Your favorite Action RTS/MOBA ?

What is it and why? Have you played the others and what is the difference between your favorite and the other versions?

DOTA (Original)
DOTA2
Heroes of Newerth
League of Legends
Rise of Titans
Rise of Immortals

My big issue of playing these games so far is the balancing always seems off since there are just way too many heroes available. Not much time spent in balancing the game. Heroes of Newerth and DOTA seem to be better in this aspect, but LoL seems out of control to me when I played.

What are your observations?

 

I used to play DOTA a lot, tried HoN and LoL during the beta, and I am only playing LoL now.
I did not like how HoN was just an exact remake of Dota (I guess it has changed since with new heroes/items) but it is too late, I am hooked with LoL since almost 2 years now.
I prefer the cartoon style graphics of LoL, the fact that you dont have to deny creeps, the hiding in the bush mechanics. I love the "new" map/mode Dominion which functions like Arathi in WoW (5 points to control) which is good if you know you don't have 40-60 minutes to play.
As far as balancing goes, it is not ideal, of course, because every new hero is underpowered/overpowered/ or sometimes it just takes someone who figures how to play that hero correctly and show the world how to do it: I am thinking of Evelynn which was considered useless for one year and one guy on EU server showed how to build her as a jungling dps and then she became OP.
But then Riot tweaks and nerfs every hero when needed( well you have to wait for several patches sometimes) The patches are quite frequent, the new heroes are fun, and I think they take good care of their game, they have to if they want people to stay! I think it is not by chance if they got all those awards.
I started LoL when there were maybe only 40 champions so I am sure that a newcomer could feel overwhelmed with all the new ones added since.

 

I think these types of games are overwhelming to people that are just jumping into the genre. I tried out LoL and I just couldn't get into it.

 

I totally agree. And they really need to resolve this issue. Because what I see is just the swarm (DOTA players) just moving from one game to the next. And they are destroying the game for new comers before the game has even become retail. LoL and HoN had flamers and elitists during beta... harassing new players before the game even went gold.

I think LoL attempted to make some changes for this. But what they really need to do is figure out how to keep the experienced players from taking advantage of the new players. When I played LoL, first time, as level 1-15, I discovered nearly 99% of players I encountered, were veterans with level 30s. I was playing against their alt accounts. Why are experienced players playing against me, I always choose newbie or whatever they call it, level of play and yet there they are playing against me.
- It's a really quick way for them to level up an alt by farming on the new players. I don't want to be farmed. I want to learn to play the game...

I'm really hoping DOTA 2 resolves this. I'm very apprehensive about trying any of these games. I've tried a few and I still don't really know how to play since I quit early, because I'm tired of being farmed, being a feeder to the veterans who refuse to play their alts on more difficult matches, just looking for easy kills on the newbies.
- Any feedback from those who have played the beta?

 

This post kind've sums up my feelings about most online gaming. Communities get filled up with people who get really good at the game and/or build up higher level characters so new players end up getting muscled out by the masses of elite players. I would be willing to play a multiplayer game occasionally with casual players like myself (not "casual gamers" ala PopCap, but people who might only devote an hour a two a week to a multiplayer game), but I've found that most games aren't very friendly to that kind of low-level playing unless you get in on the ground floor.

And no, I don't play many multiplayer games, so there could be a million examples of where I'm wrong and how this or that game is friendly to new blood, but my limited experience has been fairly negative.

Beyond all that anyway is the fact that I'm not willing to put in a lot of time to get good at a game because life's just too precious to spend on something like that (says the hypocrite with 100+ hours on a number of single-player games on Steam).

 

well i dont have dota 2 access yet so i cant comment on it.

but between dota hon and lol. i would have to give it to hon main because its much easier to find a match than dota (plus dont need listchecker) lol is very different from dota and hon and i dont enjoy that style at all, plus the lag is pretty terrible.

 

Dota 2 is supposed to have tiers I think for how good you are.

 

That's awesome. Just hope it's some restrictive system so a top tier player can't have a match against level 1, new to the game players.

 

so just like mmr in hon, which is pretty useless. pubs are much better than matchmaking, you can banlist and kick the terrible 1800s.

 

I'm a terrible Action RTS player... So HoN is not a great place to learn to play the game I take it? Getting banned on public matches just because I'm not good enough for you? And if so, why are you being matched up against players who are so obviously inferior to your skills? Sounds like a horrible matchmaking system.

 

matchmaking is fine for new players since you start at 1500 and you cant get banned in matchmaking so its a good place to start.

but for high level competitive players unless you join one of the very few teams in hon theres no place for you to enjoy playing basically. 1800+ matchmaking is terrible

 

SMITE! (Yes, I know its not yet released, but it looks excellent).

 

No, 1800 mmr means hat you're a (relatively) skilled player. Base mmr is 1500.

MMR actually does work to a certain extent. There will always be alts, but matchmaking in HoN does a good job of matching you up with people of similar MMR.

 

Signed up for the beta.

 

I don't think these types of games are something you can "learn" to be good at. Once you learn decent item builds and how the characters are supposed to be played you're either going to be good or not.

I played Dota for a long time on WC3 and basically figured it out after my 3rd game, then played HON since Beta and always floated between 1700-1850 with about 58% wins.

Then I tried LOL and it was a joke compared to either of those two. I lost my first 2 games because I wasn't quite sure on items or the UI, but after that I won the next 15 out of 17 games I played. It just seemed way too easy, or the average player skill in LOL is pretty terrible.

So my vote would have to go to HON because it at least keeps things competitive. However, I don't care for it being free2play, and I'll probably switch to DOTA 2 once it comes out if it gets more E-Tournament coverage.

 

you can definitely learn to be good at dota/hon. but to get really good you have to play with actual good players in a competitive environment which is basically non existent in hon.

dota2 should have a much bigger competitive scene and i can join a decent team and finally get to play support.
for hon matchmaking its just carry win carry win carry win support lose support lose support lose. nothing like winning a 1v2 lane in a 1850avg game with ds and end up losing the game cuz the carry is trash.

 

I voted for HoN. I've played it for a year and a half I think. I've also tried LoL but the graphics and some gameplay elements didn't feel right for me.

What was said earlier about some players having a bunch of alts just for the purpose of messing with new players (in both HoN and LoL) is imo a direct result of a game becoming free to play. It wasn't very frequent in HoN before since you had to buy the game once again to have an alt. Since it became free to play, HoN is just filled with alts, just like LoL I guess.

From my post, you could think that I'm not a fan of the free to play economic model, and you're right : I HATE free to play games. That is because you end up spending more money than what the game would have cost if it wasn't free to play. This is mainly why I've stopped playing HoN since it became free to play.

Edit : I've signed up for the Dota 2 beta too, I just hope it won't be a free to play game

 

Well, in LoL you do not have to spend any money, the stuff you buy is just cosmetic skins and will not help you play better. But then I like to reward the developer's work in buying from time to time some new useless skins

 

I like buying skins too (I bought some in HoN) What I don't like about this system is that from what I understand, you can't play with every champion in the game unless you pay for them, or you get some points by playing.

 

Any SOTIS love from SCII players?