MXM is looking to be the newest sensation in free-to-play MOBAs, and with 37 different heroes (called Masters in this game), it certainly has a good nest-egg on which to get started. The only issue that creates for new people is obvious: who the heck do you play?
MXM Masters are rather varied, and you only get five to start with (three of them on a free, rotating basis). Learning how to unlock more Masters is complicated enough without worrying about which Masters to unlock. But don’t worry: we have you covered. If you’re just starting out in MXM, these Masters will be the easiest to play and to understand:
1. Lua
It may seem a little on-the-nose, but one of the easiest Masters to play in MXM is one of the two you start out with. Lua is a ranged Master with firearm and explosive-based weapons and skills. This makes her relatively straight forward and easy to understand. Lua is a really solid damage dealer that can kite and hold her own well enough to hardly ever need to tag-in your secondary Master.
Masters in MXM have four base abilities from which to choose, but they can only pick two of them (each Master has an Ultimate ability and a passive ability that never change). With many Masters, it will be beneficial to unlock one or both of the other two abilities, but that’s not the case with Lua. She comes ready to go right out of the box, so to speak.
As a bonus, Lua’s passive ability will bail you out if you mismanage your MP. It’s simple: every sixth skill is free. Once you use 5 skills – with no regard to whether they hit zero enemies or if they did any damage to the heroes they did hit – the sixth skill will cost no resources. Anything that makes you have to think less as a beginner is going to be valuable.
2. Taejin
Taejin is MXM‘s answer to Overwatch‘s Soldier 76. In a world full of mystical and mythical beings, Taejin is just a guy with a gun and military experience to back it up. Like Lua, he has a passive ability that makes you have to think less, gaining stamina for every time he lands a weapon hit and applying a mini-stun on enemies when you overheat your weapon.
More than that, though, his skills are really easy to understand, You almost don’t even need to read the specifics. His “Proximity Grenade” skill does exactly what you think it does – it throws out a grenade that explodes, doing AOE damage. His “Explosive Barrage” skill fires out a barrage of explosive shells. It’s not complicated.
Perhaps the easiest thing to learn is his ultimate ability. Press R, and you’ll be presented with a large circle to target on the ground. What do you think happens in that circle? Explosions! Doesn’t really matter from what (it’s a missile strike, if you care). The point is you put that circle around enemies and it makes them go away. Easy peezy.
3. Innowin
I usually tell new MOBA players to avoid melee heroes at all costs. Enemies can usually get away from Melee heroes a lot more easily, and Melee heroes will often find themselves too far in the thick of the action to retreat when things go south (and new people won’t really know when that is anyhow). The basic idea is to stick to ranged Masters in MXM.
And, if you want a ranged Master, no one is better than Innowin. She’s essentially a sniper – she shoots from very far away, and her shots do a lot of damage (although her rate of fire leaves something to be desired).
While one of her abilities requires a tertiary knowledge of the term “debuff,” which may be a little advanced for total MOBA newbies, at least two of them combine intuitively. She has one ability that binds an enemy (stops it from moving), and another ability that takes a few moments to charge up before hitting all enemies in a straight line. I bet you can find the combo there.
4. Jinsoyun
So remember those things I said about Melee heroes in MOBAs? It still applies in MXM, but maybe not to Jinsoyun. It’s true that melee heroes have a harder time escaping and a harder time chasing, but Jinsoyun happens to have gap-closers out the wazoo. These can help her chase, help her escape and even bring enemies toward her, all setting up for a potential Ultimate combo, and doing damage on top of it all.
She is a bit more complicated than I’d usually recommend for new players. She doesn’t pay for her skills with MP; she uses soul blades. You gain these soul blades throughout the match and spend them on skills, taking down your soul blade meter. Many of her skills are also affected by how many soul blades she has.
The great thing is that you can essentially ignore these aspects and still reap the benefits. Soul blades are gained one for every two attacks (successful or not), so you’ll probably gain them without even trying, and they are also spent automatically when using an ability, so you barely even have to notice that you have soul blades. In fact, if you didn’t know they existed, you’d just think Jinsoyun was a one of the regular MXM Masters who happens to be able to tear people up at close range.
5. Sonid
Sonid falls into a unique category of Masters. Is he straight forward? Sure. Is he a ranged Master? You betcha. But while he’s checking all of these beginner-friendly boxes, he’s also essential to play for one other reason: he’s damned hilarious.
Sonid is a baseball player who hits baseballs as his enemies. His dodge ability is a baseball slide, and his passive ability, called “Underdog,” makes him better as his health goes down. His ultimate ability has him charge toward an enemy and hit them really hard with his bat so as to send them flying backward.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of creatively and humorously designed characters, and its worth experiencing for that reason alone.
