I am seeking your help.

I recently played some Guardians Of Middle Earth, which was my first moba. It was fairly easy to get into, as I already new the basics thanks to share osmosis. Had a lot of fun with that game, but a myriad of technical issues as well as a wish to try something more complex has me searching for my next moba.

So, which one would you recomend to a fairly new player with a good grasp of the basics? Is LOL a good place to start, or is DOTA2 the next logical step? Maybe some other game? Please advice =)

It's easy to get in to, just be careful of the horrible community that will chew you out at a moments notice

Definitely a low bar of entry, fairly easy to pick up.

I spend most of my time doing Co-op vs AI, so I don't get into the ranking matches, and as a result I get no hate in those games.

@thoseposers said:

How easy is it to turn off all voice and text chat? The community is so toxic, I feel like that should be the default setting when you install LoL.

@psylah: @thoseposers: Thanks for the quick responses. How is DOTA2 compared to LOL? Much more complex?

Having not played much of the game, what I took from it is that it requires a large amount of cooperation between team members. Turning off chat seems to go against that, despite the potential for dickheads.

It's different. Whether it's more complex or not is fairly subjective if you ask me. They focus on different aspects and thus play differently. I prefer League because I find the game more fun and a lot of the systems I dislike in Dota have been entirely stripped out. League is at it's best if you play with other people you know. I'll be honest though, I've barely played a single solo game since I was about lvl23, but it's still a good game. It's free to play, so you can try it out and see how you like the feel of it.

I immediately tried Dota 2 and LoL after having a bit of a go with guardians but getting frustrated with it's piss poor matchmaking. I hadn't tried any MOBA's out till then.

I got sick of both of them within a week, but i understand the appeal. Like competitive shooters they are a bit of a wasteful time sink once you have you're initial bit of fun.

LoL is a bit more user friendly and less intimidating than Dota i found (presentation wise), but Dota was the more satisfying for me. As far as the community and all that I couldn't find to much to complain about - I've seen much worse in competitive fps over the years. Just try not to die and read a few online guides, I played for hours before i even realised the whole leeching thing or whatever it's called even mattered which i guess says something about how these games are presented vs how they should be played. Although i feel if you are reading an online guide to play a game it's too much of an investment - i enjoy the self discovery, which i guess once you learn the basics you get out of playing different types of characters.

Anyway i guess i'm saying i came out of my little MOBA experiment with some mixed feeling on it, i feel like there's some potential with the formula but some of it feels like it needs some streamlining or something to make it more fun and less of a chore.

I suggest trying out AirMech on steam. I probably had more fun with that than the other two. It seems to be built more with a controller in mind and feels less complicated/intimidating.

@rowr: That's a very thorough explanation and examination. Thanks a bunch.

@morningstar: I played Dota back in the day, started playing League 2 years ago and tried DOTA 2 a few months ago and I believe League is by far the best. After 2 years it's still consistently fun and the most fun I've ever had playing online (and i've tried pretty much every type of online game). I've played close to 1600 games, and that's considered a small amount in 2 years (I regularly see people with 4000-5000 games played).

Sure the community are horrible but don't let them put you off playing a great game. All they'll do is throw words at you. Sticks and stones right? When you get into a game with a team full of really friendly players who are all playing together, it's UNBELIEVABLE fun. and those players DO exist. :)

Well I used to play LOL and now ive been playing DOTA and i can safely say that both communities are terrible.

Definitely. However, it makes it even more meaningful when you get a really nice bunch of players on your team - though it's rare. :D