A suggestion to make Heroes of the Storm more competitive

General Discussion
1

Heroes of the Storm already has some of the best hero designs and team fighting in the MOBA genre. If Microsoft truly wants to revive the game and make it competitive with LoL and Dota again, I honestly think the solution is simpler than people think.

The game needs a higher skill ceiling.

My suggestions:

  1. Bigger maps
    Current HotS maps are too compact. Bigger maps would create more meaningful rotations, punish bad positioning harder, increase macro strategy, and make map control matter more.

  2. Remove mounts
    Mounts reduce downtime, but they also reduce strategic punishment. Without mounts, rotations become a real skill again. Positioning, wave management, and map awareness would matter far more.

  3. Remove point-and-click / auto-aim abilities
    The game should reward mechanics and prediction. Skillshots create hype, outplays, and individual expression. Every important ability should require aiming and timing instead of guaranteed value.

HotS already has:

  • amazing heroes

  • strong team fights

  • unique objectives

  • shorter matches

What it lacks is enough mechanical and macro depth for long-term competitive retention.

These 3 changes alone would massively increase:

  • skill expression

  • outplay potential

  • strategic depth

  • spectator excitement

The game wouldn’t lose its identity — it would evolve into a more competitive version of itself.

2

This is why AI shouldn’t write your own posts, it ruins the game.

5 Likes
3

Game was plenty competitive when it was still in active development and HGC, Heroes of the Dorm, etc. were active.

Long story short: Hots 2.0 came out, The monetization failed, they killed HGC and development and the pro’s left to go play other games.

Solution: Rework the game/monetization, Bring back active development and prize pools. The competitive scene we resurge.

The core of the game is still solid. People come back to the game all the time, they just need to fix what I state above.

1 Like
4

Chat should I waste time on this AI?

5

Yes.

LoL has almost none, DOTA has a lot more. It’s hardly about that.

Yes, mounts make the game worse. They cannot be removed now, because of an even worse design mistake: giving heroes basekit global mobility. Neither LoL nor DOTA did that…because they knew it’s just too much power.
Removing mounts would just make these heroes even more busted now.

Might be it, but only if they removed global heroes. The space between enemy and allied gates is just too short for ganks to happen. It takes 2+ people to gank a lane, and the rewards are minimal, as xp is shared. You need a bunch of kills for your stats to go up…4%. A talent tier is a pretty solid advantage…but a temporary one, that is getting reduced constantly to prevent snowballs.

HOTS has a lot of things…that make it an ok game to play after work. It’s simple & casual.

LOL has similar macro to hots (although slightly better with drakes, souls and baron). But it’s the micro that makes it shine. AA resets, abilities, combos; every champ has a form of CC, even if it’s just a slow. Getting a few kills in lane makes you a lot more than 4% better than your enemy. There’s no wells, and going base to heal and returning guarantees you lose xp and gold, setting you behind.

DOTA is more complex in both aspects (although, as I wrote before, it has plenty abilities and even whole heroes that don’t need to aim any ability). There’s camps everywhere. You can drag them to stack them, even multiple times. There’s special places for wards… ults are crazy, and you can tp in the middle of the enemy team with active items and instantly ult them without them having a clue or any chance to react.
While it has a higher skill ceiling, it’s likely too high for most people to enjoy it.

I agree that the game is oversimplified, but I suspect there’s some issues with the ‘amazing heroes’ as well. Like checkers though, HOTS found its own audience. It’s just smaller than other games (like checkers is less popular then chess).

6

That would be cool. However, this is Activision. They don’t care about esports. They never have and they never will.

1 Like
7

I don’t know. What I remember are the same heroes being picked over and over. Greymane was in every game when not banned.

1 Like
8

Not sure what era you are referring too. Certainly in the early years the Hero pool was smaller, so you would see the same heroes picked. I think we’re up to 90 heroes and with active balancing (and continued new heroes added to bump the meta), it shouldn’t be an issue.

9

I’m talking about the era you reffered to? HGC pre 2.0. The meta was not very diverse.

10

When 2.0 hit, HOTs had the biggest dev team at Blizz. They were cranking out new heroes like every 2 weeks or so. Then someone took a look at the balance sheets and realized they weren’t making that much money compared to other franchises, and things started falling off a cliff…and here we are now.