HoN vs LoL (vs DotA)

EDIT

Updated version

For the uninitiated, don't even bother. This is a blog post to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the current popular forms of DotA, specifically Heroes of Newerth (HoN), League of Legends (LoL).

Developers
HoN-S2 Games. Same group that made Savage and Savage 2, a multiplayer RPG/RTS game.
LoL-Riot Games. Includes Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, original DotA All-Stars pusher, as well as other huge competitive gaming balancers, gamers, coders, and Steve “Pendragon” Mescon who started DotA-Allstars.com. Plus a guy I used to game with. He kicked my butt.

Cost to Play/Purchase
HoN-Single $30 USD payment up front, unlimited access.
LoL-Free to play. However, there are two meta-game currencies. Influence Points (IP) are gained via playing the game. Riot Points (RP) are bought using real money. Heroes are unlockable via either, and there are always 10 free heroes available. The 10 free ones rotate periodically. Summoner Runes, minor meta boosts, are only purchased via IP. Cosmetic skins and temporary boosters that boost IP or XP gain are bought via RP. There is also a summoner level determined by XP, only gained by playing. Higher level means you can use more runes and unlocks different summoner spells. You need to be lv12 to unlock all the summoner spells.

Ratings and Matchmaking
HoN-Each account has persistent global stats tracking kills, deaths, assists, gold/min, xp/min, and many other factors. Each player has a Pub Skill Rating (PSR) and a Single Matchmaking Rating (SMR) which are used to balance games. Only single player matchmaking available at this time. Does not account for sets of players having better teamwork when playing together.
LoL-There are persistent summoner stats like summoner level and total games won that are visible to everyone. As a player you can see more detailed information about yourself. Your actual ELO rating, used to do matchmaking, is hidden from the player (will be revealed in leagues). Team and solo matchmaking available, and algorithms are employed to compensate for a team of players having inherently better teamwork are used to keeps things fair.

Game Types
HoN-Supports all the game types of DotA. All Pick, Single Draft, Banning Draft, etc. Plus some of the wackier ones, like allowing Repeat heroes.
LoL-Currently only supports Blind Picking. Within a team, no repeats. Within a game, can have same hero on both sides. This is because not all players have the same pool of heroes to pick from, unlike HoN. Potentially a huge problem. Later they will have a clever way to allow picking strategies and counter pick enemy team lineups via a method similar to Banning Pick (details not revealed).

Creep Denies
HoN-Same as in DotA. Attack a friendly creep at low life to "Deny" the enemy of experience and the chance to kill it themselves. Killing enemy creeps with your attack gains extra gold.
LoL-Removed to put greater emphasis on pushing forward with creeps and not tower hugging.

Hero Stats and Item Boosts
HoN-Primary stats: Strength, Agility, Intelligence. These influence secondary stats like attack damage, health, attack speed, mana pool, mana regeneration, etc. Can also buy items to directly influence secondary stats and give new abilities (such as lifesteal). Abilities don't scale with stats, except one item can boost some heroes' spells, so typically late game heroes are more stat reliant, especially on agility heroes for attack speed, damage, and armor bonuses. Since stats influence multiple secondary attributes, including damage dealt, and primary stats are gained by leveling up, there is a natural progression of the hero. Conversely, high damage spell heroes are more powerful early and mid game since they can put out high amounts of damage quickly without purchasing items.
LoL-No underlying stats. Purchase items to directly increase damage, health, attack speed, etc. Can also buy items to give new abilities (such as lifesteal). Can also purchase items for Ability Points (AP) which can scale up the effectiveness of your abilities. Thus, ability dependent heroes can scale up to remain powerful in the late game. Also, several items can be purchased to reduce ability cooldowns. This means hard carries have a harder time wiping the entire enemy team solo. It is still possible, but they really have to run away with the game and they tend to work alongside support, ability carries, and tanks. On level up individual stats are boosted to create a natural progression, but attack damage does not scale up.

Death Recap
HoN-You're dead. How nice.
LoL-On death, provides a Death recap where you can see what/who dealt the damage, what items they had, what abilities did what damage. Nice way to understand how you just died, and something to look at while dead.

Item Purchases
HoN-While out of base, you can purchase items and they instantly go to your Stash. Local shops in the map such as the Secret Shot and the Outpost have special more advanced items or provide a quick place to grab assorted items respectively. Can buy items while dead, but cannot sell. Can drop/share items. Can purchase recipes as individual items. Larger number of recommended items to fit the variety of builds.
LoL-Only able to purchase and sell while in the fountain or dead. Cannot drop items. No stash. If you are out of inventory room, you must either sell another item or purchase an advanced item made up of several pieces. Buying an item also buys all components if you can afford it, including the recipe. Easier to navigate item purchase UI to find an item with certain attributes. Only 6 recommended items making the build simpler, but not as flexible.

Gold and Kills/Deaths
HoN-Bonus gold for stopping a killing streak. Lose gold on death if you have gold to lose. Bonus gold for getting killing blow on creeps. Team gold for tower kills.
LoL-Even more bonus gold to stopping a killing streak than HoN (up to 1000). Do not lose gold on death. Bonus gold for getting killing blow on creeps. More creeps per wave than HoN. Team gold for tower kills.

Hero Spells
HoN-Mix of hard hitting, high cost, debilitating spells, AoE, single target, spammable, buff, etc. spells just like DotA.
LoL-Similar mix, but there is tends to be less stun durations, more slows, lower mana costs, and higher mana pools. This means for any character you don't have to have a full mana pool to do you spell combination. That being said, a full spell combo doesn't guarantee insta kills as easily (*cough* Deadwood *cough*), but there are still some powerful spike damage assassin characters.

Fog of War
HoN-Cannot see higher ground. Juke through narrow gaps in forest trees. Need to learn where all the juke points are on the map. Miss chance attacking unit on higher ground. Cutting down trees potentially strategic to open new paths or remove abilities cast on trees.
LoL-Uses tall grass, aka Brush. While inside the brush, players outside the brush cannot see you. Once inside the brush, you can see other units in the brush. This provides juke points that are clearly shown on the map. No miss chance for attacking units on higher ground. Cannot see up to higher ground, and higher vs. lower ground regions reduced. Cannot modify map.

Runes vs. Glyphs
HoN-Uses DotA runes in the river that spawn and can be picked up. Several types: Invisibility, Double Damage, Illusions, Regeneration, Haste. Can bottle runes to save for later and refill the Bottle.
LoL-Certain creep camps have special glyphs. These creeps spawn at the same spots and there is one set (2 creep camps) per forest. On killing that creep, you gain that glyph. If an enemy hero kills you while you have that buff, they steal the buff instead. Three types: Attack and HP regen bonus, Mana Regen and Ability Cooldown bonus, uber bonus from killing the Uber Creep (only 1 Uber creep on the map).

Minimap/Map Features
HoN-Supports pings. Shows where players are teleporting to via Homecoming Stones (TP scrolls).
LoL-Supports Pings. Draws your intended path via pathfinding on the minimap over long distances. Can target and mark enemy heroes and enemy towers to have team focus them down, and highlight friendly towers to defend. Marking also shows up as a ping on minimap and in team chat.

Map Teleportation
HoN-Use Teleport Scrolls/Homecoming Stones to warp to any friendly building. Also a specific version of Boots allows teleportation to any non-hero friendly unit.
LoL-All summoners have the innate Recall spell. After the cast time, immediately return to the fountain. During cast time, any damage taken stops the spell. You can also take a summoner spell Teleport to teleport to any friendly non-hero unit/building. No warp consumable item.

Unit Control
HoN-Like Dota, can select and control as many units as you can.
LoL-Can only directly select own hero. Other minions can be directed, but not directly controlled.

Jungling
Definition: When a hero doesn't stay in the lane and instead goes around killing neutral creeps. Potentially lower XP gain, but overall team XP and gold gain goes up provided the extra solo lane doesn't die horribly against the two enemy heroes.
HoN-Like in DotA, a powerful strategy for certain heroes. Can use Creep Pulling to slow down team's creep waves and to help tank neutral creep damage.
LoL-Jungling has much lower payout and will leave you a level or two behind the rest of the team. Requires specific summoner spells to perform properly. Low GP payout. Still, in theory allows two solo lanes to gain levels and gold more efficiently as a whole team. No creep pulling into team's creeps, but can pull into brush to hide that you're killing the creep.

Uber Creeps
HoN-Kongor. Once killed, drops Token of Life. The hero that has this, when killed, instantly respawns. Huge gold bonus for entire team. Melee only creep.
LoL-Baron. Once killed, all heroes on the team who helped make the kill get uber buff. Not transferable to enemy team on death. Hefty damage, movespeed, and regeneration boost. Huge gold bonus to entire team. Mostly melee but also creates spouts of acid and has ranged rain that fall on heroes. Spouts are dodgeable, making it a bit like a MMO boss fight.

Consumables
HoN-All the usuals from DotA. Healing items, mana restoration, map teleportation, and vision wards.
LoL-Healing and mana regen items still in the game. Vision and anti-invis wards available. Also introduces several buff potions that last for a set period of time, including one that gives True Sight revealing invisible heroes until you die. Takes the place of the Gem of True Sight/Bound Eye used in DotA/HoN.

Replays and Spectators
HoN-Available.
LoL-Not available (yet).

Competitive Scene
HoN-Almost weekly HONCAST.com tournaments, and several huge prize tourneys have already been played. With the spectator and replay features, shoutcasting is easy and fun to watch.
LoL-Several tournaments, but less notoriety due to the lack of integrated spectator modes and replays. Thus, no live streams nor game commentary outside of fraps captured gameplay videos.

In-game Voice Chat
HoN-Supports both team and local voice chat. Still waiting for global so you yell at the enemy team.
LoL-Not available (yet).

Leavers, Surrender, Kick, etc.
HoN-Supports Kicking (all must vote yes on both teams), Remaking a game, Surrender, Pause Game, and maintaining a person Banlist.
LoL-Supports Surrendering. If a player leaves a bot takes control of the hero and tries to teleport them back to the fountain.

Modability
HoN-Very open API, and some stellar mods. I personally have 5 different mods for my HoN client.
LoL-None.

Spell Range UI
HoN-AoE area shown, but no range markers. Can mod in ability range displays.
LoL-Range, cones, AoE Area, all shown.

Team info. at a Glance
HoN-Hotbar shows team heroes' HP, Mana, all abilities whether ready, on cooldown or not enough mana. Can also see how many points are spent in which abilities of teammates.
LoL-Hotbar shows team heroes' HP, Mana, and if their ultimate is ready.


Recommendation:
If you are a DotA veteran and only want to play more DotA, Heroes of Newerth is solid. It's basically DotA, but with better UI and way better engine. Plus, no BattleNet. It also tends to feel more frantic and visceral due to the extremely influential spells and grittier graphics. The purchase unlocks everything all at once, no grinding to unlock heroes and plenty of game modes to play them in. If you do some advanced forum hunting you can also modify your UI in wonderful ways to give you every bit of information you wanted, on the screen where you want it.

If you thought DotA was awesome but the core mechanics could use a bit of tweaking or are a new player to the scene, League of Legends is the way to go. Much better item UI, great overlays, and the Death Recaps ease newbies in. Plus, the limited number of available heroes at the start lets you become familiar with them instead of trying to learn 80+ all at once. The persistent summoner with levels and runes also adds a bit of progression keeping you looking to grow as a player even more. Don't worry, summoner stuff only accounts for about 10% of the battle. Hero choices are another 20-30%. The rest is skill. It also currently has superior matchmaking capabilities. Plus, you can't argue with free.

I will continue to play both for now, especially as I can play with friends in both realms.