I very much doubt new players prioritize this. Mostly they’re just trying new heroes.
Plus, it’s not quality matches when picks make no sense. Like zero waveclear on Braxis.
They do, its a very common complaint, so common that the matchmaking for a time made sure we had a tank and a healer on every team (times became so high that blizzard drooped that idea). They care a lot less not having waveclear on braxis
Would locking formats help in the matter? I can understand them not doing this as they would worry the new player population would just get bored or the queues are longer but. I would vote to have both QM and AI open from the start. And lock the other formats with an account level cap. Open unranked on, say, lvl 100 and ranked on 150. It’s not much of a change as one could easily get to those levels in a month or two if theyre enjoying themselves.
-make a large chunk of the roster truly Free to play.
-get rid of unranked as a game mode.
-make 1-2 hero mirror matches okay without expanded queue in QM.
The goal of these:
-making lots of heroes truly F2P: greater roster of heroes to choose from, opens up more tanks/healers to new players so they can play the tank/healer they like more making those roles more prevalent in QM. Improves team compositions generally speaking.
-getting rid of URD: with SL’s barrier to entry being so low, URD is kinda meh. Should also bring more players to other modes, making SL have lower Queues, and QM a larger playerbase to make more fair games from with equal/lower queue times.
-allowing these 1-2 heroes being mirrored should let the matchmaker match players who are all clustered around one skill level and giving both teams healers/tanks much more easy. Reducing one sided games.
Fourth “stretch” change that I’m of two minds of:
-make unranked mode and SL put players into the same games, just games queued in unranked mode don’t change your SL rank.
I wish to be very clear, I am very much of two minds on this “stretch” change. As it would be very problematic in a lot of ways. It would have some benefits, but 9/10 (99/100?) days I would say it has more harms. The other day is where you catch me drunk!
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Haha yeah, I can see the unranked people not taking the match as seriously because they know they lose nothing
I’d say that the biggest problem on the starting experience is actually on the learning process which is at least chaotic, the game nature of focusing on teamfights (specially in low/beginner level) usually means new players can’t really understand what’s happening and will usually learn each heroes’ capabilities only by using them when they’re free to play, meanwhile they’ll get wrecked by everything while receiving no feedback, and that takes a looong time. Most new players don’t have a friend determined to truly teach them the game but the game also shouldn’t need it to happen.
I tought about creating a topic about it when I started to introduce one of my friends to the game but I kinda forgot about it when his computer died. I’d suggest some feedback when you die in certain ways, a pop-up summary of each hero’s kit in the loading screen and maybe even a better tutorial
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This is how I’m doing it. Its pretty effective knowing the potential of every hero somewhat.
But yea the learning part… Been there, still there.
What does help me the most though is actually watching my own replays. When youre playing youre completely blind to your mistakes but once you watch yourself again you can figure out when you should have reacted faster or where your position should have been. So that when you play again you can at least try to avoid the same mistakes.
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It’s a common complaint among regular players, not among new players.
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Nope it’s common among new players, it’s literally the reason a lot of players quit, personal friends of mine included : bad team comps with no tanks and healers leading to a bad match experience where everyone dies in 2 seconds
It is an issue, it’s the reason a made this thread in the first place
Source?
What do new players even know about HotS team comps?
New players are just a hidnerance in draft modes. They barely have Heroes, they know nothing about draft, they lack game knowledge (roles, maps, builds, matchups, counters).
I’m mostly fine with this, cuz it’s a weird mode, a wonky version of draft.
QM is not
and the reasons it’s the main mode are:
- PvP mode
- You don’t need to fill (doesn’t matter how many Heroes you have)
- You don’t need to draft (quicker, and you don’t need the knowledge of a veteran)
- Has a slower pace than ARAM (which could also be a starter mode, but!: QM and vsAI are the most popular modes for a reason, no constant brawling on one lane, so ppl can chill and gain macro-sense)
- Least toxic (at least from my experience. Both ARAM and Draft modes require filling and comp-building which leads ppl to (un)rightfully call out their teammates on their choices)
- and yes, it’s more and more popular, because ppl see it’s more popular
It’s fine that you think QM is a “hell” or whatever you’d like to call it (even if you play it), but that’s the best PvP mode for ppl to learn.
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It’s hots, not rocket science, it’s not hard figure out that teams with a tank and a healer work better then teams without one or both of these roles.
Also there is a tutorial that can teach that to new players, it’s not hard
Hots is not new, the moba genre even less, if draft was such a issue Leage of legends wouldn’t be as successful as it was. Over there the first thing you do after the tutorial is draft and people handle that just fine
I don’t think Qm is hell per se, like I said is what I mostly play, I think it it’s hell for a newcomer
That’s why my suggestions go around directing people to Unranked, through changes in the UI and making the mode more acessible , so newcomers, if they choose to do so, can play in a more organized Kind of game
QM is still there, it’s just not the first tab in the game mode.
This was exactly what happened with the last couple of friends I tried to bring to HOTS, they didn’t stick around a month
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the issue you have, is at least in NA, Unranked is dead.
And all throwing new players in there is going to do is make them quit because queue times are forever, while also not helping with QM queues (if not hurting it).
There was a time where QM could have been superseded by a more draft-like mode. That time was in beta or with the 2.0 launch. It has past, thankfully.
The truth is, the development team made QM work with solid matches a few years ago. And the community overall, HATED it. Not the online community, mostly, if memory serves. But the people who play and don’t talk online. And the big issue with it was increased queue times (which personally were like, maybe 30 seconds longer in the worst case most of the time).
Yeah I remember that time, queues could be very long depending on the region or play time. But i cant blame people for wanting QM to be quick.
As for unranked to be dead, well it is dead because there is no incentive in playing it. It blocked to newcomers, QM is the first mode after vs ui in the game tab and by the time you unlock UR you can as well play Storm League anyway
And why do you think any kind of Draft mode (where the comp-building is everyone’s responsiblity) will be any better for new comers?
At every lvl of Draft, there are flames for reasonable and unreasonable picks (be it Role, Hero, Build, Talent, Heroic).
Performing well in Draft imo takes more skill. Plus imo, QM forcing ppl into adaptaion, learning to play from behind, from being countered, and Draft takes that away. It’s more generalised.
This game had so much potential, and in my opinion quickmatch was a huge reason that potential was not lived up to.
It’s such a horrible mode. Other MOBAs don’t have quickmatch. They still have casual modes but their casual modes involve a bit of fast drafting. And it’s soooo much better, and never once in my life have I seen anyone on another MOBA complaining that their casual mode has drafting, and asking for drafting to be removed for ANY reason.
But people here used to quickmatch and never tried any othre mode will invent all kinds of reasons in their head why there shouldn’t be drafting including an imagined overblown toxicity over being pressured to fill
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I guess somewhat you kinda know, but not the knitty gritty stuff you guys go into detail on.
Just that, oh ok we’ve got a tank, a support, 2 ranged.A and a melee.A we have good balance.
They dont delve into traits/ultimates that comps are made of nobody has those memorized yet.
Then why are QM and ARAM more popular than unranked and SL?
The “Tutorial” teaches nothing. It never even mention roles, or comps or even objectives. It just tells you to attack things.
The reasons I think that are very well e explained already in the OP and several other answers so I will not repeat myself
Every single other MOBA in the market does that as several posters noted here
Draft is not hard guys, no matter how much you pretend it to be
It leads to better comps by definition
The reason is very self explanatory in the OP but i will say it again.
Because is the only available option for a newcomer. You CANT play unranked. As I said before by the time it becomes available most ppl already left or start playing ranked mode. If you enjoy hots and QM you will not bother with other modes, if you dont like QM you will leave the game before unranked is avaible. Thats the whole point.
So it cant never ever be changed to something actually useful? Umm… someone should open a thread about the starting experience and give some feedback about it . Oh wait…
I don’t find your reasoning to be well explained.
Draft is hard.
The “everyone else does it so it must be better that way” is not an argument, rather a fallacy.
Draft is not equals with better comps by default.
Draft is more toxic.
And if Draft fulfills your expectations, ppl don’t learn how “non-meta” comps can win, which is super bad imo.