Best MOBA for a beginner, Dota 2 or LoL

Neither of them is very beginners friendly. I would guess that LoL is a bit more so, as it's mechanically a bit simpler, but on the other hand, there are more so called "skillshots" in LoL, which can make it a bit harder if you're not good at judging where a player is about to go. I've tried both, found DOTA 2 to be the more "rewarding" game, and it has an objectively better business model (you get every hero for free, the things you buy are all cosmetic things).

Heroes of the Storm is the most beginners friendly MOBA that I've tried. It got boring quite fast though, and the business model was not great.

Smite is of course always an option as well. Better business model than LoL & HOTS, but not as good as DOTA 2, and it's a 3rd person game, focusing a bit more on your ability to control your character well and a bit less on teamwork (that's not to say that teamwork is unimportant, or that controlling your character well is unimportant in DOTA/HOTS/LoL, just that the focus is shifted a bit more towards individual skill in Smite).

In Dota 2 Reborn there will be really cool tutorials and a lot of hints for new players, so you can try that when it's out :)

Many of you told us that while our existing tutorials were good for teaching Dota's mechanics, they weren't great at helping new players understand why Dota is awesome. So we've built a new system of Guided Bot Matches, which allows a new player to jump right in and experience a full Dota game, all the while receiving guidance from an AI director.

I've played both, Dota 2 not so much though. League of Legends is fine to play with friends, this is about it. I didn't get to experience dota 2 for long but from what i remember, it was more appealing than League, only reason i played League was because of friends.

Now, if you want something better (imo), try Smite. I enjoy mythology alot, Smite has lots of gods to choose from (gotta unlock them obviously, like any other game). What made me jump instantly into the game was the gameplay trailer for THOR, prior to that, i always wanted to try the game but never got to it. After watching THOR, i was like "shut up, you got my attention now!". Played for sometime, back then alot of the new players played worst than bots, which was redicolous... Most of the times i had to carry my own team, i guess i was doing better because of previous MOBA experiences.

I tried some other MOBAs before, not worth mentioning though. But you might want to try Heroes of the Storm, haven't played that one and it might be a good bet too.

Alternatively, watch gameplay of all games and decide for yourself. I would easily label LOL for playing with friends only, other than that, it sucks.

You are asking this on SG forum where are ppl playing mostly on Steam platform... so most of them will choose dota2. I prefer LOL.

League of Legends for sure.

1. You cannot stuck in trees or creeps (still possible but its ultra rare)
2. No need to worry about couriers or wards, denying creeps.
3. Free teleport to base.
4. Customizable runes or talents (that affect any of your hero/Champion)
5. Support actually HELPS you.
6. No bullshit LPQ for being too good.
7. No steam/origin/uplay required to play.

I suggest start with DotA2, and then you will se all the other MOBAs more easy.

LoL is much easier to get into.

I find LOL easier then dota .

League of legends is easier and there are smaller number of heroes to learn.
Dota 2 is much harder.
play with friends against bots .dont go into normal match cause you will get destroyed by much more experienced players than you.
and community in dota and in lol sucks.
i dont really like mobas .

haven't played them that much but from my experience :

HotS : very easy to pick up and to learn, and self-skill matters in all levels of play as well as team skill, though team compositions can easily be deciding. the game focuses on actual gameplay so you don't have to walk Kms and Kms/miles and miles every game and you don't need to go through the hassle of shopping. everything's nearby or integrated (upgrades) so you're always doing something. you need to play with your mates. the game focuses a little bit too much on objectives, so basically it's just different, linear pathes in the game that you have to follow to win. while the game's unbalanced and some characters are clearly way over-powered, i found that player skill was more rewarded, at least in low and medium play

LoL : lol

DotA 2 : lots of commands compared to the two others, hard to master, balance is not the best but i've seen worse. the controls are by far not the best we can find, it's a bit clunky. a bit of micro-management through courrier and shops. team communication and high skill are required in high play. unlike the two others that tend to be pay to win with an increased pool of characters to pick from (and imho shiny skins that can affect players mentals), dota 2 has so many characters and they're all available to pick. also we can get skin items by playing and all.. so that's an huge +1 for Dota 2

Awesomenauts is easier than both. :)

Don't play it, both communities are toxic as fuck, but nothings beat tocxicity of LoL. If anything I would reccomend HoTS. I met few douches there but overall community is much better that in both games mentioned by you.

Hots

Well for beginners it's league of legend, but when you're a man enough, you can turn to dota 2 as it's a better game.

It will take at least 6 months to 1 year to learn at least the basic about the game , it doesnt matter if its LoL or DOTA, so my advice is ... be patient and try to learn and dont be reckless, know your limits, watch streamers to learn extra things in your free time.

LoL is easier to me, I played a lot LoL, I suck hard in Dota2
Anyway, their community is pure trash, I don't recommend you to play those MOBA

Heroes of The Storm is easier to pick up atm because u dont have to mess up with last hitting or items, just global objectives a smaller pool of heroes :P after you pick up HoTS u can try to go for a more complex MOBA.

You could try Smite. It's a third person MOBA where you play as a god.
I personally never liked the top-down controls of MOBAs like Dota 2, so the controls of Smite felt more natural to me.

Play Awesomenauts : P

Both need skill, howoever the LoL is more friendly to newbies while DotA is more complex but also sastifying.
Heroes of the Storm is very lacking of features usually present in MOBA's, so if you are new, play this one first.
And people will always argue what is the worst one while arguing what the best.

For a newcomer, definitely LoL, it's much easier to learn, basically you just need to learn how to last hit and what which champion does and you're done (enough to play and win sometimes). I found DotA much more complicated, took me much longer to get into it.
As it has been mentioned many times though, LoL's community is trash, DotA is a little bit more welcoming. However, in DotA there's some possibility to be matched with some Russians who don't speak English at all, so you're like playing solo all the time, this doesn't happen in LoL though.

There's also dead island epidemic and i think "Magicka: Wizard Wars" is also a MOBA (haven't tried it yet).

DI:epidemic was kinda cool when in try it, easy for newbies,

dota2 > lol grab popcorns

It's STEAMgifts, so Dota 2 ofc.