Other MOBA Crossover Rundown

So you've decided to ditch crystal meth / heroin for ketamine! Or you're just checking out the competition because you're burnt out on your drug of choice, and will invariably come crawling back to your previous addiction after you've had your fun here.
Welcome!

Can't fault you, but I may as well point you in the right direction so you can enjoy your time with us a bit more, before you crawl back to whichever one you came from.
Who knows - maybe you'll even stick around for a while longer and play with the gen.

This bit is for you



Differences

Main differences, coming from League of Legends

  • Flash (Blink) is not 'the mandatory Active'. Beads (Cleanse) is the most prominent active, but only on DPS Gods. Flash / Blink can only be used if the user has been out of combat for 2 seconds, primarily rendering it as a surprise-initiation tool for Junglers, and occasionally Supports. In SMITE, you catch up to targets with the plethora choices of CC (which the target can choose to Beads (Cleanse), Aegis (Self-silencing iFrames) or Wings (Antislow+Movement)), rather than Flashes and ever-increasing amount of ability-Dashes (which offers no counterplay from the person being chased). This in turn results in a more varied Summoner Spell / Relic metagame and more counterplay options on behalf of the victim. Supports are more freely able to take team-buffing Actives, while DPS chooses between the type of CC / damage mitigation they desire (or, if they want to risk it, take something more aggressive). Additionally, all Summoner Spells (Relics) have branching upgrades, offering different effects and lower cooldowns.
  • Play-regions are optional, and you can limit players based on input method.
  • You cannot farm under tower. If a creep is hit by a tower shot, they lose a huge chunk of their Gold reward. You won't fall behind in levels, but you will fall behind in items. Additionally, lasthitting exists, but isn't a priority. Instead, you're expected to fullclear ASAP then brawl with your mirror more; boxing / skirmishing then contesting neutral farm, rather than optimising personal farm.
  • Kills matter less, because there's more shit to do. You don't get kills to snowball, you get kills so your mirror isn't present for when you take the more complex objectives / varied contested neutral farm, which in turn snowballs you. Rather than just Scuttle, Dragon and Baron; you've got contested Harpies, Buff Camps (+invasions), Totem, Beacon, Oracles, Furies, Pyro and Fire Giant.
  • "Component Items" in this game do not exist, and are instead replaced by branching-upgrade system. Rather than building minor components, you buy one item that represents a general stat you want, and upgrade twice via branching choices into the final item you want (which, at that point offers the Item Passive you want, once 'fully built'). This frees up a few item slots, and any item can be built at any point in the game.
  • Boots do not exist. Rather, you gain Passive movement between Lv1-8. This frees up another item slot.
  • While Mythics make up the '1-per-build Super-Items' of League, SMITE's counterpart are Glyphs, which are '1-per-build bonus Upgrades'. Glyphs are not as build-definingly powerful and offer no additional direct stat increases, but are instead a branching options for a 'Second Passive' you can build on an item, which you can choose to add to any one of the eligible items you may have. Furthermore, it's completely viable to have no glyphs in a given build, if none of the items you want are able to Upgrade into a Glyphed variant. This frees up another item slot.
  • Starter Items have branching upgrade paths, once you hit max level for a match. While Glyphs lack the 'impact' of Mythic items, your Starter Upgrade usually 'finishes' your build, and is the closer 'equivalent' (even if they are lategame powerspikes, not earlygame powerspikes). Additionally, Starter Items can be delayed as long as you want, and if desired, can be skipped entirely to grab their Starter Upgrade at Level 20.
  • As a result of the above; itemisation is much less limiting in SMITE, with much more in relation to build flexibility and player choices. Even at the upper levels, there is rarely one go-to DPS build path - for example, Marksmen (Hunters) (specifically this example, due to their notoriously stale build paths) usually have the choice between Attack Speed and Crit build-pathing, and even when metaslaving, usually have 1-2 slots they can choose to sub out for equally beneficial items for that build.
  • Physical and Magical is a much harder split. While a notable amount of Champions in League can deal both Physical and Magical damage; the Gods of SMITE stick to one side, and outside of specific itemisation choices, are unable to deal split damage. Protections are hardsplit between the two damage types, but also Lifesteal and Penetration. With two exceptions (in practical terms, one exception), Magical damage cannot be built for nor deal Critical damage. There is no 'Omnivamp', because no God is viably able to deal dual-damage.
  • With few exceptions, Basic Attacks are hardlimited at their respective range 'tier's - those being Melee, Spear-Melee and Projectile. Attack Range does not exist, but is counterbalanced by (obviously) needing to aim, lead and land your shots.

Main differences, coming from DotA 2

  • You do not lose Gold after death, and cannot buyback.
  • Town Portal Scroll & Boots of Travel are not present, and all your recalls are free. There is an Active / Relic that works similar to LoL's counterpart of Summoner Spells, however it is not typically built on DPS, only allows Teleportation to Structures, only allows Teleportation to Wards once upgraded, and does not allow teleportation to Creeps / Minions (so a Carry is not able to instantly splitpush with a wave that has pushed itself far; prior warding is required, and typically Teleportation is only used by the Top laner to return to lane, reinforce a teamfight or deter a Jungle Boss attempt. Exceptions exist, like Chernobog or Athena warping around the map, but for the most part).
  • Couriers are not present in SMITE - items are only purchased in your Fountain or the enemy Fountain, if you don't mind the 1,000 True damage per second. If you really, really want a Courier however, Chang'E (Chinese Mage) comes with one as part of her Passive.
  • Towers hit like fucking trucks earlygame, and do not call back in the morning. Even if you have experience with LoL's slightly higher damage ramp, you do not have experience with SMITE's, which are indisputable killzones until at least one Physical Prot item is online. Phoenixes are also extremely hard to dive into without Fire Giant buff, resulting in more of a defined 'Siegeing' phase in the lategame. That said, the earlygame of SMITE has far more in terms of ganking and invasions, due to the the variable distance between Towers forcing targets to isolate themselves more, and the larger Jungle to get lost in.
  • Minion / Jungle manipulation is less present than DotA, but still far more present than LoL. Minion Waves hit much, much harder than both games, and unlike LoL, are willing to chase players into the Jungle. On the other hand, Jungle mobs can be pulled from out of their leash into lane.
    That said, minion manipulation in SMITE instead focuses on using them as backup while brawling with your mirror; with waveclear less about farming for a Gold advantage, and more about baiting the enemy mirror into pulling sufficient minion aggro to take chunks out of their health, and outclearing the wave to force aggro onto your mirror. Between Levels 1-4, a minion wave is reliably more dangerous than any God on the map, and they don't particularly fall off late, they simply get fullcleared faster than they can kill Gods (with one such notorious example being that in the final stages of a game, an enhanced wave will outstall, outlive, outdamage and quickly overrun a lone Support trying to defend the Titan (Ancient / Nexus); hence requiring one damage carry to be able to clean them up if they get past the Phoenix (Barracks / Inhibitors)).
  • Realistically, you're probably aware that DotA2 leans more into ARTS than MOBA, and that SMITE is obviously going to lack as much in terms of macro and interaction-complexity. We've not got Gaben running the show, temper your expectations accordingly, just have some fun with it.



God Counterparts

Note that I haven't played LoL or DotA2; and am soley basing this off of basic-level gameplay introduction / guides on YTube for each character listed. Sorry HotSfags, but your game is *literally* dead and has been for years, to the point it doesn't even have guides for most of the characters for me to compare with, it's nothing personal. If UNITE gets more popular and I have the time, I might add one for them too in the future.
SMITE naturally has areas in which it has little crossover between each game in terms of fundamental mechanics (ie, it's a 3rd Person game not a Top-Down, lockon-blockers don't exist in a game without lockons), design philosophy (SMITE is not dash-central, nor does it have 259 different effects and interactions for one ability) and in metagame (some offroles may exist in other MOBA's, where they don't in SMITE).

Note that there are basically no other resources for this on the entire internet (as of writing, as I'm aware of); and I don't have the time to learn the ins-and-outs of closing in on 500 different champion kits and designs across the three titles in question. I'll try to recommend stuff based on 'overall' gameplay+playstyle over just comparing raw 'X ability is similar to Y ability' where possible, and ignore / reserve purely aesthetic design-similarities unless it feels appropriate. If you want to complain in the thread, and ask I recommend somebody else instead, go ahead, I'm not the fuckin expert here.
There's going to be quite a lot of {None}'s here - don't take it personally or think it drags down either game, I'm just trying to be honest and to say what I'm seeing.

This was most recently updated on August 2023, after the release of Charon / Muerta / Naafiri.

Who is X like compared to League of Legend's Y?

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Who is X like compared to DotA's Y?

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Pub: 02 Feb 2023 21:48 UTC
Edit: 21 Aug 2023 09:06 UTC
Views: 306