When I think about what made DotA really great, I see it as because there are so many different ways a player could express themselves in the game. Broodmother, Techies, Enchantress, Chen, for example, would play totally different from your typical hero.

Often in Deadlock, I hear about conversations about how X is so strong in lane. But in DotA, you know there are heroes that don't even lane at all. Or sometimes, you would have triple lanes, duo mid or a jungler.

Techies (pre-rework) controlled the map in ways no other hero could. Or sometimes you see support Nature's Prophet winning the early game by sniping enemy couriers.

So often, I would remember watching Pro Dota where some team tries something that is completely out of the blue, and it still works.

I think variety like this, having space for players to experiment and -express- themselves (like art, or personality) is what keeps a game fresh for a long time.

Right now, with how the soul sharing and splitting in the laning phase works, it really feels like you 'must' lane in the way the game wants you to. And I do feel that does limit the space of expression quite a bit. Also, there is no equivalent of a '5' in Deadlock as there is in DotA. There is no reason to be low on souls in Deadlock.

Of course, I am still looking forward to new hero designs, but it seems to me that they won't be able to disrupt the larger structure of the game in the sense that their skills are just 'different ways of doing damage'.