Heroes of the Storm Forums

Hey guys,

DC here, Today I felt like writing up a guide on my top 9 tips to help newer players or players just looking to improve their overall gameplay. Now let me start off by saying there are always exceptions to the rule and these are simply general guidelines to improve play.

1. OBJECTIVE OVER EVERYTHING ELSE

There are two objectives on every map. There are the primary map objectives which are Temples in Sky Temple, Seeds in Garden of Terror, Skulls in Haunted Mines, Coin in Black Heart Bay Tributes in Cursed Hallows, Shrines in Dragon Shire. Then there are the secondary objectives which are the mercenary camps. So for the rule the primary objective is more important than anything else on the map. Examples: If you are fighting a merc camp and a tribute spawns, you should leave and go help your team. If seeds spawn you shouldn’t be bot dueling someone. Lastly some people consider vision circles an objective, they are not. You should never be dying for vision it is effectively irrelevant.

2. POSITIONING

This rule is a hard one to teach newer players and it’s simply something you have to experience and learn. Positioning of your character in every situation is of the utmost importance. This includes where you stand in your lane, where you should be in team fights or even the path you take on the map. Now all of this varies depending on the character you are playing. Examples: If you are laning against stitches you should be putting your creep minions between him and yourself so he can’t hook you. As a ranged damage dealer you shouldn’t be in the front lines, let your warrior initiate for you. If there’s a shorter path that leads behind the enemies and away from your team, most of the time you should take the longer path to your team.

3. UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER

A lot of learning rule number 2 comes from being able to understand rule number 3. I recommend you play every accessible character to level 5. Not only does this land you 500 gold per character but it gives an understanding of their skill set. Even if you don’t like playing them learning what they are capable of doing helps you better counter them on the character you do like. Learn which characters you can and can’t duel. Learn your skill shots/combos so you can land them regularly. Learn your role which can change per team comp. Sometimes you have to make adjustments to your talents to counter the other teams heroes/talents or even based on the map you are playing.

4. LEVEL ADVANTAGE

As im sure you are well aware you get talent points at levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 20. The general rule of thumb is if you have a talent advantage over the enemy team you should be pressing to team fight because your extra talent pushes the favor in your teams favor. On the other side of the coin if your team is down a talent you should not be pressing to team fight. On an even skill level the team with more talents will usually win. Now this rule really starts to apply at level 10 when teams get their ults. You should never be fighting a team that has ults if your team doesn’t and you should always be trying to fight when your team does have ults and they do not. The same thing repeats at level 20.

5. MAP AWARENESS

You should always be glancing at your mini map you can acquire tons of information. This insures you always know where you team is and potentially the enemy team. Once you get used to it, you can start setting up ganks and realize when you’re about to get ganked. This also plays a large role into your positioning. Examples: if you are split pushing and your team is back out of a fight in another lane, if the enemy isn’t on the map pursuing them then they are likely collapsing on you. If it’s black heart bay in there are no enemies in lane they are likely turning in.

6. TEAM PLAYER

Be a team player! Being positive in a team based game will do much more than being negative/toxic. Not only is easier to type GJ than spending half a minute flaming someone, your actions per minute will thank you. This goes much further than just that. After level 10 it is very important your team stays together. Strolling off on your own well likely get your killed and put your team at a large disadvantage Play the role your team needs. Examples: If you are the only warrior class on your team maybe you should take more defensive talents rather than damaging talents. If you are the only support on your team maybe you shouldn’t go Moon fire Malfurion and heal for them. Good teammates adapt to the people around them and usually end up more successful.

7. PING AND LISTEN TO PINGS

Now this rule comes with a grain of salt because you can overdo it. Being able to let other people know what you are doing is important; it lets them plan accordingly and setup plays. You should also be listening to pings sometimes you just have to help the team with what they are planning even if you don’t think it’s the correct play.

8. NUMBERS DON’T MATTER

Numbers on the chart do not matter. You can easily be the top damage dealer while just suiciding into the enemy team all game it doesn’t mean you are an effective player. The only number that truly matter on the tab screen is the amount of deaths you have. If you can keep your deaths to minimum by putting these other rules into effect that will be the most beneficial to your team.

9. MUTE TOXIC PLAYERS

This rule is a simple rule. Don’t argue with toxic players, you more than likely can’t change their opinion. Even if muting them they can still see your pings so it doesn’t actually hurt the team aspect of the game. It does however keep you in a positive state and your team by not taking away from the game by arguing.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my guide. I hope it was helpful for you. If you have any questions about my rules, or want any other character specific advice feel free to contact me on here or via my stream: http://www.twitch.tv/dark_clover

Great little guide you have here, but I would like to suggest one clarifier to rule number 1. Objectives over everything If the number of people on your team that are alive and pursuing it outnumber the same on the enemy team. Bad Mojo if you show up to the tribute and your team mates decided to sit back and soak, or two of you show up to a 5 man party etc.

In addition to being important, I feel like that one sentence pretty much takes care of any and all exceptions that can arise. Well, I could think of some overkill scenarios, but that knowledge comes with experience.

Other than that though, I feel it is a rather nice set of rules that I dearly wish people would read before queuing for hero league.

Good guide to instruct new comer, as some of them are forgotten by decent player.
I think it needs to tell the game components and mechanics too like this stuff
http://www.killerguides.net/blog/mmorpg/heroes-of-the-storm-beginner-guide

Really kind of you to write up a guide like this.

Something like this could totally go into the tutorial or something. They are quite self explanatory but I think anyone will get some reminders and eyeopening's after reading this.

Good guide.

Just a suggestion for 6. TEAM PLAYER.

If you feel your team are performing a suboptimal strategy you should just go with it and make the most of a bad situation, it still might work. Abandoning them and doing your own thing is likely to result in both failing.

Very nice guide.

On #1 I don't completely agree though. My team has thrown games going for objectives, even when ahead.
It's a tricky topic that I can talk about for hours but in some situations it is better to ignore objectives. Especially on the Curse map.

When not to take objectives: -Enemy has clear advantage in numbers/levels -You lack xp and objective won't influence the game majorly. -Enemy team has multiple merc camps/boss pushing a lane. etc.etc.

All depends on situation though.

Still a very good guide that I would link all my new player friends to :)