Ambushing an enemy from another lane or the jungle to create a numbers advantage. A jungler's main job.
MOBA GLOSSARY
Essential MOBA Glossary
The match has already moved on and you still do not know what a gank is. This page is for that. Terms are explained the way Honor of Kings, Wild Rift and Mobile Legends players actually use them, with a note wherever the three games work differently.
The basic terms every beginner should know — the shared language of MOBA players.
44 terms
The early phase of the game where you kill minions in your lane to earn experience and gold.
How the titles differThe lane names differ. Wild Rift uses Top (Baron Lane), Mid and Duo (Dragon Lane); Honor of Kings uses Clash Lane (upper), Mid and Farm Lane (lower). Mobile Legends uses EXP Lane, Mid and Gold Lane, and which side of the map they sit on changes between matches.
Dealing the killing blow to a minion to earn gold. The foundation of income — accuracy translates directly into item advantages.
How the titles differIn Honor of Kings a last hit pays about 1.5x, and items can be bought anywhere on the map. Mobile Legends pays the most in the gold lane, where the siege minion bonus covers only the first ten waves and ends at five minutes. On the Wild Rift side, read this together with the eight wave-management entries.
The order in which you buy items and level skills. Adapting your build to the enemy team is key to winning.
How the titles differWild Rift has 179 items plus 54 runes, Honor of Kings 115 items plus 30 Arcana, and Mobile Legends 61 items plus 7 emblems. All three give you six slots; in MLBB only one pair of boots and one active item may be held at a time.
Buffs strengthen (e.g. attack up) and debuffs weaken (e.g. slows). Jungle monster buffs are crucial for early-game control.
How the titles differThe Honor of Kings red buff applies a slow and true damage, the blue buff 20% cooldown reduction and mana regen, both returning after 90 seconds. Wild Rift grants team-wide buffs from its four dragons. Mobile Legends gives 10% cooldown reduction and 60% cheaper skills on blue, true damage and a slow on red, both lasting 75 seconds.
Your kill/death/assist ratio. Beginners improve fastest by focusing on dying less.
The hero your team feeds gold and safe farm so they can win late-game fights. If you are the carry, take the free farm; if you are not, play around protecting the one who is.
A high-health frontliner who starts fights and soaks damage. Tanks buy resistances instead of damage, so judge them by how much enemy attention they pull, not by KDA.
A melee role that balances durability with damage. Not as tough as a pure tank, but able to hold the front line in a sustained fight. Most play a solo lane — Top in Wild Rift, the Clash Lane in Honor of Kings, the EXP Lane in Mobile Legends.
How the titles differThe home lane is Top (Baron Lane) in Wild Rift, the Clash Lane in Honor of Kings and the EXP Lane in Mobile Legends. All three are long 1v1s, and in teamfights you either hold the front or flank onto the enemy backline.
A burst hero built to reach the enemy carry and delete them in one combo. Strong when the enemy is split up, near-useless when they group and peel for each other.
A ranged magic-damage hero, usually in the mid lane. Mages jump in strength the moment their first major item completes, so it is worth checking the enemy mage's build before you fight.
A ranged carry built around basic attacks, scaling hard with items. In Wild Rift they share the Duo (Dragon) lane with a support, and in Mobile Legends the Gold Lane with a roamer. In Honor of Kings they take the Farm Lane, but the roamer has no fixed lane, so a partner is not always beside them.
How the titles differMobile Legends shows this role as Hunter in the Japanese client and as Marksman on the official English site. The Wild Rift ADC farms under a support’s protection, while the Honor of Kings roamer has no fixed lane and moves across the whole map.
A role that gives up farm and contributes through vision, crowd control and peel. In Wild Rift they share a lane with the marksman from the start and handle warding. Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends call the role Roam, and it has no fixed lane at all.
How the titles differWild Rift supports pair with the ADC in the duo lane and hold vision with wards. The Honor of Kings equivalent is Roam, which buys the Gem of Knowledge (300G) and moves across the map. In Mobile Legends one roaming item per team is enough, and thriving gold stops accruing at 1,500.
The player who farms neutral camps instead of a lane and decides where to gank. Their pathing sets the early tempo for the whole team.
How the titles differWhat lets you jungle differs. Honor of Kings requires Smite (1,500 true damage, 30s cooldown) to buy jungle items. Wild Rift deals 600 on a 10s cooldown, and since 7.3 upgrades to 1,000 after 8 stacks are spent and 1,400 after 20. Mobile Legends restricts Retribution holders to jungle boots and cuts damage taken from normal monsters by 40%.
The AI soldiers that march down each lane. They are your steady income — clearing waves pays for your build, and shoving them into a tower is how you take it down.
How the titles differHonor of Kings adds a Ballista from four minutes, and killing the Overlord turns your next two waves into Dragon Vanguards. In Wild Rift, Baron empowers nearby minions. In Mobile Legends the mid lane runs four-minion waves for the first ten, then adds a siege minion after five minutes.
Channeling back to your fountain to heal and shop. Time it right after you shove the wave in, so you lose the least gold and experience while you are away.
How the titles differHonor of Kings lets you buy anywhere, so a recall is for healing. In Wild Rift, go before the cannon minion arrives or right after shoving the wave. Mobile Legends puts small healing camps up 30 to 40 seconds into the match, returning 70 seconds after each kill, so health and mana can be reset without going home.
Steadily collecting gold and experience from minions and jungle camps. When a fight is not clearly winnable, taking a wave is usually the higher-value play.
The neutral area between lanes. Defeat monsters there for experience and buffs.
Grass that hides you from enemy view. A classic spot to ambush the enemy carry.
Lane defenses that hit hard and switch to you the moment you attack an enemy hero in range. Only step in when your own minion wave is there to take the shots for you.
How the titles differHonor of Kings outer towers take 40% less damage for the first four minutes, and your damage drops 55% with no allied minions beside you. Wild Rift sends the Rift Herald into towers early. Mobile Legends shields its outer turrets for the first five minutes: 30% less damage taken, and 15% less for allies nearby.
The final structure in the enemy base. Wild Rift calls it the Nexus, Honor of Kings the Crystal, and Mobile Legends the Base. Destroy it and the game ends, whatever the kill score says.
How the titles differThe Honor of Kings Crystal cannot be attacked until a high ground tower falls, and the Mobile Legends Base not until a base turret falls in one of the lanes. In Wild Rift, destroying the third turret in a lane spawns Super Minions there.
An item you place to reveal part of the map. Every Wild Rift player can pick up free wards in the shop, but Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends have no wards at all: vision comes from bushes, the minimap and hero skills.
How the titles differWild Rift holds vision with wards and clears the enemy’s with the Sweeping Lens; wards double as teleport anchors. In Honor of Kings the roamer walks into the bush first. In Mobile Legends, stepping into a bush the enemy has no vision of makes you disappear on the spot.
The unlit part of the map where enemies are invisible to you. When an enemy disappears from the minimap, assume they are walking toward you until you see otherwise.
The healing zone in your base where you shop and refill. Enemies who chase you into it get shredded by the fountain's attack, so a fountain dive is almost never worth it.
Wiping out the entire enemy team. Use the window to take towers and objectives and swing the game.
Protecting your carry (damage dealer) from enemy attacks.
Any effect that takes control away from a hero — stun, knock-up, root, silence, slow. Chaining CC is how a team kills a tank, and holding your escape until after the first CC lands is how you survive one.
How the titles differThe cleanse spell is Purify in Honor of Kings (120s cooldown), Cleanse in Wild Rift (110s) and Purify in Mobile Legends (unlocks at account level 21). None of them clears suppression.
Damage delivered in one short combo rather than over time. Burst heroes live or die on whether the target dies before it can react, so they need setup or CC to land it.
Chipping away at enemy health from outside their range before a fight starts. Enough poke forces the enemy to recall or fight at a health deficit.
Health you recover on your own — lifesteal, regeneration, or a heal skill. Good sustain lets you stay in lane through poke instead of giving up waves to recall.
Attacking an enemy who is standing under their own tower. It only works when you have a minion wave to hold the tower's aggro and enough damage to finish before it kills you.
How the titles differHonor of Kings towers take 40% less damage for the first four minutes, so a dive in that window almost never works. Mobile Legends shields its outer turrets for the first five minutes instead, cutting the turret’s damage taken by 30% and nearby allies’ by 15%, and a dive there rarely works either. The Wild Rift encyclopedia has an entry on passing tower aggro between allies.
Agreeing on one target and killing it first. Damage spread across five enemies kills nobody; five players hitting the same squishy usually decides the fight on the spot.
Moving between basic attacks so you keep dealing damage while staying out of reach. Attack, step back, attack again — it is the core mechanic of every marksman.
Engage is the skill that starts a fight — a knock-up, a hook, a dash in. Disengage is what pulls your team out of a bad one. Whichever side has the better engage usually gets to choose when the fight happens.
Turning a small lead into an ever-growing advantage and keeping control of the game.
Killing minions to move the front line toward the enemy's towers.
Big-picture strategy: map awareness, objective control, and rotations. Its counterpart, micro, refers to mechanical skill.
A neutral monster that grants a powerful team-wide buff. Fights over the Wild Rift dragons and Baron, the Honor of Kings Tyrant and Overlord, and the Mobile Legends Turtle and Lord decide most matches.
How the titles differIn Honor of Kings the Overlord and Tyrant spawn at 4:00 and the Tempest Dragon at 20:00. Wild Rift has seven: four dragons, the Herald, Baron and Elder. Mobile Legends runs the Turtle from 2:00 until 8:00, then the Lord from 8:00, which evolves at 18:00.
Leaving your lane to gank, contest an objective or hold vision. Shove the wave before you move and you lose no farm doing it. In Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends it is also the name of the supporting position.
How the titles differIn Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends it is a role, and both sites split their tier lists by it. The Mobile Legends roamer earns only 30% from minions and camps killed alone during the first eight minutes. In Wild Rift the word describes an action only.
Pushing a side lane alone while your team holds the enemy's attention elsewhere. It forces them to send someone to answer, which is how you create the numbers fight your team can win.
How the titles differHonor of Kings has a warp point on the clash side (usable once the sprite is killed, 30s reuse) that makes regrouping fast. The Wild Rift encyclopedia covers the 1-4 and 1-3-1 formations. In Mobile Legends, taking one base turret means that lane spawns Super Minions for the rest of the game.
Controlling where the minion waves meet. Freeze the wave near your own tower to farm safely, or slow push a big wave first so you have time to take an objective.
How much stronger a hero gets from levels and items. A late-scaling team should trade early aggression for farm; an early-game team has to convert its lead before the other side catches up.
The moment a hero jumps in strength — a key level or a completed item. Look for fights right after your own spike, and avoid them right after the enemy's.
How the titles differHonor of Kings and Mobile Legends both unlock ultimates at level 4, which is the first spike. The Mobile Legends EXP laner takes all the lane experience and arrives there first. In Wild Rift, tier-3 boots unlock at 10:00, so your earlier boot choice sets up the late game.
The heroes, builds and strategies that are strongest under the current patch. It shifts with every balance change, so check the patch date on any tier list you read.
How the titles differThe tier lists draw on official win, pick and ban rates: in-game HoK Camp for Honor of Kings, the Chinese server statistics (Master and above) for Wild Rift, and the official Hero Ranking for Mobile Legends, covering the past seven days in the Mythic bracket.