I made this as my own reference guide, after many hours of testing and it really has some maths behind. Btw, comments and new ideas are always welcome!
Not all heroes are included as some of them have been outclassed and you can expect the tier rank to be different from most internet tier lists.
If you're good with a hero that everybody says its tier 4, just PLAY IT because its good for you, you enjoy yourself playing it, and thats what this is all about.
This is an all-purpose guide, so don't expect 3 guides for each hero. Just the most versatile one, that can be played on most if not all maps. Btw, I'll try to add some choices to be made for some heroes in certain situations.
Also, I won't specify any threats, everyone wants to win so everyone is a threat. You have to know how each hero works and check the talent choices they've made to know if they are a threat for you.
I wish you all the best. gl hf and see you at The Nexus!
You can see that I prefer better positioning than extended ranges; I don't like tanks built to flee and I don't want to waste a talent, let's say to get out of trouble, if my hero has some built-in.
Johanna players should take Amplified Healing instead of Laws of Hope but math-wise I can't recommend it unless you have two supports.
Kharazim players should take Foresight when facing Nova or Zeratul; trying to avoid being ambushed and focused is a priority when playing support.
Muradin players have to take a hard choice at level 16 as Heavy Impact grants you 2 extra stuns through Rewind but Stoneform grants a huge boost to your presence in combat.
Rexxar players have to take care of Misha, she really is the key to shine with Rexxar and not just a brainless companion. Complete info HERE (thanks Rengi).
Raynor players should take Raynor's Raiders when facing Nova or Zeratul; your life is going to be easier if you keep them visible.
Zagara's Nydus Network as well as Lt. Morales Medivac Dropship really shines when control maps are played, gives your team a huge advantage.
Cho players have to make some tough choices: based on enemy talents, you may need to take The Will of Gall instead of your heroic upgrade; and while Surge of Stamina is a great talent, Molten Block is a must sometimes. Be careful in your decisions as your life is worth double XP and you're leaving your teammates in a 3 versus 5 situation.
And some general 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 talentboard side. This shows all the talents all players are taking, including enemies. It also shows the cooldowns of your allies heroics. I personally look at this screen to help decide which talents I pick myself.
When you're invisible, mount when you're roaming, 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.
If you're playing against players who are very good at finding you and killing you when you're running away while invisible, 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 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.
If you??re ahead a level on XP, only fight when you??re up a talent level. If you??re down a level on XP, only fight when you??re equal on talent level. If you fall far behind, being on equal talents during the 16-20 window is your chance to stage a comeback. If you're throwing, stall for the level 20 power spike and win a fight with it.
This is not the classic MOBA, you've to understand the general strategy of each map, OBJECTIVES and mercenaries if you're trying to be competitive at The Nexus.
Late game when a team starts to get map control, maybe the levels are 22-21 and they might have the brilliant 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.
And no, 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 DPS 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.
Btw, the mage merc has less HP than the knights, focusing him first will help you clear the camp faster. And the mage laning minion is the only one to drop a globe and he will always drop one.
That said, here you have a basic explanation about merc camps:
And some specific tips about each map:
(Haunted Mines:)
Spoiler: Click to view
In general, mercs are weak on this map. They don??t go to the same lane as golems, and they don??t push as fast as your golem will (generally), so they end up largely being a waste of time (especially knights). The best way to use for mercs (generally) is to cap them as the golem is about to start attacking your base, so that they help DPS it down.
One of the best ways to start snowballing on this map is to have level 4 (a talent level) when going into the first mines. The best way to achieve this is to put 4 men in your golem lane, with 1 person in the enemy??s golem lane, and try to push down their wall before the first mines, or group gank the other lane. The 1 person you put to soak in your weak lane should be someone who can soak without much danger, and clear relatively well. Tassadar is best since he can do this and also shield buildings.
When Golems happen, it??s often the case that you can split your team up into 2 groups- 1 per golem. When this is the case, it??s best to leave DPS(s) to work through the enemy golem, with supports and tanks helping your own golem. The number of players at each golem? Roughly 1 person per 20 skulls, although this is going to vary a LOT on comps, who is ahead, and whether or not you got fatties, or whether its good to split up at all.
Garden of Terror:
Spoiler: Click to view
The neutral terrors really don??t do much damage at all, especially with the regen globes they drop counteracting their damage. Under the right circumstances (the other 8 players are dead, or on the other side of the map), you really only need 2 people to work on a terror. Or, if you have a 5v4, 4v3, etc. it??s not that dangerous to work on it, just be mindful of its abilities, and which cooldowns you use on it while dancing with the enemy team.
When both teams have terrors, fighting at the border of the enemy??s buildings is advantageous, as opposed to fighting at your own buildings, due to plant damage + building CC.
When deciding whether to place a plant over the wall (to hit both the gate towers and the keep), only do so if the plant will be safe there for awhile. Otherwise place it as far back as you can while still having it hit the wall, so you can protect it for the full duration. If the enemy team is willing to teamfight against your terror, lure them into a choke where the Q will wreck them.
Plants make backdooring really rewarding, and since you can get more exp + catapults from taking a keep, this should be one of the first options you consider with your terror. If they try to base trade with terrors, this is one way to come out ahead (killing a keep rather than a fort). Also, if you??re ahead on base, but behind on experience, doing this can help catch you up in that area before you start losing teamfights.
Due to the fact that plants wreck mercs, you should really not do mercs right before the enemy spawns a terror. The best time to do them is right as night is falling so you can get ahead in the seed count.
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.
Dragon Shire:
Spoiler: Click to view
DK is great at pushing waves with flame breath, and the damage he does to buildings makes saving his hp very worthwhile. Clear the wave, and enter with your own wave to tank damage, especially if you??re going directly onto a fort/keep which will slows your autos.
For most levels of SoloQ, I think its best to have the tank drive DK if possible. Then your comp and positioning are largely unchanged and you minimize unforced errors.
Most people mess up on Shire by focusing too much on getting Dragon Knight fast. The reality is, you mostly have to control all areas of the map to get DK. If you??re ahead early, focus on controlling one area at a time, and then gradually branching out. Conversely, if you??re behind and your enemy reaches for too much, focusing on one lane will keep them from getting DK, and likely get you some kills to come back.
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.
Blackheart's Bay:
Spoiler: Click to view
Concentrating coins on 1-2 people is best, so that you can turn in easily, control your risks better in teamfights, and when need be sacrifice one life to save another with coins, and keep 6 instead of losing 3. You??ll want these coins to be on people that are easy to keep alive: Rehgar, Tychus, T***, etc.
If you clear a wave and have even just a few seconds, getting coin camps is very rewarding, especially if you can get the coins on your carriers.
As the game wears on a bit, and your damage values go up, it can be rewarding to push a little bit more, and lower the number of shots a structure needs to take to die. For example, getting an ability or two off on a tower can save you a cannon ball, which is worth about 1.25 coins. If you spread your damage right, you can easily get 2.5 coins worth of efficiency instead of 2 coins which you may or may not be able cash in.
Cursed Hollow:
Spoiler: Click to view
Soak and Poke is the name of the game (early on). Tributes, at least in their current form, are the weakest objective by far, and it??s more worthwhile to soak experience from all lanes, and poke the enemy off the tribute a little bit, wasting as much of their time as possible. Basically, you need to get 3 tributes before you get anything from that investment at all, and once you do, curse is pretty weak. If the enemy team curses you, and you have a higher level from soaking experience, they aren??t going to win a teamfight, and therefore can??t push on you as 5. If they don??t push as 5, you can match their numbers across lanes, and they will miss out some experience from your minions dying instantly.
Play the chokes! When fighting over tributes, sit in open areas, and attack your enemies as they come through narrow ones. Either you or someone else on your team will have abilities that benefit from this, and it allows you to face your enemies one at a time instead of all at once.
When you do get curses, you might want to push a little bit, but you should definitely plan things so that you can take a boss before it ends, and if you still have hp/mana bars, go get the second boss as well- your enemies will have to either let you get both, or let the first one tear up their base unopposed.
Sky Temple:
Spoiler: Click to view
Temples do a LOT of damage. Usually there??s a little bit of tradeoff between soaking experience and going for objectives, but temples just do too much to sacrifice any of their damage for soak.
It??s best to have a 3 man lane (and 2 1-man lanes) that you rotate with the temples: first top, then bot, then mid, changing after each temple is used up.
If a temple is being contested, let you enemies have the initial shots from it, while they tank the damage from the guardians, and split their damage between you and the guardians. If you're harassing them during this time it should be relatively easy to wipe them and take more than 50% of the temple's damage.
Try to take mercs shortly before the next temple spawns on the opposite side of the map from that temple. For example, take your knights at about 4 minutes, so that they push top while you go bot for the temple.
Tomb of the Spider Queen:
Spoiler: Click to view
Much like Blackhearts, hoarding gems can lead to more efficiency with them late game, with some key differences:
Webweavers divide their push across all lanes, which can get you all of the enemy team??s taps on (potentially) a single turn in, and that??s a big deal for giving you mid and late game power.
Gems are far more loseable than coins, if you die with them more than half the time you don??t get any back, since kills don??t return gems like they do coins.
There are two turn in points, making it generally easier to turn in so that you don??t have to lose gems.
Unlike cannonballs, webweavers scale with game time, so while saving gems for a late game turn in does technically give you more efficiency, percentage wise it??s not as rewarding as hoarding on Blackhearts (assuming you push down forts yourself so that cannons push the keeps).
The best way I??ve seen so far to capitalize on webweavers is to get close to a turn in (maybe be 5 gems short) then wait until you get a kill to get the last turn in, and then get a merc camp before weavers spawn to overwhelm a lane.
You can??t ??sneak? gems the same way you can coins, rather you ??farm? them in lanes, so having good lane control is more important than jungling. Along these lines, with all the lanes close together, it??s a good map for ganking. I like to put a tri-lane mid, with someone with CC bot. Diablo is good in this position because he will get pushed in, but he doesn??t use his CCs to clear, so he??s ready when you gank for him. The reason you favor bot over top in this fashion is because fatties are bot, and make for an easy pick-up after the gank.
Webweavers slowly time out, like a Garden Terror??s W, so if you see one at low health on the opposite side of the map, it??s not worth your time to go finish it off.
Battlefield of Eternity:
Spoiler: Click to view
Infernal Shrines:
Spoiler: Click to view
Towers of Doom:
Spoiler: Click to view
And the most important SoloQ tip of all.. If you know the right thing to do, and everyone else on your team is doing something different, go with them and do their thing. Sometimes you can bring them around, and when that is and isn't doable is something I??ll address another time. For the most part you should go with the flow, even when you hate it. Having a single bad plan is better than having three good ones.
Make it worth: Try to gather 2 low valued missions that you can store indefinitely and just finish the third. For example, if you never play support or Diablo heroes, store these missions and finish the third one. This way you'll have a better chance to gather a 'Win 3 matches' or 'Play 8 matches' mission. Try to finish it everyday, and you can get the higher valued ones twice a week.
Even if you don't like a hero, try to play it through the fist 5 levels while its on rotation. If you like it or own it, play it at least through the first 9 levels. Gather those gold, it'll make your life much easier.
And tbh, stimpacks are not worth it unless you play 3-4 matches EVERYDAY. Not gold-wise.
HOTs resources:
Aside from this site, make good use of these websites; it can give you some insight about your gameplay and some very valuable tips:
HeroGG, a more recent site that follows HotsLogs system.
HotsCounters, this site is intended to help share tips and ideas in dealing with various heroes in the game quickly and anonymously with as little fuss as possible.
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.
Spoiler: Click to view
Laws of Hope
Foresight
Heavy Impact
Gargantuan
Nydus Network
Medivac Dropship
The Will of Gall
Molten Block
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