you have to focus them with the camera, click them, pan back to you etc.

Walking somewhere? Can't focus your hero, camera view doesn't cover enough ground, you have to pan away from your hero. Same when being attacked, pan back and forth, back and forth. Not only panning once to run away, but back again in case you want to stun your opponent or whatever. Actually, you'll have to pan to your opponent instead, not you, then back to where you want to run again.

Too much panning back and forth in Dota 2. Still, I like it better, I just have to get used to the stupid camera and it's "no you're not supposed to see more than 4 meters in front of you" camera.

 

[Dandark]

I come from the same position as you in that I play LoL a lot and wanted to try DOTA 2. There was this awesome guy on the Escapist forums who gave me a beta key because he is awesome so I got to give it a go.

I was kinda dissapointed. Now this isn't so much to do with the game, I hardly even got to try it out. I just couldn't figure out a lot of the stuff in DOTA2, mainly the items and how the hell the courier worked. Im planning to give it another go when they release a tutorial so that I may have the slightest clue what im doing. Also that camera annoy's the hell out of me. After getting used to LoL I could not stand that camera.


If you are not bored of LoL yet and are still having fun then I would advise holding off for now. I can't really get into it because im still enjoying LoL too much to learn DOTA 2. If you ever get bored or annoyed with LoL then perhaps try it then once it comes out?

It's a pain to learn DOTA after playing only LoL, the items, the differences in how you harrass and deny(Yes you can deny in LoL but it's called zoning) and of course, THAT DAMN CAMERA!

 

[yaydod]

Well i played the first dota, then played the hell out of LoL and now im on Dota2.
The biggest ting to get used to is the recall system. There is no recall but the TP scrolls are very use full and you should always have one on you since the TP will be interrupted by only a stun or bump.

The main difference with LoL id you have to know what every single item that has an active deos and you need to know what every champ deos, these guys really helped me with their guides and champions/hero spotlight :
www.youtube.com/user/DotaCinema

The thing a really like about Dota compared to LoL is that every champ feels unique and their are relatively balanced (every champ is OP so none is OP) not like in LoL where they nerf champs in to the ground and release OP champs almost every time making the game stagnate where there are only certain "viable" (god i hate that word) picks.

Captcha: until next time, yes until next time.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

But seeing as its a game were you have to learn to get good with one character and the mechanics, I'm having problems deciding which one I want to play when both are available. Does anyone have this problem? I know I COULD play both, but the nature of the games really require some devotion and training, and I feel like the games are so similar I would get bored of playing both....as they're essentially the same game. Maybe its a case of "oooooh shiny new game", who knows. I just would like to know what you gals and guys think are deciding factors in choosing which game out of all the games you like to play.

I'm a huge LoL player, and I have the DotA 2 beta. I tried to get into it but I just can't.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fine, and it looks good. It's just that I can't beat my LoL habits out of my head. A lot of the champions feel unresponsive and clunky to me as a LoL player, heard quite a few people saying the same thing, again this isn't anything bad about the game, it's just something I'm not used to. I also fail to last hit a lot on DotA if I've been playing LoL for a while, because I'm just not used to it.

I'd say you'll end up having to play 1 or the other, or strike a very fine balance between the two, or the one you play more will interfere with the other. I don't really want to give up playing LoL for DotA because I think I'd prefer LoL even if I put the time in to DotA (which I did try to for a bit), and I'd rather stick to a meta and feel that I know.

Just seems like DotA doesn't bring that much to the table to make me drop my favoured MOBA for it, it never really had me gripped.

 

[Rastien]

Yea maybe I just don't understand Dota yet, but from what I've seen the global or OP range skills like Pudge's grab and anything shot from Sniper seem game breaking. Maybe there is better mobility to avoid these? The game looks faster paced, especially in the early game for sure, but these moves look cheap mechanically. Especially when I read about stuff like Clockworks rocket with a global range. And least Karthas had a channel and insane cooldown for his global ability, with Clockwork you could hypothetically kill anyone below a certain amount of health. Like an infinite range Darius ult.

Besides these seemingly broken mechanics it might be more fun, but who knows.

They arn't broken given the context LOL's motto is if a hero is to powerful for the game they nurf it DOTA buffs everything else to bring it back in line with new hero.

For broken heros though Pandaren Brewmaster is a public match stomp king.

Abilitys:
Slam
deals damage in an aoe around him slowing movement and attack speed of those around him.

Throw beer
Chucks beer at the target giving it a 75% miss chance

Drunken brawler:
25% dodge chance, 15% chance to do 200% damage

ULTIMATE Primal split:
This is where he gets broken if you can micro him

Splits into 3 bears you control:

Green bear:
gives a on use target 3 second stun, and bear has magic immune

Blue bear:
Dispel magic ability can remove shields and roots from teams in an aoe.
Whirlwind, chucks someone into a whirl wind for 6 seconds they are invulnerable
Wind walk, go invis and move at high speed deals bonus damage on attacking.

Red bear:
High damage and an immolation aura

If at the end of primal split any of the 3 bears are alive brewmaster comes back into the game with the same health/mana he left the game on to form the 3 primal spirits.

As far as i know aside from microing 3 individual units last i played legue was impossible i would argue Brewmaster is far more complex than any legue hero.

Which is why i love dota 2 the skill cap is high and if you work your hero to a mirror shine and understand the mechanics you can desimate a disorganised enemy team solo.

If you hadn't guessed been stomping recently with brew master and love him :3 17 wins 1 loss, average game 15kills 2deaths 10 assists

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I prefer Dota 2 over LoL by far. I used to play a whole lot of LoL and why wouldn't I? Its a fantastic and enjoyable game but it has some large problems which eventually drove me away from it.

One of these problems is that instead of focusing on balancing the game they just churn out new champions to play as in a display of greed, each new champion often introducing more imbalance issues to the game. Additionally, to play these new champions you are forced to either invest a lot of time or money into the game, and it just gets ridiculous trying to keep up with it.

Then there is the LoL community, which is just awful, its as if all of the worlds subhuman filth has been compressed into about 80% of the LoL playerbase, these individuals are depressing to interact with in the game.

While the Dota 2 community isn't perfect, Dota 2 definitely offers a greater degree of challenge than LoL. Additionally, in Dota 2 you can play as every hero right from the start and will never have to buy any, with real life currency or virtual. Dota 2 also feels a lot more balanced in comparison to LoL.

 

[God's Clown]

Obligatory LoL sucks HoN is way better!

Looking forward to Dota2 though, Valve makes great games, be interesting to see how they handle Dota.

 

[Evilpigeon]

It's not a big deal, both games are free to play. Play both, pick your favourite. You're probably right about the time investment prohibiting your from playing both though. If you're concerned about balance then DotA 2 is going to cause a tonne of problems whilst you're learning it though. However well it works at a competitive level the game doesn't take lower level play into account at all (League at least tones down the very worst offenders) you're going to meet a lot of pubstompers and a lot of champions that only do well because your allies aren't good enough to play to counter.

 

[Davroth]

I prefer LoL because they handle their caster type champs far better. I played the original Dota (the WC3 map) for ages, but it was always held back by the system or Int Str and Agi that was inherent in WC3. And HoN and Dota 2 seem to just copy that. I have no interest ever going back to that flawed system. ^^

 

[Don Savik]

Well i played the first dota, then played the hell out of LoL and now im on Dota2.
The biggest ting to get used to is the recall system. There is no recall but the TP scrolls are very use full and you should always have one on you since the TP will be interrupted by only a stun or bump.

The main difference with LoL id you have to know what every single item that has an active deos and you need to know what every champ deos, these guys really helped me with their guides and champions/hero spotlight :
www.youtube.com/user/DotaCinema

The thing a really like about Dota compared to LoL is that every champ feels unique and their are relatively balanced (every champ is OP so none is OP) not like in LoL where they nerf champs in to the ground and release OP champs almost every time making the game stagnate where there are only certain "viable" (god i hate that word) picks.

Captcha: until next time, yes until next time.

Yea I've watched a lot of the hero previews on DotaCinema to find out what interests me the most. There is a lot of variety I have to say. Do you know if there is a limit to the number of bots you can have? Could I play a game with just me and one or 2 of my friends and the rest bots? I think I read somewhere that you can but I'm not sure. Would be great because it could give me a good place to test out things. And I hate the word "viable" as well, lol.

 

[Don Savik]

It's not a big deal, both games are free to play. Play both, pick your favourite. You're probably right about the time investment prohibiting your from playing both though. If you're concerned about balance then DotA 2 is going to cause a tonne of problems whilst you're learning it though. However well it works at a competitive level the game doesn't take lower level play into account at all (League at least tones down the very worst offenders) you're going to meet a lot of pubstompers and a lot of champions that only do well because your allies aren't good enough to play to counter.

That's something I've been hearing a lot of. The word "counter". Can you see who picks what champion before the game starts in Dota2? I mean, you can exploit a champions weakness in Lol if you happen to have the right champion by random goddam chance or good teamplay, but you can never just straight up "counter" something. Are certain champions just straight up counters to other champions? Is this another thing I would have to learn :/

 

[Rastien]

It's not a big deal, both games are free to play. Play both, pick your favourite. You're probably right about the time investment prohibiting your from playing both though. If you're concerned about balance then DotA 2 is going to cause a tonne of problems whilst you're learning it though. However well it works at a competitive level the game doesn't take lower level play into account at all (League at least tones down the very worst offenders) you're going to meet a lot of pubstompers and a lot of champions that only do well because your allies aren't good enough to play to counter.

That's something I've been hearing a lot of. The word "counter". Can you see who picks what champion before the game starts in Dota2? I mean, you can exploit a champions weakness in Lol if you happen to have the right champion by random goddam chance or good teamplay, but you can never just straight up "counter" something. Are certain champions just straight up counters to other champions? Is this another thing I would have to learn :/

You will need to learn the hero you pick is weak against some heros strong agaisnt others.

Using brewmaster as a good example, he fucks up any auto attack carry by throwing beer on them giving a 75% miss chance and if they are daft enough to 1v1 you have 25% dodge chance to boot.

With that said you can build an item to make your attacks unmissable/dodgeable

Its like a massive circle of counters no 1 champion is strong against all other champions

 

[Don Savik]

It's not a big deal, both games are free to play. Play both, pick your favourite. You're probably right about the time investment prohibiting your from playing both though. If you're concerned about balance then DotA 2 is going to cause a tonne of problems whilst you're learning it though. However well it works at a competitive level the game doesn't take lower level play into account at all (League at least tones down the very worst offenders) you're going to meet a lot of pubstompers and a lot of champions that only do well because your allies aren't good enough to play to counter.

That's something I've been hearing a lot of. The word "counter". Can you see who picks what champion before the game starts in Dota2? I mean, you can exploit a champions weakness in Lol if you happen to have the right champion by random goddam chance or good teamplay, but you can never just straight up "counter" something. Are certain champions just straight up counters to other champions? Is this another thing I would have to learn :/

You will need to learn the hero you pick is weak against some heros strong agaisnt others.

Using brewmaster as a good example, he fucks up any auto attack carry by throwing beer on them giving a 75% miss chance and if they are daft enough to 1v1 you have 25% dodge chance to boot.

With that said you can build an item to make your attacks unmissable/dodgeable

Its like a massive circle of counters no 1 champion is strong against all other champions

That sounds alright then. In League you can never really kill a well-fed carry. Its nice to know its more....open I guess. Problem is finding out who I like to play :/ could take a while. Actually, the problem is getting a beta key, haha.

 

[yaydod]

Yea I've watched a lot of the hero previews on DotaCinema to find out what interests me the most. There is a lot of variety I have to say. Do you know if there is a limit to the number of bots you can have? Could I play a game with just me and one or 2 of my friends and the rest bots? I think I read somewhere that you can but I'm not sure. Would be great because it could give me a good place to test out things. And I hate the word "viable" as well, lol.

Yes you normally can play with 9 bots if you want to, the only thing is that it might bug (it did a few times for me) that their will not be all the bots you selected in the game.

That's something I've been hearing a lot of. The word "counter". Can you see who picks what champion before the game starts in Dota2? I mean, you can exploit a champions weakness in Lol if you happen to have the right champion by random goddam chance or good teamplay, but you can never just straight up "counter" something. Are certain champions just straight up counters to other champions? Is this another thing I would have to learn :/

Yes their are certain heroes that are heavy counters to others, for example if an enemy hero has an invisibility skill (Brood mother, Riki,etc..) you pick either Slardar or Bounty Hunter since they place a debuff on the enemy witch keeps them revealed.
This is only a small example of counter picking, so yeah there is allot of that and thats what makes the magic of Dota2

 

[Rastien]

Spoiler

It's not a big deal, both games are free to play. Play both, pick your favourite. You're probably right about the time investment prohibiting your from playing both though. If you're concerned about balance then DotA 2 is going to cause a tonne of problems whilst you're learning it though. However well it works at a competitive level the game doesn't take lower level play into account at all (League at least tones down the very worst offenders) you're going to meet a lot of pubstompers and a lot of champions that only do well because your allies aren't good enough to play to counter.

That's something I've been hearing a lot of. The word "counter". Can you see who picks what champion before the game starts in Dota2? I mean, you can exploit a champions weakness in Lol if you happen to have the right champion by random goddam chance or good teamplay, but you can never just straight up "counter" something. Are certain champions just straight up counters to other champions? Is this another thing I would have to learn :/

You will need to learn the hero you pick is weak against some heros strong agaisnt others.

Using brewmaster as a good example, he fucks up any auto attack carry by throwing beer on them giving a 75% miss chance and if they are daft enough to 1v1 you have 25% dodge chance to boot.

With that said you can build an item to make your attacks unmissable/dodgeable

Its like a massive circle of counters no 1 champion is strong against all other champions

That sounds alright then. In League you can never really kill a well-fed carry. Its nice to know its more....open I guess. Problem is finding out who I like to play :/ could take a while. Actually, the problem is getting a beta key, haha.

This holds true for dota 2 mostly a well fed and farmed carry should well carry, but if your carry/support are smart enough to quickly work out the lynch pin player on the enemy team you build to counter him and not worry about the other weaklings

Also blackking bar an item that makes you immune to all magic for 6 seconds or so, its amazing in some situations but shit in others, you need a good team compasition, compared to legue in which last time i played if you stack fat high hp heros on your team you win.

 

[Maleval]

Wow, I understand where you're coming from

I switched to LoL from DotA about a year and a half ago after I got somewhat tired of DotA's unfriendliness to the user. I don't mean the learning curve and community and stuff but the straight up terrible interface. I tried LoL and fell in love with it's ease of use. A game where the interface is specifically crafted to control one character, where I can focus on actually playing the game instead of battling the interface.

And now lately I've been getting bored of it too. So I started looking for an alternative. Luckily Valve decided to give me beta access to Dota2 (I think I must have signed up for the beta during the big tournament last summer or something), and now that I've had the chance to try it I can firmly say that I wont be switching this time. It's probably a good game, I just don't feel it.