DotA 2 is more than just extra mechanics
I’ve talked to a few people who have voiced concerns that DotA will be little more than a complexity buff to League of Legends, leaving players fumbling over mechanics and new champions for weeks. That may be true to some extent (although I have faith that players can pick the game up more quickly than that), but now that DotA is in Valve’s hands, there’s a lot more than just complexity on the horizon.
One of the first things I noticed about DotA 2 was the voice acting. Each hero has unique voice acting, complete with context aware clips for buying certain items, killing certain champions, or even missing abilities. Kunkka, a pirate-themed hero in DotA, casts a giant ghost ship that boosts allied move speed and stuns in an AoE on landing. It is notoriously hard to land. When the player misses, Kunkka says “now THAT was a failboat.” It’s little things like this that add a lot to the DotA experience. I know some champions in League have these kind of “hidden passives,” but to hear them for every hero in a game is really cool.
I’m not sure if this falls under the same umbrella, but I’ve also been enjoying the suggested items editor. League of Legends has gone on far too long without adding the feature. It’s so nice to not have to browse an ever-growing shop for the items I need. I find them once, add them to my build for that character and they’re available the next time I play. It’s even possible to save generic item builds that can be loaded for any character. I’m sure this is somewhere on Riot’s radar, but I would love to see it implemented sooner than later.
wow, that item editor is so cool. i agree with you, thats a must (although just fyi it can be done with third party software, but it is not the same, i know.)
i think examples like the ones u said take into account the difference between one company that started a couple of years ago and another one that has been in the market for a while.
I also like Dota2’s reporting and game abandoning system.Way more refined than riot’s crude “ban on every offense” system.
Hi i just recently registered for Dota 2 beta. Does someone knows if or when there will be another wave of beta keys?
Thanks!
So, I’ve been playing League since beta and I just won Dota 2 from the Steam gift pile. I’ve tried a couple games and I’m pretty terrible! Does anyone know some good resources or tips for starting to learn Dota after LoL? Many thanks.
Start here – http://www.playdota.com
/learn
It’s a great site. Very helpful. Straightforward. Lots of explanations and mechanics to read about.
It’s also a good idea to watch some games and see what people are doing. DotA is a weird game in that you can’t just pick it up and expect to be successful or potentially even enjoying yourself. There is a mountain of knowledge required to even be competent with the game. Luckily, Valve has made learning some of that stuff fairly easy. For most of it, though, you’ll have to dig.
Thanks a ton, that looks pretty helpful.
I think my main problem so far has been that I’m not sure I want to invest the time it would take to learn DotA given my (at best) luke-warm experiences with it so far. Also, memorizing all these champions and items and trying to keep them separate from similar ones in LoL seems like a really daunting task.