Face-Off: Elise Vs. Broodmother

KILL IT WITH FIRE! If you love legs, you'll love these ladies. In this Face-Off we delve into the mechanics of two arachnids: Elise from League of Legends and Broodmother from Dota 2. Let's compare the abilities of these two creepy-crawly characters. (Below you can find Elise and Broodmother's detailed abilities for reference)

Passive: Elise's passive Spider Swarm is similar to Broodmother's spiderlings' passive Spawn Spiderite. Broodmother's spiderlings, on attack, put a debuff on enemy units which spawns a spiderite when the enemy unit dies. The spiderites are weaker versions of Broodmother's spiderlings. The effectiveness of Elise's passive depends on if she is played correctly, while Broodmother's spiderling passive's effectiveness depends on the player's ability to achieve as many last hits with her spiderlings as possible.

Q Ability: Elise's first ability Neurotoxin/Venomous Bite is a nuke single target spell that scales with her ability power. This makes the spell scale very well late game as Elise builds up her AP.  With a short cooldown, Neurotoxin/Venomous Bite is powerful damage output great for ganking and targeting down priority champions in team fights. Broodmother's ability, Spawn Spiderlings deals damage, then spawns a spiderling(s) if the enemy died within 2 seconds of the attack. Spawn Spiderlings doesn't scale hugely in damage but it's a skill that Broodmother really wants to spam on cooldown (on creeps or heroes) to accumulate as many spiderlings as possible. These spiderlings are powerful in numbers and are great for pushing towers, killing enemies, or soloing Roshan.

W Ability: Elise's second ability, Volatile Spiderling, offers great burst damage in an AOE. This ability also scales with her AP, strengthening her late game. A great mechanic of this skill is that the spider locks on to an enemy, making it very very tough to dodge by the enemy team. Her spider form ability Skittering Frenzy is very similar to Broodmother's ultimate, with the lifesteal and potential for more damage, although the lifesteal is not nearly as substantial. Broodmother's second ability, Spin Web, allows her to place a web on any terrain an freely walk across it; this includes trees and ledges. She is also invisible while on her webs and has increased movement. This mechanic is extremely useful in ganking as well as escaping, and it makes Broodmother tough to lane against, even if she is solo laning.

E Ability: Elise's third abilities are focused on movement and survivability. Her human form ability, Cocoon, stuns an enemy for a short period, and her spider form ability, Rappel, makes her climb in the air, making her untargetable, then descends on either an enemy or the location she ascended from. This ability is extremely useful in any fight, allowing her to avoid damage and also giving her a great chase mechanic. Rappel makes spider form's melee range more manageable. Broodmother's third ability, Incapacitating Bite, is a passive attack modifier that slows her enemies and increases their miss chance on attacks. This ability compliments Broodmother's fast movement speed upon her webs, making her very difficult to escape from once she hunts her prey. 

R Ability: Elise's ultimate ability Spider Form/Human Form is a toggle that allows her to switch forms and ability sets. This makes Elise a very versatile champion with 7 abilities (not including her passive) instead of 4. Her spider form makes her melee, but also makes her deal more damage. Broodmother's ultimate Insatiable Hunger temporarily increases her damage and gives her lifesteal. This gives Broodmother durability while chasing down enemies and makes her extremely strong while taking down neutral units and enemy towers.

Overall, Elise is a very AP centered champion, focusing on the strength of her abilities rather than her right-click damage. Elise is very versatile. She is a very strong jungler, and offers high damage and some utility in team fights. She is an asset in any team composition she plays in. Broodmother is a very strong pusher/solo lane hero, but she also offers high damage and a useful slow in team fights as well. Elise and Broodmother have very different play styles, but both can drastically change the outcome of the game based on how well they are played. Which do you think makes the bigger impact?

Who won this Face-Off?
	Elise
	Broodmother

Elise

Mage/Fighter

Spider Swarm (Passive) When Elise's Human Form spells hit an enemy, she readies a Spiderling. While Elise is in Spider Form, she summons Spiderlings to attack nearby foes. The maximum number of Spiderlings increases with Spider Form's level.

Neurotoxin (Human Form) Active: Launches a blast of corrosive poison at a target enemy, dealing magic damage equal to a base amount plus 8% (+3% per 100 AP) of target's current health, Damage is capped against monsters.  Magic Damage: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200                             Max Damage vs. Monsters: 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300

Venomous Bite (Spider Form) Active: Lunges at a target enemy with a poisonous bite, dealing magic damage equal to a base amount plus 8% (+3% per 100 AP) of target's missing health. Damage is capped against monsters.  Magic Damage: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260                             Max Damage Vs. Monsters: 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300

Volitile Spiderling (Human Form) Active: Summons a venom-gorged Spiderling that moves to the target location and explodes, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies when it nears an enemy unit or after 3 seconds. If the Spiderling does not hit an enemy before reaching the target location, it will re-target itself and chase down a nearby enemy, prioritizing champions. The Spiderling's movement speed                            increases as it gets closer to target.                             Magic Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+80% AP)

Skittering Frenzy (Spider Form) Passive: Spiderlings gain a bonus attack speed. Spiderling Attack Speed: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%  Active: Increases the attack speed of Elise and her Spiderlings for 3 seconds. While active, Elise heals 4 (+4% AP) health when she or her spiderlings attack.                             Attack Speed: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140%

Cocoon (Human Form) Active: Elise fires a web in a line that stuns the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds, also revealing them for 1 second.

Rappel (Spider Form): Active (On Enemy Cast): Elise and her Spiderlings lift up into the air, becoming untargetable for 1 second and revealing nearby enemy targets for the duration. She then descends upon the target enemy.  Active (On Ground Cast): Elise and her Spiderlings lift up into the air, becoming untargetable                            for up to 2 seconds and revealing nearby enemy targets for the duration. During that time she                            can cast Rappel again to descend upon a nearby enemy. If no enemy is targeted within 2                            seconds, she will descend at her original location.

Spider Form/Human Form Toggle: Elise transforms into a menacing spider, summoning her readied Spiderlings and granting access to arachnid abilities. While in Spider Form, Elise becomes melee and loses 425 range, deals bonus magic damage with her autoattacks and gains 10 movement speed.  On-Hit Magic Damage: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 (+30% AP) Spiderlings deal physical damage and                            take 25% less damage from multi-target abilities.                             Health: 80 + (10 x level)                             Attack Speed: 0.665                            Movement Speed: 370 Elise begins with one rank in Spider Form / Human Form and can                            increase it at levels 6, 11 and 16.                            Maximum Number of Spiderlings: 2 / 3 / 4 / 5                             Spiderling Attack Damage: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 (+ 10% AP)                             Spiderling Amor: 30 / 50 / 70 / 90                             Spiderling Magic Resist: 50 / 70 / 90 / 110

Broodmother

Pusher/Carry/Escape

Spawn Spiderlings Broodmother injects her young into an enemy unit, dealing damage. The spiderlings will hatch if the target is killed while under this influence.  Damage: 75/150/225/300  Count: 1/2/3/4

Spin Web Throws out a web that renders Broodmother invisible in its vicinity, while also boosting regeneration, and granting a passive movement speed increase.  Radius: 900  Maximum Webs: 2/4/6/8                             Bonus Health Regeneration: 2/4/6/8                             Bonus Movement Speed: 20%/25%/30%/35%

Incapacitating Bite Broodmother's venom cripples enemy units, causing her attacks to slow, as well as giving the affected unit a chance to miss its attacks. Incapacitating Bite is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers.  Duration: 2                             Miss Chance: 30%/40%/50%/60%                             Move Slow: 10%/20%/30%/40%

Insatiable Hunger A violent lust for vital fluids increases Broodmother's attack damage and gives her a vampiric attack.  Bonus Damage: 60/80/100 Lifesteal: 40%/60%/80%                             Duration: 14

Face-Off: Sion Vs Abaddon

In this Face-Off we'll be looking at two badass undead guys with similar play: Sion from League of Legends, and Abaddon from Dota 2. Let's compare the abilities of these two tanky characters. (Below you can find Sion and Abaddon's detailed abilities for reference)

Passive: Sion's passive Feel No Pain is similar to the Dota 2 item Vanguard, which has a 2225g cost. Although Vanguard offers extra block and increased health, a passive skill is much more beneficial than an item which will put you out over 2k gold. This is the only way that Abaddon can attain a chance to block damage similar to Sion's passive.

Q Ability: Sion's first ability, Cryptic Gaze is your standard stun of 1.5 seconds and deals scaling magic damage. Although it's only a single target stun, it can be useful in team fights as well as during a gank. Abaddon's Death Coil damages an enemy or heals an ally while taking 50% of the damage he deals/heals. The scaling of this ability is pretty poor, so later game the ability falls off quite a bit. Even if Death Coil can only heal or damage heroes for a small amount, it can change team fights by saving an ally or securing a kill during a chase. Additionally, during Abaddon's ultimate, Death Coil will end up healing Abaddon instead of damaging him, making it a useful situational utility.

W Ability: Both Sion's Death's Caress ability and Abaddon's Aphotic Shield offer a shield which absorbs a set amount of damage and explodes to deal the absorbed damage to enemies. Sion's ability to detonate his shield any time after 4 seconds is a useful utility allowing him to deliberately damage opponents in fights as well as CS. Abaddon's shield lasts 5 seconds longer than Sion's, can be applied to any hero on Abaddon's team and can also remove some stuns and debuffs from the targeted hero. Aphotic Shield has way more utility for team play than Death's Caress.

E Ability: Sion's Enrage gives Sion increased attack damage and allows him to rack up permanent HP increases for last hitting for the cost of some of Sion's health. This blood thirst style ability helps with last hitting and makes Sion extremely tanky the longer the game goes on. Additionally, this ability doesn't damage Sion when his ultimate is active. Abaddon's Curse of Avernus imbues his sword with frost to slow enemies and granting him and other units attacking the slowed enemy bonus attack and movement speed. This is extremely useful while chasing and diving towers with his shield and ultimate available for his survivability. This skill also allows Abaddon's carries to chase and deal more damage in fights which is another great support utility.

R Ability: Sion's ultimate, Cannibalism, gives him a high degree of lifesteal for a limited time while healing allies in a close radius around him. This allows Sion to tank most of the incoming damage in team fights while offering healing to the entire team if they are in close enough range. This is his most useful skill because it's so useful in team fights. Abaddon's ultimate Borrowed Time turns all incoming damage into healing for a short amount of time. This allows Abaddon to tank in any team fight, being most useful when there are enemy heroes with high damage abilities. His ultimate can be activated or auto-casts when Abaddon reaches a certain percentage of health. With this ultimate Abaddon can completely overextend and dive towers making him one of the most tanky strength heroes in Dota 2.

Overall it seems like Abaddon is much more useful in team fights, not requiring too much farm to shine in battle by allowing allies greater survivability and attack. Sion requires more farm to really benefit from some of his abilities and often offers single target utility. Both can make great tanks and deal heavy damage, though their play style differ. It's still debatable which character is better than the other. What do you think? 

Who won this Face-Off?
	Sion
	Abaddon

Sion
Fighter-Mage

Feel No Pain
(Passive ) Sion has a 40% chance to ignore up to 30/40/50 damage each time he is hit by an autoattack. The damage reduction is calculated before armor and percentage damage reduction benefits are taken into account.

Cryptic Gaze
Active: Sion's gaze terrifies a single enemy, dealing magic damage and stunning it for 1.5 seconds
Magic Damage: 70/125/180/240/300 (+90% AP)

Death's Caress
Active: Sion surrounds himself with a shield which absorbs damage for up to 10 seconds. After 4 seconds, if the shield has not been destroyed, the ability can be cast again to explode and deal magic damage to surrounding enemies. It will explode automatically after the 10 seconds have passed.
                           Shield Strength/Magic Damage: 100/150/200/250/300 (+90% AP)

Enrage
Toggle: While toggled on, Sion has increased attack damage at the cost of some health for each autoattack. While enrage is active, Sion permanently increases his maximum health whenever he kills a unit with either his attacks or abilities. This effect is doubled against champions and large units. 
                           Bonus Attack Damage: 25/35/45/55/65
                           Health Gained Per Kill: 1/1.5/2/2.5/3

Cannibalism
Active: For 20 seconds, Sion gains bonus lifesteal and 50% attack speed. Additionally, Sion's autoattacks will heal surrounding allies for a percentage of damage dealt.
Lifesteal: 50/75/100%
Heal to nearby allies: 25/37.5/50%

Abaddon
Durable-Support

Death Coil
Abaddon releases a coil of death that can damage an enemy unit or heal a friendly unit at the cost of some of Abaddon's health.
Heal/Damage to Target: 100/150/200/250
Damage to Abaddon: 50/75/100/125

Aphotic Shield
Summons dark energies around an ally unit, creating a shield that absorbs a set amount of damage before expiring. When the shield is destroyed it will burst and deal damage equal to the amount it could absorb to an area around it. Removes certain types of negative buffs and stuns on cast.
                           Duration: 15
                           Absorbed Damage: 110/140/170/200

Curse of Avernus
Abaddon strikes an enemy with chilling power on each attack, causing all units who attack the slowed enemy to gain increased movement speed, along with faster attack speed, for a limited time.
Duration of Slow: 2.5
                           Slow: 5%/10%/15%/20%
                           Duration of Bonuses: 4.5
                           Bonus Attack Speed: 10/20/30/40
                           Bonus Movement Speed: 15%

Borrowed Time
When activated, most negative buffs will be removed and any damage you take will heal instead of damaging you. If the ability is not on cooldown, it will passively activate when your hitpoints drop below a certain threshold.
Duration: 3/4/5 (5/6/7*)

Face-off: Character Responses - League of Legends

League of Legends' champions have a lot of creativity and character put into them as well. They have their own dances and taunts and feature great voice acting too. Dota 2's responses were pretty good, but League's character responses can hold their own in this face-off.

Twitch is a strange creature who originated from the realm: Zaun. Zaun suffered from severe pollution. From depths of the pollution rose a plague in the form of a rat (Twitch). Twitch is a strong attack damage, ranged character but he smells really bad.


Thresh is a twisted reaper whose hungry chains ensnare the souls of the living. A moment's hesitation at the sight of his ghostly visage and there is no escape. He leaves in his wake hollow corpses, their souls ripped loose and trapped in the sickly green light of his lantern. Thresh is one of the most versatile characters in the game but his strong suit is support. He is very good at catching people.

Vi is a super tough chick who wields gigantic hextech gauntlets which most of her abilities are derived. She used to be a criminal but had a shift onto the other side of the law. Vi now uses her criminal knowledge to serve Piltover's police force. Vi can be played as a jungler or in top lane, in either position she still packs a punch.

Trundle is a hulking and devious troll with a mischievous streak. There is nothing he can't beat into submission and bend to his will, not even the ice itself. With his massive, frozen club, he chills his enemies to the core and runs them through with jagged shards of ice. Trundle is really
good at chasing people down and is a strong champ to face one on one.

Similar to Dota, League incorporates rivalries from the lore seen through the various responses as these two champions collide. Rengar and Kha'zix mimic the classic rivalry alien vs predator. Rengar is a trophy hunter who seeks to study and eliminate all prey. Kha'zix is a predator whose goal is to conquer and consume Rengar, the only champion he considers his "equal". When these two characters have fully upgraded their ultimates on opposing teams, a secondary quest is activated called "thrill of the hunt". This quest triggers some pretty awesome quotes.

Kassadin was once an ordinary human, however his quest for knowledge led him to the Void. Upon his discovery he was forever changed and most of his humanity died. He obtained a new found power which he uses to protect Valoran from the creatures within the Void. Kassadin is a pretty strong mid lane champion because of his silencing ability but sometimes it still gets him into trouble.

Daughter of the Gray Warlock, and the Shadow Witch, Annie possesses immense arcane power. Although she is only a child, at the age of two she was able to convert a shadow bear into a teddy bear which she named Tibbers. Annie is the most sought after champion in League of Legends. Although in game Annie is just a little girl, appearances can be deceiving.

Fizz originated from a water dwelling race deep beneath a mountain in the sea. He left this place on several adventures only to one day return to find the city abandoned and in ruins. With nothing left in the city to keep him, Fizz salvaged an enchanted trident from the ruins and set out alone. Although Fizz is not much of a tanky champion, his abilities give him a lot of mobility to quickly engage and disengage from team fights.

So, who won this Face-off? Click here to see Dota 2's responses.

Face-off: Character Responses - Dota 2

In this Face-Off we're going to look at the character responses of both Dota 2 and League of Legends and see how the games compare in this aspect.

Dota 2 features some really great voice acting for its heroes and announcers, and it really helps to bring the game to life and add some story behind the fast paced multiplayer game.

Valve's taken heroes' lore and applied it to the game through hero interactions in-game. One of my favourite relationships in Dota 2 is between Tidehunter, the Leviathan and Kunkka, the Admiral. It seems that they're in an eternal battle over the sea. Tidehunter is quite bitter and insults Kunkka whenever he can. Meanwhile, Kunkka takes every opportunity to mock the fishy beast with a bit more wit.

Lina is a pyromancer of sorts who can put out a ton of nuke damage. Valve likes to make some heroes throw puns left and right, and Lina is one of them. Many of her responses relate to heat or fire but my favourite response it what she says when she kills Morphling, who is a water elemental.

This has to be in my top 3 favourite responses of all-time. Bane is a strange demon-horse-nightmare-creature-thing that has a very.. unique voice. His excitement at acquiring a Blink Dagger (which is an item that allows you to teleport anywhere up to 1200 units away on a short cooldown) makes any player in-game say "wtf?!" It's certainly a gem.

Anti-Mage, as you may have guessed, hates magic. A lot. One of his abilities is a blink, much like the Blink Dagger. So, as to be expected, Anti-Mage isn't as thrilled as Bane to spend 2150 gold on a redundant item. Of course though, everyone knows Blink Dagger/Force Staff is a pro strat for Blinkin' and Slammin'.

Sniper is, well, a sniper. He's a dwarf with an attitude and he loves his gun. It's a really simple clip, but I like it because it references the common 'aw sheeeet' while still maintaining Sniper's gun lovin', gun wielding character.

Gyrocopter is a crazy old man in a plane! Valve make a references to Starfox and Top Gun (when playing against a hero named Viper) with this strange pilot. Gyrocopter is one of those heroes that is always fun to play, partially because of his character.

Storm Spirit is an outgoing, pudgy little hero who can fly around the map easily. He's a very sassy and quirky hero with tons of great responses, although my favourite has to be his best response to losing.

Orge Magi is a two-headed ogre with two different quirky personalities. Valve breaks the third wall when Ogre Magi levels up (the heroes light up when they hit a new level). It's fun to play this hero just to hear what they say to each other. Even after losing a game, playing this hero makes you smile.

Undying is exactly what he sounds like; a no good, dead-raisin' zombie. These responses, as far as I know, are not featured in-game, but are in the game files. These clips explain that Undying likes gummy vitamins, because he likes the taste, and because they're like gummy worms. It's completely out of character for Undying to say things like this, which is why it's the theme of many videos by community members.

If your heroes aren't entertaining enough, Valve also offers announcer packs including Portal 2, Bastion, and Pyrion Flax; all of which add charming and witty quotes to your game.

So, can League of Legends he--cough--champion responses hold a candle to Dota 2's heroes'? 

Your move, League.