Hello again!
So lately my friends and I have been playing Heroes of the Storm (HotS), a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) from Blizzard, the company who created Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft.
Synopsis
It basically takes characters from each of their universes and puts them together so you fight can on teams of 5 to try and destroy the other team's base. That is pretty much the standard MOBA style, 2 teams fighting to destroy the other team, but after that is where HotS sort of expands and becomes unique.
Maps
Typically most MOBAs I have played have 1, maybe 2, different maps. And the main differences between the maps are typically aesthetic differences. I will agree that League of Legends has a second map that actually changes gameplay, the capture and defend tower one.....I can't remember the name of it at this time. Smite also has the Arena which adds in a portal rather than destroying a base. But anyway, HotS has a number of different maps and each map has different...let's call them "map objectives". While the overall idea is still to destroy the other team's base, each map has a different way of doing it.
Example: there is one map where you travel underground to collect skeleton skulls, and once all of the skulls have been collected, each team summons a golem whose power is based on how many skulls your team collected. The golems then head to the opposing teams base to destroy it. If you can get all of the skulls, then your golem is much harder to kill and leads to lots of base destruction.
Currently, I believe there are 7 different maps, each with its own unique objectives. Typically your team has to work together to achieve these map objectives because if you don't, the other team will work together and just completely destroy you.
With 7 maps it has been rare to play the same one back to back. There are of course some maps I enjoy more than others, but for the most part it has been a fun experience.
Differences to "Regular" MOBAs
A couple other differences with HotS compared to the other MOBAs I have played:
There is no shop or buying items in the match...this is a pretty big change. Most MOBAs are about killing creeps, gaining money, then spending money on items to enhance your character. In HotS, there is only experience and talents gained at certain levels. The big thing about experience, is that your team gains experience together. Meaning if one player gets behind, the whole team gets behind, but it also means that if someone is doing well, everyone is doing a little better. This is another reason why it is a big deal to work as a team.
Talents are different abilities or enhancements that you get to choose at certain levels and are different depending on the character/hero you are playing as. Examples would be like increasing the damage of a certain spell, or being able to cast a shield now in addition to your normal 4 spells. I basically pick talents that enhance my play style. So if I like using a certain spell, I will pick talents that empower that specific spell over another.
There really isn't any last hitting. Last hitting meaning you are the one to deal the killing blow to a minion/creep. Basically in HotS you get experience just for being around things that die, so it is important to have people by dying creeps a lot of the time, otherwise you will fall behind in experience.
There are also some talents that say kill a certain number of things to get increased damage, but I'm not sure if you have to actually kill said things, or if you just had to damage them in a certain amount of time.
Another interesting difference is that when you play a hero, you gain experience outside of the match itself. This goes towards that specific hero's level. Raising a hero's level unlocks variation skin colors, mount colors, and sometimes gives you gold, which is the currency you buy new heroes with (if you don't want to spend real money).
Mo' Money, Mo' Heroes
The only real problem I have with HotS is how expensive it is to buy heroes with real money. In League of Legends and Smite, I had no problem spending a couple of dollars here and there for cool skins or new champions, but in HotS, Blizzard is really trying to make their money back....Champions and skins cost between like $10-$15. Sometimes there are sales for $5 but they seem to be on the cheaper heroes anyway. That is expensive as hell, and unless something changes I don't plan on spending any real money on this game.
Also, most decent champions are between 7,000 and 10,000 gold, the in-game currency that you gain from playing matches. You get 30 gold per win, and 20 per loss.....that is about 230 games, if you win them all, to get one 7000 gold (mid range) hero.
There are other ways to gain a little gold, and you really have to do them if you want to get anywhere. There are "daily quests" that will say "play 3 games as a Warcraft Hero and get 300 gold". It has seemed like it is typically play "A" amount of games and get "Ax100" gold. Most quests have netted me between 200-300 extra gold, which is great...but still not enough.
And because of this, then you want to buy the heroes with real money because it takes so long to grind the gold for them....but then you are back to the expensive as hell part, and it is a vicious circle.
Conclusion
So in the end, I think Heroes of the Storm is a nice change of pace from the typical MOBAs I have played, and since it is Free To Play, I encourage everyone who enjoys League of Legend type MOBAs to at least try it. But I don't know if I would invest much real money into it because it is so expensive.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
- Zach
