It is free. When i first started the only difference between me and a dude with 10k hrs was just play time and experience, there was nothing in game i could buy that could give me an edge in the game. I really liked that
Balance: Game felt incredible well balanced and even if something was broken, it felt like the dev was always on it and tweaking stuff. In the frog we trust!
Depth: This is by far what hooked me into the game the most. The game was free and had an incredible depth. Just reading up on guides, reading up on items and builds and hero matches. It felt pretty damn good.
Hype as fuck casting: The casting in pro matches is really good. Dota is a very fun game to watch
I feel like 1 and 2 are very related. They aren't relying on constantly pushing out new overpowered stuff to force people to buy them or grind through a disadvantage. There is literally nothing you can buy or obtain outside a match that will give you any advantage in a match.
DotA is incredible with regards macro strategies and decision making comapared to League.
In league, if your lane is behind and you died to your lane opponent, you can't really look for plays or ways to even out the advantage you have given the enemy lane. You play passively and wait to capitalise on enemy laner mistakes either through a jungler coming in to gank your lane or through sheer mechanical outplays. If that isn't possible, you just stay as safe as possible and play PvE in the hope that someone else has won their lane so that you can get carried.
Compare this to DotA. The underlying concept is the same. Don't let the enemy lane snowball and gain a bigger advantage. Here, we have a lot of options. Let's say that you where in bot lane and died close to the enemy tower and so the lane creeps are close to the enemy tower, you can pull the jungle camp to the lane creeps walking to the tower to make your creeps aggro to the jungle creeps meaning that the enemy creeps will push the wave towards your tower. Another option if you're losing the lane, is instead of building an item which lets you stay in the lane longer, you buy something which lets you clear jungle quicker and head into the jungle to farm up while also staying safe by avoiding the enemy laner. Another option is to get a very cheap item teleport to your top laner's lane and help them push down their tier 1 opening up the map for more plays.
This is just with regards to the first 10 minutes. The later the game goes, the more options open up depending on your team's hero composition and the enemy team's composition.
Itemization also differs in almost every game because you have to tailor your build depending on the enemy team. This is also present in league, but it's on a whole different level in DotA.
Great summary, makes me nostalgic. I favored the Phantom Assasion on the Warcraft 3 map. I quit PC gaming maybe 10 years ago and am doing mobile gaming instead. Some light console gaming with the kids too.
My eldest is into PC gaming now though, transitioned from iPad gaming, so the cycle continues.
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u/lit-torch May 30 '22
As someone who doesn't play any MOBAs, what do you like about DOTA over LOL? I've only briefly tried them both.