Heroes Meditations

Weekly meditations from a HOTS noob

[heroesmeditations]

Playing conservative in the opening minutes

It’s not uncommon to see in the beginning moments of a match players fighting aggressively, trying to force takedowns, receiving damage and burning through their mana. By the time the first objective is up, they’re already behind because they’ve already touched their fountain and didn’t time the objective correctly. This leaves them with the options of going in with low health and/or mana, or hearthing (’B’ing) back to base, arriving significantly later then their teammates.

If you’re going in already low on health, you risk being an easy pick off, if you’re only ‘B’ing after the objective has already popped, you’re already late causing your team to contest in an unfavorable position and increasing their risk of being picked off.

While losing the first objective on a map isn’t going to lose you the match, it sets the precedent for the rest of the objectives and timing them, as well as your resources, correctly.

[heroesmeditations]

Obtaining that late game comeback

One of the interesting mechanics in Heroes of the Storm is the built in late game comeback.

As discussed in ‘It’s all about the early soak’, hero kill experience awards are on a ramp (low experience for early kills which gradually increases to significant amounts in the late game). Another thing to note, however, is that if a team is significantly behind in the late game, there are huge amounts of bonus experience for hero kills and team wipes to be obtained. Each level down increases this bonus experience per kill.

This means that even if red team is down by multiple levels moving into the late game, should the winning blue team overextend and allow a team wipe, red team can quickly catch up and have a huge momentum swing. This mechanic allows late game comebacks to occur and keeps a game exciting, even if the first half of the match was a stomp.

This is important to be aware of on both sides of the fence, as the winning team to avoid over extending and even kill trades, and as the losing team to not give up, look for pick offs, and practice good strategy even when playing from behind.

[heroesmeditations]

It’s all about the early soak

The early game is extremely dependent on soaking lanes (soaking means to be within screen visibility of enemy minions when they die). If you’re the only player in a lane, it’s extremely important that your priority is staying alive and getting the experience from minion waves. If you have open lanes, then you are giving your enemies an easy opportunity to get ahead in levels early.

Two important notes on experience rewards:

1. Early game hero kills do not give large amounts of experience, but ramp up in the later game making them much more valuable in the late game. Chasing a kill in the opening minutes probably wont pay off as much as soaking your lanes.

2. Towers, on the other hand, are always worth the same amount of experience, so securing early towers can provide a significant boost whereas late game towers are less rewarding in the experience department.

[heroesmeditations]

Do not face check bushes

Just don’t do it. There aren’t many characters that can’t check a bush or the fog without something other than their face, and if that is the case then you’re probably not the character who should be off alone and into the unknown anyway.

You’re risking walking into your enemies threats and getting picked off cleanly, making your team have to play from a disadvantageous position.