- I've been playing HoN since beta in 09, it has progressed a long way since then.
- It was originally $30 but it is now free to play for new players but you only get a select amount of heroes to play per week [they change them].
- You can purchase more heroes w/ the coins you win from games or w/ real $ to be able to play more heroes other then the limited ones they give you per week.
- They update every other week w/ patches / new heroes and sometimes balance patches.
- You can still play all the same game modes from Dota.
- There's a decent amount of "Dota Ports" on HoN that you could adapt too and pick up on from the start. Example link here:
http://borkweb.com/story/heroes-of-newerth-dota-hero-equivalents [HoN To Dota Equivalents]
- There's a Matchmaking System to Solo que or Team que which is fairly fast load times and relatively even skill levels on both sides.
- There's assist gold, can buy single wards [cheaper], no more secret shop [it's now like a support shop], they edited some parts of the map to make the gameplay better.
- There's a Shop to buy alt avatars, new heroes, more heroes, account icons/colors/voice packs ect w/ the coins you earn from games or $ you spend on it.
- 35,000+ People on it daily.
I probably missed a lot but that's more then enough.
If you're coming from Dota you [will] enjoy it a lot.
It's not too hard to pick up, just takes a bit.
Give it like 50+ games and you'll figure it out / get the hang of it if you're fairly familiar w/ or good at Dota.