New players can read this but should focus on guidelines given in
many beginner guides out there. I wanted to give some advice I've never
seen posted before, reiterate some of the lesser known advice
intermediate players should know, as well as talk a little bit about
proper decision making for winning the game.
Intermediate Tips
- While you may often check the scoreboard to consider how players
are performing, there is a lot of information that isn't available to
you just through damage/healing numbers such as their accuracy with
their stuns, or how well they tank and body block. In Dota or LoL you
could see which heroes had died more and were weaker but in HotS every
hero is the team level. Furthermore there is extremely valuable
information if you flip the scoreboard around to the talent board side.
This shows all the talents all players are taking, including enemies.
While it's too lengthy to go in-depth about how to use this information,
at least recognize that you can know that E.T.C. has Mosh Pit or Nova
went Precision Strike. I personally look at this screen to help decide
which talents I pick myself.
- When the enemy team is headed your way and you're trying to
finish it, note that some boss units (but not all) such as garden
terror's can have their aoe slam attack cancelled with stuns like Storm
Bolt or skills that have ministuns like Tychus's grenade toss.
- A few tips for invisibility: Many players vastly underestimate
their own invisibility when the hero is standing still. When you don't
move, there is no glimmer, only a very slight distortion that is
extremely difficult to see in team fights, and very easy to miss in
general.
- When you're invisible, mount when you're rotating, but dismount before
walking through lanes, if it's easy to see an invisible Zeratul
sneaking behind you, it's not even funny trying to see a giant invisible
horse try to sneak around.
- One last tip for invis, if you're playing against players who are
very good at finding you and killing you when you're running away as
Nova, consider standing still directly above large 3D objects. Standing
above a Keep or a boss mercenary nearby will partially cover your model
with the object in the foreground, making it damn close to impossible to
see you if cloaked, and savvy opponents looking through grass will run
right past you.
- Even if you're virtually full hp/mana, if you're defending a
push, sip the Healing Fountain right before it dies, you'll still have
the regeneration for some time once you take more damage or use more
mana.
- The Garden Terror is extremely efficient at killing heroes
compared to the Dragon Knight. It should not be used only to run around
dropping spores on each keep but in fights sprint down enemy heroes. 4-5
hits can easily kill most supports/assassins, and few heroes can
actually outrun it.
- The boss mercenary camp in Sky Temple is in an amazing spot compared to
Booty Bay
Blackheart's Bay or Garden Terror. It's one of the most accessible boss
camps and directly beside two siege camps. It's extremely easy to stay
aggressive on this map and take mercenary camps instead of retreating to
a far end of the map to take the boss. The Boss will push bottom lane
as well, giving a hefty advantage if you're capping the middle and top
temples.
- When the Garden Terror or Dragon Knight explodes, often times the
defending team will immediately jump on the guy inside and press their
sudden advantage. There is no sudden advantage. Sometimes they're even
at a bigger disadvantage if the guy inside the Dragon Knight happened to
be a core player of enemy's team such as the main DPS or Tank that the
team actually requires if they want to force kills. As such, unless they
sustained too much damage, kills or ran out of mana, the attacking
team should have no reason to stop fighting after the DK or GT ends.
Some players beginning to get the flow of the game will start to
learn that if they keep accomplishing things they'll keep accomplishing
things. As with a recent popular guide on reddit.com/r/dota
doing shit when you have map control is imperative to turning that
advantage to a win, but going around the map taking every merc camp is
not always all that useful.
Mercenary camps accomplish three things:
1. Push lanes alone.
2. Add additional damage/tankiness to your push.
3. Buy time.
Some people reading may be thinking "well yeah duh" but they fail to
put this knowledge to use. Cursed Hallow is great example of a map to
understand how and when to use mercenary camps. I love this map because
tributes are an either-or objective, team's can't get partial tributes
or split it, if you want to get any of the objective, you have to win
the entire objective, which generally means 5 on 5's. If it's a 4 v 5,
it's going to be particularly difficult if not impossible if both teams
are on even footing. This means that grabbing a Merc camp directly
before a tribute will generally push lanes alone since all heroes will
need to participate if they want it. At this point, with siege giants
chucking rocks in bottom lane, it's not even imperative you take the
tribute near top lane. You can just keep fighting and the advantage of
the siege giants will add up overtime.
One of my largest pet peeves come from another mistake people use
mercenary's for. Late game when a team starts to get map control, maybe
the levels are 22-21 or something, they might make the stupid idea of
hey, let's go around and cap these 3 mercenary camps in rather disparate
locations (unless it's on Sky Temple, definitely go ahead and cap the
Siege, Boss, Siege camps if you have time). Siege giants accomplish
literally nothing if intercepted, but can accomplish a ton if escorted. No, you twit,
do not take the enemy bruiser, then your allied siege, take one of the
camps and push as 5 with it. If you take a boss mercenary, you have no
reason to go as 5 to take a siege camp on the other side of the map
instead of pushing with it. You're wasting one of the strongest pushers
in the game that's going to get focused down in 15 seconds, when you
could've made it last two minutes, gotten a keep and kill the enemy nova
with minimal losses if you just pushed with it. The only exception is
if you can use the boss to buy time for a critical objective.
Another thing, sometimes in long games you may have map control with
no camps left, but maybe you don't want to charge right for whatever
reason. As five, group up near one lane directly outside the enemy base.
When they move out they'll start as 5 heroes that will come together as
they get closer to their destination because the person defending top
lane will take a different route than the person defending mid lane.
It's extremely easy to get a 5 v 1 or 5 v 2, then immediately proceed to
team fight at core and win the game.
I don't want to spend too much time talking about rushing core when
you're behind, but when teams are post level 20 and there are at least 2
keeps down, it's totally viable. My only tip is to move as five and
stay out of vision for as long as possible. You should be able to stay
out of vision for essentially the entire time if you take a side path or
pushed lane. The only enemy heroes you should be attacking should be
major damage dealers that are fragile, otherwise just kite tanks and
warriors and destroy that core. If it's less than 10% and has weak
shields, most heroes can solo it if they have their heroic.
Finally, if you're at odds with your team. "Raynor wants to take the
Boss Camp!" keeps yelling when you clearly should be taking the
objective or whatever. If you and whoever agrees with you is the
minority, you'll have more success giving up and following the twits who
don't know how to play. Because otherwise your team is going to be
operate as a group of 2 and group of 3, both of which will get stomped
by the enemy. If your ally's stubborn, help him, and make sure everyone
does.
Source
Hey all, I've been playing HotS for a couple of months now and I remember how confused I was about the game coming from LoL as a Diamond player about priorities and what differences you should pay attention to on the game. Seeing that we'll have a whole heap of new players I've compiled a list of what I've observed.
- There are no items or skill progression but your talents can influence your character just as much. Explore other ways of building your character. For example, just because you're playing a squishy mage like Jaina doesn't mean you can't be tough without the right build and enjoy the battlefield from the front lines.
- You can cast many of your spells on buildings (e.g. shields or damage. No heals).
- Hearthstone often to heal up or mana up. I can't stress this enough. Unlike LoL, leaving your lane when you're a duo does not result in a gold or xp loss. Your lane partner may have to fend for them self for a while solo but it's better than you staying in lane with no mana or with low hp.
- Similar to point 2, Heal up and Mana up before objectives come available. Make sure you're not running into the mines or fighting for shrines at half your strength, you could easily end up losing objectives or worse, getting your team aced.
- Explore other lane combinations. The middle lane does not need to be the solo lane, all lanes gain experience at the same speed.
- Unlike LoL, pushing seems to be a lower priority. Not to say it isn't important but taking objectives are KING, stop farming creeps and run to that objective when it's up. There are a few exceptions but objectives should be your top priority most of the time.
- Mounts can get you around the map VERY quickly. If you see a battle break out on the other side of the map, chances are you can still get there in time to make a difference.
- There is no flash and no wards in this game so if someone is over extended, go with your team (or even solo) and punish them for a free kill. Likewise, you might want to think twice about going too far outside your gate if enemy heroes are missing, a three man gank from the jungle can kill you before you even make it halfway across the screen.
- There are no automatic calls for help with your towers. If their creeps are within tower range they can do whatever they want to you and your towers won't bat an eyelid.
- Feel free to leave your lane often to gank or even just to harass other lanes if you're in a duo. Even in a solo lane, if the enemy is over extending elsewhere, the lack of flash in this game makes it pretty easy to come up behind them with your mount and secure a kill.
- Farming in lane alone is pretty much the last thing you want to do in the mid and late game. Unlike LoL there are barely any advantages to farming, try moving around in a group to take objectives if they're up or gank the enemy if they're not grouped.
- Check your enemy's level constantly. You don't need to guess at the enemy's strength from how many dragons, towers or farm they've taken. Take extra care if they reach level 10 as well as 20 before you, they'll have their heroic ability or final talent and will probably squash you flat even with an advantageous engage.
- If you're lower level than the enemy try not to engage in an equal fight, if they're grouped around top, concentrate on taking objectives near the bottom. There are no wards in the game and limited vision control so avoiding the enemy and trading or even ninja'ing objectives before they can react can be safer and more beneficial than trying to force a fight in the jungle or in lane.
- There is blocking in this game. Be careful when your allies need to retreat and you're right behind them. Additionally, keep in mind that you can slow an enemy down by walking in front of them or even trap them in small corridors.
- Towers, Forts, Keeps DO NOT detect cloaked units. [EDIT: Thanks to JeffBlaze for this!]
- Cloaked units are still slightly visible as a shimmer and can be hit by skillshots and aoe spells. This will instantly uncloak them.
I hope this helps anyone else coming from LoL, or even those who aren't!.
Source: link
