So, I’m a moba player since like, forever. When HotS came out, I dismissed it pretty quickly because it felt way too simple. Over the years, after so many matches of Dota, getting angry and frustrated about the insane amount of trolls and smurfs, I eventually uninstalled it when they removed my favorite hero, Techies.
I tried LoL but it was a terrible, terrible experience. Uninstalled it after two games.
Tried HoN a last time, being an all time fan, but the game is just so different from what it was, both in visuals and in gameplay. It was pointless anyways since it’s going off soon.
Now, I tried HotS once again. And boy, it’s much better than I remembered. The game looks and feels great, I enjoy playing with such beloved characters, and I barely saw anyone complaining ingame. Most of my games people actually congratulate each other and say “GGWP” after the game is over, it’s so weird.
HotS is a great game and should be more recognized in the moba scene,
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It’s the nostalgia. Just give it a few weeks and you’ll want to disable chat again 
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If HotS is better than you remembered, your memory sucks.
HotS is in the worst state it’s ever been. HotS is friendly to casual players like you because it takes no skill to win. Winning is mostly random outside of organized 5v5 play, which nobody does.
Competitive players hate HotS because the balance and overall design is a joke.
Glad to see someone else is enjoying the game as much as I am! If I only got to play one multiplayer game for the rest of my life, this would be it 
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Unfortunately the stigma around it is it’s a game for casuals, I’m going to guess mostly so competitive players in other games can feel good about themselves, unlikely to really boom in popularity, but I definitely think the game and the developers deserve it
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Is it really unfortunate if
- Casual players outnumber competitive players ($$$)
- Toxic tryhards stick to games like League of Legends instead of coming to HotS
I personally like the stigmas surrounding it as is!
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The laning phase and the skill involved with last hitting minions is such a huge component of most other MOBAs. If you strip that aspect away, you’re left with a giant gap in the gameplay of those games.
The HoTS team took a step back and asked the question, “Is last hitting minions actually any fun?” For some siege heroes like Azmo or Murky it is a fun little minigame. As a baseline requirement for all characters? No, last hitting is terrible.
So what they did was significantly downplayed the laning phase and replaced it with more interesting stuff to do like team fights.
It’s kind of like Starcraft 1 vs Starcraft 2. In SC1 you could only select a maximum of 12 units. In SC2 you can control an unlimited amount.
Trying to control vast armies 12 units at a time required a ton of skills. Is it fun? Not really.
Is SC2 easier than SC1 because of this change? No, because that APM requirement was filled with more interesting things to do like more unit abilities and micro.
TL;DR: Laning is such a huge component for most MOBAs that when HoTS stripped it back it gave players the impression that the game was too easy. Instead what happened was that laning was instead replaced with more interesting stuff to do.
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Not necessarily their fault. Ultimately one of HoTS’ biggest downfalls was its release date. LoL is a convoluted game filled with a truck load of unnecessary complexities that requires a huge time investment to get your head around.
Kind of like learning the English language. English is a red hot mess of a language and i have massive respect for people trying to learn it as their second language. There are rules, exceptions to those rules and rules which straight up don’t make sense.
For example, you could have a rule like “I before E except after C”.
Fine. However, I before E except after C has been disproven by Science.
If you’ve taken the time to study all of its intricacies you can then articulate yourself in such a way that few others can. Your knowledge makes you feel superior and for some people that’s pretty fun.
LoL is the same.
By the time HoTS released, players had invested so much time studying LoL that it’s too hard to give up on that investment. After all this time, why learn a new game when you can be the master of this one?
From personal experience that’s how i felt about MMORPGs. I’d sunk countless hours into WoW, so by the time new (and objectively better) MMORPGs came out I had no interest in trying them. Why be a nobody in a new game when I was a decked out level 70 Tauren warrior named Constabull who was well regarded by the PuG community for carrying them through dungeons?
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Nice post! I agree, HOTS has always been pretty good. One of the reasons for me is because it connects with the characters I played growing up really. HOTS got the best graphics out of all the mobas and it’s deceptively simple but hard :d … However, on DOTA, there’s just something so ASMR about hitting heroes and creeps with auto-attack on there though. Especially as Marci fartsy or Bro Master lol
Anywho, I think there were 2 peaks that HOTS was lucky to have! The first was the obvious initial spur of the game when HGC was around. The second peak was almost 2 years ago just after HGC closed down, but the Devs were free to look after HOTS. Because the Devs got free reign of it, they looked after HOTS like it was their own in a way, so they were able to add their own flavors and creativity. There were so many beautiful art covers, skins, content updates, patches/buffs along with their own ideas and reworks, and the Devs looked like they were enjoying it too. Despite their hard-work, the only thing that held them back was the game needed more exposure and advertisement.
Also I like to think someone working different departments of Blizzard saw the HOTS team were having way too much fun in their job and told the manager to move them into different boring departments, despite the HOTS team back then being highly efficient and creative. Oh and that crappy Dibs II rework took more of the Devs away as well. Makes me sick and I wasn’t happy about that 
… Wasn’t long after that, we got what we got. The game is going a little slow, but it’s still got heart and it will always be fantastic lol
There maybe a third hidden peak and that’s after the acquisition of Blizzard by Microsoft. Our boy Bill Gates might inject additional funds and an extra team for the game. Like I always say, Microsoft spent almost 70 billion dollars buying Blizzard, so it wouldn’t make sense to leave HOTS to die after spending that much on it, especially with the incredible potential HOTS has. HOTS is like a hidden gem and an Orc goldmine! Maybe HGC might open up again one day and I can resend my application to join HGC again lol
At the moment, my line of work and times is very consuming for me, but I get hyped thinking about playing HOTS sometimes lol. I enjoyed the times I use to play with my online friends and real-life co-workers on HOTS and on DOTA before work started consuming meh :d
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