
If you’re trying to dip your toe into the genre without giving your life away or getting crushed by a player who understands the game better than you, you might be interested in checking out some of the lesser-known MOBAs available on your PC. The two established leaders of the genre, League of Legends and DotA 2, have been around for nearly a decade and feature some of the best, most experienced players in the game.

They’re easy to learn, difficult to master quick to get into, but easy to feed thousands of hours of your life. With its infinite replayability, high-stakes competitive plays, and the rewarding feeling of success when your team triumphs, it’s no surprise MOBAs have set the world ablaze. Of course, as with any multiplayer sport, if your team falls apart, so do your chances of winning. If you have a high-functioning team, with each player playing their role correctly and working together, you can almost always overcome your enemy and win the match. Once the lane is cleared, work toward getting to the enemy’s spawn area, and destroy the target-sometimes called the “Nexus” or “Ancient,” depending on the game you’re playing-inside the base of your enemy. Each team’s goal is simple: use your respective creeps-small creatures controlled by the AI and easily killed-to work towards destroying the enemy team’s towers in each lane. In addition to the lanes, there’s also a “jungle,” which is where the team’s fifth member, the jungler, comes in they spend their time in the jungle destroying high-powered creatures for buffs, and sneak around to different lanes to help catch the enemy members in a surprise 2v1 or 3v2 match-up. The towers act as defense, damaging enemy team members that get too close to the tower. Each lane has two “towers” per team (four total), represented by the dots above.

The tank typically goes to the top lane, the AP Carry heads to the mid lane, and the AD Carry and his or her support head to the bottom lane.

The map is divided into three lanes, all spawning from the base. In a standard, basic match of the average MOBA game, each team of five begins on either the lower-left or upper-right corner of the map. Finally, there’s the jungler, but to explain their role, we’ll have to first explain how the game is played. Contrary to popular belief, the support is one of the most important roles in the game, even if no one ever wants to play. For the second half of the match, the support extends their powers to the entire team, healing and buffing as needed. The support, meanwhile, typically sticks by the AD Carry’s side for the first half of the game, healing and applying buffs to boost their carry’s power. A good tank can defend his team in a face-off and live to tell the tale. The tank is the opposite of a carry while his attack and magic powers are often quite low, he specializes in defense and absorbing hits without dying. That’s where two more roles come in: the tank and the support. While these two character roles typically claim the most kills, they’re also susceptible to the most deaths in the game, as their defense is often quite weak. The AD Carry and AP Carry are typically the main damage dealers of the game, with the AD focusing on using melee and physical attacks, while the AP uses magic and spells. Like with any competitive game, most players have a standard character type they play, and MOBAs are no different players usually fall into one of five archetypes. Each team member chooses a separate character, and that character fulfills a necessary role on the team.

The MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena genre, is a competitive team-based online game in which, in typical standard matches, teams of five face off against each other on a large map. If you’re unaware, allow us to fill you in with a quick guide to the basic guidelines of this genre (and for experts and legacy players out there, understand that this is a basic guide to MOBAs!). The MOBA scene is popular, competitive, and a whole lot of fun. As a genre of game, it’s quickly become one of the most popular-and controversial-game types on the market today, and it’s easy to see why.
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Since the rise of both titles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, dozens of different MOBAs and MOBA-likes have arrived on the scene, on PC, MacOS, consoles, and even iOS and Android phones. As a genre, the MOBA has moved from an unknown niche community all the way to a worldwide phenomenon, responsible for sweeping along the entire competitive gaming scene and building eSports from an underground community to receiving championship coverage on ESPN and awarding multi-million dollar cash prizes at the top conferences for both League of Legends and DotA 2.
