One one fateful weekend, I had realized that I had wasted a massive amount of time, money and keyboards on League of Legends.

You see, I impulsively bought RP for skins and new champions.

After about 5 games in a row that were full of ragers and just generally negative people, I realized something. I was paying for this bullcrap, and it would only get worse when I started playing ranked.

So I started playing DotA 2 and I love it.

So are there any League / DotA players here on the forums? I'd like to discuss these games in a place where there might be people of differing opinions, since it's not likely you'd get much of a discussion on the DotA or LoL forums. :/

What are some simple heroes that are good for learning basic mechanics for DotA? So far my favorites are Warlock, Venomancer, and Keeper of the Light.

I just started playing this game.

Send me a message with your steam id if you want to play together

I've played both extensively. I can assure you that you'll find the communities to be similar in that you'll find people you dislike and people who dislike you. The difference is that the tribunal isn't there to keep a hivemind mentality. Creativity isn't punished in Dota 2. At least not in a judicial way, only in a wins/losses way. At the average level of play, almost anything goes. I guess that is what I like about it.

If you want to learn the game, I'd try Skeleton King. He's got only one active skill, but I think his complexity scales up as you get better at the basics. His stun will allow for coordinating with a lane partner, which is one skill. It also costs a hefty portion of his mana pool, which should teach you plenty about mana management, especially when considering his ult, which requires another significant portion of his mana to activate passively. When you get more advanced, you can learn to use armlet properly (a key item for him and many other heroes), which isn't easy. Last hitting is harder than in LoL, but much more rewarding. The quicker you can master it the more heroes you can confidently play.

Only ever played LoL, but if there's anything I've learned from years of playing different online games, it is that the communities always meld together and become pretty similar after a while. I just tend to play LoL with friends, or casual matches, and with a "who cares about the meta" attitude. More often than not I've found that playing strictly by the meta leaves me too tense to perform properly, and that I have more winning PvP games when I get together with my friends, we just pick champions that work semi-well together, and do as we like. Every time I escape a fight with a sliver of life, and see a support decide not to kill me because he'd most likely get yelled at for stealing kills, I am reminded why the meta should not be followed in casual games.

I've bought a few points to get the skins for my favorite champion, and of course to support Riot a little bit. Love the game so buying points was just a token of my appreciation to Riot if anything.

I do however own DotA 2, got it as a gift. Haven't tried it yet but I intend to do so some day, doubt I'll change games though, and if I do get into DotA 2, then more likely than not I will just play both rather than one. Do tell me BTW if you find any champion in DotA that is similar to Taric from LoL.