As Heroes of the Storm continues to grow, we try to acclimate you even more with Play The Objective (PTO), a weekly piece on the happenings around the game. Covering general musings, hero impressions and news updates, this is the avenue to start your Heroes week.
Thought(s) of the week
Heroes of the Storm (HOTS) has been in closed Beta for just over one month. In that span, the player count is at nine million registrants, 34 heroes have been released, and the competitive scene is increasingly mature. Still there are growing pains, watching Khaldor’s stream can be painful with the lag between matches (he’s still the best commentary). As the game continues to grow though, we’re here to help guide all newcomers.
For all the newbie friendly designs of the game, Heroes is deceiving complicated. Objectives seem straight forward, but there are nuisances on when to commit, when to split push, team fights, etc… Mostly it can be hard to understand the difference in talents, and to truly maximize your hero, you need an intricate understanding of the entire talent tree from start to finish. Every skill point matters towards your perfect build. But there is good news, Heroes is incredibly forgiving. I rarely feel hopelessly in defeat like Dota. There’s always a sense one good team fight will swing the game, and you’re never stuck in 50 minute blowouts with Heroes 20 minute matches.
The point of Play The Objective (PTO) is to provide a friendly mouthpiece to heroes. I am new to the scene like many others. I haven’t played all the heroes, and I certainly don’t have all the talent builds committed to memory. This won’t be a hero guide, or an analysis of the meta, or what not, there are other avenues for that. Instead PTO will be an informal discussion on the game, and to keep readers updated on the local happenings. As such, reader feedback (or pushback) is highly welcome, even encouraged.
Overall, this article will have three parts. Firstly, a general observation or anecdote I’ve noticed, a recap of my experience playing one of the week’s Free to Play heroes, and lastly general news of what’s happening in the Heroes scene, and other observations.
Free to Play of the Week: Uther
I had been wanting to play Uther for a while. Firstly, I love supports, especially those that provide sustain in team fights. Watching pro-games, he is consistently picked in most matches so he must be a tier 1 hero. With great excitement I took over greatest paladin the World has seen.
Of all the healers, his skillset seems to provide the best versatility, not like Lili with her useless Snake (I hate that ability a lot). He has the classic heal, an AOE nuke/heal, a great stun, and one of the better team fight Ultimates.
Aesthetics: It’s Uther, what more do you need. He is the greatest paladin ever, and is one of the most boss heroes in the game. His hammer has an extremely satisfying thumping sound effect as it smashes down on the opponent. His stun is also very pleasing, with a nice falling animation on the target. Plus, he’s one of the few heroes that doesn’t look like a jacka** when he’s riding on his horse, a very natural, elegant look as he gallops in to battle. Truly a wonder to behold.
Skillset: As detailed above, extremely useful and versatile skillset. At his core, he’s a healer who is meant to be in the frontlines, more so than Rehgar I feel. I tried a pure healing build with him, which worked well. You can go Conjurer’s Pursuit then Hammer of the Lightbringer (which gives 5 mana per attack) and never have Mana issues. For Ultimates, Divine Storm seems superior to Divine Shield in most situations, unless you have a core you’re desperately trying to protect. Lili is a better pure healer, in my opinion, but Uther brings more to the table with his other skills.
The later times I played Uther, I went a more frontline combat build. His talent tree accommodates this and it was mildly effective, though I found myself often running around fights whacking my hammer for little effect (despite how cool I looked in battle). Mainly if you deviate from a pure heal, it seems you’re in the frontline soaking damage with the tank and getting position for a 3+ hero Divine Storm. His damage ceiling seems low though.
My favorite build.
Difficulty: A little harder, just because his AOE nuke/heal requires good positioning, his heal doesn’t have good range, and his cooldowns are rather long (10 seconds on the heal) so you need to be good at maneuvering in between skills. On the surface easy, but will take time to master.
Verdict: He’s currently going for 7,000 gold in the store, he’s a tier 1 support, and he’s top five in terms of coolest looking heroes to play. So yes, yes you should buy him if you can (full disclosure, I just bought him).
News & Notes
- Go4Heroes tournament wrapped this weekend. The lone American hope, Reynad’s Tempo Storm, was in good form throughout the tournament. They made it to the finals undefeated (granted, it was BO1 until the finals) before losing a tight BO3 against 3DMAX. Check Khaldor's Youtube for all of the VODs.
- ESL Major League Group stage continues. Every Tuesday and Thursday you can check out the action courtesy of Twitch. So far Team LDLC is clearly the top team with a perfect 6-0, but I’m a big fan of 3DMAX and Fnatic.
- The Afreeca TV Heroes Big League starts up today (February 23) with Round of 32 and will run through March 7. The South Korean tournament has a $30,000 prize pool making it one of the largest prize pools in the Heroes scene. Check out the tournament here. The reason to watch is for Tastosis’s first venture into Heroes casting.
- Sky Temple is by far my least favorite map to play. I hate how it spreads out the play, really makes me feel frustrated. But it’s probably my favorite map to watch. The temple control points force some excellent fights, see Game 3 of Tempo Storm versus 3DMAX at the Go4Heroes.
- Azmodan and ETC were recently featured in GG, questioning whether they were Tier 1 heroes (Check it out here). ETC I definitely say yes. I’ve been lukewarm to ETC, but have been converted to his versatile skillset. He’s tanky, great in fights and can fit different roles in the team. In pub games though, I would pass. His Mosh Pit ultimate can just be too hard to take advantage of as it requires a lot of coordination. As for Azmodan, he’s scary, but that’s as much to do with his lore as any gameplay.
- One thing I do know, Illidan and Zeratul remain the two scariest heroes. Most of the games I saw over the weekend they were first ban/first pick.
- Play The Objective owes it's title to Khaldor, who coined the phrase "Playing the Objectives”. It reminds me of my favorite saying in Dota “Objective Dota” (of course). It is something all Heroes must keep in mind: “Play the objective”
You can keep up on all the great tournament and meta coverages at the Heroes GG site. I can promise there is some excellent content in the pipeline.
Otherwise, look for us next week!
