Finally an article about DotA, LoL and HoN
Defence of the Ancients
League of Legends
Heroes of Newerth
Yes I actually took the liberty to download and try out League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. No particular reason why, just wanted to try them out and see if they sucked or not.
Both LoL and HoN are spinoffs of DotA and DotA is well… DotA
If you haven’t heard of it, there’s something going wrong in your life… and I’m being unconditionally serious.
To understand this article, you need prior knowledge of DotA or at least some related understanding of RTS games. Yeah this post is kinda male-centred… so if you are female and can fathom the gibberish here, congrats you are Konata.
cool story, sis
The objective of these games is pretty straightforward.
You pick a Hero, level it up and wreck havoc.
You win the game when you destroy the opponent’s main building.
I have no desire to go in-depth into the explanation of the game mechanics because that would take forever.
Hero prowess & balance-
Out of the 3 games, Heroes from the DotA fraction are the most imbalanced/broken.
By saying imbalanced, I mean you can run a single Hero into the enemy base, kill 3-5 enemy Heroes and walk out UNSCATHED with or without ally support. The catch though… you have to be a very good player to pull that shit off. Faceless Void, Razor, Bone Fletcher, Troll Warlord etc…
CHAPUTAY.... DASTINGOooo
I KILL FOR U
WHERE CHU WANT ME GO
WHAT CHU WANT ME DO
In LoL, it’s impossible to replicate a 1-man show performance no matter how skilled you are. You will not make it out alive if you run into the enemy base hoping to create miracles. Mentioned earlier under the DotA column, you could choose to embrace ally support or not. Ally support is considered a privilege in DotA. If you have it, GOOD, life is so much more smooth sailing! Without it, well… still manageable albeit with greater difficulty.
In League of Legends, your allies are your LIFEBLOOD. This game is structured to heavily emphasize on teaming. When I say team-based, I damn right mean team-based. You will rely on your teammates right from the start till the end. That being said, if you have a feeder(person who dies ALOT) or dumbass(Keyboard warriors/MAVERICKS/clueless fucks) on your team, tough luck.
The late game(carry heroes) of DotA are many times stronger than those of League of Legends.
"If you are one who enjoys team-reliance, ganking and group orgies, League of Legends is THE game for you."
The Heroes of HoN are literally clones of those from DotA. 80% of the roster shares the same skills as their DotA compatriots. If a comparison has to be made, it’s probably the speed of gameplay.
The gameplay of HoN is relatively faster than that of DotA. God knows why, I just feel that everything seems to progress quicker in HoN. The scaling(levelling) of Heroes, the attack animations, the creep waves, the acquiring of items etc.
Difficulty-
DotA: 7.5/10
It’s easy to pick up DotA but difficult to master. Its my sincere belief that "if you are good in DotA, you WILL BE GOOD in the other two”. After all, LoL and HoN are DERIVED from DotA. There is no excuse to suck in LoL or HoN if you are proficient in DotA.
LoL: 5.5/10
LoL is a noob-friendly game. The bar of difficulty has been watered down tremendously. Heck you don’t even lose gold when you get killed in LoL. Did I mention that there are quite a number of females playing LoL? Some of them are pretty good by the way. (Not back in the days of DotA where a female gamer equates to food lololol)
HoN: 8.5/10
HoN is conclusively NO NONSENSE. Nobody starts playing HoN without any prior DotA experience. 99% of HoN players are those who jumped ship from DotA.
Graphics-
DotA: 7/10
LoL: Anime’ish/Cartoonish
Everything just looks so chibi and cute, sometimes there’s an innate resistance in you to hold back your MURDEROUS intents. Like… should I kill Annie?? She’s just a child(xiaomeimei). And… should you gank Veigar? He looks like that innocent blackmage from Final Fantasy 9.
HoN: 9/10
This is where HoN excels. Its graphics are NEW-AGE. You are literally gaming in HD.
Items-
We shall use DotA as the benchmark for items. Although the items of HoN are similar to those of DotA, on careful inspection, you will realise that they are actually ‘gayer’. Not exceedingly ‘gayer’ than those of DotA but if we talk par-for-par, gold-for-gold, the items or HoN possess a slight element of superiority.
Classic items remain unchanged.
There is an equivalent for S&Y, Buriza, MKB, Heart, Butterfly and Basher in HoN.
In LoL, items elements are tremendously modified.
No more Guinsoo staff to turn enemies to helpless sheeps, no more Ice rings from Shiva’s guard, no more image splitting from Manta Style etc.
When item mechanics are changed, gameplay would be affected accordingly. That’s why for a player who jumps to LoL from DotA, he/she has a new set of rules to learn and master.
For example, there are items that can revive you on the spot when you die in LoL, there are items that can damage the opponent for a portion/percentage of their maximum health per hit, there are items that can permanently increase your mana pool as you cast spells or attack, there are items that grow stronger as you kill creeps or enemy heroes etc.
Whereas for a player who jumps to HoN from DotA, he/she isn’t learning anything new. It’s like playing a clone with better graphics, that’s all.
Shopping-
Shopping is where HoN and LoL both fail.
Everything has been scripted to be bought in its entirety.
The player no longer has to buy the component parts to build or upgrade his/her items.
For example, in DotA if I want to create a Bracer, I would first have to buy the ingredients, circlet and gauntlet. After the ingredient items are bought, you proceed to buy the recipe to complete the item creation.
In LoL or HoN, if I want to buy a Bracer, all I need to do is to save enough money, click on the Bracer icon and the item would be assembled and added to my inventory. WTF! I can understand if you are trying to simplify the game but there is a fine line between facilitating and SPOON-FEEDING.
Adopt this lazy system of purchasing and players will never have the chance to learn about other items they seldom use. Would it be shocking if I told you I NEVER BOUGHT/TOUCHED half of the available items in LoL?
Because you just keep buying the same old items OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Like if the winning formula is this and this and this, you will just buy this and this and this ALL THE TIME!
The beauty of DotA is such that because you don’t confine players by subtly encouraging them to repeatedly buy the same old shit 99% of the time, players can CUSTOMISE and EXPERIMENT. Players from DotA mix and match their items for maximum effectiveness/potency. Players from LoL just follow a guided item path.
In DotA, a Bone Fletcher can be played in a thousand of ways. People have all sorts of combination for Bone Fletcher. Some like to buy Orchid M, others like to focus on attack speed, personally I go pure DPS and critical etc.
Just look at cousin cow’s Dragonknight or Slardar. He customises his items according to the situation. Whether he is required to tank, slay or farm… Whether I’m on his team or against him etc.
the quote "I'm Ready!" got Chin Nam slayed in the drinking game
Ben’s bloodmother differs from mine in terms of item build. Same hero, yet endless options. That's what makes DotA triumph over the other two.
Ultimately, item customisation is what leads to higher level play. Unfortunately in LoL, players lack the freedom of customisation.
If you encounter a Tryndamere, just take a look at his items.
Yup, it’s the same old shit you seen fighting the previous 20 Tryndameres.
in all seriousness guys, just Ignite him when he is in undying rage... lmao he's bound to die
Then you might be curious to know, why is it important to know every item even if you don’t use it?
Because knowing every item is an advantage, just as much as knowing every hero’s skill is. If you have knowledge of that particular item, you will be able to counter it. This is clearly lacking in LoL because people don’t bother countering items. They just gank you, push the lane and get over and done with.
Now you’re starting to see my point of LoL being a very straightforward(easy) game. In DotA, right from the first item you buy to the last item you get, I would counter accordingly. That’s the reason why I win… most of the time lol
Ok another reason is my supernatural farming rate
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay-
Denying is totally taken out in LoL.
Rune bonuses like invisible, double damage, image and regen have been removed as well.
In LoL, to acquire a rune bonus, you have to slay a specific creep.
Upon slaying the creep, it will confer to you a short duration buff.
Towers are in short, very powerful in LoL as compared to DotA or HoN.
Rushing a tower (tower diving) is generally considered suicide.
In LoL, you will learn to RESPECT TOWERS.
All 3 games retain their ‘Roshan’ equivalents. Slaying him gains a gold bonus to the team. In LoL, an additional team buff is granted on top of the gold bonus.
In LoL, there is a new gameplay element added called Brush. Brush is basically a patch of tall grass whereby if you walk into it, you gain invisibility. Only those in the Brush can see you. So if you are in the Brush, the enemy has to get into the Brush as well in order to target you.
Leaving-
Dota has 2 downfalls, one of the them is caused by leavers.
Leavers spoil the game we all know that.
In LoL, when you leave or disconnect, you will be given the option to reconnect back to the game while it’s still in progress.
If you leave with no intention of returning, the system will record your negative behaviour. If you accumulate a high amount of leaves, you will be banned from LoL. They call it the Leaver Buster system to deter leaving.
LoL understands that sometimes players have no choice but to leave because their team comprises of 2 feeders and 2 dumbshits. Thus they added a function called Surrender.
(just imagine teaming up with 4 Jinn Queks... it happens and you might very well be the next victim!!!)
To surrender, 4 out of 5 players must agree to it. After agreeing, the game is conceited and the opponent team wins.
Surrendering can only be done 20mins into the game.
There will still be times when you have feeders and dumbshits in your team and they REFUSE to surrender when you choose to. That is when you will RAGE and go AFK or something… These are worst case scenarios though…
Security-
The 2nd downfall of DotA, Maphack.
So far, I haven’t heard complains of Maphacking in LoL or HoN. I suppose they did well in the field of disabling external softwares/applications.
In DotA, you can use many external softwares/applications. People name spoof, custom-kick, maphack, custom UI, banlist, auto-host etc.
All these are eradicated in LoL and HoN.
A fair playing field is a better playing field. (PAP, take the hint...)
Additional features-
You know what is retarded in LoL?
You don’t get to use all the heroes in the roster.
You have to UNLOCK them.
For example, if there are 50 heroes in all.
Each week, only 14 heroes will be available for choosing.
The rest are locked.
To use them, you have to unlock them by purchasing them with virtual credits.
These virtual credits by gained by playing LoL matches.
If you win matches, you get more credits. If you lose matches, you get credits too, just lesser.
When you decide to use your credits to unlock a hero, he/she/it would be available for selection then. Good thing is, unlocking a hero is permanent.
Nevertheless this is outright ridiculous. The fuck do I have to spend credits(which in reality is TIME) to unlock heroes???
Can’t they just let us USE THEM ALL? Like in DotA or HoN?
Then I found out that it’s a bloody marketing scheme.
You can use garena shells to unlock heroes too. And yup you guessed it, garena shells are bought using REAL LIFE CURRENCY.
So you either accumulate in-game credits which take eternity to hoard or the easy way out, spend real money.
It’s like a cashshop.
And never in my wildest dreams have I imagined that a RTS game like LoL could inculcate a cashshop into it.
Man… the things people do for money
You know back in MMORPGs, cashshops sell alternate costumes too? Tired of your mage looking like every other mage in the server? Tired of being just another generic digit? You can now be different with a new costume. Stand out from the crowd!
Folks, heroes in LoL have alternate costumes… This is BS, utter BS.
Now bring this back to DotA’s context, imagine Lina Inverse wearing a Bikini… or Zeus wearing SAF’s no.4
boiboi
Of course like I said, it’s a commercial tactic.
And unless you are stinking rich, don’t buy any of those alternate costumes shit… it’s a waste of money.
In LoL, heroes are known as Champions.
You(the user) are known as a Summoner.
Summoners can level up and gain new abilities as well.
These abilities are used in-game to aid your Champions.
There are 2 skill categories.
One which comes from your Champion
Eg. Bone Fletcher
Fire Arrow, Windwalk, Strafe and Deathpact
Fire Arrow, Windwalk, Strafe and Deathpact
The other, your Summoner’s skills.
Which could be some healing, damage, support spells of your choosing.
You can only have 2 active Summoner skills at one time.
So effectively, in battle you have 6 skills.
4 from your Champion and 2 from your Summoner.
Not to mention every Champion has an inherent ability. So it’s actually 7 skills but to reduce confusion, let’s just peg it as 6 active skills.
HoN has a similar cashshop and trust me, it’s far more absurd. You can purchase alternative costumes, announcer packs, account icons (WTF!@#!@) etc.
Announcer packs for example, altering your hero’s speech/voice, the killing streak announcements like Mmmmmmonster Kill, HOLYYYY SHITTT and all can be changed IF you are willing to spend. Changed to what? That I have no idea. Maybe from Holyyyy Shittt to “I JUST HAD SEX”.
Shouldn’t these games be a competition which pits skills against skills? Why is it becoming more of a beauty pageant?
An interesting feature of LoL is the rune book. In LoL, you can purchase runes (virtual credits) to add a permanent bonus to your heroes.
For example if you purchase a rune which adds 1.5% movement speed, when you equip that rune to your rune book, your heroes would all gain additional 1.5% movement speed in-game.
Positive aspect, encourage gamers to play more to improve their heroes.
Negative aspect, unfair.
Now tell me how the fuck is a newbie supposed to fight an experienced player who has completed his rune book???
It’s like both of them choose the same hero.
We use Bone Fletcher as an example again. (Poor Bone)
Newbie’s Bone Fletcher is “What you see is What you get”.
The experienced player’s Bone Fletcher has “+15% critical strike rate, +3% movement speed and +10 health Regen per 5seconds”.
In-game, both Bone Fletchers are Level 1. But as you can see, one player has a VAST advantage over the other thanks to his completed rune book.
So if these two Bones clash in the same lane, you will soon realise the disparity and unfairness I’m talking about.
In DotA, there is no such nonsense.
If you are Level 1 and I am Level 1, none of us has a distinct advantage over the other. We challenge each other based on our individual skills and I win because I’m good or I lose because I suck. I don’t lose because some dick has a completed rune book which I obviously don’t stand a chance against.
Community-
DotA’s community is rather non-existent. It’s a top down management system whereby IceFrog and his team dictates, the rest follows. If there is a new patch, you just download it, shut up and play.
In LoL and HoH, they have their respective forums or communities where they can propose new hero/item ideas, gameplay suggestions, bugs fixtures etc.
This is an area where DotA can strive to improve.
Looking Forward-
DotA 2 is on the way. Not sure when it’s going to be released but will most probably give it a try when it’s out. As for now, I’ll be sticking to LoL.
(Then again WHEN THE HELL IS DIABLO3 GONNA BE RELEASED?)
hurry the FUCK UP man Blizzard, THE WHOLE WORLD IS WAITING
HoN, no thanks! I did not impose a hiatus from DotA to play something practically identical.
If you play LoL, you may add me (ManaGothic) as a friend and we can game together… LIKE A BOSS
But be warned, I'm allergic to gamers with bad attitudes! I am fine playing with newbies but if you display unsportsmanlike behaviour, you'll be out of my list real soon.
This will be the last post on HoneyHushHush.blogspot as the blog is currently going through a revamp.
The new site will be done up HOPEFULLY by early August.
Yeap im pressuring my web designer friend like crazy heheheheh
