User blog comment:Krufix/Dota2 - Is it REALLY so much harder than LoL?/@comment-5556439-20130122140249

Heres my stance on the whole damn issue. If you like shooters, racing games, or any sort of fast paced action LoL is more your speed. If you enjoy more meticulous work like Simulators, Large-scale/Macromanagment RTS's like ANO, or Eve Online then DOTA 2 is more your speed. LoL is harder to master than DOTA where as DOTA is harder to learn. It really just depends on your preference. Me, I really enjoy the somewhat unfairness of stacking 30 Armor in runes and masteries or 2 shotting people due to a all critical strike rune page etc. DOTA however has very unfair item actives that really kill the gameplay in my opinion. I also prefer the Summoner Spell mechanic in LoL. I digress though

The main reason DOTA 2 is in general more difficult than LoL is because, not in the gameplay mechanics but in the APPLICATION of the mechanics and how un-user friendly the game is. It is very harsh if you have just picked it up and has a very steep learning curve if your not used to MOBA's. Not to mention how cluttered up that UI is, god. DOTA also has much more "OP" aspects like high duration stuns or slows. Imagine Morg's snare, with that being the longest snare in LoL, its the average snare length in DOTA. See? Its more the way things are put together and its overall "Meta"-game than it is just in general difficulty. Not to mention Hero's like Sniper can kill turrets without taking damage.....

DOTA last hitting and laning is probably the most alien aspect in comparison to LoL. You basically LET each other farm until you hit a certain level and even then, your not going back and forth, trying as hard as you can to secure the kill as you do in LoL, its much slower, and almost drags-on. Last hitting is much harder and since you have the deny mechanic laning is a much larger mind game than just farm-poke-farm-poke.

Im trying to say that in the grand scheme, LoL is actually HARDER than DOTA is. It has a very friendly introduction and is easy to pick-up, but after that, your on your own entirely and    things only get harder in LoL as you keep playing it since the whole Elo system really fucks alot of people over. DOTA 2 can be hard to get used to but after that I dont see what is so hard about it. It kinda hits a ceiling with its difficulty cap and doesnt expand past that, LoL on the other hand just annoys the hell out of you because even after youv learned everything you have to learn, shit changes instantly when you enter that next match, and you have to play with an entirely different mindset depending on who, what, and where you are. Not to mention the LoL community is a much more strict adherent to the concept of Meta so that adds another level of problems.

These are just my personal thoughts so no one flame me over this, if you dont like it, I dont care. If you have something intelligent and worthwhile to say, im all ears.