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General: MOBA Roundup - New Hero Updates
BMunchausen
Staff WriterMMORPG.COM Staff Posts: 400
The fast-growing MOBA genre is becoming increasingly competitive, and that means MOBA makers have to keep the changes coming fast and furious. Here's a smattering of this week's MOBA updates.
SMITE: Wednesday, the popular God-centric game added yet another damage-doing deity to its pantheon: Bellona, Roman Goddess of War. This fetching new melee fighter boasts five special powers: Master of War, Shield Bash, Bludgeon, Scourge and Eagle's Rally and wears the hell out of a suit of armor.
For more information about Bellona and/or SMITE, visit the game's official website.
VAINGLORY: In keeping with the "new hero" theme, this week everyone's favorite mobile MOBA introduced Celeste, a mage with the power to control the stars. This formidable child of Ardan can launch a Solar Storm, cause targets to collapse with Core Collapse, and deal heavy crystal damage with Heliogenesis.
To get to know Celeste and her technologist pops, Ardan, check out the Vainglory website.
INFINITE CRISIS: The ladies keep the party going strong this week as Katana, Mistress of the Soultaker joins the DC comics-based MOBA. Coming March 4, Katana gives players the opportunity to take vengeance on their enemies who specializes in burst damage. Her Kendo skills include:
Soultaker -bonus attack gained with each stored Slash
Slash - cone-shaped attack
Cross Step - forward rush with reduced damage taken
Kendo - execute one of four powerful styles: Spirite Wave, Shadow Step, Soul Rend or Vendetta
Thousand Cuts - blink between all enemy champions, striking up to five times
For more information about this samurai-ific advanced hero, mosey on over to the official Infinite Crisis website.
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: The world's biggest MOBA this week released a new ultimate skin for musical mage, Sona. Made in collaboration with electronica stars Nosaj Thing, Bassnectar and Crystal Method, DJ Sona is on sale this weekend for 2450 RP (after that, it goes up to 3250). The skin gives players the ability to swap between different musical types: Kinetic, Concussive and Ethereal and transforms Sona's look.
All of DJ Sona's music can be downloaded for free right now and once she goes live, will be available on a variety of platforms. So if you're finding yourself in the mood to put on some headphones and drop the beat, visit the official League of Legends website.
Comments
Yup, e-sports is the only kind of "sport" you can do without getting any physical exercise whatsoever, lol
WOW tried that a while ago. Not sure what happened with it.
Related links:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/15/view/news/read/7180/Arena-Tournament-Begins-Feb-16th.html
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
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Yes.
See: High school sports
Parents and coaches treating their players as if they were pro.
Too many MOBAs, too few new things going about.
Honestly, what I like in a MOBA is the fact that you can jump in and very quickly be no better or worse off than a super-old player. As in, every game things are reset, which is great for quick matches. Shooters have been leveraging the same concept for decades now.
And simplification is the trend, if you look at DOTA to LOL to HotS. Which makes for even faster games!
And the diversity of options is also key, so adding more *unique* heroes should be very desirable.
Why should MMO or MMORPGs aim to compete with specialized lobby PVP games in first place?
It's pointless, they cannot win this. Because lobby PVP games are specialized in instanced PVP only, don't have to go for any compromises.
Actually Blizzard did opposite. They are releasing Heroes of The Storm, a separate MOBA game.
Anyway - would it be hard? To have something that would be high quality and could actually compete with i.e. Smite? Huge project for 2-3 years propably. + all the headache and danger of incorporating something like this in WoW netcode, engine and servers.
Not gonna happen. Why would they even do something like this in first place? Big risk, big investment, little sense.
MMORPG arena combat is losing against separate lobby PVP game combat and for a good reasons. There is little advantage of playing arena combat in an MMORPG and big downsides. Both from player and developer point of view.
Aside from Golf.
On a side note, it is just the old definition of "sport" making its come back:
[MASS NOUN] dated Entertainment; fun:
it was considered great sport to catch him out
archaic A source of amusement or entertainment:
I do not wish to show myself the sport of a man like Wildeve