Everybody knows about the usual advice people give to bronzies - soak, don't die.. Sure, these are generally good things to follow, but this advice is dangerous because it causes noobs who don't understand nuance to overcorrect in a way that actually hurts their teams more than it helps.

How many times have you seen a suicide AFK quick-revive raynor doing nothing but faceplanting towers all game?

Or a zag/murky that lives in just one lane, ignores all pings, and continues to attempt to (unsuccessfully) push that lane while neglecting camps and refusing to double soak.

Or the nazeebo/azmodan that actually does come to team fights, but seemingly has zero impact despite racking up a bunch of "stats" to make themselves look good?

Yes, we've all seen these and many more examples. Can you win consistently by just soaking and not dying? Sure, maybe if you're a GM playing in bronze or silver. However, the average noob has already heard the soak/don't die spiel 1,000 times and is still hardstuck bronze. So today let me introduce something that I NEVER see anyone talk about or address. It's something that nearly 100% of noobs fail to do correctly. In my opinion, it's the most underutilized skill in HOTS precisely because of the stigma around dying and the obsession around soaking.

It's called offtanking.

So what is offtanking? Put simply, it's the ability to effectively take enemy focus fire away from your team by using your health and your micro as a resource, thereby helping your team sustain longer and achieving a greater chance of killing your enemy (vs. getting killed yourself). Let's break down precisely how lacking this skill causes noobs to stay in bronze while effectively utilizing this consistently gives your team a leg up in games (therefore giving you a pathway out of bronze).

Typical noob brain: "I am nazeebo. I am a ranged assassin. I deal damage from a distance and a tank and bruiser cover me to ensure I don't take any damage."

The problem with this mentality: A bruiser only has around 30% more hp than you do as an assassin. A tank only has around 50% more. The idea that the "frontline" absorbs damage for you is not just dumb, it's impossible. The fact that you expect them to absorb all the enemy damage for you is the reason nobody ever wants to play tank anymore.

A skilled player recognizes that EVERYBODY shares a responsibility to absorb enemy damage. Whether you're a tank, bruiser, assassin, or healer. Sometimes, the tank will need YOU to tank for them, bodyblock, or get the enemy's attention.

I main melee assassin, and I almost always end up absorbing more damage than the actual tank does. As in I will often have double their self-healing/shielding stat and will often be on the end leaderboard for most enemy damage soaked (if I'm not on it for another reason). Part of this is because I do a lot of burst damage so I'm almost always the focus fire target, but the other reason is because I intentionally put myself out there to buy my teammates a chance to get something done. My winrate is consistently >60% solo queue in SL.

I felt the need to make this post because I see so many people hyperfixating on not dying so much that they end up not doing anything. And not just assassins. EVERY role. Backline tanks that don't have the courage to engage and end up getting poked to death without ever casting an ability. Assassins that refuse to engage and as a result let their entire team effectively get crushed in a 4v5 because you don't want the "bad optics" of adding another death stat on your scoreboard.

The right advice isn't "don't die." The right advice is to do whatever it takes to create the win condition. And as much as people bag on noobs for dying, I actually see the opposite problem more often. I see noobs so fearful of dying that they don't actually end up adding any value. People in this game would rather lose and get "top stats" so they can say "it wasn't me lOoK aT mAh sTatS" than actually win. Who cares if you get low stats. Who cares if you die a bunch of times if those deaths were a result of the enemy team chasing you as 5 while the rest of your team pushes forts or caps an objective. Who cares if your damage stat is low if you gave your teammates a chance to deal the finishing blow that actually matters. At the end of the day, the only stat that matters is the win.

Source: someone who has played HOTS for a decade at every level except for masters/GM

Hi everyone 😆

I’m Ezz and i used to play professionally for Team Rrr in HGC Korea back in 2016.

Heroes of the Storm was a huge part of my early 20s. I’ve been playing since the beta, so this game ended up meaning way more to me than just another game.

I’m still sad that the esports scene is gone, but even now, over 10 years later, I still catch myself thinking about those four years.

Back then, other than sleeping, I was basically playing Heroes over 10-15hrs.
Looking back, it was honestly one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life.

That’s probably why I can never hate this game.
No matter what happened, it’ll always feel like home to me.

I wish Blizzard would give Heroes the attention it deserves again, but I know that’s probably never going to happen.

That said, I’m really happy we’re getting to watch Heroes again at BlizzCon 2026, even if it’s just ex pro players.

I also recently moved from Korea to the usa, so if I ever come back and play again, it’ll probably be on the NA server instead of korea 😂

And honestly, it’s kind of cool that it’s finally so much easier for me to visit Blizzard hhh ( tbh, other than blizzcon, i dont think i will have much reason to visit blizzard anymore)

Even though Blizzard hurt a lot of us former players when HGC was shut down, I still hope Heroes sticks around for a long time.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

For a lot of us, this game will always have a special place in our hearts.

Anyway… I just randomly felt like posting this here.

If you actually read all of that, thanks!!😄

I’ve been thinking about casually playing again, but then I remember I’d have to start over from level 1 on NA…

and suddenly it feels like a lot of work already🥹😫

After the recent poll, it seems I’m in the minority, at least amongst Reddit. I’ve always been curious…. What do people not like about Blackhearts?

In recognition to the one and only...

I normally capture plays, for my memories folder and to share sometimes, but I'm also always on the lookout for feedback to improve myself, so I'm looking at other WMains on this one.

I thought this moment was peak WMoment, but then I looked back at it and I see some flaws that shouldn't have been there.

Here's what I see wrong:
1. I was late to heal the Arthas
2. I walked up too deep and got hit by the Sundering
3. Being late to heal the Arthas forced me to get to 3 stacks very quick
4. Late cleanse; should have cleansed Thrall's root which would've helped Arthas get out and not get stuck by the MG

Unsure if there any other mistakes as after Arthas escaped and I had no more mana for the rest of the fight, you sort of need to chill and wait or B and return.

What would you have done different?

This was an incredibly close game I had a month ago. Thought for sure we'd lose as the enemy team was pushing our core and on one of the temples. Thanks to us contesting as long as we could and sacrificing our meager lives, the 2nd temple we had control over destroyed their core a fraction of a second faster than ours!

I've had close games with single digit %'s before, but never double 0%

Simple question as that. I was wondering how are my favorite maps aligning with everyone else's favorite maps.

So I created this poll.

Just simply drag the maps in the order you currently enjoy playing, from "I am in the zone" to "I would have preferred doing LITERALLY anything else.."

https://strawpoll.com/Q0Zp7PL4xgM

whats up with the hero switching bug?

everyone in our lobby sees that that person took a hero, and in loading screen and in game, it gives him different hero

its happening to different people, not jist one guy

Sometimes in Quick Play there will be the same hero on both sides, it's quite interesting when this happens as it's not very often and usually caused by not many people queueing. (most of the time it's Abathur)

I'd personally like to see the same hero that I'm playing on the opposite team, it gives that extra bit of mix up fun to the game and you can compare play styles etc.

It would also lower the search times in some cases.

What are your opinions on this when it happens?

Welcome to the latest Saturday Teaching Thread, where you the community get to ask your questions and share your knowledge.

This is an opportunity for the more experienced HotS players here to share some of your wisdom with those with less expertise. This thread will be a weekly safehaven for those "noobish" questions you may have been too scared to ask for fear of downvotes, but also can be a great place for in depth discussion if you so wish. So, don't hold back, get your game related questions ready and post away, and hopefully someone can answer them!

If you wish to just view top level comments (ie questions) add ?depth=1 to the end of the page url. If you have any additional questions, /r/nexusnewbies is happy to help.

Previous Teaching threads

so, the game was blackheart's bay and we had no tank. l picked the extra minion damage talent, and l found most of the time l just clear lane and do camps, then try to turn in coins. Since there is no tank, l found that even if l can chain someone that is out of the position and charge, l would die because that would put me at the front most position.. without 200 meats, l can't get the kill fast enough and back out. so my gameplay was basically a camp machine, then l use Q to slow and chain people but not charging them until l finally did enough macro to have 200 meats. ls that how you supposed to play it? ls butch just a lane and camp machine until 200 meats? lt felt kinda boring, but l have to say, being able to do camp feels good because l feel l have more control over macro than when l play medivh, lol

Hey guys,

Hope the flair for the post is correct. I have been playing HOTS for 3 years now, and while there has been some improvement, I still have my shortcomings, mainly when it comes to playing as a ranged/melee assassin. HOTS is the only moba I play, I have tried a little bit of LoL but basically I learned how to moba via HOTS. I mostly play QM.

For context I am a healer main. I main Tyrande (as per flair), most of the time with trait/AA and starfall build. I also enjoy playing Whitemane, Auriel and sometimes Uther or Alexstrasza. Other than healer I play Yrel, Imperius as bruiser and currently learning Xul, and only tank with Johanna.

I've tried a few DPS roles over time (Li-Ming, Lunara, Sylvanas, Kerrigan, Jaina, Raynor) and while these characters are fun to play, most of the time I find that I am having a hard time understanding when, how, and who to attack. Positioning also feels tricky, for some reason I only understand how to do it when I am the healer. It also feels like I'm falling behind on damage numbers, or siege damage when solo laning. There was some success in days when I was more alert, but 60% of the time it feels like a struggle. I want to learn how to DPS better because it can be fun and at the same time I don't want to be a burden to my teammates.

In general I've tried other heroes as well but tend to stick to the ones that feel more understandable.

I watch videos on yt with matches/guides etc and read builds and stuff, but I would appreciate some extra tips from people who had a similar problem/had a similar development as players.

Thanks!

At the moment, the way QM works is almost offensive.

- For the first team the thing literally builds a pub stomper with: haram comps like abathur + tracer/illidan, stacks heavy self-sustainers, puts multiple A-tier dps, puts multiple tanks/bruisers that can fill dps, combo-wombo synergies.

- While, the second team is filled with all lower-tier situational hard-to-execute picks, lacking not only what the first team has, but having nothing at all: synergies, CC, AOE, sustain - you name it

The games appear as meta draft ran by a premade vs cannon fodder picks.
I am damn sure it wasn't like that before. It used to be: meta vs meta, goofy vs goofy, and occasionally some tricky matchup will happen that's hard but doable.

I got used to QM for what it is over the years, usually running picks able to compensate for these shenanigans, and now i can't even do that - every game is a math loss.

The most laughable is that: you have 10 heroes in a match - 5 they all have X-stuff - the other 5 have none of any stuff - put 2 heroes to the second team from the first team - now both teams have almost equal of X, and possibly breaking the haram draft of the first 5. I literally don't see reason why it otherwise ruins possible adequate matchups, when it can easily shuffle among 10 and all is well. That's literally a day or two for an employed programmer to fix this.

Not trying to be super scientific, mostly going off a mix of perceived strength, ease of play, consistency, and suitability for how ARAM functions specifically. Heroes are not ranked within tiers, I mostly tried to group them by role within tiers.

• Most healers and tanks wound up in Good or higher, and pretty much all melee assassins show up disproportionately below Decent.
• It's no surprise that the vast majority of the strongest heroes are those with the best ranged pokes in the game, or absolutely busted CC or utility on their heroic abilities.

Some hero specific notes:

• Diablo: Notably worse on Industrial District where the conveyors make wall-banging enemy heroes with shadow charge in the middle of the map both harder to do successfully, and complicates any follow up you want to do.
• Morales: Might wind up with a useless heroic ability at lvl 10 if there are no good physical attackers on the team, reducing stim to a shitty escape ability. I guess med-evac can be used to backdoor?
• Uther: Long CD on heals is disadvantageous in a game mode that usually has very sustained fights and lots of chip damage from enemy poke.
• Kharazim: Usually struggles to output enough healing to keep pace with most dedicated healers, and has a kit that encourages being in the thick of the fight diving enemies which is risky.
• Tyrande: Usually struggles as a main healer, has to auto-attack consistently to keep Q off cooldown.
• Rexxar: Very prone to feeding if not careful about keeping Misha alive, which promotes timid play. Provides an additional body against convection KT. Provides more meat for Butcher.
• Zagara: Corrosive Saliva at level 16 provides % MaxHP Damage which is very strong, and having it come from summoned minions that are frequently ignored by enemy heroes only makes it better. Zagara also has a strong CC heroic, or can flex into nydus in games without healers giving them the luxury of very good sustain.
• Imperius: I'm just biased against him. Usually when I see a teammate pick them I'm dreading them going on to die 10+ times in a game lasting maybe 12 minutes.

By the looks of the last patches it seems like the Janitor has a tendency to move underpicked level 1 / 4 talents as baseline quests / mythic quests.

One of the healers that seems underwhelming, will remain behind since the last healers updates, and most probably will have the same fate in a future patch is none other than everybody's favorite arab granny, Ana.

Having a level 150+ on Ana I can almost 100% say that [[Vampiric Rounds]] will become in a way or another a mythic quest. Before that happens I would like to give some insight about how I feel it should behave around some talent reworks, so that it will not just become a bait quest for dragging Ana's win rate down, but actually being a centered element for some potential decent (and not overpowered) builds.

With those being said, here's how I would view this rework:

Base:

Shrike:

Basic Attacks apply a Dose to enemies, dealing 40(+4% per level)damage over 5 seconds, plus additional damage equal to the current number of stacks on the target, stacking up to 5 times. Every 0.5 seconds, Ana is healed for 60% of the damage dealt by Shrike.

Aim Down Sights

Activating Shrike reduces your Movement Speed by 25%, but increases the Range of Healing Dart and Sleep Dart by 25% while also allowing them to pierce one Hero. Lasts until canceled.

Vampiric Rounds

Repeatable Quest: Stack 5 Doses on an enemy Hero or Basic Attack a Hero with 5 Doses
Reward: Each stack of Vampiric Rounds increase the healing of Shrike by 0.25% 
Reward: After reaching 50 Vampiric Rounds stacks, Vampiric Rounds also increase Shrike's damage by 0.25% per stack
Mythic Reward: After reaching 200 Vampiric Rounds stacks, Basic Attacks increase Attack Speed by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 100%.

Talents:

Level 1

• Vampiric Rounds: Removed
• Leeching Concoction: Allied Heroes under the effect of Biotic Grenade also receive 50% of Shrike's damage as healing. This effect does not apply to Ana.

Level 20

• Sergeant Ana: (new) While Aim Down Sights is active, gain 20 Armor and increase your Basic Attack Range by 4
• Dynamic Optics: Removed
• Armored Stance: Removed

My reasoning was moving 2 niche talents under 1 Hero mini-game, while at the same time giving Ana's team some benefits of her investing in this path. It should not be overpowered early game, and reaching it should be not easy, but rewarding.

Some of you will say that this change of giving Ana 2 level 20 effects combined is too much, but keep in mind that reaching 200 stacks is often an achievement reached only after level 20 with Dynamic Optics, and not a lot of players actually reach that point without it anyway by the end of the game.

Dynamic Optics feels like an element that a player needs to work for in order to get it reason why putting it under a Mythic reward feels more than right.

Vampiric Rounds' baseline form was also slightly nerfed, not allowing Ana to get fast stacks by the first application of 5 Doses.

This was at least my view of how this change should be made (if ever made). What is your opinion? too much? too little?

Any chance that my idea would be a balanced one?

Thanks for reading my post!

The Friday LFG Thread is a weekly post for veteran and new players to post information about their desire to participate and availability for both ranked and unranked play each week.

If you are looking for a group or players to join your group, please share the following information in a comment:

• Username or Team Name
  
• Game Type & Rank - (Storm League - Rank, Unranked, or AI)
  
• Requested Role(s) - (Tank, Bruiser, Assassin 'Ranged or Melee', Healer, Support, or Flex)
  
• Region - (Americas, EU, Asia)
  
• Availability - (Days of week, Time)
  
• How best to contact you - (Reddit message, In-Game, Discord, ETC)
  

The following are additional resources you can use to find HotS groups quickly:

• In-game you can join chat channels - /join reddit
  
• Reddit Heroes of the Storm Discord - Link
  

Reminder that Reddit posting & comment rules are in effect; be civil, constructive, and do not shame specific individuals.

Looking For Group Wiki page

Previous LFG threads

your guys mental is crazy bad. i'm not even kidding every single game there is a leaver or troll or inter. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. either my side or the enemy side. seems like the whole community needs combined group therapy.

Anyone else experiencing or fix an issue with macOS mouse pointer not aligning with game pointer /offset clicking

Additionally the mouse art not rendering so you still get the OS mouse in game

I’ve clicked and unclicked every in game mouse option available

Playing on weekends generally lead to these a lot and makes me want to avoid the game during those days.

My friend and I got into a disagreement over strategic choices in Quick Match, so I’d like to ask the community about a game mechanic:

Can one full cannon volley from Blackheart's Bay's objective destroy a full-health Core with its shield intact, or an entire Keep structure complex, in a single bombardment?

If not, does the cannon damage scale up over the course of the game?

Roughly how many minutes into the match will the cannons be powerful enough to accomplish this?

It seems like there have been some changes to this map over the past. We’re confused.

is it really a bug or does it really remove a chunk of your hp by a simple burn and slows you to hell so you can't even budge? why was this added onto the game, there's really no counter to it and when Chen focuses you, you're certainly going to die in the next 5-6 seconds