MOBA Playbook Rules

Every slider and choice in the MOBA playbook is now one of three kinds. A rule is followed for the whole match. A preference changes what your players favor without forbidding anything. A threshold is a quantity, like how much health counts as low.

Eleven sliders are now rules at one end of their range, and so are three options of the Fight rule choice. Everything between the two ends of a slider still tunes gradually, the same way it did before this patch.

The rules are live now. They run on the match server, so every match played from today follows them, with nothing to download. The new pills, the rule lines, and the reworded labels come with the next app update, 1.2.2. Until you have it, the app still shows the old labels and percentages, but the sliders already behave as described below.

🚫 Never: seven sliders, far left

Slider	Far-left label	What your players do
Survival instinct	Fights to the death	They will not retreat, Blink out, or heal and run while an enemy hero is in reach or has just traded damage. They still reset once nobody is near.
Retreat fighting	Flee without fighting	They will not attack while retreating, even with a chaser in range.
Duel disengage	Fight through losing duels	They will not leave a 1v1 because they are losing it. Survival instinct still decides low-health escapes.
Counter-gank	Do not shadow lanes	The jungler will not gank a lane where the enemy jungler is expected to be waiting.
Recall interrupts	Ignore enemy recalls	A recalling enemy is attacked only for the usual kill value, never to interrupt the recall.
Invade camps	Never invade enemy camps	The jungler will not enter enemy camps, not even during the first gank window.
Support roaming	Keep support in lane	The support will not roam to other lanes. Grouping, sieges, and objectives still move them.

✅ Always: four sliders, far right

Slider	Far-right label	What your players do
Camp spells	Save spells from camps	They never use an ability on a camp monster. The loadout and basic attacks still work. Dragon, Ram, and Boss are objectives, not camps, so abilities are still used there.
Waveclear spells	Save spells from waves	They never use an ability on a minion wave. The loadout and basic attacks still work.
Lane coverage	Keep lanes covered	The team never picks a plan that leaves a lane empty while a plan covering every lane is available. When there is no such plan, the team plays the best one it has.
Last-hit discipline	Secure last hits first	While farming a lane, they take an available last hit before anything else, even before a killable enemy hero.

⚔️ Fight rule

Three options of the Fight rule choice are now rules:

• Objective only: your players never start a fight or a chase away from a live objective.
• Numbers advantage: your players never start a fight without more bodies in it than the enemy.
• Counter-engage: your players never start a fight. They fight back once an ally has been hit.

Fights the enemy starts and planned sieges are not affected by any of the three. On sight is still a preference.

🎯 Duel selectiveness

At Fight only winning duels, a player now needs a duel that is actually in their favor. A small losing margin used to be accepted there.

Moving this slider left also makes players who pass by a fight more careful about joining it. That part was backwards before this patch.

🎚️ Reading the sliders

From app update 1.2.2:

• The pill reads Never when a slider sits on a far-left rule and Always when it sits on a far-right rule. A line under the slider says exactly what the rule forbids while it is set.
• Every other slider reads Min or Max at its ends instead of -100% or +100%. A preference at Min still happens, only less often.
• Picking Objective only, Numbers advantage, or Counter-engage shows the rule under the option.

✏️ Reworded labels

App update 1.2.2 rewords twenty labels so a preference reads like a preference and a rule reads like a rule. The sliders behave the same unless they are listed above.

Slider	Was	Now
Invade camps	Avoid enemy camps	Never invade enemy camps
Invade camps	Invade enemy camps	Invade enemy camps more
Counter-gank	Shadow lanes for counter-ganks	Shadow lanes more
Recall interrupts	Interrupt enemy recalls	Interrupt recalls more
Retreat fighting	Kite while retreating	Kite more while retreating
Leave camp for objective	Finish camp before rotating	Prefer finishing the camp
Leave camp for objective	Drop camp for objective	Prefer the objective over the camp
Objective roams	Stay on lane work	Favor lane work
Objective roams	Move for objective setup	Favor objective setup roams
Crab priority	Ignore crab windows	Deprioritize crab windows
Crab priority	Prioritize crab windows	Favor crab windows
Overdue camps	Ignore overdue camps	Let overdue camps wait
Plate timing	Ignore plate timer	Plate timer matters less
Plate timing	Push before plates fall	Push harder before plates fall
Inhibitor defense	Hold the high ground	Defend the high ground harder
Base-side waves	Catch base-side waves	Favor catching base-side waves
Zoned lane hold	Hold lane while zoned	Hold the lane longer while zoned
Lane farming	Prioritize lane farm	Favor lane farm
Defensive tools	Save defensive tools	Save defensive tools longer
Objective spells	Save spells around objectives	Hold spells longer around objectives

Everything here is translated in all 15 app languages.

As always, feedback’s welcome, wherever you find me.

- Leavzou