HotS is indeed a Moba for people who dislike Mobas. No need to research the item store, no need to research the ward placement, no need to practice lasthitting - just pure unadulterated teamfighting and sieging.
This right here. LoL has some cool looking skins, but you only do one map, and if you’re new to the game in the last two years, you don’t know how to counter the nearly 200 characters there are, their various item builds, what jungling is, and how to help your homies, and guides don’t really explain it too well either. Dota 2 has insanely cool looking characters, but some of the same issues. HoTS, despite being made by Women-Aren’t-People Corporation, is dumbed down, plenty of skins, and plenty of maps, and no item builds, just character niches. I love healing homies and yoinking them out of danger as Anduin. I love turning my brain off and spamming Windfury as Thrall. My erectile dysfunction dematerializes when I get a sick Zeratul teleport swipe. I cry and hope Blizzard is hit with a nuclear bomb the moment I see an enemy Nova.
@@Illandarr That’s what my Garrosh would do. I would pocket him, and if we were winning, he’d ask me random questions in Discord. We’d be having genuine conversations, like the rise of fascism, the joyful and cringy nature of roleplaying, and then he’d ask the stupidest shit. “Did you know that scientists actually figured out that purple colors can be smelled by humans?” “No, what does it smell like?” “This.” He’d chuck my ass into the middle of the enemy team.
I played it for a day (sucked of course) and got flamed in one of my games. I told the guy to chill out since it wasn't ranked. You know what he said? "Oh really? I didn't realize. My bad". AND THE GUY PROCEEDED TO BE AN ACTUAL CHILL DUDE! I never knew this was possible in a videogame, let alone a MOBA. I'm still amazed.
Yeah welp I tried it out again; during the day games are really fun and wholesome, but at night the toxic wolves come out. Too good to be true... Still leagues (see what I did there) better on a toxicity scale than other MOBA's though.
I've played hundreds of hours of Smite and LoL, and there ins't a single thing that makes me love them more than HotS. Just the talent system alone is enough for; how every hero can be 3 or 4 different heroes. God, I miss the golden days of this game. It deserves so much more love
Unlike League where if you build anything but the exact same, optimized items every single game you will lose and your team will flame you. HOTS has decisions that actually matter.
The only thing I would say some MOBAs do better, especially Pokemon Unite, are bestial heroes. HOTS only had a few characters that weren't humanoid in some shape or form (like Deathwing and Misha), while other MOBAs have that. Although I know that this is very specific.
@@ninochaosdrache3189 Really only DotA 2 does this well. LoL is like 90% pretty boy and e-girl heroes. HotS' heroes are mostly more humanoid because they're all based off of existing Blizzard characters, which makes it hard from them to not be humanoid in some way.
@@lordnichard lmao how do you not understand that the items you build in LoL ARE THE CHOICES. My experience with Hots was always wishing I could actually do anything impactful to build my hero and being bored. Don't need to worry about XP we all share it together, don't have to worry about items this game doesn't have any. I love the blizzard characters is the sad thing, Starcraft is probably my all time favorite game and I played Diablo and Warcraft as a kid but this game just had no strategic depth and couldn't spark my interest despite me loving the characters.
All I've gotta say, is I wish this game were more popular today. I play LoL regularly, and still have that love/hate relationship with it, but I had a purely love/love relationship with HotS. Was truly a special game that never took off like it should've, just for Blizzard to Blizzard it.
you can still play it. its still got a healthy player population. aram queues no longer then 30sec any hourof day/night. ranked no more then 2 min (unless ur diamond/master/gm) unranked is dead but quick match is also only about a min or 2 most hours of day/night. in other words only thinkg stopping you from playing is you thinking you can only play the popular games.
@@ryutou-ki4dl It having a "healthy population" means nothing to the fact the game is in maintenance mode. Only reason it's not shut down is because the community is so loyal that they still throw tons of money at the game.
@@AzureRoxe ok and? it means you can still play it. nothing you said has anything to do with what i said. he said he stopped playing it and played league instead because its not popular. Also servers for Warcraft 2 and diablo 1 are still up, its not just about money. Hots deff still makes them money true but its not the only reason its running still.
@@ryutou-ki4dl Money is defo the reason the game is still online. If they didn't made money from this game that game would already be shut down. W2 and D1 are p2p games where there are no dedicated servers, only thing that is on blizzard in those games is matchmaking which costs them barely anything.
HoTS really benefits from being a much less rigidly structured game than other MOBAs. League is kind of a slave to it's 1 top/ 1 mid / 1 jungle / 2 bot metagame and that really limits the kinds of abilities and champions they can bring to the table. Heroes of the Storm actively rejected a rigid metagame not only with it's roster but the differences in it's maps. I recently had a game where I used Kerrigan's phenomenal wave clear potential to farm two lanes at the same time while my team roamed the map as 4 to force camps and push objectives. I've had others where the team split up evenly around the map and used Dehaka's and Brightwing's global teleportation abilities to gank and push vulnerable lanes... Hell, I've seen games where Sargent Hammer snuck off during the big map objective and gutted the enemy's base while they were all distracted by contesting the objective. The game is so much more varied than your standard moba and I think that's really what makes it special.
No, none of those points you bring up are because of the meta. They are because of the maps. They are because of the maps and their objectives FORCING people to interact. Each one actively tries to force players together which actually would fix a lot of issues in LoL or even Dota. A carry isn't useful if the game ends because you can't win objectives. A tank up top isn't useful if the objective is bottom and requires the tank to be there to soak damage for the objective.
@@Buglin_Burger7878 I'd argue the objectives (Dragon, Baron, Skuttler) are *more* important in league than they are in HoTS. As the video points out Objectives in HoTS pretty universally damage buildings (except towers of doom), whereas those in league tend to give map control, permanent buffs or buffs powerful enough to just win the game off of. Admittedly this brings us back to HoTS being a much less snowbally game, which is an upside to some people and a downside to others. On the one hand, comebacks are way more common in HoTS by virtue of how the game works meaning there's a reason to keep playing to the end, on the other hand some people will complain that means nothing matters in the game because you could be playing badly all game only to get one massive 5 for 0 teamfight and win the game off of it. Edit: I will concede that objectives in HoTS reset *much faster* than they do in League, so you're going to be spending a much greater percent of any given HoTS game contesting an objective than you would in League.
The limitation on HOTS is literally what killed him, you cant personalize your hero and you are forced to play tank/healer or you cant play. Disgusting design but people are not ready for this conversation :)
@@clausewitz8321 It comes to personal taste I think. For me, being able to empower or even add functionalities to abilities through talents and every hero (except Tracer and Deathwing) having two different "ulties" to choose is way more satisfying than items.
HOTS has the unfortunate distinction of having been the spearhead of Blizzard's manufacture and esports scene plan. Except they didn't want to spend any money on it and actually offer worthwhile prizes so it all fizzled out. And it makes me really sad that it got the axe for something that has nothing to do with its quality as a game or moba.
> Except they didn't want to spend any money on it and actually offer worthwhile prizes so it all fizzled out. ... What? They actually over spent on esports for little return. It failed because they tried to force it instead of letting it grow organically.
@@Jackpkmn They just spent money on wrong places, remember that time when blizz spent money to have HOTS being broadcasted on ESPN. what a retard choice they made.
i specifically remember a match where me and my team were getting bodied hard, to the point where the enemy was at our core and damaging it hard, but when the endgame screen came up and said "victory" everyone was confused, turns out, the camp i had taken, wayyy earlier, had made its way, all the way, to their core, and smashed it while the enemies had been focusing on our bases, i was completely flabbergasted that this tiny thing i did, won us the game.
I love when that happens. Especially when your entire team is so behind, and the enemies arent paying attention to they're base, all we can do is distract them while minions win the game
I used to main Murky and the character was considered to be weak (which he is). I got away with so much shit like clearing entire lanes solo and picking off mercenaries because they were focused on the big team fights. It's comical when you killed the noob character a couple of times and then after a while see him heading an army of smaller murlocs and big fuck-off mercenaries barrelling down your core.
Its the blizzard curse. They Abandoned Hots, have been producing slop for WoW for years, Turned overwatch, their golden goose at the time into a generic shooter. Abandoned Sc and SC2. Those are the only games i know about. I havent played diablo but i havent heard great things about it recently.
HOTS is a great moba. It has some of the most unique character designs from a gameplay perspective and it is also simple to pick up and play. Blizzard clearly abandoned the game only because it wasn't a popular esport. They also sunk a ton of money trying to force it onto the esports scene. In reality most game developers lose money on esports, except for the top ones. For a lot of the smaller esports games it's more just there to promote the game.
Dude, I was working at Gamestop when the beta came out and was speaking to a customer about it. I expressed that I really wanted to play it, but I was going to be away for a year and would have to wait until I got back to have fun with it. The guy came back at the end of my shift with his laptop, hotspot, and beta key and we just jammed for 30 mins in the parking on. The HotS community has been NOTHING except fun and welcoming since day 1.
What I really loved about this game is that I could just choose my characters and go in a game and play. I didn't have to fumble and think about what specific role I wanted to play and what character is most viable at any given time. If I wanted to queue up as Medivh, then I'd just queue up and play Medivh. The draft mode is obviously a little different, but even then you draft based on the maps and the teams, which feels a lot less limiting than the rigid structures of other MOBAs. As someone who has played League and DotA and even Smite to an extent, it feels nice to have a game that encourages fun in the ways that HotS does. My enthusiasm for the game has dipped since the maintenance mode (read 'live burial') was announced, but it's still the MOBA I have the most fond memories of by far, both playing solo and with friends.
Cho'Gall is one of my favorite characters to play in just about any game. The only problem is, since you can't queue up as him, you have to have a friend to play him with and... Well...
Love the comparison with TF2, a perfect example that shows multiplayer games don't need constant updates to be played and loved for a long time, as long as it is a good game
This game is soooo underrated. It by far beats dota and league and I’m a huge dota fan. So sick of farming lanes and last hitting and just waiting for shit to happen. Hots there’s always something happening and you’re kind of forced into it by objectives which makes the game so fun. And the different talents just makes it so much more versatile. No more stacking items and 2 shotting players. It really is all about skills.
God, I have slept on HOTS sooo much. It has literally everything I wanted from MOBA. Variety of maps, team fight, abscence of 100 complicated items. So sad that it's now in a vegatative state but I will definitely try to get my friends to play with me. Thank you for this video and I really hope idea about Microsoft and John Halo will become reality!
Do it. A great game, maybe wont receive much patchs, but the team still working like 3-3 months. The carachters have a good balance, and all champs are good, none of them are too much "weak" or "OP" .
I played Heroes of the Storm a couple of times and every time I joined my group of 4 friends who literally have 500 or more lvls in that MOBA. My first game I picked Stitches because he had a hook and from my long experience with MOBAS I knew how important far reaching and or fast displacements are to a team. I looked at the talents as I leveled up and went, "what the? He can increase his hook range to be half the map?" "Yoo, he can eat someone and just run away with them? HE CAN EAT 2 PEOPLE?" I ended up wrecking ass with the character and I was just flabbergasted by the amount of fun HOTS brings to the table. Later I also go t around to playing pre nerf Sylvanas (when she was still broken as hell) and Rag. This game is really dam good but there's just something about it that doesn't draw me back in. It's been more than 3 years, maybe even 4 or 5 since I last played but I remember this game fondly and might just give it another go. Thank you for the nice video, you've re-kindled fond memories that have been long lost to time. I'll send a DM to my old pals right now and see if they're still playing
Maybe it failed at least in part because the fun is too consistent? In a bad game like League of Legends you have 1% chance of a highly engaging, fun, novel gameplay that grips you to the seat, but 99% chance that it will just be yet another mindless slog of a game with maybe a few moments of fun. the likes of LoL have a lot of boring borderline-downtime when you are at best trading a few hits against the enemy, with very few emotional moments This unexpected "fun" is much more addictive, than in a game that you can always start up and you know it will keep you at the edge of your seat from the moment it starts.
As my favorite MOBA that I no longer have the will to play, I'm glad this video exists to remind me why I fell in love with it in the first place. The dev team that worked on HOTS clearly loved their game, and its sad that it all went pretty much down the drain. Also, unlike pretty much any other MOBA, HOTS did carry champs right. They are useful at all stages of the game, but do need to work with their team to be at full effectiveness. Compared to League where your carries either need to be carried for 4-5 items because Rito hates the marksman class, or are so grossly overtuned that they can 1v9 from the moment they get their ult because Rito loves skirmishers.
But to be fair, having a champ who id a carry being useful at all stages of the game, is kinda broken. It makes sense to protect you lategame carry in the early game. I do see your point tho
@@jesperege8236 Hots has different kinds of carries, they have scaling characters as well. A lot of the bruiser type characters scale in late game, on many heroes / builds there are specific talent tiers (levels) where your build "completes" and becomes exponentially stronger, etc. and different heroes power up at different times in different ways.
haha I didn't realise how much I missed this game until I saw your video. Your review nailed every single great thing about this game and the unique and fun experience it gives to the player. I'm downloading it right now and looking forward to playing CS varian or Falstad :D thank you
HotS is one of my favorite MOBAs. It's also one of the ones I know the least about how to play correctly. I think that says a lot about its accessibility, and I love that I can grab some friends and have them playing semi-competently in just a few hours because of that. It really is too bad that it's so ignored.
I know this is old at this point, but yeah, the minions are really really good compared to any and all other MOBAs, they can actually compete against players and actually put up a fight. normal jungle minions can put up a good fight against the towers, while bosses can fold anything if it isn't actually contested by the other team. it's really nice.
I am so grateful to you, I haven't even heard of you before, but I play HotS on the regular. I was one of the OG's before I lost my account, so I restarted just a couple months ago. I was so sad to see the game has died. But thanks for covering it so much! I really hope to play with new people who came to play the game because of you. It's people like you why this game is still "alive" to this day.
It didn't die, it was just finished. Sure, more heroes and maps would be cool, but there's already an incredible amount of variety. Play each hero for 2 hours and you're already looking at 180 hours of gameplay. Same sort of thing goes for TF2, even if you don't include the community stuff.
@@Entikai Oh shit. I ended up just getting a new computer, my old one broke, and I couldn't recover the old email, the old password and all that shit. It ended up being simpler to get a new account.
I played HOTS for years and returned to league once they went into maintenance mode. the constant teamfights were really the highlight for me. great video, inspired by Sseth? love it, make more please
Huh!? LoL has 3 lanes??? never heard of that... i only fight on the cold bridge, which last like 8 to 30 minutes... 20 minutes average... plus, i don't need to hurt my brain picking characters, the game picks for me 😜
@@Zaki_Arx I'm not sure if your comment is sarcasm or satire. How would you hurt your brain picking champs on SR? Most people one trick or maybe know like 3 champs. Really all you need is your main, a back up, and your counter. GGEZ. In ARAM you have to know every single character in the game in order to be consistently good.
This will always be my single most beloved game, it is the first game that I got really invested in and wanted to be good at, and when I was able to play a lot in 7-10th grade I grinded all the way to masters. The community was incredibly friendly as well; I met a couple people playing in Team League who invited me to their stack after a game, and they always kept their cool in voice chat despite me probably being probably being an annoying kid at the time. I played with those guys regularly for 3 years. To BananaBread, Dovah, KrisKringle, Lowken, and everyone else I played with who welcomed and accepted a silly stupid kid, I just need to say thank you. I stopped playing eventually once they and other friends moved to other games, but HotS is what made me love thinking about and playing games. Thank you for making me think about it again, I might just reinstall it and play a few games for old times sake.
Becuase the game has gone into "end-of-life" maintanance mode there are so many smurfs and (actually bad or toxic throwing) people in Bronze that it becomes hell to get out. And I made the mistake of not playing ranked before the game started drying out so I basically ended up in elo hell. My friend who deserves to be in high silver ended up with 6 games in a row where someone threw a fit and left the match or was afk and it catapulted him into bronze 4/5 since you lose way more points than you gain from wins at that rank and unfortunatley it is very much a crab bucket in bronze. We're in elo hell together. Great game though.
What a wholesome, wonderful comment. Cheers to BananaBread, Dovah, KrisKringle and Lowken for making your childhood years better. Games have really shaped our childhood memories, to a huge extend. For example, I used to always sneak into my parent's bedroom, where my PS2 was located, whenever they went out for drinks. So, my mom's perfume would always linger in the room whenever I sneaked, and now, whenever I smell this perfume, I think of Kingdom Hearts. It's crazy how you still remember those names, and your long voice chat sessions, in such a warm way. Dunno, I really appreciate that, and your story made me evaluate how much I love games and why. Thanks bud. Also, Hots is the BEST. I hate LoL, I've never managed to play Dota, and I love Hots, simply because there are no items, and the game is based on teamwork. This is also awful, and wonderful. But, for me, it's still best than having an incredibly skilled and fed Zed who will just never die and keeps decimating your team in seconds. One good player cannot carry a game if their team does not understand teamwork and objectives. That's why I love it.
I played LoL for a good amount of time. I loved the idea of healing and saving lives. But most of your time was "stay in bot lane bush, don't you dare kill anything, only buy wards and items that buffs others." So you don't get to do anything meaningful on your own, you can't go away from you ADC because you're 8 levels under and your damage and healing numbers are super low. But in HOTS? Anyone can get the kill, you can change lane whenever you like and your damage and healing does something.
this is by far, one of the best game reviews i have ever witnessed. first video from you Verac and wont be last. im binging the whole channel now. thankyou :)
As a group of friends meeting up on league, HOTS really was divisive when it released and was supported. There were the more fun and variety oriented friends who really wanted no more league and the more sweaty try hardy ones that didn't like the lack of felt impact on HOTS. Seeing this love letter reminded me that as of now I grew distant to the league group and stayed in good terms with the HOTS crew. Go figure.
Team oriented playstyle No toxicity Famous characters Lots of maps AND NO JUNGLER! It may seem as i'm exaggerating or kidding but nope, that was the game at it's peak!
What I really enjoy about hots is that you can often play some weird non-meta builds or team combos, if you're playing good. For example, I really enjoy Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mine build, even though it's not the most used one, but it still works, especially on certain maps with a lot of bushes next to objectives or when your enemies don't expect the Spidies to deal so much damage.
I loved stealth siege movement Sgt Hammer. Just a giant fuck-off siege tank gliding around the map, invisible, deployed, and ready to shell people to hell. I loved Sgt Hammer
@@Spartan9095 reminds me when I used to play where if the map was Hanamura, I would just go all in on my siege mode and snipe the structures and run away when I notice one of them approach me.
I honestly really enjoyed HotS, I liked the fast matches, the lack of confusing item shops, the fun and interesting talents, and not to mention all the unique heroes from a bunch of series I really enjoyed. HotS was the bomb for me, sadly it's in matinnence mode and no longer growing, which is very sad for me.
HAHAHA keeping the 6.5 meme alive! In all seriousness, I really hope Microsoft/Blizzard revive the game. It's a great game, the only problems are that it doesn't reach as much players as other Blizzard games, and most MOBA players are so loyal to their own MOBA, they're not even going to give HotS a shot. They need to up their advertising budget, and with people like you helping, fingers crossed they'll improve the game and increase the player base. I JUST WANT THE RANKED REWARDS, AND NO ONE PLAYS RANKED IN SEA, QUEUE TAKES MORE THAN AN HOUR, GIMME MY RANK MOUNT, BLIZZARD!
I think the major problem of this moba is lack of communications and tools for community. Literally anything for creating own team: player searching, better group chats, better game focus on team gameplay and rewards, team profiles...The list can be infinite how to improve that. But instead its random+discord+forum. And also desync issue.
Hots was the natural evolution of the moba genre. It was fun, engaging and you didn't have to take a holiday from work to complete a single game. After the 2.0 update it became what it needed to be from the start and truly became alive. Heck even blizzard for all their terrible decisions had a great tournament for young people (heroes of the dorm even the name was tacky) and yet had no patience to try and grow the game as an esport so they just killed it. I doubt Microsoft will ever revive it as let's be honest the great moba years are gone. Battle royals is the new hot thing.
The part at the end was what made me give you the upvote, I think Blizzard MASSIVELY underestimated what they had made with HotS and the reason is simple; map rotations. HotS is the only successful MobA to have multiple maps to play and it's not a coincidence.
Algorithm just recommeneded the first SsethTenzeech clone I've ever seen, and man you're good! Subbed. A loving homage to his style, apparently, but solid OC content. Yes, that's redundant.
As someone who's played both league and dota extensively, hots is easily the most fun. People always say it's easier, but they clearly haven't ranked up high enough to see that it's just as difficult as high ranked league. Additionally, some might say it's harder to carry because of shared exp, but again, that's simply not the case. a strong sense of macro, understanding the flow of each map, talent choices, and of course microing your heroes leads you plenty of room to carry. Overall good video and I hope it brings more attention to hots. Oh, also I think I've seen you a few times in QM before. I usually play medivh :p
Tbh, most people say its easy because our pro players left because of Blizzard, but try put anyone of those that say the game is easy versus someone like Fan for exemple, they would get obliterated so easy that woudnt even be fun to watch
it is easier game, but because it is easy game with overfocus on brawling with no alternate wincons (splitpushing when obj is up is basically trolling etc), it takes very little to lose the game (one player mispositioning or having different idea for play), which makes the game very coinflippy. In league and dota, if you played well enough, you will be ahead of most enemies, even if your team is behind, which lets you to do something more in game, while in hots you are tied down to your team, which literally drags you down. The only thing saving this game from being constant steamroll is the extremely rewarding comeback system, which can literally give 3 lvls on single kill (for real, there was a fight were entire enemy team just jumped on one of my friends, he got 3 kills and died, but enemy nearly caught up in levels, getting from -4 to -1 level dif), but that is a bandaid hiding, not solving problems.
@@lukrumble3295 If you're the team far ahead in lategame you should roam as 5 while the other team should split and try to sneak some experience wherever the ahead team is not in Dota 2, in LoL and in HotS all the same.
@@lukrumble3295 League is way more team based than hots nowadays, i find myself carrying a lot of games on hots but on league is so hard unless your opponent is dogshit. I honestly feel like league has gone way downhill trying to copy other mobas instead of keeping to their own thing.
@@ahejleira5654 Based. But no - League of Legends didn't go downhill. It's always been terrible, but back in the days we didn't see just how bad it was.
I only ever played one character, but he was _damn_ fun. Genn 'Mobility' Greymane. His gimmick is that he has two bars, one for human form and one for Wolfboi form. Human form: Engage, engage, engage. Ranged attacks, area attacks, wear the enemy down. Wolf form: Chase chase chase: Can reposition self and enemy but is melee only. You grind your enemies down, then you pounce. Far as assassins go, he was rather fun. You get to pressure the enemy (and switch back to pressuring IF you survive your dive) while waiting for the other guy to be out of position :D
I have 5.000 hours on MOBA, I've tried all of the popular ones, and I must say this is the best one for me, I really miss the days I could play this game with friends, so much fun so less frustration overall. Hope Microsoft give it a big bust in terms of publicity, because the game is already good
as someone who has played like 5 different MOBAs, I must say that you forgot to mention just how fast paced HotS is, there's literally zero downtime of action: - small and short lanes and "jungle space" make traversal through the map very quick (even more so if you add in Mounts) - minions dropping healing orbs and the fountains by your forts make it easy to keep your health and mana polls up and running, plus almost every team having a healer or heroes with self healing, making the need to beam back to base almost rare - the fact that everyone reaches their powerspike in sub 10 minutes once they hit level 10 - literally any character can do objectives, with only supports and healers having some struggle - the lack of need of buying items making your decision making on picking your build a fraction of what it would be on other MOBAs which have items on them it's just so sad that HotS has officially reached its "maintenance only" state as of a few weeks ago, I'd love to see more characters being added, specially Overwatch/Nexus characters since they're the minority -- and maybe some maps, too
I should have mentioned healing orbs. Those in particular contribute to keeping the gameplay going quite a bit, especially with many talents increasing their healing/mana amount, total mana, gaining skills or buffs based on number of globes, etc.
Man...I really want HotS 3.0. This game was SO much more fun than League for the reasons you mentioned. Map, objective and character variety and no laning for 569 years. No item bullshit you need a PhD or some external apps for. Games rarely took longer than 20 minutes which is your standard laning time...
My favorite part of HotS is how each hero started out with a cool design and fun mechanics and they were meticulously eroded away and replaced with more generic, and somehow less balanced alternatives that stripped them of their uniqueness and made the game play the same 3 ways every time, making me question why I ever played the game to begin with. Also Varian with two swords is a big strong man and he kisses your dad on the mouth.
I was a samuro main who climbed to high diamond. And this game was so fun. There are unique character there that no one in league or Dota can do. It's unique it doesn't have the I got 3 kills early and I'm a hyper carry therefore I 1v5. Everyone gets xp evenly. This game had potential. A lot of it.
I remember when it basically got abandoned. I was so hype for the Ravenlord comic they started releasing. They were really awsome. They started to incorporate Nexus Heroes wich in my opinion were really cool (Orphea and Quira) and i was really excited for other Nexus heroes like the queen of thorns or champions of her and the Pirat bay skeleton or underlings of him. It was starting to get really amazing i thought. and then ..... shut down :(
As a player of HotS since alpha I hated original heroes. There was still a huge laundry list of characters to be added in a game that was always built and advertised as a crossover game. Now these literal OC donut steels come in and swipe game design that would've been interesting on more recognizable, marketable characters.
@@marcoferraro9471 At least they fill the roles of certain iconic RTS units. Orphea and Qhira are just League of Legends OCs whose kits are so fucking generic, you could put them on other Blizzard characters
I've loved this game since the beta. Abathur main speaking! Some of my favorite moments in gaming, out of all the games I've played, have been sitting down and playing this with my father and some family friends of ours on my visits home where everyone grabs a laptop, gathers at the kitchen table, and yells excitedly as we attempt to win even a single pvp game. I loved those days!
Thank you for this beautiful review, everything you mentioned in the video is exactly why I love hots the most. It just such a different creative way to look at a moba and I will continue to play it for as long as I can.
Okay, this was an amazing first video. Kind of like Sseth but without the child soldier PTSD. I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna say it! Ahem... I was here before he blew up, subscribing after seeing a single video. *Basks in superiority juices*
Wish I got into this game when it was big, as it feels much more welcoming than say Dota’s massive list of items and other mechanics. Also as someone familiar with previous Blizzard titles, I can get a better sense of what characters do. And really crossover games are always just cool to see
My favorite hero in HoTS is vikings, It's just so fun and hard to control 3 characters at once and control 2 or 3 lanes by yourself. And always being top xp is fun. HoTS really has so many unique characters, like vikings, Abathur and Cho'gall who have such a wierd and fun concept that really changes up the moba
It's good to see another vikings fan. My favorite thing to do as them is have little guy captive the objective while fatty fights with the team, and sword pushing a lane. If played right they can put pressure on the enemy team like not other.
@@numnaut1314 I love the Olaf stun at lv 16, spin to win at 7 and then just kill assasins. They think they can survive but not against the might of the three lads. Also Erik is the real mvp for me.
i've played HotS since beta and always loved it, sometimes it wanted to play it more than LoL in my moba era because of not having to wait 15 minutes in lane to actually do something, i was very sad when they basically executed the game like some rabid dog, one day we had heroes of the dorms, having shits and giggles with the 6.5 score in IGN, making an ingame banner to laugh at it, and the other, all proplayers were out of job, the game received like 10 updates total since and everyone left the freaking game except the hardcore base the only good thing that came out of the getting out of pro play being retired is that the character ideas were crazier than ever, we got freaking deathwing bieng a dickhead and denying allied heals for him to be unstoppable i hope with all my heart that we see a return of this game
this game sounds amazing honestly, I played a bit of LOL like a decade ago but with all the new champions and having to memorise which items to buy I dont even want to try to get into it while this seems to be much more approachable
If anyone wants the source for 2:13’s tyrande pic, the artist’s called Demimond23, pretty decent art at times, would recommend a check every now and again.
This game is so much fun to play man, I especially enjoyed playing with the boss characters here, namely Cho'Gall (I played Cho, always with the same friend ^^), Ragnaros (his trait is way too awesome) and my favorite: Deathwing! there is never going to be another character like Deathwing in any MOBA and he's incredibly fun to play, you really feel like a final boss lol Plus my girls D.Va and Zagara are here too, I can't with this game I love it so much, it hurts that it's no longer being updated ;( PLUS THE MAPS I LOVED DRAGON SHRINE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Okay I'm gonna stop fangirling and come back to this game, at least for a while! even if the queue times suck lol Really good video btw, glad to know there are more HotS enjoyers out there :3
Played since Closed Beta with Sgt. Hammer as my main. And man, this game is so much more dynamic anything else. That blood rush from teamfights that goes from very first seconds, these amazing maps with actually quite unique objectives, that goddamn headbanging music (especially on the Nuclear Test Site, with SC1 Terran remixes). It truly feels like youre playing the entire game and not like you have to residentsleeper through half of it...
Wish they'd either gone into sleep mode before messing up Chromie or not gone into sleep mode at all. I didn't even use her in pvp, this game was for playing against bots for me, and I liked it. It was relaxing. I could play with one hand. I miss old Chromie.
I said this... years ago, but HotS is the best MOBA. The reason for this, is back when mobas first came out, moba players claim that despite not having base building, micro manage, or army building, their game was focused on team work more than RTS games(despite RTS games having teamwork modes). The more teamwork, the more 'skill' it needs. In hots, you are unlikely to kill someone at full health by yourself before their teammates get to them or they get to base(with few exceptions, like broken characters like Qhira and whatnot). Thus theres more team fights and team work needed. There is also the shared exp, so once again, team focused instead of just one player going off and becoming a god. dota players, being prideful children they are, will disagree with this and say dota requires more skill because more things to manage, you can mention RTS games and they will say dota requires more skill because teamwork. Fact of the matter is, dota is the casual CoD of strategy games, with RTS being the quake and HotS being the splatoon.
Thank you for making this video. For more casual players I also want to mention: playing vs bots! The groups that cue for vs bot are actually super chill and it's genuinely really fun and casual. The bots team fight and push objectives without being mechanical gods (a decent team can win 10/10 times vs elite bots but not without trying). And the people who queue that are super chill! So if you have anxiety in playing pvp, HotS still has stuff you can do. I'm generally not much of a pvp person, but I loved the idea of a moba. League just...didn't do it for me. The bots felt bad and learning the game felt like wading through hot coals. HotS is *much* nicer. You think a talent build looks decent? It probably is! No need to stress over if you're playing "the right way". (Naturally there are always some builds stronger than others and you can become better over time, but my point is that it's hard to be useless in a game starting out for making 'bad build' decisions. Which means you have the space you need to effectively learn the characters you like, the maps, and the fame as a whole.)
I love this game! Absolutely fun. I played AoS back in SC1 and Dota in WC3, plus the million custom games in WC3 and SC2. Heroes of the Storm brings all my favorite characters into one place, and also makes them super interesting even when their whole deal is “guy with gun”. I play with my best friend and my brother, it’s a blast. The only shortcoming is no surrender option, because the matchmaking is bad and sometimes you’re in situations where not only will you not win, you will spend the entire match getting slaughtered and not getting a single kill. Matchmaking can be pretty horrible lol
HotS' matchmaking is absolutely god awful, and I've played LoL since beta. For giggles I chose "I'm new to MOBAs" when I first played HotS and I think I saw the defeat screen for the first time about 3 months in because it just refused to stop putting me against actual new players, and then the first defeat was when my entire team was genuinely new and the enemy team was 5 premade vets
Way late to the party on this video but DAMN am I glad you made it. Any time discussions about mobas come up, I think about HotS. I miss this game every day and constantly wish Blizzard hadn't left it to grow mold in the back of the fridge, like your least favorite kind of cheese in a variety pack. The roster was honestly the biggest selling point for me because I could actually play as and listen to my favorite characters talk without having to play their associated games. You couldn't pay me to play Overwatch for more than an hour in one sitting, but I love Tracer being the cheeky little prick that she is, and being able to play as her in HotS was so nice.
For sure. HOTS technically helped introduce me to Starcraft and Diablo, the former being the only game I actually put substantial hours into but I can’t help but still love the character designs Also Janitor Leoric is one of the best skins of all time
What bothered me about HotS was Blizzard, honestly. They slept on Dota for a decade and were salty that more people wanted to play a mod made using their own tools than their actual game. But their solution to Dota and eventually LoL was HotS - which they themselves touted as a more 'casual and fun' MOBA that wasn't meant to be as competitive or hardcore...and one of the first things they did after HotS released was try to make a competitive, cash prize college-based tournament league(?) That to me always sent the wrong message, and they kinda did the same thing with Overwatch: Tried to turn a casual and fun game anyone could hop on and enjoy into a hyper competitive esport that it was never meant to be. There were other events that bothered me - like unlocking skins in Overwatch and WoW or Hearthstone based on playtime in HotS, which just lead to thousands of players entering games just to idle for cosmetics in other games and thereby ruining the experience for anyone who genuinely wanted to play HotS...but Blizzard seems addicted these last few years to making bad decisions.
Heroes of the Storm is my favorite MOBA. I like the focus on character talents and ultimates instead of generic items. I like the focus on teamwork instead of farming individual XP and gold for the late game. I like the faster pace of the gameplay. I like the changing maps. I started on DOTA back in WC3. I moved to LoL and spent thousands of hours playing that game but I actually have the most *fun* playing HotS, and it kills me to see it abandoned.
Game is actually so good. The neutral objectives are actually interesting and encourage/force fighting rather than farming for 20 minutes just for the game to he decided by a single lane anyway
What got me so interested in HOTS are - Level System: Everyone in the team share the same level. If the team is underlevel to the other team. Everyone is at fault. - Ability Build: You can modified your character ability. And it can be different every match. Not just some classic the ability deal more damage and cd faster. -Diverse Map: There are like everymap for each game Blizzard have. And each map have their own mechanics. They also have different narrators that interact with you Edit: I comment this before he starts listing the thing I literally mention 😭
I agree, best Moba ever. Eliminating last hit mechanics and focusing on player skill and map awareness instead of item builds is just more fun in the genre. I could give a turd about E-Sports, it's just a fun casual game!
I used to play this game so much. I even went on the forums and came up with ideas for champions that could be added into the game. I felt like the lack of an esports scene would be good for hots. It meant they could focus on fun characters with unique play styles instead of hyper balanced meta games. This game had so much potential and it’s a shame seeing it holding on by a string.
Lack of eSports killed this game because in the end is mediocre game with unbalanced overfeatured heroe. Too much changes to often, mechanics are too random for any level of mastery and because of that there is no sustainable fun in our. It's like playing jump guys
Honestly I f'ing died when you described 11:07 💀The orangutang had me howling, I never laughed so hard in my life, my stomach hurts, my cheeks are ded, I was crying... honestly, f'ing subbed!
I still play HotS from time to time. The game is amazing (Except Booty Bay that map sucks). I love being able to tank or heal without having to last hit. I love the map diversity. The game is so damn good.
Accurate review. Its the only MOBA I've ever played that didn't make me feel like shit for trying to learn how to play it. Damn good fun and much like Long John Silvers, I will do my part and keep it alive as long as I can as a consumer.
I loved playing Dehaka, just gaining more and more essence until I was basically unkillable if minions were nearby. I miss this game, I tried replying it recently but the game was way too long and there wasn't a surrender mechanic to end the game early, and you can't just leave without getting that punishment. The heroes were way too expensive to buy and you got so little gold out of winning games, it was torture to grind. I remember really liking Admiral Stukov, but he was too expensive to buy so I got him to mastery 8 simply by playing him on free rotation. It's still a better store than Overwatch 2
It's sad that they discontuined on giving the game any new content. I got into the game a 2-3 months back and I enjoyed it greatly. Being a LoL vet and playing the game for.. god knows how long... Season 2 till about 2 years ago? It was a hateful toxic relationship and I couldn't stop. (Got injured and couldn't sit at the desk so there was my out. Thank god.) But yeah, tried HOTS and I enjoyed it a lot, I love the way how you can mismatch different skills to try out new plays in the game but with the fact that Blizzard just doesn't wanna give the game support anymore, it's sad that it is gonna be a dying game.
I was expecting to hear a mention about Blizzard All Stars being abbreviated to "B-All-S" as someone who played both iterations at blizzcon and got to 40 in the alpha, thanks for making this , much easier to link your thoughts I agree with then type for hours about mine. Still wish they didn't can the pro scene right as it was picking up steam, it's almost comical that with HotS 3 year eSports league it paid more to players out than 15 years of arena gameplay from world of Warcraft. combined.
The things I love the most about HotS is the MommyStaraza SunnyS big cabooses and the fact that no matter what you fo you contribute to the team. That's the essentials of the team play.
You Sir got me to play HOTS again . IDK who u are , IDK what u are but i will find you and like your video ! Man i remember back in the day when i tried out all of the mobas and coudnt get into any : League ? My friends kept trying to push me to play it but i just didnt like it Smite ? Interesting concept and had familiar faces as i liked myth and gods stuff but it was a bit too complex . Dota ? Idk i just coudnt get into it And then this new moba gets released from my (back then) favorite company Heroes of the Storm . It was such a fun experience ! I loved Orphea even doe everyone kinda hated on her for being an OC . I remember how i was chilling in a pro players chat when the announcement came around Christmas about how they are gutting the pro scene . I remember when they announced they are putting the game into maintenance mode and swore to never buy anything from blizzard again . The game was basically all i was doing for a long time . Thanks for making me remember the fond times and making me play it again !
It's called Effort Justification. To resolve the Cognitive Dissonance between "I'm a smart person who makes good decisions" and "I willingly put myself through hell", they convince themselves that they enjoyed the struggle and the tedium. That having done so was acceptable, or even virtuous. They suffered, and must therefore insist to everyone and themselves that their suffering was worth it. That their Effort was Justified. It's the same reason why college fraternities subject their pledges to hazing. It makes the newbies prone to convincing themselves their participation in the frat was worth all the crap they went through to get there. It doesn't matter if it was actually fun. They tell themselves it was fun, to not feel like a sucker.
Because there's no depth with something like HOTS, it's literally JUST fighting I used to play League for several years (stopped playing MOBAs overall 7-8 months ago because they're just bad) and tried HOTS a couple times, but it was so incredibly boring just throwing yourself into combat over and over. The combat in HOTS also just felt so unsatisfying.
@@pixxlated_ maybe you lack the skill and as such were only capable of perceoving surface level elements. 7 months ain't exactly a long time to be playing on and off.
@@pixxlated_ League of Legend combat where people kill each other in 1-2 seconds is stupid to me. But if that's what you're used to and enjoy, then I can see that higher time to kill being boring. That said, I don't think you've mastered the HotS macro yet if you've played it a couple of times. And you can e.g. play a splitpusher, or Abathur, or Cho-Gall for a unique experience.
HOTS being left abandoned and unloved is one of my personal biggest gaming betrayals. I'd never touch Smite or LoL again if this still had the backing and support of the parent companies. A MOBA designed for actual *gameplay enjoyment* and it wildly succeeded at that!
You did more for this game with one video than Blizard did the last 5 years.
THat's no fucking joke haha.
@@Peremptor bro spoke the truth
tbh I thought they sunsetted the game like 2 years ago
I don't see anything that has been done here
Blizzard execs need to watch this video. They seem to have forgotten about HOTS and how damn good it is.
HotS is indeed a Moba for people who dislike Mobas. No need to research the item store, no need to research the ward placement, no need to practice lasthitting - just pure unadulterated teamfighting and sieging.
Exactly!
This right here. LoL has some cool looking skins, but you only do one map, and if you’re new to the game in the last two years, you don’t know how to counter the nearly 200 characters there are, their various item builds, what jungling is, and how to help your homies, and guides don’t really explain it too well either. Dota 2 has insanely cool looking characters, but some of the same issues.
HoTS, despite being made by Women-Aren’t-People Corporation, is dumbed down, plenty of skins, and plenty of maps, and no item builds, just character niches. I love healing homies and yoinking them out of danger as Anduin. I love turning my brain off and spamming Windfury as Thrall. My erectile dysfunction dematerializes when I get a sick Zeratul teleport swipe. I cry and hope Blizzard is hit with a nuclear bomb the moment I see an enemy Nova.
@@Kunk_Manjeroon "I love healing homies and yoinking them out of danger as Anduin" Personally, I love yoinking my homies into danger as Garrosh :3
@@Illandarr That’s what my Garrosh would do. I would pocket him, and if we were winning, he’d ask me random questions in Discord. We’d be having genuine conversations, like the rise of fascism, the joyful and cringy nature of roleplaying, and then he’d ask the stupidest shit. “Did you know that scientists actually figured out that purple colors can be smelled by humans?” “No, what does it smell like?” “This.” He’d chuck my ass into the middle of the enemy team.
Brother that's just smite with worse rooster and less interesting action.
I played it for a day (sucked of course) and got flamed in one of my games. I told the guy to chill out since it wasn't ranked.
You know what he said? "Oh really? I didn't realize. My bad". AND THE GUY PROCEEDED TO BE AN ACTUAL CHILL DUDE!
I never knew this was possible in a videogame, let alone a MOBA. I'm still amazed.
Holy shit, that's amazing! haha
I was expecting him to int your team. I'm glad I was wrong To much league.
Yeah welp I tried it out again; during the day games are really fun and wholesome, but at night the toxic wolves come out. Too good to be true...
Still leagues (see what I did there) better on a toxicity scale than other MOBA's though.
@@m1bl4n"arggg i work at a mcdonals all day i want to insult people argggg" -the toxic wolf at midnight in HotS
impossible!
I've played hundreds of hours of Smite and LoL, and there ins't a single thing that makes me love them more than HotS. Just the talent system alone is enough for; how every hero can be 3 or 4 different heroes. God, I miss the golden days of this game. It deserves so much more love
Unlike League where if you build anything but the exact same, optimized items every single game you will lose and your team will flame you.
HOTS has decisions that actually matter.
The only thing I would say some MOBAs do better, especially Pokemon Unite, are bestial heroes. HOTS only had a few characters that weren't humanoid in some shape or form (like Deathwing and Misha), while other MOBAs have that. Although I know that this is very specific.
@@ninochaosdrache3189 Really only DotA 2 does this well. LoL is like 90% pretty boy and e-girl heroes. HotS' heroes are mostly more humanoid because they're all based off of existing Blizzard characters, which makes it hard from them to not be humanoid in some way.
@@lordnichard lmao how do you not understand that the items you build in LoL ARE THE CHOICES. My experience with Hots was always wishing I could actually do anything impactful to build my hero and being bored. Don't need to worry about XP we all share it together, don't have to worry about items this game doesn't have any. I love the blizzard characters is the sad thing, Starcraft is probably my all time favorite game and I played Diablo and Warcraft as a kid but this game just had no strategic depth and couldn't spark my interest despite me loving the characters.
Minions MVP moment
All I've gotta say, is I wish this game were more popular today. I play LoL regularly, and still have that love/hate relationship with it, but I had a purely love/love relationship with HotS. Was truly a special game that never took off like it should've, just for Blizzard to Blizzard it.
Cheers, I only got some modicum of flak from Latin America (of course) and typical Healer Syndrome.
you can still play it. its still got a healthy player population. aram queues no longer then 30sec any hourof day/night. ranked no more then 2 min (unless ur diamond/master/gm) unranked is dead but quick match is also only about a min or 2 most hours of day/night. in other words only thinkg stopping you from playing is you thinking you can only play the popular games.
@@ryutou-ki4dl It having a "healthy population" means nothing to the fact the game is in maintenance mode.
Only reason it's not shut down is because the community is so loyal that they still throw tons of money at the game.
@@AzureRoxe ok and? it means you can still play it. nothing you said has anything to do with what i said. he said he stopped playing it and played league instead because its not popular. Also servers for Warcraft 2 and diablo 1 are still up, its not just about money. Hots deff still makes them money true but its not the only reason its running still.
@@ryutou-ki4dl Money is defo the reason the game is still online. If they didn't made money from this game that game would already be shut down. W2 and D1 are p2p games where there are no dedicated servers, only thing that is on blizzard in those games is matchmaking which costs them barely anything.
HoTS really benefits from being a much less rigidly structured game than other MOBAs. League is kind of a slave to it's 1 top/ 1 mid / 1 jungle / 2 bot metagame and that really limits the kinds of abilities and champions they can bring to the table. Heroes of the Storm actively rejected a rigid metagame not only with it's roster but the differences in it's maps. I recently had a game where I used Kerrigan's phenomenal wave clear potential to farm two lanes at the same time while my team roamed the map as 4 to force camps and push objectives. I've had others where the team split up evenly around the map and used Dehaka's and Brightwing's global teleportation abilities to gank and push vulnerable lanes... Hell, I've seen games where Sargent Hammer snuck off during the big map objective and gutted the enemy's base while they were all distracted by contesting the objective. The game is so much more varied than your standard moba and I think that's really what makes it special.
I completely agree! The metagame is more flexible in HotS.
No, none of those points you bring up are because of the meta. They are because of the maps.
They are because of the maps and their objectives FORCING people to interact. Each one actively tries to force players together which actually would fix a lot of issues in LoL or even Dota.
A carry isn't useful if the game ends because you can't win objectives. A tank up top isn't useful if the objective is bottom and requires the tank to be there to soak damage for the objective.
@@Buglin_Burger7878 I'd argue the objectives (Dragon, Baron, Skuttler) are *more* important in league than they are in HoTS. As the video points out Objectives in HoTS pretty universally damage buildings (except towers of doom), whereas those in league tend to give map control, permanent buffs or buffs powerful enough to just win the game off of.
Admittedly this brings us back to HoTS being a much less snowbally game, which is an upside to some people and a downside to others. On the one hand, comebacks are way more common in HoTS by virtue of how the game works meaning there's a reason to keep playing to the end, on the other hand some people will complain that means nothing matters in the game because you could be playing badly all game only to get one massive 5 for 0 teamfight and win the game off of it.
Edit: I will concede that objectives in HoTS reset *much faster* than they do in League, so you're going to be spending a much greater percent of any given HoTS game contesting an objective than you would in League.
The limitation on HOTS is literally what killed him, you cant personalize your hero and you are forced to play tank/healer or you cant play. Disgusting design but people are not ready for this conversation :)
@@clausewitz8321 It comes to personal taste I think. For me, being able to empower or even add functionalities to abilities through talents and every hero (except Tracer and Deathwing) having two different "ulties" to choose is way more satisfying than items.
HOTS has the unfortunate distinction of having been the spearhead of Blizzard's manufacture and esports scene plan. Except they didn't want to spend any money on it and actually offer worthwhile prizes so it all fizzled out. And it makes me really sad that it got the axe for something that has nothing to do with its quality as a game or moba.
I thought the game wasn’t able to be balanced for pro players and fun players together
@@jari948 No game can be balanced for that.
> Except they didn't want to spend any money on it and actually offer worthwhile prizes so it all fizzled out.
... What? They actually over spent on esports for little return. It failed because they tried to force it instead of letting it grow organically.
@@frostmourne1986 It might have seemed like a lot of money but actually they didn't spend anywhere close to enough to manufacture what they wanted.
@@Jackpkmn They just spent money on wrong places, remember that time when blizz spent money to have HOTS being broadcasted on ESPN. what a retard choice they made.
i specifically remember a match where me and my team were getting bodied hard, to the point where the enemy was at our core and damaging it hard, but when the endgame screen came up and said "victory" everyone was confused, turns out, the camp i had taken, wayyy earlier, had made its way, all the way, to their core, and smashed it while the enemies had been focusing on our bases, i was completely flabbergasted that this tiny thing i did, won us the game.
The minion carry! Fuck yeah!
I love when that happens. Especially when your entire team is so behind, and the enemies arent paying attention to they're base, all we can do is distract them while minions win the game
Oh yay, Being back door by Abathur is the most salty moment I got. :
It's the most satisfying thing when you get hard carried by the cannon bois
I used to main Murky and the character was considered to be weak (which he is). I got away with so much shit like clearing entire lanes solo and picking off mercenaries because they were focused on the big team fights. It's comical when you killed the noob character a couple of times and then after a while see him heading an army of smaller murlocs and big fuck-off mercenaries barrelling down your core.
Good review. I'll never forgive Actiblizz for shutting this game's development and it's comp scene like they did. It's always been underrated.
Its the blizzard curse. They Abandoned Hots, have been producing slop for WoW for years, Turned overwatch, their golden goose at the time into a generic shooter. Abandoned Sc and SC2. Those are the only games i know about. I havent played diablo but i havent heard great things about it recently.
HOTS is a great moba. It has some of the most unique character designs from a gameplay perspective and it is also simple to pick up and play. Blizzard clearly abandoned the game only because it wasn't a popular esport. They also sunk a ton of money trying to force it onto the esports scene. In reality most game developers lose money on esports, except for the top ones. For a lot of the smaller esports games it's more just there to promote the game.
Dude, I was working at Gamestop when the beta came out and was speaking to a customer about it. I expressed that I really wanted to play it, but I was going to be away for a year and would have to wait until I got back to have fun with it.
The guy came back at the end of my shift with his laptop, hotspot, and beta key and we just jammed for 30 mins in the parking on. The HotS community has been NOTHING except fun and welcoming since day 1.
Ok I'll bite, where did a Gamestop employee disappear to for a year without electricity/internet access?
@@xDSTRYRx he really did game stop
@@xDSTRYRx Military deployment most likely, Navy I'd guess since no internet.
Fock me I'm going in!! hahaha
That's a nice story about gamers being wholesome
What I really loved about this game is that I could just choose my characters and go in a game and play. I didn't have to fumble and think about what specific role I wanted to play and what character is most viable at any given time. If I wanted to queue up as Medivh, then I'd just queue up and play Medivh. The draft mode is obviously a little different, but even then you draft based on the maps and the teams, which feels a lot less limiting than the rigid structures of other MOBAs. As someone who has played League and DotA and even Smite to an extent, it feels nice to have a game that encourages fun in the ways that HotS does. My enthusiasm for the game has dipped since the maintenance mode (read 'live burial') was announced, but it's still the MOBA I have the most fond memories of by far, both playing solo and with friends.
Cho'Gall is one of my favorite characters to play in just about any game.
The only problem is, since you can't queue up as him, you have to have a friend to play him with and...
Well...
just find another Cho'Gall in a game and GTA one of them with you
ill play with you lol
why did you leave breadboy hanging bro, not cool
@@timdillon4876 😞
@@timdillon4876 not having friends isnt the same as wanting to make friends
Love the comparison with TF2, a perfect example that shows multiplayer games don't need constant updates to be played and loved for a long time, as long as it is a good game
This game is soooo underrated. It by far beats dota and league and I’m a huge dota fan. So sick of farming lanes and last hitting and just waiting for shit to happen. Hots there’s always something happening and you’re kind of forced into it by objectives which makes the game so fun. And the different talents just makes it so much more versatile. No more stacking items and 2 shotting players. It really is all about skills.
I mainly agree but ever heard of pyroblast
God, I have slept on HOTS sooo much. It has literally everything I wanted from MOBA. Variety of maps, team fight, abscence of 100 complicated items. So sad that it's now in a vegatative state but I will definitely try to get my friends to play with me. Thank you for this video and I really hope idea about Microsoft and John Halo will become reality!
Man tonnes of people still play lol. Its great
I used to play it a lot. Hmu if u want another friendo to play with.
Do it. A great game, maybe wont receive much patchs, but the team still working like 3-3 months. The carachters have a good balance, and all champs are good, none of them are too much "weak" or "OP" .
Still as fun as ever.
Count me in aswell if you need another player! Hots is too fun and i miss grouping up
I played Heroes of the Storm a couple of times and every time I joined my group of 4 friends who literally have 500 or more lvls in that MOBA. My first game I picked Stitches because he had a hook and from my long experience with MOBAS I knew how important far reaching and or fast displacements are to a team.
I looked at the talents as I leveled up and went, "what the? He can increase his hook range to be half the map?" "Yoo, he can eat someone and just run away with them? HE CAN EAT 2 PEOPLE?"
I ended up wrecking ass with the character and I was just flabbergasted by the amount of fun HOTS brings to the table.
Later I also go t around to playing pre nerf Sylvanas (when she was still broken as hell) and Rag. This game is really dam good but there's just something about it that doesn't draw me back in. It's been more than 3 years, maybe even 4 or 5 since I last played but I remember this game fondly and might just give it another go. Thank you for the nice video, you've re-kindled fond memories that have been long lost to time. I'll send a DM to my old pals right now and see if they're still playing
Nowadays you get the fishing hook (50% longer hook) for free on lvl 13 so you get to choose an ability.
Stitches reminds me of the Pudge Wars custom map in Warcraft 3 and DOTA 2.
Maybe it failed at least in part because the fun is too consistent?
In a bad game like League of Legends you have 1% chance of a highly engaging, fun, novel gameplay that grips you to the seat, but 99% chance that it will just be yet another mindless slog of a game with maybe a few moments of fun. the likes of LoL have a lot of boring borderline-downtime when you are at best trading a few hits against the enemy, with very few emotional moments
This unexpected "fun" is much more addictive, than in a game that you can always start up and you know it will keep you at the edge of your seat from the moment it starts.
@@TehKorwinMikke bro both bad or both god no inbetween
@@TehKorwinMikke Dis this motherfucker just say the game failed because it was too fun? What in the fuck?
As my favorite MOBA that I no longer have the will to play, I'm glad this video exists to remind me why I fell in love with it in the first place. The dev team that worked on HOTS clearly loved their game, and its sad that it all went pretty much down the drain.
Also, unlike pretty much any other MOBA, HOTS did carry champs right. They are useful at all stages of the game, but do need to work with their team to be at full effectiveness. Compared to League where your carries either need to be carried for 4-5 items because Rito hates the marksman class, or are so grossly overtuned that they can 1v9 from the moment they get their ult because Rito loves skirmishers.
But to be fair, having a champ who id a carry being useful at all stages of the game, is kinda broken. It makes sense to protect you lategame carry in the early game. I do see your point tho
@@jesperege8236 Hots has different kinds of carries, they have scaling characters as well. A lot of the bruiser type characters scale in late game, on many heroes / builds there are specific talent tiers (levels) where your build "completes" and becomes exponentially stronger, etc. and different heroes power up at different times in different ways.
A+ just found your videos today and I am in love. Binging them all. Thank you for your service!
haha I didn't realise how much I missed this game until I saw your video. Your review nailed every single great thing about this game and the unique and fun experience it gives to the player. I'm downloading it right now and looking forward to playing CS varian or Falstad :D thank you
Best game I've ever played, so sad that indie company abandoned it....
can't be helped, it's a very small and poor company
@@oldcat1790
Give them a break, they are so poor, they are not even worth 69Billion dollars.
With the recent state of Blizzard, it's a blessing they did.
Give it a shot man, the most fun a moba can be
@@EugenethePhilostopher
Yup! They could have released HOTS 2.0! 🤦♂️
Very entertaining video, awesomely done! You also did a great job at explaining the major differences between HotS and other mobas.
I'm glad you liked it! :]
This needs more recognition - so fun to watch! Plus, it's a nice sum-up from a guy that ate his teeth on DOTA2. Grats, dear sir!
HotS is one of my favorite MOBAs. It's also one of the ones I know the least about how to play correctly. I think that says a lot about its accessibility, and I love that I can grab some friends and have them playing semi-competently in just a few hours because of that. It really is too bad that it's so ignored.
I know this is old at this point, but yeah, the minions are really really good compared to any and all other MOBAs, they can actually compete against players and actually put up a fight. normal jungle minions can put up a good fight against the towers, while bosses can fold anything if it isn't actually contested by the other team. it's really nice.
I am so grateful to you, I haven't even heard of you before, but I play HotS on the regular. I was one of the OG's before I lost my account, so I restarted just a couple months ago. I was so sad to see the game has died. But thanks for covering it so much! I really hope to play with new people who came to play the game because of you. It's people like you why this game is still "alive" to this day.
It didn't die, it was just finished. Sure, more heroes and maps would be cool, but there's already an incredible amount of variety. Play each hero for 2 hours and you're already looking at 180 hours of gameplay. Same sort of thing goes for TF2, even if you don't include the community stuff.
How did you lose your acc?
@@Entikai Oh shit. I ended up just getting a new computer, my old one broke, and I couldn't recover the old email, the old password and all that shit. It ended up being simpler to get a new account.
I played HOTS for years and returned to league once they went into maintenance mode. the constant teamfights were really the highlight for me. great video, inspired by Sseth? love it, make more please
Thanks very much!
Consider playing ARAM if you like constant team fights. I don't like SR but ARAM is really fun.
I second ARAM its a grasp of what HotS has been its in golden times
Huh!? LoL has 3 lanes??? never heard of that... i only fight on the cold bridge, which last like 8 to 30 minutes... 20 minutes average... plus, i don't need to hurt my brain picking characters, the game picks for me 😜
@@Zaki_Arx I'm not sure if your comment is sarcasm or satire. How would you hurt your brain picking champs on SR? Most people one trick or maybe know like 3 champs. Really all you need is your main, a back up, and your counter. GGEZ. In ARAM you have to know every single character in the game in order to be consistently good.
This will always be my single most beloved game, it is the first game that I got really invested in and wanted to be good at, and when I was able to play a lot in 7-10th grade I grinded all the way to masters. The community was incredibly friendly as well; I met a couple people playing in Team League who invited me to their stack after a game, and they always kept their cool in voice chat despite me probably being probably being an annoying kid at the time. I played with those guys regularly for 3 years. To BananaBread, Dovah, KrisKringle, Lowken, and everyone else I played with who welcomed and accepted a silly stupid kid, I just need to say thank you. I stopped playing eventually once they and other friends moved to other games, but HotS is what made me love thinking about and playing games. Thank you for making me think about it again, I might just reinstall it and play a few games for old times sake.
Becuase the game has gone into "end-of-life" maintanance mode there are so many smurfs and (actually bad or toxic throwing) people in Bronze that it becomes hell to get out. And I made the mistake of not playing ranked before the game started drying out so I basically ended up in elo hell. My friend who deserves to be in high silver ended up with 6 games in a row where someone threw a fit and left the match or was afk and it catapulted him into bronze 4/5 since you lose way more points than you gain from wins at that rank and unfortunatley it is very much a crab bucket in bronze. We're in elo hell together. Great game though.
@@kyrabook9556 bro who asked for your excuses why you are hardstuck in the game because "elo hell" lmao
What a wholesome, wonderful comment. Cheers to BananaBread, Dovah, KrisKringle and Lowken for making your childhood years better.
Games have really shaped our childhood memories, to a huge extend.
For example, I used to always sneak into my parent's bedroom, where my PS2 was located, whenever they went out for drinks. So, my mom's perfume would always linger in the room whenever I sneaked, and now, whenever I smell this perfume, I think of Kingdom Hearts.
It's crazy how you still remember those names, and your long voice chat sessions, in such a warm way. Dunno, I really appreciate that, and your story made me evaluate how much I love games and why. Thanks bud.
Also, Hots is the BEST. I hate LoL, I've never managed to play Dota, and I love Hots, simply because there are no items, and the game is based on teamwork.
This is also awful, and wonderful. But, for me, it's still best than having an incredibly skilled and fed Zed who will just never die and keeps decimating your team in seconds.
One good player cannot carry a game if their team does not understand teamwork and objectives. That's why I love it.
@@AmonTerrible L comment.
I played LoL for a good amount of time. I loved the idea of healing and saving lives.
But most of your time was "stay in bot lane bush, don't you dare kill anything, only buy wards and items that buffs others."
So you don't get to do anything meaningful on your own, you can't go away from you ADC because you're 8 levels under and your damage and healing numbers are super low.
But in HOTS? Anyone can get the kill, you can change lane whenever you like and your damage and healing does something.
this is by far, one of the best game reviews i have ever witnessed. first video from you Verac and wont be last. im binging the whole channel now. thankyou :)
As a group of friends meeting up on league, HOTS really was divisive when it released and was supported. There were the more fun and variety oriented friends who really wanted no more league and the more sweaty try hardy ones that didn't like the lack of felt impact on HOTS. Seeing this love letter reminded me that as of now I grew distant to the league group and stayed in good terms with the HOTS crew. Go figure.
Team oriented playstyle
No toxicity
Famous characters
Lots of maps
AND NO JUNGLER!
It may seem as i'm exaggerating or kidding but nope, that was the game at it's peak!
To be fair there is some toxicity but still less than in League
@@shattered7579 is a team based online game, toxicity is expected lol
@@el_mr6439 True
Oh there's PLENTY of toxicity, and strangely enough its usually always from an azmodan in my experience, i have no idea why.
No individuality? No Jungle? No thanks.
What I really enjoy about hots is that you can often play some weird non-meta builds or team combos, if you're playing good. For example, I really enjoy Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mine build, even though it's not the most used one, but it still works, especially on certain maps with a lot of bushes next to objectives or when your enemies don't expect the Spidies to deal so much damage.
I loved stealth siege movement Sgt Hammer. Just a giant fuck-off siege tank gliding around the map, invisible, deployed, and ready to shell people to hell. I loved Sgt Hammer
@@Spartan9095 reminds me when I used to play where if the map was Hanamura, I would just go all in on my siege mode and snipe the structures and run away when I notice one of them approach me.
9:32 Duuude 😭
Love your sense of humor, man. This too is the main (only) moba were I come back every now and then. Simple, fast, and varied
I honestly really enjoyed HotS, I liked the fast matches, the lack of confusing item shops, the fun and interesting talents, and not to mention all the unique heroes from a bunch of series I really enjoyed. HotS was the bomb for me, sadly it's in matinnence mode and no longer growing, which is very sad for me.
HAHAHA keeping the 6.5 meme alive!
In all seriousness, I really hope Microsoft/Blizzard revive the game. It's a great game, the only problems are that it doesn't reach as much players as other Blizzard games, and most MOBA players are so loyal to their own MOBA, they're not even going to give HotS a shot. They need to up their advertising budget, and with people like you helping, fingers crossed they'll improve the game and increase the player base.
I JUST WANT THE RANKED REWARDS, AND NO ONE PLAYS RANKED IN SEA, QUEUE TAKES MORE THAN AN HOUR, GIMME MY RANK MOUNT, BLIZZARD!
I think the major problem of this moba is lack of communications and tools for community. Literally anything for creating own team: player searching, better group chats, better game focus on team gameplay and rewards, team profiles...The list can be infinite how to improve that. But instead its random+discord+forum.
And also desync issue.
in EU u got like 2/5 min to queue x)
@@Edgariki there is literally a voice chat in the game and, if I remember it correctly, you have the most important things to ping
Ah yes the 2 hallmarks of a modern blizzard game: well developed and severely mismanaged.
They are the company equivalent of pretty face no personality
Hots was the natural evolution of the moba genre. It was fun, engaging and you didn't have to take a holiday from work to complete a single game. After the 2.0 update it became what it needed to be from the start and truly became alive. Heck even blizzard for all their terrible decisions had a great tournament for young people (heroes of the dorm even the name was tacky) and yet had no patience to try and grow the game as an esport so they just killed it. I doubt Microsoft will ever revive it as let's be honest the great moba years are gone. Battle royals is the new hot thing.
The part at the end was what made me give you the upvote, I think Blizzard MASSIVELY underestimated what they had made with HotS and the reason is simple; map rotations.
HotS is the only successful MobA to have multiple maps to play and it's not a coincidence.
Algorithm just recommeneded the first SsethTenzeech clone I've ever seen, and man you're good! Subbed. A loving homage to his style, apparently, but solid OC content. Yes, that's redundant.
As someone who's played both league and dota extensively, hots is easily the most fun. People always say it's easier, but they clearly haven't ranked up high enough to see that it's just as difficult as high ranked league. Additionally, some might say it's harder to carry because of shared exp, but again, that's simply not the case. a strong sense of macro, understanding the flow of each map, talent choices, and of course microing your heroes leads you plenty of room to carry. Overall good video and I hope it brings more attention to hots. Oh, also I think I've seen you a few times in QM before. I usually play medivh :p
Tbh, most people say its easy because our pro players left because of Blizzard, but try put anyone of those that say the game is easy versus someone like Fan for exemple, they would get obliterated so easy that woudnt even be fun to watch
it is easier game, but because it is easy game with overfocus on brawling with no alternate wincons (splitpushing when obj is up is basically trolling etc), it takes very little to lose the game (one player mispositioning or having different idea for play), which makes the game very coinflippy. In league and dota, if you played well enough, you will be ahead of most enemies, even if your team is behind, which lets you to do something more in game, while in hots you are tied down to your team, which literally drags you down. The only thing saving this game from being constant steamroll is the extremely rewarding comeback system, which can literally give 3 lvls on single kill (for real, there was a fight were entire enemy team just jumped on one of my friends, he got 3 kills and died, but enemy nearly caught up in levels, getting from -4 to -1 level dif), but that is a bandaid hiding, not solving problems.
@@lukrumble3295 If you're the team far ahead in lategame you should roam as 5 while the other team should split and try to sneak some experience wherever the ahead team is not in Dota 2, in LoL and in HotS all the same.
@@lukrumble3295 League is way more team based than hots nowadays, i find myself carrying a lot of games on hots but on league is so hard unless your opponent is dogshit. I honestly feel like league has gone way downhill trying to copy other mobas instead of keeping to their own thing.
@@ahejleira5654 Based.
But no - League of Legends didn't go downhill. It's always been terrible, but back in the days we didn't see just how bad it was.
Azmodan, Stitches and Dehaka. Oh yeah, and Cho'Gall... God I miss when Cho was unstoppable while channeling surging fist.
Me too, me too.
I checked if he has any more videos after watching 4.
He's got 1.26k subs on 4 vids.
Man, you're doing GOD'S WORK.
Keep at it
Thank you very much! :]
I only ever played one character, but he was _damn_ fun.
Genn 'Mobility' Greymane.
His gimmick is that he has two bars, one for human form and one for Wolfboi form.
Human form: Engage, engage, engage. Ranged attacks, area attacks, wear the enemy down.
Wolf form: Chase chase chase: Can reposition self and enemy but is melee only.
You grind your enemies down, then you pounce.
Far as assassins go, he was rather fun. You get to pressure the enemy (and switch back to pressuring IF you survive your dive) while waiting for the other guy to be out of position :D
10:15 Agree, but I wonder why that is?
I have 5.000 hours on MOBA, I've tried all of the popular ones, and I must say this is the best one for me, I really miss the days I could play this game with friends, so much fun so less frustration overall. Hope Microsoft give it a big bust in terms of publicity, because the game is already good
as someone who has played like 5 different MOBAs, I must say that you forgot to mention just how fast paced HotS is, there's literally zero downtime of action:
- small and short lanes and "jungle space" make traversal through the map very quick (even more so if you add in Mounts)
- minions dropping healing orbs and the fountains by your forts make it easy to keep your health and mana polls up and running, plus almost every team having a healer or heroes with self healing, making the need to beam back to base almost rare
- the fact that everyone reaches their powerspike in sub 10 minutes once they hit level 10
- literally any character can do objectives, with only supports and healers having some struggle
- the lack of need of buying items making your decision making on picking your build a fraction of what it would be on other MOBAs which have items on them
it's just so sad that HotS has officially reached its "maintenance only" state as of a few weeks ago, I'd love to see more characters being added, specially Overwatch/Nexus characters since they're the minority -- and maybe some maps, too
I should have mentioned healing orbs. Those in particular contribute to keeping the gameplay going quite a bit, especially with many talents increasing their healing/mana amount, total mana, gaining skills or buffs based on number of globes, etc.
Its still my dream that microsoft decides to revive the game. Atleast I think microsoft buying out blizzard happened
I agree about tempo etc cause i had a situation when i took a ult in the midle of the combat and thanks to that kill like 3 people
If this ever gets out of maintenance hell Id likely come back. Also, badly want another Abathuresque char, Arcturus Mengsk flies to my mind.
Love your videos. The editing, chill commentary, and just right amount of the funny is so good
Man...I really want HotS 3.0. This game was SO much more fun than League for the reasons you mentioned. Map, objective and character variety and no laning for 569 years. No item bullshit you need a PhD or some external apps for. Games rarely took longer than 20 minutes which is your standard laning time...
My favorite part of HotS is how each hero started out with a cool design and fun mechanics and they were meticulously eroded away and replaced with more generic, and somehow less balanced alternatives that stripped them of their uniqueness and made the game play the same 3 ways every time, making me question why I ever played the game to begin with. Also Varian with two swords is a big strong man and he kisses your dad on the mouth.
I was a samuro main who climbed to high diamond. And this game was so fun. There are unique character there that no one in league or Dota can do. It's unique it doesn't have the I got 3 kills early and I'm a hyper carry therefore I 1v5. Everyone gets xp evenly.
This game had potential. A lot of it.
I remember when it basically got abandoned. I was so hype for the Ravenlord comic they started releasing. They were really awsome. They started to incorporate Nexus Heroes wich in my opinion were really cool (Orphea and Quira) and i was really excited for other Nexus heroes like the queen of thorns or champions of her and the Pirat bay skeleton or underlings of him. It was starting to get really amazing i thought. and then ..... shut down :(
As a player of HotS since alpha I hated original heroes. There was still a huge laundry list of characters to be added in a game that was always built and advertised as a crossover game. Now these literal OC donut steels come in and swipe game design that would've been interesting on more recognizable, marketable characters.
@@Mrcryptidsarereal We could have got Cenarius and instead we got Lunara. Edmund Duke and we got Sgt Nobody. Egon Stetmann and we got Generic Medic.
@@marcoferraro9471 At least they fill the roles of certain iconic RTS units. Orphea and Qhira are just League of Legends OCs whose kits are so fucking generic, you could put them on other Blizzard characters
Thank you for this video. It has made me realize why hots is so much more fun to me and why it is particularly painful blizzard gave up on it.
I've loved this game since the beta. Abathur main speaking! Some of my favorite moments in gaming, out of all the games I've played, have been sitting down and playing this with my father and some family friends of ours on my visits home where everyone grabs a laptop, gathers at the kitchen table, and yells excitedly as we attempt to win even a single pvp game. I loved those days!
Abathur connoisseurs unite
Thank you for this beautiful review, everything you mentioned in the video is exactly why I love hots the most. It just such a different creative way to look at a moba and I will continue to play it for as long as I can.
Okay, this was an amazing first video. Kind of like Sseth but without the child soldier PTSD.
I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna say it!
Ahem... I was here before he blew up, subscribing after seeing a single video.
*Basks in superiority juices*
The moment you pulled out the "Out of your friends which are you" meme, I knew abathur was going to be the apyr one. +5 pts for slumber party abathur
*Д Р У Г*
which is quite literally friend btw
Wish I got into this game when it was big, as it feels much more welcoming than say Dota’s massive list of items and other mechanics.
Also as someone familiar with previous Blizzard titles, I can get a better sense of what characters do. And really crossover games are always just cool to see
glad i found this channel, time to comment on literally every video I watch for the algorithm
"Darling, look, the little Sseths are already walking!"
My favorite hero in HoTS is vikings, It's just so fun and hard to control 3 characters at once and control 2 or 3 lanes by yourself. And always being top xp is fun. HoTS really has so many unique characters, like vikings, Abathur and Cho'gall who have such a wierd and fun concept that really changes up the moba
It's good to see another vikings fan. My favorite thing to do as them is have little guy captive the objective while fatty fights with the team, and sword pushing a lane. If played right they can put pressure on the enemy team like not other.
@@numnaut1314 I love the Olaf stun at lv 16, spin to win at 7 and then just kill assasins. They think they can survive but not against the might of the three lads. Also Erik is the real mvp for me.
Good Vikings players terrify me lol. Such a fucking crazy character concept.
@@thewalrus45 meepo in dota 2 makes u control like 6 heroes at once lmao
@@nandanthony Yeah but meepo is lame af compared to the vikings
i've played HotS since beta and always loved it, sometimes it wanted to play it more than LoL in my moba era because of not having to wait 15 minutes in lane to actually do something, i was very sad when they basically executed the game like some rabid dog, one day we had heroes of the dorms, having shits and giggles with the 6.5 score in IGN, making an ingame banner to laugh at it, and the other, all proplayers were out of job, the game received like 10 updates total since and everyone left the freaking game except the hardcore base
the only good thing that came out of the getting out of pro play being retired is that the character ideas were crazier than ever, we got freaking deathwing bieng a dickhead and denying allied heals for him to be unstoppable
i hope with all my heart that we see a return of this game
this game sounds amazing honestly, I played a bit of LOL like a decade ago but with all the new champions and having to memorise which items to buy I dont even want to try to get into it while this seems to be much more approachable
It's definitely more approachable - one of its strong suits is its barrier to entry isn't so high compared to the other MOBAs.
@@Verac_VG While it's also the hardest to master, with 2 or 3 unique builds and gameplay per character (90).
After watching his newer stuff, Verac not screaming sounds downright soothing lol
If anyone wants the source for 2:13’s tyrande pic, the artist’s called Demimond23, pretty decent art at times, would recommend a check every now and again.
Damn, I figured it was him, but this exact pic didn't get to the aggregators
This game is so much fun to play man, I especially enjoyed playing with the boss characters here, namely Cho'Gall (I played Cho, always with the same friend ^^), Ragnaros (his trait is way too awesome) and my favorite: Deathwing! there is never going to be another character like Deathwing in any MOBA and he's incredibly fun to play, you really feel like a final boss lol
Plus my girls D.Va and Zagara are here too, I can't with this game I love it so much, it hurts that it's no longer being updated ;(
PLUS THE MAPS I LOVED DRAGON SHRINE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Okay I'm gonna stop fangirling and come back to this game, at least for a while! even if the queue times suck lol
Really good video btw, glad to know there are more HotS enjoyers out there :3
Played since Closed Beta with Sgt. Hammer as my main. And man, this game is so much more dynamic anything else. That blood rush from teamfights that goes from very first seconds, these amazing maps with actually quite unique objectives, that goddamn headbanging music (especially on the Nuclear Test Site, with SC1 Terran remixes).
It truly feels like youre playing the entire game and not like you have to residentsleeper through half of it...
Wish they'd either gone into sleep mode before messing up Chromie or not gone into sleep mode at all. I didn't even use her in pvp, this game was for playing against bots for me, and I liked it. It was relaxing. I could play with one hand. I miss old Chromie.
I adore HotS, very happy to stumble across this video.
I said this... years ago, but HotS is the best MOBA.
The reason for this, is back when mobas first came out, moba players claim that despite not having base building, micro manage, or army building, their game was focused on team work more than RTS games(despite RTS games having teamwork modes). The more teamwork, the more 'skill' it needs.
In hots, you are unlikely to kill someone at full health by yourself before their teammates get to them or they get to base(with few exceptions, like broken characters like Qhira and whatnot). Thus theres more team fights and team work needed. There is also the shared exp, so once again, team focused instead of just one player going off and becoming a god.
dota players, being prideful children they are, will disagree with this and say dota requires more skill because more things to manage, you can mention RTS games and they will say dota requires more skill because teamwork.
Fact of the matter is, dota is the casual CoD of strategy games, with RTS being the quake and HotS being the splatoon.
Thank you for making this video. For more casual players I also want to mention: playing vs bots! The groups that cue for vs bot are actually super chill and it's genuinely really fun and casual. The bots team fight and push objectives without being mechanical gods (a decent team can win 10/10 times vs elite bots but not without trying). And the people who queue that are super chill! So if you have anxiety in playing pvp, HotS still has stuff you can do.
I'm generally not much of a pvp person, but I loved the idea of a moba. League just...didn't do it for me. The bots felt bad and learning the game felt like wading through hot coals. HotS is *much* nicer. You think a talent build looks decent? It probably is! No need to stress over if you're playing "the right way".
(Naturally there are always some builds stronger than others and you can become better over time, but my point is that it's hard to be useless in a game starting out for making 'bad build' decisions. Which means you have the space you need to effectively learn the characters you like, the maps, and the fame as a whole.)
I love this game! Absolutely fun. I played AoS back in SC1 and Dota in WC3, plus the million custom games in WC3 and SC2.
Heroes of the Storm brings all my favorite characters into one place, and also makes them super interesting even when their whole deal is “guy with gun”. I play with my best friend and my brother, it’s a blast. The only shortcoming is no surrender option, because the matchmaking is bad and sometimes you’re in situations where not only will you not win, you will spend the entire match getting slaughtered and not getting a single kill. Matchmaking can be pretty horrible lol
HotS' matchmaking is absolutely god awful, and I've played LoL since beta. For giggles I chose "I'm new to MOBAs" when I first played HotS and I think I saw the defeat screen for the first time about 3 months in because it just refused to stop putting me against actual new players, and then the first defeat was when my entire team was genuinely new and the enemy team was 5 premade vets
The amount of times I had to block a toxic player on my team only to be matched with them the next game was always dumb too
Way late to the party on this video but DAMN am I glad you made it. Any time discussions about mobas come up, I think about HotS. I miss this game every day and constantly wish Blizzard hadn't left it to grow mold in the back of the fridge, like your least favorite kind of cheese in a variety pack. The roster was honestly the biggest selling point for me because I could actually play as and listen to my favorite characters talk without having to play their associated games. You couldn't pay me to play Overwatch for more than an hour in one sitting, but I love Tracer being the cheeky little prick that she is, and being able to play as her in HotS was so nice.
For sure. HOTS technically helped introduce me to Starcraft and Diablo, the former being the only game I actually put substantial hours into but I can’t help but still love the character designs
Also Janitor Leoric is one of the best skins of all time
Sunnysundown art never fails
HE DON MISS!!!!
What bothered me about HotS was Blizzard, honestly. They slept on Dota for a decade and were salty that more people wanted to play a mod made using their own tools than their actual game.
But their solution to Dota and eventually LoL was HotS - which they themselves touted as a more 'casual and fun' MOBA that wasn't meant to be as competitive or hardcore...and one of the first things they did after HotS released was try to make a competitive, cash prize college-based tournament league(?) That to me always sent the wrong message, and they kinda did the same thing with Overwatch: Tried to turn a casual and fun game anyone could hop on and enjoy into a hyper competitive esport that it was never meant to be.
There were other events that bothered me - like unlocking skins in Overwatch and WoW or Hearthstone based on playtime in HotS, which just lead to thousands of players entering games just to idle for cosmetics in other games and thereby ruining the experience for anyone who genuinely wanted to play HotS...but Blizzard seems addicted these last few years to making bad decisions.
apparently revisiting this one year later. love this game and play nearly every day
Heroes of the Storm is my favorite MOBA. I like the focus on character talents and ultimates instead of generic items. I like the focus on teamwork instead of farming individual XP and gold for the late game. I like the faster pace of the gameplay. I like the changing maps.
I started on DOTA back in WC3. I moved to LoL and spent thousands of hours playing that game but I actually have the most *fun* playing HotS, and it kills me to see it abandoned.
Game is actually so good. The neutral objectives are actually interesting and encourage/force fighting rather than farming for 20 minutes just for the game to he decided by a single lane anyway
What got me so interested in HOTS are
- Level System: Everyone in the team share the same level. If the team is underlevel to the other team. Everyone is at fault.
- Ability Build: You can modified your character ability. And it can be different every match. Not just some classic the ability deal more damage and cd faster.
-Diverse Map: There are like everymap for each game Blizzard have. And each map have their own mechanics. They also have different narrators that interact with you
Edit: I comment this before he starts listing the thing I literally mention 😭
I can't number how many times i already watch this video, and keep watching every time again when is recommended
I agree, best Moba ever. Eliminating last hit mechanics and focusing on player skill and map awareness instead of item builds is just more fun in the genre. I could give a turd about E-Sports, it's just a fun casual game!
I used to play this game so much. I even went on the forums and came up with ideas for champions that could be added into the game. I felt like the lack of an esports scene would be good for hots. It meant they could focus on fun characters with unique play styles instead of hyper balanced meta games. This game had so much potential and it’s a shame seeing it holding on by a string.
Lack of eSports killed this game because in the end is mediocre game with unbalanced overfeatured heroe. Too much changes to often, mechanics are too random for any level of mastery and because of that there is no sustainable fun in our. It's like playing jump guys
You genuinely made me want to try Heroes of the Storm
So much potential. Our world is unpredictable and there is always a chance that HotS will recieve a love that it deserves.
Honestly I f'ing died when you described 11:07 💀The orangutang had me howling, I never laughed so hard in my life, my stomach hurts, my cheeks are ded, I was crying... honestly, f'ing subbed!
Okay first of all great points made about the game, secondly this was HILARIOUS and I loved it. Subscribed
I still play HotS from time to time. The game is amazing (Except Booty Bay that map sucks). I love being able to tank or heal without having to last hit. I love the map diversity. The game is so damn good.
Accurate review. Its the only MOBA I've ever played that didn't make me feel like shit for trying to learn how to play it. Damn good fun and much like Long John Silvers, I will do my part and keep it alive as long as I can as a consumer.
I loved playing Dehaka, just gaining more and more essence until I was basically unkillable if minions were nearby.
I miss this game, I tried replying it recently but the game was way too long and there wasn't a surrender mechanic to end the game early, and you can't just leave without getting that punishment. The heroes were way too expensive to buy and you got so little gold out of winning games, it was torture to grind.
I remember really liking Admiral Stukov, but he was too expensive to buy so I got him to mastery 8 simply by playing him on free rotation.
It's still a better store than Overwatch 2
man I miss playing big brain ball, "under which cup?" Samuro and Maiev
I thought this was a hate on hero’s vid, and then was pleasantly surprised! Thank you.
Makes me wanna play again!
Yeah, that thumbnail kinda felt like that too
It's sad that they discontuined on giving the game any new content. I got into the game a 2-3 months back and I enjoyed it greatly. Being a LoL vet and playing the game for.. god knows how long... Season 2 till about 2 years ago? It was a hateful toxic relationship and I couldn't stop. (Got injured and couldn't sit at the desk so there was my out. Thank god.) But yeah, tried HOTS and I enjoyed it a lot, I love the way how you can mismatch different skills to try out new plays in the game but with the fact that Blizzard just doesn't wanna give the game support anymore, it's sad that it is gonna be a dying game.
Relatable. Sad that it's discontinued, but I'm going to continue enjoying it on and off for as long as it's available.
@@Verac_VG Likewise! Maybe I will see you in a game sometime in the future. If so, good luck. ;P
I was expecting to hear a mention about Blizzard All Stars being abbreviated to "B-All-S"
as someone who played both iterations at blizzcon and got to 40 in the alpha, thanks for making this , much easier to link your thoughts I agree with then type for hours about mine.
Still wish they didn't can the pro scene right as it was picking up steam, it's almost comical that with HotS 3 year eSports league it paid more to players out than 15 years of arena gameplay from world of Warcraft. combined.
The things I love the most about HotS is the MommyStaraza SunnyS big cabooses and the fact that no matter what you fo you contribute to the team. That's the essentials of the team play.
Yeah what a perfect video !!! Thanks and congratulations !!
You Sir got me to play HOTS again . IDK who u are , IDK what u are but i will find you and like your video !
Man i remember back in the day when i tried out all of the mobas and coudnt get into any :
League ? My friends kept trying to push me to play it but i just didnt like it
Smite ? Interesting concept and had familiar faces as i liked myth and gods stuff but it was a bit too complex .
Dota ? Idk i just coudnt get into it
And then this new moba gets released from my (back then) favorite company Heroes of the Storm . It was such a fun experience !
I loved Orphea even doe everyone kinda hated on her for being an OC .
I remember how i was chilling in a pro players chat when the announcement came around Christmas about how they are gutting the pro scene .
I remember when they announced they are putting the game into maintenance mode and swore to never buy anything from blizzard again .
The game was basically all i was doing for a long time . Thanks for making me remember the fond times and making me play it again !
It's so weird how other moba elitists will defend the "chore" mechinics of their games over near constant combat.
It's called Effort Justification. To resolve the Cognitive Dissonance between "I'm a smart person who makes good decisions" and "I willingly put myself through hell", they convince themselves that they enjoyed the struggle and the tedium. That having done so was acceptable, or even virtuous. They suffered, and must therefore insist to everyone and themselves that their suffering was worth it. That their Effort was Justified.
It's the same reason why college fraternities subject their pledges to hazing. It makes the newbies prone to convincing themselves their participation in the frat was worth all the crap they went through to get there. It doesn't matter if it was actually fun. They tell themselves it was fun, to not feel like a sucker.
Last-hitting for 4 hours a day makes you cooler, of course. Like smoking, or drunk driving.
Because there's no depth with something like HOTS, it's literally JUST fighting
I used to play League for several years (stopped playing MOBAs overall 7-8 months ago because they're just bad) and tried HOTS a couple times, but it was so incredibly boring just throwing yourself into combat over and over. The combat in HOTS also just felt so unsatisfying.
@@pixxlated_ maybe you lack the skill and as such were only capable of perceoving surface level elements. 7 months ain't exactly a long time to be playing on and off.
@@pixxlated_ League of Legend combat where people kill each other in 1-2 seconds is stupid to me. But if that's what you're used to and enjoy, then I can see that higher time to kill being boring.
That said, I don't think you've mastered the HotS macro yet if you've played it a couple of times. And you can e.g. play a splitpusher, or Abathur, or Cho-Gall for a unique experience.
HOTS being left abandoned and unloved is one of my personal biggest gaming betrayals. I'd never touch Smite or LoL again if this still had the backing and support of the parent companies. A MOBA designed for actual *gameplay enjoyment* and it wildly succeeded at that!
Yo I really enjoyed this video! I lost it at 12:00
im glad you liked it! I loved recording that part haha
Just the review I wanted to see 👍 if this feeling carries to a more recent video then I'll play for a while.
The way you described Leoric had me rolling on the floor, 10/10