Hi there, I'm Admiral, and I'm too old for this ****.
I'm not blessed with fast reactions (because I'm in my 30s), or good mechanical skills. I don't have all that much free time, I can play a couple of games a day. And yet I'm rank 1 - and you can be too. I single queue, it's just me myself and I making my way in the nexus. I did it the hard way, I'd never played a MOBA before and I finished my placement matches at rank 48. This game rewards good decision making and I can help you with that.
This is not a guide for super advanced competitive/professional level players (why would they need a guide anyway?!), this is a guide for good solid play that is good enough for rank 1. Rank 1 has been replaced with master/grandmaster ranks, but it was the highest rank Blizzard give out designed to represent the top 2%.
It really isn't about stutter stepping or high APM, it's about standing in the right place BEFORE trouble comes, it's about taking the merc camp at the right time, it's about knowing when to go for core, it's knowing when to take a risk and when to play safe.
Here are links to my guides to some of the basic heroes and classes to help get you started as well. They all fit with the EZPZ style of keeping things simple but winning.
1) The Basics (including stutter stepping)
2) Hot Keys
3) Levels 1-10 - Soak, soak, soak
4) Levels 10-13 - The middle bit
5) Post level 13 - Follow the leader
6) The mini-map and over extending
7) Jungling/Mercenary camps
8) The Boss (a.k.a. the throw pit)
9) When to fight, when not to fight
10) Body Blocking
11) Cancelling abilities
12) All mid lane to start
13) Move into the bushes
14) What did I do wrong?
15) Talking/chatting/shot calling
16) Good games, bad games and abusive chat
17) Drafting
18) Different levels and "MMR Hell"
19) The importance of statistics
20) YOLO/Going HAM
21) Slang/Common terms
I have linked to some videos done by other people, I'm sure they don't mind as they are publically available.
Here is an introduction video (of mine!) which will cover some of the topics I'm about to discuss...
Dying is very detrimental to your team. It is pretty much the worst thing that you can do in the game. Much like in real life: try not to die. Don't take risks with your life for small rewards. If you wonder why you can't ever win a team fight it is probably because you (or your team mates) died too many times before that fight. Dying gives the enemy team XP, it stops you from soaking XP, and it means your team mates are more likely to die while there are only 4 of them alive. It is also really boring to be dead - so let's try to avoid it.
You will fight, you will die, but try to avoid needless deaths.
Soaking
Soaking lanes is the first thing you do. Make sure every lane has at least one hero in it who has sight range of the enemy minions (and thus gets XP when they die). If there is an empty lane before level 10 (and there are no map objectives) then you want to go to that lane to get the XP. XP makes your team stronger and therefore more likely to win fights.
Positioning
This game is about 50% positioning and 50% decision making.
Raynor is a great example, he has long range but no escapes. You have to stand in the right place before the fight or else you will get caught out. If you are DPSing the enemy immortal on Battlefield Of Eternity it matters which side you stand. If you stand away from any likely attack by the enemy team you will probably survive any encounter, if you stand close to a likely attack, you will probably die. You can't wait for the enemy team to show up and THEN move, you must already be in the right place. When trouble comes, it comes quickly, you can't get lax because you think the enemy isn't close to you.
It's pretty much the same for anything. If you mount up with your team and head towards an area, if you are first in that line (and you are not the tank) you may well die before you can react to the enemy team. Travel behind your tank. However slow your tank is, whatever else makes you think you need to be there quickly - travel behind your tank.
Raynor often ends up shooting the tank in team fights, not because he wants to, but he can't safely position himself further forward. He can't get in and get out, he has to put out a steady stream of damage and a lot of the time the tank is only one in his range. That's fine, your number one priority is not to die.
Take a minion wave during the early levels - if Nova is around, stand in the minion wave to block Snipe, and if Jaina is around stand outside the minion wave to prevent her hitting both you and the minions with Blizzard.
Don't get too far from your team, don't head into enemy territory alone. Stay near your towers early on. All this is positioning. Sand at the back of your team in teamfights if you are Raynor. You have a longer range than anyone else but you don't need to commit until the fight starts. If you get too far forward you can get poked by high burst assassins, you can be dived on my melee assassins. You can always move further forward if you need to but stay towards the back until you see how things are shaping up.
If you get lazy or you get too aggressive that's when you die. If you want to improve, just say "position, position, position" to yourself all game.
Priorities
It is really important that you do the right things at the right time. You can do useful things, but if you do them at the wrong time you are making mistakes. Soaking lanes is great, but not if there is a map objective to go to. Taking mercs camps is great, but not if you should be defending your keep.
The game is designed to make you fight. It's fun, so they designed maps to make you fight. They also only want games to last about 20 mins. That is a good amount of time. So what does that mean for you?
They made the map objectives so important to winning that there is no choice but to fight. Map objectives are your top priority, leave whatever else you are doing to get to the map objective. The enemy team will also be there and you'll fight. Sometimes you die, sometimes they do.
It also means that games are very hard to end significantly before the 20 min mark. The game has been designed to take 20 mins so it is very unusual to end a game after 10 mins or 30 mins. If you win a fight at the 5 min mark, you are not going to be able to end the game.
All the mechanics are set up to end the game around the 16-24 min mark. A big fight or a map objective in this time window will often end the game. Whatever has happened before this point it will give one team an advantage or a disadvantage in that battle (structures may be down, levels may be different) - but whoever wins that late game battle usually wins the game. If you kill 4 of the enemy team at the 20 min mark, they are dead for about a minute. A full minute of 5v1 should easily be enough for you to push on the core and end the game.
There are 3 things you have to do to win the game - destroy a fort (first defence), destroy a keep (2nd defence) and destroy the core (game objective). Pushing back structures gets you closer to winning the game. Once destroyed they cannot be rebuilt.
XP
XP trickles in over time, you get it automatically. You also gain XP from minion kills within your hero's line of sight (or if you last hit), from merc camps and from destroying structures. Hero kills also grant you XP (regardless of line of sight or last hitting).
Minion kills start off being a very large proportion of your XP but gradually fade to being insignificant. At level 1 minion waves are a huge % of your XP at level 20 they are virtually nothing. The opposite is true of hero kills, they are very small XP gains at level 1 and very big at level 20. Hero kills also grant you more XP if you are behind the enemy team in levels, meaning you can catch up and comeback.
Structure XP is fixed so destroying them early on gives you a greater % increase but the actual amount of XP you get is fixed. You get more XP for keeps than for forts. Towers also grant XP. XP from structures is significant.
Keeps are crucial because destroying an enemy keep spawns catapults that ride with your minions. This catapult does big damage to enemy minions and structures and is the equivalent of a free mini-merc camp with every minion wave. It will push that lane all the way to the core (eventually) and start doing serious damage. Once you destroy a keep it puts the enemy on a timer - they can't ignore that lane for too long because it will eventually get to their core. It makes it hard for them to send 5 people to long team fights which is great news.
Move
Different heroes work in different ways, so take this with a little pinch of salt, but you have to move. Move in, fire, use an ability - whatever. Move left, fire, move down, fire. Keep moving and you will find you get hit with a lot fewer skillshots. Even if you can't see anything coming for you - move. Move in and out of range, group up, don't group up - stay unpredictable and you'll stay safe. Even if it lowers your damage output, keep moving. You can't move and fire (unless you are Tracer) so move a bit, fire, move a bit, fire. The better you get the better it is. There is a technique called stutter stepping but it is tricky. It is fine to fire off a couple of shots, then reposition.
If you are the tank - still move!
Juking is a movement to dodge a specific anticipated skill shot or AOE effect. Moving is great in the chaos of a teamfight but 1v1 you can expect particular abilities to come your way at particular times. There is a certain amount of guesswork but experience will tell you that if you are running towards Leoric, just after you get into drain hope range you should juke. Here is a clip of me juking Thrall's frost wolf. You will never be right all the time, but it will help you a lot - think about when you would use that ability and chances are your opponent will use it then too.
What will win vs perfect play
There are often times that perfect play is not the way to win games. You must take account of the fact that your teammates will make bad decisions. That means even if it is the right thing to soak a lane, take an objective (or whatever) it may still be better to join your team. Your team may be hovering around their own towers/fort perfectly safe but the whole enemy team is hanging out there in a potential 4v5. You can soak the other 2 lanes perfectly happily giving your team a big advantage. BUT your team won't stay safe. Your teammates are always HAM, they will always engage the enemy team even when outnumbered. So play imperfectly in order to win, go and join your team. If your team dies your lane soak won't help you much.
There is little joy in knowing you were right and you still lost. Take account of your team's weaknesses.
Your role
Know what your character does well and try to do it. If you are the healer, stay safe and heal, you won't put out huge damage numbers so don't get yourself killed trying to. If you are the assassin are you a sustained DPS like Raynor who needs to stay in range and melt targets over time? If you are a burst assassin you can pop in, burst off a few abilities and get out like Li-Ming. If you are the tank you should be either keeping your own team safe or putting pressure on the enemy team.
Melee assassins, we'll ignore. They are IMHO the hardest type of hero to play. They suffer from not having a totally clear role and your priorities and positioning often shift quickly. You have to be in close, but you have low(ish) HP. When do you engage? Do you stay safe and let the enemy have a 4v5? Or do you charge in with your low HPs and die? Play melee assassins when you've mastered the others.
Find a hero, find a role, and get to know that role. You may play a hero that puts out huge damage numbers but secures very few kills ( Nazeebo) because you are not designed for "last hitting". You may be designed for last hitting and securing takedowns but put out fairly poor damage numbers overall ( Zeratul). Don't try to do something you're not good at just to increase your stats on the stat page.
Some heroes do things that there are no stats for (slows, stuns etc) and everyone has their role. In hero league if you have drafted correctly you should be able to stick to your role and win. Are you mobile? ( Falstad) Or great at single target damage? ( Raynor) AOE damage? ( Jaina) Waveclear? ( Xul) Do you provide vision for your team ( Tassadar)? Are you great at pushing a lane against a single opponent? ( Zagara) There are a huge amount of things different heroes can do, and no hero does it all. It is not all fighting and doing damage/healing.
Ending the game after level 16
Too many people don't know how to end games. At level 16+ after a team wipe you should always think - can I win the game here? Can I co for core? If a keep is already down you can usually win the game, if a keep isn't down, take it down! Don't take mercenary camps, don't do map objectives that won't immediately win a game, don't clear minion waves - if you can end the game then do it.
You will see lots of people wipe the enemy team, see the enemy has over 60 seconds before they come back - and then your teammates will think - "great, now we can take the siege giants". Please don't think like this, at level 16+ with 4+ enemies dead - go for the core (most of the time).
Pushing with bosses or objective spawns (doing meaningful damage)
Similar to the point about ending the game, make sure you are dealing damage to structures. Getting merc camps may deal damage to structures eventually but you'd be better off directly dealing that damage. If you get a curse on Cursed Hollow don't capture the bruiser camp - push in to deal damage to forts.
If you capture a boss - why did you capture that boss? To deal damage! So make sure you go with the boss to help it deal damage. Same story with map objectives (punishers, immortals etc) - push with them. If it is very early on you may leave a person in a lane to soak XP but the general rule still holds - send 3 people to push as a minimum.
Don't think hey, we got a punisher, now let's take a bruiser camp.
If you can take a keep that is brilliant because - their core is now vulnerable, catapults spawn with your minion waves and you are much closer to winning the game.
Chasing the kill
If you find an enemy out of position, or you get an enemy low on health - don't chase them for more than five seconds. If you chase them for too long you will often find you've gone too far and you are now out of position yourself. Unless you know where your team are, and the rest of their team are, you must be very careful when chasing. Count to five and stop the chase. It is always better not to die yourself.
But, but, but...he's so low on health just a few more hits and he's dead!...stop. Know that he has to go back to the hall of storms anyway and will waste time. No point in you dying or putting yourself at risk.
Getting Greedy
The game is not designed to be won or lost over a single engagement. You will not be able to win a team fight at level 5, push through the fort and then the keep. You have to understand that the game makes it increasingly difficult to push too far too early. If you get greedy you will get caught out and die. Enemy defensive fortifications are significant and you cannot take a fair fight underneath them. Also the further you push the less health and mana you tend to have, the further from safety you are and the nearer the enemy team are to their own base.
If you try to push your luck you will pay for it. Attack while you have the advantage and then when the odds even up for them you should pull back to safety.
I told you I wasn't mechanically skilled, I can't use 6 hotkeys or play "piano key" Uther. I make things easier for myself by rebinding my hotkeys to things that make life easier for me and using builds that do not require more than 2 hotkeys.
Q,W and E work just fine for me. Having the Ult on the R key and the attack move on the A key made my fingers get lost sometimes in the heat of teamfights. So I made my Ult the spacebar (my thumb) and rebind the find hero key (which I never use) to backspace. Attack move I have bound to double clicking my left mouse button.
My trait is my middle mouse button and my abilities are the two extra mouse buttons.
Now my fingers don't have to move and can't get lost.
Hero kills are not particularly impactful early on but soaking lanes to get experience from minion kills is vital. If you kill a hero early on the death timers are short and the experience they give you is very small. Killing a hero is only really impactful if it means their team misses out on XP for a minion wave or two.
XP matters because it makes your whole team level up. A level advantage gives you a 4% bonus (HP, mana, damage etc) and therefore a slight edge in teamfights. At several key levels (4,7,10,13,16 and 20) you also get an extra talent and getting these before your opponents will also help you win teamfights.
You don't want to take merc camps now (unless you have a really good reason), you just want to soak - and not die.
You can usually retreat to your towers to help you clear a minion wave, just stay safe, do what you can to clear the waves and soak XP - and don't get too far forward.
Leave your lane for map objectives, they are more important than soaking.
Roaming between lanes
Roaming can be very powerful. This essentially involves moving between lanes, either to kill heroes or to get more seasoned marksman stacks or generally maximise XP. There are different types of roaming.
If all your lanes are occupied you can roam looking for enemy heroes to kill. It is common for players to focus on their own lane, duelling with their opponent and they forget that people can switch between lanes catching them 2v1 with half health. It really does catch people off guard a huge amount of the time.
At very high level games you will often see a 4 man roaming squad moving between 2 lanes to clear up the minions. This is safer (4 together is safer), it will often catch your opponents off guard (in a 4v2 for example) and it helps maximise some talents (e.g. seasoned marksman or Conjurer's Pursuit). The 3rd lane is taken by a strong lane hero like Zagara or Thrall on their own. It is hard to co-ordinate without voice coms though.
If your lane is pushed too far towards the enemy base do not try to soak the XP or push the lane even further if it leaves you exposed. At that point just rotate to another lane to help your team. It's not worth dying for.
If you are roaming between lanes for XP rather than kills, you can often time it so you kill a minion wave, mount up, move to the other lane, kill a minion wave, mount up, move back, kill a minion wave etc.
Who goes in which lane?
There is often one lane that is slightly further apart from the middle lane. So the top lane on Dragon Shire or the bottom lane on Blackheart's Bay for example. This lane is usually the first choice of a specialist or someone who is very strong at pushing a lane 1v1. This lane is harder for other heroes to rotate to, so the gank potential is reduced.
Some maps lend themselves to 2-1-2 like Dragon Shire but most end up with a variant of 1-2-2 or 2-2-1. So should you go on your own or should someone else?
Well first of all don't leave a stealth hero to lane for your team alone - Nova is a spectacularly bad lane hero. Most supports also do not lane well alone due to poor damage and therefore waveclear.
Ranged heroes do well in lane (they can retreat to towers more easily) and those with AOE effects also do well alone. As a general rule you'll probably put the healer with the tank in a lane, a ranged assassin or specialist alone in a lane and the other two grouped together.
Something you may want to bear in mind is the enemy team gank potential. If they have a stealth hero (or two) suddenly the job of the solo laner just got a lot harder. It may be better for a tank to be the solo laner because although they won't win the lane (unless they are Chen) they can't get killed easily either. This is also true when the enemy team has a strong roaming composition as well like Diablo.
If you are playing safe and staying close to towers and still dying, you may have to abandon your lane to group with the rest of your team. Over time you will learn who works well in lane and who doesn't, sometimes it depends on the matchup (who you are against in that lane). Very strong solo lane heroes are Zagara, Thrall and Chen. Leoric and Sonya are also good. All these heroes have good self sustain (or a way of avoiding damage).
If you need to call for help or swap lanes your team should help you out.
No hard and fast rules here, soak is still important but it is more important not to die (and to protect your team). Soak safely and be ready to group if needed.
Team fights are more common now, experience from minions matters less but you need to be flexible.
Soak is now less important than it was and hero kills become much more important. Hero kills grant more XP than they did before, and death timers are longer than they were.
The tank is your leader, your guide. Stay behind the tank, follow the tank. If an assassin walks into a trap or a fight first, they will likely die before they can do anything. Even if it is slower, even if it isn't where you want to go, follow the tank once you get past level 13. This applies to travel, to fights to everything.
Lower skill games, everyone seems to just stick to their lane and wander all over the map trying to do something useful - fight, take a merc camp etc. If you find yourself in that situation just follow the biggest group, if there are no groups, follow the tank. Do not wander around on your own (unless your hero was specifically designed for this).
Post level 13, it is almost always better to do something stupid together than it is to do something smart alone. If you are a 5 (on most maps in most situations) you are better than if you are split. This simple fact will win you a huge number of games. You will often catch the enemy team split and you will never be caught by them. Don't be tempted to split off to do merc camps or clear lanes, stay together.
If your allies split off from the group, then do everything you can to encourage them to group up with you. Be polite, it works more often. There are certain heroes that are not designed to group up with you ( Abathur, The Lost Vikings...) but this general rule will hold true.
The mini map is almost totally ignored by new players, experienced players look at the mini-map almost as much as their main screen.
The mini-map tells you so much. It tells you where enemy heroes are, where your team is, which structures are down, which merc camps are up and so much more. Its most important function is hero location. If you can't see 2 enemy heroes and you are alone - chances are you are about to get ganked - run!
Check the mini-map every few seconds. Take a note of where the enemy is. Normally you shouldn't push a lane too far alone for fear of being ganked, but if you can locate at least 4 of the enemy away from that lane then you can do it safely.
It is very hard to do until you are totally comfortable with the game and comfortable with your hero but try to check the mini-map as much as you can. This gets easier with time.
The min-map will also show you when you are over extending and where you should be. Look at this mini map - you are Raynor:
What is wrong with your position? What is about to happen? You can only see 1 enemy hero and you are a long way from safety with no allies around. But I'm doing great damage, no one is stopping me and I'm getting great exp for my team...yes you are but only until you die, then you are doing nothing for a while.
So what is the answer? You can't safely soak that lane and damage the towers so either mount up at max sight range from the minions (preferably in a bush) and be ready to run - or more realistically move to another lane and still be useful. It depends a bit on their CC potential to decide if you can run away in time or not. The better choice is usually moving to another lane because it will also mean your allies have less chance of getting ganked if you are with them.
Mercenary camps are the groups of stronger minions on the map. They are grouped in 2s, 3s and 4s. Some are easy to take (easy camp or siege giants) most usually represented by 2 long range siege giants. Some are hard to take (hard camps or bruisers) which are usually represented by a group of 4 melee range knights (one is a mage). They grant you some experience for killing them (capturing them and killing them is exactly the same experience) but it is less than a single wave of minions in lane.
You should only take mercenary camps when you will not put yourself or your team in danger AND:
1) You know they will create a specific problem for your opponents; or
2) Taking the camp denies your opponents a camp which will create a specific problem for you; or
3) You have nothing better to do on the map; or
4) You are on Blackheart's bay.
They are very slow to do any structural damage. They slowly creep along a lane and then gradually erode the opposition's buildings. A single enemy hero can easily stop them in their tracks. They create a problem that must be responded to eventually by the enemy team. So if your team fights 4v5 while you take a camp, you can imagine how much good that will do you. Even the chance of this happening means you should not take the camp. Similarly if you go alone to take a mercenary camp (or with only 1 other person) and get caught by the whole enemy team and you die - imagine how much good those mercs will do for you.
Mercs are useful, they aid your team - but don't overvalue them, it is easy to do.
Never let your team fight without you because you are taking mercs. Never take a risk to get a merc camp.
There are some specific times on specific maps where taking mercs is a great plan. They push in a lane away from a map objective and can have time to do their work. But don't confuse that with every merc camp doing good damage.
Siege Camp usually spawns at 2:00 and respawns after capture +3:00
Bruiser Camp usually spawns at 2:00 and respawns after capture +4:00
Boss Camp usually spawns at 3:00 and respawns after capture +5:00
Very useful merc camp timings that will win you games :-
Cursed Hollow - Start taking the easy (siege giants) camp at the 2 min mark. If you are lucky the curse will spawn at the opposite side of the map letting your camp push (between 2:15-2:45 the curse usually spawns). Also taking one boss usually allows you to take both because they will defend the first boss you just took, giving you time to take the second.
Sky Temple - Start taking the hard (knights) camp starting 1 min 30 seconds after first temple ended. The next temple spawns at 2 mins after the first and you want them to push during that.
Battlefield Of Eternity Start taking the hard (shaman and dogs) camp at 1 min 20 after the Immortal dies.
Tomb of the Spider Queen If you are in control of the map you can have someone hit the boss, then turn in your gems. The boss will not disappear as long as that person doesn't leave) and you can take the boss while your Webweavers are pushing. Be sure it is safe to do this before you try.
The boss is the strongest mercenary camp. He will often take the whole team to bring him down safety (very much depending on your heroes and your level).
Never attempt the boss unless you know that 3 of the enemy team cannot get to you in time. It is called the throw pit because it is very easy to take your team to the boss, blow your cooldowns, get low on health and mana and then the enemy team finds you and kills you - AND steals the boss from you. Now you are all dead with a boss pushing down your lanes.
If you wipe the enemy team (or most of them) then go for the boss. If you see the enemy team on the other side of a large map then go for the boss. Never ever just "take a chance" and try to sneak the boss without solid information.
Again, the boss is not worth dying for. Certainly early on the boss will not do a huge amount of damage against a team with everyone alive. It will distract them and force them to defend though.
The boss gets easier to take the higher level your heroes are, it is also more powerful later in the game once it has been captured.
The ability to send a boss down a particular lane makes those lanes more valuable. It is better to destroy an enemy fort/keep in the "boss lane" because it will put more pressure on their core if you ever do capture the boss (e.g. bottom lane of Sky Temple).
If the enemy team all goes "missing" from the map, chances are they are taking the boss. Go and investigate - carefully. There is little point in going alone, you will do nothing against 5 people even if they are fighting the boss.
As you get higher in skill the enemy team will trap at the boss. They will hide in the smoke/bushes/vents and try to get you all to rush up to the boss. You think you are in a race against time before they capture the boss so you race as fast as you can, not in a group, not checking bushes. This will usually result in a team wipe - and then they will take the boss. Check by using abilities on the bushes as you approach the boss.
Long and geeky video by Dreadnaught on boss mechanics (Video TLDR; The boss isn't as good as you think it is, especially early on. The boss strength is determined from first hit and increases exactly every minute, so a 16:01 time engage is noticeably stronger than a 15:59 engage.)
Taking fights is a key skill in this game. It is rarely the right thing to just charge into the enemy team even if you are the tank. There is usually a little dance between the two teams that ends when one team thinks they have spotted someone out of position or someone just goes a bit too HAM. Team fights are usually decided by the first person to die.
When you see an enemy hero, whatever role you play, your first thought should be to run. Most people see red, go HAM and charge. You should run. There are times when of course you should attack, but unless you know where your team are, where their team are etc your instinctive reaction should be "run away".
If you fight when you are outnumbered you will lose 9 times out of 10. That's not great odds. If one of your team is dead you should probably give up the map objective. If it is a 4v5 or a 2v3 just run away.
Even if it is a 5v5 fight if you are level 9 and they are level 10 they will win 9 times out of 10. Again terrible odds. At level 10 teams get their ultimate skills which are very powerful and you can't compete with them. Level 10 is the highest power spike in the game.
Not as drastic as lvl 9 vs lvl 10 but when it is lvl 19 vs lvl 20 then it is also bad to fight. The enemy team is about 25% stronger than you at this point so they effectively have 6 people to your 5. Level 20 grants teams their storm talents - lets take a fairly typical example Nexus Frenzy. It increases range and attack speed by 20% meaning at least 20% extra damage from auto attacks + the 4% bonus from being a level up.
The reverse of this is also true, it is great to fight when you are 10 and they are 9 etc.
As you get better you will start to take note of when the enemy uses key heroic abilities. Mosh pit for example has a huge impact on the game but can only be used every 2 minutes. When the enemy uses a key ability look at the clock and say ok it is 17:45 now, mosh pit is down until 19:45. It is often a good idea to force fights when the enemy Ults are down.
Enemy heroes cannot (unless they have a special ability) move through you. They can't nudge you, they can't push you out of the way. You are essentially a wall to them. More advanced players can use this to stop the enemy escaping or getting too close to squishy teammates.
The enemy will of course try to move round you and this is where the skill comes in. As they move to walk around you, try to get in front of the direction they are going - as they move you move. The result is they usually end up walking at a 45 degree angle from where they want to go. This can be enough to keep them in hostile territory for a few seconds longer and secure the kill.
Certain abilities can be cancelled before they are cast, some durations can be shortened. Classic examples are Zombie Wall when you trap a teammate, or Ruthless Onslaught when you are about to charge into trouble.
You can simply press the same key you used to cast the ability to cancel it or remove it from the battle. Some abilities have a minimum time before they can be cancelled so just keep hitting the key until it works.
Channelling abilities can usually be cancelled simply by walking before the channel finishes.
It is generally a good idea to send all 5 heroes to the mid lane first of all. The minions in the mid lane meet first. That means there is time to go to the mid lane, try to gank a solo/duo hero with all 5 of you, clear the minion wave AND still travel to the top/bot lane before the minions meet there.
Head to the mid lane as a 5, then split to your respective lanes.
There is nothing to lose and there may well be a quick kill to gain.
When moving anywhere really you should aim to stop in bushes before you get to where you are going. So if you are checking a merc camp, don't just run up to the merc camp - run into the bushes near the merc camp. That way you have the element of surprise.
Generally speaking it is better to head for bushes, wait in bushes, travel to bushes. If you think I need to go to point X, look for a bush near point X and go there.
Face checking is the art of checking bushes by sticking your face into them. About as sensible as using your face to absorb an arrow that would have otherwise damaged your nice shiny helmet. When you suspect the enemy team of hiding somewhere, feel free to either not go there, or put an aoe ability into the bush(es) before you get too close. Abilities will reveal enemy heroes hiding in bushes.
Every game you made a mistake. You may be the best player on both teams but you still made mistakes. If you lost, what did you do to cause the loss? It is easy to blame some other terrible player, or AFKer but there will be things you did that made a loss more likely. If you died before a map objective and your team went in 4v5 even though you told them not to - that's still your fault. If you were clearing out a merc camp and late to a map objective and your team got wiped - your fault. If you took too much damage during a team fight so the healer blew all his cooldowns on you and someone else died - your fault.
You get the point, small things you did wrong can have an impact on other people's play. They may be worse than you, they may have no idea what they are doing - but you don't control them, you are not trying to make them better. You are trying to make you better. If you rage like an immature child at your teammates you are not asking yourself "how can I improve?". You will never be perfect and don't be too hard on yourself, but if you can't see your own mistakes you won't move up. Watching replays helps with this.
You will see your teammates making errors. Be thankful of this, if you can't see errors then they are at least as good as you. Seeing errors is a good sign you do not belong at this rank. The reality is you are probably making just as many/big errors as your teammates if you share a rank with them. They may be horrible at choosing when to fight and you can see it, you may be horrible at overextending and getting ganked and they can see it. You must be doing something wrong to be at the same level as these fools. Work out what it is and you will move up while they won't.
So you're good. That's great, but you are only one person in a team of 5, how can you influence the outcome?
You can help quite a few games by useful chat. Talk in the draft lobby, make suggestions, say "Please don't ban X hero, I will pick him first" or other things constructively. It's rarely a good idea to ask someone to play (or not play) a particular hero. Don't take "X hero" because he sucks will rarely get you want you want. They got to the same rank as you by making decisions like these, so they are probably really good at that hero even though the hero may have a low win rate.
Saying things like, "shall we take a double support?" or "please don't pick a second specialist" are good examples of helpful lobby chat.
Most games where people are active in lobby (draft) chat our teams goes on to win.
In game you can help by pinging and making suggestions about where to go. "No boss, their whole team is still up", "Don't fight they are 10", "let's trap at boss" and "4 push with the boss top, murky bot lane alone pls" are all great examples of you improving your chances to win the game via chat.
Recognise your limitations though, if you don't know what you are doing just be quiet. Don't boss people around, be polite, and if someone else is making good calls, let them.
Calming down the ragers/toxic players is also very useful to your chances of winning. When you are ahead no one rages, when you fall behind it is suddenly someone's fault. Comebacks are always possible in HotS and you should try to keep people away from each others (or your own) throats. Every second they type they are not playing.
If it isn't helpful don't type it.
"X hero learn to engage" - how does this help? "Y hero your talents suck" - why would you say this?
Good calming techniques include "please don't type, just play", "let's all just play", "pls just mute each other and move on". If all else fails just mute them (hit tab, there is a speech bubble near each player's name) so at least you can concentrate.
If you really are keen to win, suck up your pride and agree with them when they criticise you, "Yeah, sorry my bad" say sorry when you mess up and overall toxicity drops. "Sorry guys, I went too deep"(that's what she said) - is a sure-fire way to keep the ragers at bay.
There are idiots on the internet. Who would have thought eh? In a team game there will always be some people who will rage at you (or someone else). Sometimes you did something wrong, sometimes you didn't - none of it justifies their behaviour. Usually the person raging is the one at fault, it stems from their inability to learn. I died, it must be someone else's fault - they are not thinking about how they could have helped. When you get insulted (and you will) just think they are probably a 14-year-old frustrated boy angry at his mum for not letting him drink and angry at "Jenny" for not noticing him in class. Just report them at the end of the game. If they insult someone else (justified or not), also report them.
You will see some very personal attacks, horrible language and stupid insults. If it bothers you, simply turn off allied chat. Before you get below rank 10, very little allied chat is of any use anyway.
Some games you rock. A god among men - you are destined for greatness! And some games you suck really badly and the game is stupid. It's not a matchmaking problem anymore (it was, not now). The reality is that sometimes you play well, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you are slightly HAM and so are your team so you gel, sometimes you are slightly HAM and they are slightly too cautious - meaning you don't gel at all well. Sometimes people understand certain combinations of heroes and not others (2 supports, 2 tanks and a melee DPS is a very different team fight from 3 ranged DPS a support and a tank). Just own up to your own part of the loss when it comes, and don't get too excited by the highs and the lows.
It is a team game and some people work well together and some don't. Doesn't mean the matchmaker is broken or the game is stupid.
1) Always pre-pick your heroes in draft. It helps a lot. If you can play 2 roles (e.g. tank and healer) then cycle between your 2 favourite heroes in those roles (e.g. Diablo and Rehgar) to let your team know you can do either.
2) Early picks are better as key roles. It depends a bit on the state of balance but usually you should pick a healer or a tank if you are picking early on. The reason is that most people prefer to play assassins. Taking a healer or a tank early allows your team to play the role they like most - which means you win more. Some healers and most tanks are not directly counterable so you give away very little information to the enemy team as well. Most of the time people will pick a healer/tank if they are last pick and you have no healer/tank - but some people won't. Also some people are bad at those roles even if they are forced to pick them.
3) Take your best, most overpowered hero. If you can play all heroes equally well and one has a 55% win rate and one a 45% win rate, take the 55% one. See part 19 below - the importance of statistics.
4) Don't get bullied into a hero you can't play well. "You must take a mage here" - but you can't play a mage - don't take one just to shut the person up. Even if it means you end up without a healer or a tank, still better to take a hero you can play well.
5) You have to play every main role to at least a basic standard even if you have a preference for one (tank, assassin, healer). You'll need at least 3 heroes to choose from in each role. Specialists are not required roles even if they are desirable on some maps.
6) The meta. The current meta in professional competitions is usually a double support composition, for example Tyrande and Rehgar. A lot of hero league games have single support, single tank, 2 assassins and a specialist. It doesn't really matter as long as you have at least one healer and at least one tank and some damage. Generally speaking 2 "full on" tanks don't work very well - unless one is a bruiser and can put out good damage like Sonya. Sometimes you'll come up against unusual compositions (perhaps in Quickmatch, perhaps in HL). The pace of the game can change drastically depending on how much damage the enemy team can do and how strong your frontline is. 5 assassins vs 5 assassins makes for VERY quick teamfights.
7) Think about what they have and what you have before you pick your character. Some heroes do great damage but need to be kept safe. If your team has a double tank composition you will usually be fairly safe. If the enemy team already has a dive heavy composition you will struggle to stay alive. Raynor can dish out good damage and take a solid beating before he goes down. Jaina is much more fragile and needs more protection.
There are some picks that work well in certain situations but not others. Feel free to pick up Nova against a team that has low health heroes on it like Murky, Li-Ming and Valla. Similarly certain talents or abilities are great against certain heroes. If the enemy gets E.T.C. then Raynor with Relentless Leader is a great counter pick (but otherwise it is generally a terrible talent). Some characters have blind which works well against auto-attack heroes, some have spell shield which works against ability damage heroes.
8) When choosing which hero to master next think of the roles you need to fulfil - do you have sustained DPS or bust DPS? Do you have heroes with CC? Do you have heroes with high ability or high auto attack damage? Can you pick a hero that can stop a certain key ability like Mosh Pit? What do you pick if they pick Nova and you need a DPS? What do you pick if they pick Illidan and your team needs a healer? The more answers you have, the higher you will go.
9) As you get better and more rounded you will be able to read the draft much better. The synergy or not between particular heroes can win you games - ( Void Prison into Apocalypse for example). You'll be able to counter certain heroes, know when you need auto attack damage, when you need ability damage, when you need poke, sustain, melee, ranged - and importantly crowd control. Certain maps require good waveclear (AOE damage) such as Tomb of the Spider Queen and Infernal Shrines. Some maps reward single target sustained DPS like Battlefield Of Eternity some jungling and mobility Blackheart's Bay - some are straight out team fights but split in multiple locations Towers of Doom, Dragon Shire and Sky Temple. The reality is that heroes do not perform significantly differently on different maps but small advantages can help you.
Your MMR moves a lot in your first few matches, and very little after a few hundred games. MMR hell refers to having played a lot of games to the point where each game makes very little difference to your overall skill points (MMR). Combine that with the fluctuations inherent in the fact 4 other people are on your team and sometimes there are a lot of variables that can conspire to keep you down for a very long time. You are never stuck there forever, some are luckier than others, some are better than others - but it will all work out eventually. Luck will even out, it just takes time.
MMR hell doesn't apply to hero league. You move up or down the rankings at a fairly constant pace, regardless of how many games played. You will go on winning and losing streaks, some of that is luck and some of it is skill. Just roll with the punches. You will find zones where you think you are unfairly stuck with bad teammates (AFK, feeders etc). This may be true (luck will play a part), but it is more likely that they were just as many AFK on the enemy team and you just didn't notice. The way statistics work is there will be some incredibly unlucky people out there, but it is far more likely you are at the MMR you deserve than you are being incredibly unlucky.
I got "stuck" about rank 14 to rank 10. I'd yo-yo up and down +3 levels, -6 levels, +4 levels etc for a while. I thought it was my teammates. It was more likely me. I'd learned very few heroes, I was good with the ones I had but I couldn't really fill out a draft correctly. I fixed it (took a while) and moved up.
Rank 50-40 - you can't lose ranks here, so simply by playing, however bad you are, you will end up at rank 40.
Rank 40-30 - all you need is a fundamental understanding of the game. Arrive at team fights as a 5 and it is likely all you need to win easily. There will be people charging all over the map doing their own thing and very little grouping. You should find a partner and follow them if no one else will group with you. use chat to help encourage people to group post level 13.
Rank 30-20 - you now need to understand the maps you are playing on and how to lane properly. Get an understanding of when to group and when not to, when to take merc camps and when not to. Don't fight 4v5, don't fight when they are level 10 and you are not. Look at the mini-map every so often.
Rank 20-10 - people in this bracket can play. They know the game, they know their heroes but they likely are not as aware of the mini-map as they should be. They will get ganked a bit more than they should, they will make some poor decisions sometimes about priorities, they will choose sub optimal heroes during draft.
Rank 10-1 - You get a better quality of teammate at this level but lots of the things that you could get away with in earlier games you will not get away with now. Push a lane too far and you will get ganked, be 5 seconds late for an objective and you will lose it, overextend and they will kill you. Fairly small things can decide games at this level.
I'm a bit of a stat nerd about this game. Blizzard has created a great fun wonderful game, but the balance team do a truly awful job. It takes them a long time to fix overpowered heroes, and they haven't yet seemed to settle into a balanced period.
HotsLogs gives you great data on all things HoTs related. Lots of people will tell you all sorts of rubbish about how it is unreliable - that is just garbage. It is objective, it is the only resource we have - perfect or not it is very useful.
Now there are lots of different factors that go into balance and win % isn't everything, but it is a lot. Below the competitive level win % should factor into your decision making a lot. Abathur may be a great hero in super skilled hands but he has one of the lowest win rates in the game. So if you are choosing him, you'd better be a LOT better than the average player at your skill bracket. Why do that to yourself?
Blizz's accepted range of win rates for heroes is 45%-55%. I think that is ridiculous. Think about a 10 man team game - 9 other heroes, nine other play styles - and simply by choosing a particular hero you affect your whole team's win rate buy up to 10%. For a hero to have that much impact they would have to be very under or overpowered. If we take a 50% win rate base line and imagine how much better than average a hero must be to lift his entire team by 5% - we're talking 25% better than an average hero. That is nuts.
So my advice is to embrace the imbalance. Look at HotsLogs and pick heroes to learn with high win rates. As balance changes so you will master new heroes and become more rounded. Overpowered heroes are very forgiving and generally easy to learn when they are so strong. Taking heroes if they average below a 50% win rate is usually a really bad idea. When it comes to your turn to pick a hero (all things being equal) pick your most overpowered hero. If you are good with a character that has a 50% win rate and good with one that has a 55% win rate then pick the 55% one. It denies the opposition that hero and improves your team's win %.
So many people tell me silly things about stats - "X is used in competitive play all the time". That may well be true but if you are not a competitive player (on team speak, and with a very very high skill level) then it is irrelevant. Look at the win rates in your own skill bracket (you can filter by league on HotsLogs) to help your decisions. The reality is that the overall win rates usually apply fairly equally, regardless of skill (below competitive level). Currently Zeratul is a great example of this - amazing in the professional games, bad in most other games. It's sad, I love Zeratul.
The game is designed as a team game. Think how stupid it would be if one person could run up to 5 and kill them all.
I remember when I first started (my first few times playing any MOBA) I would walk up to the enemy team and get killed. I'd get stunned and hit with an Ult or 2, I couldn't even react. Stupid game. How can they design a game so stupid that I just can't do anything? Suddenly the next few games walking around with another hero (or four) and a lot of my problems went away.
If you are outnumbered it is very likely that you may not even be able to kill a single member of their group even if he has extremely low HP. You may not do any damage at all. 5v1 often is just them stunning you for the 2 seconds it takes them to kill you. I don't care how good your ultimate is or how many HP you have. You just can't go in against superior numbers.
I suffer from this mentality myself after I've died - I must get back in the fight quickly, I must make up for my mistake, I must get revenge. It rarely works out. Stay calm, stay safe and calculate your fights. If you suffer from going HAM, there are worse things than simply waiting in your base for everyone else to respawn before you head out again.
10 - often used to warn you that the enemy team is now level 10 and you should not engage. 20 - often used to warn you that the enemy team is now level 20 and you should not engage. Boss - see The boss (a.k.a. the throw pit) section. Bushes/Vents/Smoke - Places on the map where you can see out but people can't see in without using abilities. Cap - to stand on an objective or mercenary camp and claim it for your team. Care - be careful. Watch out for. "Care Zera bot lane". Carry - a squishy damage dealer. Needs to be kept safe. CC - crowd control (stuns, roots, silences, slows, blocking with walls etc). Not (as I first thought) close combat. Core - the game defining objective. Kill the core, win the game. "Go core" means your teammate wants you to ignore what you are currently doing and try to end the game. Fort - the front large structure. Tier 1 defence line. Global presence - a hero who has a special ability that will allow them to travel across the map quickly. It often allows heroes to do something else (e.g. soak and then quickly arrive at a team fight). Examples are Falstad, Brightwing and Dehaka. Globes/Orbs - Regeneration globes. Collected from the mage minion in a minion wave and various other sources based around objectives and mercenary camps. Hall of storms - Your base, where you start, where you end up if you press B. Going back also referred to as "porting". It regens your health and mana quickly. HAM - Hard as a m#th#rf#ck#r. Going too hard and too fast, too aggressive, usually resulting in death. HP - hit points/health Help ping - Someone pinging "X hero wants to help Y hero" - X hero usually thinks Y hero is doing something stupid. Intentional Feeding - the art of intentionally dying. Used to annoy teammates by throwing the game on purpose. I have only ever seen this once, yet I've seen people be accused of it hundreds of times. Keep - the last defence structure. Tier 2 defence line. Lanes/Soak XP - referring to the path the minions take towards each other. Usually 3 lanes. If someone says "lanes" it usually means the same as "soak". Lanes - Top/Mid/Bot - the lanes of minion waves will often be in three lanes, pushing towards a top middle and bottom fort/keep on each side. "Go bot" is not a request cried out in the throes of passion: it's a request to soak the bottom lane. Map objective - depends on the map but each map has a powerful mechanic that is designed to be so good teams must fight over it to win the game. Mana - used to cast spells/abilities. Mercs/Jungling/Siege giants/Knights/Easy camp/hard camp - see Jungling/Mercenary camps section. Meta - the current state of the game, usually the heroes that are most effective at the time. Minion waves - They spawn from the core and march slowly towards the enemy core. Killing them grants XP and they are a vital part of the early game. OOM - out of mana. Usually telling you that player is leaving the fight to restore mana. Party Bush - Several members of the team hiding in a bush to gank/surprise/kill the enemy. Ping - pressing G brings up various pings used to communicate with players. Also V pings retreat. Pushing - pushing a lane towards the enemy side, it may or may not involve taking down structures at the same time. "Push with boss" means everyone help the boss push down a lane and destroy buildings. Regen/Heal - go back to use the healing fountain or the hall of storms. Sippy cup/Well/Healing fountain - the healing fountain near your forts and keeps. Skill shots - abilities that do not always land, they must be fired towards/at a player and may miss. Stay safe - stay close to your defences or with your whole group. Stun lock - one stun after another meaning the hero cannot move or use abilities for a long time. Usually resulting in death. Squishy - a character with low hit points. Dies easily. Towers - in the walls in front of forts and keeps. Toxic - abusive chat. Almost certainly a sign the person being toxic is a bad player AND emotionally stunted. Report these players but don't engage them. Ult - Ultimate ability gained at level 10. Vision - the ability to know if the enemy is in a certain area. Wombo Combo - Several (usually ultimate) abilities that deal area of effect damage/stun overlapping to great effect. Examples would be Grav-O-Bomb 3000 combining with Rain of Vengeance and Starfall. XP - experience points. Used to gain levels. "Get XP" means soak lanes.
HeroesFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite HotS hero’s build and strategy.
Raynor
Battlefield Of Eternity
Nova
Snipe
Jaina
Blizzard
Tracer
Li-Ming
Nazeebo
Zeratul
Falstad
Xul
Tassadar
Zagara
Cursed Hollow
Conjurer's Pursuit
Thrall
Dragon Shire
Blackheart's Bay
Chen
Diablo
Leoric
Sonya
Abathur
The Lost Vikings
Sky Temple
Tomb of the Spider Queen
Zombie Wall
Ruthless Onslaught
Rehgar
Tyrande
Murky
Valla
E.T.C.
Relentless Leader
Mosh Pit
Illidan
Void Prison
Apocalypse
Infernal Shrines
Towers of Doom
Brightwing
Dehaka
Grav-O-Bomb 3000
Rain of Vengeance
Starfall
Quick Comment (8) View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.