I'm new to League of Legends. Just finished the tutorials and it really seems like something I could enjoy... but here's where I stand.

I chose League over Dota because it seems like the general consensus is that League is a bit easier to get into. Don't know if that's 100% true, but that's the impression I got. I don't feel strongly either way and could honestly be persuaded to go to Dota pretty easily as it would keep everything within Steam... but for right now, it's LoL.

I'm a father of year old twin girls. I will not be able to put long hours into this game to get really good. If I do continue, I'm just looking to have some fun and hopefully have some competitive matches here and there. I'll be lucky to get in a match or two a week.

So, I have some questions:

1. Is anyone else in my boat? Just looking to have some fun with the game but not able to play much at all. I'd be happy to group up sometime.

2. Anyone willing to answer questions I have as they come up? I'm going to slowly be dipping into the scene. First through co-op bot matches and eventually competitively. As I stand right now, I don't know anyone personally who plays this game.

3. Is this a fool's errand? If I'm not going to be able to put in the time, is this going to just go poorly?

Thanks in advance.

I haven't played the game in months, and when I did play I did know my way around the game so I wouldn't be in the same boat.

If you post questions here I can try and answer what I can remember, I did play it off and on for years, from not long after the beta so I know some things, and others know more.

It could be a fool's errand. The core gameplay is fun which is why I and many others poured hours into solo queue, but at some point I realised that since I didn't know many friends to play with, and didn't have a conducive schedule to playing with a group, it made it almost impossible to strategise with the team or co-ordinate tactics. The stuff you see at the pro level is never replicated in solo queue because you can't voice chat with your team, and even if you could you probably wouldn't want to voice chat with a bunch of random strangers.

Still the game's a lot of fun and fairly easy to get into, and once you know it watching tournaments is fun. Personally I ended up deciding I need to choose between RTS's (my old bread and butter), MOBA's, or fighting games, and went with the fighting games, which are the easiest to learn on a tight schedule.

I hate to say it but probably

These games are definitely not parent friendly due to match length and the fact pausing doesn't generally go well in game given the number of players. Unless your girls are sound and reliable sleepers, i'd expect a lot of bad experiences (i.e. people yelling you for pausing, unpausing the game while you are gone etc).

I also hate to say it , but a match or two a week isn't probably enough to get anywhere meaningful with the game to where you will feel like you know what you are doing and have fun. These games are not strategically or mechanically hard, but there is a massive amount data to absorb and memorize. It's a bit like learning a second language.

Most people I know who get into these games and are reasonably proficient at them, usually have an intense startup period where they play dozens of games in a short amount of time. Then after you've acquired that base knowledge, you can coast on a few games here or there. Fwiw i play probably around 10-20 games a month of DOTA,and don't feel out of sync even with major balance changes. But I've also been playing DOTA since 2006, so I have that base knowledge.

So my advice would be to stick to single player games, or shorter multiplayer games like Halo instead.

The only qualification to this I'd say is if you have a crew of 4 other people you know personally to play with. Then it can be fun and they will likely be understanding if you need to go check on your kids etc.

Frankly even for the most ardent players, playing with rl friends is easily the most optimal way to play these games. There is a dramatic difference in terms of fun between playing with randos and friends.

If you do this, I highly recommend finding some people to play with. Especially people who can teach you. Moba's are very much team experiences. Solo in league was probably one of my least favorite experiences in any game. And that was just leveling up to 30. My friends and I switched to heroes of the storm's alpha last year and we haven't ever had a desire to go back. But I don't know, maybe you'll have a better experience with LoL. Just know that people who think they're gods amongst men will give you hell for every little thing you do wrong.

Let me just sum it up for you.

The game is really, really fun when you have a consistent group of similarly skilled friends who play it.

The game is not fun at all and extremely hard to get into without guidance, and by guidance I don't mean youtube tutorials but literally being on skype with a person who can tell you what to do and not do.

I had a 2-3 month affair with League. I played probably like 7-10 hours a week. Most of the matches I played with my friends were fun.

About 90% of the matches with strangers were frustrating, exhausting and simply a drag.

Unless you have someone that you know will play it with you, don't do it to yourself.

Ha.

Thanks for all the honest advice, all.

Sounds like this is really something that I shouldn't do to myself.

I guess if there is anyone out there who is interested, I'll play. But I won't expect much.

Are there any similar games that are casual friendly (friendlier?) What about Heroes of the Storm?

Do what I do (but I play Dota 2 instead), just play bot matches and with friends once in a blue moon. Like you, I don't have enough time to commit to playing regularly, but I do enjoy the game and find it interesting so this has become the happy medium for me. If I need to pause for a while to deal with something I can do that.

If you do decide to play either League or Dota solo against people, don't hesitate to immediately mute people if there is so much as a hint that they might be a jerk. There are a lot of people you will have to play with who will think they are good when they are not, and they will make sure you know that they think they are good, and in doing so usually will insult you or be a jerk to the team.

In the little while I got to play against people I noticed one standard rule: The more someone talks and is a jerk to the rest of the team, the worse they usually are. The person talking the most shit is almost always the person doing the worst on the team. Heck, I saw this in the potato tier in Dota when I played, and I see it at the top MMRs on Wagamama's stream when I watch. This doubly reinforced why I say to be trigger happy with muting people.

This guy knows what is up!

And as surely some other have mentioned. Getting a group (or even just one buddy) who are proficient at the game to teach you. There are a lot of great tutorials out there but to go through some them could mean you looking into a bigger time investment then some shorter games. With a group that can naturally trickly down. (Then again then there is the issue of a possible massive gap in skill (mostly knowledge) that could render the experience frustrating.

I would even suggest jumping in for a few games of Strife. That seems easier to grasp and gets you some of the moba knowledge. Although I don't think that will do you much good seeing as every moba requires a lot of specific knowledge of heroes and combos within the game. The concept of a moba isn't super hard to grasp so.

As someone who did it myself I would disagree. If you are the type of person who gets easily frustrated, lacks patience, and has thin skin(because people will insult you when you do bad), then I would agree with you.

If you are not like I stated above, then you have a chance. Youtube videos and written tutorials explaining the basics can help a lot. I learned the league by myself and moved over to DOTA. I actually found DOTA to be much better at learning because of build guides and voice chat/communities. With the built in guides for DOTA you can see how to build a specific character and learn the pro's and con's of that hero in the game. With league there is nothing similar to this and I actually used to constantly have my tablet next to me when playing with an online guide open. Relating to voice/communities I just found more people willing to help new people, especially in certain communities. I have played a ton of games with people from Giantbomb who were new and rarely if ever had someone on my team bitch about having a new guy playing. Most people were willing to help and guide the new player over the built in voice chat.

I still think league is easier to learn simply because it's an easier game. The things I mentioned in DOTA helped me learn characters faster then I ever did in league, but DOTA can be overwhelming with the amount of minor details that matter.

I'll chime in. For a bit of background, I'm fairly proficient in both games (though I prefer League because I like the character design more, from an aesthetic perspective). I don't play as often as I used to but I'm still decently familiar with the metagame. If you'd like someone to play with you can PM me your account info. I'm willing to teach you in-game, and you can even PM questions to my GiantBomb account.

In regards to the community, I don't think you should mute people willy-nilly online. Maybe it's my upbringing, but I personally feel that everyone who plays multiplayer games with strangers should develop an iron skin. And, you know, it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. But again that might just be me.

For guides on how to build characters I recommend you visit the mobafire website. The top rated guides usually provide explanations to why they build a certain way. It might give you some insight to how the metagame works. As well, there are general guides on the site that might prove beneficial.

I've played League for the last 4 years. I played a lot while in college, a couple of years back, but have substantially slowed my time with the game lately. But I started with zero instruction. When you do you'll simply start at the bottom, with and against people that are either also just starting or playing fresh accounts to try and beat on new people because they completely lack skill. Either way, you're playing easy mode at the start anyway. It is definitely doable.

There is no Pause in the game, I don't know what killerbit is talking about. If you have to go, just go. Big deal if people get mad, the player base is so large you'll likely never encounter them again. So what if you get banned, as long as you don't put any actual $$$ into it then you're not out anything. Just play whatever you want, at whatever pace suits you and fuck everyone else. :P

@killerblt said:

As someone who's been in since October, I'll give my quick opinion of HotS.

It's better for the casual gamer. It's objective and team focused as opposed to individually focused. Games are about 20ish minutes on average instead of 30-40. There are no "carries" or people who can win the entire match just by powering up themselves, and there's no way to be more skilled at farming than any person on your team or the opponents team. So it takes a lot of the pressure off of players who get yelled at for not farming well. The skill in farming comes not from getting or denying creep kills, but from coordinating as a team and getting individuals in each lane while the other 2-3 members do objectives in the early game without dying. Then you ball up and teamfight later when you have the xp advantage. There's also more variety in my opinion since each map has different objectives. Some maps are a bit harder to play on because of this however. And while some matches can be very one-sided if you get a bad team composition or are put up against a very skilled team, generally the game doesn't snowball too hard. There's always a move you can do to make a comeback as long as you can see it and execute it with your team.

HotS is for the player who wants a faster and simpler moba. You won't be sitting in lane doing nothing but last hitting for 15 minutes. You'll be making moves as a team the second the game starts, and it feels great and action packed. The simplicity of it might turn off some higher-end dota and league players who like their last hitting and item buying, but in my opinion the talent tree system is a satisfying substitute despite still needing some work. I'd highly recommend it if you want to buy in, wait for an invite, or wait for open beta. I haven't stopped playing it since I got in.

The game is still very new. It only became possible to buy in back in January. So there are tons of people who don't understand the meta. You won't feel that far behind compared to the newer players, adnd the ones from alpha will generally guide you in the right direction. People usually won't get too grumpy with you unless you just ignore them telling you what to do.

The downside to heroes right now is the cost. You'd have to buy your way in or wait for an invite. You earn gold slower than League and the heroes can seem a bit more expensive mostly due to the lower hero selection pool, and every new hero is getting released at the highest price while older heroes get discounted over time. There are still some cheaper heroes who are very competitive though. (Malfurion, tychus, Elite Tauren Chieften, Valla, Zagara, Tyrande, etc.)

Keep in mind that if you go afk for 3-5 minutes you will get kicked out of the game, and you'll be tagged as a leaver/afk'er. This will mean that youll be matched with other people with the same tag as opposed to people who stay in their games. You can get this tag removed by going for so long without leaving and return to playing with non-tagged players. Granted you have a good excuse for leaving by having a family, but I just want to make sure you know that if something comes up that makes you leave for a decent period of time the game kicks you out.

My thoughts mirror those above me, so I won't spend time reiterating what they said. But unfortunately I do agree that this is about the last game you would want to be playing on such a schedule.

In terms of a different game, I think you may want to take a step away from the MOBA genre, unless that is what you are set on learning how to play. It took me about 100 matches to fully feel like I knew what was going on and if you stop playing for over a month you basically lose all sense of the meta. The hardest part of MOBA's for me is learning what all of the other hero's abilities in order to better combat them. That and sifting through the hundreds of items. I've played over 150 league matches at this point and I still am embarrassed to show my league friends my item builds, for mine are still extremely elementary.

If you are really just looking for a fun escape from the kids and life in general, I would suggest a single player game as you can easily pause in order to snap back into reality. Also one that doesn't involve a bunch of young kids typing constant slander at you. A 3ds seems perfect for your situation, but handhelds aren't exactly everybody's bag. If you are really set on playing a MOBA, Vain Glory for IOS is an oversimplified version of the genre. Drew from the site seemed to love the game for this exact reason.

@killerblt: Hey, If you're on the NA server I'll help you out with any questions you have. I'm a relatively high ranked player (like top 3% last I checked) and have been playing for a 4 years so I know a fair bit. This goes for anyone with questions or that just want to play. Add me as Slyspider on NA server (or just PM me on this site) I'll accept once I get home.

You get out as much as you put in. I played 8-12 hours a day for a long time to get to where I'm at, but now I play a few games a day to stay on my game. Playing once a day won't get you into the upper bracket of players, but you can totally enjoy league without going all nuts over it like I did.

As for HotS, its much quicker matches (league is about 40 min a game, HotS seems to be roughly 20-25 min) but it is decently complex.

It entirely depends on your expectations for yourself. I wouldn't let people here dissuade you with all this talk of watching YouTube tutorials and needing people to teach you. My girlfriend plays maybe 2 games a week if she has time and even then it's just bot matches by herself or a co-op game with me but she enjoys it all the same. If you're just looking to play a moba in your free time and have no allusions of rushing to 30 and being stellar in Ranked I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun. You don't have to approach the game with a competitive mind set, just try it out and have some fun.

Feel free to add me in game or ask any questions. IGN is Blannir, I'm typically on in the evenings eastern time.

Personally, i stopped playing LoL because of match length issues. However, since you've already got it, you might as well give Dominion a shot. It's easier to get into with a lot less filler at the front-end.

@slag: You can't even pause in League of Legends, you just have to go afk! But yeah you're right, even one game of LoL is super long and people absolutely will jump down your throat if you have to go during the game.

I've started playing Heroes of the Storm and it's likely my existing knowledge of how mobas work but it feels super easy to pick up compared to trying to learn Dota 2 after playing LoL. I've never had a game last over 20 minutes too, which I'm all for. That game basically cuts out the "laning phase" of other mobas where nothing really interesting happens for like 15 minutes. I stopped playing LoL because of how long games can potentially get (also I was playing solo so got the full community experience), but I don't have that issue with Heroes of the Storm.

@killerblt: I second the idea of Heroes of the Storm. I got an invite to the technical Alpha and the game really solves the majority of the problems I had with LoL: it's simpler, more streamlined, easier to get into. The games are shorter and more team and objective focused, the whole team levels up as one, which eliminates a lot of the opportunities for the blame game. I found it way more fun to play a game or two an evening than I had with a quick session of LoL. All of the archetypes are fun to play, which gets rid of the 'somebody pick support' issue.The game is also younger which eliminates the frustration of being put in one team with both a newbie and a 5 year veteran. Plus it has that Blizzard polish.

I haven't played the game for a while but I would strongly advise you to pick it up when it goes into open beta, which I imagine shouldn't be terribly long. I don't have much experience, probably a lot less than some of the people in this thread, but as a guy who simply wanted to tried out LoL and HotS I will tell you that HotS, to me, is a much better entry game into the MOBA genre.

hunh, I did not know that, thanks for pointing that out to me!

Shows you how often I play LoL I guess. I'm a DoTA man to the core.

Just play some and have fun, you are only as good or bad as the standards you set for yourself. People will bitch and moan at you for not knowing stuff or doing the wrong thing. But guess what, they are matching with you as new players so they don't know what the fuck they are talking about anyways. If you don't have the time to become amazing, then don't expect yourself to be amazing. Just get some friends and smoke some fools with your sick Lux ultimates. The game is absolutely a lot of fun on lower levels of skill as long as you let it be fun.

Thanks all for all the great advice. I actually managed to get 3 bot matches in tonight. The low stakes really made it less intimidating, and I think I did pretty well, all things considered. People are friendly so far.

I think I'm going to try and keep with it. At least for now. I won't be playing competitively anytime soon, probably never, but this was really fun.

Maybe consider looking into Smite. It's much easier to get into (fewer items, fewer characters, etc...) and the games are generally faster. It is the Dead or Alive of MOBAs; the best starting point for people unfamiliar with the genre. Playing an easier game will also help you transition into the more complex ones when or if that happens.

Also, as others have mentioned. The real key to getting into these kind of games is having other people to consistently play them with.

Playing Bots is a ton of fun because you get to wreck shit up and as you said the stakes are low.

That said I do play Ranked all the time because the highs are extremely high but the lows are very low.

@killerblt: If you want a really low commitment Moba you might want to give Heroes of the storm a try. If you know dota or league it's a bad game but for someone new getting into it, should be a fine option. On a side note you may not want to get too attached to any one character in LoL because riot has a bad habit of saying "nah this character is going to be complete shit now" all the time.