The MOBA genre has become extremely stagnated over the past few years. With League of Legends and DOTA 2 dominating the player base they leave very little room for other, decent, games to get much playtime. Before the DOTA 2 explosion the landscape was much more even, with several smaller MOBAs picking up decent player numbers and expanding the genre in interesting ways, whereas now the only meaningful exploration of the genre is shifting to first person.
Heroes of Newerth, HON to friends, remains the best MOBA to date though. It’s not a massive stray from the original DOTA formula but it gets the pace so very right. Character movement is fast and responsive meaning that player skill is just as important as tactics and judgement; but being able to read the game is crucial at this speed. DOTA 2 and League of Legends remain the more popular options, but they’ll never reach the heights of HON.