If you are reading this then you have probably played a MOBA before, probably League of Legends or Dota 2. While the two games share somewhat of a rivalry between fanbases, each side enjoys a shard a mutual understanding of MOBA tropes and game mechanics. This knowledge allows a general understanding of competitive best practices and the appreciation of how much skill it takes to play at the highest levels.
The lessons were hard taught, but now come as second nature. Don't let a late game hero farm massive amounts of gold. Know what items are best for your hero. Do not take unnecessary damage in lane, learn to last hit, and for gods sake, don't get killed early in the game. Surely, veterans of the genre should be able to take this knowledge and directly apply it to Heroes of the Storm... Right?
Not necessarily. Blizzard christened HoTS as a "hero brawler" (read: not a MOBA) and even after extensively playing the game, most players I encounter in the technical Alpha still don't seem to get it. Daily, I see players randomly take objectives, miss out on free experience, value kills too much, objectives too little and generally attempt to play Dota 2 or LoL using their favorite Blizzard mascots.
And yet their skills shots never miss and their hero control is immaculate. There is a built in incentive to play with groups of friends rather than solo-queuing so, currently, lone wolfs like my self often group up with other strangers to gain this incentive. While chatting with these strangers, I encounter a lot of veteran MOBA players (the ones who favor Zeratul, Nova and every other hero that can gank well) and after a loss, they don't seem to know what happened.
"How did we lose that?" they ask me with sincerity. Today, I attempt to answer that question.
I watch a lot of HoTS matches, and I play a lot of them as well. I like to watch the matches when I lose (an old RTS habit) and in doing so I have learned a lot about the game. I am no pro, but I have had the opportunity to talk with many of them, bouncing back ideas and thoughts the ever developing HoTS meta.
The following list is a summation of these discussions and the fundamentals I have started to develop as I play more and more HoTS:
- Many abilities grant shields that temporarily absorb a fixed amount of damage, however they only last for around 4-8 seconds. This means that using abilities on a hero that has shields are a wasted effort, as the shield would naturally fade if you had just waited and not attacked. This situation comes up often in the early laning phase of the game, so don't waste mana and offensive cooldowns needlessly on an enemy shield.
- Resurgence of the Storm is a talent available to certain heroes at level 20 and allows them to revive in 5 seconds after they die. It than goes on a lengthy cooldown, very much like the buyback mechanic seen in other MOBAs. At this stage in the Alpha, it is an exceedingly powerful effect late in the game, but if you simply ignore the player with the ability, it's value decreases tremendously. In a team fight, killing a enemy hero with resurgence first is exactly what they wanted to happen, as the 5 second respawn brings them back into the fight quickly. Instead, take note of which enemy heroes don't have resurgence and make them high priority targets.
- Talent builds should be reactive to the enemy teams hero composition and talent build. For example, speccing into Spells Shield against a Nova or Falstad player is good idea, as is speccing into talents that help clear waves faster when facing Azmodan or heroes with the Promote talent. Some talent builds in the Alpha are currently quite rigid, but as the game becomes more finalized and all talents become more viable, reactive talent selection will be a vital skill to have.
- Objectives are an important part of the game, but the big picture goal of HoTS is to destroy opposing Forts, Keeps, and ultimately the Nexus. If your team has the opportunity to destroy a fort or keep or gain a map objective, the correct choice is almost always to destroy a fort or keep. All objectives do is facilitate the destruction of said enemy structures, so if you have the option, remove the middle man and go for the structures your self.
- Strength is in numbers. One hero will rarely if not ever beat two heroes, and by that same virtue, 4 heroes will rarely beat 5 heroes in direct combat. This is most true in HoTS than in any other game, so at all cost, do not engage the enemy head on when you are outnumbered.
- There are a lot of flashing lights and visual effects going on in HoTS, and the maps are often quite large. On top of this, team fights and small skirmishes can last for a long time, and during these times it is easy to lose track of whether or not your base is being attacked. This is where split pushing is the most effective, as a one hero push can quickly spiral out of control when not defended.
- Once a team reaches level 10, each hero can choose a heroic ability. These heroics are extremely powerful and change the entire ebb and flow of the match. The first team to get level 10 has a huge advantage and will almost always win a team fight against a level 9 team that has not yet learned their heroics. Do not, under any circumstances, engage an enemy team who has learned their heroic abilities when your team has not.
- The stat screen is a valuable tool a team can benefit from in game. By pressing tab, you can view the enemy heroes talent choice in game, and also see whoever is leading on damage and healing, exp contribution, and siege damage. This is crucial information that can help your team decide what targets need to be stopped. For example, if you notice that the enemy team has very high healing numbers, you can adjust your talent choice for more burst damage in order to negate their strengths.
- Stealth heroes aren't invisible in the same way that they are in other games. They are cloaked like a Dark Templar in Starcraft and, as they move, they make the area around them shimmer and distort. This is very noticeable to expert players and most heroes have an aoe ability that can be used to decloak. When playing as a stealth hero, do not rely on your cloak so much so that you are clearly walking in an enemy heroes line of vision. It is also worth noting that a cloaked hero that stays still is noticeably harder to see.
- Focus fire is an incredibly important team skill and is needed in order to win a team fight. Tanky melee heroes want to take damage, so focusing them is playing right into your opponents best chance at winning an engagement. This means that superior positioning plays a large role in winning a team fight. Pincer attacks and flanking an enemies vulnerable heroes in the back is a very effective strategy.
- Most maps are highly visible, as enemy structures and creep waves take a large portion of the map. The sight radius of enemy controlled vision nodes are displayed on the game screen, so walking through them is giving away free information needlessly.
- Those who have played Warcraft 3 are familiar with the term "Creepjack" and it has returned in HoTS in the form of ganking an hero who is in the middle of clearing a mercenary camp. The risk is very real, and a good HoTS team will be able to deduce where the enemy is based on the highly visible nature of map. Taking mercenary camps should be done quickly, or otherwise sneakily by 1 or 2 heroes.
- Enemy creeps will attack your hero if you run through them or near them when they have nothing else to attack. As taking damage dismounts your hero, a small bit of attention when rushing to another location can save a lot of time.
- Some heroes should rarely if not ever engage directly with the enemy. Gazlowe and Azmodan are much better suited pushing in lane or taking mercenary camps on their own, as their involvement in a team fight is often negligible. While there are certain talent builds that attempt at making these heroes more combat viable, they are generally not worth it. Gazlowe has a slight exception, as it is often a good idea to drop 2-3 turrets on a highly contested objective, and then return to lane before the fight starts.
- Most MOBA teach us that early kills are very important. This is not the case with HoTS. Early kills grant very little exp, and the respawn times are very short. Trading your life to deny an objective or destroy a fort is often worth it early in the game. Hero kills should only be prioritized when a team already has the max ammount of EXP saturation from the three (or two, depending on the map) lanes. Kills become very important around hero level 16 however, as death times become much longer and the possibility to end the game in a 5 man push becomes possible.
- Taking mercenaries "Randomly" is a very easy way to lose a game while thinking you are doing well. Each mercenary camp has a designated path they will take once captured; they provided passive pressure to a particular lane. When you take a Mercenary camp, there should be a reason for it. Maybe your team will push along side the mercenaries, or maybe your team will push another lane and force your enemy to ignore the mercenaries for fear of fighting a 4v5. An effective strategy is to take a mercenary camp at the same time an important map objective opens up, as you are forcing your enemy to allocate their attention on different spots. By taking mercenariess without thought, you are wasting resources.
- Backdooring is a very real threat when your nexus is exposed. Be ready to defend swiftly, as 2-3 high damage heroes can take out a nexus at high levels.
- When your team is losing, you should never give up. If your team is winning, you should never start playing sloppy. Comeback mechanics in HoTS are very real, as a losing team is given increased EXP gains while the winning team gets less exp from kills. This means a team that is severely behind on levels (meaning their heroes are weaker and have less abilities) can make a huge comeback if they manage to win a team fight.
- On the surface last hits don't seem important in HoTS but they are. While there is no gold to be gained, getting the last hit on a creep assures you gain the EXP associated with the kill. This means a hero doesn't even have to be near the dying creep to gain exp for it if that unit died by their hand. A sizeable pool of Heroes have AOE abilities that do damage over time, meaning that they can use these AOE's mark a creep wave for death, and then leave the lane to do something else. They still gain the exp from having a source of damage on the creep as it died, but are free to travel to other lanes or take other objectives.
- Lastly, Heroes of the Storm is a team game unlike any other MOBA. Carrying does not exist. Many long time moba players will have to change their "Solo mid pls" mind set when first picking up the game, as an individual strong performance won't ammount for much when the rest of your team is bumbling around. Strong players should lead by pinging map objectives, warning of danger if they sense it, and liberally talking to your teammates. I can not emphasis this enough: a strong solo performance is not enough to consistently win.
Although still in it's Alpha phase, it is hard to believe that these fundamentals will change drastically, as the core of HoTS gameplay is deeply routed in team play and objectives. Some of the more nuanced bits about hero strength and specific mechanics might be different, but will it ever be a good idea to fight a level 10 team when you are level 9? Probably not. Only time will tell how the game will change, but to all of the Alpha warriors that went through the hard times of getting 2-shot by Nova, I salute you.
And if you haven't tried the game yet, don't worry. The closed beta has been announced for January 15th, 2015 and when that time comes, we will have more heroes, more maps, and a lot more players. What do you think of this list? Do you think the transition from standard MOBA to HoTS will be an easy one? Let us hear your voice in the comments section!
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