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[Greiger]

Posting to watch the thread, been playing awhile already lv 40 player, lv 11 Brightwing, lv 11 falstad.

(It turned out that my initial pessimism was too... pessimistic . I gave it a chance anyway and it turned out to be pretty good. Better than any other MOBA I've played.)

That was my feelings on it too.  "Ugh MOBA" but a friend gave me a key anyway and I decided to start playing and...ended up liking it.... a lot.  Especially once I started playing brightwing.  It was like, a healer character?  Where I can pretty much just fuck off somewhere and only teleport to a teamfight when needed AND my healing is largely passive?  Where the hell do I sign?

[Folly]

I love MOBA's...but hated Hearthstone, and didn't trust Blizzard to do another weak attempt to branch into a trendy genre, so I was planning to pass on HotS.

After reading some reviews though and watching some livestreams I've decided it's worth giving a chance. Planning to download tonight.

[Astral]

It's decent.

If you're looking for strategic depth, look elsewhere. Tier lists are common, some abilities are absolutely worthless, and while there is more flavor and lore/background across the different heroes due to their established universes, they boil down to Assassin (good at killing other heroes), Warrior (the tanky and disruptive melee), Support (usually in terms of healing or crowd control, and a little direct damage), or Specialist (doesn't neatly fit in any of the other categories, but tend toward being lane pushers).

When you have four primary categories of hero, there will be some heroes that are just above and beyond what everyone else can do in a given role. With no itemization or gold, and things that can completely change a map based on how well your team works with each other (such as capturing a tower that will wreck the first line of defenses at least), it's a bit faster paced and *different* than similar games in the genre.

It's worth a try, but the slowness of unlocking new heroes (even when compared to League), the somewhat limited selection (it's in Beta, I know), and the fact that most of the icons appear to be recycled from Warcraft 3 (one of those weird things that just make me angry they never even appeared to think of a Warcraft 4 after WoW's commercial success, considering that the framework is in place in this very game) make it not something I'm likely to play more than just once in a while, and even less likely I would spend money on it.

[Shadowgandor]

You actually unlock new heroes relatively fast if you don't play as often. If you only play to complete your dailies, you'll unlock even the priciest heroes in a shorter time then LoL. It's just that when you're playing a lot on the same day, you won't be rewarded for it.

[Greiger]

You also need to be willing to play some variety in your heroes to get gold quickly.  Once you unlock daily quests (which you'll do after yer first few matches) you get gold bonuses for doing certain things, mostly playing diffrent kinds of heroes.  The daily quests I saw are usually play 3 matches as a diablo, warcraft or starcraft hero, play 3 matches as a particular type of hero (warrior specialist support assassin), or win 3 matches.

Rewards for the play 3 matches are usually 300g.  win 3 matches is 600g.  winning a match without a quest gives 30g, losing is 20g.  You also get gold rewards for hitting certain levels as both a player and with heroes.  Hitting player level 2 and 4 gives 1000g, then an extra 2000g every 5(roughly) levels or so til lv cap of 40.   You also get gold for leveling heroes, iirc 500g for reaching lv 5 with a hero lv 10, and lv 15.

Most heroes cost between 10000g and 2000g. With it looking like newly released heroes being around 15000g (Kael'thas is the only example I was around to see)

So you get a lot of gold fairly quickly as a new player enough to have a reasonable selection of heroes to buy with gold without having to spend real money.  Once you become lv 20 player or so though it starts to slow down unless you start playing heroes specifically for quests or leveling them to 5 for the gold bonus.

[Folly]

Well after several days of playing, I think I can safely say HotS is my new go-to moba(coming over from Strife).

First hero I bought was Sgt. Hammer. I love stealthing behind enemy lines and knocking down a few towers, then jetting out as soon as enemies show up to stop me. Team fights are more difficult to be effective in, but I'm learning to manage her blast and mines. She feels useful, but well balanced.

Second hero I bought was Tyrande. She seemed good in test mode, but I'm having trouble making her work effectively in actual games. Her damage output is terrible, both against creeps and players. Single-target heals are decent, though they come with mana issues. CC has great range, but doesn't last long enough to be effective. And her debuff is just lackluster.

[etgfrog]

So I've been playing this a bit, decided to save for and pick up abathur, its pretty fun in my opinion. When I bought it I was told that it I would be the target of almost all the rage of the team, but only 1 out of the 20 games I've played has someone said I was bad, but that was them trying to say I was afk and I should be reported. But for those that don't know what abathur does, his ability is to put a buff on an ally then be able to shoot spikes and/or shield the target, this can be cast globally, so you could effectively sit in the back of the base and still be about 80% effective. You also automatically create locusts that will go down the lane your in so its a good idea to go forward a bit, but almost always if an enemy gets to you then your dead. The biggest problem in my opinion is that if you disconnect then it is even worse then any other character getting disconnected as the AI will send abathur down the lane to melee creeps.

[IWishIWereSarah]

I played a bit (just reached player lvl6).

I find the lack of items disturbing.
I find the heroes' customization disturbing too, as I won't be able to know what the enemy is capable of, if I don't go to the TAB menu and check their talents.

In term of game logic, I prefer a LoL/DotA.
I'm going to continue playing a bit, to check whether I like it, but ... meh :/

[Folly]

I find the lack of items disturbing.
I find the heroes' customization disturbing too, as I won't be able to know what the enemy is capable of, if I don't go to the TAB menu and check their talents.

From what I've seen so far, the hero customization is essentially fulfilling the same role as items from previous MOBA's. Think about it, in those other games, a person's item choices could change them into a glass cannon or a tank or a life-leecher or a crowd-controller, significantly altering what they are capable of. Hero customization does the same, except nobody is getting super-rich off a few early kills and carrying the team to victory, since now the whole team levels at an equal rate.

Personally, I like the change.

[Shadowlord]

But if you had items, you'd have to check what items your enemies were using...

Of course, in LoL, it shows you your killers' builds when you're killed, IIRC, which is something HotS doesn't automatically do - but there's nothing stopping you from pressing tab while you're dead.

[Cthulhu]

I find the lack of items disturbing.
I find the heroes' customization disturbing too, as I won't be able to know what the enemy is capable of, if I don't go to the TAB menu and check their talents.

From what I've seen so far, the hero customization is essentially fulfilling the same role as items from previous MOBA's. Think about it, in those other games, a person's item choices could change them into a glass cannon or a tank or a life-leecher or a crowd-controller, significantly altering what they are capable of. Hero customization does the same, except nobody is getting super-rich off a few early kills and carrying the team to victory, since now the whole team levels at an equal rate.

Personally, I like the change.

I guess I'd have to give it a few games to really see the difference but I liked that aspect of League.  It rewards good play and risk-taking in the early game and adds additional elements of challenge and decision making later in the game.  Probably the single worst high-level skill (as opposed to low-level mechanics like positioning and CS) for most players is how to seize and manage an advantage.

That's why I almost never voted to surrender in league.  Even if they take the initiative early on most players won't actually be able to translate that advantage into a win, affording you a ton of comeback opportunities.  I can't count the number of games I've won out of sure defeat with a baron fight or a harrowing six-item grind. 

[gimli]

That's why I almost never voted to surrender in league.  Even if they take the initiative early on most players won't actually be able to translate that advantage into a win, affording you a ton of comeback opportunities.  I can't count the number of games I've won out of sure defeat with a baron fight or a harrowing six-item grind.

Heh...everything is possible up to 2k-2.2k rating [solo Q], even tho if the enemy carries are fed early on [You know, when your adc is 0-12 and the enemy adc is 13-1 for example ], it's a game over in most of the cases...ofc not always! I had a solo Q ranked a couple of weeks ago, our Kassa went 0-15 on mid, and we've won the game. The enemy managed to screw up all the teamfights. This on ~2.2k elo. Amazing...*
Anyway you should never surrender in normal games, you can win 4v5 [or worse] matches with a good chance, because the LoL players are _dat_ bad.

*Side note: Something is very weird in the last couple of months in ranked. I see lot of former S3/4 Diamond 1-4 players @ playing silver elo skill. I think that lot of accounts are being traded nowadays.

[Shadowlord]

Maybe they decided to quit and cash out while they were at it.

[PrimusRibbus]

Maybe they decided to quit and cash out while they were at it.

I wouldn't be surprised. Most MOBAs have a lifespan of months and Blizzard doesn't have the devoted fanbase that it once did. If you're the type of person that likes to cash out of games, now would be a good time to cash out of HotS.

[Neonivek]

Maybe they decided to quit and cash out while they were at it.

I wouldn't be surprised. Most MOBAs have a lifespan of months and Blizzard doesn't have the devoted fanbase that it once did. If you're the type of person that likes to cash out of games, now would be a good time to cash out of HotS.

It is almost like becoming money grubbers didn't aid them