Did a quick search and didn't find a thread on this so: LoL is a free "Dota clone" (Its made by the original creator of Dota, balance lead on WC3TfT and a bunch of other similar types) that I am playing a wee bit atm using my usual handle, if you are on feel free to send me a friend request :>

I am level 30 playing ranked ladder.

Nick is Otherside.

I prefer HoN to LoL but if I feel like playing casually LoL is ok as I don't have to take it seriously. Balance is whack and to much grinding.

Balance does seem pretty hilarious tbh. I'm playing this strictly casually

devs can't balance for shit

The tankiest heroes are also the best crowd controllers and DPSers

Game is full of lulz

I have a level 30 on US servers, and I think a level 7 on EU? Nick is "imago dei" on both.

I think Triton been playing this game for a long time as well...have fun.
I prefer HoN but hey...this game is free.

but you need to grind loads for good runes (and then stick to one type of char) if you want to play high level.

And then the game is still imbalanced as shit .

I went from HoN to LoL and instantly felt far more capable and competent.

LoL is far more forgiving than HoN for various reasons.

All heroes scale well, some better than others but in reality any farmed hero could carry.

No gold lost on death so you can't focus fire a hero to keep him down (which imo is one of the reasons why LoL would fail competitively)

Towers are godmode early on so there is near absolute safely in early levels if you tower hug. In HoN you can get ganked anywhere.

No experience denial mechanics.

also Flash is OP a free blink to every hero from level 1 O_o.

Also once you lose a 5v5 confrontation past level 15 its usually GG, which I don't like becauses there no room for epic comebacks like in Dota/HoN.

Yes, I play league of legend and I have a lot of fun :)

I still suck, but I think balance is really smart.

You can play 65 different Heroes, and ALL heroes can be good in low-elo.
80% players are low elo, so am I.

At mid elo 15-20% Heroes are totaly unplayed, and at high elo 50% heroes are played but 10 off them are really played a lot.

But remember that balance is always changing trying to make all heroes usefull with some team.

I think biggest prob is that difference between low-elo and top-elo gameplay, some heroes are really hard to counter in low elo and become close to be useless in top elo ^^.
They want to make balance for top elo but they can't forget 80% players, so some heroes are a bit op for 80% players and useless for 20% :)

I think its a good compromise to play very good team micro and tactics games and also for having casual games with friends.

I am triton13 on European server, and salgamin on US (us average players seems to be better but i cant have good games in us with 250ms ping)

i play LoL too in US servers, i'm level 23 and i play blitz. Wartender there too, if anyone wants to add me, i also went from Hon to LoL, and found i didn't suck at LoL, so i stuck with it.

HoN is releasing its 2.0 Patch on the 13th December.

might be worth checking it out.

Adds a casual mode which is similar to LoL in terms of mechanics. No gold loss on death etc..

New matchmaking service and an ingame store (which you don't need to pay for everything is unlockable by playing) but everything is cosmetic no stat altering stuff like runes.

HoN is the better game LoL is just easier.

HoN is also much more pleasing visually,at least imo.
I totally dug its style.

new HoN heroes are nice also.

They are on a release schedule of a hero every 2 weeks now.

Plus 2 new items coming in 2.0

shits pretty cash (apart from installer crashing 5x during install, and then server going for maintainence about an hour after)

questions though

-are there only two maps?!
-whats up with the characters... do i get to keep these guys forever, or do they time out at some point? (just using the ones it gave me for now, didn't buy any extras)
-what is the most OP character and build so i can strive towards it
-are the "recommended items" that it gives you in the shop actually worth grabbing

i haven't done very well really, but played one game as the paladin (or whoever the effeminate blue iconed guy is with the healing) and teamed with the frost archer and totally raped in the middle lane against 3

that kennen character seems ridiculously OP

Kennen is hilarious OP sauce, my second ever game I was 15:3 with him, just build for "ap" (ability power) and his damage goes thru the roof, their is an item that gives u stacking bonuses the more consecutive killls/assists you stack up, and with that Kennen can be untouchable.

The free characters rotate (every week?) so I would suggest buying one of the characters you liked playing from the free trial with your IP.

I'm not sure who to recommend if you want easy mode Kaiser, you prefer melee or ranged/tanky or killy characters? You know enough Dota-speak to talk about carries?

Ashe and Ryse are great newbie characters, but imo a bit linear and boring

Where do you get your stats?

How do you know about high elo play and viability of champions when you claim you are yourself low elo?

Nidalee, Malphite, Corky, Morgana, Mordenkaiser, Pantheon

Top tier.

Mordekaiser is a auto win in low/mid elo

Wouldn't recommend Nidalee, requires considerable skill to properly use.

Mordenkaiser is a walkover in the games I have played against him. Could just be the noob games I get shoved in, but really less of a threat than Garen or Malphite for me. (I play Zilean atm)