How to play DotA-style MOBA game in Overwatch with Workshop

An Overwatch player has created a MOBA-style game mode using the new Workshop feature.

Overwatch already features some MOBA-esque elements in that, unlike more traditional shooters like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty, it utilizes characters with unique abilities, which also break down into three distinct categories – tank, damage, and support.

Much of what defines a MOBA, however, are the aspects of the game mode itself that are completely lacking in Overwatch. The genre’s defining games, DotA and League of Legends, both feature a largely symmetrical map in which the goal is to destroy the other team’s base.

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Standing in each team’s way are a series of turrets, most of which must be destroyed before the game can end. Players also rank up throughout the game, first unlocking abilities and then making them more powerful, and earn gold with which to purchase items that will also increase their power level.

Even with the power of the Workshop, not all of these aspects can be replicated. Overwatch player u/Starhunter99999 has created a mode approximating as many elements as possible, however, including turrets, a limited level-up system, and even a base recall.

Players who wish to try out this mode can do so using the share code 0G1B8.

Those who wanted a more classic MOBA feel could also take these ideas and combine them with the top-down modes that other players have created for the more typical MOBA perspective.

In order to make a more fully-fledged Overwatch MOBA, however, Blizzard will need to add even more tools to the workshop – such as the ability to create and define the actions of other AI characters in order to act as minions or other neutral monsters, along with being able to create a proper gold, experience, and item system.

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With DotA itself having originated as a mod for another game – Warcraft 3 in that instance – however, it’s certainly possible that the Overwatch Workshop could eventually be used to create a mode that holds up as a game in itself.

The Workshop is currently limited to PC players as it’s only available on the Public Test Realm (PTR), but once Blizzard push it to the live servers players on all platforms will be able to use it to create their own new game modes.