I originally posted this on Play Dota forums but they suggested I come here and repost this thread.


I've played ~ 500 matches of LoL, and I got my girlfriend to try it, but after ~5 games she didn't like it.

She is much happier to play DOTA 2, and enjoying it more. Probably because she can play any hero she wants, and I'm not barking orders because I'm a noob now too.

I was looking for some recommendations on hero choices for her because she's new, and for me because I'm resistant to the transition and I have strong opinions about both games.

I've played probably 20 bot matches or so with my girlfriend. The change in the technical aspects of the game has been the hardest part for me, as a LoL player, I'm used to fast attack animations and instant cast times.

Having characters act, attack, cast, turn, and move slower probably adds a level of skill to the game, sure. But it just feels awful and awkward, like I'm actually playing Warcraft 3 :-/

Here are the heroes I've been playing:
Venomancer, Drow Ranger, Zeus, Lion, Broodmother, Ursa, Earthshaker, Witch Doctor, Lina, Sand King, Razor, Skeleton King, Huskarr, Pugna.

She has liked:
Vengeful Spirit, Phantom Assasin, Chaos Knight, Lich

Things I like:

Mana. Every hero uses and utilizes mana differently, but it's always important. You can't just buy mana regen and ignore mana. It takes a significant investment to have "infinite mana" and you will be lacking in other areas. Mana adds another skill to manage, between being able to use your full skill combo and using mana to harass/heal/farm.

Stats. STR heroes feel beefier and regen health faster by just having more STR. AGI heroes move towards a machine gun feel, even without attack speed items. INT heroes use their mana in larger bursts and more often so the mana regen fits perfectly.

The overall hero design. The heroes feel more independent and unique.
Nobody hooks you like Pudge can.
Nobody's ult forces you to stay and fight like Blood Seeker.
Nobody can flood a lane with ward/turrets like Venomancer.
Nobody can teleport all around the map like Nature's Prophet.
Nobody hides inside the creeps like Lifestealer.
Nobody throws down a nuke/stun/wall like Earthshaker.
Nobody is as passive a support as Warlock who wins the fight with his ult.
Nobody moves around like Storm Spirit.
Nobody 100-0's you and a friend like Lich's ult.
Nobody owns a lane like Broodmother does...etc...

The item design. Items have more interesting actives that can entirely change how a fight turns out. The items are also very unique and add depth to the game. Force Staff's movement, Mantra's Illusions, Blink Dagger.

The tower hurts less. Diving is more encouraged if you don't die in 4 seconds. This promotes active game play where taking a risk is actually worth it and more dependent on the enemy's skill than the tower's damage.

Everyone doesn't have flash. Having 50% of the cool plays in the game negated by a good flash is a lame mechanic that makes LoL feel unrewarding and promotes passive gameplay.

Things I don't like:


Tower has strange AI and long range. I much prefer LoL's tower AI where the tower attacks creeps unless you get aggressive. I don't like how I'm hitting a tower and suddenly it's on me even though there are other creeps around. Just found out attacked your own creep switches tower aggro, but still, that is so weird and non-intuitive. I'm a new player, I want to hit the tower. It shouldn't take 50 games to figure out that towers prefer to defend themselves rather than kill creeps.

Items have mana cost? It's hard enough managing your skills, but items have an assortment of random magic costs too? I suppose if they didn't people would spam them, but the trade-off is that then it's on cooldown. The mana costs seem random too

Generally slow feel. Basically every single hero in this game feel significantly slower than LoL. I'm not sure how that is for new players, but even to a LoL player, when I click I want the attack to go. I don't want to do a dance with my staff and shake my tail, just attack.

The basics of each heroThe difference between range, animations, attack animations, turn speed. It will take forever to learn every hero and fine tune their huge differences between animation times that feel acceptable (Drow Ranger), too fast (Razor), and too slow (all INT heroes honestly).

The emphasis on micro. I didn't really want to control too much of that in LoL, and they handled it well by just using ALT to control minions. If I wanted a ton of micro I would play Starcraft 2. I get its part of the design and adds to the skill cap, but there are so many heroes where I like 3/4 skills them ignore them because they have a pet skill.

With all that said, I enjoy the game so far. Curious to see if guys just tell me to leave or if you've got some good suggestions, Thanks!

yo, i just like you came from LoL and started playing Dota 2, i currently got over a thousand games played, and there is still alot to learn. but that is what i love about the game, there is always something new to learn. for example i used to play alot of natures prophet, because it's a lovable hero and the feeling of just tping anywhere is awesome but now i'm play much more of the support heroes and what i love is the "hard" heroes, those that werent in LoL, like Chen and Enchantress with their microing and supporting and their really good ability to gank and push early, and then heroes like rubick and wisp that are uniqe in the most imaginable ways, the versatility of all these heroes are amazing and as i know it's not easy to start this process to get into the game, what helped me alot was to watch streams and most of all pro games, with of course favorite caster tobiwan, and you and your GF has a perfect timing now when The International 3 is starting today and ending on sunday, this week is the most exciting week on the year for many players so i highly suggest you watch atleast a few games if you hadnt already planned to do that

i also suggest you check out the new dota 2 school that D2P is starting here, from what i've seen it seems to be a really good play and a good commuinty to start playing with, any questions of so you can ask me if you want to

Have a good day, and i'll leave my steam down here too

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Thelete/