I've recently started streaming a Bronze to GM challenge, and I wanted to use it as a teaching opportunity for people who are actively trying to rank up on solo Storm League. I'd like to do these weekly.
Topic #1 Decision Making
Decision making is not exclusive to any role in HOTS, but it has an extremely potent impact on your games. What's likely the most frustrating aspect of team games is that you can control your own decisions, but not your teammates. Most players stop there, and continue to make decisions that may seem like the "right" ones to make, but are counterintuitive to the ones your team is making. For example, yes it may be the better choice to soak a lane to catch up in exp to the enemy team, but if your team clearly wants to fight, regardless of the situation, you should be there with your team. The same can be said of objectives, camps, etc... If your team is making "bad" decisions, you are making a worse one by choosing to go against the grain.
Map Awareness:
Lack of map awareness and tunnelling are prevalent in the lower leagues. You need to be aware of where both the enemy team and your team are at all times. If you don't see any of the enemy team on the map, you should assume they're in the closest bush to you, and play accordingly until you've confirmed their position. When nobody is on the map, you should not be pushing a solo lane up to the enemy towers. You can also make assumptions based on the available camps. If all camps are taken, and boss is available, if you don't see anyone on the map, you can assume the enemy is taking boss and start planning accordingly.
For example, in this clip, we are up 5v4 in a very close Dragon Shire. Zul'jin leaves presumably to defend bottom and mid keep, and I don't notice. Had I been paying attention to the map, I would have pinged retreat and moved to cover the Dragon, instead of engaging the enemy team (who are now on equal footing in a 4v4) and trying to get a pick. This ended up losing us the game.
What To Do After A Kill? Why Do We Teamfight?
This is arguably one of the biggest misunderstandings in Heroes of The Storm. Time and time again I see players dive forts for kills, fight in the mid lane for the first several minutes of the game, and die over camps. Every time you try to teamfight, or fight someone 1 on 1 with the intention of getting a kill, you should be asking yourself why. Kills exist in heroes not to give a large amount of experience (on equal levels, a kill gives 300xp, 66% of a minion wave). You should be fighting to do one of three things:
-
Create space for your team to down a fort or keep.
-
You are up in numbers and want to press your advantage, to then down a fort or keep.
-
You can confirm an objective that will then kill a fort or keep.
You may be noticing a pattern here. Watch this clip. I dive a tower for essentially no reason, and only survive due to my healer correcting my mistake. I wanted to kill the fort, but instead tried to go for the kill AND get the fort, a terrible decision.
The key takeaways from this post are: always ask yourself why you're doing what you're doing, and watch the map to ensure that you won't be surprised by the enemy team ganking you.
if you want to watch me stream I do so tues 4-8pm est and sunday 12-5pm est at http://www.twitch.tv/ghostdav
