My Obsession with Heroes of the Storm....

My first step into the MOBA genre was such a negative one that it set me up with this extreme prejudice towards the genre as a whole and all the games involved.

I was forced to play DotA about 2 years ago by my previous colleague who was obsessed with the game, I felt the need to do a couple of games just to shut him up because he was overly insisting. I downloaded the game and set up my account. I was pretty excited because I would eventually get to play with a friend in the end but apparently I had to do some games first in order to raise my level just so I would be able to play with him. 

I checked the lobby and the titles of the games. I was literally a beginner, I've never seen a DotA match before nor had any information about how the game is played, what special abilities heroes have, what items to get, etc. But I played Warcraft 3 extensively so I sort of had hopes that it wouldn't take me long before I familiarised myself with the gameplay. One title of the match attracted my attention:"Noobs". I honestly felt lucky as I thought it would be a game among beginners who are trying to get a feel of the game and learn together.

You won't believe how wrong I was. The very second the gates opened and the game started, I was subjected to some incredibly heavy cussing because I was standing in our base. Do you know what I was doing? Reading what my abilities and the items did so it took me a bit more than usual to actually start running around because I didn't want to randomly click on buttons to do spells or randomly pick items before even knowing what they did. I tried to be useful and take camps by myself but died. Curses kept coming and coming endlessly for at least 5 minutes before I had enough and exited the game in the middle of the match. Those curses were not light curses. I will not write their content here obviously but the nature of them were so disgusting that anyone would feel extremely horrified and shocked to the core. It is beyond belief that someone would be so terrible towards another human being in a game that exists solely to entertain its players.

Now, I really don't understand why you give your game the title "Noobs". Maybe add some sarcastic smiley in the end so noobs like me won't get attracted to his stupid game because obviously he was a low-life who had tournament skill. I wonder why he wasn't in a tournament though, like why are you wasting your time with us if you are that pro? You should be earning reward money from tournaments and competitions... So I guess you are doing something wrong too. I'm sure even your existence is a mistake.

Which is exactly why I was extremely prejudiced when I first started playing the Blizzard's take on MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. I am a fan of all Blizzard games and as the game was free-to-play and most importantly let you play with your favourite Blizzard heroes *coughs* Illidan *coughs*, I was definitely caught in the trap. And what a trap it was that I still can't get out of it.

The very first few games I played in Heroes of the Storm were not enjoyable at all. I honestly didn't enjoy the time I was spending on the game. I didn't like the gameplay as MOBA is not my cup of tea in general. But luckily I found a good friend online who also frequently played it and helped me learn the ropes. Currently, I enjoy myself playing the game so much that I even started watching streams and tournaments to get as good as I can at the heroes I choose to play with. I even stopped doing my puzzles or reading my books because I am spending all my free time from work on Heroes of the Storm.

As I am only sticking to cooperative games against AI, I haven't seen any real toxicism yet. Although during one game someone cursed at another player in such a blunt and horrible way that it forced me to disable Allied Chat. I am not doing any Quick Matches or Hero League in order to avoid these toxic people. I've gotten pretty decent at the game with multiple heroes and I know I would do ok in a PvP environment provided we had a friendly team but the chances of that happening are slim. So I'll keep playing against AI because you know what? I actually have fun and that is what matters in the end! Sometimes I even toggle AI Allies option to have longer and more interesting games, hell even some end with losses :D

I enjoy the game so much that I even bought a couple of skins. I always found things like skins a bit silly as the gameplay doesn't change, only the look of your character does and it might be a waste to spend real money on a free-to-play game. But once I started playing myself, especially with the heroes I really enjoy playing, I sort of made it my mission to get the skins I found attractive. Majority of the skins are bought with real money, but each hero has a master skin that can be acquired with 10.000 in-game gold if you reach level 10 with that specific hero. So I guess I need to earn more money and do tons of games...

You can read specific map objectives during loading screen, so it gives you an idea of what to do in that map even if you have never played it before.

Among the things I love about Heroes of the Storm is how friendly it is for beginners. Tutorials in the beginning help you to a certain degree but I especially loved the training mode where you can try out different maps yourself with AI heroes, or play with AI against AI or play with other players against AI until you feel you are ready for Quick Matches or Hero League (Hero League requires player level 30 and at least 10 heroes to be owned). I also love how the loading screen of each map tells you the objectives of that particular map to give you an idea of how to win. For example you can see during loading screen that you need to collect doubloons and pay these doubloons to bombard enemy keeps in Blackheart's Bay.

But of course the REAL attractive factor drawing me into Heroes of the Storm is being able to play with your most favourite heroes and roleplaying. I started playing HoTS with only one goal in mind, purchase Illidan as he is my number 1 hero in Warcraft universe and wreak havoc with him especially against Tyrande and Mafurion. But as I got to try out other heroes I realised I don't have to limit myself to Illidan. There are some amazing heroes in the game offering incredibly enjoyable play styles. 

Heroes of the Storm is the only game that will let you play as Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, and make him look as cute as that....

The dialouges and interactions between these heroes are also something to highlight. Most heroes have pretty funny and interesting dialogues either with the heroes on their team, or even with the heroes on the enemy team. Some of these dialogues are also very motivational that has a slight potential to decrease toxicity. For example when you heal a teammate, their hero will tell you what a good job you are doing and thank you for the heal no matter what the person behind that hero is writing on chat. Or a hero will make a comment on what a great kill it was when you takedown an enemy hero. This is such a small thing to take notice of but it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of Heroes of the Storm. I have a lot of favourites regarding this feature but I guess my most favourite one would be Abathur saying "Acceptable outcome" when an Allied hero he has symbiote on dies (Symbiote is one of Abathur's abilities). When I was playing Abathur and he said this when my teammate who is also among my best friends died, I couldn't focus in the remaining of the game for laughing so much. I actually have this on replay, hell I might even make a video of it!

I would like to end this article with some of my most favourite heroes so far. My number 1 is easily Abathur. The rest of the heroes don't have a particular order and I'd also like to note that I haven't tried out every single hero yet. There are at least 10 if not more than 10 heroes I am waiting to be in free hero rotation so I can take them out for a spin. But from the heroes I did try out, my most favourites after Abathur are as follows (not in order): Tassadar, Zagara, Tychus, Kael'thas, Zeratul, Illidan, Valla, Azmodan, Sylvanas, Tyrande.

I would like to recommend HoTS to any casual player who never wanted to get into the real competitiveness or complexity of other MOBAs like DotA, League of Legends or Smite. This doesn't mean that HoTS is a simple game, it is not. It is just a lot more beginner friendly. It doesn't have those 1-hour long games or all those countless of items you need to worry about purchasing during the game. If you are indeed competitive, Hero League or Team League should also satisfy your needs. But if you want casual fun, HoTS is a valuable gem!