Author Topic: MOBA Metas  (Read 1369 times)

Offline Zebeast46

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MOBA Metas
« on: February 13, 2015, 12:07:20 pm »
In league of legends, the Mage or assassin is middle lane, the bruiser and fighter are top lane, the jungler can be a tank, bruiser or fighter and the attack damage carry and support are bottom. Rarely, if ever do players not followthis meta, and this leads me to my question.

What are the meta's (if there is one) for Smite (I have only played arena so far), dota 2 and Heroes of the Storm?
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Offline Misery

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Re: MOBA Metas
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2015, 08:38:38 pm »
HotS I kept wondering about myself;  since there's like, 7 maps, and typically in these games the meta is tied to the map pretty heavily, for positioning and all.

Smite, typically there's the duo lane (carry + support), mid (usually a mage goes here), solo lane (er..... someone goes here) and then a jungler.

League is the one where the meta is the most static;  HotS might be the one where it's the most all over the freaking place, because while you'll have specific starting points on the map, you likely wont be there all that long.

Offline Cyborg

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Re: MOBA Metas
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2015, 08:53:19 pm »
In league of legends, the Mage or assassin is middle lane, the bruiser and fighter are top lane, the jungler can be a tank, bruiser or fighter and the attack damage carry and support are bottom. Rarely, if ever do players not followthis meta, and this leads me to my question.

What are the meta's (if there is one) for Smite (I have only played arena so far), dota 2 and Heroes of the Storm?


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Offline Wingflier

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Re: MOBA Metas
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2015, 10:20:34 am »
Smite's lane meta is almost the exact same as LoL, with the same roles in each lane and everything, only renamed. Smite's jungle is slightly different, and their hero designs are significantly better I think, but the lane setups are pretty much on par with LoL.

HOTS doesn't technically have a laning phase in my opinion, because within the first couple minutes of entering the lane, some global objective pops up that the whole team has to go fight, and if you ignore it and force your team to 4v5 you'll lose the game. You won't necessarily ever go back to your lane after the first big fight. Creeps also don't give gold so last hitting is pointless and pushing is far inferior as well. There's just no reason to push when the game will do it for you upon the completion of most objectives. As far as the team compositions go, I hear that team fight lineups with assassins, healers, and warriors are the meta right now because the game is all about 5-man deathballing objectives.

DotA has the most fluid and dynamic laning phase of all the MOBAs. What is the most popular lane setup in DotA? Answer: There isn't one. It completely depends on the current patch, tournament, and team playing. There are as many lane setups in DotA as you can think of. 3-1-1 (trilane), 1-2-2 (a support mid), 1-1-2+jungler, 1-1-1 (2 roamers), 0-1-3+jungler, you name it, it's been done. Jungling in DotA isn't a necessity as it is in Smite and LoL, which opens up a lot of options for teams to decide whether they want to take that route each game. The advantage of jungling is that you free up more lane gold and exp for your team while still staying competitive as a jungler, the disadvantage is that the DotA jungles actually provide a challenge to the hero, so the team is effectively fighting 4v5 for most of the laning phase. It's an interesting strategic option. Trilanes are often popular in DotA because they can be extremely aggressive and are difficult to stop, while allowing a single hero the ability to farm with relative impunity. However, the obvious disadvantage to this is putting so many resources in one lane. Trilanes can be countered with other tri-lanes, or with some powerful duos. Typically the team will send a single hero to face off against the tri-team (called the "suicide lane"), simply leeching gold and exp where they can. There's even an option to avoid a trilane completely and simply jungle or use an another method to find farm, as trilanes can be extremely dangerous on your own (hence the "0" in my examples). Roaming in DotA works well because kills are worth a lot easy on, and are easily obtained. If a hero has a reliable stun or disable, it's easy to wait for the opportune moment and secure a kill. In addition, there are several items in the game such as scroll of teleport and smoke of deceit which allow players to roam the map easily from an early level. Ironically, the game not having Flash makes it about 500% easier to get kills early on, which also makes it more exciting to watch and play in my opinion. As far as DotA team compositions, once again, the sky is the limit here. Carries are not an absolute necessity in DotA. Non-carry teams tend to fare pretty well in competitive play, taking advantage of an early dominance and then snowballing before the enemy team can establish a foothold. Keeping a carry down in DotA is also significantly easier because killing them also saps their gold, in addition to forcing a respawn timer.

So the DotA hero roles aren't as "solidified" as in LoL or Smite. Many heroes can be played as supports, carries, initiators, gankers, and anything in-between, just depending on how they are used and built. One main difference is that the heroes that are commonly considered support can also do a ton of damage, especially early on, in DotA. For example, Lion is a common support pick, but at level 6 he has the most powerful single-target nuke in the game, dealing 600 damage to one target. It's pretty much a guaranteed kill to most heroes below 75% health. Witch Doctor is considered a support hero, but his ultimate with the proper farm can wipe entire teams on its own in the mid-late game. Carries are often send mid, sometimes "mages" are not necessary, and sometimes physical DPS are not necessary, it just completely depends on the lineups.
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Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: MOBA Metas
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2015, 02:06:11 pm »
I've got some 600 hours on Smite and here's my info


Duo lane:
A hard carry plus a support or another hard carry. Usually hunters or assassins. In some cases basic-attack based mages. Support is almost always a guardian (tank) or a versatile warrior.


Mid lane:
Most often a mage with good clear and high AoE damage to contest midcamps and control teamfights. In some cases this is an assassin with good burts and you get the AoE damage from either the jungler or solo lane instead.


Solo lane:
Most of the time a warrior who can build semi-tanky while also providing light CC and damage for the team. In some cases mages go here as well. Basically mid and solo are interchangeable. Assassins are also seen here. Usually picked as a counterpick to a specific character in solo.


Jungle:
Almost exclusively assassins. Fast moving, high burst or high control characters. Controls the flow of the game and provides support for every lane. Bascially your one-stop-go-to map control. There are cases where any other class jungles. It can be done by basically any character with good CC or high burst. Generally high mobility is favoured for the swift rotations.
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