Now, League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients are both Massive Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs) and take inspiration from Aeon of Strife; the first game in the genre (which is incidentally a modified map on the first Starcraft). A MOBA is a variation of a generic strategy game played out generally in a 5v5 manner, it involves the player utilizing a single character to defend his team's base, rather than using an entire faction with multiple unit types. These characters are known as heroes or champions, and have varying skills and statistics. The hero unit gains levels and upon leveling up, gains a skill point which he can put into one of 3 primary skills. At a certain level; usually level 6, the champion gains an ultimate skill, which is the champion's best skill and usually deals the most damage, most utility in terms of heals or mana replenishment, a unique effect or has the most effective crowd control (CC) which include stuns, silences, slows, fears, etc(basically anything that slows or hampers your movement). The ultimate can be upgraded thrice while the other skills can be upgraded a maximum of 5 times, which is a total of 18 levels to max out every skill.
The general formation of the Battle arena are two bases, each containing a nexus which has to be destroyed by the opposing team and defended by the other team. There are three lanes coming out from each base and meeting each other at a certain point. The bases are usually located at the lower left and upper right corners of the map. From the lower left base, there is a lane going north, north east and east while the second base has lanes going south, south west and west.There are towers/turrets along each lane, there are three towers in each lane and two near the nexus of the base, each turret in a lane has significant health, armour and damage, while the turrets near the nexus have even more so. A forest area is generally located in between the paths, they contain neutral monsters, which can be killed like regular minions for some extra gold and experience.
All MOBAs feature minions, which are AI controlled units which are significantly weaker than the champion unit and provide experience upon death and only provide gold if the champion last hits them. The technique of last hitting is not very complicated but requires a good sense of timing, and a laning partner who does not require the extra gold.In some MOBAs there is a function of denying minions and turrets, which is generally done to ensure that the opponent does not get gold, or experience from your minions. Minions also grow stronger when a turret in their lane is destroyed. And an additional super minion is sent out every wave after the turrets defending the base are destroyed.
DotA is a modified map for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne; based on Aeon of Strife. It actually popularized the genre of MOBAs and paved the way for games of the same genre in the future. It is a classic MOBA game with a 2 base 3 lane structure. It is only based on a single map, however there are many different game modes available to the creator. Such as all random(AR) , all random all mid (ARAM) , all same champion, etc. When these commands are inputted the game gets modified further. When entering the game, the user is given a choice of selecting a champion from one of three houses; Agility, Intelligence, Strength, which are further divided into two factions, sentinel and scourge making for a total of 6 houses, 3 per faction. Upon summoning in the base the player is surrounded by a large number of shops; there is the basic shop which sells basic items that do not need a recipe, then there is the Leragas the Vile shop which sells more powerful versions of the basic items, and also do not require a recipe scroll. Then there are 6 recipe shops which sell recipe based items. Along side in the jungle, there are 2 secret shops which sell scrolls, basic items and Leragas the Vile shop items.
The jungle in DotA is very interesting, as the trees can be eaten to regain health by buying a certain item known as an Ancient Tango of Essifation.However the jungle can be highly unforgiving at times because certain skills that change the position of the champion can leave the person trapped in the jungle unless they have a teleportation scroll or another positioning skill, which is the only way to go back to base apart from walking. There are reasonably difficult monsters that are usually not challenged till around level 4-5. Also there is an epic monster; Roshan that provides a large amount of experience and gold and drops an item known as the aegis of the immortal and after the third round of clearing Roshan, he drops Cheese as well.
There is a very high skill cap required to play DotA, which is hard to obtain as most players are already quite proficient at the skills required to play the game, and if one does not match up to their level, they will generally be hostile towards you. There is a lack of a tutorial, which also adds to the confusion of a new player, and playing a game against AI controlled champions, does not really teach you all you need to know. I remember when I first played, I played a custom game with friends who had also just started so we got hang of the very basic techniques quickly. When playing at higher levels, one must be very quick in denying and last hitting minions and buildings, place wards to provide vision and prevent unnecessary deaths, etc.
League of Legends, created by Riot Games Inc. is a MOBA with the same basic functioning as DotA, there is a primary map in which there is a 2 base 3 lane structure. There are three kinds of maps; Summoners Rift which is used to conduct the traditional 5v5 game, Twisted Tree Line, which is a 3v3 map and has 2 lanes with jungle areas between the two lanes and above the top lane, and finally The Crystal Scar, which is used for the Dominion variation, this is a spinoff on the traditional map, with two bases on the bottom left and right corners, and two lanes which meet each other in the form of a circle, in the path of the circle there are 5 capture points, the control of which determines the winner. There are 3 capture points on the top lane and 2 on the bottom. In the middle of the circular path, there are movement speed buffs and health packs, and in the center of the map, there are two buffs, one gives a defensive buff while the other provides an offensive buff. Each team starts with 500 points, as the team controls a point, the opposing team's points start reducing, the rate at which points reduce is relative to the number of control points one has.
The game also has a slightly new mechanic compared to others, as you win/lose games, you tend to get rewarded with both experience and Influence Points. Experience points are used to level up your account to Lv. 30, during the course of leveling up your account, you get more Summoner Spells, which are spells that you can use in the game to achieve a certain effect, you get points to put into masteries (capping at 30 points at Lv. 30), which allow for certain stat boosts to your champion, there are masteries are divided in the form of a skill tree, separated into three paths; Offense, Defense and Utility. The Offense tree contains masteries that improve physical damage and magical damage, the defense tree provides masteries that improve the ability of a champion to take damage, and the utility provides masteries to give extra mana/energy, gold, buff duration, reduced cool downs, etc. Also as you level up you get access to different kinds of runes, which again buff the stats of your champions, however there is a limit of 30 runes that you can apply.
Champions in the game need to be purchased before they can be utilized, however to ensure that all beginners have a variety of champions to play, 10 champions are made free each week, the picks try to ensure that the same champion is not repeated over multiple weeks, however it may occur at times. To buy champions one must go to the store, which sells champions, skins for the champions, runes, which are used to amplify the stats of a champion and Riot Points can also be purchased, these points are used to buy skins, Influence Point Boosts, Experience boosts, champion bundles and name changes. Influence Points are gained through playing matches, more Influence Points are gained through victories, and even more is gained through the first win of the day. This system allows the user to purchase the champions they like without having to spend real money if they do not want to.
The game runs on a lobby based system, so you can invite your friends and get matched up with another premade team with a combined skill level equal to your team's combined skill level, or you can go solo, and get matched up with random people with a skill level equal to yours. There are three types of game modes in a 5v5 match, blind pick, which involves not seeing what the opponents' champions are till the loading screen, draft pick, which involves banning 6 champions, 3 by each team, and then choosing a champion, in this game type, the picks of the user can be seen by others and hence requires a decent knowledge of the game to try and counter the opponents' picks, finally there is the ranked mode, which plays out like the draft mode but the outcome of the game impacts your ranking. There are also custom games, and Co-op vs. AI games, which provide a nice break from the usual competitive games.
After the team has chosen their champions, masteries, runes and summoner spells, the user is taken to a loading screen. Once all players have finished loading ( which can take a while due to people with terrible internet connections) they are sent to the map and placed near the fountain. At the fountain, the player will find the item shop, which is significantly more clearer than that shown in DotA; it contains the recommended items a player should buy, and it also has the various categories the items can be divided into, such as Defense, Magic, Attack, Consumables, etc. After buying their items the players then go to their lanes and the game actually begins.
The Jungle in LoL is far easier to complete than in DotA and provides an easier route for some champions who do not do well in lane. There are 5 basic camps on both sides of the teams' jungles, they are the wraith camp, the wolf camp, the double golem camp, the lizard camp which upon clearing provides a slowing and damage over time buff and finally the blue golem camp which provides a buff that reduces cool downs and increases the mana regeneration rate. There are also two epic monsters, which are the dragon and Baron Nashor. The Dragon provides global gold and gives experience to all standing near it when it is killed. Baron Nashor gives global gold, a global buff that increases all stats and experience to all standing near it when it is killed.
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My description of the two games ended above; now for my analysis to conclude. DotA is a very interesting game, it provides a high level of skilled play and some interesting game play mechanics. However, in terms of gameplay, there is often very little balance and certain champions can almost guarantee a win. Also the basic techniques such as denying and understanding how to operate the various shops are hard to pick up, and the game being non-noob friendly does not help at all. It would really help the game if it had a tutorial mode that people could use so that they could adjust to the system of the game.
League of Legends, on the other hand is far easier to pick up with the multiple tutorials and the Co-op vs. AI mode, however it is quite hard to master as one must learn how to last hit properly, how to zone out his opponents well and how to support their lanes if the other team mate is not doing so. The unique mechanics that the game brings such as masteries, runes, summoner spells and the brush appeal to a wide variety of players and therefore make it quite popular. The champions are fairly balanced, although people keep complaining that they are not, because most of the time they do not know how to counter them. However the various new editions, keep the player longing for a simple direct approach to game play that DotA has at times.
The two games however have certain things in common; communication is paramount in both, one missed coordinated fight could spell defeat for a team, the communities are also fairly decent however like any online community they have their share of ragers, greifers, noobs and feeders. LoL however has implemented a nice system of reporting people and letting the community decide how to solve various cases that come to them, i think this has caused people to pay more attention to how they behave in game.
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Thus ends my post, and wait in anticipation for a review of the VIP Closed Beta of C9 (Continent of the Ninth), as soon as I finish downloading it.
