League of BellEnds

[Anery]

Not sure where to put this, it's not an MMO, it's not a shooter...
It's DoTA - or so I am told, I never actually played any mods for WC3 so I don't really know.
There are two types of gameplay, competitive PvP or co-op PvE. Being as most people in this world are dicks I have never tried the PvP so can't comment there.

Gameplay
Basically, you play the part of a summoner who summons champions to control in every match.
In the PvE matches I have played (begginer team Vs AI) it is simply a case of destrying the enemy before they destroy you. Your base produces a steady stream of minions that march blindly toward the enemy base attacking everything in their way - the enemy base is producing same. Your job is to back these minions up as they tear the world to bits and to tackle the enemy champions who are doing the same.
Each kill your champion makes grants XP and gold. The XP counts toward levelling up, each level grants you either new powers or upgrade existing ones - the choice is yours at the time of levelling, the gold can be used to buy items from the in-match vendor that boost various stats and grant bonuses. Both the XP and items are lost after the match, next match you start back at level 1 with your champion.
Thats not to say there isn't an out of match levelling system. You as a summoner level as well and this is persistant. This levelling gives you skill points to play with, rune slots to fill and non-champion specific spells to use.

Champions
Before each match you will be asked to select a champion to play, what non-champion specific spells you want to use and what rune book (you can save rune and skill point configurations) like highlander there can be only one type of each champion per side. For example, if somebody else selects Cho Gath (big alien type, grows bigger when he eats enemies) and locks him in (confirms selection) before I do then I have to select a different champion. It's worth noting that you do not need to have a specific build of certain types of champ, pretty much any configuration goes.
After each match you gain a bunch of influence points as well as XP. These points can be spent buying champions from the store or buying upgrade runes.
Or, every week a bunch of free champions are available to play, these get cycled every week so you get a chance to play all of them at some point or other. If you find one that you particularly like then you can buy it with your points.
At the
There is of course a cash shop, this lets you buy the champions/runes/skins for real money - well, "Riot Points" which are only available for real money. The various skins for characters are only available with this currency.
There is no pay to win involved, you can buy xp boosts but thats it in turns of buying game altering things.

There are loads of different types and I havn't got a clue what they all do, I've tried a few and unlocked those I liked playing but there are things descirbed as "junglers" (they like drum and bass) "pushers" (they got good gear) "assasins", "support"...fucking shit loads and most champs fit into at least three different categories. I don't think it matters unless you are PvP nut.

Should be worth a spunky game sometime, if we can herd five of us together to have a game.

site
wiki
moba fire

5punk bummers
MrJoose
DogPants
Spoodie
Hounds - Anery

[spoodie]

I think the genre is being tentatively called MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena).

Here's some tips for beginners (from a beginner):
- Choose a champion that has "Recommended" as one of their attributes. Also check the difficulty bar.
- Your first items to purchase should be health (and/or perhaps mana) regen, you'll need it.
- Don't be too aggressive, try to stay back behind your minions and turrets. If you run too far ahead chasing an enemy champion you'll likely be killed.
- Being killed is bad for your team as it gives a big XP and gold boast to the other team. Likewise, killing an enemy champion is good for you and your team, if you can manage it.
- Perhaps just stick to pushing with your minions and taking out turrets to begin with. Don't focus of killing champions.

And a bit of terminology:
There are three "lanes" in the map: top, mid(dle) and bot(tom). Usual abbreviated without the bits in brackets. People may organise themselves in chat using those abbreviations.

[Baliame]

LoL is bad.
HoN is good.

[spoodie]

LoL is bad.
HoN is good.

I'm not qualified to argue either way, but I've heard the HoN community is less forgiving and more elitist. Your comment isn't convincing me otherwise.

[Joose]

I'm not qualified to argue either way, but I've heard the HoN community is less forgiving and more elitist. Your comment isn't convincing me otherwise.

this. Care to give some reasons?

[Grimmie]

Yogscast recently covered Valve's offering (currently in closed beta), DOTA 2.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWK2U7_MxTQ[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkSWDqPteU0[/media]

[Baliame]

LoL is bad.
HoN is good.

I'm not qualified to argue either way, but I've heard the HoN community is less forgiving and more elitist. Your comment isn't convincing me otherwise.

You are completely right here, I don't dispute that. LoL is a more of a casual gamer's DotA, there's a lot less skill involved. HoN is more of a heir to DotA really, it involves a lot more skill and a lot less luck.

[Joose]

...completely right...more of a casual gamer's DotA...a lot less skill involved...

I think I'll stick to LoL then

[Dog Pants]

...completely right...more of a casual gamer's DotA...a lot less skill involved...

I think I'll stick to LoL then

I found this one to be opaque and unfriendly, so HoN has no chance.

[spoodie]

I watched a video comparing LoL and HoN, my opinion of the community remains the same. But HoN does seem to have some interesting differences, I may try it out. Although I'm more interested in DOTA2.

[Joose]

Although I'm more interested in DOTA2.

Very this. Im certainly sold on the genre itself, and I'm interested to see what Valve will do with it.
Community wise, I've found LoL pretty friendly so far. Had some helpful advise, and some praise when things go well. Except for the one guy this morning who kept accusing me of stealing his kills. He was in the bottom lane, I was in the top. I lolled in LoL.

[FatherJack]

...completely right...more of a casual gamer's DotA...a lot less skill involved...

I think I'll stick to LoL then

I found this one to be opaque and unfriendly, so HoN has no chance.

I'm rather put off by all the stuff like this surrouding the game(s). Just because a game is popular in it's niche, it should not be so arrogant as to not bother explaining itself clearly to new players. I assume it is their intention to attract new players since there are about four versions of this game out or coming out soon and just splitting the existing playerbase isn't going to be very profitable. Snobbery and elitism over which is the best version of what looks like the same fucking game to me just makes me want to tell them they can keep their precious game to themselves.

[Joose]

I'm intrigued as to why people find LoL hard to get into. I've found it very much one of those "easy to learn, hard to master" things. The general idea is pretty straight forward, and as long as you pick an easy to use champion and don't try and be too ambitious, its reasonably easy to not suck. Now I've fiddled with it a bit, I can see there is a lot of depth there too, with custom item choices and the like, but I certainly wasn't overwhelmed. Quite the opposite, I was going in to the tutorial fully expecting to be massively out of my depth, and was pleasantly surprised.

[Dog Pants]

I think it's reputation as much as anything. For me, playing the tutorial and seeing the dozens of items you can use, with no function to leat you sit and read the discription, is just intimidating. We all know how competitive the game is, so the idea of having to digest that huge amount of information while the game sneers at you - let alone other players - is pretty overwhelming. Personally I felt thrown in at the deep end with a "Click to move. Now fuck off" tutorial.

[Anery]

I tend to buy the first recommended item at first spawn - unless I already know the item I want. I normally have plenty of time whilst waiting to respawn to browse for the rest.
As for DoTA2 I am interested so long as the community don't turn into elitest cunts

[Baliame]

DotA2 ... not having an entire community of ... elitest cunts

You're not serious are you?

Anyway, if anyone decides to try or stick with HoN, I can provide some insight into how stuff works, so feel free to ask away. I can't really help with LoL as I've only had a short and disappointing encounter with it.

[spoodie]

I think it's reputation as much as anything. For me, playing the tutorial and seeing the dozens of items you can use, with no function to leat you sit and read the discription, is just intimidating. We all know how competitive the game is, so the idea of having to digest that huge amount of information while the game sneers at you - let alone other players - is pretty overwhelming. Personally I felt thrown in at the deep end with a "Click to move. Now fuck off" tutorial.

Having played the tutorial again (which was useful as I played a character I hadn't played before and learnt a bit about his powers) this seems a little unfair. The tutorial does cover pretty much all you need to know to get started, although not necessarily very well, it's functional at best. And it should be played a few times, unless you're familiar with the genre, to pick up the basic techniques and controls.

You shouldn't worry about the items too much to begin with. Just get some health/mana regen. The Philosopher's Stone is a good one to get once you have a bit more gold. Once you know more of the game, champion, your play style then you'll start to see what would be useful to you.

But then you probably can't play anyway as you've got the baby.

[Dog Pants]

I could probably have a game or two on a friday or saturday night, so I haven't written it off completely. Maybe I didn't make my point very well though. It does tell you the basics, how to move, how to fight, how the game works. But it doesn't give you any opportunity to play around with the items and spells, read the descriptions, work out how they work together. And this strikes me as a game in which other players won't take kindly to you trying to learn. Even the tutorial level felt like it was saying "Don't try to learn the game here you fucking noob, get fighting!". I feely admit though that it's not my kind of game, so I'm always going to find it more difficult to appreciate its good points. I feel compelled to give it a chance though despite my reservations as I can see that it's an important new feature on the multiplayer landscape.

[Joose]

You can look at detailed descriptions of the champions and spells (and I think also the items, but don't quote me on that) outside of an active match. It's all got at through the interface that you log in to to set up games and the like.

Personally, I've just been buying whatever item on the recommend list was the most shiny looking. It's served me pretty well so far. A handy tip is that you can browse and buy items when waiting to respawn, which I've used on occasion; when I've just died because I ran out of mana, I might look for something that gives more mana, for example.

I've just bought my first champion (using the in game money, not real money). It's a little girl in a pink dress, that summons a TEDDY OF DOOM. She's fun.

[shot2bits]

After playing a few games and learning the ropes ive had quite a bit of fun with this, ive even had some quite enjoyable matches with randoms. The premise is definately sound so ill be interested to see how Dota 2 turns out.

what are peoples summoner names in this?