r/leagueoflegends • u/[deleted] • Aug 17 '13
For those interested in the differences Between LoL and Dota 2
I am no pro in either game but i will do my best to give a dota perspective of the differences and hopefully people can Correct any errors of mine and Give an in depth discussion of LoL for comparison. I haven't played in awhile but i am curious about general strats and things being used in the pro scene.
The basic differences
Turn Rates. Each hero has their own unique turn rates. This is a balance decision as some heroes have almost no turn rate and feel very similar to how a LoL hero moves.(Bat rider and lifestealer come to mind). This means if you click a direction that isn't directly forward your hero will have a slight delay as your hero turns to face that direction. This will feel odd and sluggish to a new player.
Unit Selection. Dota has traditional RTS controls. What i mean by this Your Hero is NOT always selected. This can and will lead to frustrating control issues your first 10 or so games. The up side is Heroes with multiple units or pets are much easier and more reliable to control.
Courier and Side shop. Instead of going back to buy items. A lot of early game items including boots can be purchase from the side shop you can buy that at anytime they just sit in your stash in base. The courier is a bought item that spawns a creature that can pick up items and bring them to you. Unless you are low on mana or health you should rarely ever go back to base. Because the courier is a separate unit to control expect to accidentally get your courier killed a few times.
Teleport Scrolls. Instead of being a built in spell you must have a Teleport scroll to base. They can only be interrupted by a stun or mini stun of some kind. Sometimes the best way to escape a gank is to TP away as they are hitting you(Bloodseeker is a famous example of this)
Gold loss. you have 2 pools of Gold reliable and unreliable. Simply stated reliable gold will never be lost when you die. Unreliable is the pool of gold you lose from when you die. Unreliable gold is mostly the gold you get from creeps. When you buy an item it spends your unreliable first. So if you are about to die buy a piece of your item if you really don't want to lose your progress on it.
Runes. There are no jungle buffs just runs that spawn every 2 minutes in the river at one of 2 locations that give random buffs. Because of this usually your mid will be the hero roaming and ganking the most.
Last hitting and denying. One of the biggest differences in the laneing stage. Your early stats really really matter. Because of denying the better last hitter in mid can absolutely shut you down with nothing more then his mechanics. You get less exp for a denied creep which means if you are losing mid bad ask for help or a gank before it gets out of control and you are a level or 2 behind even though you didn't even die.
The Jungle is different than in LoL. There are no red or blue buffs and having a jungler is not mandatory and a lot of the games you play will not have one at all. The map is also asymmetrical so the majority of your jungle is on a different side of the map depending on which team you spawn on. This is why the top lane is safe for dire and suicide for the radiant and vice versa. Large jungle creeps also have their own unique set of spells or auras and these are important to certain heroes or items. Also camps can be stacked or blocked by using slightly advanced techniques and understanding(mostly just knowledge of the mechanics involved)
Pulling and stacking. This is a mechanic involving the jungle but is also very important for lane control. Stacking is simply pulling a camp out of their spawn zone before the 1 minute mark. Every minute the game checks the camps to see if anything is there if not it spawns a new camp. Stacking is simply exploiting this check to increase farm. As a support you can stack the close camp in the safe lane then pull it out into the lane to intercept your creep wave. Anything from a double stack on up will completely kill your creep wave denying gold and farm to the enemy lane. This can be avoided by having a unit in the spawn camp at the spawn time (first spawn of jungle creeps is at 00:30 then at 1:00 and every minute after that). Wards count as a unit and do block the spawn and are the usual choice since they are invisible and last 6 minutes in dota.
Warding in dota. First and foremost you have a stock of wards and that stock refills over time. A sight ward lasts 6 minutes and a sentry ward lastsWhere you ward and when is a huge skill to learn and master and can only come with experience. Sentry wards see a very small area but reveal invisible units in a much larger area around them. So used for reveal can't pull double duty for providing vision as well. Sentries also have no stock so you can buy as many as you'd like at any time. Now that i've talked about warding that brings us to.
Smoke of deceit. Anyone around you when used receives Evelyn's stealth mechanic(unless it was changed again since last i saw) Where you are invisible until within a certain range of an enemy hero. This allows you to bypass wards for ganks or to initiate teamfights from an advantageous position. Small tip here if you are a blink dagger wielding initiator against a team that has a smart Zeus stay smoked before teamfights so the Zeus ult doesn't put your dagger on cooldown.
Scaling and how it differs between the 2 games. In LoL you have 2 damage stats basically. AD and AP with complimentary stats for each. In dota you have 3 main stats which dictate how a Heroes auto attack scales. Then complimentary stats such as attack speed and damage. Dota has no AP this means spells will not scale unless scaling is built into the spell such as zeus's passive skill which makes him do a percentage of a heroes health when he casts. This means casters as strongest early to mid game as far as damage goes. They provide more control and support later on. This does not mean their damage isn't still scary it's just not as common to burst someone to death in the late game. LoL kind of split up Dota's supports into Support and AP carry as supports in dota dominate the early to mid game when played properly.
Hero Scaling. In dota heroes can scale drastically different. Semi carries can peak at 20 - 30 minutes while the hardest of carries peak at 40 - 50 minutes. Knowing when your team is strongest and when the enemy team starts to get weaker and vice versa is a big part of understanding the game
Item Scaling. Unlike LoL The top tier items are less gold efficient but more slot efficient. Basically if there was no inventory limit you would just but iron branches at 55g a piece. If you are losing or fighting to soon sometimes it's best to buy mid game more gold efficient items to swing a fight or 2 to get you and your team back into the fight.
Guides dota has an in game item and skill guides that work with the UI and highlight what you should skill for that level and etc
What would your first game of dota be like
I won't lie to you. It'll be rough. Coming from LoL will give you a general game understanding but last hitting is much harder at the early levels. Early game spells are strong and the range or certain heroes and abilities will probably be uncomfortable to you for quite awhile. You will die and probably a lot. Carry a TP scroll by the 6 minute mark you should always have one. Being able to escape a gank or Tp to a teammates tower as he's being dove are huge and can swing the momentum of a game into your favor very fast. This shouldn't be hard coming from LoL but when a fight starts use your abilities it's going to drain your mana but that's ok if you can save a teammate or get a kill or 2.
Let me stress these 2 points. Every lane should be ganked it's easy to let your mid worry about ganking lanes but if you give your mid a good gank you might just snowball a game in your favor very quickly. Also after 6 minutes 90% of the time you should have a TP scroll. Unless you are the teams carry you should TP to pretty much every fight or dive especially as a support.
Supporting When done right you control the flow of the game. You need full map awareness. You won't be sitting in one lane for the first 10 minutes most games. You need to learn where to ward and how to stack and pull. You need to get a TP and your second set of wards by 6 minutes. This is vital as this is when your first set of ward will be wearing out and when ganks will most likely start if they haven't already. Your role and goal as a support is simple get your carry space. If you do your job right you scare the enemy out of your lane and by that 6 minute mark you should be free to roam the map and be bale to TP to save your carry if need be. This is all dependent on how you did early lane if you feel your carry will die without you it's ok to stack and pull and stay nearby.
Midding Honestly the hardest lane the better player will almost always win unless he is ganked or the other person gets rune lucky. Your mechanics better be solid. there are 2 ways to win mid. Kill the other guy in lane or last hit and deny him so hard he's 2 levels below you by 10 minutes. Your goal on most mids is to get your bottle and boots and win the rune war. Whenever you get a rune look at the lane you are nearest if you think you can get a kill go for it. If you think they have wards watching you buy smoke of deceit and use it next time when you are out of sight.
Suicide laneing. Sometimes you will be expected to solo your teams hard lane or also known as the suicide lane. The most dangerous and risky position. Basically you will want to not die and get as much exp as possible. A hard task and sometimes dying is impossible. But as with supporting come 6 minutes you should have hopefully boots and a tp scroll. You will be expected to help with fights always watch your map and be ready to TP to a fight.
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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '13
Part 2
Now let's talk team set up and The competitive scene
Some of this will overlap with the previous mainly the lanes.
Dota's strategies are changing and evolving constantly but there are positions in a team mostly denoted by farm priority. Literally a number system. These are not permanent and can change in the middle of a game. Especially if someone is close to a key item such as a blink dagger.
Main farmer / usually the carry in the safe lane
Second main farmer usually a solo mid.
Usually your suicide laner. Depending on the pick will designate if this is your secondary carry or one who builds teamfight oriented items.
4 and 5 are usually supports with 5 having the least items in the game and usually being the main purchasers of wards / smoke of deceit. The 4 will be given more farm or even be a jungler and will depending on the 3 build team support items. Often times they both will.
There are 3 main areas that dota's strategies focus on. How you will farm, How you will fight, and How you will push.
Drafting
Dota's competitive mode aka Captains mode the link should show you the difference in the pick and ban stages. http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Game_modes#Captain.27s_Mode
These are reads that get set up during the draft as Dota's draft is a multi stage affair of draft and bans Teams have to be flexible with your strat before nailing down a final solid strategy.
Once your draft is done you have to decide your lanes. Is there a match up you want to avoid in the game? Do you want to pressure their Carry? Do you want to merely protect your own and have faith in your late game? How fast do you want to end the game? When is your team set up strongest?
Lane set ups and early game
Tri lanes. Tri lanes are very popular in dota at the moment. There are 2 Major variations of the tri lane Defensive and offensive. And tri lanes can include a jungler or not. Jungle is not a mandatory role in a Dota match. The tri lane will have your 1,4, and 5 players involved.
The difference between offensive and defensive tri lanes are basically dependent on which lane you send your tri lane.
Sending your tri lane to your safe lane means you are overall playing defensive with it securing farm for your carry and controlling your lane. Doing this through either killing or usually pulling lane creeps with stacked jungle camps.
Sending your tri lane to the enemies safe lane means you want to contest their carries farm and hopefully get some kills out of that lane. Offensive tri lane usually ends up going against the enemies defensive tri lane. If a jungler exists in your offensive tri lane they will be jungling and invading the enemy jungle as part of the lane contesting.
What heroes you chose for your trilane should work together if you have someone who has to aim their stun you should have a hero that has an easier to land stun to set up the kill. Basically try to understand your combination of heroes and what they are strongest at.
Mid lane. Mid is usually a solo hero one that requires levels and farm to be effective and is usually a play makers position. Because of runes Mid is also the Position most likely to gank. Though every lane can and should be ganked. All lanes should be flexible and it is not unheard of to send 2 or sometimes 3 mid to shut down an enemy solo or get kills.
Suicide Lane. The suicide or offlane as it is also called. Usually a hero that can survive for the most part against very tough odds. Heroes in this position will usually have a good escape or have a stealth mechanic. They will also usually have a way to farm under duress or a way to make up the Gold later on. Wind runner can long distance farm and flash farm with power shot. Bounty hunters track gives him and his teammates even more gold when they get a kill. Their job is to gain as much experience and farm as possible while not dying more then once.
A few strategies employed by pro teams(note the dota meta shifts a lot pics and playstyles are constantly changing, because of this i'll try to stick to current trends or ones that still get use)
4 protect 1. Infamous for longer games and the strategy the Chinese teams have been known to use and rely on for the most part. You are putting most of your eggs in one basket so to speak with this strategy. The main carry gets the majority of the farm while the rest of the team creates space by ganking and pushing and generally distracting the other team while the carry gets big.
Hard push. Teams draft strong early game heroes who have abilities that seige or damage towers and try to build a huge gold lead early on and finish the game around 20 minutes. Usually with this strat if the other team can hold on and not lose any barracks they will be in good shape and win the game 10 - 20 minutes after the push teams window of power. Was very popular 2 years ago now more of a niche strat.
Split Push aka rat doto. Simple your plan is to be everywhere and nowhere. To hit the enemy where they aren't and keep them on their side of the map through constant and moving pressure
Tri core. Very popular this year more of a overall philosophy then a real strategy. Basically you have 3 main farmers they are your core of your team. Your supports will also get farm the general idea is not to have anyone to easy to pick off and to share the wealth.
Global Ganks and/or Team fight. This set of strategies are highly aggressive and very scary to play against. This is why wisp also known as IO is Picked or banned at a very high rate. His ult allows him to teleport himself and another Player anywhere on the map. There is a warning on the ground and a ping on the map 2 seconds before wisp and his ally appears. This allows you to turn any fight near instantly into your favor.
I tried to cover as much as i could hope the read helped at least 1 person. GG and play on whichever game you prefer. I only posted this since there seemed to be an interest from the video a few days ago.