u/charles_vane6

Tried Heroes of the Storm yesterday.

Long term Dota 2 player, played Dota since 2010 and the days of WC3 Dota Allstars, I get tired of Dota 2 from time to time and explore new games. I tried HoTS in 2019, played 2 games of Stitches, since Pudge is my favourite Dota 2 hero and I disliked the game after 2 AI games, but yesterday I picked it up again - played 6 games with real people. I played Jaina and Kael.

There is striking similarity between hero models with Dota 2 which is understandable since both originated from WC3. But apart from this, these heroes also share similar spells and play-styles. The heroes that I found and their counterparts are in the photos.

Some things I noticed about HoTS so far:

• No gold / last hitting / items / wards / mana - health potions / TP scrolls / denying / buyback - basically you hit creeps with spells to get XP and this XP seems to be shared between the whole team. The only way to regen mana and HP is some spells, healing wells beside your T1 tower, Hearthing [B] and passive regen. Obviously I don't like the lack of Last hitting since it is such a paramount part of Dota.
• Mount - I love this mechanic, basically press one button [Z] and you have a personal stallion to take you anywhere on the map. Dota feels slow after riding my pony.
• The heroes that I played - Kael, his first spell is very similar to Sunstrike, however range is very small, almost melee range; deals decent damage, but compared to Invokers global sunstrike doesn't give the same satisfaction
• Low CD - Spells have a ridiculously small CD and you can just spam them over and over until you run out of mana
• Autoattack seems useless - Attack damage is very small and hitting someone seems like a waste of time
• HoTS is way more team dependent. Everything is about objectives rather than 'outplaying' the opponent and individual skill; basically team fights that are super chaotic since everyone will use every spell they have without thinking about CD since CD is very small - this might be different at high ranks, however Dota 2 does punish you if you miss a big spell.
• Skillshots - There is a lot of skillshots, I would say more than in Dota 2; however even if you hit these their impact seems much smaller than in Dota; eg. Stitches hook compared to Pudge hook - if you hook a hero with Pudge, the hero is almost certainly dead, I wouldn't say the same about Stitches.
• Games seem shorter and less mentally demanding. Seems more chill.
• Game tutorial is pretty bad.
• I love the WC3 models, wakes up 2000s nostalgia in me.
• Boss kills / steals - Seems like killing a big neutral creep Boss actually recruits him for your team, he goes and starts attacking enemies. We almost killed a big troll of some sort yesterday and then enemy team came and just last hitted him so he started attacking us - pretty fun mechanic.
• Jaina has 2 ultys you can choose from - I love this; I'm not sure same goes for other heroes.
• The players I played with seemed to be not beginners; so the engine for unranked matchmaking doesn't seem the best.
• Many maps - there is multiple maps, very fun seeing how dota 2 has 1 map.
• Bushes - for some reason give invis, I really dislike this. Just seems counterintuitive at least for me.

Others that I couldn't add to images, as 20 is the limit: Auriel vs Skywrath Mage; Butcher vs Spirit Breaker; Cho'gall vs Ogre Magi; Azmodan vs Underlord; E.T.C vs Elder Titan; Muradin Bronzebeard vs Lycantrope; Samuro vs Juggernaut; Gul'dan vs Warlock; Johanna vs Legion Commander; Mephisto vs Razor; Hogger vs Bristleback; Zuljin vs Witch Doctor; Thassadar vs Oracle; Lost Vikings vs Meepo; Thrall vs Disruptor; Tyrande vs Mirana; Xul vs Necrophos; Zagara vs Broodmother; Zeratul vs Faceless Void; Dahaka vs Venomancer; Mal'Ganis vs Night Stalker;

DID I MISS ANY?

Anyway this is just my first impression; I'm having fun with this game. Curious to see if I got any of these right.

I mean 30 euros for a mug and mousepad?

Good luck aliexpress