10 ms·

How does it compare to League of Legends?

kevingadd 13y ago
League of legends is probably the most mass market online game running right now when considered worldwide, except perhaps for World of Warcraft - and at this point I think it probably easily dwarfs WoW. "As of October 2012, Riot Games claims League of Legends has over 32 million registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day;[5] global concurrent users online regularly peak at over 5 million players, as of March 2013.[6] In July 2012 Xfire released a report stating that League of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe, with 1.3 billion hours logged by players in those regions between July 2011 and June 2012.[48]"
cli 13y ago
League of Legends has about an order of magnitude greater number of players. However, Dota 2 has until recently been in open beta, and League of Legends came out years earlier. Although the beta keys are essentially obtainable for anyone, the extra step in obtaining said keys may be enough of a disincentive for many people to not play. Source for LoL numbers: http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20130312/700/league-legends-players-summit-new-peak http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20130312/700/league-legend...
- krenoten 13y ago
  "open beta" is a bit of a misnomer - if you didn't get into the selective invite phase you had to buy a beta pass for $30. Later on (I'm not sure if dota 2 was already the most popular valve game at this point) people with accounts were given a large number of invites to give away. Now that it's been released, dota 2 is free.
  - ReidZB 13y ago
    Valve (or whoever is responsible for the beta keys) was giving out a huge number of keys to some gamers. One of my close friends received 32 (!) beta keys, if I recall correctly, a few months ago. He gave one to everyone in our circle of friends.
    - StavrosK 13y ago
      Not only that, but I told everyone who was interested (myself included) to apply for an invite, and we all got one a few days later, so it was definitely rather open to play.
  - aetimmes 13y ago
    The price of invites on the Steam Marketplace has been about $0.03 since January (and there were several bots that collected invitations and handed them out to applicants).
wsc981 13y ago
In terms of gameplay, many regard the original DotA game as more hard-core compared to League of Legends. Champions in DotA generally have higher burst capabilities, which can punish mistakes harder. There's also the concept of denying minions, which add another element of micro-management to the game. League of Legends on the other hand add a bit of depth to the genre by giving customisation options to champions outside of the main game (runes, masteries, summoner spell). The learning curve should be smoother, as people need to reach level 30 on their "summoner" (account) before they can enter ranked games. They also need to "buy" at least 16 champions on order to participate in ranked games. This will force the player to learn a bit of the game before entering the competitive scene. Currently League of Legends is definitely the most competitive MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game around and Riot invests heavily in keeping it that way.
- Pxtl 13y ago
  MOBA gets my award for worst initialism ever. It's hopelessly meaningless, as it describes everything from WoW to PBEM Chess.
  - jere 13y ago
    Agreed. According to wikipedia, it is also known as "action real-time strategy (ARTS)." That's marginally better, but I'd guess that'll never catch on.
    - Pxtl 13y ago
      The ARTS name predates the MOBA name iirc, but the ARTS term was unpopular because it's plainly obvious that they aren't RTS games and they were only called that because they fell out of the modding tools for Blizzard's RTS games. Ironically the existing genre they resemble most is ARPGs since they're basically ARPG gameplay and progression mechanics in a team vs team setting, but people get grumpy when you bolt the term "RPG" onto something with no plot to speak of.
      - neona 13y ago
adamkittelson 13y ago
The gameplay is very similar. League of Legends is heavily based on the original Dota but with different characters and slightly different mechanics where Dota 2 is a port of Dota 1 from a Warcraft III map to a standalone game. I personally prefer Dota 2 but it's largely subjective. The biggest difference is probably in business models. While both games use micro-transactions Dota 2 only sells cosmetic items, League of Legends requires you to buy (either via $ or points earned in game) access to champions/heroes.
- barbs 13y ago
  Also, in LoL, you unlock runes the more you play(or masteries, can't remember exactly). These give small bonuses (e.g. +4% attack speed, turrets do splash damage). This means that people who have played the game more have an advantage in terms of stats and also champion choice. As mentioned, DotA 2 only sells cosmetic items, or access to streams of events. This means that the game itself doesn't change whether you're new or experienced. You have access to the exact same heroes, and no extra bonuses.
  - plonk420 13y ago
    however, you don't often play with people with a large rune advantage or disadvantage. runes also let you massage a champion a teeeeny bit towards your preferred style of play for a character (defensive or offensive).
  - Lapsa 13y ago
    >This means that people who have played the game more have an advantage in terms of stats and also champion choice. untrue. you can get full rune page quite fast (~ month). and once it's done, there's no disadvantage anymore. if you play smartly from very beginning, you can get that done around lvl 30, right when you are allowed to start playing game competitively. also - champion choice is not that important. especially in low level. and it's better to learn few champions thoroughly than "gotta catch em all" and being good at none.
- baby 13y ago
  I actually really like the marketing of not offering all champions directly, KNOWNING that you can acquire champions without money but with points you get from playing the game. When you start playing LOL you have to choose from, I think 6 different champions? Which is pretty limited but let you master those 6 before changing them the next week to 6 new champions. I learned the game without problems this way. DOTA2 let you play with all the champions directly, oh boy was I lost and still am 200hours of games later. I only play "random" so I can learn every hero but I still haven't played 25% of them I would guess. Also I know many friends who bought champions on LoL, I think it's a very good source of income.
thwest 13y ago
League has a lower skill cap, generally lower in complexity and mechanics.
whywhywhy5 13y ago
* Access to all 100+ heroes at the start, no need to purchase heroes. * Much higher level of polish in terms of graphics, animations, voice acting, music, sound effects, ambiance. It has the Valve touch. * More varied hero play styles, lane formations, and overall build and game strategies. * Items are much more varied and there are many more items that have abilities. * Higher skill cap.
jpreiland 13y ago
League of Legends was made with complexity/difficulty != fun in mind. It's easier to master mechanically, but I feel it is all around a much better made game. For one, it actually runs smoothly. This could just be my PC, but super lowest settings and custom config on DotA2 still runs sluggishly, while LoL is very responsive and satisfying to play. Gameplay-wise, DotA is very cutthroat in that a single hero can go rambo and 1v5 the other team if he gets out of control, while LoL generally allows you to come back if you play smartly with your team. The item shop in DotA is terribly confusing, but I suppose you'll learn it if you play long enough. The only negative things I can say about LoL is: the leveling system and runes/masteries, while helping new players ramp up to competitive level, seem to take a long time to fill out to get on par with a "normal" player. DotA 2 allows you to jump in straight away on the same level of play and with all heroes available. You have to unlock champions in LoL (it takes a while if you take the free route as most do). TL;DR - LoL is a polished, simplified, beautiful take on the MOBA genre that DotA popularized. Hardcore DotA fans will call it easy/noob-friendly/etc, but in reality it's just different and in my (biased) opinion, better.
- chrismsnz 13y ago
  I found the gameplay of LoL to be a bit stale and DOTA2 much more dynamic. Also, 'buying' champions to play with did not sit well with me at all. Edit: Also, yes, LoL was made to run with much lower-spec PC's than DOTA2. That being said, DOTA2 has much higher levels of polish when it comes to characters, voicing and environment.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- oblio 13y ago
  > Gameplay-wise, DotA is very cutthroat in that a single hero can go rambo and 1v5 the other team if he gets out of control, while LoL generally allows you to come back if you play smartly with your team. The same thing happens in Dota, too (especially if you play smart). The game has very good comeback mechanics. If you're losing you'll be fighting closer to your base (so it takes less time to buy stuff and to go back and heal), you'll probably be around your towers (so you'll have additional firepower), you'll also have better vision and a position on higher ground (same as in real war - higher ground = better position to fight), you'll probably be underleveled and respawn faster if you die, so you can come back into the fights faster, if you kill the higher leveled enemy you get a LOT of gold and experience, etc. 1v5ing in Dota only happens in very low level games where most people don't know the game and their characters. Sadly, many players don't know it and think it's Quake or something :)
thefreeman 13y ago
League of Legends is DotA with training wheels. Basically the original DotA started the genre, and LoL strived to take what they deem "anti-fun" mechanics out of the game. Good examples would be denying friendly creeps / towers, lack of stuns and CC, and the inability to dive towers early in the game. Another main difference is that League of Legends has scaling magic damage. Because of this, spells are significantly weaker in the early game (due to the fact that you can get items to boost their power as the game progresses). There are no +magic damage items in DotA, so spells are significantly more powerful early game but become less effective compared to auto attack damage as the game progresses.
- lep 13y ago
  I'm probably fighting windmills but here it goes: DotA did not start the AoS genre which is now called MOBA. In fact the first AoS map was the map Aeon of Strife, made for StarCraft. There were tons of AoS maps before and tons of AoS maps after DotA. But i agree when you say DotA mad the AoS genre popular even though there were other very well known AoS maps beside DotA (EotA, AotZ, DoE, ToB, AoS GT, etc.).
  - nvarsj 13y ago
    I think you're understating Dota's influence. Its predecessors were tiny blips in comparison. Dota professionalized the genre and had huge popularity, which was only limited by Blizzard's poor infrastructure and support. Many people wondered why Blizzard didn't embrace the mod that far surpassed the popularity of its own games (the answer is probably "WoW"). League of legends took it to the next level with the infrastructure the genre needed.
- Lapsa 13y ago
  bit of nitpicking >Good examples would be denying friendly creeps / towers, lack of stuns and CC, and the inability to dive towers early in the game. this applies to denying creeps/towers only. there are lot of stuns, snares, slow in LoL. also - tower diving early in the game is a common thing.
- yowmamasita 13y ago
KVFinn 13y ago
>How does it compare to League of Legends? The biggest different between Dota 2 and LoL is pricing model. Dota 2 is free. Really free. You have access to 100+ heroes from your first game and there isn't a single thing you can buy that has an effect on winning or losing a match. It's all skins, alternate announcers, and other stuff just for fun. LoL is free... to play. There are a set of heroes that are free at any given time which is constantly rotating. You have to pay to unlock heroes permanently or can unlock them very slowly over time. You will never unlock everyone without paying money. There are additional other systems you have to level up, or can pay to level more quickly, that provide small bonuses to character attributes in game. This effects more than the price. For example in Dota 2 one of my favorite modes is "Reverse Draft" where each team picks the OTHER team's heroes. So you try and give your opponent the worst team you can think of. Something like this is impossible in LoL because every person only has access to a small set of heroes.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Heliosmaster 13y ago
  It is feasible to unlock all the champions without paying money: the metagame evolves constantly and the pool of really viable champions is not nearly close to them all.
- addandsubtract 13y ago
  I don't agree that not owning all (or many) champions hinders your gameplay or skill cap. People have reached the top 10 with a single champion. Runes on the other hand, do allow for slight advantages during a game. They're also free (as in, you can't even buy them with real money), but once you've gathered an amount of in game currency (Influence Points), you have to choose between using those IP to buy runes or champions. So while everything that's able to give you an advantage in the game is free, those investing real money will have a wider range of champions and/or runes sooner.
- lrem 13y ago
  Well, this gives the false impression that you have to pay to be competitive in LoL. Which is far from true. The only thing that can be bought only with money are: skins, name changes and transfers between regions. The things that make you actually stronger (runes, levels) can't be bought directly with money. You can spend money to accelerate your's account XP progression (by a factor of two). But that's irrelevant for first account, as it's not the account that is the limiting factor - I'm pretty sure any very good player can make a level 1 account and beat me hands down using it, as I can beat with a level 1 account a person who just got max level with XP boost. After all, we talk about a game where you have over 100 champions with completely different skill sets, over 100 in-game items to buy, all creating a huge array of possible plays and counterplays... That at the same time requires split-second reflexes, maintaining map awareness and, the hardest part, good teamwork.

League of legends is probably the most mass market online game running right now when considered worldwide, except perhaps for World of Warcraft - and at this point I think it probably easily dwarfs WoW. "As of October 2012, Riot Games claims League of Legends has over 32 million registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day;[5] global concurrent users online regularly peak at over 5 million players, as of March 2013.[6] In July 2012 Xfire released a report stating that League of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe, with 1.3 billion hours logged by players in those regions between July 2011 and June 2012.[48]"

cli 13y ago

League of Legends has about an order of magnitude greater number of players. However, Dota 2 has until recently been in open beta, and League of Legends came out years earlier. Although the beta keys are essentially obtainable for anyone, the extra step in obtaining said keys may be enough of a disincentive for many people to not play. Source for LoL numbers: http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20130312/700/league-legends-players-summit-new-peak http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20130312/700/league-legend...

krenoten 13y ago
"open beta" is a bit of a misnomer - if you didn't get into the selective invite phase you had to buy a beta pass for $30. Later on (I'm not sure if dota 2 was already the most popular valve game at this point) people with accounts were given a large number of invites to give away. Now that it's been released, dota 2 is free.
- ReidZB 13y ago
  Valve (or whoever is responsible for the beta keys) was giving out a huge number of keys to some gamers. One of my close friends received 32 (!) beta keys, if I recall correctly, a few months ago. He gave one to everyone in our circle of friends.
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Not only that, but I told everyone who was interested (myself included) to apply for an invite, and we all got one a few days later, so it was definitely rather open to play.
- aetimmes 13y ago
  The price of invites on the Steam Marketplace has been about $0.03 since January (and there were several bots that collected invitations and handed them out to applicants).

wsc981 13y ago

In terms of gameplay, many regard the original DotA game as more hard-core compared to League of Legends. Champions in DotA generally have higher burst capabilities, which can punish mistakes harder. There's also the concept of denying minions, which add another element of micro-management to the game. League of Legends on the other hand add a bit of depth to the genre by giving customisation options to champions outside of the main game (runes, masteries, summoner spell). The learning curve should be smoother, as people need to reach level 30 on their "summoner" (account) before they can enter ranked games. They also need to "buy" at least 16 champions on order to participate in ranked games. This will force the player to learn a bit of the game before entering the competitive scene. Currently League of Legends is definitely the most competitive MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game around and Riot invests heavily in keeping it that way.

Pxtl 13y ago
MOBA gets my award for worst initialism ever. It's hopelessly meaningless, as it describes everything from WoW to PBEM Chess.
- jere 13y ago
  Agreed. According to wikipedia, it is also known as "action real-time strategy (ARTS)." That's marginally better, but I'd guess that'll never catch on.
  - Pxtl 13y ago
    The ARTS name predates the MOBA name iirc, but the ARTS term was unpopular because it's plainly obvious that they aren't RTS games and they were only called that because they fell out of the modding tools for Blizzard's RTS games. Ironically the existing genre they resemble most is ARPGs since they're basically ARPG gameplay and progression mechanics in a team vs team setting, but people get grumpy when you bolt the term "RPG" onto something with no plot to speak of.
    - neona 13y ago

adamkittelson 13y ago

The gameplay is very similar. League of Legends is heavily based on the original Dota but with different characters and slightly different mechanics where Dota 2 is a port of Dota 1 from a Warcraft III map to a standalone game. I personally prefer Dota 2 but it's largely subjective. The biggest difference is probably in business models. While both games use micro-transactions Dota 2 only sells cosmetic items, League of Legends requires you to buy (either via $ or points earned in game) access to champions/heroes.

barbs 13y ago
Also, in LoL, you unlock runes the more you play(or masteries, can't remember exactly). These give small bonuses (e.g. +4% attack speed, turrets do splash damage). This means that people who have played the game more have an advantage in terms of stats and also champion choice. As mentioned, DotA 2 only sells cosmetic items, or access to streams of events. This means that the game itself doesn't change whether you're new or experienced. You have access to the exact same heroes, and no extra bonuses.
- plonk420 13y ago
  however, you don't often play with people with a large rune advantage or disadvantage. runes also let you massage a champion a teeeeny bit towards your preferred style of play for a character (defensive or offensive).
- Lapsa 13y ago
  >This means that people who have played the game more have an advantage in terms of stats and also champion choice. untrue. you can get full rune page quite fast (~ month). and once it's done, there's no disadvantage anymore. if you play smartly from very beginning, you can get that done around lvl 30, right when you are allowed to start playing game competitively. also - champion choice is not that important. especially in low level. and it's better to learn few champions thoroughly than "gotta catch em all" and being good at none.
baby 13y ago
I actually really like the marketing of not offering all champions directly, KNOWNING that you can acquire champions without money but with points you get from playing the game. When you start playing LOL you have to choose from, I think 6 different champions? Which is pretty limited but let you master those 6 before changing them the next week to 6 new champions. I learned the game without problems this way. DOTA2 let you play with all the champions directly, oh boy was I lost and still am 200hours of games later. I only play "random" so I can learn every hero but I still haven't played 25% of them I would guess. Also I know many friends who bought champions on LoL, I think it's a very good source of income.

thwest 13y ago

League has a lower skill cap, generally lower in complexity and mechanics.

whywhywhy5 13y ago

* Access to all 100+ heroes at the start, no need to purchase heroes. * Much higher level of polish in terms of graphics, animations, voice acting, music, sound effects, ambiance. It has the Valve touch. * More varied hero play styles, lane formations, and overall build and game strategies. * Items are much more varied and there are many more items that have abilities. * Higher skill cap.

jpreiland 13y ago

League of Legends was made with complexity/difficulty != fun in mind. It's easier to master mechanically, but I feel it is all around a much better made game. For one, it actually runs smoothly. This could just be my PC, but super lowest settings and custom config on DotA2 still runs sluggishly, while LoL is very responsive and satisfying to play. Gameplay-wise, DotA is very cutthroat in that a single hero can go rambo and 1v5 the other team if he gets out of control, while LoL generally allows you to come back if you play smartly with your team. The item shop in DotA is terribly confusing, but I suppose you'll learn it if you play long enough. The only negative things I can say about LoL is: the leveling system and runes/masteries, while helping new players ramp up to competitive level, seem to take a long time to fill out to get on par with a "normal" player. DotA 2 allows you to jump in straight away on the same level of play and with all heroes available. You have to unlock champions in LoL (it takes a while if you take the free route as most do). TL;DR - LoL is a polished, simplified, beautiful take on the MOBA genre that DotA popularized. Hardcore DotA fans will call it easy/noob-friendly/etc, but in reality it's just different and in my (biased) opinion, better.

chrismsnz 13y ago
I found the gameplay of LoL to be a bit stale and DOTA2 much more dynamic. Also, 'buying' champions to play with did not sit well with me at all. Edit: Also, yes, LoL was made to run with much lower-spec PC's than DOTA2. That being said, DOTA2 has much higher levels of polish when it comes to characters, voicing and environment.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
oblio 13y ago
> Gameplay-wise, DotA is very cutthroat in that a single hero can go rambo and 1v5 the other team if he gets out of control, while LoL generally allows you to come back if you play smartly with your team. The same thing happens in Dota, too (especially if you play smart). The game has very good comeback mechanics. If you're losing you'll be fighting closer to your base (so it takes less time to buy stuff and to go back and heal), you'll probably be around your towers (so you'll have additional firepower), you'll also have better vision and a position on higher ground (same as in real war - higher ground = better position to fight), you'll probably be underleveled and respawn faster if you die, so you can come back into the fights faster, if you kill the higher leveled enemy you get a LOT of gold and experience, etc. 1v5ing in Dota only happens in very low level games where most people don't know the game and their characters. Sadly, many players don't know it and think it's Quake or something :)

thefreeman 13y ago

League of Legends is DotA with training wheels. Basically the original DotA started the genre, and LoL strived to take what they deem "anti-fun" mechanics out of the game. Good examples would be denying friendly creeps / towers, lack of stuns and CC, and the inability to dive towers early in the game. Another main difference is that League of Legends has scaling magic damage. Because of this, spells are significantly weaker in the early game (due to the fact that you can get items to boost their power as the game progresses). There are no +magic damage items in DotA, so spells are significantly more powerful early game but become less effective compared to auto attack damage as the game progresses.

lep 13y ago
I'm probably fighting windmills but here it goes: DotA did not start the AoS genre which is now called MOBA. In fact the first AoS map was the map Aeon of Strife, made for StarCraft. There were tons of AoS maps before and tons of AoS maps after DotA. But i agree when you say DotA mad the AoS genre popular even though there were other very well known AoS maps beside DotA (EotA, AotZ, DoE, ToB, AoS GT, etc.).
- nvarsj 13y ago
  I think you're understating Dota's influence. Its predecessors were tiny blips in comparison. Dota professionalized the genre and had huge popularity, which was only limited by Blizzard's poor infrastructure and support. Many people wondered why Blizzard didn't embrace the mod that far surpassed the popularity of its own games (the answer is probably "WoW"). League of legends took it to the next level with the infrastructure the genre needed.
Lapsa 13y ago
bit of nitpicking >Good examples would be denying friendly creeps / towers, lack of stuns and CC, and the inability to dive towers early in the game. this applies to denying creeps/towers only. there are lot of stuns, snares, slow in LoL. also - tower diving early in the game is a common thing.
yowmamasita 13y ago

KVFinn 13y ago

>How does it compare to League of Legends? The biggest different between Dota 2 and LoL is pricing model. Dota 2 is free. Really free. You have access to 100+ heroes from your first game and there isn't a single thing you can buy that has an effect on winning or losing a match. It's all skins, alternate announcers, and other stuff just for fun. LoL is free... to play. There are a set of heroes that are free at any given time which is constantly rotating. You have to pay to unlock heroes permanently or can unlock them very slowly over time. You will never unlock everyone without paying money. There are additional other systems you have to level up, or can pay to level more quickly, that provide small bonuses to character attributes in game. This effects more than the price. For example in Dota 2 one of my favorite modes is "Reverse Draft" where each team picks the OTHER team's heroes. So you try and give your opponent the worst team you can think of. Something like this is impossible in LoL because every person only has access to a small set of heroes.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Heliosmaster 13y ago
It is feasible to unlock all the champions without paying money: the metagame evolves constantly and the pool of really viable champions is not nearly close to them all.
addandsubtract 13y ago
I don't agree that not owning all (or many) champions hinders your gameplay or skill cap. People have reached the top 10 with a single champion. Runes on the other hand, do allow for slight advantages during a game. They're also free (as in, you can't even buy them with real money), but once you've gathered an amount of in game currency (Influence Points), you have to choose between using those IP to buy runes or champions. So while everything that's able to give you an advantage in the game is free, those investing real money will have a wider range of champions and/or runes sooner.
lrem 13y ago
Well, this gives the false impression that you have to pay to be competitive in LoL. Which is far from true. The only thing that can be bought only with money are: skins, name changes and transfers between regions. The things that make you actually stronger (runes, levels) can't be bought directly with money. You can spend money to accelerate your's account XP progression (by a factor of two). But that's irrelevant for first account, as it's not the account that is the limiting factor - I'm pretty sure any very good player can make a level 1 account and beat me hands down using it, as I can beat with a level 1 account a person who just got max level with XP boost. After all, we talk about a game where you have over 100 champions with completely different skill sets, over 100 in-game items to buy, all creating a huge array of possible plays and counterplays... That at the same time requires split-second reflexes, maintaining map awareness and, the hardest part, good teamwork.