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[JHoNNy1OoO]

its a fine game but the pricing is fucking insane, its like $10 for 1 character if its not on sale and they don't even give you like 5 characters to keep, if you don't own any you can only use whats in the rotation. its what turned me off from the game and ultimately made me uninstall it. smite gives u like 5 or something characters + the rotating heroes, i can give em like what is it, $25 and i getall current and future heroes? in dota i can play as anyone for the price of $0.00 from what ive been told.

This is what ultimately turned me off from the game as well. I enjoyed the hell out of it and the match length was right up my alley. I even purchased the starter pack and a couple of heroes with gold but then once playing the "normal" game I saw the idiotic carrot on a stick shit. I felt gimped going into ranked play not owning ALL the heroes and not being able to counter pick the other team because I didn't "own" one. Especially if it was a just released hero.

I'd probably still be playing it now if it had a business model like Smite for heroes. I could give a damn how much they sell skins for or a ton of other customizable stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay. I'll probably come back if the hero situation changes.

 

[Ken]

Hots is fun! It's a nice break from the hyper toxicity of leeg

 

[Chris R]

I tried to like it, but everything was just too slow for me coming from Dota2.

 

[frontovik]

Too slow and I don't approve of Blizzard charging more for heroes than LoL.

 

[HyperCubed4]

Is Nazeebo still dope as hell? Because last time I played, he was dope as hell. Killing critters to boost your health, then dropping titans and zombies and spiders (oh my) and shit on people was so damn fun.

 

[TDLink]

its a fine game but the pricing is fucking insane, its like $10 for 1 character if its not on sale and they don't even give you like 5 characters to keep, if you don't own any you can only use whats in the rotation. its what turned me off from the game and ultimately made me uninstall it. smite gives u like 5 or something characters + the rotating heroes, i can give em like what is it, $25 and i getall current and future heroes? in dota i can play as anyone for the price of $0.00 from what ive been told.

The pricing model isn't that bad.

There's 10 free characters on rotation every week. Always some in every role including at least a few that are very beginner friendly. You get 500 gold for every character you get to level 5, which also only takes a couple hours per character. So over the course of a week if you level all of the free characters to 5 it helps you accumulate gold much faster. Plus it encourages you to try all of the characters and you could really end up liking some you wouldn't expect. And even if you don't like them it gives you good familiarity with the roster which is always a benefit.

You also can get two characters to own for free if you get a referral code. There's a bunch of characters only 2k or 4k gold as well which you can easily get just by leveling your account up. At level 4, which you can easily hit after only a couple hours of playing, you will have 2k which is enough to get one of the starter characters. You'll get 16k total just from leveling your account to max level (which takes around a month of normal play or faster if you get really into it).

Additionally, you get a daily quest each day as well which gives you 200-800 gold depending on the quest. And you complete pretty much all of them just by playing Unranked Draft regardless of which character you pick. So if you play 3 games a day you can complete most dailies.

And that is all without spending real money.

If you want to throw down some cash, the Starter Bundle for $5 isn't a bad deal. Alternatively, you may still be able to find the original $15 starter edition at Gamestop which comes with 5 characters. I would avoid any other real money bundles though unless you get really into the game. Also only ever buy things with cash when they're on sale. Different heroes and skins go on sale each week, so wait for that if you want to use real money.

In a week of regular play you should be able to have half a dozen characters or so, if you want (including the free Raynor and Sylvanas). I've been playing around a year now and I own most of the roster. Obviously that decreases every time they release a hero but I've found I've reached a point where I have my favourites and don't necessarily need every new character that comes out. If they interest me I now have enough gold to just day 1 buy them and it's not a problem. I've spent less than $30 real money on the game (mostly during the massive skin sale last year).

The primarily reason I don't want to play the game (played LOL before) is the focus on different modes, which all involve some kind of PvE objective. Meh.

Also, shared levels are kinda weird.

The "PvE objectives" are just different things which encourage team fights. Like...you need to fight over them or you probably lose unless you're playing an extreme pusher team. The map variation is one of the best things about the game imo. And different heroes are better and worse on different maps. It adds a lot more than just everything being balanced around a singular map. Stuff like Baron or Dragon in LoL isn't really that much different from the objectives here.

This is what ultimately turned me off from the game as well. I enjoyed the hell out of it and the match length was right up my alley. I even purchased the starter pack and a couple of heroes with gold but then once playing the "normal" game I saw the idiotic carrot on a stick shit. I felt gimped going into ranked play not owning ALL the heroes and not being able to counter pick the other team because I didn't "own" one. Especially if it was a just released hero.

I'd probably still be playing it now if it had a business model like Smite for heroes. I could give a damn how much they sell skins for or a ton of other customizable stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay. I'll probably come back if the hero situation changes.

They -have- changed it a bit. More free heroes per week and you can use those heroes in Draft now. Plus they reduced the prices on almost every hero that came out before the past year. And, as I explained above...earning gold really isn't that hard or time consuming.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I might give it another try. The only reason I stopped playing is because I am not particularly that into the genre and playing solo felt like my team sucked most rounds.

 

[KaYotiX]

It was OK,used to play it a ton but I'm just sick of all mobas in general now.

 

[Mister Zimbu]

Heroes of the Storm is a fantastic game. Play it at least for the soundtrack alone.

The most frustrating bit to me is when I suggest the game to other people they immediately write it off as a DotA clone and don't want to play it because they "hate MOBAs" and don't want to sink the time into them or deal with the awful communities around them, when in HotS you can pretty much pick it up, play, and wing it, and the community isn't nearly as toxic.

 

[Mechazawa]

It's so good.

But Stitches is forever trash.

How can I recommend this game in good faith.

 

[Armaros]

I don't have time to play another 'grind to get access to heroes' game or pay untold amounts of money.

 

[TDLink]

I don't have time to play another 'grind to get access to heroes' game or pay untold amounts of money.

You don't need to own all of them

 

[Arthimura]

I bought the founder's pack for Heroes of the Storm during the beta, i played for one month or so and suddenly, one day... i stopped playing.

I don't know, i kinda had to force myself to do the daily quests. I decided to give the game another try after one year and half and it's much better, more maps and heroes. But after two weeks i stopped playing again.

I don't know, i feel like Heroes of the Storm is missing something to make me want to keep playing. Theorically is a fun game, but in practice i feel it gets pretty boring after a while, and i dislike the grind to unlock the characters.

I prefer HotS than DotA 2 and LoL, but i still can't feel motivated to keep playing. I tried SMITE today and i will play some more to see if i like.

 

[SkullHydra]

I've fallen in love with Heroes of the Storm the last few weeks. I grabbed a code for the 'Starter Set' online for under $10 which unlocked several heroes, so I was able to get a good start cheaply... although I don't think I even needed to. There are so many characters to play every week, and I've been able to save up and buy several of the most expensive heroes, so I haven't even used all of the ones that came in the pack.

I see a lot of complaints about Heroes of the Storm being a 'dumbed down' MOBA and that it's a 'casual gamer's' LoL or Dota. I agree that there are a lot of aspects that are more approachable in HotS, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Decreased complexity doesn't mean worse. The shared experience for example increases teamwork in some areas, while keeping supports on equal footing with the 'carries'. [As a support main in games, I love not being the one who has to constantly sacrifice my own XP and carried items to keep my team where they should be]

 

[KojiKnight]

You don't need to own all of them

This, even though I own a fairly extensive collection from all the time spent since alpha, I only really play 3-5 characters, my favorites in each role.

 

[hampig]

Love HotS so much. Hundreds of hours from me.

The recent changes I feel have been great too. Both in gameplay changes, and in added content. The past several heroes have been excellent, the new maps are a lot of fun, and they've been doing some excellent stuff with the characters. This next patch will be great especially. I love the MVP thing at the end, and the new Chen is nice.

The quicker pace, objectives, and overall feeling of the game just never let it get old for me.

 

[Viewtiful]

My biggest problem with this game is that it feels like it has no depth compared to league of legends or DOTA 2. The heroes are far too simple and lack depth, there are no decisions to make in regards to items just limited talent trees, there is no last hitting so lane interactions are very stale, and the maps are based around lame objectives that aren't fun such as the pirate bay level. Everything just feels so limiting and dumbed down compared to League or DOTA 2 that I can't enjoy it compared to its competitors.

 

[Aaron]

Core game speed is too slow for me no matter what other benefits it has. I can have just a quick a game of Smite Assault, which is much more fast paced and feels better tactically.

 

[shira]

Blizzard's patented "pay or grind" technology.

 

[Quonny]

The problem with HotS is that it feels like nothing I do matters. I mean, I know in the back of my brain it does, but there's no immediate reward when I make a good play or do something good individually. Everything is wrapped up in teamplay. No one can carry. And because of that, it often feels like a shallow experience.

Just not a rewarding game to me. But if you like it, more power to you.

 

[jetsetrez]

I sense your passion in the OP. I'll give it a try.

*thumbs up* Thanks man, I really hope you dig it! Come back and give your impressions after you've played a bit.

I have played a ton of Heroes of the Storm. It's most ever played f2p game.

I'm moving on to Battlerite.

I'd never heard of that game before, but honestly, the art looks very nice. That said, the idea of playing a MOBA with WASD doesn't sound appealing to me at all. I'm perfectly proficient with WASD, but I'm just too conditioned to all of my quirks and mannerisms with the way I played these kinds of games and RTS. Also, I feel like with 2v2 and 3v3 and no larger meta game happening around it, wouldn't whichever team loses the first player almost always lose?

Is the camera still super zoomed in? I would have liked the game a lot more if I could zoom out just a tad

It's definitely more zoomed in than LoL and a bit more than DotA, but it feels very natural to me now. When I play LoL now it feels too zoomed out, makes buying skins not feel worth it lol.

Any way to get the free Sylv if I'm already beyond level 10?

Unfortunately not, to get in on that you have to have done the recruit thing before hitting level 5. Sorry man.

its a fine game but the pricing is fucking insane, its like $10 for 1 character if its not on sale and they don't even give you like 5 characters to keep, if you don't own any you can only use whats in the rotation. its what turned me off from the game and ultimately made me uninstall it. smite gives u like 5 or something characters + the rotating heroes, i can give em like what is it, $25 and i getall current and future heroes? in dota i can play as anyone for the price of $0.00 from what ive been told.

Well, there are like 30 heroes between 3.99 and 6.49 now. And they increased the free rotation to 10 heroes. Leveling heroes to is very quick and nets you 500 quick gold. Also, I recommened to all the friends that I've got to play the game to get the starter bundle, which gives you 3 heroes, and mount, and a stim pack for $5. DotA2 obviously has the best value in the genre, but honestly I found it easier to unlock heroes in HotS than champs in LoL. I've unlocked almost the entire roster in HotS with just gold. I've spent plenty on skins and mounts, but I think the only heroes I've actually purchased with money was the starter pack and Li Ming when she first came out with her star mount.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Love HOTS. Only MOBA for me.

 

[Hero]

I played during the beta, bought the starter pack or whatever then.

It's fun but it's not pulling me away from LoL and I can't imagine it would do so for others either.

 

[Einherjar]

I don't mind most of what they're trying to do, but I hate the shared team EXP concept.

 

[jetsetrez]

This is what ultimately turned me off from the game as well. I enjoyed the hell out of it and the match length was right up my alley. I even purchased the starter pack and a couple of heroes with gold but then once playing the "normal" game I saw the idiotic carrot on a stick shit. I felt gimped going into ranked play not owning ALL the heroes and not being able to counter pick the other team because I didn't "own" one. Especially if it was a just released hero.

I'd probably still be playing it now if it had a business model like Smite for heroes. I could give a damn how much they sell skins for or a ton of other customizable stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay. I'll probably come back if the hero situation changes.

Well, for what it's worth, all of the free heroes (10) count toward your ranked selection now, so technically you only need to own four heroes to play ranked, but it's very easy and quick to amass quite a few more than that.

I tried to like it, but everything was just too slow for me coming from Dota2.

Heh, too slow? That's how I felt going back to DotA when I tried playing it again a few months ago. I feel like HotS is by far the fastest paced of the big three top down MOBAs (I'd say Smite is faster paced than HotS, but that game has a different feel altogether). When you were playing, was it when people didn't really know how to play HotS and everyone just laned like DotA and LoL? Because the game has gotten much more figured out, and that's not how HotS is meant to be played. It's about constantly rotating lanes as four while you have a good solo laner working the objective lane, clearing waves while looking for bad positioning from an enemy, and strategizing around objectives. You're never not on the move in HotS if you're playing right.

Is Nazeebo still dope as hell? Because last time I played, he was dope as hell. Killing critters to boost your health, then dropping titans and zombies and spiders (oh my) and shit on people was so damn fun.

He's still dope as hell, but this week they're actually changing him considerably, he's getting a full rework of how his abilities and the gargantuan work, and a reworked talent tree. Also the talent you're talking about where he gains health and mana for killing creeps is now just built into his trait, since it was essentially a must pick on that tier for him, which frees that tier up for other ideas for him. They've done that a lot recently, actually; for a lot of heroes who had talents that were essentially must picks, they've just got those effects rolled into their baseline kit, so that their talent picks stay diverse and actually play toward specific roles and builds.

Heroes of the Storm is a fantastic game. Play it at least for the soundtrack alone.

The most frustrating bit to me is when I suggest the game to other people they immediately write it off as a DotA clone and don't want to play it because they "hate MOBAs" and don't want to sink the time into them or deal with the awful communities around them, when in HotS you can pretty much pick it up, play, and wing it, and the community isn't nearly as toxic.

Yep, that's what I'm hoping we can help change if even just a bit with this thread!

It's so good.

But Stitches is forever trash.

How can I recommend this game in good faith.

Wtf, Stitches god tier. Hook > engorge > walk into portal made by Medivh from outside of base to inside of base > laugh and laugh

My biggest problem with this game is that it feels like it has no depth compared to league of legends or DOTA 2. The heroes are far too simple and lack depth, there are no decisions to make in regards to items just limited talent trees, there is no last hitting so lane interactions are very stale, and the maps are based around lame objectives that aren't fun such as the pirate bay level. Everything just feels so limiting and dumbed down compared to League or DOTA 2 that I can't enjoy it compared to its competitors.

Well, for one, I would take another look at the talent trees. Blizz has done considerable work to diversify almost every hero's talents and make it so most heroes have very viable picks at every tier. They've literally re-worked almost every hero, and also re-worked every generic talent the game had.

Also, HotS doesn't really have a traditional laning phase anymore, aside from lower levels that play the game like DotA or LoL. Last hitting would essentially mean you'd have to babysit the lanes which no good team does, aside from a single solo laner or split pusher. What you do is roll as 4, rotating between lanes, clearing the waves, looking for picks or out of position enemies. Because of mounts and the map sizes, you never have to stay and babysit a lane, and if you are doing that you're actually hurting your team's ability to coordinate. So yeah, you're not last hitting or denying, but in exchange for that you're actually moving and juking and fighting and looking for advantages. Also the pirate map is out of the rotation, I didn't like that map either (nor did almost any high level players).

The problem with HotS is that it feels like nothing I do matters. I mean, I know in the back of my brain it does, but there's no immediate reward when I make a good play or do something good individually. Everything is wrapped up in teamplay. No one can carry. And because of that, it often feels like a shallow experience.

Just not a rewarding game to me. But if you like it, more power to you.

You're right, in that teamplay is the name of the game and absolutely the only way to win. In the traditional sense, you're also right, there is no carry, in terms of there is no hero that the team just agrees gets all of the farm and can eventually almost solo the entire opposing team. The carry still exists in HotS though in the sense that generally you're going to want your best player on your melee assassin or the highest skill cap hero on the team. A pro team is going to build a composition around an Illidan or a Greymane for example, who is going to be the most dive-heavy hero on the team, but also by far the hardest to not get blown up with and the one requiring the most finesse to know when to go in and how, and you're going to need to have the right support (or often supports) and tank and ranged damage to compliment him. And you're absolutely right, without those supports and that tank and that ranged dps, he wouldn't be able to just go in and 1v5 (well, in most cases), but he is still certainly the carry.

 

[Finaika]

I love your avatar op.

 

[KOCMOHABT]

I've played this a bunch with a group of friends half a year ago or so and then we just stopped and went to other games (League in my case)

The champions are boring in comparison to League in my opinion, there just isn't a yasuo-type champ that just blows you away.

I don't know, OP sounds enthusiastic maybe I check out the changes in HOTS a bit more.

 

[shoryukens]

Great write up, OP.

You convinced me, I'll give it a try.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

It's the most MOBA game that I'm able to play. I sort of need that locked camera following the hero around.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I wish I could play this more, but it runs like absolute trash on my PC.
I have held off on upgrading my CPU for years (I have an old gen 2 i7 920) because I want to upgrade my motherboard at the same time and it is still fulfilling minimum specs on most games.

Most games today seem very GPU-dependent so my PC still performs fine, but Blizzard games always seem to be extremely CPU-dependent. HoTS was no exception unfortunately, and I could never find a combination of settings where it would run smoothly.

I did recently upgrade my RAM on a whim, so maybe I will download and give it one more shot. If anyone has any tips that would be great.

I played a bit of Paragon with my brother last week, and it really just reminded me how well designed HoTS is, especially when it comes to accessibility to the genre.

 

[Copenap]

I'm with you Op, I always thought I would never play any Moba since I couldn't care less about Dota and LoL but one day I thought to give it a try and it's great. Really enjoying the game.

 

[sleverfunk]

Fun game but stopped playing it because non of my friends play. Hero locking is a huge turn off for them.

 

[hampig]

I wish I could play this more, but it runs like absolute trash on my PC.
I have held off on upgrading my CPU for years (I have an old gen 2 i7 920) because I want to upgrade my motherboard at the same time and it is still fulfilling minimum specs on most games.

Most games today seem very GPU-dependent so my PC still performs fine, but Blizzard games always seem to be extremely CPU-dependent. HoTS was no exception unfortunately, and I could never find a combination of settings where it would run smoothly.

I did recently upgrade my RAM on a whim, so maybe I will download and give it one more shot. If anyone has any tips that would be great.

I played a bit of Paragon with my brother last week, and it really just reminded me how well designed HoTS is, especially when it comes to accessibility to the genre.

When was the last time you played? If I remember correctly, a month or two ago they made a lot of performance upgrades that might make a difference.

 

[v1lla21]

I'll try it just for you, Op. Im not a fan of mobas but that's primarly because I've only tried LoL.

 

[CommandThrower]

I played HOTS for a while, but I just can't seriously get into isometric real time strategy style MOBA games. I will say that I really like the ways that HOTS handles the MOBA concepts. If I ended up falling for the isometric MOBA, then HOTS would probably be my favorite. Instead, I prefer third person MOBAs like Smite and Paragon...which is weird, because both those games are harder than HOTS.

 

[Pheace]

its a fine game but the pricing is fucking insane, its like $10 for 1 character if its not on sale and they don't even give you like 5 characters to keep, if you don't own any you can only use whats in the rotation. its what turned me off from the game and ultimately made me uninstall it. smite gives u like 5 or something characters + the rotating heroes, i can give em like what is it, $25 and i getall current and future heroes? in dota i can play as anyone for the price of $0.00 from what ive been told.

This and when they put a hero on sale they usually added a skin I didn't care for pushing the price back to what the hero would normally cost anyway. I felt the grind was way, waaay too high and it's part of the reason I gave the game a pass (did the same with Orcs Must Die Unchained despite absolutely loving OMD)

 

[BudokaiMR2]

When was the last time you played? If I remember correctly, a month or two ago they made a lot of performance upgrades that might make a difference.

It has been a good 3-4 months, so I guess I can hope the added RAM and performance upgrades makes the game run a bit smoother on my rig.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Unicorn]

Hated it, but gonna try again.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Business model is horrible. Gives peanuts for games which makes it 100+ matches for a single new hero. HotS is 5 years younger than LoL and the F2P market has moved towards faster progression models.

If you want to pay for the game, it is also unreasonable. 10 Euros for the hero... I can buy OW for 3-4 HotS heroes.

Also garbage SC2 engine stutters because it is not build for modern hardware. Played around Open Beta and then one year later, it was still stuttering.

I like the game, but there are good reasons to write it off.

 

[Orochinagis]

I have never binge-played a game as much as I did with Heroes.

To this date, I'm unsure if I ever even liked the game.

But Zagara!?

 

[oti]

It's the only MOBA I've ever tried and I didn't like it. I'm pretty sure I just don't like MOBA in general.

Spoiler

thank god

 

[Son of a Witch]

My biggest problem with this game is that it feels like it has no depth compared to league of legends or DOTA 2. The heroes are far too simple and lack depth, there are no decisions to make in regards to items just limited talent trees, there is no last hitting so lane interactions are very stale, and the maps are based around lame objectives that aren't fun such as the pirate bay level. Everything just feels so limiting and dumbed down compared to League or DOTA 2 that I can't enjoy it compared to its competitors.

It's a case where they removed so many things from the formula that it lost what made in interesting in the first place.

I've always said even LoL could have been streamlined more without losing its appeal, but HotS just went overboard with that. It's good fun for a few matches, then it just becomes dull. The combat is also kind of unsatisfying with all those noodle fights.

They also made the grind for heroes unbearable and the pricing is kind of insane. I still play from time to time with some friends who aren't big gamers and are turned off by hardcore games, but I feel it's kind of hard to get hooked by it.

Props to Blizzard for trying to revive the game though.

 

[Lord Phol]

I used to play this a lot. It was a great repacement to LoL for me as the matches are shorter and the game/community more casual and forgiving suiting my current lifestyle better. Out of the 3 big mobas this one has the most gameplay variation and definetly the most unique heroes. Blizzard really went all out to make each hero unique in their own way. It probably doesn't appeal much to the hardcore moba players but well worth giving a try if you could never get into Dota or lol.

 

[E-flux]

If HotS wouldn't have the blizzard backing it has i have a feeling that it would have followed the way of the dodo.

I have played over 2000 hours of Dota 2 alone, played in small prize pool tournaments and what-not and i feel like HotS is in an awkward position of not being competitive enough, yet for casual play it's absolutely infuriating how much team work it actually requires. Some of the heroes are quite fun though, i'm looking at you two headed ogre..

Anyway, for me HotS is not a moba i can play with my friends who aren't that much into the genre unlike in Dota where it doesn't matter if i'm playing with completely beginners or with my old group, or something that's not quite the same, bloodline champions or the new battlerite, those are much easier to play casually thanks to matches that last for around 5~ minutes, while in HotS losing can sometimes take quite a bit of time like in that pyramid stage where you need to capture points that periodically spawn on the map to deal damage to the enemy base and towers.

 

[Terrifyer]

I wanted to like this game, but my problem with how streamlined it is is that it almost makes it feel more competitive and frustrating. The cool thing about more complicated games is that there are so many dimensions to gain an edge on - itemization, last hitting, skill builds, creep management, etc. Hots puts the focus squarely on team coordination which I don't find that fun. Maybe I'll try it again though.

 

[danthefan]

I'm interested - but am I going to get vile abuse from a gang of 13 year olds every time I die?

Because if so I'm out.

 

[Lord Phol]

I'm interested - but am I going to get vile abuse from a gang of 13 year olds every time I die?

Because if so I'm out.

This is a problem with all of these kind of games but I personally found the Hots community a lot less toxic than LoL. If someone is being a dick in chat you can just mute them as well.

 

[Terrifyer]

I'm interested - but am I going to get vile abuse from a gang of 13 year olds every time I die?

Because if so I'm out.

Ironically you tend to get the most flame in Mobas for not dying, because then people blame you for not committing to a play even harder to help them even if it was the wrong thing to do. So just follow your team around and use your abilities and you'll be fine.

 

[jetsetrez]

I love your avatar op.

ty

I've played this a bunch with a group of friends half a year ago or so and then we just stopped and went to other games (League in my case)

The champions are boring in comparison to League in my opinion, there just isn't a yasuo-type champ that just blows you away.

I don't know, OP sounds enthusiastic maybe I check out the changes in HOTS a bit more.

Yeah, Yasuo is one of the coolest MOBA characters, it's hard to really point to a hero that is similar. Tracer and Zeratul are similar in mobility, Li Ming is similar in her ability to chain combos, but nobody has it all.

Here's an example of some similar mobility-based play-making from Zeratul, if you're looking to find a hero with similar kind of mechanical depth. Keep in mind, this looks effortless, but Zera's baseline kit has *one* blink every 10 seconds. What he's doing is a combination of a talent called vorpal blade that teleports you back to the last target you attacked, a talent called wormhole that lets you warp back to wherever you blinked from the first time if activated within 2 seconds, a talent called rewind with lets you refresh your cooldowns every 60 seconds, and void prison which is his ult, the green orb that freezes time.

Samuro (Orc blademaster from Warcraft 3) might offer some similar stuff, he is expected to be the next hero.

Great write up, OP.

You convinced me, I'll give it a try.

*thumbs up* Come back and give your impressions after you've put some time in!

It's the most MOBA game that I'm able to play. I sort of need that locked camera following the hero around.

No shame in that. Fun is fun, a lot of people just play AI games and still have fun, never even caring about any human competition.

I wish I could play this more, but it runs like absolute trash on my PC.
I have held off on upgrading my CPU for years (I have an old gen 2 i7 920) because I want to upgrade my motherboard at the same time and it is still fulfilling minimum specs on most games.

Most games today seem very GPU-dependent so my PC still performs fine, but Blizzard games always seem to be extremely CPU-dependent. HoTS was no exception unfortunately, and I could never find a combination of settings where it would run smoothly.

I did recently upgrade my RAM on a whim, so maybe I will download and give it one more shot. If anyone has any tips that would be great.

I played a bit of Paragon with my brother last week, and it really just reminded me how well designed HoTS is, especially when it comes to accessibility to the genre.

Sorry to hear, yeah, Blizzard's stuff is very CPU driven (which, incidentally, is probably why I can even play this and Overwatch on this old laptop, but why you have performance issues on a more powerful rig). Like someone else said, the past few major patches have had a lot of performance optimizations, so perhaps they've improved it for you?

I'm with you Op, I always thought I would never play any Moba since I couldn't care less about Dota and LoL but one day I thought to give it a try and it's great. Really enjoying the game.

Great to hear man, I'm trying to spread the word!

Fun game but stopped playing it because non of my friends play. Hero locking is a huge turn off for them.

Hero unlocking, or stun locking? If you were playing during stun meta times, that's another thing they drastically improved. They had a whole pass on almost every hero, reducing stuns or even taking stuns away from certain heroes (Muradin's mini-stuns when in Avatar form). Mind you, there are still plenty of combos, but it's more balanced.

I'll try it just for you, Op. Im not a fan of mobas but that's primarly because I've only tried LoL.

*thumbs up* Thanks man, report back with impressions when you've put some time in!

I played HOTS for a while, but I just can't seriously get into isometric real time strategy style MOBA games. I will say that I really like the ways that HOTS handles the MOBA concepts. If I ended up falling for the isometric MOBA, then HOTS would probably be my favorite. Instead, I prefer third person MOBAs like Smite and Paragon...which is weird, because both those games are harder than HOTS.

Fair enough. I grew up on SC, WC, and C&C, so I've always loved the feel of isometric RTS gameplay, but I love third person too. Smite is fun. Haven't tried Paragon.

This and when they put a hero on sale they usually added a skin I didn't care for pushing the price back to what the hero would normally cost anyway. I felt the grind was way, waaay too high and it's part of the reason I gave the game a pass (did the same with Orcs Must Die Unchained despite absolutely loving OMD)

Honestly, I earned almost every hero just from playing and I didn't think it was bad, but I feel like if Blizzard were to read this thread, their #1 take away should be that they should lower prices/reexamine the business model.

Hated it, but gonna try again.

Haha, well I hope you like it.

It's the only MOBA I've ever tried and I didn't like it. I'm pretty sure I just don't like MOBA in general.

Spoiler

thank god

Haha, fair enough!

I'm interested - but am I going to get vile abuse from a gang of 13 year olds every time I die?

Because if so I'm out.

I think HotS is generally less toxic than other MOBAs, though if you start improving and get to higher ranks you'll of course still run into people who get angry and think everyone else is wrong. You don't see chat from the enemy team, though, for what it's worth, and it's easy to mute if someone on your team is being a jerk.

 

[Brakke]

My favorite move in HotS is to pretend you're on a role play server. I have had a ton of fun waddling around the map as Murky, communicating only in pings and "mrgl"s. People have usually been game for it.