When people say MOBA, what game do you think of first? League of Legends? Smite? I usually go straight to Heroes of the Storm but I like the Warcraft lore so I think it has the edge for me. The inspiration for such MOBA’s like League of Legends came from a Warcraft 3 mod and can be seen by some of the heroes or characters that were launched with the game.
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm was released in 2015, it’s made by blizzard and incorporates many characters from other Blizzard games such as The Lich King from World of Warcraft/Warcraft, Nova from Starcraft and Tracer from Overwatch. Of course there is more but too many to list. 68 to be exact, all from other Blizzard franchises. Heroes of the Storm doesn’t have individual levels rather team levels, it also has map objectives like other MOBAs but getting these can change the game around in a major way. It’s been named Heroes of the Storm 2 after the biggest patch to date.
League of Legends
League of Legends was released in 2009 by Riot after its inspiration from the Warcraft mod, it is possibly the most well recognised MOBA. We’ve all the stories of how loving and caring the community is... League of Legends has 136 different characters to play as, it has individual levels to characters meaning you have to do well as a team but individually as well. Lacking behind in levels could be the downfall of the team. League has an item system that allows you to buy items that increases stats as simple as damage or even life steal. League also has map objectives that reward bonus gold that help with buying items.
Dota 2
We can’t forget Dota 2 now can we? I admit I know very little to the next 2 games but I’ll try my best. Dota 2 was released in 2013 by Valve, it stands above as one of the top MOBA games. Dota 2 currently has 111 characters playable. Dota 2 also has individual levels so you have to be careful not to fall behind too far. Dota 2 has a similar item system compared to League of Legends and similar gold bonuses from map objectives. A useful feature in Dota 2 is that you can purchase items while around the map having an npc bring your items to you.
Smite
Smite was released in 2014 by Hi-Rez Studios, Smite currently has 89 playable gods. Smite uses gods from myths and legends as the playable characters which I think is an interesting take. It takes a more shoulder approach than the eagle eye view that MOBAs are used to. Smite like Dota 2 and League of Legends, has an individual level so still got to be careful to keep up. Smite also uses a item system similar to those 2 and similar currency.
Special mention to Paragon, it was released in 2016 by Epic Games, it’s the newest in this list but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy. It is similar to smite in the perspective, but rather than using a item/gold system, it has a card power system that allows you to buy items from a premade deck prior to the match. The deck building aspect is unique to this kind of game. The cards act similarly to items in League of Legends or Dota 2, allowing for multiple builds and playstyles for a single champion.
What MOBA is your favourite? Which do you play?
Heroes of the Storm image
League of Legends image
Dota 2 image
Smite image
Paragon image
My personal favourite is Heroes of the Storm. After playing League of Legends for years, I thought HotS was a breath of fresh air... Well, maybe with a little bit of poosmell. I like how HotS matches don't take ridiculously long, doesn't focus on killing tiny, unimportant minions. But rather focus on teamplay, rotation and teamfights. Blizzard also has focused on overall unique heroes (Abathur, Cho'Gall).
I've been playing League of Legends since 2010, but having my doubts since season 3-ish. I've played it religiously (sometimes up to 8 games per day, which is WAY too much) and I still somewhat like the game. Now I don't play it everyday and when I do, it's no more than 2-3 games. The reason I have my doubts about the game is because Riot Games is lacking in imagination. As arguably the biggest MOBA, they come with features as one of the last. They've promised and fail to deliver on content and/or features. "But it's a free game, they don't owe you anything." That's true, but failing to meet expectations is discreditable.
Smite is a bit of the special needs kid for me. I like that game and its concept. I L-O-V-E their skin ideas. I thoroughly enjoy the Arena gamemode, but I don't like the laning maps. Just with League of Legends and DOTA 2, it's boring to farm for 10-20 minutes and then have the action.
I've played DOTA 2 for 20 minutes. I found it too irritable to play. You're out of mana after 2 spellcasts, towers shoot you down within 3 seconds and turning your character around takes 3 seconds, Alright, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point. It should be (near) instant. And the argument of that "it's just a difficult game" is invalid. Making a game more difficult than it could/should be, does not make it a good game (looking at you Dark Souls).
And I've never played Paragon, so I've no idea on that.