What is a MOBA?
Hello everyone today we're going to do a quick overview of the MOBA game genre.
MOBA stands for Multiplayer online battle arena and these games are wildly popular for professional players pulling in millions of dollars at international east sports tournaments.
Yes.
Millions.
The learning curve is steep.
But once you know the ropes it's pretty easy to get addicted.
MOBAs are typically five on five team games where you play as a single hero with four teammates.
And each player has a unique set of skills and abilities.
You coordinate with your team to move through the map, kill enemies, and demolish towers.
And finally destroy your opponents' base to win the game.
The map shape can vary, but most share a basic structure that is a three pronged pathway, a top, middle, and bottom.
Your team of five players typically break into two pairs that play in the top and bottom lanes, and one player that marches up the middle.
There are defensive targets in each lane, and once they're brought down, the whole team can meet up to fight together toward the end.
In addition to your teammates, there are footsoldiers that help you fight, referred to as Creeps or Minions.
These little groups of soldiers act as your front line in your lane and are essential for taking down defensive towers because they draw fire from the tower.
A typical match can last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and while the enemy base is the main objective, killing enemy hero's is how you score points.
To do this, you'll need to master the specific abilities of your hero.
Using your skills in sequence to slow down, cripple, then kill the enemy hero.
In this game I'm playing the Drow Ranger.
Each hero has completely abilities and skills.
In the game that were playing DOTA 2, there's over 100 different heros to choose from.
So that's like weeks of learning each hero and figuring out what the best way to build that hero to its maximum potential.
You can also buy items that enhance those abilities, so that they're even stronger.
So your archer might be able to shoot faster and arrows might be stronger as they make their impact on the enemy heroes.
Seriously, this is Mobas are nerd level 9,000, like it doesn't get any nerdier than this, but they're really fun and once you get into it, it's just endless possibilities.