Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends are both part of the Moba genre, otherwise known as multiplayer online battle arena games. These games are purely PvP ( Player vs Player) which means there are no PvE ( Player vs Environment) elements to these games. Both games take core concepts from an original game, Dota (Defense of the ancients). All that said the goal of this essay is to help people who want to switch from one game to another or to help the people who are trying to choose their first Moba game.
First lets start off with the core differences. To play Heroes of Newerth you have to pay 30$ which, would give you complete access to the game, including all characters. League of Legends on the other hand is free to play but does not give you access to all characters, skins, etc.... To unlock these characters players have to collect coins by playing games or by buying "Riot Points" using real money, which the can later on use in the in-game shop to unlock characters, skins (for characters they've already purchased). Most players tend to pick League of Legends as their first Moba game simply because they don't want to pay the 30$ for Heroes of Newerth. Since then Heroes of Newerth has gone free to play. With this change, new players who don't pay the 30$ for the game do not get all characters and have to unlock them in an in-game store just like the one in League of Legends. But unlike League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth's store is strictly for unlocking characters and cosmetic changes. League of Legends on the other hand encourages the players to pay real money for things which change the in-game experience and give the players who are willing to pay unfair advantages with things like currency boosts, runes and Heroes that would otherwise take a long time to unlock.
League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth have very different art styles. Heroes of Newerth tends to a grittier, darker and much more clearly defined environment. League of Legends on the other hand, tends to lean towards a much brighter and colorful style, more similar to the colors you'd see in a cartoon, World of Warcraft or virtually any Japanese teen anime.
Both Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends are missing a key component theother has. Heroes of Newerth has an extensive stat tracking and rich replay system which makes it really easy to review game-play. League of Legends on the other hand does have a functioning matchmaking system which makes joining games as a team with friends much easier. Although Heroes of Newerth did recently release its own matchmaking system, it still isn't up to par with the one in League of Legends. That is simply because the matchmaking system in Heroes of Newerth takes to long to put together a game. If the manage to fix this Heroes of Newerth will have significantly stronger offering in game functionality.
There are significant differences between Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends when it comes to game mechanics. In Heroes of Newerth each team will usually ensure that a single player gets really strong. This player is called a "Carry". Carries usually tend to scale well but take a while to reach their strongest point. In Heroes of Newerth teams will also pick Heroes to help their Carries. This is done by either picking a "Tank", a Hero that will go initiate a fight and take all the damage while the Carry fights or players can also pick "Supports" which help the Carries by either healing them or by stunning/disabling foe's while the Carries deal damage. Supports and Tanks do not scale well and if they do scale, they do so primarily through their skills. Good teams will usually let the Carries get last hit on Heroes and Creeps, giving them the gold for the kill. In League of Legends nearly every character scales well with gear and will be able to do a lot more things late game. For example a Support hero can buy gear and do damage by it's self without the help of a Carry. All that said, League of Legend does still need Carries but they just aren't as important as the carries in Heroes of Newerth.In the end, Heroes of Newerth ends up being a lot like a game of American Football, where the quarterback (The Carry) is the star player, and League of Legends is more like a game of Basketball, where the roles are more evenly divided.
So which game should you pick up? While League of Legends free to play and has many players online at any given time and has a great matchmaking system which enables you to join games really quickly. Although the game the game is free to play, you will spend nearly the same amount of money to get the options available in Heroes of Newerth. That said the free to play option is the biggest selling point for League of Legends which causes more people to chose it over Heroes of Newerth. But since Heroes of Newerth has also gone free to play and has also recently released a matchmaking system things could easily change overtime.
talk about:
graphics (skins) done
hon (replay, stats tracking) done
hon( carries, support, tank, scaling)(Talk about how this effects game-play) compare to LoL (scaling) done
Hon (like a football game. just like how the quarterback(carry) is the star player) done
LoL( like a basketball game where the roles are more evenly spread) done
LoL summoner abilities( long cooldowns ) Hon items (ghost marches, pk) short cooldowns not needed
LoL Has more active abilities ( narrower game) HoN more passive abilities (talk about pet classes)(skill shots) not needed
First lets start off with the core differences. To play Heroes of Newerth you have to pay 30$ which, would give you complete access to the game, including all characters. League of Legends on the other hand is free to play but does not give you access to all characters, skins, etc.... To unlock these characters players have to collect coins by playing games or by buying "Riot Points" using real money, which the can later on use in the in-game shop to unlock characters, skins (for characters they've already purchased). Most players tend to pick League of Legends as their first Moba game simply because they don't want to pay the 30$ for Heroes of Newerth. Since then Heroes of Newerth has gone free to play. With this change, new players who don't pay the 30$ for the game do not get all characters and have to unlock them in an in-game store just like the one in League of Legends. But unlike League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth's store is strictly for unlocking characters and cosmetic changes. League of Legends on the other hand encourages the players to pay real money for things which change the in-game experience and give the players who are willing to pay unfair advantages with things like currency boosts, runes and Heroes that would otherwise take a long time to unlock.
League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth have very different art styles. Heroes of Newerth tends to a grittier, darker and much more clearly defined environment. League of Legends on the other hand, tends to lean towards a much brighter and colorful style, more similar to the colors you'd see in a cartoon, World of Warcraft or virtually any Japanese teen anime.
Both Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends are missing a key component theother has. Heroes of Newerth has an extensive stat tracking and rich replay system which makes it really easy to review game-play. League of Legends on the other hand does have a functioning matchmaking system which makes joining games as a team with friends much easier. Although Heroes of Newerth did recently release its own matchmaking system, it still isn't up to par with the one in League of Legends. That is simply because the matchmaking system in Heroes of Newerth takes to long to put together a game. If the manage to fix this Heroes of Newerth will have significantly stronger offering in game functionality.
There are significant differences between Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends when it comes to game mechanics. In Heroes of Newerth each team will usually ensure that a single player gets really strong. This player is called a "Carry". Carries usually tend to scale well but take a while to reach their strongest point. In Heroes of Newerth teams will also pick Heroes to help their Carries. This is done by either picking a "Tank", a Hero that will go initiate a fight and take all the damage while the Carry fights or players can also pick "Supports" which help the Carries by either healing them or by stunning/disabling foe's while the Carries deal damage. Supports and Tanks do not scale well and if they do scale, they do so primarily through their skills. Good teams will usually let the Carries get last hit on Heroes and Creeps, giving them the gold for the kill. In League of Legends nearly every character scales well with gear and will be able to do a lot more things late game. For example a Support hero can buy gear and do damage by it's self without the help of a Carry. All that said, League of Legend does still need Carries but they just aren't as important as the carries in Heroes of Newerth.In the end, Heroes of Newerth ends up being a lot like a game of American Football, where the quarterback (The Carry) is the star player, and League of Legends is more like a game of Basketball, where the roles are more evenly divided.
So which game should you pick up? While League of Legends free to play and has many players online at any given time and has a great matchmaking system which enables you to join games really quickly. Although the game the game is free to play, you will spend nearly the same amount of money to get the options available in Heroes of Newerth. That said the free to play option is the biggest selling point for League of Legends which causes more people to chose it over Heroes of Newerth. But since Heroes of Newerth has also gone free to play and has also recently released a matchmaking system things could easily change overtime.
talk about:
graphics (skins) done
hon (replay, stats tracking) done
hon( carries, support, tank, scaling)(Talk about how this effects game-play) compare to LoL (scaling) done
Hon (like a football game. just like how the quarterback(carry) is the star player) done
LoL( like a basketball game where the roles are more evenly spread) done
LoL summoner abilities( long cooldowns ) Hon items (ghost marches, pk) short cooldowns not needed
LoL Has more active abilities ( narrower game) HoN more passive abilities (talk about pet classes)(skill shots) not needed