I played Defence of the Ancients for the long time, but recently I started playing League of Legends (LoL) instead. Both are MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) type of game. League of legends was made by coworkers of well known DotA creator Icefrog - by Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, who wanted to make Dota separate from Warcraft 3 engine. So LoL has really much in common with DotA. Its classic 5v5 team skirmish.
The main difference I think for DotA players is, that there are no long time disables, but the gameplay is faster. There are no 4 second stuns like in DotA. Even two second stun is considered overpowered. Heroes seem to have more mana and more mana regeneration so there are often fierce battles on low levels. While in dota people often tend to wait untill lvl 6 before they start to harass the enemy. At least in lower and middle skill level.
League of Legends come with several nice improvements, aside from new different heroes. One of those are bushes, scattered over the map. When hero enters the bush he becomes invisible and can easily ambush unsuspecting enemies. Another great thing is that some neutral creeps give player who kills them buff. Those buffs are really strong and it makes playing jungle quiet profitable.
League of Legends has level and ranking system. By playing games you gain levels and on level 30 you can play ranked games. Ranked games allows player to gain score according to ELO ranking system.
Another good thing is that player doesnt have access to all heroes from the beginning. Each week there are 8 free heroes, plus player can unlock heroes for special currency gained by playing (or of course by using cash)
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