The debate of League of Legends vs. Dota 2 is never-ending and, quite frankly, it became boring more than just a couple of years ago. There is, however, one thing no one’s really talking about, and yet it’s causing quite a fair bit of chaos in the League community: champion design.

There’s a stark difference between the way Valve and Riot do things, and after so many years of releasing champions/heroes, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Dota 2 won the battle when it comes to balancing and overall hero design.

A key difference in design philosophy

A couple of years ago, Riot started releasing overly complex (convoluted, rather) champions. Each new release was stronger and more capable than the one preceding it — it felt like almost every new champion had either a three-hit passive, insane mobility, and/or a game-deciding ultimate.

This is considerably different when compared to the way Riot designed champions “back in the day.” All of these champions look fairly similar but are vastly different in regards to core champion design philosophy and overall mechanics.

Valve’s way of doing things, on the other hand, didn’t change much over the years and that’s commendable, to say the least. They’re still releasing both incredibly complex heroes, but also bafflingly simple ones as well — like Mars, for example. In a way, Valve caters to both sides of the spectrum. By doing this, they are able to maintain balance without having any power creep (something that’s plaguing both League of Legends as well as Overwatch). In other words, their most recent heroes aren’t much stronger than the ones they released years ago because they’re all designed with the same gameplay goals in mind.

Unfortunately, things aren’t as balanced in League of Legends (at least not gameplay-wise). Over the last three or so years, Riot’s releases have been overwhelmingly strong, if not disgustingly overpowered. Because they bring so much to the table when played correctly, it is only natural to see them heavily affect the meta.

Xayah and Rakan were released in the first half of 2017 and yet they’re still staple picks in the bottom lane. Qiyana, Yuumi, Sylas, Zoe, Pyke, and Ornn are just some of the champions which immediately became competitive mainstays and are still being played on a frequent basis in professional play. Even when they’re slowly (or abruptly) phased out, it’s only a matter of time before they make a grand return — there’s simply too much power built-in, and even the smallest of buffs is enough for their pick rates to spike.

Which game handles character design the best? Dota 2 96%, 55 votes 55 votes 96% 55 votes - 96% of all votes

League of Legends 4%, 2 votes 2 votes 4% 2 votes - 4% of all votes Total Votes: 57 Voting is closed Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

The biggest problem is that their key strengths come as a result of overloaded ability kits, rather than intelligent champion design. This means they’re OP upon release, and are then nerfed to the ground mere weeks or months after everyone and their mother complains. It is as if Riot doesn’t design from the ground up, but rather comes up with the most insane, elaborate abilities and then “trim the fat” until they’re satisfied with the result.

It also became common practice to remove certain aspects of a champion’s kit in order to reach a balanced state. As a result, many champions no longer play or function as they were originally intended to. This is also the leitmotif of many recent reworks as well. Akali, Irelia, and Galio for example no longer have certain abilities or combinations which made them so unique — they lost a good chunk of their identity.

And let’s not even start the conversation about the impact professional play has on the game and its many champions. The way pro players use (and abuse) certain champions and strategies is often the driving force behind almost every balancing decision.

When you have so many moving pieces, so many intricate, nuanced layers, mechanics and types of champions, power levels, and the like, balancing becomes an absolute nightmare.

This, in essence, brings forth yet another problem: power creep. Newer champions often bring more damage/utility to the table when compared to older ones. For example, Kai’Sa and Xayah immediately became staple AD picks upon release as they provided far better scaling and team fighting prowess when compared to many older marksmen.

The stats tell the same tale as well: Kai’Sa was picked 50 times at the most recent World Championship, with Xayah coming in at second place with 34. Ezreal is then next in line with fourteen appearances (a meager number in comparison) and an abysmal 35% win rate (a stark difference when compared to Xayah’s 70%, for example).

But those days now feel so incredibly distant as Aphelios and Senna are all the rage at the moment. These two back-to-back releases in November and December of 2019 bring so much firepower and utility to the table, it’s actually insane. Senna can dish out huge amounts of damage in prolonged team fights, she can heal multiple allies and also camouflage herself and her entire team. Oh and, why not give her a global ultimate that both shields teammates and damages opponents? That sure sounds like a great idea!

And let’s not even talk about Aphelios — the champion Riot proudly deemed as their “most complex to date.”

When even the casters don’t know what Aphelios does, you know you’ve done something wrong.

With each new release being so incredibly strong, there’s very little reason to pick anything that was released a couple of years ago because you’ll face an uphill battle from the moment you spawn on the Summoner’s Rift — and this is especially true in professional play where teams focus on the best and most viable strategies at any given moment in order to maximize performance and therefore stand a better of chance of finding success.

This doesn’t mean older champions don’t get any playtime, but the point still stands.

Things still haven’t reached any extreme point, but we’re getting there. While old picks still have their own use-case scenarios and niche strategies and team comps, newer releases will almost always trump older ones for as long as Riot keeps making the same mistakes.

In Dota, however, things are different

There’s no obvious contrast between the way older and newer heroes are designed which means the entire roster is always in a somewhat balanced state. You don’t see newer heroes run rampant as much as you do in League, and there’s no crazy novel mechanic that is now a part of each new release. Finally, because Valve’s approach didn’t change much over the years, even the oldest heroes in the game are viable because of their own inherent strengths.

That’s the Valve of doing things: they basically made every hero overpowered. And boy is it an enjoyable experience.

If everything is somewhat overpowered and broken, then nerfing becomes a lot easier because you’re just trimming excess power. In League, however, a state of true balance and equilibrium is extremely rare if not even impossible — Riot is consistently fighting against their flawed champion design tendencies and it’s making the whole game a lot less enjoyable for everyone involved.