DotA 2

[Levykid]

Dota 1 perhaps, But Dota 2 has been almost perfectly balanced. HoN is by no means balanced and never will be most likely but I would still rather play it than LoL.
That and unlike Riot Icefrog doesn't fix what isn't broken on a regular basis. There are so many cases of them making absolutely idiotic patch changes that I cannot begin to list them.

They don't want things to get stale. It'd be as if unlockables were never introduced to TF2. When all that first came out, you'd better believe people raged. "WHAT?! But the game functions just fine! Why fix what isn't broken?" And now look. Riot's just like that.

But that's always the problem with being a company that makes online games. Some people will be pissed no matter what. It's impossible to please everyone.

the big difference between hon and lol is that in hon every hero is viable, whereas in lol there are some clearly all-around inferior choices

This is how many fighting games are, or any game where you have to balance more than 4 or so things. Some are going to be better. Unless everything is the same, it's going to be tough to make everything have the same viability.

Also, there are definitely character with less competitive viability than others. AOE seems to dominate a lot of the time, so if I play say... Pudge I get to eat one person then the other team can ignore me for the rest of the fight.

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

I was excited about tf2 unlockables until they actually happened.

[Snarf]

I am waiting for him to realize that most of the unlockables in tf2 are banned from competitive play for being poorly balanced making it a really shitty comparison especially since unlike major balance changes to the jungle you can toggle weapons off.
Also no most of the heroes have very tight niches they fill that no other heroes fill thanks to the overall complexity of the game.
No matter what you say LoL will always be a simplified version of dota and the way Riot goes through it's buff/nerf cycles makes it clear they don't exactly know what they are doing.
All of their patch changes are knee-jerk reactions and generally very small pokes and prods. Shit Sion got the most miniscule nerf in the Fizz patch just because he was seeing a lot of play in low elo games. Or Caitlyn who is the weakest late game AD having her MS dropped by 5 because she is strong early game. They make so many pointless changes it's funny and this jungle "rework" is no different. Really ask any of the professional junglers who are in the beta. I have not heard a single one of them saying that it was a good change. Riot regularly misses the "don't fix what isn't broken" point and this jungle rework only further proves my point that they just want the game to be accessible to everyone regardless of skill level.
Remember when Vayne came out? Her first nerf was that to her range dropping it by 5. You know guys I think that didn't do shit because you had to nerf her 3 more times before she wasn't the strongest ad in the game.

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

Let's nerf karthus even though he's been fine since beta.

Then again they always have far more nerfs than buffs, so if anything the overall power of champions are going down. Soon you'll have to two-man the jungle.

[Snarf]

No you won't because they are going to make it so you can clear it without smite and have to constantly stay within it unless you want to lose xp/gold and risk dropping down in levels when you fail a gank.

[CannonFodder52]

I had never played any of these games until about two weeks ago when my friends got me to play Lol with them.
So far I'm really enjoying it. Been playing Annie a lot and Volibear for the last couple hours.
I'm wondering, should I go back and play Dota 1 and HoN to get me ready for Dota 2 or am I going to know whats going on.

[Snarf]

I would like to mention that shadow fiend's patented pimp stride remains and is at least 60% more pimp now.

[Levykid]

Windrunner is suddenly adorable, I love the voice they gave her.

[Adder]

Let's nerf karthus even though he's been fine since beta.

Then again they always have far more nerfs than buffs, so if anything the overall power of champions are going down. Soon you'll have to two-man the jungle.

Karthus wall was (and still is) one of the strongest abilities in the game.

[Sleekgiant]

i like Mortred.. her last skill really gives the opponent a very serious damage.. especially when she has enough mana.. l-o-l.. but i'm not so sure if mortred really is a girl or a boy..

SOP in a nutshell really.