League of Legends

[Roman Totale]

League of Legends

I'm surprised we don't have a topic about this already, so here goes.

Following Anery's recommendation I gave LoL a try the other night with pnut, Doggers, and Mrs Anery. Only played a few games but so far it seems very enjoyable. It appears easier to get into than DOTA, and with that comes some pros and cons which I'll list below. I say "appears" because it's a very similar game to DOTA which I've been playing obsessively for a few months now. It's difficult to say if I would have found it as easy without any prior experience.

DISCLAIMER: I am a LoL novice, so more seasoned players might consider the below opinions utter bollocks

Pros

Easier - with LoL you can pretty much jump straight into the action (within reason). DOTA's strength is also its weakness in this regards as it quite often requires a lot of concentration which doesn't always lead to mindless fun.

Limited hero pool - you can't have this as a positive! Well I think in some ways you can. Admittedly I've not seen how it rotates them yet, but it seems like a good way of getting players to try new characters and stops people always going for the easy picks.

Passive skills - along with your 4 upgradable skills, all characters have a passive ability which is a good idea


Cons

Easier - I now wish I'd started playing LoL before DOTA. The latter is a much more technical game from what I can see, and is more rewarding in terms of play.

Limited hero pool - despite what I said above, it's still a bit of a fucker that you can't give every hero a spin at your leisure (also, and I may be missing something here, I don't think you can set up practise games of just you vs bots)

No donkey - it's a pain not being able to buy remotely and having to fuck off back to the shops all the time (plus side you get a reusable teleport and you don't lose gold upon death, but this can also fit into the easier con)

No in game guides - DOTA is harder, but those guides are a godsend at times


Give it a whirl!


Names

ElvisDuck (me)
Hounds (Anery)
pnut804 (pnut)
DogPants (yes)
shot2bits (bits)

[Dog Pants]

We do have a topic! Highlights include Bali telling us all we won't enjoy Dota 2 and the announcement of Blizzard Dota. I played it for a little while before I played Dota, which apparently a few of us did.

I agree with the pros and cons. Now I know my way around Dota I find LoL to be a bit shallow, and I prefer Dota's quick and brutal fights to LoL's more metered jousts. I'm happy to play it though if people find it more accessible, although I doubt I'll be spending cashmoney - which is actually another strength of LoL now I mention it - the skins you buy are far more interesting than in Dota. I also like Cho'gath's embiggening when he eats people.

[Joose]

The fact that LoL is a bit shallower than DOTA2 might work in our favour, what with the much debated skill gap problem in the latter.

[Roman Totale]

We do have a topic!

Aha! Should have known not to search for the vanilla game title!

[Roman Totale]

Ooh, something I forgot from the cons:

The tutorial isn't great. Bit weird this - although it's easier than DOTA, it does a poorer job of introducing the mechanics of the game. Admittedly DOTA started off with a poor tutorial, but at least they've upgraded it since then.

Hero builds. Looking at Mobafire, some of the top rated builds have been there for over 2 years, with little else on offer. Slightly worrying as it suggests there isn't much balancing being done.


Agree with Pants on the skins - much more entertaining and varied.

[Dog Pants]

The fact that LoL is a bit shallower than DOTA2 might work in our favour, what with the much debated skill gap problem in the latter.

Yeah, I think LoL is probably better suited to more casual 5punky games. Anery and I were chatting about it and that's at least partially why he downloaded it again. I think Hearthstone will be better suited still. I'll freely admit though that I'm scared I won't get to play Dota any more, but I'd rather play LoL with 5punkers than Dota on my own.

Another thing I thought of where LoL improves is that we can play proper 3v3 5punky games. We can do that in practice games in Dota, but when you're not earning xp and goodies it feels a bit like you're missing out. It would be nice if there was a two-lane 3v3 map though (there might be, I know there are different maps in LoL). Mind you, I prefer the Dota version of Summoner's Rift.

[Pnut]

. I think Heroes of the Storm will be better suited still.

Fix'd

I have found myself doing something I never would do with Dota today, play some public bots matches. I must have played about 6 today and not once did I get called a N00b, get told to uninstall or any other abuse of any kind. In fact, I got more help and people suggesting strategies than anything else. Oh and I also managed to pick up 3 recommendations today, which I'm quite chuffed with

[Dog Pants]

Fucking Blizzard and their habit of calling everything the same thing. Heroes of the Swarm.

[Pnut]

Actually my have got some abuse tonight but it was in Italian so it doesn't count.

[Joose]

I don't think its possible to have a computer game on the internet that includes zero dickheads. The only important gauge is ratios.

[Anery]

I figure I should wade in at some point.

I find LoL a bit easier to cope with compared to DOTA right now, it feels a lot easier to concentrate on what is going on - less to worry about in terms of donkey, secret shop, runes and runes in bottles. It means I can concentrate on what is going on in the actual game.
Towers seem more understandable, they display a circle of influence around them as you approach and obey a ruleset with regards to targetting (possible that DOTA has the exact same targetting ruleset too, I don't know - it doesn't seem like it) this makes tower diving more of a calculated affair not just from the attackers perspective but the defenders too and if it starts to attack you it gives you an audible warning, a "you are taking a risk, this had better be worth it" bell.#
It doesn't throw everything at me at once either, you get to learn a couple of new heroes each week if you want, but you are never confronted with all of them all at once. So if you have to random there is a good chance you will end up with a character that you won't totally suck at.
Quickly to answer Romans point about balance, the guides labelled S4 are the newest and some of these heroes have been around for years - some without update (perhaps not neccessary?) I just had a look at a Warwick build that was from January this year and he has been around since the start pretty much. It probably depends on the popularity of the character too - flavour of the month and all that.

Now I know my way around Dota I find LoL to be a bit shallow, and I prefer Dota's quick and brutal fights to LoL's more metered jousts.

Whilst I agree DOTA is a more tactical game - and that works both ways - I don't agree that the team fights are any the less brutal, bot matches on beginner are pretty simple, the AI don't try anything too outragous and you can lane the entire time - intermediate is harder, the bots will focus lanes and it is not too unusual to lose the match completely. I think a 5punky matchup might fix that opinion - though I think for the sake of balance we should all have one blank mastery page and one blank rune page so that when we face each other there are no unfair advantages and I think Joose has a point:

The fact that LoL is a bit shallower than DOTA2 might work in our favour, what with the much debated skill gap problem in the latter.

As for the Blizzard one - no shop, shared XP, all your skills (bar your ultimate or "heroic") available from the get go...I think I like shallow.

All in all, I think as a springboard to getting back into DOTA this isn't a bad thing. It lets me read the map, learn when and where things like teamfights or enemy pushes are likely to be happening without worrying about too much other stuff.

[Pnut]

I have played a few co-op vs bots games on intermediate now and not won a single one. The Jump up in difficult is not steep, its pretty much vertical. I think I will be stick to beginner games for a bit yet.

[Joose]

I have played a few co-op vs bots games on intermediate now and not won a single one.

I remember having much the same experience when I first played LoL. There is a hell of a difference between Beginner and Intermediate.

[Anery]

They are updating the look of the game to make it look somewhat similar to DOTA but easily identifiable as LoL.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e_N4WpqH5o[/media]

[shot2bits]

Saw that on rps earlier, my immediate gut reaction was that it now looks a bit like dota in leagues cartoony style but i think that is just down to the darker lighting and the elevations in the map.

That aside it still looks like LoL just, a bit nicer a crisper i guess, i did always have trouble in LoL keeping track of what was going on and losing my character in the middle of everything which i never seemed to have with Dota so maybe this will help with that for me

[Anery]

There's a thing, with some bots of some sort...

http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/node/18962

EDIT

Yeah, don't even think about it, tried it on the easiest level...failed miserably

[Dog Pants]

I did see it described as apocalyptically hard.