“That game? Why would you try that game?!” That was the question my friends asked me when I said that I’ll be trying League of Legends (LoL). They do have the right to question me. Why should I try League when I can play Dota 2 instead? As a curious person, I wanted to be familiar with the world of LoL and its glory. In order to do so, I enclosed myself in the world of League of Legends for a week as an experiment. Here are the things I learned about LoL with Dota 2 being the only Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game I ever played.

Tons of Champions

Of course, there would be characters to play in a MOBA! For League of Legends, they offer champions of many kinds to suit your playstyle. There are ranged carries that offer more skillshot needs such as Caitlin and Ashe. If you are into man fighting, Dr. Mundo and Volibear could be your go-to champion. I myself tried Ashe who I found has similar abilities to Drow Ranger and Mirana. The diversity of champions in LoL gives you the feeling of different abilities and different skillshots that are present only to LoL. I find that LoL requires you to place those skillshots in order to execute awesome wombo-combos. LoL is more of a skillshot-oriented MOBA compared to Dota 2 in my experience. Switching back to Dota 2, I found that landing skillshots in Dota 2 became way easier due to my LoL experiment.

You also have to know that you won’t be able to try new champions unless you purchase them with in-game points. I find this mechanic very strange since in Dota 2, all the heroes are unlocked from the beginning. This gives you the mindset of practicing the few champions that are currently free until you have the confidence to purchase them. This move by Riot seems to be a cash grab since you have to be very versed in LoL. In other words, you have to be very addicted to the game to truly feel good about your purchase. For those who just want to try the different champions that are free in rotation, you can see them here.

There is also an option to purchase skins for your champions which will make every cosmetic collector happy. You can purchase them with in-game currency or real money as well.

Extra Spells

Asides from the usual four basic skills, you are also given extra abilities that will help you in battle. These include (but are not limited to) a mini heal, a mini blink and a mini phase movement. Due to my low level, I was only able to use Heal and Ghost. I find it difficult to have even more abilities (Sorry, Invoker players).

There would be times when I would use Ghost to chase an opponent for the kill but just as I’m about to deal a final blow, my opponent would either use his/her own ability like Ghost or Flash away to safety. As a Dota 2 player, you would have to give it some time to practice using these spells at the right moment. This mechanic itself is amazing since in Dota 2, you have to purchase items that have similar effects to these spells. By allowing all champions to have extra spells, you’d have to be more cautious when placing your combos on a kill or during a teamfight because of these spells. I had to try all the spells that I unlocked in order to see which ones have great synergies with certain champions.

I try to think of these spells as “chance spells”. There are times when using it would be very beneficial. These are also times when you want to facepalm yourself for using the spell too early or too late.

Runes and Masteries Are Important

These two components of LoL are important in the game mechanics and are unique to LoL only. They allow you to level up certain game mechanics such as cooldown reduction and mana regeneration. Runes deal primarily with stats for your champion. Masteries deal with either your champion’s offensive, defensive or utility capabilities in battle. The only way for you to unlock more runes and masteries would be through in-game points known as Influence points. You get them through leveling up. I was not able to fully utilize this mechanic since at lower levels, you get weaker runes and masteries. This would implicate that runes and masteries are  better when you reach the max level of 30 in order for you to utilize several of them at once. Personally, I did not like this mechanic since it is not noob-friendly. LoL is trying, in my opnion, to influence players to grind for more Influence points in order to have more runes and masteries. It would be better if Riot allowed you to have all of the runes and masteries unlocked at the start. This will display your skill in distribution of runes and masteries to fully optimize your champion. If this mechanic were implemented this way, then LoL would be more friendly to new players.

No Courier (but Free TP Scrolls)

Yes, there is no courier. There are no cute flying animals to personally hand you your items while you stay in the battlefield. However, you are given the chance to teleport back to the base. This mechanic may seem minor, but the player must learn when to recall back to base to purchase items. This requires timing and map awareness from my experience. The amount of recalls in a game is infinite but should be used with caution as the channeling time is long (8 seconds) and is canceled by taking damage.

You may end up recalling most of the time in your games (This has happened to me several times). I think Riot implemented this so that players should learn to coordinate with their teammates more. When you recall, you tend to leave the lane alone, allowing it to be pushed. By telling your teammate in advance that you are going back to base, the teammate would now be more wary of ganks. This goes the same with enemy recalls. The strategy you implement when they leave is diverse. You could choose to push the lane, recall back to base or gank other lanes. Knowing these strategies are very important since it opens up to several gameplays and game styles for you and the enemy team.

There Is More than One Map (and Game Modes)

Launching the LoL hud, I noticed that you can queue for several game modes and several maps. To a Dota 2 player, this is very shocking and exciting! There’s a map that has two lanes with three players called Twisted Treeline. You have the standard 5v5 map which is Summoner’s Rift. There’s a map called Crystal Scar that offers a new type of game mode, Dominion. The objective of Dominion is to capture several strongholds around the map to damage the enemy team’s base. There are several buffs around that map that would aid you in battle as well.

Lastly, there is a map called Howling Abyss. This offers a 5v5 match with a twist, a single lane. Yes, you battle against your opponents in a single lane. Not only do you battle in one lane, you get random champions when you spawn. This game mode is known as ARAM or “All Random All Mid”. I had to try all of them and yes, they are all enjoyable!

I find the standard map of LoL, Summoner’s Rift, to be very similar to the standard Dota 2 map. There are some huge differences such as two “bosses” or objectives for you to kill to gain buffs instead of one in Dota 2 which is Roshan. They are Baron Nashor and the Dragon. There are also brush mechanics that serve several purposes since they can be used to escape or to ambush. This opens up many possibilities of game-changing plays.

As for the other maps, I found Crystal Scar to be more fast-paced than Summoner’s Rift due to the need of capturing points immediately. If you want constant action instead of laning phases, then this game mode is for you. Howling Abyss is similar to All Random Deathmatch of Dota 2, but in one lane with all the champions. This one lane battle is so awesome that I ended up playing this game mode the most since it is that fun! The players that I played with while trying these game modes, most of the time, were very friendly! Of course, I would meet with occasional flamers but that really can’t be avoided.

From this experiment, I learned that League of Legends offers different mechanics, different champions and extra maps with corresponding game modes. These features itself make a unique experience that any Dota 2 player can have. Remove those negative notions about LoL. Try the game! There’s no harm in trying a free game! Who knows, you may end up switching to it.

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