Well it's been quite awhile. Prepare yourself for the #1 slots of the MOBA, the ones I prized the most in both titles. I like their game style, even if they're not the very best, and I'm damn entitled in saying that they're my faves. Please welcome these two ultimate favorites!
??: What!? How did Chris managed to reach this far in this list!?
... That's my cue.
And ontop of the many many League Champions, my favorite amongst them would be this warrior of Rokkar, Pantheon. Or, if you're feeling a bit praising on his... physique... You can call him MANtheon. When you look at him, you will know that this guy is basically a gigantic homage to the 300 movie, and before his lore was reworked to accomodate being Leona's childhood friend, Pantheon was known to be hailing from the tribe of 'Stanpar' (AKA anagram of 'Spartan'). And that is one part why he's awesome to me. The keyword being 'One Part'.
Pantheon's lore is actually pretty simplistic, much like Leona became the paragon of Solari, Pantheon is the paragon of the normal people of Rokkar, a tribe that is proud for their battle prowess, revering battle as an art. Due to their harsh environment, in the 16th birthday of every children, they will be obliged to participate in a ritual where they fight to the death and the winner to receive a sacred relic weapon. Pantheon aced all those and is more than glad to show Runeterra the true art of war passed down from his ancestors, and personally thought the whole League system kind of insults the art of war. He lives for the thrill of battle. And despite being the paragon of the Rokkar, Pantheon's relationship with Leona after reuniting within the League didn't seem to get worse, although they keep things professional.
Well he's damn right in that, because in battle, Pantheon can eff you up so hard if you are not careful that you'd wish you were in the place of that Persian Messenger falling down to the well. He has the passive called the
Aegis Protection where using his huge shield, he can block up any attack, just once, no matter how powerful, when targetted at him, this is activated after attacking or using ability four times. This can be a great life saver whenever Pantheon is striking the enemy and they were attempting to fight back.
Pantheon's other skill grants him great burst damage and capable of being used in combo as some of them has a quick cooldown and cheap mana cost. First there's the Q skill
Spear Shot, where Pantheon threw his spear with no chance of missing towards the enemy, dealing decent damage and augmented with his Attack Damage, which you'll be building on Pantheon and it'll tremendously increase the spear's strength and gives Pantheon a good poke on laning, or good to finish up fleeing enemies.
Next up, he also has the W skill,
Aegis of Zeonia, where Pantheon leaps to the enemy, damages and stuns them for one second, while also activating his passive no matter what. It's a good gap-closer and while it does little damage, it puts him in range for an effective use of his E Skill,
Heartseeker Strike. Pantheon will stab the enemy repeatedly for three hits... in a cone, so it's an area attack. Heroes gets hit harder with this skill, it also gives him a passive called
Certain Death, which guarantees Critical Hit whenever he attacks an enemy with 15% HP, or increases his Spear Shot damage by 50%, it's basically asking the enemy to die. This is also why Black Cleaver is a popular item for him, because with each strike from
Heartseeker Strike, Pantheon also takes down their armor and will deal huge damage a la Miss Fortune's
Bullet Time (when Black Cleaver is also used)... except that he can do it more often.
What makes Pantheon affectionately called 'Mantheon' is not just his aggressive style, but also his Ultimate, the
Grand Skyfall, also affectionately called 'MANdrop'. Basically after channeling and standing for several seconds, Pantheon will leap so high to the sky and drops down with massive force to the ground, creating a huge shockwave with massive damage. Unfortunately, the enemy will get a big warning sign so they can get the hell out. However, if the enemy is also being engaged to your friends, they would be given a sadistic choice: Retreat and let your friends wail on them more, or eat a dropping Pantheon from the sky and take damage... then die from further bullying anyway? The range of this Ultimate is VERY wide, enabling Pantheon to move very quickly and sets up gank even easier, so if you find that you can't use it for the damage, you can use it for positioning and ganking.
Pantheon may have his presence losing in the late games, but before that time comes, he's always a blast to use, and scoring a Mandrop correctly will be a very satisfying experience, albeit hard to use, which is very challenging. He's a bonafide manly badass and a great guy to wreck up some poor enemies, and gives us a great throwback to that epic movie. Speaking of that movie... there's one more thing that cements Pantheon to be my ultimate favorite. First, remember this scene?
Now believe it or not, Pantheon DOES have a reference to this. Let's just ask him about it.
PANTHEON!! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!?Huh? BAKER?? Oh, c'mon, I was expecting a "Haooh! Haooh! Haooh!" like them. I mean, you're this paragon of warrior race, you sure about that profession?
You. Are. My. Number One. Guy! Indeed, Pantheon's joke takes a spin on that scene and makes it hilarious without making him lose badass points, because only real men proudly do such girly looking profession and still take names. So there we have it from the #1 League of Legends character in my list. Pantheon. Manly Badass Warrior. Aspiring Baker. Oh yeah!
Defense of the Ancients (2) Hero #1Sven, the Rouge Kn-- Oh! Sorry. Let me try that again.
Sven, the Rogue Knight
Right, with the #1 of DOTA heroes, we also have the one hero often thought as the game's manliest hero and I do agree with the sentiments. Sven has been awesome since the old DOTA version. The basic of his lore is that he's a knight born from differing races, in the old lore, it's human and Night Elf, so he's been leading a solitary life and ostracized by many, but this won't stop him from defending the innocents. And his skills' notes also makes quite a hilarious notes about pumping up, like "Sven is here to pump you up!" or "Sven gets pumped up!", seeing that the guy being Sven's namesake is a bodybuilder that makes references about pumping up.
In DOTA 2 however, Sven's story takes a darker and edgier turn, he's still born from differing races, but not only he receives ostracization, he witnessed his mother die from sickness due to her being shunned, and his father being killed for violating the code of the Vigil Knights. Disguising his identity that is considered an abomination, Sven trained under the Vigil Knights that ostracized him, and during his ceremony, Sven makes it clear that he still hasn't forgiven the Vigil Knights for what they did to him and his father, and destroyed the order, taking their sacred blade the Outcast Blade, and eventually living a solitary life, following the codes of a knight that he considered worthy and usually helping out those in need.
Sven isn't exactly one happy fellow, but he's capable of exercising chivalry, treating most of his enemies with respect. And unless they become so frickin' annoying to him, he really dislikes beating up women unless forced. For some reason, fanarts seems to LOVE pairing up with Rylai. It may be because their skill set complements to each other and like I said, Rylai can have a quip about complimenting Sven's blue look. What do I say about it? I find them cute! But let's not get carried away, we got another thing to say about Sven.
Sven's skill revolve around augmenting himself and possibly others so his enemies die being whacked a lot. Starting off, we have his Q Skill,
Storm Hammer, in which he shoots a missile formed like his fist, hitting and stunning an enemy and every of its allies near the target. You heard it right, an AoE ranged stun... for 2 seconds! And the damage is no slouch either! His W Skill,
Great Cleave, allows Sven to have a cleaving attack effect that gets better as he level them up, it is basically as they said, 'Free Battle Fury'. And his E Skill,
War Cry, allows him to scream very loud that it increased his and his nearby friends' speed and armor, good for team fights or chasing an enemy. In other words, he's really there to pump you up!
All these came ahead and got on with his Ultimate, the
God's Strength, whereas Sven... gets pumped up so hard he turned red and every of his attacks deals twice or even thrice the damage. Alone it will make Sven a terror in combat that can finish up enemies in a few swings, and he can also take out Towers easily with it. Combine that with his
Great Cleave, and it's not impossible that in a few swings, Sven takes down FIVE heroes at once!
Sven is a beginner friendly hero, and can fulfill many roles for experts to experiment at. He can do support roles, he can carry the team to victory and he's also a decent ganker when situation calls. His play style and builds encourages you to be manly and rush into the battle, then come out victorious claiming as many kills as you can, and a certain amusing element within him that would never die in my heart even if his story takes a darker turn, in which he still manages to be a honorable knight despite some difficulties. So it's decided, regardless of how it is, Sven is THE manly hero who's always going to be the #1 hero of DOTA in my mind. Well I sure will be pumped up for using him.
(And did I mention that I do ship the Sven X CM pair?)
And now it's time for the Final Showdown!
The Artisan of War vs The Rogue Knight
Who wins??
While this will be a nearly equal fight, by the end of it, the victory will belong to... Sven. There's no stopping him from casting
God's Strength in the beginning of the battle. Pantheon also has the disadvantage that his health and defense aren't stellar, whereas Sven can count as something of a tank. Pantheon's usual combo of '
Spear Shot-Aegis of Zeonia-Heartseeker Strike-Spear Shot' will not be enough to take down Sven in one go, and aside of that one second stun from Aegis of Zeonia, Sven can interrupt Pantheon with his
Storm Hammer and have 2 seconds of happy whacking empowered with
God's Strength. Since
Grand Skyfall takes time until Pantheon jumps, Sven has plenty of time to interrupt with
Storm Hammer, but if Pantheon has leapt... Sven can increase his speed and armor with
War Cry, easily move to safety or take decreased damage, and then repeat the feat against Pantheon until he claims victory.
Like I said, Sven will stand victorious against even one modeled after badass Spartans. Pantheon is badass all right, but Sven takes the badass crown in this fight.
Winner:
SvenLOL: 5
DOTA: 5
And the end result is in! The struggle between the Champions of Runeterra and the Defenders of the Ancients ends... IN A DRAW! Bottom line is, I've seen League players take potshots on DOTA, or DOTA players take potshots in League... I say to hell with that, I love both series equally and respect each others' players and characters, and that's that. Call me Oddball for not picking a side, but I'm set with my opinions.
*hugs plushies of all the participants of the match*
I love you guys.
Welp, and that's that for this list! It's impressive that with DOTA, they kickstarted a whole genre that becomes a juggernaut played by many across the world and with League assuring its popularity with its more accessibility, it's no wonder that I like them both. Not sure if I'd have something to say about Heroes of Newerth or some others like Smite, but maybe I'd even check it out. Closing off this list, let us take a look at some of the Champions and Heroes that could have make it to this list, but not enough. I'll give them A for effort. Here they are!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
League Champions
-Xin Zhao, the Seneschal of Demacia
-Tryndamere, the Barbarian King
-Darius, the Hand of Noxus
-Janna Windforce, the Storm's Fury
-Renekton, the Butcher of Sands
-Yasuo, the Unforgiven
-Riven, the Exile
-Alistar, the Minotaur
-Jarvan IV, the Exemplar of Demacia
-Luxanna 'Lux' Crownguard, the Lady of Luminosity
DOTA Heroes
-Leviathan, the Tidehunter
-Ymir, the Tusk
-Slardar, the Slithreen Guard
-Aiushtha, the Enchantress
-Kardel, the Sniper
-Raigor Stonehoof, the Earthshaker
-Crixalis, the Sand King
-Barathrum, the Spirit Breaker
-Huskar, the Sacred Warrior
-Mirana (Nightshade), the Princess of the Moon
This is ChrisX, the Oddball Gamer, having dispensed his Oddball opinion. Thanks for reading this list and I hope you enjoy! Signing out... NOW!
I still hate Ziggs...