Winning in HoN isn’t as fun as losing in LoL. Because playing LoL is fun, HoN is dreadfully slow and cumbersome. HoN does hold the positive that time spent between death and respawn is shorter, though.

Well first things first, what seems to attract players to HoN?

It’s simple. From the moment you see HoN there is one thing that stands out, and its the graphics. They are incredibly smooth, with great 3D and lighting, and a nice interface on the bottom for skills, items, etc. Let’s face it, DotA is an old game, running on an obsolete game engine. Graphics are definitely not DotA’s standout feature, and often the triangles that make up my hero’s face do annoy me. HoN has some really great graphics, and combined with the familiar feel of DotA it is a great experience.

But how familiar is this feel of DotA?

HoN has, currently 60 heroes. About 40 or so are basically heroes directly imported from DotA. Therefore, an issue of balance comes out. DotA, being constantly updated by Icefrog and the players that complain about it (myself being one of then :D), is very well balanced, from the heroes to the items. HoN, on the other hand, tries to be unique by introducing new heroes and items; otherwise it would be an exact rip-off of DotA. However, this does make the game slightly IMBA, and without the enormous number of players that constantly check on DotA, HoN is still in a slow, development stage.

Some people accuse HoN of being a complete rip-off of DotA, while others say HoN is great due to its smooth gameplay and great graphics. But each game has its pros and cons. As stated before, DotA is very well balanced, with a whooping 97 heroes to choose from, and a huge community of players to interact with. Its free for everyone (well, excluding the price of buying Warcraft 3 TFT), updated very frequently, and has friendly AI maps for beginners to play. HoN, on the other hand, has great graphics (lol can’t state that enough I guess), a very clean interface, smooth gameplay, and many of the DotA heroes you already love.

So why is DotA better?

The reason I put my vote for DotA is because HoN still comes a little short compared to the versatility of DotA. For one thing, you need internet to play, while with DotA you still have the AI maps for fun. DotA will also remain free (thank God for Icefrog’s selflessness), while HoN will inevitably be moneyized (or whatever you call it). All in all, DotA is more familiar to beginners, and although HoN has some great eyecandy, DotA has what makes a game fun: a great community, many modes of play, and TONS of different characters, each with its own unique feel. I’m not saying that HoN is a bad game, but it is too unfamiliar for long-time DotA players like I, as much is changed with the features of DotA that were taken. The DotA heroes all look different, yet the new visual changes make it hard to distinguish one hero from another (many of them look like they came right out of a bad Halloween party, just look at the Treant Protector’s HoN version…). They have different names, some adjusted abilities, and the whole “neutral” hero aspect was removed. Items were also changed (God, how confusing that was for me when I first played). Some their name, others, value or effect, and to end my rant, I have to mention that Roshan looks like a gorilla now xD.

HoN is still a game in development, hence it is in beta stage, and it is working many of its bugs out. It is not a bad game, but offers some eyecandy in exchange of the huge, balanced arsenal of heroes DotA has to offer, as well as the fluid gameplay. HoN is not a bad game, and right now it seems to be trying to make itself unique from DotA while still maintaining the excitement from getting a triple kill, or soloing Roshan at level 10. HoN definitely has the potential to eventually pass DotA in all aspects in the near future, but until then, I’m sticking with my Magnataur that does 116% cleave <3.

Just wanted to toss in my own two cents about this ongoing “war”. Kudos to anyone that dare take the time to read all of it! =.=

~Furashi

I liked DotA, yes. I was bad at it, but I was playing with friends, so with them coaching me I did alright for a beginner. However, a few of the gameplay mechanics and characteristics seemed counter-intuitive to me–specifically, the process of denying made very little sense (I mean, seriously, killing your own guys? If the engine didn’t force support for that it would never have been considered as a feature.) and the fact that a single carry could just farm alone and then dominate a team. It struck me as a huge balancing issue that four players essentially worked to keep the carry safe before he walked in to wreck shop.

A few weeks ago, the friend that got me to play DotA encouraged me to try HoN. I did, and interestingly enough the high game speed wasn’t an issue. I was a bit concerned when I realized that it was a direct DotA clone for all intents and purposes, but since that was how it had been marketed to me (as in, how my friend described it to me) I didn’t really mind. When I realized that most of the improvements were purely aesthetic, though, I was hardly sold on the game. I value gameplay above all else: I still play Fallout 2 on a regular basis because the game is still so fantastically well-made.

Fast forward until about four days ago. Another friend decided on a whim to show me LoL, which he had been playing off at college with friends there for a few months. I assumed that it would be similar to DotA, and in many regards it was. The familiar creep waves, towers, and gameplay basics were still there. However, I found the UI and the general user experience to be vastly more streamlined than either DotA or HoN, especially the shop and announcements (such as who killed who, tower takedowns, etc.). The graphics were also refreshing, if nothing else: though not super impressive, they were most importantly different from what I was used to seeing. Likewise, I found that the character design is also varied, which inadvertently led to some “cartoon” style characters. However, this did not bother me, since not every character is in that style despite there being a general cohesion in the game’s art.

More importantly to me, a number of gameplay aspects were changed in ways that I saw as improvements over standard DotA. (I make no comparison of “improvements” to HoN, since LoL is not based directly on HoN and therefore cannot be considered an improvement on it.) Without denying, players are forced to think a bit more tactically about how they handle creep waves, and while a level capped (18) carry can take down two, perhaps even three (with a great degree of skill) opposing heroes alone, the victims actually have a decent chance at fighting back if they can react fast enough and chain their abilities together in a way that repels the incoming assault. Moreover, if they play smart, a team can slowly but surely fight back against a seemingly unbeatable attack–but if they don’t work together, the attackers can easily overpower them and swiftly win.

To summarize for the tl;dr crowd, I’ve played DotA, but very little. I played HoN and wasn’t terribly impressed with it because I value gameplay over graphics, and HoN seemed to me to only amp the graphics up while leaving the gameplay to languish as it was. I have been playing LoL and enjoy it thoroughly, especially because I find the gameplay to be vastly more balanced than DotA and more conducive to genuine teamwork rather than guarding a carry while he/she farms.

Peace, and happy gaming!

LoL, DoTA, HoN, WoW, etc.

“of” does not get capitalized.

kthx.

oh and p.s. and a former DoTA and current LoL player, I would recommend LoL.

up to this point HoN had to catch up to Dota (which they almost have), and from this point they will be adding new content. It took me 3 hours of HoN gameplay to realize Dota is a thing of the past. LoL is even worse. I cant believe this is actually a contender. This looks like a game from the 90s to me.

The order is this: Hon>Dota>LoL . And as time goes on the difference will just get bigger. And one big ass perk is that HoN is out on all 3 platforms… Windows/Linux/ OS X. Which means now even if some of your friends use a different OS you can play with them. Respect for S2 Games for adding that.

and this survey is just crap cos at this point HoN and LoL werent this famous.
HoN has 100000 of players in his closed beta… its like wtf.