EsperBot
[HotS] I've been giving Heroes of the Storm a try. And to be honest...not super digging it.
EsperBot
It's not like, a bad game or anything, I've had some fun with it, but I don't think it's for me.
EsperBot
Background before I get into this: I'm a pretty hardcore DOTA player
EsperBot
- not hardcore as in very skilled, but hardcore as in I know the game frontwards and backwards and I play it a lot and I revel in its batshit complexity.
EsperBot
I have been playing DOTA in one form or another off and on since I was fifteen years old.
EsperBot
So HotS being the MOBA-killed for me was a pretty hard sell from minute one.
EsperBot
So. That being said. Here's what I don't like about it.
EsperBot
1. Talents. I fucking hate Talents.
EsperBot
Or rather, I hate talents in the place of buying items.
EsperBot
I've seen people say that talents are an acceptable replacement for buying items, and HAHA NO
EsperBot
It's not even a replacement for items
EsperBot
it's a replacement for leveling
EsperBot
because while do level up in this game, since you already have all three basic abilities from moment one, it's really not equivalent to leveling in DOTA and LOL.
EsperBot
especially early game.
EsperBot
Picking which abilities to level in DOTA and LOL is huge. It has an enormous effect on how your whole game turns out.
EsperBot
The only equivalent to that in HOTS is talents.
EsperBot
Talents do cause permanent build branching, which is in items' domain, so there is some crossover but either way, talents are basically standing in for both systems
EsperBot
and they are really not up to the task.
EsperBot
Especially since the improvements so many talents make to your abilities feel really marginal.
EsperBot
But even if they were huge and earth-shattering, it's still locking you into development paths specified by the devs.
EsperBot
in Dota, you can do fucking crazy item builds.
EsperBot
You can build squishy hard supports as full-fledged carries and make it work.
EsperBot
I've done it more than once.
EsperBot
The level of complexity on HOTS is just not at the level I need it to be to be satisfying.
EsperBot
2. What the fuck just killed me?
EsperBot
And I don't mean 'this is a new game, I don't know the heroes, so sometimes I die and I don't know why'.'
EsperBot
I mean 'THis is a new game, I don't know the heroes, and the game does NOTHING to help me figure them out'.
EsperBot
It doesn't even tell you WHO killed you.
EsperBot
In Dota, when you die, you can pop out a screen where it lists every source of damage involved in your death, and you can read the tooltips to see what the abilities were doing to you.
EsperBot
So if you're hit with something unfamiliar, you can spend the time while you wait to respawn learning the enemy's tricks and figuring out how to deal with them.
EsperBot
In HotS, not only do I not have that, I can't even see what the enemy's abilities and talents are.
EsperBot
THere is no in-game way for me to figure out what my enemies are doing.
EsperBot
3. Leveling is fucking nothing.
EsperBot
Unless it's a talent point level, I barely even notice when I go up a level.
EsperBot
I didn't do anything to earn it (more on that later) and the gains are barely noticable.
EsperBot
4. I am constantly being rewarded for shit I didn't do.
EsperBot
I've been playing a lot of Rehgar.
EsperBot
Rehgar is not exactly a DPS powerhouse.
EsperBot
He has some DOT with lightning shield and he can do a little burst with wolf form
EsperBot
but really, you're not getting kills.
EsperBot
You're there to keep your team healed up and shielded.
EsperBot
So when I'm running around doing my job, and I start getting told that I'm on a killing spree, I get confused.
EsperBot
I'm getting killing sprees and double/triple/ultra/monster kills just for being present.
EsperBot
It's fake positive reinforcement and it FEELS fake because I KNOW I'm not getting those kills.
EsperBot
Likewise, going up in levels feels like fucking nothing because while I AM contributing EXP, I know that the bulk of it is coming from my team.
EsperBot
Cheaply doling out these small rewards hurts their effectiveness as rewards enormously.
EsperBot
5. The skill floor for most of these heroes is in the basement.
EsperBot
When Blizzard tells you a hero is 'easy' they aren't kidding.
EsperBot
Lili is a hero who basically plays herself.
EsperBot
All her spells function autonomously, all you need to do is keep spamming the buttons.
EsperBot
Even heroes marked as 'Hard', like Sgt. Hammer, still feel like mid-level DOTA heroes at best.
EsperBot
I'm sure there's more involved heroes out there, there doesn't look like there's anything comparable to Chen or Enchantress or even storm spirit.
EsperBot
It's not that I mind simple heroes, but not having the option just flattens the complexity level even further.
EsperBot
6. The quick match system
EsperBot
This is kind of a personal issue but
EsperBot
I'm the sort of guy who in team games learns to play a whole bunch of different classes/heroes
EsperBot
and then picks one that the team needs.
EsperBot
(In practice this means I play a lot of support).
EsperBot
With the quick match system, I have to lock in my hero before I ever seen my team.
EsperBot
Sometimes this can fuck you - I played a bunch of Rehgar, like I said, but the thing is Rehgar is a lot weaker if your team does not contain a tanky melee hero.
EsperBot
Someone who can dive in and taker a lot of punishment while Rehgar keeps him shielded and alive.
EsperBot
And most importantly, staying in melee range so your lightning shield gets it sdamage ticks off.
EsperBot
If you get into a game as Rehgar and the whole team apart from you is ranged, you're a sad puppy.
EsperBot
In Dota I would just play another hero in that case, but in HotS, I don't have that option.
EsperBot
7. Heroes feel SO. SLOW.
EsperBot
And yes, I know that's what the mounts are for.
EsperBot
The mounts only help a little.
EsperBot
Your movement around the map is so slow.
EsperBot
In Dota, you start off the game slow, but within the first five minutes (unless you're a support having a bad day) you've purchased boots which make you 17% faster]
EsperBot
and you can upgrade them into boots which make you even faster, or buy other items that boost your speed, or buy mobility items like blink daggers and force staffs to allow you to speed your way around
EsperBot
and you can spend money on a teleportation scroll that takes you to a friendly building after a few seconds of channeling, so you can rush in to bail out that dying tower or save your ally.
EsperBot
HotS doesn't have this issue. The map mobility you have at the beginning of the game is the map mobility you have at the end. And it feels SO SLOW.
EsperBot
8. The snowballing is real.
EsperBot
If your team beats the other team to level ten by a significant margin, the game is fucking over.
EsperBot
Their ult abilities will secure them the next big objective AND help them do huge damage afterwards.
EsperBot
It's almost impossible to come back from that.
EsperBot
Snowballing happens in DOTA, of course, but because the snowball isn't evenly distributed, you can still get SOMETHING done -
EsperBot
the enemy team doesn't all hit level six at the same time and are suddenly ready to push with all their ults up and running.
EsperBot
9. It uses the League of LEgends monetization model and IT BURNS US PRECIOUS
EsperBot
Over in DOTA land, you have access to all heroes from minute one.
EsperBot
You only pay for cosmetic items.
EsperBot
It's so much better.
EsperBot
10. The game runs like shit.
EsperBot
I can get it to 60 FPS at the beginning of a match, when it's jsut heroes running around with no minions, but only if I turn the graphics down to playing-this-on-a-toaster settings.
EsperBot
For actual meaniongful gameplay, I'm lucky to get 40-50.
EsperBot
When shit gets real it often dips to 30 or even lower.
EsperBot
And the thing is, I'm NOT playing this on a toaster. My computer's a laptop so it's not a super machine or anything, but it's got an i5 and a proper GPU.
EsperBot
Either there's something specific to my rig that it's not playing nice with, or it's just optimized very poorly.