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Denver, 12:35 AM
Wed Dec 2
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/05/09
Oh and HoN doesn't have a bullshit microtransaction system so that's always a plus.
11/05/09
11/06/09
Both LoL and DotA are defined in the article as League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients respectively. HoN I define in my second sentence as Heroes of Newerth.
Easier to understand now? #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
11/04/09
DotA is complex and play styles and skill levels can vary widely, but the playing field itself is level at the beginning of every game. Hopefully I've made my point here. #leagueoflegends
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11/05/09
Go try Heroes of Newerth and you might rethink buying this. Might be tricky to track down a beta key though. #leagueoflegends
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11/04/09
The gameplay in LoL is great & really addictive. There's something really rewarding about being limited to only having 4 abilities (and 2 summoner spells) in contrast to the 20 or so keybinds I used in WoW PvP. The feeling of punishment is also greater when you make a mistake however. "less is more" is really suitable phrase for this game.
What initially drew me to LoL was the variation & design of the champions, I love them. Because of the wide variety of champions and people who play them, it really makes every game feel very different. This made me feel that the lack of maps really isn't such an issue, although I'd love to see more maps.
I am playing LoL less than before because of the matchmaking. It seems that since release more than before good players get matched with new players to balance a team and I've had more matches versus (full) premade teams that would stomp the other team. I will probably play more once ranked games are available, which will have a seperate solo + 2man premade bracket and a 5man bracket.
I'm not a fan of Riot's microtransaction plan, I'd rather just buy the game and get a complete package, but that won't stop me from enjoying & playing this game.
To anyone that is interested in this game, it might be good to know that the ingame Store is down untill the 17th of November. This means that all 40 champions are "unlocked" untill then, as was in the beta. So it's a good oppertunity to try out every champ before they restrict them. #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
The problem with LoL is that they're editing the source material (DOTA) so much that it's almost a different game.
Add in the insane microtransactions and you have something that is really imbalanced and shallow.
HoN, on the other hand, sticks close to DOTA's ideas while adding their own. I haven't had a single issue with the changes made or any hero added in HoN. Everything seems warranted and S2 Games are out to make a competitive game that also is able to be learned by those who didn't play DOTA for years. #leagueoflegends
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:D #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
Before you go nuts and flame, I agree with you, to an extent. I was in betas for both, played both a lot, and still play HoN a lot. HoN is much closer to the source material, has much more depth, and much less weird things like runes/unlockable heroes.
LoL isn't for the hardcore DotA community, it's for people who want a F2P game that's probably pretty good if you're into this sort of game but are afraid of the even steeper learning curve and initial cost of HoN or War3/etc...
So, good review. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Crecente has a strong history of DotA. If this is true, the game serves its purpose wonderfully. It is a more acessable DotA-lite game where people can more easily jump into and enjoy themselves. The game will probably do well for it's targeted audience. HoN will probably do well to a more hardcore/crazy competitive/ex-DotA audence. #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
League of Legends actually improved upon DOTA by making casters more useful (Spell power allows them to scale, where as in HON they just become crowd control or support characters at best late game). They've also simplified the store and item upgrade system while HON is still a bit of a mess in this regard.
The community for HON is also seriously lame - it hasn't improved from DOTA it's gotten worse - if your team isn't dominating within the first 10 minutes everyone wants to leave.
11/04/09
As far as casters not scaling in DotA/HoN, I agree it's a neat concept with LoL... but DotA was balanced around this fact. In DotA/HoN a caster like Zeus/TB or Lina/Pyro will be phenoms early-mid game. They do much more damage than their LoL counterparts at this point. They do taper off late game, but any well balanced team will try to have a couple nukers because the early game benefits are so huge. They can get more support-based items, like Shivas/Sheepstick to which LoL has nothing close to.
And I played plenty of LoL games with leavers in the first 15-20 minutes too, if the game was going bad. It wasn't the majority of the time, but it happened. I have to say it actually happens LESS in HoN, but I have a pretty high PSR and it's probably skewed due to that. From my experience LoL's community is no better than HoN's, which in turn is no better than DotA's... they're all pretty terrible. #leagueoflegends
11/05/09
Welcome to online play. I've played hardly any game online that doesn't have some kind of elitism. No matter what the game is, the new people and the terrible people will get blamed and attacked for letting your team down. It's the same everywhere. In FPS's, in MMO's et al. LoL is not going to be that different, you're always going to get people that think they're better than everyone else.
Also I wouldn't say that LoL's change to casters is an improvement. A big part of DotA is the early, mid, late game balance. Casters generally carry the early game while late game carries are too weak to do much. Then late game they use the items they've built up to act as team support/disabling.
Changing that just makes it different from DotA, not improved. #leagueoflegends
11/05/09
Also keep in mind that this is the route blizzard went with WoW - while not the same glameplay style, all the casters at 60 didn't have any means to improve upon their spells damage until blizzard introduced spell power. Sure the casters had crowd control and other utility spells but it doesn't matter when melee/ranged heros are 1-2 shotting their opponents. This is still true for DOTA / HON in many ways.
11/06/09
That's how it was created yes but what was a limitation defined one of the core mechanics of DotA. #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
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11/04/09
Any thoughts, from people who have already played League of Legends and know if it's good or not?
11/04/09
It's fun, but don't take my word for it. Go ahead and download and try.
You'll notice that the game play focus is a bit different. The games are a shorter, and spells are a lot spammier. You'll get the hang of it, though.
If you want a chaparone through the game (and this goes for anyone on Kotaku), add Katai to your friends list and I'll give you a rundown the game's basics. #leagueoflegends
11/04/09
"The games are shorter" Yay!
As for your offer, I do appreciate it and will keep it in mind. Hopefully I'll remember. Send me an inbox message or something in a few weeks; I'm busy with school right now. #leagueoflegends