Meh. I was never a fan of LoL's art even when I played it. DotA kinda also looks like tripe. But it's not graphics that makes a game. But down to personal taste, they both look pretty awful.
I agree that DotA 2's graphics could be better, though I personally like them, even if they are very stylized to some degree.
However, the news is that Valve's big project for the new year is to port DotA 2 onto their new "Source 2" engine, which will, we can only assume, improve the graphics, effects, and quality dramatically. Valve has always been a pioneer in making cutting edge graphics improvements while also keeping the requirements low enough to work on modest hardware, so I'm extremely excited to see what's in store for early next year.
DotA's latest patch (6.82) has been a complete game changer. Many key mechanics were fundamentally changed in response to the extreme pushing metagame which existed during the TI4 tournament.
The results have been impressive. Some major changes are that towers are significantly harder to kill now, and give less gold overall. The map layout has changed in a few ways to incorporate more paths through the game. A new rune was added, and now runes spawn on both sides of the river every 2 minutes (HUGE). Most importantly though, the gold mechanics for kills has changed dramatically.
Before, gold amount was rewarded based on:
1. The killed player's level
2. The amount of time elapsed in the game (more time = more gold)
3. If the killed player had a streak
While all of that was a nice bonus for killing an especially farmed enemy, it didn't always cause the game to shift in a noticeable way, or bring the favor back into the hands of the losing team.
Now, a new mechanic has been added. In addition to receiving gold for all those reasons, the killing team also receives gold based on the killed hero's
net worth. What this means, in essence, is that a percentage of all the killed character's item costs and farm is instantly rewarded to the killer (and his allies).
In essence, this has changed the game completely. It's added a new mechanic which the DotA community seems to be calling "rubberbanding", in which when one team (or one hero specifically) gets too far ahead, killing them offers dramatic, game-altering rewards which can completely shift the tides almost instantly.
Debates have been raging about whether the changes have gone too far, producing a "Mario Kart" type of punishment for the leading player (or in this case, team); and there certainly is a danger of that. However, I've been extremely impressed with the new changes. Comebacks are not only common, they are expected within the new patch. It no longer even seems to matter which team is ahead on farm or exp, only whether your team can coordinate the plays necessary to win a big teamfight or two, and then push your well-earned advantage.
Don't get me wrong, there most certainly *is* an advantage of being ahead for most of the match, there's much less of that "Oh crap we're doomed" scenario playing out repeatedly game after game, the way it has been in the past, and it's more about convincing your team to work together to turn things around (or finish the game before they do!). "6.82" has actually become a commonly quoted mantra when a player is complaining that the game is impossible to win, or a team gets too cocky and thinks they have no chance of losing. Think it's over? 6.82, it's not over until the fat lady sings.
