Appeasing Your Annoying Friend: A LoL to DOTA Conversion Guide

How to quickly get a handle on the differences between DOTA 2 and League Of Legends.

Introduction

If you are reading this, odds are you have some friend who's been begging you to play Dota 2 with him. You probably also tried a game or two, and was seriously frustrated. Welp, this is the guide to help. I'll go over the major differences, along with some basics to get you up to a level to enjoy the game. Read on, have fun, and don't feed The Bloodseeker.

The Major Differences

- The UI is flipped, with the inventory being on the right, and the map on the left.


- There are no summoner spells. The most popular ones (Flash, teleport, smite) have been worked into items, but there are no summoner spells when you start the game.

- There are no runes or masteries. There is no outside influence on the outcome of the game. Everyone starts at the same place.

- Spells have much longer cooldowns, and use a lot more mana. They are also much more powerful. The average stun is over 2 seconds long, and there are ultimates that can almost kill an entire team on it's own. I'll go over the best usage of abilities later, but for now, know that they are used much more sparingly.

- AP isn't a thing. An Aether Lense is the only item that boosts the power of your spells, and that's only by 5%. Most spells and abilities have no scaling. This is intentional, and there is a reason.

- You lose gold when you die. That makes the game much more careful and patient.

- The Jungle is similar to the old jungle from LoL. If you want to play a jungler, I recommend that you get a better guide for jungling before you try. Also, don't worry that you are behind on levels and damage. That's normal.

- There are no real, set team comps, or roles. Some characters are better designed for certain roles, but it isn't a set template.

- All of the champions are free. Enjoy the indecision.

The Basics

Stats



Unlike LoL, there are only 3 major stats: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence.

Strength gives you health (20hp per point of strength) and health regen.

Agility gives you attack speed and armor (roughly 1 point of armor for 7 points of agility.)

Intelligence gives you mana and mana regen.

Each champion is assigned a primary stat. Whenever that champion gets a point in it's primary stat, they get a single point of damage along with whatever benefits they would normally get. This ends up defining how characters play, with strength champions being tankier, agility doing more damage, and intelligence being more caster based. That doesn't mean all characters follow that path, but it does describe the majority.

Towers



Towers aren't quite as terrifying in Dota as they are in League. While they still deal damage, and can take you out if you aren't careful, but it's not quite the safety net you are used to. They also attack based on a random target instead of focusing on minions first. Don't be afraid to tower dive, but don't get reckless. Also, don't be surprised to see someone solo a tower without minions after the 30 min mark. It's fairly common.

The Map and Lane Configuration



The map in dota is kinda asymetrical, but still balanced. Each side is broken into 3 lanes: Easy, middle, and hard. Easy and hard lanes are based on whether the majority of the lane is on your side of the river or not. Look at the bottom lane. If you are the radient (bottom left) you are going to have an easier time in that lane. It runs along side the jungle, which makes it easier for a jungler, or the mid lane to gank, and you get more space to push before having to worry about counter ganks.

Usually, the carry and a good support will go to the easy lane. A mage or ranged champion will play in the middle, preferably someone who can either CC or burst someone down during a gank. Hard lane will either have a semi-carry, or someone with a good initiation along with another support, or will be alone if you have a jungler. This is the most common set-up, and isn't a bad format for starting, but it isn't set in stone at all. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Spell Usage



In LoL, you can spam moves all day. Blowing a cooldown to clear a minion wave isn't uncommon, and it isn't unusual to see even ultimates at a minute cool down. Dota is a little different. Your abilities use insane amounts of mana, often only able to be used once without having to use a mana potion. This means that spells need to be used more cautiously. Don't just spam spells as a harass, save them for moments when they really count. This is less true for the mages, but still holds. Try to make every ability count.

Picking Your Hero: Strength Champions

If you ever played top lane, or one of the tankier supports, you will probably like strength heroes. These are the unstoppable death walls that eat stuns and abilities like it's nothing so the carry can finish the enemy off. The major benefit of most strength heroes is that you don't really have a bad point in the game. You end up a little tankier early game, which helps during laning, and your health and damage scales well enough to still keep you powerful at the end.

Good Champions For Beginners

Sven


This is one of the easiest characters to play, and thus a good place to get used to basics. Sven's combination of a stun and a high damage ultimate allows you to come back from behind easily. Plus, he has a built in cleave for 66% of his damage, which allows for easy farming late game if you need to pop levels.

Axe


Axe is what happens when you turn thornmail into a character. He has a taunt that makes enemy heroes attack you, a dot that only fades when you kill something, and a counter that does a high damage, aoe spin. You basically just walk into a team fight and let the enemy kill themselves.

Tidehunter


If you are looking for more of a support character, this is for you. Tidehunter is naturally tanky, which is good because you are basically just a walking ultimate. His Ult knocks everyone in a massive area into the air while doing a lot of damage. If possible, always start the team fight this way, it's a great way to knock down the entire team by at least a quarter.

Wraith King


Wraith King has a single target stun for 2 seconds, a crit, and gives everyone in the area lifesteal. Plus, his ultimate literally gives you a free life. You don't have to worry about consequences here, just do what you want. Your ult will always save you.

Champions to Avoid

Pudge


Blitzcrank's pull, Mundo's fire, and Warwicks ultimate. Plus, he gets strength and magic resist based on how many enemies he kills. Unfortunately, this means that he is reliant on getting early kills to snowball out of control. If you can't time the hooks, then you end up weak and useless, just there to feed the team. I recommend staying away from this character until you get some practice in.

Legion Commander


Legion Commander is a jungler who has the potential to snowball into an unstoppable killing machine. She has a counter that grants her a lifesteal, a heal that increases her attack speed, and a powerful ult. Her ult, Dual, causes both her and her enemy to auto-attack each other for a few seconds. If someone dies, the survivor gets a permanent bonus to attack damage. One that even carries over after death. The problem is, this could go for you or your enemy. She can easily end up buffing the entire other team if she isn't played right.

Items To Build

These are some items of note that may be useful on your charactersm depending on your build. Adjust it as you see fit.

Heart of Tarrasque


If you are a strength hero, you should build this item. I don't care how fed you are, how much damage you need, or if you are the best support Earthshaker the good lord has ever granted on the field of battle, you nead a Heart. It doesn't need to be your first item, but it should be in the build list. It gives you 1150 hp, and 45 damage, along with enough passive health regen to tank turrets indefintely. You always benefit from a Heart.

Satanic


This gives you 500 hp, 45 attack damage, 5 armor, and a 25% lifesteal. While I don't recommend building this until late game, it's major component, the Helm of The Dominator, is a great way to get some lifesteal for lane sustain, and some damage to get you through early-mid game. Also, it's active ability gives you 200% lifesteal. Just, go ahead and start wrecking the game, it's all good.

Urn Of Shadows


Urn of Shadows is one of the best early game items for strength heroes who have sustain problems. It gives some early strength, some nice mana regen, and a cool passive that works as a heal, or a DoT, depending on how you use it. Basically, it gets a charge every time an enemy hero dies in your area. You can spend these charges to either heal your team (which you should) or to deal a bit of damage to your enemies (which you shouldn't). Depending on the character, I've been known to grab this even before boots.

Picking Your Hero: Agility Champions

Do you enjoy assasins or ADCs? Do you feel the need to kill the entire team on your own? Do you like to feel like the most important person on the team? Then you might be an agility champion. With their beautiful mixture of damage, attack speed, and armor from their agility gain, the average agility hero can quickly grow to out damage anyone. As an agility carry, you live for the late game. You lack both damage and survivability in the early game, meaning you either need to jungle, or let the support set up kills so you can get some items.

Good Champions for Beginners

Drow Ranger


Did you play Ashe? Then you've basically played Drow. She has an AoE silence and knock back, and 3 seperate moves that make her bow more powerful. You just shoot the thing and watch it die. great times.

Juggernaut


Basically just Master Yi with a spin, Juggernaut does what he wants. He has a totem that follows him around and gives an AoE healing aura, a spin, a crit, and an ultimate that makes him hit something up to 9 times, jumping between targets if there is more than 1 person. Just, be warned, his spin falls off hard around mid game. Thankfully, his crit gets ridiculously powerful at about that time, so it balances out. Just use his spin as an opener, and crit everyone in half.

Phantom Assasin


ALL PRAISE THE RNGsus! Phantom Assasin is a crit reliant carry. She has a dagger throw that does good damage and slows, a blink that makes her instantly teleport to an enemy or ally, and a built in evasion. None of that matters after level 6 though, when she gets her ultimate. Her ultimate is a passive that gives her a 15% chance to crit for 450% damage at max level. By the time you get it maxed out, you will easily do over 1000 damage per crit, on a character who builds attack speed every time she levels up. Build some Lifesteal and you're basically invincible.

Champions To Avoid

Anti-Mage


Anti-Mage is one of the fastest gold farmers in the game, and can be an unstoppable carry if done right. Unfortunately, his early game is so weak, and his need for early gold is so strong that it's not worth starting with this guy.

Bloodseeker


Bloodseeker is a ganker who specializes in wiping lanes. Because he's primarily a jungler, his early game can be very difficult and often slow to start. A good bloodseeker requires coordination, and a strong knowledge of the jungle. Without that, you'll end up behind with no real ability to catch up.

Faceless Void


While the mini-stuns and the disables are enticing, stay away from this guy. His ultimate can trap both your enemies, and your allies in a field where they can't move, but can take a lot of damage from the enemy. You can accidentally wipe your whole team this way, and that's frustrating for everyone.

Meepo


Meepo's ultimate makes up to 3 versions of himself that share his base stats, and his boots that can be controlled independantly and all have their own health and mana. Unfortunately, if any of the Meepos die, they all die. To play him effectively requires you to be able to micromanage multiple characters simultaneously. Considering the payoff, it's not really worth it.

Items to Build

Butterfly


Gives Agility heroes 60 attack damage, plus attack speed, plus a 35% evasion. You hit harder and you die less. This is a great late game item, or mid if you're getting fed pretty hard.

Manta Style


Manta Style gives you attack speed, movement speed, and a bunch of agility. It also has an ability which creates 2 illusions who do damage and take increased damage from enemies. You can control illusions independently to lead people into traps, or just to split push like a crazy person. It's primary component, Yasha, is also of note, as it gives a good set of speed and damage for agility heroes for very little gold.

Poor Man's Shield


This will probably be the first item you build. It's cheap, it gives you some armor and some agility for early game, and it helps you stay in lane longer to get to your more powerful items.

Battle Fury


This is a farming tool. It allows you to hit npcs, such as minions or jungle creeps harder, along with providing damage, health and mana regen, and a cleave. You will push lanes with ease, and farm the jungle for all it's worth. The trade off is that it's expensive, so it's difficult to get early game without sacrificing your sustainability. To be really effective, you need to get it as early as possible, meaning you forgo things like upgraded boots, or a Yasha.

Picking Your Hero: Intelligence Champions

If you're used to an AP mid, or some sort of mage support, then you will like intelligence heroes. These are the heroes who walk into lane, wreck everything in front of them, then leave. Because of their heavy move reliance, intelligence heroes tend to do more burst damage, and also fall off in the late game. The trade for that is an overwhelmingly powerful early game. This makes mages good for supports, and early gankers.

Good Champions For Beginners

Crystal Maiden


Crystal maiden is a solid support with some strong team fighting abilities to keep her relevant. She gives mana regen to all allies on the map, she has a slow and a root, and her ultimate is an AoE channel around her that deals damage to all enemies in range. Early game you use your CC to help the carry set up kills, then spend the late game channeling death from the sky.

Lina


Lina lights things on fire. She shoots fire in a cone in front of her, damaging everything inside, she calls fire down from the sky to burn everything in an AoE, and she has a passive that increases her attack speed after each spell, allowing her some scaling into late game. Plus, if all of the fire didn't kill someone, she throws a lightning bolt for massive damage to kill whatever person you hated the most that fight.

Lion


Lion kills one thing and leaves. That is Lion's job. He uses a knock-up that does pretty good damage on someone, he turns another person into a frog, and then kills a person before going home. His ultimate is a single target spell that does up to 850 damage. If you build a Dagon, and you should, you get another single target spell to finish them off. Still, that means that levels basically do nothing, giving you massive ability to help your team come back, and ending team fights before they begin.

Nature's Prophet


Natures Prophet is a support with a teleport and a deep love for trees. He can turn trees into npcs that you can use to jungle, or push a lane, he can summon a circle of trees to isolate someone during a fight, and he can teleport to any point on the map. His ultimate is a spell that bounces between enemies, dealing decent damage. Nature's teleport and his trees give him incredible push potential, along with the ability to be in every fight.

Warlock


Warlock is basically just Annie with less damage. He can chain people together to basically double damage dealt to the team, he has a DoT, and a slow. His ultimate stuns everyone in an AoE radius along with summoning a massive golem to do all of the real work. Use it just like you would Tibbers.

Champions to Avoid

Chen


Chen's main ability is to grab neutral creeps from the jungle, and use them as an ally. He requires a lot of micromanaging and can accidentally give gold to the enemies by being careless with his pets.

Invoker


Invoker is the most powerful hero in the game. He never falls off, and he can kill an entire team if he so chooses. He's also the most difficult hero to play. Instead of spells, he has 3 elements that he combines to create one of 10 spells. So, you need to keep track of 10 combinations, and know what the use of 10 different abilities are. All of that, along with the basic mechanics of the game.

Keeper Of The Light


KoTL is one of the best early game supports. He can take out a third of the enemy lane's health and can instantly refill the carries mana, allowing it to spam spells. The problem is, KoTL falls of so hard, and so fast that he has almost no purpose in the late game. After about 20 minutes, you can hide in the well and no one will ever notice you are gone.

Items to Build

Stats on intelligence characters doesn't really matter. So, the majority of INT items have powerful active abilities that help with CC, or just damage the enemies. Also, there are a lot.

Eul's Scepter Of Divinity


Target an enemy and trap them in a tornado, making them unable to be hurt, or do anything.

Force Staff


Push an enemy away from you.

Dagon


Does a lot of damage to a single target.

Octarine Core


Gives 25% CDR and spell vamp

Shiva's Guard


Gives Armor and slows down enemies in the area. The active does damage and slows movement speed, along with attack speed.

Scythe of Vyse


Turns an enemy into a frog. They can't use any attacks or abilities.

Refresher Orb


Resets all cooldowns for all items and abilities. It effectively doubles your burst damage as it allows you to use your spells twice.

Itemization

Itemization in Dota 2 is a bit different from League. Items are far more powerful, and are much harder to get. This makes the gold advantage much more powerful, and thus comebacks much harder. Now, I gave you some specific items with the characters, so here I'm going to go over starting items, the secret shop, and the side shop along with a guide to building items on a character.

The Secret Shop


The Secret Shop (locations circled above) is a secondary shop that sells expensive components for powerful items. It sells items with massive stat bonuses, such as Plate Mail (armor), Reaver (strength), Eaglesong (agility), or Demon Edge (damage).

Side Shop


A small shop with a limited inventory located in the corner on the side lanes. This can be used to buy TP scrolls, or small items for early game sustain without using the courier.

Boots


Boots are usually the first item you get. They're cheap, they are powerful, and they can give you a solid start towards your core build. Here are the boots you can use:

Boots of Speed


The basic boots. It lets your run faster. Needed to make the rest of the boots.

Power Treads


Along with movement speed, gives you attack speed and 9 points in one stat of your choosing. You can change stats whenever you want to offer whatever bonus you want. Most people just leave it on their main stat, and go about their business.

Phase Boots


Gives you damage and has an active that is basically just ghost. Good for gankers.

Tranquil Boots


Essentially, it's the passive from Warmogs in boot form. Mostly used by tanks or junglers.

Arcane Boots


Gives you mana and has an active that gives mana to any allies in the area. Used for mages and mana-dependent supports.

Guardian Greaves


An upgrade for Arcane Boots that gives armor and adds a heal to the active. Mostly for Supports who aren't sure what to get anymore.

Boots of Travel


Gives the highest movement speed, and unlimited teleports. If you get this, you have either finished your entire build and need the mobility, or are playing Tinker.

Early Game

These are the items you will buy when you first start the game. It can be a cheap component for your first build, or some simple stats. You'll also buy some consumables to help sustain you in lane.

Clarity


Gives 190 mana over 50 seconds. The regen stops when you take over 20 points of damage.

Healing Salve


Restores 400 health over 8 seconds. Like the Clarity, the regen can be stopped with damage.

Tango


You eat a tree to gain back 115 hp over 16 seconds. It can not be stopped. Just use it on a tree, eat it, and heal.

Bottle


Holds 3 charges, each of which gives you 90 health and 60 mana over 2.5 seconds. It can be refilled every time you visit the well (spawn area) or get a rune.

Iron Branches


Gives you 1 of each stat, making it the most gold efficient item in the game. Only builds into a wand, but makes a massive difference in the early game. Remember: Sticks win wars.

Gauntlets of Strength


Gives 3 strength

Slippers of Agility


Gives 3 agility

Mantle Of Intelligence


Gives 3 intelligence

Ring of Protection


Gives 2 armor

Stout Shield


Gives a 50% chance to reduce damage from attacks. Useful for carries who want some extra survivability, or junglers.

Quelling Blade


Has 2 separate abilities. It can be activated to kill a tree to open up new paths for ganks, and does extra damage to npcs. This is important for junglers, as it allows them to jungle effectively without having to go back for health every 30 seconds, and for low damage carries to get last hits easier.

Laning and Playing

Dota 2 has less fluff than League does, so the basic mechanics mean a lot more here. Lane flow, warding, map awareness, and communication are all important here.

Minions and Lane Flow


For the most part, creep mechanics stay the same as LoL. There are 3 types: Melee, ranged, and siege. You get gold for last hits, and experience for being near them as they die. If you take down all the barracks after the last lane towers, you get super creeps. The main difference comes in terms of denials. If your allied creeps get down in health, you can finish it off to deny a portion of the experience from that minion. Besides giving you an advantage in terms of levels and gold, denials also offer you control of the flow of the lanes. It helps to keep you from over pushing, keeping the creep engagements in the middle of the lane until you are ready to move forward.

Early Trades and Ability Usage


The first few minutes of a game tend to be very passive. Every character will be mana tapped, some only able to use an ability once before needing a clarity. That means you need to save your abilities for a moment when you will get a kill, or at least drive your enemy back to base. That also means trading blows can be dangerous, depending on who the enemy is. Play defensively, using ranged heroes to harass, while waiting for a moment you can get a kill.

Keep in mind, with no summoner spells, going in to attack is much more dangerous. Most heroes don't have an escape, and there's no back button to teleport you to base. You need to buy a teleport scroll, or walk back. Going all in is the name of the game.

Runes


Instead of buffs tied to jungle creeps, Dota has runes that spawn at the marked locations every minute. It's usually the mid lane that grabs them, and the supports are suppost to put wards in the area to grant vision of the runes, and the river.

Roshan


Dota's version of Baron, Roshan is a big, magic punishing, stunning creep that is usually killed around the 30 minute mark unless you have an Ursa in the game. He blocks spells, and bashes people randomly. If you kill him, you get gold, experience, and an Aegis of The Immortal, which grants a second life to anyone who holds it.

Finishing Up

As complicated as it sounds, most of you will enjoy your time in Dota. It's focus on basics and flexible builds allow for a much more dynamic gameplay compared to the rigid structure of LoL. Just relax, have fun, and never feed the bloodseeker.