Heroes Of The Storm Overview
Heroes of the storm the passion project ,the love child of Blizzard entertainment.Â
Heroes of the storm, is the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) from Blizzard.
Sometimes unappreciated and often called the causal gamers MOBA, Heroes of the Storm has had it real highs and real lows.
The fast paced , action filled passion project comes with many differences compared to other MOBA’s it works for some and doesn’t for others.
This unique MOBA brings you characters from all of Blizzards franchises into one game battling it out in the Nexus to be victorious.
This begs the question, is Heroes of the Storm still worth playing and what is the future for Hots? Well lets deep dive into the game and find out.
Gameplay
Fast paced , teamwork , high explosive team fights , flashy WOMBO COMBOS and all round a well balanced game with many differences to your other MOBA’s.
Like most MOBA’s Heroes of the storm consists of 2 teams made up of 5 heroes each to take each other on to destroy the “throne” of the opposing team.
Normally you’ll build up a team that consist of a tank healer and damage heroes which allows for a balanced team.
However Heroes has many differences to other MOBA’s , the two main ones being.
- Team Experience
- No Items
No solo Xp sounds crazy right however heroes of the storm is highly and I mean highly team orientated , the team earns Xp all together.
So what you do in one lane benefits the entire team. At first it can be quite confusing but you catch on quickly. This kind of style really rewards good team work between players.
Thus single players are limited in how much they can “carry” as you would in other MOBA’s for example Dota 2 or League of Legends. However you can certainly add a lot of value to your team by yourself that can lead your team to a victory.
No items again another odd thing to hear when thinking of a MOBA unlike Dota 2 or League of legends where there is a huge emphasize on the in match economies of gold and items , heroes of the storm discarded that idea totally.
This idea removes that mechanic of having to learn and study items to see whether or not it fits the meta or will break your hero. Having to study items and knowing some heroes are designed to have that item takes many many many hours.
In Heroes of the storm that will never be the issue at all, your decisions on upgrading your hero are based on its talent and ability tree.
Your hero gets give 3 or 4 spells at the start of the game and when you team reaches a certain level you get to upgrade your abilities.
Once your team reaches level 10 you get to choose between two ultimate abilities.
So in the end this doesn’t make Heroes of the storm a dumbed down version of other MOBA’s , as a matter of fact due to the many options available when upgrading spells or armor ect.. your heroes build can always change due to the situation of the match or enemies team composition.
Teams can base or build a team to hyper carry a certain hero or build a team and talent tree for late game on a certain map as they know then they will be unstoppable.
Heroes bring a new style of MOBA as well as a different feel and way of thinking than you would in a normal MOBA and gets highly competitive.
Matches in Heroes of the storm are fast paced and don’t last as long compared to a Dota 2 match for example.
A short match in heroes of the storm could maybe last possibly 10 to 12 minutes ( that’s if the one team is getting absolutely crushed) and a long game could be maybe 30 odd minutes, rarely do you ever see it go past that mark.
Due to the nature of the match length times you can understand why the game is fast paced and why its always action packed with constant fighting.
In heroes there isn’t that 4 or 5 minute period where no one is visible on the map as they all busy farming jungles.
No, in heroes if the enemy is off the map for 10 second you know someone is getting ganked or is already dead.
So there isn’t really a lot of downtime in heroes , it fast you need to react fast , think and plan ahead even faster and always be on the look out for rotations because as I mentioned due to heroes fast paced style a missing enemy is probably already next to you waiting to beat you down into an experience pile of dust.
Que times in heroes are also very fast , it hardly ever happens that you wait 5 minute or more for a match. Most matches can be found within 40 seconds , maybe pushing it 2 minutes.
Heroes
Heroes of the storm bring you all your favourite characters from all of Blizzard entertainments franchise.
There are currently 90 Heroes in the game with the latest addition to the hero pool being Hogger from World of Warcraft.
The one amazing thing that the Devs got right with the heroes ,is that the heroes in the game are just as they are in their respective games they come from.
You don’t find a hero and say ” oh these abilities are nothing like the characters in the original game”.
The characters are so unique and relate so well to how they are in the other games they originally come from, not to mention the graphics of the game and its heroes are really so amazing.
Another thing you need to commend Heroes of the storm on with their heroes is how fun they make them to play and out of the box some heroes are.
For example no other game had a break dancing slug parasite attach itself to you from the other side of the map to help you in combat until recently. Abathur was in a class of his own.
You also get Deathwing a tank that is so unique and I have not seen any hero like it , a tank that cant be healed by healers for example and his ability to switch between different gameplay modes is just Blizzards and its Devs team for heroes of the storm at their finest.
Classes
Tank : These are your soakers, your damage absorbers used to protect your team and not allow the enemy to advance on your team. Tanks generally also have some form of stun and set up that can allow its team to get an edge in a fight , set up a fight or interrupt the enemy when they are setting up a fight.
Bruiser: are heroes that excel at trading punches , most bruisers are relatively beefy and can soak a decent about of damage and too return that damage. Late game bruisers can have best of both worlds where they are tanky and hard to kill but dish out tons of damage that they feel as if they are an assassin role.
Healer: “My personal favourite role” focuses primarily on healing their allies, with single target healing spell or big aoe “area of effect” spells. Healers are there to keep you alive in combat , top you up around the map to ensure you’re full health before the next skirmish or even get that one huge clutch heal that turns the entire fight around that leads to your teams victory.
Support: Are heroes that’s skill set is based on providing buffs ,boosts or any advantage to their allies over the enemy team. These advantages could be speed , damage or even attack speed buffs allowing your DPS ” Damage per second” heroes to pack and even faster punch.
Melee Assassins: The in your face smack you around heroes. These heroes get right next to the enemy and beat them down doing tons of damage. This class of heroes become an absolute terror once they jump on you as they are difficult to shake or out run.
Ranged Assassins: The glass cannons of all the roles , these heroes deal high amounts of damage from a distance but generally lack escape and are weak to being jumped or if caught or locked down by cc ” crowd control ” spells. However if left alone they cannot be matched and will tear teams apart.
Maps
There are a total of 15 maps at moment in heroes of the storm.
- Haunted Mines
- Cursed Hollow
- Infernal Shrines
- Garden of Terror
- Dragon Shrine
- Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Sky Temple
- Towers of Doom
- Battlefield of Eternity
- Blackheart’s Bay
- Warhead Junction
- Hanamura
- Braxis Holdout
- Volskaya Foundry
- Alterac Pass
The difference between heroes of the storm and other MOBA’s is there maps having such a big variety allows for new strategies to be made for each map, teams need to adapt to the map and choose what heroes are best suited for set map.
For example if you get a really large map like warhead junction picking a stealth hero like Nova is fine as she can roam around picking off people in the side lanes, where as you wont pick her on maps like infernal shrines as she lacks good wave clear.
Each map has its own special objective that can change the tides or the game drastically if lost or won. These special objectives spawn in or become active at certain time intervals in the game( they are timed and follow a pattern) however at many times feel so unpredictable. Teams need to fight each other to win the objective to gain an advantage over one another.
One extra unique map is Haunted mines, that actually has a sub-level with skulls to collect, that in turn allow you to summon a massive undead golems that just pummels their way from each team’s base to the other side.
The more skulls a team collects, the more powerful their golem will be,
however there has to be a balance if everyone is collecting skulls then no one is soaking XP , so a balance and good coordination needs to take place with the team to balance out getting skulls for the objective and still soaking experience for the team.
Events
Heroes of the storm has many in game events that keep the players entertained and bring tons of new content into the game like , new hero skins , mounts , announcers for your game , voice lines , sprays and so much more.
All events are theme and you do get your typical themes such as events themed around Christmas holidays, Halloween and Easter.
But then you also get special events that are just made for Heroes of the storm exclusively.
To name a couple of events.
- It’s Time for Toys ( The winter event ” Christmas event”)
- Nexomania ( a wrestling styled event)
- Lunar Festival ( events based of the festival of lights)
- MechaStorm ( events based of everything robotic)
- Hollow’s End ( a Halloween based event)
- Fragments of the Dark Nexus
- The Scarlet HeistÂ
and so many more that are unique in their own ways.
Gameplay Modes
Quick match: This mode is where you just select a hero and get rushed into battle on a randomly selected map. I recommend maybe playing with a group of people if you want to have a good time or if you just want to test out a new hero you have been practicing. Solo queuing in quick match can sometimes be a nightmare as you might land up with no support or tank on your team and then well GG WP.
Unranked : Give you the full ranked feeling but without losing mmr , you draft a team , ban heroes just as you would generally do in a rank match just less pressure , and personally I prefer unranked over quick matches as the chances are a lot less likely to have a full team of ranged assassin.
Storm league (Ranked) : This is where you try climb the ladder to Grand master as either a solo player or with friends in a team. Ban heroes , draft an amazing team and defeat your enemies to gain that sweet sweet mmr. Like any MOBA the lower ranks are definitely a bit harder to get out of but with patience and consistency you can do it.
ARAM (Brawl) : All Random All Mid aka chaos mode , you get to choose from 3 randomly selected heroes and then everyone battles it out in a single lane , these games can get super chaotic however are super fun to just take a small break from the pressure of the other modes like storm league.
AI (training) Bots : select you hero , adjust the difficulty level you want the A.i bots to be and then just have fun learning and trying out new things. The easy bots are just push overs I wouldn’t recommend playing it. Try start from adapt as they do allow for more of a challenge. Fair warning the Hardest level of bots are actually REALLY good , you have been warned.
Custom Lobby : create a lobby with your own custom settings , choose the battleground or map you’d like to play on , ban heroes or maps, and invite your friends to join and play in your custom lobby, you have the ability to create and mould the game to your personal preferences.
Loot
Heroes does have an in game store where you can buy everything and anything in the game. These items including heroes , mounts , skins for your heroes , announcers and so much more can all be purchased with either of the three currencies.
- Gold
- Shards
- Gems
you earn gold after every match or if you complete certain daily or weekly quests within the game.
Shards can be obtained when you get loot chests and get rewarded items but you have duplicates they then get turned into shards.
Gems are the rarest, as it basically resembles real life money.
Loot chest are chest that contain 4 random items of nearly everything in the game, this can even include getting a new hero or a legendary skin in the loot chest.
You do get different rarities of chests, for example you can earn an Epic loot chest where you are guaranteed an epic treasure within it.
The higher you chest level the better loot you will obtain apposed to a normal standard chest.
One of the best things in my opinion is everything can be earned in the game so if you really don’t want to spend you hard earned money to buy that new cute happy faced cloud mount you can just be patient and earn the gold or shards and buy it later on.
However if you don’t mind spending a few dollars here and there well then you can buy it by purchasing gems.
Esports
In 2015 Heroes of the Storm and its dedicated community began to flourish and a competitive Esports scene came to life soon after.
For many years the game thrived , with a huge loyal fan base and at its Hight the HGC ” Heroes Global Championship had an amazing $1,000,000 prize pool , as well as the Heroes of the Dorm tournament , which was aimed at university students, which paid their tuition fees as part of the prize money.
Oh and all these events were televised by ESPN
And then in 2018 all our hearts were crushed.
Blizzard disband all completive Esports from Heroes, not to mention this came at such short notice. This caused such heartache and anger from not only the community but the professional players , personalities and announcer that made their living off of the game and its Esports events.
Dead game memes came while the Hots community still reeling and disheartened by this sudden announcement by Blizzard , the situation and longevity for heroes looked rather dismal.
It would not last there was light , a new hope.
In the late stages of 2020 the community brought hope back into heroes of the storm.
Heroes hearth , ex pro players , heroes personalities and the community created the CCL ” Community Clash League.
Gaining tons of momentum since the day of its creation , the CCL has brought life back into heroes of the storm and its community whom are so passionate about the game.
humble beginning , yes but the CCL has brought in a total prize pool fund of $40 000. The CCL is also making the league look so professional and constantly improving. Having HGC personalities, announcers and ex pro players it makes it feel like the old HGC again.
CCL and a few other grassroot tournaments are really bring life and adding petrol to the fire for Heroes of the storm.
We hope Blizzard can see the passion of the community and all these league are doing for the game and maybe just maybe one day work along side them or bring back the HGC.
Community
The community of heroes of the storm is surprisingly not as toxic as many other MOBA’s.
Yes there definitely is always those over competitive players that are always right and you’re always a noob despite them playing like a total lost fart in the wind, but one can overlook this and see the rest are actually very helpful and supportive people.
The strength of any gameâs community plays a huge part in its continued success , with the heroes loyal fan base and all the grassroot tournaments and community tournaments like the CCL pumping life back into the game.
We can only say that the Hots community is one of passion , and an immovable object that will not allow the game to slowly die. This is a community of gamers that will ensure the longevity and success of Heroes of the Storm
Conclusion
So should you play Heroes of the storm? In my personal opinion Yes , put aside the competitive nature of the game. In the end the game is fun and brings tons of joy.
It helps give you a bit of a break from some of the Highly over competitive players and games from other MOBA’s and as I mentioned its a lot of fun.
By no means am i saying its only for fun , as there are highly skilled and competitive pro players that just take the game to new heights, but heroes for the “average joe” is a lot more relaxing.
While the future of Heroes of the Storm may be uncertain, there is one thing that is certain.
The Hots community will not let the game die and will continue to uplift and bring life into the game. Heroes of the storm is by far from dead and is definitely slowly but surely rising back to its glory days and we cannot wait to be there for it.
So definitely do yourself a favour , if you like MOBA’s or fast paced team work games or just a Blizzard die hard fan. Download Heroes of the storm and have a blast of a time.
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Great content! Keep up the good work!
thank you so much for the kind words, it is greatly appreciated. We definitely will do so.
I love this!!!!!!!!!!…
Glad you enjoyed the review đ