DotA 2 vs League of Legends: which one do you consider the best MOBA game?
Source: Composite image by G_marius
DotA 2 and League of Legends are the most successful multiplayer online battle arena games. DotA 2 vs LoL which is the best MOBA game? Vote and tell us why
DotA 2 vs League of Legends
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games have become increasingly popular over the last few years. This genre consists of a mix of action, real time strategy and cooperation among team-players. The most popular MOBA games in this genre are Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2) and League of Legends (LoL). Each of these games have hundreds of thousands of loyal players.
Defense of the Ancients 2
DotA 2 is free-to-play PC game released by Valve in 2013. This game is the sequel to Defense of the Ancients (2003) which was a mod for Warcraft III. The development of DotA2 started in 2009 and its beta version was open to the public in 2011. In DotA 2 two five-players teams compete to destroy the stronghold of the rival team called "The Ancient". The game has a top-down isometric 3D view. Each player controls a hero with its own particular skills, powers and style of play. There are 110 different heroes organized in three groups according to their main attribute: Agility, Intelligence or Strength. During a game heroes collect gold, rewards and level up and unlock new abilities which they can use to defeat the rival team. Typically a DotA 2 match lasts 40-50 minutes. DotA 2 is one of the leading competitive videogames which has managed to get over one million players online simultaneously. "The International" is a DotA 2 specific competition which in 2015 has set a new record with a prize pool of over $18 million. "Evil Geniuses", the professional team of gamers which won the "The International", got over $6 million in prizes.
League of Legends
League of Legends (LoL) was developed by Riot Games and launched in 2009. As DotA 2, LoL is based on Defense of the Ancients. The gameplay and mechanics of League of Legends are similar to those of DotA 2. This is 5v5 3D real-time strategy multiplayer game. The typical length of a LoL match ranges from 30 to 50 minutes. Players control champions (more than 120 available) who need to teamwork in order to destroy the other team's "Nexus" or capture and defend some strategic locations on the game map. League of Legends characters also loot items and gold, and level up improving their powers and skills. League of Legends is not only the most played multiplayer online battle arena game, but also the most played PC game, beating Counter-Strike, Fallout 4, DotA 2 and World of Warcraft. In 2014 over 67 million people played LoL monthly, reaching peaks of 7.5 million concurrent players.
Best MOBA game?
The DotA 2 vs LoL rivalry is becoming one of the most salient in the history of videogames. Each of them has its pros and cons and millions of loyal fans. These are some of the main differences between the LoL and DotA 2:
- League of Legends is more accessible than DotA 2, which has a deepest learning curve and is a more punishing game. For instance, in DotA 2 when your character is killed you lose gold. LoL has better tutorials to learn how to play.
- In DotA 2 all heroes are free while in League of Legends there are 10 free heroes every week and the rest of them need to be purchased in-game.
- The design of characters in DotA 2 is slightly darker than in LoL which follows a more colorful comics style.
- Level cap for champions in LoL is 18, and for heroes in DotA 2 is 25.
- Skills are more important in DotA 2 and more difficult to use them correctly.
- League of Legends has four maps: Summoner's Rift, Twisted Treeline, Howling Abyss, and Crystal Scar. DotA 2 has only one.
Have you played these games? Which one do you prefer to play or watch playing? Do you think more recent MOBA games such as Smite or Heroes of the Storm will topple LoL and DotA 2 as the most popular games in the genre? Join our discusion (see below).
If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option.
New to netivist?
Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. You will not receive any promotional materials from third parties.
Join the debate
In order to join the debate you must be logged in.
Already have an account on netivist? Just login. New to netivist? Create your account for free.
You are viewing a filtered list of comments. Click the button above to view all comments.
17 xp
1 posts
Items do increase the complexity of both Dota 2 and LoL but the complexity is necessary in a competitive game. Take orchid malevolence in Dota 2. It allows you to prevent an enemy hero from casting spells. It's a good item in almost all games for some heroes (ex: Storm Spirit, QoP) and it's also a good item against many heroes (Storm, Ember, QoP, Zeus). Some heroes that don't normally build it can do so to counter spell dependent heroes. Without orchid in the game, your team would need some silence (Silencer, Disruptor) or hard CC (Shadow Shaman, Lion) to keep elusive heroes locked down. Orchid allows for more options when drafting and allows you to adjust your strategy in game if one hero gets out of control.
The heroes being silenced by orchid also have options. They could buy Linken's Sphere to stop it, BKB to protect themselves, or euls to get rid of the silence. They have to weight these options: BKB is safer, Linken's is automatic, euls can purge other things, etc. This all adds to the amount of skill required to play the game well but allows for more viable strategies, more varied drafting, and more impressive plays.
647 xp
167 posts
Dota 2 is the best of the two, since it was created by the same people who made the original mod, and they have focused on the design and feedback from players rather than merely catering to a vocal few.
But I personally prefer Heroes of the Storm. They got rid of all the artificial nuisances that pluralistic ignorace kept as part of the "skill" when they involve no skill at all, like items and last hit kills. The design has focused only in real actual skills: Know your enemy, know the map, know the mechanics, and the rest is tactics, strategy and action. No artificial skill ceilings and obscure mechanics abused by meta-players who fool themselves into thinking they are skilled.
Join the debate
In order to join the debate you must be logged in.
Already have an account on netivist? Just login. New to netivist? Create your account for free.
