A Look into the Dawngate Beta

Dawngate is a new MOBA (multiplayer-online-battle-arena) being developed by Waystone Games, currently in Closed Beta. But with so many well established Mobas out there, and a handful of up and comers finding their place, what does Dawngate do to stand out?

A Focus on Map Objectives

Dawngate has multiple game changing objectives on the map, rewarding strategic teams with advantages in the form of extra Vim (currency), temporary bonuses, and more powerful minions to fight for them.

Spirit Wells

Spirit Wells are like a team's gold mine. There are 4 in the game, each team starts with 2. Controlling a Spirit Well will start giving every member of your team a boost in passive currency, called Vim. You can attack an enemy's Spirit Well to kill their workers, reducing their passive Vim generation, or even capture their Spirit Well for your own. This adds another strategic level to map control, as control of Spirit Well's is huge gold advantage for your team.

The Jungle

Dawngate's Jungle functions similarly to other games. A player fights neutral mobs for gold, experience, with larger monsters giving a temporary buff. What makes this jungle different is it's layout. The central jungle has more than a dozen entrances, with lots of turns, tight corners, and bushes, not to mention a wide variety of monster camps, it all makes your movement through the jungle anything but predictable.

Bindings

Each lane has 3 Bindings, each of which acts like a tower. Once you destroy an enemy's binding, your team will start spawning more powerful minions in that lane helping to put pressure on the enemy team. Taking more Bindings gives more powerful minions. But the effects are temporary, a team's Binding will respawn after a few minutes.

The Parasite

In the middle of the map is The Parasite. The Parasite is a powerful neutral monster, which gets stronger though the course of the game. He has various abilities, and killing him isn't easy. But if your team does kill him you'll be rewarded with gold, experience, and and a temporary boost in power which could be just what you need to turn the tide of battle.

The Guardian

Your final goal in the game game is to destroy the enemy team's base, and ultimately kill their Guardian. Many Mobas have towers or large structures, but in Dawngate there is the Guardian. At your final push into the enemy base you'll run into this large creature who strikes with fearsome blows and reigns fire and destruction on you. Not only does this lead to a climactic ending, but with the Guardian giving aid to the defending team, it gives them a chance for a comeback.

Loadouts and Roles

Dawngate has a customization system allowing you to tweak your character perfectly to your liking. First are your loadouts. Unlocked after completing a game or purchased with in game currency, you use Spirit Stones and Sparks. Sparks are inserted into Spirit Stones for different stat bonuses, and Spirit Stones come in a variety of shapes and sizes, feeling sometimes like puzzle pieces, allowing you to do tons of experimentation to find which Loadout suits you best.

Then there are Roles. Each different role essentially gives bonus gold depending on your playstyle. Gladiator rewards more gold for staying in lane and last hitting minions, Hunter gives bonuses for a player who is Jungling, Tactician is for a Support or harass oriented player, and Predator rewards playing like an Assassin and going directly for enemy players.

Item Trees

Dawngate has a little twist on items. Like any Moba, you buy an item and can upgrade to better items. But Dawngate has only 6 tier one items. In other Mobas you buy multiple tier 1 items, and combine them for stronger items, but in Dawngate items have a tree. Take the basic damage item Power for example. Power is a tier 1 item, but can be upgraded into 5 different items, and each of those items can be upgraded into a couple of different items. So this one item can be upgraded into nearly 10 different items. It creates this interesting choice of deciding to buy multiple cheap items, or saving up to buy an expensive upgrade.

Item Stats

Dawngate has some familiar stats such as Health, Armor, etc. Something interesting Dawngate does is damage scaling, with two stats Power and Haste. Power and Haste do not do the same thing for every Shaper. For example if you buy 10 Power as an archer character, it will make your auto attacks do 10 bonus damage. But if you buy 10 Power as magic damage character, that 10 power may only increase your auto attacks by 4 or 5, instead giving large bonuses to your spells. And similarly, the Haste stat will increase the archer's attack speed, while allowing the magic user to cast spells more often. It brings in this interesting use of items, that two players may be buying the same items, but will be playing completely differently.

Passion for Lore

While Dawngate is a relatively new fantasy world, Waystone Games is committed to telling the story of this world. Each character, has a back story and is fully voiced. Waystone has been periodicly releasing short stories to flesh out each character's story and to build onto the world of Dawngate.

Nick Fox