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MOBA For A Beginner?
I'm looking for a new game and have seen MOBAs around for a while now, but never got into any of them. I never even tried any of them out for even a few minutes, so I'm a total MOBA noob.
Are there any out there you'd suggest for a total beginner? I'd obviously like the population to be good, but apart from that I'm not too bothered, I'll try whatever.
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If your a MMO player looking for a easy transition to a MOBA i would suggest smite. It has a 3rd person view and you move around like you would in a MMO or a 3rd person shooter. its not click to move top down view like most mobas so it might be easyer for you to get into.
Oh and dont forget to put on your thick skin, because no matter what MOBA you try the communities are normally some of the most toxic out there.
I have played all the major ones and Dota is by far the best. It's a game which yOu can play for years without getting bored. it has a lot of depth and probably the most gameplay variety from what I have seen.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I would say hots is th e easiest to pick up not smite. Third person or top down shouldn't affect accessibility. But then again I wouldn't pick a mobs which is easier to pick just for that reason. Mobas take a lot of time to get into and he's better off starting with the one which he will play longer term. Hots and smite won't prepare him well for playing a game like dota for example.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
This is my problem, I still can't decide between the three MOBAs you guys suggested. I don't know the difference in gameplay, population or anything
When I say I'm a MOBA noob by the way, I am literally an absolute beginner. I've never played a single one. I'm just looking for a really popular MOBA that I can stick with and eventually get better at. I hear LoL is the most played MOBA, but is it really the best out of all the others out there?
Personally, not a MOBA fan. BUT... here's my experience.
I tried to cut my teeth on the DC MOBA. But after 2 fights I was being cursed at by a Green Lantern because I wasn't doing something as fast as he would have preferred. So after a couple of games, I never went back.
I tried LoL. Same story but much quicker.
Heroes of the Storm, there was one person who actually took the time to show me what to do. Map after Map he showed me how to play my character and I started doing profoundly better in general. Yea it handicapped us while I learned but because of it, I came up to speed SOOO much faster.
I played it for a few weeks but decided that the MOBA thing just isn't for me. I hope that you'll find whatever game you're looking for.
Hey Ikeda.
To be honest the same will probably happen with me but I just figured I'd give 'em a shot as I've got nothing else worth playing at the moment.
On that note, are there any MOBAs out there where I can pick a character and keep them levelled & geared up, just like an MMO? I keep reading that once you build up your character during a match and get them loads of gear that once the match ends, they just reset. I'm just looking for something a bit more persistent.
This is the problem I have with MOBAs. You level your character up, go up these skill trees/equipment trees, then after the match is over, you lose all that gear.
I am not an expert in this genre, but i think there are some ways you can level your character but i was turned off by the fact the gear i was getting in every match was gone. Though there is some form of character progression i think, but someone would have to elaborate on that as I think its not the same as with a MMO.
I will tell you this. If you dont find a good group of real life friends or a really good guild of players and use voicechat you will lose often. Doing Pick up groups in MOBAS, well you will probably lose alot.
Does anyone else agree that you will lose alot if you dont have a core group of ppl you play with? But this goes in general for arena matches in MMOs too. if you have your guild on a voicechat, 8 vs 8 or sth, you will stomp a pug.
i played most mobas for the last decade and enjoyed most of them.
i currently play dota 2, heroes of the storm and arenas in smite.
hots is beginner friendly in the sense that you don't have to learn itemisation, warding and last hitting.
smite is from a third person view and very similar to an mmo control wise
dota 2 and lol are a lot more harder to learn than hots, some people will tell you they have more depth, that's not the case. they just have a lot more mechanics to understand and learn but in the end, positioning, map awareness, decision making and team fights are what defines every single one of them.
if you decide to give dota 2 a shot. there is one extremely in depth guide to beginners and people wanting to improve available that i strongly suggest you to read.
https://purgegamers.true.io/g/dota-2-guide/
it is big, overwhelming and kinda scary if you've never played a moba before but it will provide you with the basics you need for nearly every moba out there and a lot of things you will especialy need for dota 2.
it is a lot to digest and i would advise you to try the game before just to understand what the game and movement look and feel like.
dota 2 (or lol) has an incredibly steep learning curve but once you begin to understand what you are doing, you will most probably love it.
picking any moba with no previous experience is difficult, not gonna lie.
the community, no matter which game you choose, is in most case awful and will make you want to quit.
try to use ressources like reddit to find people willing to teach/mentor you or people like you willing to learn.
if you have 4 friends (and preferably one of them who knows the game), things will be a lot easier and enjoyable.
dota 2's annual tournaments starts next week, check the newbie stream for it. it is insightful and catered towards beginners. ()
good luck and don't get discouraged by the sheer amount of things you'll need to learn, it's worth it in the end.
For a first foray into mobas HOTS all the way, it is to MOBAs what vanilla wow was to mmos, easy to get into with more depth than initially credited for.
It takes away a lot of the learning curve of a Dota or LoL and is just genuinely fun, but expect that fun to top out a bit quicker than the other two.
Do NOT play HotS first.
Play LoL first. And I'll explain why:
LoL is the basic DotA game with certain elements made more accessible/enjoyable. You can jungle (which involves traversing the map, killing NPC creeps, and pop out to help gank), you can farm and get experience last hitting and zoning/poking your opponents. You can supplement your character with items and learn meta builds for different situations and counter equiping.
You should start with LoL because it will give you the foundation of skills to play any other MOBA, it's a base layer. HotS, on the other hand, will leave you clueless to other MOBA's if you play it first. It's very different in how people play and achieve objectives. It's not "dumbed down or accessible" it's different, that's all. It exists in the MOBA genre, but doesn't play like the others.
Smite is a great MOBA too, but it's pretty fast paced and I would still recommend playing LoL to learn the basics before heading to Smite (but you should still totally play Smite at some point).
DotA2 is my personal preference and the best moba imo, BUT if LoL is like pushing you into a swimming pool and telling you to learn to swim, DotA2 is like dropping you in the middle of the ocean and telling you "Good luck!" I wouldn't recommend playing it first because you'll be overwhelmed for . . . hmmm . . . a least a month. Then, just when you think you have the basics down, you realize you have 6 months to a year before you really have a clue about what you're doing. Then it'll take another year before you come to terms with the hero pool and sufficiently learn a variety of heroes. And then you'll watch a pro game and you'll be like, "omg wat?" Granted, pros in LoL and HotS are also exceptionally good, but in DotA there's just so many more layers of interaction that you'll see things you either flat out didn't know could happen or thought were possible.
Play LoL first. It'll probably take a week to get the hang of it. By one month you'll have a functional knowledge of how MOBA's generally play and will have a handful of champs that you're comfortable with. Then head over to Smite or HotS, finally go to DotA when you're bored and see how you like it - though it'll probably take a few attempts before you get over the "why does everything feel so weird?" and figure out that each hero turns at a certain speed, moves at a certain speed, attacks a specific way, has a distinct range of attack and so on. Then you're in the rabbit hole.
I'd also say HotS, and suggest SMITE, too. The latter being just as accessible and quick to pick up but with a slightly different approach to controls and UI.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
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There are persistant things like skins / achievements / etc. But the characters themselves don't really do that. The closest thing to that (that I know of thus far) is either going to be DotA2 (you can find cosmetic 'gear' to wear on your characters), or TOME (which I'm not even sure how many people still play, but you learn better and better traits for characters the more you play).
That said, if you're playing these games like a crunch for MMOs, you are looking in the wrong ditch. MOBAs are more like a team-sport, not an MMO. A lot of work's been done to help hide this fact, but it's part of the core gameplay. You should think of MOBAs as more like a game of chess with michael bay explosions. If you are still interested in MOBAs, here's how the main ones break down for ya:
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Heroes of the Storm: (lowest skill cap / most casual of the MOBAs). Not a bad game for beginners.
HotS is basically a MOBA for people who want to play MOBAs (because they are popular I guess), but don't actually like the gameplay, nor want to be bothered by things like strategy, pacing, or tactics. Nearly all of these things have been removed from the game, in favor of limited objectives, and primarily constant fighting. Objectives push themselves in a lot of ways, and everything is shares (making economy control barely a factor in this game).
If you don't like to think about what you are doing, this is probably the MOBA for you. It's bite-sized fun. Though don't be fooled, the community can be just as toxic (if not worse) than in some of the other MOBAs.
Smite: (High mechanical skill cap / lower lvl of overall strategy, favors intelligent use of skill-shots). Good game for beginners.
SMITE: is probably the MOBA that feels closest to an MMO. It has the 3rd party perspective (which actually does make a huge difference in terms of how the game feels / plays), and it has a variety of different game modes. You can start at some of the more basic ones (arena / assault) and work your way up to the more competitive ones if you so choose.
League of Legends: (The middle ground of the MMO genre. Highly popular, decent mixup of skill and strategy). Good for beginners.
LOL: While League of Legends isn't my personal favorite for this genre, it often gets a worse rap than it probably warrants. Mostly due to it's community, which is honestly a mixed back. What often gets left unsaid, is that few other MOBAs have better communities, and Riot's done a lot of work to try and improve / shelter players from the bad parts of the community. I would place it about on par with Smite in terms of accessibility, though you will need to learn a larger amount of items in LOL.
DotA2: (highest skill cap, most difficult to play, most competitive amongst players). Would not recommend for beginners.
This game is technically one of the better MOBAs on the market, but it is by far the least accessible. It's a great game, but not for the faint of heart, or those who don't like harsh challenges. You will get destroyed a lot before you understand what's actually happening.
**** TLDR;
MOBAs are games of strategy, that should be approached from the same mindset. If you aren't actually looking for a game you'd want to improve / get better at, and don't want to deal with the growingpains of learning new mechanics; then avoid this genre, it's not for you.
Sins of a Dark Age .. good community .. and a decent single player AI to practice against and learn the game ...
http://www.sinsofadarkage.com/
Well im pretty sure they are all free so just go give them a shot and see what you like. or watch some youtube videos of gameplay.
If you eventually wanna get competitive play League of Legends, pretty easy/straight forward from Levels 1 - 30 then you can play ranked matches, HotS while very easy, never has that challenging kind of feel, DOTA 2 is the complete opposite, very hard learning curve and just gets frsutrating unless u pour in tons of hours into learning just the very basics. SMITE like the otehrs have said I suppose would be a good transition if u played MMOs prior, but its kind of a eh... kinda game, too low of a player base makes you feel like you aren't really playing a game that yyour friends might be.
*Opinionated ^^^
LoL and HoTs have systems that persists. Not 100% sure what you get in HoTs, but in league you get to choose runes to suit your play style. Passive effects/ mostly stats.
I would suggest LoL since its the only one I have really liked. It is easier to learn than DOTA, more team focused and not as hard to get the grips around it.
HoTs is probably the easiest one to get into, have not tried it.
But if you like to play different play styles, you have a lot less customizing it in that game.
To add some general tips:
No matter what MOBA you choose. Pay attention to the mini map! It is something that you should glance at every 5 seconds if not more often.
Probably will not mean much in your first matches but getting into that habit as early as possible will make you a better and more importantly aware player.
And buy wards. They will save your life, countless times. Granted that you look at your mini map.
If someone is toxic, just ignore them.(As in actually use the ignore function in the game so you wont loose your temper) Do not try to talk back, it will decrease your chance of winning significantly.
Say hi and good luck to your team mates, be nice. Say you are a new player. Dont be selfish.
Read up on the wiki of the game you choose on the topic of "Carry, tank, jungle and support. "
Get a general idea of what the champion you pick is good at.
If you find a champion you like, google it and add "build" and you should get up some websites which tells you what is good for said champion.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
i concur, very easy to get into.
Strife is a good moba, i used to play HoN and i loved that, i must of played it for about 3years on and off and had over 2000 games, but when i found strife, is was so much more simple to play, so when i had noobs on my team they struggled alot less than on HoN.
give a few a try, why not they r all free
Currently Playing:
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If you have that much of a problem with the other players just hit the mute button. I can only speak for League of Legends since that's the only one I've been playing for a while, but the community has gotten MUCH less toxic. There's a huge difference between how it is now and how it was a couple of years ago, which is where the bad rap comes from.
And I second the Smite recommendations in this thread, from the MOBAs I've played, it feels the most like an MMO.
I started with LoL, played 1 year and then tried Smite (3 months playing). After Smite I decided to play Dota 2 with my friends (9 months playing). Then I had possibility to try HoTs but well I played only for 2 weeks (quite boring). And now I am back in LoL :-)
I enjoyed LoL, Dota 2, Smite
I didnt enjoy HoTS
And now my opinion on learning curve from hardest to easiest: Dota 2, LoL, Smite, HoTS
If you want to play great and serious MOBA game, just pick Dota 2 or LoL - both very nice choices