DOTA? Eh?

[Deadlight]

Right, this is what I know? DOTA (Er...Death Of The Ancients?) was a mod for, umm..Warcraft III.

I never played it. Now DOTA 2 is on the way. So I watched one of the streamed tournament games at http://www.dota2.com/tournaments/international/ but then realised I didn't know what was going on.

So, can someone tell me a bit about the game pls?

[vdbswong]

DotA is Defense of the Ancients, you're right in that it was a Warcraft 3 mod. Eurogamer has an article on the history of the "genre" here.

Basically the game is like an RTS/RPG hybrid. Each player controls a unique champion who has 4 individual abilities and occupy various roles (DPS, Tank, Support).

The objective of each match is to destroy the enemy's "Ancient" which is essentially their base. There are 3 lanes which lead to the Ancient (top, middle, bot) and Turrets along the way.

Periodically "minions"/"creeps" will spawn from the base area and walk down each lane until they meet the opposing creep wave or turret, at which point they just attack each other. It's the role of the heroes to help kill the enemy creep wave and stop the enemy champions from killing theirs.

Each game every Champion starts at Level 1 and earn gold and experience for killing enemy creeps (and champions) which is then used to Level Up their own abilities and buy items/equipment that boost their capabilities (similar to an RPG).

Ultimately through taking Turrets and ganking enemy champions one team will push into the enemy base and destroy the Ancient, thus ending the game.

That's a heavily simplified version of events and DotA is a very complex and difficult game to pick up. There are quite a few similar games out at the moment, the 2 most prominent being S2's "Heroes of Newerth" (recently gone Free 2 Play) and Riot Game's "League of Legends" (which is more noob friendly IMO).

I'm personally a "League of Legends" player with no previous DotA background so when i look at DotA2, all i can see is that it looks like a reskinned version of HoN (which in turn is an updated version of DotA) and as such, am not too impressed by it.

[Mde]

They love it to bits in Sweden. It's like a religious cult!

Can't see the fuss myself.

[AeroScap]

i agree with vdbswong, played a bit of Hon but the characters are too unresponsive and the graphics are too dark.

Just going to stick with league of legends, though steam can do no wrong in my eyes

[Infinite]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y

Compulsory!

[AeroScap]

I reckon, just give league of legends a try. chances are you will know whether or not dota 2 is good based on your experience of Lol, whilst listening to that basshunter soundtrack preferrably

[Disturbedguy]

I reckon, just give league of legends a try. chances are you will know whether or not dota 2 is good based on your experience of Lol, whilst listening to that basshunter soundtrack preferrably

LoL is basically a copy (a poor one at that) of DOTA. All the people I know that have played or do play both, say the exact same thing.

[AeroScap]

LoL is basically a copy (a poor one at that) of DOTA. All the people I know that have played or do play both, say the exact same thing.

It's true, the developers of dota branched off to make LoL. So similarities are expected, Do not knock it until you tried, in my case I have.

[vdbswong]

Hm, never noticed more replies to this thread.

Like AeroScap said, it's true that LoL is descended from DotA, but to call it a clone is quite far from the mark (that's HoN's job).

There are many changes between LoL and DotA, designed to both make it more accessible and eliminate certain gameplay mechanics.

My personal opinion is that due to these differences in gameplay mechanics your mileage may vary in terms of enjoyment. Me and my friends really enjoy LoL, but find DotA mechanics (like HoN) very archaic and unnecessarily tedious. On the other hand i know many DotA vets who find LoL too "easy" and instantly dismiss it (imo, it looks easy on the surface, but there's a lot of depth within every match - although obviously not when you're a Level 1 Summoner, which is the main issue).

I don't really see DotA 2 as a direct competitor to LoL in my eyes since it's evolved so much that as above: LoL fans will generally not care, since they didn't move to HoN; and DotA vets have either already moved to HoN, or have dismissed LoL in the first place.

The real question is what will happen to HoN after DotA2 is released since they're both competing for the same space (traditional DotA mechanics) whereas LoL has now branched out with its Dominion Capture Point style game mode.