My bad. I remember there was a '4' in there somewhere and I overshot. Will not edit so people can see the mistake i made.

I think the thing that hurts the game the most is the lack of meaningful choices.

Depending on your lineup and theirs, there are talent techs that you can pick up, such as giant killer, ice block, etc; but that's pretty much the extent of it.

In league, there are summoners choices you can pick depending on what you want to focus on (ie: ignite for early game snowball, teleport for map control and to farm, ghost for lategame and ganking).

In DOTA, you can build bracers if you need the boost early game, you can build travels or midas if you want to push for later game, you can build ghost if their carry is destroying you, etc; I don't think I've ever followed a build guide once I got to a certain level of expertise in the game.

HOTS talents are a blessing and a curse. They make the game a lot simpler and fun to get into. I've gotten tons of friends who HATE mobas to try out hots and they've had fun playing; but at the same time, at around hour 100-200 once the initial excitement has worn off and I hunger for more depth, it really feels like it's difficult to make an impact in the game as much as you can in other games.