Heroes of the Storm vs League of Legends

I enjoyed the video game death-battle so much in the last post that I thought I would do it again, this time focusing on mobas (massive online battle arena games). If you didn't know mobas are team based games with 5 players testing their skills against another team of 5. League of Legends (LoL) is one of the most famous mobas and games of all time having 67 million playing every month, 27 million playing every day, and over 7.5 million playing at the same time during each day’s peak play time. That's a lot of people! It's also one of the biggest esports (pro gaming) games. Riot games sure have a winner on their hands. Heroes of the Storm (HoTs) is a relatively new moba made by Blizzard that also has a role in esports. Here I'll tell you a bit about the similarities, differences, and what I consider to be the better game.

First, the similarities. Both games are mobas that feature 5v5 team battles. The object of the game is to destroy the towers in the lanes (mid, left, right) and get to the core. Once you destroy the core your team wins. It's as simple as that for the most part. These games feature champions or heroes that all have unique abilities and play styles. Once you reach a certain level you get your ultimate ability-which is your trumpcard that's used for killing blows.

In addition, both games are featured in the esports scene. LoL is one of the biggest esports and has been for a while. Although HoTs is sort of dying the game still has somewhat of a strong esports following and major tournaments.

Also, both games are free! You can download either of these games free through Riot or Blizzard at no charge. However, both games feature in game cash transactions to buy heroes and skins. I've spent some money on HoTs but haven't delved into LoL enough to want to buy new champions. That's where the similarities end.

The main difference is that LoL features items and HoTs doesn't. You can buy items in LoL in-game from the shop to boost and aim your character is whatever direction you want in terms of stats. The other main difference is that in HoTs levels are shared by the team-meaning that experience you get for killing creeps (non-player minions in the lanes) or players are shared by your entire team. In LoL your experience is your own. This means that if one player gets fed (kills a lot) they can dominate entire teams by out-leveling their opponents. A team can out-level another team in HoTs but in LoL I've seen games where one hero is so much higher than enemy players, its a whole different ball game.

I'm a HoTs veteran that's been playing since technical alpha so I'm very fond of the game. I'm proud to have been apart of the technical alpha. That was one of the first betas that I entered into and actually got into. And you know from reading my posts that I'm a poster boy for Blizzard. Let's put it this way: HoTs is better as a casual game and LoL is better as a competitive game. Let me explain.

Even though Blizzard has been trying its hardest to make HoTs competitive I feel the game is too simple and too cluttered visually to be one of the biggest esports. In addition, even though Blizzard makes great games their games tend to be one giant clusterfuck if you know what I mean. Take a look at Overwatch. The gun is taking up the whole screen and there's so much happening visually that it can be overwhelming at first.

LoL, on the other hand seems to make much more sense when I watch pro game-play from tournaments. LoL has a much cleaner visual style that makes it better to view for esports as well as play-ability.

Even though HoTs has a competitive ranked mode I don't think too highly of it. Too often you get placed with players who give up in the middle of matches or who do their own thing instead of playing as a team-making you drop rank hardcore. I'm sure this happens in LoL too but I feel that LoL has a much better competitive ranked mode.

Anyways, HoTs is better as a casual game because it features all the cool heroes from Blizzard's game roster and they all have unique cool abilities. The fact that you don't have to worry about knowing what all these items do makes the game inviting to beginners. I've tried many mobas but I didn't truly understand how to play these kinds of games until I played HoTs. The game is super fun. Although there are technical things like knowing what skills to choose at certain times, these things can be learned as you play. LoL, I feel requires more practice games to truly understand what's going on. Nothing wrong with that. It just takes more time to understand.

League definitely wins this death-battle based on the fact that its player numbers don't lie. I've only played a few games but I'd be down to play more in the future. Its one of those games that seems daunting at first but once you get into the flow of it its quite natural-like Heroes. I still enjoy Heroes though and I hope that Blizzard continues to throw out updates and give us more cool heroes. I'm down for some more Starcraft heroes that's for sure. I did a video about why I like HoTs that can be viewed here. Mobas are still cool kids!