When you think MOBA, two games come to the forefront: League of Legends and DotA. These two MOBA games are far more popular than you can think of, attracting players all over the world in different age groups. Just last year, the two games from Riot and Valve along with the other MOBA games generated a total of $406 million in revenue in North America, according to research firm EEDAR.
But since League of Legends (more popularly known as LOL) was released six years ago with a gameplay and map strikingly similar to DotA, MOBA gamers started this debate on which game was much better. But since LOL provided more enhanced graphics and greater numbers of champions or heroes than DotA, it easily became more famous than the latter. Well, not until Valve’s Steam decided to launch DotA 2, the stand-alone sequel to the Defense of the Ancients Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne mod. This is when the real competition started. Providing a three-dimensional environment, presented from an oblique high-angle perspective, and more comprehensive gameplay, DotA 2 rocketed back to its spot and fought head to head against LOL at the top.
But really, which one is the better? Well, here are a few round-ups that compare the two MOBA games.
• Basic Gameplay
In both MOBA games, a player controls a champion or hero alongside four other players in 5v5 fantasy action. Left-clicking selects units while right-clicking moves your character or attacks. League of Legends uses Q, W, E and R for your main abilities with D and F reserved for summoner spells. Items are assigned to 1-6 by default. While in DOTA, number keys are reserved for control groups Z, X, C, V, B and N are bound to your item slots, and some champions with more than four abilities also require the use of other keys like D and F.
LoL is more accessible than DotA 2 as well. Dying is less punishing because you don’t lose that much gold and even if you get owned two or three times during the laning phase you still won’t be that much behind unlike in DotA 2. However, this makes DotA 2 much more challenging for.
• Champions/Heroes
As I mentioned earlier, LOL champions provides more colorful designs and a variation of skins or costumes that you can buy for your champion. DotA2, on the other hand, has a darker, more fairy tale-like approach when it comes to its heroes’ design.
• Skills
The two games have different ideas of what constitutes a hero or champion. Champions in League of Legends are more likely to have skillshots and spells that can be spammed. As a result, LoL focuses not only on traditional, attack damage (AD) carries, but also on ability power (AP) carries. Every single champion in this game has four main, character-specific spells along with room for two summoner spells.
DotA 2 heroes, on the other hand, have much more explosive power with the ability to execute combos that usually leads to battles that last only a few seconds. These powerful spells come at a cost—the mana required to cast these spells is usually high—which prevents them from being used constantly. DotA 2 heroes are also highly specialized in certain ways and lacking in others, and each one of them has very unique play style.
• Map Layout
Dota 2 and League of Legends have maps with the same basic layouts. This map in LoL is called Summoner’s Rift, which has the same basic look as DotA 2 has: each has a top, middle and bottom lane with 3 layers of turrets in each lane. In between the lanes is the Jungle, which is filled with creep camps that can be killed as an alternate source of gold and experience. Summoner’s Rift though is considerably smaller than Dota 2’s unnamed map.
• Items
The type of items available differs slightly between both games. One of the many small differences between the two systems is the presence of item recipes in Dota 2, which according to many players is what makes it more challenging and more complicated to play. Recipes are needed to be complete in order to create one massive item. While in League of Legends, you can purchase the actual upgraded item after collecting all of the prerequisites.
Conclusion
Both games are great and provide players with different experiences. LoL is easier to learn, while DotA 2 has a deeper and more complex gameplay. If you want just to have fun and relax in a game of this genre, go for LoL, but to play DotA 2, you need 4 reliable friends or gamers to thoroughly play this game better. To play even better, makes sure that your gaming PC is all good and meets the recommended specifications to make the graphics and gameplay more enjoyable.