The MOBA genre and community are about as easy to penetrate as a high security prison, and it almost feels like these games don't want casual players or curious experimenters to put in the time and effort, putting up barriers in the form of high learning curves and meta-gaming so deep and varied that you'd need to sink in hours upon hours before even the slightest grasp would be obtainable. Nevermind learning the characters, there's also learning the maps, item builds, timing, team compositions, tactical decision making... Failing in any of these aspects in a public game (nevermind ranked) is a great way to garner heroic levels of hatred from complete strangers, as evident by videos online showcasing utterly childish behavior from the littlest of triggers, ranging from choosing a certain character in middle lane to an accidental failed execution of a takedown. Then there's the players who go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone else regardless, but that's another ball game all in its own.

All this in mind, it's very easy to call Heroes of the Storm (HotS) an assortment of degrading terms, like 'baby's first MOBA' or 'Heroes of the Scrub' since it's a very scaled back game; no items, less focus on base rushing and more attention placed on map objectives, no masteries for min-maxing a few percentage points... It seems like HotS got a bad rap since, like any other MOBAs that have come out, it's not League of Legends or DOTA 2 and therefore is the dirty foreigner in a lucrative and competitive field. While making an attempt to call which MOBA the best is a great way to be sent virus-ridden emails, I personally find HotS to be my preferred game out of the genre because of the scaled back aspects, as there is far more focus on playing the match rather than staring at your gold reserve and the clock to figure out when you should return to home base in order to buy boots. No one player can snowball out of control from monster camp buffs or buying all critical chance items since the whole team has a shared experience pool, making the team level at the same time. This erases the ridiculous 'money game' arms race and instead puts more focus on which team is clearing more creep waves, who is playing objectives and of course, who's claiming heads for big experience gains, as a higher level team is obviously stronger but most importantly, no one player exceeds another. Of course player skill and character styles will differentiate which team member is doing a better job or is succeeding at their current role, but if a lone wolf-style player runs off to be a rogue commando, like it or not, they'll still be contributing to the team with sweet sweet experience points, not just hogging all the glory and levels for their own selfish needs. This mostly eliminates the bloodlusting kill stealer issue since it won't matter whether the support or tank gets the takedown; it benefits the whole team. It does mean they don't get a higher place on the scoreboard, but if they're fretting over that then they're silly people who can't be taken seriously.

Talents replace items in HotS, and I'll argue that talents give far more strategic choices and customization options than upgradeable items any day of the week, since generally items would enhance stats or give some active effect without really changing the owner. HotS's talents however enhance the abilities of that character and can even modify their play style. For example, in other MOBAs when you select a character they generally were made and designed for that one role specifically; Soraka from League of Legends is a support character with some offensive capabilities, but even if you built items towards enhancing her magic power, she would be hard pressed to match wits with someone like Ryze who is a caster for taking down opponents. In HotS, a character like Li Li who is a support can choose talents that enhance her healing and supportive abilities, or she can instead get talents that improve her offensive prowess while still retaining her support role. Sgt. Hammer can choose talents that make her siege mode more deadly and reach farther, or she can take talents that make her sturdier when in the middle of action. Logically it seems beneficial to invest in talents that improve upon a character's base role, but you get a selection to choose from every few levels, and arguments could be made on what a player should choose throughout the course of the game. From game to game however, you may find situations that come up that makes you deviate from your original plan; perhaps the enemy assassin is cutting too sharply through your tank's defenses, so they instead take on better evasive maneuvers to avoid being eaten alive. Maybe your lane partner is good at mitigating the damage they receive, so the support doesn't have to invest in as much healing talents and takes on more damage output. Of course you can always choose talents that compliment how you play your chosen character, and while the roster does emulate the usual variety of archetypes that have been more or less set in stone throughout MOBAs, it is endearing to play as a variety of heroes and villains from the Blizzard franchises.

Map rotations also helps HotS separate itself from the crowd, and while you can use wards to supply extra vision, there is less focus on zealous ward placement; the game pretty much demands that you play the objective, be it gathering doubloons to bribe pirates to fire at the enemy base or controlling capture points to summon a mini-boss for your team. The maps range in size and lane counts, unlike other MOBAs that boast one map for main competitive play (in all fairness they're designed to practical perfection in just about all regards, but it can get tiring seeing the same map with no deviation). Despite these maps having objectives that garner advantages, they don't spell absolute victory when one team succeeds... Mostly. Once a team gets the upper hand they generally keep it unless the opposing side can rally together which, knowing MOBA communities, they're generally screaming at whose fault it is instead of coming together. Ignoring map objectives is a sure fire way to lose matches, and this extends to the mercenary camps that upon defeat will attack the nearest lane and are quite sturdy.

HotS seems to be actively trying to avoid in-team fighting before it can start, unlike other games which seem to entice them at every possible step to do something purposely aggravating. Searching for a match to play doesn't take you to a pre-lobby menu to choose characters; you're instead dropped into a queue and once players are found, you're put into a team and then does the game load up. This means no one can make demands or talk poorly of character picks since you don't even know who you're teamed up with when you queue for a match. No items also means there's no pressure to get X and Y by Z time, and while some of your picks for talents may get heat from your comrades, it all comes down to how you play and how well you play that will generally decide if/when bickering starts. Of course, some just want to watch the world burn and will harass a fellow player just for not having a certain skin for a character. Blizzard still doesn't have a reliable way of dealing with toxic players, as logging them out after games and silencing them in chat is simply a nuisance rather than being a deterrent to actually behaving their silly selves, which of course means if someone is feeding up a storm mid-game, you're stuck with them until they leave, you leave, or the match ends.

HotS is another MOBA so regardless of all it does differently, it will be both heralded and hated by players no matter their loyalty. However, Blizzard does not design their games in a half-hearted way (World of Warcraft and Hearthstone however I'm not so sure sometimes), so they will make damn sure that patches and balance updates will be executed properly and correctly if they want to keep up with other MOBAs when they go to massive tournament levels of popularity. HotS is a prime entry level into the MOBA genre while also having the chops to supply a much deeper, rewarding strategic experience once you learn the basics. Now if only they'd add in Leroy Jenkins...