When first starting Heroes of the Storm you may be shellshocked at how much different it is than standard MOBAs. I totally can get that, because a lot of conventions change in HotS. That's why I've put together my top five tips for Heroes of the Storm. With these tips in your pocket, you'll be able to smash your enemies with ease. 

Map Objectives > Laning 

I'm sure a meta will form where this is wrong, but I don't see it without major updates to the game. The map objectives are far more important than laning, unless your team has a two or more level lead. Laning is critical early game, obviously, but when map objectives pop there is little reason to continue laning because the objective, if won, will give you far more of a boost in levels than covering two / three lanes. 

You should, as a team, always aim to capture to the objective. This is pretty much the biggest thing to determine a win, because if you're aiming to take the objective then you're probably not going to be dead when it pops (which pretty much guarantees you the objective if the other team is down one or two). You probably also won't fall apart as your support rushes there first, instead of your warrior, and engages. 

Teamwork is Insanely Critical 

In other MOBAs, you can have a Master Yolo feed the entire game and then solo the other team to victory, whereas in Heroes the map objective and lack of store / equal XP makes it where an entire team feeds, not just a single player, and there is no "carries" in a traditional sense since the entire team carries itself. 

Understanding that no single player is going to have an advantage (assuming they all have their talents), you'll want to utilize teamwork as much as possible. Even in public games, you'll want to strike up a conversation and suggest strategy if no one else is doing it. Who cares about the trolls, they'll burn away as you level up, the key thing is simple: talk. 

Talk, talk, talk, and talk more to your team. Use the pings, the voice calls, everything that you can to help your team know what you're doing and, if they're not willing to talk back, share suggested strategies and try to get everyone on the same page. 

There is no one hero in Heroes of the Storm, because Master Yolo can't have every single item in the game while the rest of the team is eating ramen, then secure the victory. You have to work together as a team. 

Don't Stress Over Gold Farming / Player Level 

In League and other games, your effective strength is tied to player level, with various runes and unlocks happening as you level up. In HotS, the only stat that matters is each individual character level, because that unlocks that character's talents. This happens in just a few games. After that, there is no reason to stress too much about it. 

Likewise, don't worry about gold. It'll come to you and unlike other games, you don't have anything to spend it on but hero unlocks. Which, by the way, you get a ton of gold at the start of the game, so you can for sure get your favorite hero. Just be sure to try before you buy! 

Specialist Heroes are Weird - Embrace that Weird 

Specialist heroes fit into some kind of new weird role in an MOBA - they are lane pushers, mostly, pure and pure. If they're not pushing lanes, they're some kind of offbeat support. Embrace the weirdness and engage in tactics that you wouldn't dare in other games. Are you playing Sgt. Hammer? Well, sit in the push and don't attack until a hero pushes far into the lane, then unload and watch them die as they try to escape your blast range. 

Likewise, learn the specialists, and their tricks. Otherwise you could be in for a world of hurt not knowing about Zagara's summons or Sgt. Hammer's insane range. For players just jumping into HotS, you're going to want to up your game on what these roles do, otherwise you'll be left sitting back at the fountain. 

Mount, Mount, Mount, PLEASE MOUNT UP 

Mount by default is Z and you need to press it often. There is no point in sacrificing effective XP gains / laning / positioning by not mounting up. You need to mount. So put a giant sticky note on your monitor if you have to and mount as much as you can. 

That's my five major tips for Heroes of the Storm! Happy gaming. 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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