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Dota2 and League of Legends both the games are probably the most played MOBA of all time with a huge active player base. As for Dota2 we all know that Dota2 has been the most complicated MOBA ever created for a long time. However, League of Legends is a less complicated game but it is not easy either.
Both Dota2 and League of Legends have a huge active player base and active community. And with that, they make both the game the most played MOBA games ever.
Dota2 and League of Legends both have been sitting on top of the E-sports for a very long time. To people who don’t know about the game it looks same but there are many differences, not only just visual but mechanical and strategically as well.
Many would say the knowledge of one game will help you learn the other one easily. I would not say that but I can’t really disagree to that either. Why this contradiction? Because they are both MOBA. So they do have similar traits and at the same time, they are not so same. Learning any MOBA will help you learn the basics of other MOBA games, that’s how it supposed to work at least. But not always. Honestly, in my opinion, if you are a League of Legends player you will be learning DOTA just a little easier that’s because both of them being MOBA helps you with the very beginner basic ideas such as laning, the number of lanes and roles. But it does not really help you learn the mechanics. But yes you do get the whole idea. While going to LOL from DOTA will help you a little more because Dota2 is more complicated and you can say even though League of Legends is completely a different game it still is somehow a simplified version of Dota2. Don’t get it twisted though.
The Basic Idea and from Where it started
The very basic of both games are similar. And both the games took their basic from the same game. This was expected since both the game spawned from the same Mod – A custom map made for Warcraft III: Frozen throne expansion called Defence of the Ancient or DOTA. Yes, Dota 1 is the origin of both Dota2 by Valve and League of Legends by Riot Games.
Both companies used this origin to inspire their own game and creating the now E-sports giant. While Riot decided to make their game more appealing visually and easy to learn but hard to master. Valve, however, created a more strategic and complicated version. So now you can see why I said League of Legends is just a simplified version of Dota2.
The Similarities between LOL and Dota2
1. Map – As previously mentioned the map was taken from the Warcraft expansion known as DOTA1. Both games use the same map for the game. They have 3 lanes. Top lane, Bottom lane and Mid lane. Jungle is also a part of both maps. Both games have heroes that are more comfortable in a particular lane. Thus, the concept of Mid hero, Carry hero and Offlane hero.
2. Basic Gameplay – The basic gameplay of both games are same. To win the game you have to break enemies final base. In League of Legends its called the Nexus and in Dota it's called the Ancient.
3. The Laning Phase – The laning phase is pretty much the same in both games. You pick a mid hero and lane against another mid hero on a one vs one lane. The other two lanes are normally 2 v 2. There are junglers in both games who spent the early game in the jungle farming the jungle creatures and avoiding the lane and after they get the basic items they join the lane and team fights.
4. XP and Gold – Both the game have this mechanic same as well. Creeps or Minions (in league they call them minion, in Dota they are known as creeps) comes to the lane where you kill the creeps to farm gold and get XP. Gold is important for you to make your important items and XP is important for you to level up as you unlock your spells or level up your spells with each level up.
5. Basic Midgame Gameplay – After the laning phase is done the team gathers around and goes for objectives. The basic objective is to push the lanes and take down towers. Eventually killing all the towers outside the enemy base to gain map control before you go in for the final base, Nexus or Ancient. The secondary objectives are gathering up and ambush enemies, if you can kill them before pushing a tower then you push the tower without any resistant from the enemy team.
6. Roshan and Baron – Both games have their own Largest Neutral creature on the map. You gather up with your team to slay Roshan or Baron. If you are well farmed and a core hero chances are you can do it alone but there is always the risk of getting ambushed. Roshan and Baron have their own pit where they stay. In both game its the north side of their respective map. You slay Roshan or Baron with your team and get a reward which supposed to make your game easier afterward. Killing Roshan the whole team receives the gold bounty and also an item drop called Aegis of the Immortal. Which is an extra life on the hero who is carrying it. Killing Baron you get a buff called Hand of Baron.
The Main Gameplay Differences between League of Legends and DOTA2
1. Laning Phase – So we just said that laning phase is a similarity then how is it a difference? Well, the lanes and the basic idea of the lanes are same but the gameplay difference is huge. In Dota you have much less skills to begin with. You have to slowly level up to get your skills and then you can engage with the enemy. Mostly at the beginning of a laning phase, very few heroes in Dota actually use or spams their skills on the enemy. Like, Sky Wraith Mage is a support hero who can spam his spells on the enemy from level 1 but current meta is ruling him out as a lane support. Most heroes of Dota use just their right clicks to harass each other in the lane and focuses more on farming and earning gold and XP. Once you level up and have your spells that’s when you try to go for a kill.
2. Denying – Denying is a mechanism that is missing from League of Legends. Now, this makes a huge difference. And that’s how complicated Dota2 is. Even a small in-game mechanism can make a huge difference. Denying is basically an act where you kill your own Creep/Minion to deny the gold and XP to your enemy. In LOL champs are only allowed to hit enemy minion wherein Dota2 Heroes can deny their own creep to deny the gold and XP and you can out level your enemy in laning phase by doing that. This makes you stronger in the lane, gives you a huge gold and XP advantage as well as keeping your enemy under-leveled and under-farmed which can have a huge consequence in the next team fights and even decide the game.
3. Couriers – Another small mechanism that makes a huge impact in the game. In Dota2 heroes can stay in their lane as Animal Courier is basically a courier that brings you your items from the base. So you don’t have to miss out on the XP and Gold in lane and go back to base to get your items. Animal courier turns into Flying Courier at the 3-minute mark and gets extra movement speed. All you need to do is buy items from the base shop and they stay in your base stash then click the courier and it will deliver your item. A courier can only carry 9 items at a time so use it smartly and even use it on a priority basis of the lanes. Killing the enemy courier will give your entire team a gold bounty and the enemies will not have their courier for next 3 minute. Any item that will be inside the courier will be gone but respawn with the courier after 3 minutes. Killing a courier can often delay the items of your enemies and in the next 3 minute, you can have a huge advantage in a team fight because of that.
4. Shops – In League of Legends, they have only one shop in the base while in Dota it’s a little more complicated again. You have your main shop in the base where you get most of your items. Plus each team has a secret shop on the uphill of their jungle and one lane shop beside the lane. In the whole map, there are 2 secret shops, 2 side shops, and 2 main shops inside the base. Any team can use any shop at any time of the game.
5. Turn rate – A big difference between LOL and DOTA2 is mechanics like turn rate. In League, a champion turns around instantly and moves instantly, however, in Dota2 every hero has a different turn rate and it takes their own sweet time to turn around or move.
6. Gold and XP – Gold and XP difference is huge between both games. They are similar to the basic idea of earning gold and spending it. But the type of Gold and XP you earn in Dota2 is way more complicated than you thought. Yes, this is why Dota2 is way more complicated. There are two different kind of gold in Dota2 – Reliable and Unreliable. Reliable gold is any bounty that you get after killing heroes, Roshan or using a Hand of Midas. Unreliable gold is anything else from creeps, neutral creeps and starting gold.
7. Respawn – In both games after dying the players are given a timer after which the player will respawn. In Dota2 you have another strategic mechanic, called Buyback. By using some of your gold you can Buyback into the game, basically respawned instantly. Dying also costs a loss of gold from the unreliable gold you have gathered and for the buyback, you spend more. The late the game goes the higher the buyback cost it. It also has a 7-minute long cooldown so use it wisely.
8. Runes – Dota2 have runes. Runes are placed around the maps. There are 4 Bounty Rune spots, 2 each side of the river. Bounty Rune spawns every 5 minutes. The river has 2 rune place that spawns runes every 2 minutes and is called power up runes. Runes can be stored in a bottle and used later during a team fight or whenever you need. After the Rune is used the bottle has 3 charges with which you can heal your health and Mana both.
9. Teleportation – In League of Legends you have to choose summoner spell like flash which teleports you by few meters however Flash is similar to blink which is an item in Dota2 and costs you 2250 gold. Same with teleporting to your base or towers. In League of Legends certain heroes choose this summoner spell, however, in Dota it’s again an item that costs you just 50 gold and let you teleport in any of your tower or to the base. You can upgrade your boots to Travel Boots which will let you teleport anywhere on the map on your minions, and the upgrade the boot will teleport on your ally heroes.
10. Leveling Up – Leveling up in League is more of a gradual curve of the game, you level up and you get stronger. However in Dota2 leveling depends on the hero and on the line up you are using. Some heroes don’t need level up to be fierce or to be effective while they fall off in the late game even with higher level and some heroes desperately need leveling up to be effective in the game and the scale well in the late game. Their heroes that are weaker in the early game, very strong at the mid-game and slowly falls of in the late game and pretty much useless in the ultra late game. So levelling up in Dota depends more on the lineup or the draft and the strategy you are using. Not always you need level up to win the fight or the game.
11. Countering Heroes – In Dota drafting plays a huge role. Drafting is simply picking the heroes you want for your team and banning the heroes that can be a threat against your line-up. In all pick games each player bans one hero and in the end of the drafting phase some of those randomly gets banned. Then you pick your hero. In professional tournament mode or in Captains mode, both captains get to ban the heroes and pick the heroes. In League of Legends you have unlock your champs however, in Dota all heroes are open to use for you since the day one. Every hero counters some hero in some way and that makes the game balanced. You get all the heroes to choose from and if you enemy picks a hero that you don’t like and you know the counter hero of that hero, you can always pick it and ruin their game in pubs.
Even though League of Legends and Dota2 has the same origin and a lot of similarities they both are different in ways. League was created with the target of making a game more appealing visually, easy to learn and hard to master. Dota was created with the idea of Dota1. More strategic gameplay, heavily based on strategy and mechanics, brain scratching difficulty, pretty difficult to even learn the basics and be an average player and extremely difficult to master. There are heroes that you can even touch or figure out how to play even after having 8000 hours of gameplay time. Unless you have someone to teach you the mechanics and you are immensely good at learning the mechanics and understand the game as well as good at developing the game-sense that runs really deep. Small observations can teach you a lot in Dota.
As I said earlier, LOL is more of a simplified version of Dota2. Let me put it this way, if Dota2 is the winter in the Switzerland then League of Legend is a month inside an Air-Conditioned room. I however, prefer Switzerland. But in the end both the games are undoubtedly the giants of E-sports scene with a huge player base. Which game do you love more? Have you tried both? Which one did you find difficult to learn? Let me know in the comments.
