HotS really has carved out it's own little identity that sets it apart. Some people aren't going to like the things that make it different, but I'm willing to bet a lot are.

HotS is a lot more simple, but that doesn't make it worse. After all, League of Legends is more "simple" than Dota 2, yet it still has like 20 times the player base. Sometimes simple is better. If you can simplify things, but still have deep strategy, that's usually a good thing, and I think HotS largely succeeds in doing this.

There's no items, or last hitting. Two big staples of DotA. Some might think that kills all strategy, however HotS replaces that with a talent system that's pretty interesting and forces choices on the fly, and it compliments the fact that the game has several maps all with different objectives that force you into team fights at just about the first minute, and it's non-stop from that point on. As fast as this game goes (matches only last 15 minutes or so), and as frequently as map objectives are popping up, and team fights are happening; if this game also had you going back to base for items, it would break everything. Thus, removing items is a pretty smart move.

I've found the map objectives to be wildly fun. I don't know if they will hold up after 1000+ games, but I'm sure Blizzard will keep adding heroes and maps on a semi-regular basis. A couple of my favorite maps:

One is these Haunted Mines. Every so often the mines open up, and everyone dives into them, and it warps you into a completely different map layout. Inside is a bunch of undead, and whoever kills the most will spawn a larger golem that will head after your enemy teams towers. This means that players are constantly jumping into these mines and team fighting, trying to fight over these undead, and pick up the charms they drop. The second one is a pirate themed map. Every so often treasure chests spawn, and players rush to those to try and hit them and collect the coins they drop. Then, everyone has to go to the pirate in the middle of the map and turn those coins in. If they get killed, they drop the coins. Once one team turns in enough coins, the pirate ship in this middle of the map will start firing on the enemy turrets/structures and do tons of damage.

Again, with the map objectives causing team fights every minute or two, the matches only lasting 15-20 minutes, and the more fast-paced feel of this game. I really think there is something unique here. The action almost feels like a Diablo style game with how snappy the movement is, and how flashy the skills are. I went back to Dota/LoL after playing this, and things almost felt slow and plodding comparatively. This might actually be a detriment to new players, I don't know, but it also again explains why there is no going back to base to buy items. There's no time for it.

Things are simple, yes, but the fun factor and strategy is still there. An article I read said that this game is the "Super Smash Bros." of the MOBA world. And I think that's kinda true. It's nowhere near as deep as, say, a Street Fighter, but there still is a lot of strategy here, and it's way more accessible, and fun with friends. Either you will snort derisively at that comparison, or it will please you greatly.

Either way, I suggest checking this game out if/when you can. If you hate it, fine, but you haven't really lost anything by trying it out. As a player of LoL/Dota that dismissed this game from it's first announcement, I've been pleasantly surprised by it at every turn.

(10:40pm Edit: Was just thinking. This game might even be more of a Power Stone to the MOBA genre. Not sure how to explain it, but there is definitely some type of "thrust you into the middle of things and just go at it" aspect to this game.)

I jumped in a while ago to mess around with it. And to be honest while it had it's moments of fun, there are things with the game that just bugs me in the long run to where while I might never be the best Dota 2 player, I would still stick with that game for it's flexibility. In general, to my experience, HotS comes down to every match feeling pretty similar even with those different maps. Partially this is due to the shared XP thing, making your contribution feel completely arbitrary (even if it isn't). And while the matches don't take too long, they feel slow. And I am torn on what's worse between having a snowballing Dota 2 character and a snowballing team in HotS. The latter just feels more difficult to combat unless you have a really well coordinated team.

I didn't hate the game, as said it had it's moments. But I don't think it's anything I'll get back to anytime soon unless a buddy of mine that is into the game really insist we play some matches.

Started playing it this week with four of my buddies, it's fun! Pretty frantic too. It feels a bit shallow without the usual MOBA trappings, but the combat is certainly enjoyable and there is plenty of it.

I found this game a lot of fun to watch a while back, which I can't really say for other MOBA's.

That simplicity kind of makes me hope for a console release. They'd instantly own that market and bring in a whole new audience for electronic sporting events.

@csl316 Yup it would work great on console with a bit of finagling.

I think that for what I want out of a multiplayer online battle arena, Heroes of the Storm is a lot closer to what I want than Dota or LoL (neither of which I play) because the matches are much shorter and there's much less pussyfooting around. The item stuff never really bothered me about those other games even though I can't claim to have been an expert in it.

However, I have several complaints, some of which will be easier for them to resolve than others.

1) Regular attacks continue to seem piddly and underwhelming. Once upon a time this was because Dota was a mod for Warcraft 3. Now it's just a result of these games copying one another.

2) Though mobas have a weird mishmash of genres in general, Blizzard's is by far the most disjointed.

3) Because of its attempts to counter snowballing, games that are total mismatches can drag on.

I can understand this. HotS definitely cuts straight to the chase. It jumps to the "end game" of "DotA/LoL." You also have the potential to buy items to counter what the other team is doing in Dota/LoL. This means that, even if you are not the better player, you can potentially still "win" against the other team by smarter/more strategic item buying and character building. HotS cuts all that out. It jumps right to team fighting, and the "are you better at your character and playing as a team" part of MOBA's. Which I, personally, think is fantastic.

Not 100% sure what you mean, exactly. I think they do counter snowballing, but it seems effective. I'm not sure that matches "drag on" seeing as how my longest match so far (out of 100 games) has been 25 minutes, and that's only because both teams were so evenly matched. Compare this to DotA/LoL, and you really start to see what "drag on" means.

Also, I already (even with just 100 games under my belt) have "come back" more times in this game than DotA/LoL combined. I can't put my finger on the "why" of it, but I've regularly been pushed back to my base, and come back. I assume because of a few smart plays and capturing of map objectives. This game is truly "not over till it's over." It can turn on a dime. Whereas games like DotA and LoL, I've kinda always felt like you can tell who is going to win within the first 10-15 minutes of their (potentially) hour long games. And 9 times out of 10, I'm right. HotS isn't that predictable at all.

What I mean is that even though every team fight is a loss, the attackers can't really take enough advantage because of the quick respawns and sort of rubberbandy xp early in the match. It's nice that they try to keep things even, but if one squad is clearly outplaying the other, they should be able to win much faster. That's my opinion, anyway.

@veektarius:

Ahh, yeah. I understand that. They definitely try to keep things "tight" and snowballing controlled. But I think that's a good thing. In Dota/LoL you can see the snowballing, and skill gap within the first 10-15 minutes. While spectating, I regularly call matches within that time frame, and I'm almost always right. In my opinion, it sucks to play a 45-60 minute game in Dota/LoL when you know within the first 10-15 minutes who is going to win. There are rarely "big" comebacks in those games. Usually you know early on who is going to win, the rest of the game is just going through the motions. The rest of those games are usually arbitrary.

HotS kinda chucks all that to the side, and forces teams to suss out who the best players are throughout the length of the game up until the last seconds. Then it's over. If you are a better team, it will be proven in that you kept the objective advantage the entire game. Not because one guy was left alone, got a ton of farm, snowballed, and then carried the entire team.

How would this game be for people that don't like MOBO's for the typically hardcore communities with little patience for people that don't learn the in's and out's of their character within their first game?

@sirfork said:

I think it's the most accessible of all of them. From game 1 onward I just hit the "random" button and played whatever the game gave me. I didn't know any of the Heroes, or any of the maps, and I did just fine. That was quick matching against real people too. However, I've played these types of games before. This game has a coop vs. AI also, but I personally just went for it. I won't lie though, people still rage in this game just like Dota/LoL. This games community is not quite as bad, but people still rage. (This is another reason why games only lasting 20 minutes or so is great. Bad/Rude team? Oh well, it'll be over soon.)

I think these types of games will always have a toxic community, for whatever reason. Either you can rise above it, and mute people that are mean (which is easy to do), or you can't...

So if i jump into a public match wanting a fun game to take up my time will i be gutted a new one by other players for being terrible?

@mast: Hmm, will have to definitely give it a try when I can. I can handle ragers its more that I have trouble learning characters and what item's I should buy for them.

It's always possible with these types of games. Refer to my above post.

I think for the most part characters are easy to learn, and of course, you don't have to worry about items in this game. So there's that.

And there's always practice games, and coop with other people against AI in order to learn characters. Honestly though, there's so much less to lose in this game if your bad, or with bad players. It's 15-20 minute games, it's super easy to mute other people, and it has a great in-game pinging system that tells all other players everything they need to know.

@mast: Cool, convinced me to give this game a chance.

@sirfork: Stay away from Lost Vikings though. ;)

Actually, I forgot. The hard characters are labeled. Every character has a Easy-Hard label. Lost Vikings are kinda crazy though. It's like having to control 3 characters at a time. Kind of like Meepo in Dota 2, if you are familiar with that.

@mast: Well, as it turns out i'm actually in the beta. Wasn't even aware, was just checking stuff on my battlenet account and there it was.

Nailed it...if Blizzard can successfully adapt D3 to consoles, I'm betting HoTS won't be far behind.

And my understanding is that D3 did pretty great on consoles. So Blizzard's in an interesting transition at the moment, which I'm all for.

Right on! Well, if you want to add me I can show you the ropes. I'm not opposed to getting on skype or something and goofing around, telling you what I know, and losing a few games together. ;)

I played a bit more of it recently. It's still pretty cool, I'm a fan of arena games in general and the Blizzard quality has finally started to shine through more compared to the roughness of earlier beta.

I played maybe 10 or so games in a day with friends and had a great time, but I'm a little bit worried. By the end of the day I had already started becoming bored with the free rotation of characters and maps. The same lasting power and addictive quality that the mobas have doesn't seem to be there for me. If it's about the inherent lesser variety in the game itself or just my own conditioning from playing other similarish games for so long is hard to tell.

The lasting power is even more of a worry when the heroes are so expensive and hard to farm. You want to be attached to a smaller set of characters and play them a lot, but I don't feel like I get enough new experience out of them after a couple of matches. It's a weird feeling when I know I can still get excited over a really basic character like Wraith King in dota even after playing him 30 times or so. The systems around the hero don't feel like they support the complexity of the heroes themselves yet in hots.

I'm also pretty bummed out about the lack of counter options. Especially since there is no way to know what the rest of your team and the enemy team will draft in the quick matches. It's very easy to get in a situation where you play a squishy character like Valla and meet two or three assassin characters that can screw you over instantly in every fight. But there is no BKB, no guardian angel, no hp/tank items to buy. You can only hope that somehow getting focused so hard in the backline will somehow let the rest of your team win. :/

EDIT: I didn't mean for this post to come off so negative, I just have a couple of issues with it so far (many that I don't care to bring up). But those can be ironed out. For now It's still definitely an enjoyable game. I'll play some more, and I'm excited to keep track of it's progress as we go along.

"Its"

Also I agree as should all reasonable people.

I'm concerned because Heroes Of The Storm doesn't seem to offer as much counter play which means the game effectively ends after the teams have been matched up... which is the beautiful thing about LoL/Dota in that you may not be as skilled as the opposing team but you can still win by thinking about your purchases and item synergy. It has it's place for sure but I'm not convinced it'll have the staying power of Doto or Leauge Of Legendso

Also I think Blizzard have a fairly narrow scope when it comes to character design which can hurt it's appeal. And that's why I think LoL is actually so popular, not because it's simpler than Dota but because the character design is so broad that the is likely to be a handful of designs that'll appeal to pretty much anyone.

@yesiamaduck: The counters come into play with the character skills you pick in reaction to your opponents' team. Yeah, there are a few characters that have a "one true build" with very little variation, but most characters will have something in their tree to offset the enemy strategy.

Not too much I fear. HAven't had too much experience but it is exactly the same community as dota and lol trying it out so there is at least a 5 to 10% rotten apples ratio in the player pool

And 10% in a 10 player game means you have a high chance to get at least one. T.T

I could never get into Dota 2 because it's just too complicated for me. All of the arcane mechanics and items and every other damn thing just made it too much to deal with, so I just stopped with Mobas altogether. This seems fun though, I just started playing tonight but it hasn't been too bad. Granted, I only played three matches with other people but no one screamed at me for being a scrub or anything like that.

I've been playing as Valla since she was a free character for purchasing Reaper of Souls, and I do love Demon Hunters.

I have actually seen a little bit of berating. Not as bad as other Mobas, but it's there. There are fewer opportunities for it because dying early barely affects anything (sparing people the "feeding" label) and because proper 'laning' is not really much of a consideration. You can get in trouble if you fuck up the map-specific objectives though, either by ignoring the resources used to charge up map-specific weapons or by misusing those resources that are put under a single player's control. I would say that a team winning the map battle beats a team winning the character battles 4 times out of 5, so there is room to screw up, and people will let you know it. The thing is, it's really not hard to figure out where the objectives are or what you should be doing, so it is kind of on you.

Agreed. This is the entire point of the talent system, so I don't understand this complaint.

@veektarius: The complaint is that the talents from what I've seen mostly modify or enhance the characters main purpose and strengths. But sometimes you need to work on things that the character isnt focused on to counter an enemy draft. For example a Demon Hunter getting focused by guaranteed damage like homing moves or teleports can't actually counter it with anything. Because all her defensive talents focus on her strengths of attacking (lifesteal) and evasion/movement. Both of which are useless when you are getting bursted by unavoidable damage. While in the other games you can take a hit to your overall DPS for just enough health or resistance so you can survive the initial wave of aggression in a fight, or a useful anti-focus item like guardian angel in league or blademail in dota. I haven't played enough HotS to have a huge amount of examples like this, or even played enough to call it a common problem. But it's absolutely a thing they need to get right when they balance the talents and the characters.

As my first MOBA I'm digging it but that may be the point. Blizzard has a way of getting me into genres that don't usually interest me a whole lot e.g. Hearthstone and Diablo. Also, Raynor is super lame sauce.

Yeah, Raynor needs to be buffed. Just get his Banshees, and spam them like crazy. It's his only upside.

@mast: Hmmmm, maybe I'll give him another go then. I just got a beta key this week so I haven't played a ton, but I like Muradin quite a bit.

I'm definitely interested in trying it out. In the two weeks I spent trying to get into Dota 2, I just found the learning curve to be far too steep for me to catch up to the majority of active players in any reasonable time. It sounds like this might address that issue.

I enjoyed League of Legends for a brief period, and could never get over my anxiety to play DOTA2. The "professional" atmosphere that surrounds that game made me too nervous about my choices, and it ended up making me feel like I could never be good enough to play.

Heroes of the Storm, however... wow. I've never had as much fun in a competitive multi-player game as I have with it. I enjoy nearly every map/mode - including Garden of Terror, which people seem to universally hate. There are plenty of times where a game goes sour, but they are so quick that it really doesn't matter. Not to mention, I still feel like the match balance when winning/losing a match is so well done that it keeps you on your toes hoping for that last minute switch.

If anyone wants to play with a "middle-tier" player that tries to get at least one to two matches in a day, feel free to friend kindone#1458. I like to think I play a really mean Tyrande, Valla, and LiLi. :)

Been playing HotS for awhile now and all I know is I love Abathur and no one likes me when I pick him. :(

Mhhh, thinking about it like that it probably isn't that high. But in the few matches I played there certainly has been some rage. Like yelling at people to get back to their noob game, Lol.
Really isn't that bad I think. But I bet eventually it will reach the same level as the other moba's cause a huge chunk of that playerbase will make it over.

Another thing to tack on top of that. For me this game feels like it needs a pre set up team even more. There aren't enough things in here to use or play around with, and seeing as the level of the team is shared you really need to be well coordinated to go for those objectives. At the end of the day it is less punishing cause the matches aren't that long but..