LOL or DOTA2 for a total noob?

Dcully

So ive tonnes of games installed but un-played on my PC and im trying to get through some of them.
Ive always been fascinated with the phenomenon that is MOBA games but ive always avoided them as i know i will suck badly and the community can be hard for want of a better word :P

Let me just say i sucked at starcraft 2, i was fascinated with it and the whole E-sports side of it but i really did suck, i spend hours upon hours watching reading guides until my head hurt and i still sucked bad.
Ive long since uninstalled SC2 as i simply couldnt enjoy it.

Id like to have a go at the MOBA scene for a bit to see how i get on,i played Smite recently and while i saw its potential i sucked yet again, bit of a pattern emerging i know lol.

I understand i need to give these games time to learn and improve with hence why im wondering which is better for new players LOL or DOTA2?

Please guys, i do not wish to start a versus war or debate just wonderign which is the best for a totally new player?

Magill

They've a forum for mobas now.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1600

I would say LoL is defo easier to pick up. It just depends on what you're like at games in general tho.. if you suck balls at most games then you're probably gonna suck at both games for a long time. Going from Dota2 to LoL is probably far easier than going from LoL to Dota2.. so it might be better to start on Dota2.. Honestly.. just play whichever your mates play ?

Dcully

Cheers man, didnt know there was a MOBA forum

inchiuvatu

I just got into Dota 2 over the weekend, i had tried to play the beta but couldnt figure it out, Dota 2 has a decent tutorial now which made it easy enough to pick up... i find the matchmaking a little slow, i did manage to play 1 round of players vs bots which wasn't too hard, just picked a random character and we did alright. havn't played LOL so cant comment on that.

cherryghost

IMO:

LoL, probably the easiest to pick up
then Dota
Then HoN

Not saying that LoL is inferior, it's really good. It's more easy to pick up, hard to master.

There's also a MOBA forum for anyone that's interested in picking up the genre and looking to group together for games etc

gizmo

I was in a very similar position recently Dcully and asked two of my DOTA2 playing mates how best to get into the game. They both pointed me to this excellent resource...

Welcome to DOTA, you suck

Needless to say, I spent a bit of time reading through the page and then happily went back to my list of unplayed games.

Magill

I found one of the best things for me to get into mobas is watching the pro games. You'll pick up so much about the games meta from just watching and looking up different terms etc that they use.

nesf

Dcully, with SC2 were you showing replays to better players and getting advice from them? Often people can have very serious problems implementing tips from a guide but improve very quickly when someone points out missed opportunities in a game. Similar to how people can read reams of chess books and get nowhere but improve permanently from just a couple of game reviews with a stronger player.

Sierra Oscar

I found DOTA2 very difficult to pick up as a noob. Admittedly I did not give it all that much time to get over the learning curve before I got frustrated, but I felt as if the rest of the community was just miles ahead of me.

If you have players that you can play with then you'll be grand though.

Gummy Panda

Which one has the worse community?

I remember having this conversation about HoN vs LoL two years ago and told HoN will be very abusive to a noob

Dcully

Thanks for feedback guys.

nesf wrote: »

Dcully, with SC2 were you showing replays to better players and getting advice from them? Often people can have very serious problems implementing tips from a guide but improve very quickly when someone points out missed opportunities in a game. Similar to how people can read reams of chess books and get nowhere but improve permanently from just a couple of game reviews with a stronger player.

No i didnt show anyone some replays, my main issue was APM and key bindings, im primarily a clicker with the exception of maybe 5 or so hotkeys in or around my WASD.
I just found i couldnt keep up with other players.

It just depends on what you're like at games in general tho.. if you suck balls at most games then you're probably gonna suck at both games for a long time

Other genres i do pretty well, was one of the best healers on my old WOW server [or so i was told lol] personally i felt i was average ,played the origional and best Day of Defeat in one of the top clans in Europe for many a year when i was using and ISDN connection :eek:
I was pretty competitive in the ultra competitive iracing for a while but simply couldnt commit the time to it,wasnt at the pro level but done well in the nest tier down for a good few months.
These days i play a lot of different genres so dont specialize in any.

cherryghost

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Which one has the worse community?

I remember having this conversation about HoN vs LoL two years ago and told HoN will be very abusive to a noob

It used to be that way across all the MOBA games but matchmaking is signifcantly better now. You'll only be paired with players also new to the game, not seasoned players that would show frustration because of how you play.

nesf

Dcully wrote: »

No i didnt show anyone some replays, my main issue was APM and key bindings, im primarily a clicker with the exception of maybe 5 or so hotkeys in or around my WASD.
I just found i couldnt keep up with other players.

Hmm, I have similar problems though I imagine for different reasons. I found the GRID layout helped somewhat for Starcraft. My APM was never very good.

Dcully

Jesus that guide Gizmo linked makes me even more scared , seems if i start to play this thing and learn effectively it will be like a full time job :eek:

nesf

Dcully wrote: »

Jesus that guide Gizmo linked makes me even more scared , seems if i start to play this thing and learn effectively it will be like a full time job :eek:

Go jump into a L90 BG or worse, Arena match in WoW in a freshly purchased healer as a new player and see how things go for you.

DOTA etc have the MMO time sink nature, they just don't bother disguising it with leveling and questing. :P

Magill

They both sort of ease you in handy enough tho, at least from my experience you usually get equally skilled opponents. After the first 4 or 5 games in LoL, i was doing alrite. I'd imagine for someone thats played wow pvp you'd have at least some edge over other newbies. Learning what all the champions can do is probably the biggest thing tbh... at least with league anyway.

nesf

Magill wrote: »

They both sort of ease you in handy enough tho, at least from my experience you usually get equally skilled opponents. After the first 4 or 5 games in LoL, i was doing alrite. I'd imagine for someone thats played wow pvp you'd have at least some edge over other newbies. Learning what all the champions can do is probably the biggest thing tbh... at least with league anyway.

Isn't that new? I've never dabbled much in LOL or DOTA just some DemiGod a long time ago, but originally wasn't the matchmaking for both crap and threw newbies in with damn good players with the ensuing unhappiness for all involved.

Magill

nesf wrote: »

Isn't that new? I've never dabbled much in LOL or DOTA just some DemiGod a long time ago, but originally wasn't the matchmaking for both crap and threw newbies in with damn good players with the ensuing unhappiness for all involved.

Im not sure, i've only been playing for about 6 months or so.

nesf

Magill wrote: »

Im not sure, i've only been playing for about 6 months or so.

I don't know, I was just watching a stream recently of DOTA and they were talking about improved matchmaking in the MOBA genre recently.

Magill

nesf wrote: »

I don't know, I was just watching a stream recently of DOTA and they were talking about improved matchmaking in the MOBA genre recently.

Well the matchmaking in LoL has been the same since i started playing anyway, its just level based till max level then ranked games are done via an elo system. Dota.. im not even too sure how it works, i've played much less of it but most of the people i've been with/against have been pretty horrible so i guess its decent.

Gummy Panda

nesf wrote: »

Isn't that new? I've never dabbled much in LOL or DOTA just some DemiGod a long time ago, but originally wasn't the matchmaking for both crap and threw newbies in with damn good players with the ensuing unhappiness for all involved.

Yeah in LoL you could end up with such a mix bag. Though you still can end up with smurfs.

Wossack

as a newbie to both, I reckon LoL

My (very much imo) negatives to Dota - no butthurt intended:
losing money when you die
unintuitive courier system
no 'back' (return to base teleport)
alot of shutdown stuns
long matchmaking waits

Dont get me wrong, I enjoy em both, but LoL is a bit more accessible starting out imo.

BMMachine

neither. the player base isnt worth the time

nesf

BMMachine wrote: »

neither. the player base isnt worth the time

Son, if you go around like that you'll end up play only Farmville.

BMMachine

nesf wrote: »

Son, if you go around like that you'll end up play only Farmville.

REPORTED!

nesf

BMMachine wrote: »

REPORTED!

Try this: http://www.eveonline.com/

Then come back to me about LoL's playerbase...

Edit: Basically imagine if someone who got annoyed with you in one game in LoL could find their way into your next game as an "extra" and gank you, you have the EvE playerbase and what is possible in-game. Actually, remove the "got annoyed with" and replace with "looks like a good trolling target."

BMMachine

yeah i know all about eve. LoL and DotA still have the worst player bases in any game i've ever played. frankly, especially in the case of dota, the games are too difficult for how popular they are, so the kids that populate the games freak out constantly for reason x,y or z, and start screaming reported and attempt to troll.
whats worse is that theres a matchmaking system so winning and losing count as to how high/low you go on the ladder. theres also seperate stats websites and young males and being ranked don't go well together

nesf

BMMachine wrote: »

yeah i know all about eve. LoL and DotA still have the worst player bases in any game i've ever played. frankly, especially in the case of dota, the games are too difficult for how popular they are, so the kids that populate the games freak out constantly for reason x,y or z, and start screaming reported and attempt to troll.
whats worse is that theres a matchmaking system so winning and losing count as to how high/low you go on the ladder. theres also seperate stats websites and young males and being ranked don't go well together

I agree, it sounds like CS of old if you remember that. That said, EvE is worse, simply because in LoL they're rather limited in what they can do to you. This isn't the case in EvE and CCP's griefing policy is practically non-existent once real money isn't involved.

BMMachine

nesf wrote: »

I agree, it sounds like CS of old if you remember that. That said, EvE is worse, simply because in LoL they're rather limited in what they can do to you. This isn't the case in EvE and CCP's griefing policy is practically non-existent once real money isn't involved.

sorry i also forgot about the massive racist undercurrent in both games, especially dota. and there are very creative ways of trolling in dota
eve is grand though once you hit a certain stage. i have a mate thats fully plugged into it who has told me some deadly stories of the game

K.O.Kiki

Come play Street Fighter IV with us.

Or Skullgirls, or w/e.
We're not picky.

Dcully

Cracking post Ropedrink thanks a lot,very well explained and some useful info.
To be honest with you none of my online mates play any of these games,its always fps games and little else.
I like the sound of experimenting with bots etc,sounds like a plan, i might actually run some bot matches on both LOL and Dota2 and see how i get on.
Pretty sure ill not get a real idea of either until i play a lot but feck it im in no hurry, it will be a longterm project when time permits and when the other genres i enjoy allow it
Maybe its a mistake to try both? but im just so curious.

Thanks all,this tuned into a decent thread.
Any thoughts on SMITE? seems very popular on twitch tv too,any easier harder for a noob?