Very Quick Tips: Heroes of the Storm

Make Uther proud

Heroes of the Storm might have some streamlined mechanics when it comes to the MOBA genre as a whole, but it’s anything but “dumbed down.”

While I’ll refrain from educating players on MOBAs as a whole (the 15-minute tutorial does a good job of that), here are some tips I’ve compiled over my long sessions of play.

General tips:

• Regeneration globes drop from the mage minions in each creep wave. It took me forever to realize this, but you can use it to your advantage with characters like Kael, and the Mana Addict skill.

• Do you see the eye above your character when you’re hidden? If it turns red, you’ve been spotted by some source.

• You do not need to kill creeps to get XP for your team, nor do you need to last-hit them for more rewards. You just need to be near them. Likewise, you don’t always have to go after objectives, even though you should in most quick matches where you can’t communicate.

  For instance, it’s advantageous to lane for the first tribute spawn on the Cursed Hollow map, and have one player poke the enemy team while everyone else lanes. That way you’re outleveling your opponent’s team, and giving up one tribute isn’t a big deal. Tactics like this require communication however.

• Ever wonder what the “Bribe” statement is for neutral mercenary camps? Only certain heroes can do this if they buy that ability when leveling up or at the start, like Falstad and Brightwing.

• Right clicking  on your profile in the top right-hand corner of the main menu can yield a ton of information that’s worth reading, like win rates on certain maps and your affinity towards specific heroes. Additionally, you can sometimes locate hidden heroes that haven’t launched yet in the Hero Collection screen.

• Abathur can  be tricky when controlling a stealthed unit. Almost nothing will actually break the cloak, but any ability, including the shield, will sort of show their location to enemies. Any skillshot or AOE can take a unit out of a cloak, and you can see said cloak a bit by way of a shimmering effect. Likewise, Rehgar’s chain heal can jump to an “empty” spot — be aware of every ability that can expose a stealth character.

• If you see someone with a flaming health bar, it means they’re on a killing spree. Depending on that character’s build, they may have the skill that adds ability damage for consecutive kills. Death with reset some of this progress.

• You can swap your active abilities (the bar right above your core Q through R keys) by holding down left click and dragging them.

• Destroying a keep (the big fort) in a given inner base will spawn super minions (catapults) in that lane.

• If you hold alt while left clicking, you can bring up an extended ping menu with options like “on my way” and “need assistance.”

• If you want an idea of who top players use, check out the Heroes of the Storm Logs website. Players often use this to decide “tiers,” but it’s just one piece of data to use when choosing a main, or a new character to try.

• Want to try out a hero you don’t own? Go to the shop, click a hero, and hit “try.” For a better shop view, click the hero while in the “Play” section of the game to get an easier, bigger layout with gold and real money prices. “Random” may also grant you access to a hero that you cannot play yet due to your rank.

• On Quick Match, players will often fight over the “vision” points on maps at the start (especially in Blackheart’s Bay). Be aware of this meta-skirmish and plan accordingly — get behind your warrior/tank and be cautious. If your team looks like they’re going for it, think about helping them out, or go to the very bottom and just start laning to get a head start on XP. Laning isn’t always sexy, but it pays off, especially if you’re outleveling the opposing team.

• Be patient when buying heroes. Buy ones that cost very low amounts of gold, and level them up — levels one through five are extremely easy to do. You’ll in turn have more chances to earn gold with those cheap character levels, which can buy you more characters as you level up your player level. Before you know it you’ll have tons of gold. Exercise restraint and only try to buy heroes on sale with real money. Eventually, they will all go on sale.

• Speaking of XP, when you hit player level 10, you’ll get a free 7-day Stimpack that boosts XP gain. Think about hitting this landmark when you’ll have more free time ahead of you — in other words, if you’re about to go on vacation, don’t pull the trigger on level 10 just yet.

• If you’re redeeming the retail Starter Pack, redeem your Ronin Zeratul skin first, as it will unlock the Zeratul character. You can give your other unlock to a friend.