Which MOBA is Right for You? DOTA 2!

Welcome back! After looking at League of Legends I felt it was only fair to look at its number one competitor, DOTA 2.

DOTA 2 is touted as the "true sequel" to the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients that League of Legends is also based on. And to keep that identity it has kept a key mechanic that League of Legends decided to do away with. In DOTA 2 you have the option of executing your own minions to keep opposing players from obtaining gold. This concept of "denying" is but one of the many features that helps DOTA 2 carve out its own identity when compared to the ever popular LoL. That's not to say that DOTA 2 isn't popular though. The International Championship was just shown on ESPN recently and it had one of the largest prize pools in the history of competitive gaming.

Just like League of Legends DOTA 2 can have games that can average roughly 40 minutes. But unlike League of Legends you cannot surrender and must play every game through until the end, unless another player leaves the game due to connection issues or frustration. At that point you may leave the game without penalty. Some take issue with this while others argue that no game of DOTA 2 is every truly over until a player sees 'Victory' on their screen. What side of the fence you fall on can only be determined after playing a few (hundred) games.

So you might be asking: Why should (or shouldn't you) play DOTA 2?

You Should Play DOTA 2 If:

You are a MOBA veteran!

I'll spell it out plain and simple here: DOTA 2 can be a really hard game to pick up. This may be why many people choose to avoid it. Every character is available from the start, there's tons of items that only truly become valuable when you activate them in the midst of combat and you will lose the Gold that you use to acquire these items if a player kills you. Death has a real weight in DOTA 2 and some players even feel punished for dying. Because of these factors I would not recommend DOTA 2 to a new MOBA player. However, there's a lot for veteran players to love. The heavy reliance on activated items really sets apart the truly skilled players from the others. Those that know how their items work and when to use them will win fights more often than not. The deny system also rewards players for paying attention to their minions and towers and for knowing when a particular thing is beyond hope. There's also no way to teleport back to base without buying an item like in other titles. Instead you need to have a Courier (that can be killed) bring you items. So veterans that know how to sustain themselves well throughout the game will be rewarded while those that rush in foolishly will most likely be punished,

You want a large cast of varied and unique characters!

One complaint I hear a lot about League of Legends is that characters aren't varied enough. While I can't attest to whether or not that's true I can tell you that is definitely not the case with DOTA 2. The whole cast is rich and varied, not only in design but in abilities as well. Would you like to play as Juggernaut and slash your way through large groups of enemies while being invincible? Would you like to be Necrophos and have your very presence hurt your enemies before you execute them? There's tons of possibilities! And there's tons of ways to play them too. Every character has guides written by other players and you can filter them in-game to know the best items to buy and the best order to get your skills in. It's great!

You want a friendlier* community!

*Now the community in DOTA 2 isn't great by any means. But out of every MOBA I'll be listing it is the one that had the most enjoyable community. There will be plenty of occasions where you're insulted and where you'll meet players that will intentionally die. No worries there. But DOTA 2's addition of in-game voice chat has opened up a ton of opportunities. The second I speak into a mic other players will speak up and a sort of camaraderie is formed. We coordinate better, we laugh, we even give advice that is constructive and not hateful. I can easily say that the games where I have spoken up have all been far more enjoyable than those where I haven't. So if you hop into a game of DOTA 2 then speak up. Chances are you'll find a new friend.

You Shouldn't Play DOTA 2 If:

You know when it's over and actually want to do something about it.

The lack of a surrender button is a cause for concern. There have been plenty of games I've played where we were losing terribly either because our team was playing poorly or someone on our team was intentionally trying to make us lose. Sometimes the enemy team simply won't want to end the game. And there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to wait. Some people are fine with this but there is a concern when fun stops being a factor and you just want the game to end so you can hopefully have fun next game.

You want players to actually finish the game.

DOTA 2 is also the game where that I saw had the highest volume of players to leave games. Players would usually leave if our team was doing poorly. Now you can safely leave the game without penalty if someone else has left. But that takes 5 minutes of them being out of the game or them actually hitting the button that disconnects them from the match entirely. Now most leavers will just leave and after five minutes you can leave as well with no penalty. But if they have a bad connection and keep dropping in and out then you can't leave until a full 5 minutes of them actually being disconnected elapses. This can be rough and has annoyed me on more than a few occasions. I wish I could think of a better system for them to implement but I honestly can't.

You don't like some overly complicated characters.

DOTA 2 has some characters that seem needlessly complicated for a MOBA. The most common one that is complained about is Invoker, a character that requires you to combine elements via specific button combinations in-game in order to cast his spells. DOTA 2 also has a lot of characters that only seem suitable for facing certain teams. Anti-Mage and Silencer are great if your enemy team has mages but they don't really perform as well if the enemy team doesn't meet that requirement. DOTA 2 definitely has more characters that are designed to fill certain niches. That isn't to say all of its characters are like this. But if a player accidentally picks one of these heroes when the conditions for them to perform well aren't met then it's likely that that player will not do well or enjoy themselves.

And That's a Wrap!

Well guys that's my look at DOTA 2. I apologize that I haven't gotten every article out within a week but this has taken far longer than I expected. I hope you'll keep coming back to find out which MOBA is right for you!