4Game

League is not objectively, absolutely and ultimately a worse game than Dota.

Now, if you ask a League player why they don't play Dota, they'll probably say "it looks boring" or "I don't know what's going on".

But if you ask a Dota player why they don't play League, they'll launch into a tirade about how brainless the game is compared to Dota, about how it's only popular because it's designed for stupid people, and you feel like if you interrupt them or throw one counter-argument, they're going to slash your throat and donate all of your blood to the Bloodseeker Foundation.

In my opinion, comparing the two games is like comparing chess and soccer. A chess master will beat a world-famous soccer player at chess, but will likely die of exhaustion before they run from one end of the soccer field to the other.

So in this post, I'll show my thinking on how I think about the differences between the games. Keep in mind that I'm not a veteran Dota player by any means, so I'm open to corrections, constructive criticism and discussions of all kind.

PART 1: Depth of strategy and macro.

This aspect is something that Dota players pride themselves in, as well as one of the main reasons why most players flock to League instead. I won't pretend to know anything about advanced Dota strategies, but I can offer some comparison between how Dota and League handle them.

Dota has a huge map compared to League. Naturally, with a bigger map comes more mobility, which results in:

-A need for better vision control

-Easily accessible teleport scrolls

-Couriers that carry items to you

-Easier access to global and semi-global mobility (Spiritbreaker's charge having a global range, Meepo being able to be literally in five places at once)

-Everything having an absolute crap-ton of range (In League anyone having enough range to outrange a turret is a fully stacked Senna with lethal tempo, while in Dota it's Tuesday.)

League has way less of these. In fact, one of the reasons why champions like Twisted Fate, Ryze and Aurelion Sol have been nerfed into oblivion is that they all have an ability that lets them fairly quickly get from one side of the map to another. Ryze's teleport has a 2.5 minute cooldown, Aurelion's and TF's are closer to 1.5, and they all have a max range of about half to a quarter of the map.

Spiritbreaker has that on a 17-11 second cooldown, and it doesn't have a range limit.

And Meepo can just click on another of his dudes and be there instantly!

What that brings me to is: If you were to import a Dota hero straight into League, they would almost certainly be broken in pro play and weak in casual play.

And isn't that exactly the case with Dota? Eight(ish) times less casual players than League, but massive professional tournament prize pools?

Sorry, went on a tangent. My point is, with the way Dota is built, it requires much more thought, because the whole map is more accessible, and therefore it must be accessed, or you'll lose out on a huge part of your kit. The fact that you have the tools to move around the map quickly is what makes Dota seem so hard: it forces you to think less about micro plays, and more about macro. It's not necessarily harder, but it's more important to focus on than in League.

But what Dota has in strategy, it lacks in…

PART 2: Micro plays and quick thinking

Now, when I first picked up Dota, I was severely disappointed with the hero abilities. Most of them were either point-and-click, instant cast, or were very easy to land, especially with how turn speeds limit dodging. Dashes are few and far in between compared to League. Attacks have way longer animations, making kiting feel awkward and slow.

So, where does all of that power budget go in Dota?

Targeted buffs and debuffs that you have to read an encyclopedia about every hero in order to utilize them correctly, because they can negate absolutely all magic/physical/piercing/slamming/unicorn damage from all sources.

Active items that have effects like League's, except 300% more powerful on 5% of League's cooldowns. (I'm not kidding, Flash in League is Blink Dagger but with a third of it's range and a 300 second cooldown, and it's considered the most essential spell in the game.)

And finally, CC that is everywhere and there's no escape from it.

A fight between two professional League players will be a flurry of attacks, dashes, dodges, parries and one person destroying their keyboard in frustration while the other escapes with 5% of their health, all of their cooldowns used up and a Signature Look of Superiority.

A fight between two professional Dota players won't happen, because they both know who's going to win it and the one who's more likely to lose won't even attempt to get close, because dodging an instantly castable or targeted ability is near impossible, which leaves very little room for outplays.

In League, there are of course better or worse matchups, but there's way less effects that "stop a person from attacking entirely" or "stop them from casting spells for 10 frocking seconds". So everyone is on much more even ground and anyone can be outplayed.

PART 3.1: Visual and audio clarity

"Here we go," you say, cackling in anticipation. "This is where he yields, where he finally admits League's blatant inferiority, admitting certainly that we have the better graphics".

I'm sorry, but I'll have to disappoint you. More polygons don't equal better graphics.

Let me repeat that.

MORE POLYGONS DON'T EQUAL BETTER GRAPHICS.

Sure, all of your copy-pasted trees look fantastic. Sure, all of your beautifully textured pebbles are visible. Yes, you have nicer minions and your heroes look way better up close than League's champions.

But your visual clarity is all over the place.

Here's what I mean by visual clarity: every game element is clearly distinguishable from another, well visible against the background and its size and saturation is proportional to its relevance.

Compared to League, Dota is really lacking in that department.

Creeps blend into the background. High ground and low ground add confusion when aiming abilities. Threatening abilities tend to be hard to see, and those with mild effects are very flashy at times. Fire abilities are hard to tell apart, because fire is fire, no matter if it's phoenix fire, dragon breath or bat diarrhea.

Plus, the audio is just awful. Hearing minions attack each other is completely unnecessary, because that's literally all they ever do, so all you need is to see them. You don't need distracting audio for that. There's a guy that places a totem which repeatedly fires at me. There's no bright flash to signify where the totem is when it's placed, however it sounds like someone's banging two steel pans together, which prevents me from putting together any coherent thoughts at all.

Plus the animations are janky as hell – but that's better discussed in…

Part 3.2: Character designs

I will edit and continue this post later. I have to feed the cat now.

Edit: I'm not going to bother, since it seems my opinions are not welcome here. If you want to hear my opinion on the character designs, even if it's just one of you, I'll edit this post again and write it down. But if no one's willing to read, then I might as well not write.