The adventure from the WC3 DOTA 1 to Heroes of Newerth to DOTA 2 was an interesting trek. I stopped playing DOTA 1 around the time Batrider was added, stopped playing HoN when Midas was added, and am still playing DOTA 2 to this day.

I recall in DOTA 1 when everyone used wc3banlist with auto refreshing slots and autobanning over 100ms players. People never warded, sentries were hardly used and everyone was pretty bad overall. It was a ♥♥♥♥ load of fun however, particularily because so many people I knew were engrossed in DOTA and played nothing else. (Except CS 1.6) Techies remote mining Roshan, feeding your carries with gold (WC3 share gold feature), Phantom Assassin's evasion made her basically invisible minus her shadow... the list goes on.

Heroes of Newerth was a title that I hadn't heard of until my friend mentioned it and I got to use his BETA account, shortly after it was launched for $20. Amazing, all the DOTA heroes and items, but with a few new additions every so often. The graphics were much better than DOTA 1 and everything sounded badass. (Portal Key sound is still engrained in my mind.) The problem was that it eventually went F2P with "freemium" features like paid heroes to compete with League of Legends and the DOTA 2 official "open beta" launch.

Now we have DOTA 2. Crisp graphics, Valve supremacy, Gaben. Cosmetic only purchasables, very functional UI, solid framerates on any mid-range gaming PC, Valve supremacy, Gaben. I'm just listing the stuff I like. Mirana, smoothness of heroes turning (Suck it, League), Active Items (Suck it again, League), and Valve supremacy. Gaben.

Gabe up writing this review because I'm at work and a bunch of customers are here.

The adventure from the WC3 DOTA 1 to Heroes of Newerth to DOTA 2 was an interesting trek. I stopped playing DOTA 1 around the time Batrider was added, stopped playing HoN when Midas was added, and am still playing DOTA 2 to this day. I recall in DOTA 1 when everyone used wc3banlist with auto refreshing slots and autobanning over 100ms players. People never warded, sentries were hardly used and everyone was pretty bad overall. It was a shit load of fun however, particularily because so many people I knew were engrossed in DOTA and played nothing else. (Except CS 1.6) Techies remote mining Roshan, feeding your carries with gold (WC3 share gold feature), Phantom Assassin's evasion made her basically invisible minus her shadow... the list goes on. Heroes of Newerth was a title that I hadn't heard of until my friend mentioned it and I got to use his BETA account, shortly after it was launched for $20. Amazing, all the DOTA heroes and items, but with a few new additions every so often. The graphics were much better than DOTA 1 and everything sounded badass. (Portal Key sound is still engrained in my mind.) The problem was that it eventually went F2P with "freemium" features like paid heroes to compete with League of Legends and the DOTA 2 official "open beta" launch. Now we have DOTA 2. Crisp graphics, Valve supremacy, Gaben. Cosmetic only purchasables, very functional UI, solid framerates on any mid-range gaming PC, Valve supremacy, Gaben. I'm just listing the stuff I like. Mirana, smoothness of heroes turning (Suck it, League), Active Items (Suck it again, League), and Valve supremacy. Gaben. Gabe up writing this review because I'm at work and a bunch of customers are here.