Tyrand

thanks, that would have taken me a very long time to figure out since im used to looking at other heros and minimap in general. i only glance at minions to focus weak ones or hit aoe things.

Hi I'm streaming Valla/Rehgar right now. Rank1

http://www.twitch.tv/aesa88

So my two daily quests are "Play 3 games as a Specialist," and "Play 2 games as a Starcraft hero." ....none of the free-to-play heroes are either of them this week.

Anyway, my real question is, how is the strength of your hero determined against the other team. Since there are no items and XP levels are generally the same, what makes you better/stronger than someone else?

use gold?

Zagara fits both and is free this week, but you need to hit account lvl 12. As long as you're level 15, there will always be a free hero that fits all of the daily quests.

I'm only Level 7 at the moment. I'm trying to get to Level 12 to get the card back for Hearthstone, but it's proving to be a long process. I only have around 2200g at the moment.

Not really sure if I understand what you're asking, but one example is different heroes have power spikes on different levels. For example a level 5 valla will output more damage in a teamfight than a level 5 kael'thas, but a level 16 kael'thas will output more damage than a level 16 valla.

Skills!

1v1 there is some skill to it, but also some heroes sort of counters other heroes.

Been pretty much playing this full time now. Even though I was level 40 in alpha, I haven't played since alpha. Been doing ai's to level guys up to 5. Almost 22 now, did some quick matches, I have so many bad habits from playing computers.

There's a mechanospider mount you can get by going to this website. It requires a Facebook account.

https://teambuilder.heroesofthestorm.com/

Tried to get the mount several times now but it keeps hanging after i picked my team

I played a lot in either alpha or early beta and just started playing again, really enjoying this game. Look forward to playing with a regular team at some point.

The website was completely borked for hours. You just have to try at a time when there happens to be not many people on. Not that there's really any way to tell, though.

Got my mechanospider mount, but didn't get my HS card back yet

30 day stimpack on sale for $4.99, which is the same price for the 7 day one.

started to get into this, subscribed

Someone should change the title now that it is released

In!

Never really looked into this game, but saw it was "released" this morning and installed it. Will be playing tonight for sure. I know absolutely nothing about this game or the genre though, so any tips are appreciated!

I've been playing maybe 2 months and can tell you this much:

learn the maps (there are 7) and what their objectives are. It usually involves collecting something or securing locations. The other team will be trying to do the same thing so teamwork is crucial here.

learn to ping (G+click place on map or alt-click) to let your team know what you're up to or if you need help, etc.

I'm still learning a lot myself but I'm finding it a lot of fun, especially if you've got an organized and coordinated team.

Watch zuna videos on YouTube they are really good to understand dynamics of maps

haha wow, I didn't realize Zuna was on the C9 HotS team

And he is surprisingly super insightful

Grunching thread.

I don't know if it's just the many thousands of hours of Dota/Dota2 talking, but I just can't see the longevity here.

The game keeps you doing something for most of the match, which is fine. Casual gamers will probably like that a lot. But this seems less like a rewarding game of skill and more like electronic Rock'em Sock'em Robots. No real depth. Beat on each other and execute the map elements and eventually someone wins.

I've only played a few dozen matches so far, but at no point did I feel like I could actually make a real positive game-changing difference for my team. On the other hand, having someone who is clearly clueless (Li Li with 6k healing at the end of a game) is the kiss of death. In Dota, I can hoist my team on my back and will them to victory if need be.

I've only experienced maybe 70% of the heroes, but I have yet to see one that's capable of doing anything truly fantastic. No clutch Shallow Grave plays or 1v5 teamwipes as you juke in and out of trees. Blink-deny of the Aegis or mid-fight dropping of the cheese so your ally can come back from the brink of death. No BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE!

I always saw League of Legends as Fisher Price Dota. HOTS seems to take that to a whole other level. It feels like a game designed specifically for the people who put their Pinewood Derby participation trophy on the mantle.

Obviously the game will change a bit in ranked play, but I feel like I've experienced literally all this game has to offer after only a few dozen games.

Just one man's opinion. But who knows, maybe the entire game changes when you get out of unranked. I just don't see how. No new mechanics will be involved, just better overall teamwork and decisionmaking. Or maybe I'm just trying to put this game in a category where it doesn't belong. Maybe this is just supposed to be a mindless arcade game.

It is a team game so if you want to do anything meaningful then you need to play team league. The game is designed so that single carry doesn't work. Also matchmaking sucks at the moment so quickmatch is just random who gets the worse team combo or team mates.