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The Ballad of HoN and DotA

Aeon of Strife (commonly referred to as AoS), was the style of game which blended RTS, RPG and, perhaps most importantly, teamwork. It has been attempted and failed by many map makers in Warcraft III, but when it was right, boy, it was right. Defense of the Ancients (DotA) was not the first AoS style map to hit the Warcraft III community, but it is clearly the most successful to date. As many of you would have no doubt noticed by now, S2 Games has released Heroes of Newerth (HoN), an almost identical copy of DotA, but standing on its own engine - not that of Warcraft III. The pros and cons of both games will be discussed, along with DotA and HoN's game's game play engines, competitive play capabilities and communities. Last, but by no means least, is the Riot Games title 'League of Legends' (LoL). This game was hyped up long before HoN, as Eul and Pendragon, two of the most important figures in the creation and promotion of DotA, are key figures in LoLs production.

HoN's online play is greatly improved from what was ever possible in DotA. For years, it was incredibly difficult to play against teams from other sides of the world in DotA, until the introduction of programs like DotA Client, Listchecker and of course, Garena. Even with these programs, there is still a large amount of bickering between teams trying to find hosts (with the search, dispute and host testing often taking much, much longer than the game itself). HoN's innovative new hosting system allows users from Australia to connect to European and American hosts and feel very little to no delay. Compare this to joining a random public DotA game on a Battle.net server, like U.S. West, where the delay is upwards of 2-3 seconds, this is an amazing strength of the game for online play, and regardless of your like or dislike for HoN, this must be credited as a huge improvement to DotA (and Warcraft III's Battle.net for that matter).

DotA has long been troubled in the most prolific e-Sports tournament, the World Cyber Games (WCG). While it is played at the Asian World Cyber Games, the larger, more popular event has never had DotA as a gaming discipline. It gives the same reason over and over; it is not a standalone game.

"Great jumping armadillos, Batman! Heroes of Newerth is a standalone game!"
"Yes, Robin, and not only that, it is an almost exact replica of DotA!"
"Gee whiz, does that mean what I think it means Batman?"
"Yes, you moron Robin, HoN is perhaps the answer to having a DotA-like map at the WCG!"

Thanks to our friendly interjection from Batman and Robin, you may be able to see (unless you are having sight problems, in which case I would suggest you seek help from your local GP) that HoN is perhaps the game that will make its way into the WCG. DotA's strength (and perhaps what made e-Sports organizations and sponsors take notice) was the way that the community was built - the entire community pushed the game along until people saw Warcraft III as DotA, instead of Warcraft (which is another topic entirely). If the same thing can happen with HoN, I am positive that the WCG will really consider it to be a new title to grace their prestigious event, and after the Beta testing stage, the plethora of new added features will really improve the game to become a real competitor to DotA.

Now, for those of you who know me, you will understand that I much prefer DotA to HoN. Here are my reasons.

First and foremost, HoN is not an innovate game. As simple as that. It is just a 'prettied up' version of DotA, that lacks new features (gameplay wise) and substance. When playing in a game, those familiar with DotA (which is a large percentage of people playing HoN) still refer to heroes and items as their DotA names. Not only that, every item is the same, all of the recipes are the same, and the secret shops are the same. So the question is raised, why create a game if 95% of the game is copied? A better question, still, is why is there a sudden rush to this game? After all, it is just DotA with new graphics and a slightly different game engine, isn't it? Also, once the Beta stages of HoN end, you will need to purchase the game. To say DotA is popular because of its availability and nonexistent price tag would be a gross understatement, and while I would be fine with forking out $30 (USD, mind you) to buy HoN and get a host of new features, whether or not most people trying it out will is unknown.

In DotA, when a spell or item is used, it has a clear animation and can be easily traced back to the source. In HoN, due to the huge change in graphics, this is simply not the case. When someone uses Black King Bar in DotA, their character model grows huge, and it is painfully (literally, in most cases) clear what is going on. When a hero in HoN uses the "Shrunken Head" (the BKB equivalent), it is barely noticeable, with a strange glow, which is apparently used for every spell in the game, replacing the model growth. It is the details, or lack thereof, in HoN which make it a far less easily understandable game, along with this, the paths in game are difficult to see, with the trees being nearly the same colour as the incredibly darkened green grass. Along with this, in team fights it becomes difficult to see not only who is on your team, but who is casting what and even what units are heroes. The graphics are improved, yes, but improved graphics doesn't mean the game is easier to understand, rather the opposite.

League of Legends is another AoS similar to DotA, but instead of copying the heroes, items and complete concept from DotA, it implements parts of other games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Described as a "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)" by its creators, Riot Games, it has been thrown off to the side in the DotA v HoN debate. This game, however, seriously deserves a look at. You take control of a summoner, who summons the heroes that you use to fight each game with, much like in DotA or HoN, but each summoner has unique spells and abilities, which unlock and improve as you gain more game experience. You are also able to collect runes, which you can group into 3 different pages, say having one page for intelligence based heroes, one page for melee heroes etc. The use of a talent tree, much like that of WoW's is also a nice feature, allowing players to give the heroes they play universal bonuses, such as increased movement speed, reduced time being dead and passive damage and spell bonuses. These elements from other popular games make LoL a unique experience.

In conclusion, HoN and DotA will both be able to exist in the e-sports world - but I believe DotA will hold the majority of players. Keep in mind that thousands upon thousands of people in places like the Philippines and Malaysia (as well as the ~200 thousand players on Garena) play DotA nonstop on Garena, whereas HoN beta usually has roughly 20 thousand players online at a time. The true test for HoN will be the end of closed beta - will the people enjoying their free game be willing to fork out money for extra features or will they decide to not play, and move to the free LoL or DotA instead? Time will tell. One thing is for sure, if HoN gets the same community support that DotA has, the game will have a hard time slowing from the pace it is currently at.

Edited twice, last edited 5/9/09 - 2:57pm.

Nice write-up.

Hard to really judge HoN until it's actually released, but for a beta it is doing insanely well and you can certainly see the potential.

I agree with pretty much everything in that post.

I personally have never played WOTA and the very first thing i got told by everyone when i first downloaded HON was " I'm not teaching you"

So obviously DOTA is a very hard game to understand if thats the initial reactions people hear when they know a mate is picking up the game. I personally have had no trouble what so ever picking up HON. Whether thats a testament to their friendly recipe UI or me reading lots of online guides on how the game works.. i dont know.

Defenitely one of the strengths going for HON is the developers. I just ******* LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE independent game developers. The quality of games they make is just astounding and the price they charge is next to nothing. S2 games has done nothing short of just amazing me with everything they have done so far and i can't think of any single complaint. Although camera max distance is a pain, i've worked around it and found a exploit However i agree that utilising your FOV is a skill which was the main reason for disabling the cvar.

HON has just so many positive things going for it. A beautiful game lobby, friends system, online ranking system (love it or hate it, it brings the casuals in), complete replay archive of every game played, completely disabled maphacks through nifty netcode, lag free games, STATS, automatch making, auto team matchmaking, inbuild referee system, map editor, VOIP, dedicated dev team instead of just 1 man (icefrog).

Not to mention S2 have publically stated they will be hosting their own tournaments/leagues with prize money through honleague.com. All this for a measly 30 USD. Now i know thats not a problem for US/AUS/EU. The only place i see HON not going extremely large is the asian countries that can't afford the money to purchase such a cheap game.

I must admit when i first started the game i was not used to the eyecandy and lost track of what is going on in combat. Now i can take it all in quite easily. So probably just something you get used to.

The non existent price for DOTA? Its called W3 mate, if you want Dota you buy War3? unless you do it illegaly so that nocks that out of the water.

paying for the game is a great deterent also for cheaters who will less lilkey take risks of getting banned to testing hacks or fooling around such as leaving halfway through because they CBF.

Thirdly, the reaosn HON is so popular is because its far more player freindly, you dont need to manually update, put maps in folders, laucn the game through hamachi, Garena or Battlenet. There are stats, freinds lists, and most importantly, little to no lag.

The reason the game is 95% like DOTA is because there was no reason to change the items and heroes or dota its self, except the graphics and compatibility. that 5% extra was improvemnt to the game DOTA needed. And its worked well

You're telling me every person on CG has gotten Warcraft III legally?


It is? Why do people use bots in WoW? Why do people hack in Counter-Strike?


More player friendly? The lobby UI is pretty much exactly like Battle.net. Oh, okay, you can right click and 'Join game'. I will play a new game for this 1 feature.


That makes no sense.

Everyone has made good points in this thread..

I agree with everything bobby said apart from the hacking part, Everyone will always try to find hacks no matter how much they cost. They will create, sell, use just for the fun of it.. $30 > watching "da no0bz cry when dey r pwnd"

Before the HoN beta was released, ALL OF US talked of LoL as the next big thing and took HoN as a piece of trash.. ( read the old threads lol)

I signed up for LoL's beta MONTHS ago and am still waiting.. as I think is everyone else, but if the game ever comes around it'd be nice to see what happens with it =]

Actually the graphics in HoN are great because they are clean, teamfights look like a cluster**** of effects in DotA. Also it's *Shrunken head* this also suggests you haven't played the game enough to know when someone is using it.

Asterix you should really get someone that likes to the game to admin it, this clown has clearly already made up his mind that he hates the game.

never played Dota but willing to give it a try i signed up for a beta key and got it actually just downloading the game now and ill give it a shot i guess :S

hate to be you if im on your team :S

Agree with almost all of the points listed, HoN certainly has some nice features but its still in Beta so can't judge it yet. I personally don't like the graphics and animations but there's no doubt many of them will be edited before release (BKB etc). I would also like to see more differing attack animations like there are in DotA, instead of every hero attacking instantly.

Seriously how can u not tell what is going on in a team fight in HoN? The graphics are a million times better than dota and way easier to tell whats happening, how can u not tell someone is using shrunked head, they are bright gold and stand out heaps.

Have to agree on shrunken head... i have no problem seeing someone using it. Also if you want a tip for not loosing your character in team fights. Push c and it will instantly center in on your hero.

didnt know that, thanks

How can you guys even question how he cant tell whats going on in a team fight?, he has only played the game a handfull of times yet he is still judging it.