Hon Vs. Lol Vs. Dota

[KezR33]

I've personally played all three quite a bit, just wondering what other people's opinions of which is better and why.

Personally, DotA for me is out. It's just too old, it was great while it lasted though.

So it comes down to HoN and LoL. I am biased towards HoN because I played it first and have played it for longer. However I have recently started playing LoL too, and have maybe 20-30 games under my belt.

I prefer HoN simply because of its pace. LoL feels much slower, and it seems more difficult to kill people. I think this is in part due to the grass, and the fact towers do so much more damage than in HoN. The grass however is pretty damn cool, and something that HoN lacks.

The graphics on LoL also annoy me. I know it is a simple game, and compared to modern standards even HoN is severely lacking, but LoL just annoys me. Its so... bland.

I prefer LoLs game search function, but hate the overall navigation system. You have to load like three seperate programs just to play a game? It's clutzy and annoying.

At first I liked LoLs hero buying system. It was kind of cool to buy a hero, learn it and pwn everyone due to the fact they didn't know what it did, but after a while it got boring. You'd master the hero in a couple of games, and want something else, but you'd require 10-15 games to work up enough points to unlock the next.

However the weekly "free heros" was pretty cool, an excellent way for noobies like me to step into the game because I didn't have to learn every hero. Just that week's batch. Like I said though, you learned them very quickly and grew bored.

The universal "summoner" powers and abilities were pretty cool. I liked that added uniqueness you could give to your build. I didn't see much point to the runes, they seemed like a minor boost that'd give you only a tiny edge.

Another thing I liked about LoL was the ability power boosts. This allowed casters to stay competetive late game, however it also drastically diminished the power of the game's carries. A powerful caster who is strong in the early ranks, and gets off to a good start only became more powerful.

I'll keep playing both, and I'm sure they'll both learn from each other and improve, but for now I still prefer HoN.

[R31Nismoid]

I played two games of LoL - thought it was shit in all honesty...

Im still DOTA most nights, i've been playing a bit on BA lately as well actually inbetween melee maps/practice with some mates of mine who play league... I get beaten a fair bit, im like a training dummy lol

But ye, i will get to HoN eventually...

[KezR33]

If you need an invite send me a PM, I think I've got like 10 on various account.

[Ehgriez]

Hon is the best.

ive played more dota than i care to remember and was quite good at one point.

LoL is just not very good.

[MSTRshenanigans]

The only problem with LoL is that everything is webbased and uses Adobe Air =P

The graphics are not bland, its cartoony but if you look at the models there is as much detail as HoN, the difference being LoL has gone a good art style pathway, HoN has just tried to be darker than DotA.

The idea of LoL is 30 min games... fast paced action. Why do you want to play a game for 40 mins to an hour while someone farms until they are so OP they can whitewash lol no real tactics....

DotA is dead why people would play a mod that the game engine was not designed for is beyond me =)

I played HoN first and own both games. I found a lot of the HoN heroes to have little balance and the whole game is too much of a "let's not even think for ourselves just copy dota". Scout is terrible.... Rampage is nothing like SB... Malikin is evil =D

LoL's system allows all heroes to scale well over time due to the way the stats work. There are strong heroes but they don't get OP unless fed. Dude casters being op vs carries isnt true, its if you have been able to farm that makes you tough regardless of the type of hero. The game slows your ability to have 1 carry though, the idea of the game is 1 team not 5 solo's... which is a silly dota mindset

The way LoL records your games and allows you different upgrades to effect your in game hero is great, it gives you something to work for as well as unlocking heroes and skins. The runes and talents give you decent bonuses when you are level 30 and all runed up so I wouldn't quite just write it off as minor bonuses =P Go have a look at some people's passive perks.

How can you say learning the heroes made it boring... practically every hero in DotA has been there for aaaaages and HoN gives you very little of new experience =/ not to mention the better dota developer is part of LoL.

We had some HoN comps going but it hasn't been picked up like LoL has in my area for competition games. Most people like HoN because its in the safe bounds of DotAish ness =P

[Sean W]

sry for the noob question ive only played bits of DotA and recently some HoN. what is LoL? i wouldnt mind checking it out but googling LoL is kinda useless

[R31Nismoid]

League of Legends

The idea of LoL is 30 min games... fast paced action. Why do you want to play a game for 40 mins to an hour while someone farms until they are so OP they can whitewash lol no real tactics....

Sounds to me like you've never played decent/solid games of DotA

Letting someone farm is what people with no idea do. On the WC3 engine i play DotA a fair bit with a bunch of mates etc etc.

Most games usually are over within the first 12-15mins, av of one kill/min... i can't think of something much more "fast paced" than that.

Also you rarely see a "whitewash" IMO. One power hero could just mass farm for 40mins and still be useless, it's about how to structure your game/abils/items.

If you are constantly pushing then the opposition has no time to farm, the game will be over before it occurs.

If HoN is built around the same structure of play, then a game going for 40mins is unfathomable to me unless it's just a random pubbie style game where everyone flaps around like idiots without any solid idea of decent gameplay.

LoL did nothing to impress me the two times i played it, so i gave it up.

I'm like that with games - it either impresses me instantly or i won't bother with it.

[vspecIInur]

I play Hon like crazy and had it since the beta was first announced. I played Dota back in its time when it was peaking but now it's getting old and still managed by the wc engine hence too many lagging issues and must use DR clients etc. Basically it's highly dependant on the host.

Never thought there were people on here that played those sort of games haha.

[R31Nismoid]

You can host any WC3 game on 128kb/s if you wanted, you certainly do not need a fast internet connection as it uses next to no bandwidth.

You just need to be with a reasonable ISP that dosen't have a million hops around to get external.

Most of the time people are hosting games and running other bandwidth sucking apps like torrents/msn or just a crappy PC that can't process the game requests (and it would have to be 5+yrs old for that lol).

The only time i have lag issues is using US.West for melee games/tourny's... otherwise the WC3 platform is like most others with a aussie/nz host, no delay.

[vspecIInur]

With dota you have to use bored aussie server and as you mentioned ash, US ends up causing you to have a 3 sec delay unless an aussie is hosting one through the US servers.

Nothing worse when your half way through the game and people start dropping out because of their flawed connections/fail hosts.

[R31Nismoid]

I dota on US.West more than BA... Honestly it's exactly the same.

BA has a built in DR set to 100, you can do the same for US.West as custom games are not hosted on the bnet server! You can actually drop the bnet sniffer and there are no issues.

Why? Because they are hosted the same as BA - on the host's machine - so is always AUS. Nothing to do with the US in custom games

[KezR33]

The only problem with LoL is that everything is webbased and uses Adobe Air =P

The graphics are not bland, its cartoony but if you look at the models there is as much detail as HoN, the difference being LoL has gone a good art style pathway, HoN has just tried to be darker than DotA.

The idea of LoL is 30 min games... fast paced action. Why do you want to play a game for 40 mins to an hour while someone farms until they are so OP they can whitewash lol no real tactics....

DotA is dead why people would play a mod that the game engine was not designed for is beyond me =)

I played HoN first and own both games. I found a lot of the HoN heroes to have little balance and the whole game is too much of a "let's not even think for ourselves just copy dota". Scout is terrible.... Rampage is nothing like SB... Malikin is evil =D

LoL's system allows all heroes to scale well over time due to the way the stats work. There are strong heroes but they don't get OP unless fed. Dude casters being op vs carries isnt true, its if you have been able to farm that makes you tough regardless of the type of hero. The game slows your ability to have 1 carry though, the idea of the game is 1 team not 5 solo's... which is a silly dota mindset

The way LoL records your games and allows you different upgrades to effect your in game hero is great, it gives you something to work for as well as unlocking heroes and skins. The runes and talents give you decent bonuses when you are level 30 and all runed up so I wouldn't quite just write it off as minor bonuses =P Go have a look at some people's passive perks.

How can you say learning the heroes made it boring... practically every hero in DotA has been there for aaaaages and HoN gives you very little of new experience =/ not to mention the better dota developer is part of LoL.

We had some HoN comps going but it hasn't been picked up like LoL has in my area for competition games. Most people like HoN because its in the safe bounds of DotAish ness =P

I can see the detail, LoL has obviously taken a less serious pathway. Somethings are kind of cool, but for the most part I don't like it. Take Teemo's and that Yeti's voices for example, annoying as f**k. Another example are the creeps which spawn for each team seem very... static? I don't know. It's rather boring that they're basically a short, squat robe that wields a big triangle.

I have to agree with Nismoid too, HoN has MUCH faster games. Especially when it comes to searching, joining and pre-game lobby waits. My average LoL game seems to go on forever because no one surrenders, I personally have no problem surrendering if for whatever reason we're getting thumped. In HoN this can be annoying (especially if you're the one doing the thumping) but it does spit out a faster rate of games. The barracks re-spawning only prolongs games too, its great for come backs, but sometimes you HAVE to take the rax early if you want any chance of winning.

Another thing which you seem to have a problem with is the copying of DotA. Why is this a bad thing? DotA was around for years, and made many, many changes. The engine it ran on was ancient by today's standards and it still attracted millions of players. So why is copying it so horrible? DotA was great, I'm happy to keep playing it in a new system.

I'll agree that some of the heros can be imbalanced, but HoN is in its beta stages, and they usually fix these imbalances pretty quick.

The 5 solo mindset you talk of is completely dependant on what type of game you play. I reguraly played 1700+ BD games on HoN and there is a LOT of discussion on team selection and co-ordination during the game. Even with randoms.

On LoL however I know no one. So I just join any game that the lobby chooses for me, and I promise you there is no semblence of team work in any of those games.

[MSTRshenanigans]

Nismoid... I've been playing dota since it first came out back in 2003.... Riki had Witch Doctor's ward as his ulti back then We also used to play in comps for DotA and I've got a couple of LCD monitors and TVs from such games.

Pub you see heaps of random games where someone leaves because of firstblood, most good games should last a while in DotA due to one factor "denies"... its a game of tic toc while carries last hit and deny to gain that little advantage they require. You cannot ignore that fact. "me and a bunch of mates etc etc" is not actual competition play. Pubs = noobs most of the time.

You don't see a white wash? I have played dota on bnet for ages as well as on BA... you do and regularly due to it being pub. If you are with some mates you are not pubbing you are pub smashing thus your victories, which are very very easy to do. HoN's formula makes this even more simple, pick a unbalanced hero, gank you solo carry... If you look at the heroes brought over from dota their damages are different, money is different, some skills have similar but still different effects ruining the balance which dota has. I've played HoN for ages because it killed my desire to play DotA, why should I need to when I have a better engine and leavers get black marks on their names automatically. But the balance issue is what killed me, I can see the good side of any hero in LoL and see how they can be powerful but also balanced.

You played LoL 2 times which is clearly enough to understand a game and a very shallow way to decide if its good... I thought this of Starcraft until I kept playing it and figured out why it was so popular for competitive gaming.

The sad thing is WC3 requires a low ping to play... with HoN or LoL their server based application makes you only need a ping of <300 (preferring <200)

After the game is created in WC3 the ping is related to the clients not the bnet connection as Ash said.

Kez

Your problem with queues in LoL would be due to your level. When you are in the high level premades people use their intellect to surrender to stop you obtaining more building/hero kills to get more IP

I hate the voices of all 3 games' heroes imho.. I turn them off. The creeps dont rotate, you do realise the reason for 4 spawns are they replace RUNE locations right?

The idea of the respawning rax is so that you dont stuff around... soo many HoN games they push, get the rax then dont finish it, they just run around and farm so they can push another lane and roll... it happens in all 3 games though but LoL gives you a sense of urgency about it. And you are wrong, if you dont have to get rax early with any hero because they all scale well until end game... learn to use ability power.

The problem with their copying dota is they did not copy it exactly - thus the unbalanced heroes. Have they nerfed Scout or Rampage yet? =D I know they did do puppetmaster

So you are blaming your lack of known people in LoL for your inability to communicate start game? Heaps of guilds and good players out there. We have like 30 of us aussies playing with randoms from over the world for inhouse and premades... We plan our games while in the queue or countdown.

----

A lot of the criticisms don't really make sense when you look at them logically.

[KezR33]

Scout hasn't been nerfed, people just learned how to counter him. Whenever some (more often than not) noob picks Scout the whole team groans. I don't recall rampage ever being OP. Unless it was for a very short time when I wasn't playing. He's still a good hero with great early game potential and still holds his own late.

I guess that's one major difference that I like and you dislike about HoN. In HoN not all heroes are balanced at all levels. HoN is all about choosing the right combo of heroes to defeat the opposing combo. I reckon much of the game is decided before the game even begins with hero choice, unless both team works together and select appropriately.

Sometimes its fun to get a bunch of early game heros and storm the base hard and fast, other times its fun to hold against that onslaught till the later gamers come into their own.

Some combos just have that brutal set up that can either win or lose the game. Take big AOE heroes like tempest, Magmus and Behemoth. IF they catch all the enemies at once it's pretty much GG right there, on the other hand, stuff it up and they'll wipe you out with ease and take your rax instead.

[vspecIInur]

Scout hasn't been nerfed, people just learned how to counter him. Whenever some (more often than not) noob picks Scout the whole team groans. I don't recall rampage ever being OP. Unless it was for a very short time when I wasn't playing. He's still a good hero with great early game potential and still holds his own late.

I guess that's one major difference that I like and you dislike about HoN. In HoN not all heroes are balanced at all levels. HoN is all about choosing the right combo of heroes to defeat the opposing combo. I reckon much of the game is decided before the game even begins with hero choice, unless both team works together and select appropriately.

Sometimes its fun to get a bunch of early game heros and storm the base hard and fast, other times its fun to hold against that onslaught till the later gamers come into their own.

Some combos just have that brutal set up that can either win or lose the game. Take big AOE heroes like tempest, Magmus and Behemoth. IF they catch all the enemies at once it's pretty much GG right there, on the other hand, stuff it up and they'll wipe you out with ease and take your rax instead.

Firstly, Scout can be a useless hero cause most players sit there and watch your team die then try and go for the kill steal and either die brutally or run away which results in rax. My favourite hero was predator before his ulti got heavily nerfed and become more useless for armour reducing then any other hero ie. pestilence, soul stealer, demented sharman.

Secondly, as mentioned your team can choose such a flawless combo that synchronising their ultis together will result in genocide everytime unless your team is retarted and unfortunately it is in most cases unless your playing with friends. I remember almost getting annihilation with soul stealer's ulti activating assassins shroud on seeing as the opposing team had 4 intel lol.

Lastly, Rampage just takes some time to use to and can be potentially the carrier of your team if you know how to coordinatie ganks with your charge at heroes that are alone. That combined with hack and slash and elder parasite your one tough hero.

[MSTRshenanigans]

Heros combo's still exist in LoL, its just provided you are = level and gear to your foe it comes down to your hero type and your skill.

Scout is counterable, this I agree with, but any pro can roll with him, easily. Does Rampage still run through trees? That was his OPness lol.

Don't get me wrong every couple of weekends I play HoN with the lads for luls but I play LoL for the tactics and teamplay.

[Force Fed]

dragging this up!

I play HoN almost nightly........ (until last night since i have ff13 now) and prefer it much more over WC3:DOTA....

LoL I was told to play, took a look at it and went back to HoN.

Rampage cant go through tree's from memory, only a couple heroes can now.... ie Sand wraith.

Scout, is so f**ken fun to use for pissing off pricks, until they use a bound eye.......

[MSTRshenanigans]

Rampage from the first day he was added, got charge up and he ran through trees and up some cliffs.... was gay to the max...

Thing that also annoys me about HoN is some minor price changes, miss being able to perfect counting my builds...its differences to dota make it less a team competitive game imho. LoL finds the team play crucial to win 90%of games.

Scout needs to be remade.... I mean stealth that tics down mana is silly, use the cast amount ffs! Wards for free that silence. Break stealth for attack speed. disarm/crit in 1 skill... slow and nuke in ulti... he's so OP...

[Force Fed]

pesti renders scout/NH useless.....

but yes, he is OP..... but then again, what hero isnt OP in the right hands?

Ophelia?????????????? lol!

[gfunkk]

been playing dota on and off for 5 or so years

personally i think HoN is awesome.

its like they've found out all the annoying things about dota and fixed them, and made everything so much easier to do e.g.

custom spell hotkeys

when host leaves new host is selected

better freind tracking

better graphics

balance teams

and like dota they do frequest updates

not sure about LoL, looks like a kiddys game?