Blizzard’s new battleground is unlike any seen before, not having any way of directly attacking the enemy’s core. Is this unorthodox map feasible? How does it work?
One thing that Heroes of the Storm is known for is its creativity. Whether it be wacky heroes like The Lost Vikings, or the choice of 9 different battlegrounds, Heroes shows its ability to successfully deviate from the norms of the MOBA genre. And it doesn’t look like their desire to push the envelope is changing any time soon. Blizzard has announced their newest battleground, Towers of Doom, that is completely objective based.
The standard “push lanes, kill core” mantra of the MOBA genre doesn’t apply to this map. Each core is impenetrable throughout the match. The only way to destroy the core and win the match are through constantly spawning objectives throughout the match. What?! Blizzard, have you lost your mind?! You can’t possibly make this work!
...or can they?
I’ve had the chance to play a plethora of games on Towers of Doom at Blizzcon over the past two days. While I’m certainly not a pro at the map, I understand the fundamental ins and outs of the map, and what strategies seem strong. Let’s dive right in to this new battleground.
So, how does it work?
For many, it’s extremely unclear how the map actually works on a fundamental level. How do you capture points, how much damage to they do, when do they spawn? Here were my observations:
- Towers of Doom is a 3 lane battleground, with each lane having 1 fort and 1 gate.
- There are four locations throughout the map where the towers can spawn.
- Towers spawn every couple of minutes, similarly to Sky Temple.
- Anywhere from 1 to 3 towers can spawn during a spawn phase. It’s unclear to me if there is a pattern here.
- When you capture a tower, it fires shots on the enemy’s core. How much damage the towers do is based on how many forts you have.
- Capturing a tower is similar to turning in gems on Tomb of the Spider Queen - channel the tower, if you aren’t interrupted via attacks or spells, you capture it.
- There are a couple siege camps located throughout the map that will kill minions and suicide into towers. There is a boss in the upper lane that, on capture, will fire shots at the enemy’s core.
- At a certain point, around 15 minutes into the game, a tunnel between your base and the middle of the map will open up. It’s only one way though! You can’t go back to your core from that tunnel!
Those are the basics. Overall, it feels very similar to Sky Temple. There is a large emphasis on team fighting, map control, and good rotations. Since killing forts will increase the damage of your towers, it is one of the main focuses between tower phases.
In terms of health and damage, cores starts with 40 HP. Each team has a multiplier, shown on the bottom of the screen. This multiplier is 1 plus each fort you control. When you take an enemy’s fort, it becomes yours, gaining a full health and ammo bar. The damage your towers deal is equal to this multiplier.
Oh, and a cool side note - what happens if you control all 6 forts? Well, the enemy team is in trouble. If you have complete fort control, your core will start firing repeatedly on the enemy’s core until this advantage is lost.
A Quick & Dirty Analysis
Towers of Doom seems very different than all the other maps we’ve seen. The towers are not too out of the ordinary - Blackheart’s Bay and Sky Temple have a similar objective. However, the thing that stands out to me about this map is the laning. If you can’t work on pushing core, what are you supposed to do between objectives? Do you want to push forts as hard as you can? Save the push for right before towers spawn? Focus on mercenary camps?
At this point in time, I don’t feel comfortable enough with the map to speculate what I think the dominant strategy will be. To me, however, that isn’t the important thing about this map! It’s the possibilities that interest me. There is so much potential for theory crafting, it’s astounding. I am extremely excited for teams to rip this map apart and look at it from every aspect.
Overall, Towers of Doom was a big risk in challenging the definition of a battleground, but I think it was beautifully executed. The only thing I felt weird about was the time between objectives. It seemed like there was about 3 minutes between tower phases, and considering that is the only way to win, it felt like an eternity between towers.
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