Don’t Judge a Game by its Genre

Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA. I know what you’re thinking: another one. But don’t let that label put you off or give you preconceptions about what this game is. When we think of MOBAs we think of last hitting, poor team work, towers, jungles and egotistical carries. So what makes Heroes so different to League of Legends or Dota2?

Firstly there are the different Battlegrounds. Each Battleground presents you with different ways in which you can win or lose the game. Obviously the basics are the same – the aim of the game is to ultimately destroy the enemy team’s palace. However, it’s not just as simple as knocking down a few turrets, achieving an ace and winning the game. First of all you have to get through the gates and forts of the lanes. Again, not as easy as it sounds. It is possible to play like any other MOBA and just push lanes, destroy towers and have team fights but likelihood is that you’ll lose. The thing about the maps in this game is the objectives. Objectives are key to winning or losing the game. Knowing when to take them or which is most important to focus is vital to your team’s success.

In Blackheart’s Bay, for example, you can collect doubloons from mercenary camps or from two chests which appear periodically. When you hand in enough, the ghost of Blackheart will turn his ship and bombard your enemy’s gates, forts and palace for 12 shots. If you ignore the doubloons you will very quickly lose the game. For this reason you can expect a very action orientated game with constant conflict between teams occurring when trying to collect or turn in doubloons. To make it more interesting your hero carries the doubloons; meaning if you die you drop them and the enemy can pick them up. Working as a team to protect each other or ambush the enemy can quickly turn the tide of a game. Similarly the other Battlegrounds offer different objectives which can swing the game in your favour. Communication with your team is incredibly important. If, for example, the enemy team has earned the favour of Blackheart you must make the decision as to whether you should defend or perhaps get hold of another objective such as the Grave Golem which may distract the enemy from pushing as hard.

Secondly there is experience and last hitting. Heroes of the Storm offers global experience for your team; now, this may bring a look of disgust to a regular MOBA player’s face but give it a chance. This means that one player on your team can’t just snowball and carry a game, it also means that no one can single-handedly throw a game by losing their lane. Having at least one person in each lane is enough, as long as you’re in exp range you will gain experience for your team and stop the enemy from getting too far ahead. Even if you’re in a poor lane match up where you can’t even get close to the minions it doesn’t matter. Last hitting is not essential like in other MOBAs. Staying in lane can gain you an early advantage. For example, if the enemy decides that on Dragon Shire they are going to focus on capturing the two shrines they will obviously have the advantage in that they could get the Dragon Knight. However, they have also spent a significant amount of time with less people in lane, which means less experience for the whole team and you gain an early level advantage. Then of course you have the decision to make as to which is more important, gaining a level advantage or taking objectives, or a combination of the two.

Next up there are items or the lack of them. Yes, shock horror there are no items. Instead you have talents, this is why it is so important to get as much experience as possible. If your team has the level advantage it can easily win a team fight and allow you to get an objective. Talents act in a similar way to items in that they give your heroes boosts to stats, their abilities (Q,W,E,R and D) and allow you to adapt that hero to the way you want to play. At the same time it also means there is no one set build for a hero. You can build in a way which best benefits your team and your play style. For example: if you find a lot of your heroes are quite squishy and damage orientated, you may want to pick skills which make you tanky, or allow you to protect your team with heals, shields or CC. Every hero has their own talents as well as some more generic talents to choose from when you hit levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 20. You unlock your heroic ability at level 10, again you have a choice. I’ll use Diablo as an example you can either pick Apocalypse which is an AoE damage and stun, good for crowd control especially if you have someone on your team who is a bit of a glass cannon. Or you can chose Lightning Breath which roots you to the spot while you deal a tremendous amount of damage in the direction you indicate with the mouse cursor. This option is more useful if you are playing more damage orientated instead of as a tank.

There are also mounts to get you into lane or to objectives faster. You can’t mount whilst being attacked and you automatically dismount if you attack. Mounts make a significant difference to running speed, only Heroes who couldn’t ride don’t get them but they generally have a faster movement speed or some kind of teleport to replace them. They’re an important thing to remember because at any moment you could need to group up or rush to an objective and forgetting to mount or not being able to could potentially lose you an objective or team fight.

Those are the key differences to bear in mind when you play Heroes of the Storm. However, it is still a MOBA, the basic premise of the game is the same. Just remember that objectives and team work are even more important than ever, ignoring an objective or refusing to work with the team could lose you the game. But even if you’re down to your last fort, a good call to get a Grave Golem or capture the last tribute on Cursed Hollow could suddenly win you the game, so never give up!