Macro is way too focused on at the cost of micro skill. The question for me would be HOW to change the balance of micro vs macro and NOT the question of IF we need to change the balance.
One way to increase micro skill over macro is laning. Most hots players don’t want laning but a good compromise would be OPTIONS whether to do a 4-1 lane setup or 1-3-1 lane setup. And how would we push for 1-3-1 to be viable? Here’s how: Make minions and mercs move slower. Lower pve damage against other pve units. However, have minions deal bonus damage to structures. What this does is give more time for players to rotate to lanes as minions move slower, they don’t kill each other as quickly, and this would emphasize needing a dedicated laner to push the lane. A 4-1 team comp can still work as that’s what works now. A 1-3-1 team comp will start to be viable against 4-1 as if the 4 man takes a risky ambush on a one laner, the other two lanes will suffer
A second change to emphasize micro play over macro play would be decreasing the experience minions give. Lower the globe xp from minions to 50 (from 80) as a start. Probably it’d need nerfs to 40 per globe. Increase the experience gained from killing heroes.
The effects of increasing micro skill over macro would give more individual agency over the game. Making 1-3-1 comps more viable would give a second solo laner the opportunity to deny xp from the enemy and showcase individual skill in a match. Now before people complain about increase micro skill I’ll point out these changes would barely affect two lane maps. You’ll still get “classic” hots in two lane maps. Tomb of the spider queen has short distances between its lanes so I doubt 1-3-1 will overpower 1-4 comps too heavily. Alterac pass (where 1-3-1 lanes are fine already) and volskaya will be the most affected where they’d pretty much solidify two dedicated solo laners.
A third change to increase micro skill would be to increase tower health. Towers lasting longer would ensure macro pushers cannot shove lanes too quickly. It’d also give solo laners more chances if they are to die early as their tower won’t go down too quickly.
If you want games like this go play ARAM or Battlerite where you can battle one on one.
What the game needs are better ways for making good decisions like soaking, taking camps at the right time (not blindly whenever), and global awareness matter more.
Getting rid of macro play isn’t going to allow you to suddenly carry games, but emphasizing better macro impact will.
Hmm. Im not sure your suggestions would achieve the outcomes you want.
Slower minion speed means more time to stay as a 4 man.
Less xp per minion means less need to rotate which means more time spent as a 4 man
Strangely enough, you said that:
And yet you’re trying to come up with a game where:
Why try introducing a second solo laner when you said that players dont even like laning?
…
Now when i watch pro games you see very prominent 4-1 team match ups. However, In normal man’s land it’s not so defined.
Towers of Doom showcases this phenomenon. When 2 towers spawn, the pros devolve into a gentleman’s agreement where you cap one, we’ll cap the other. The fight is not worth it. In QM there will be a mad fight to try cap both.
When 3 towers spawn, the pros retain their 4-1 team compositions. The solo laners respectably cap their own towers whilst a 4 man brawl occurs on the 3rd. In QM, you might see a 1-2-2 composition where they will cap one whilst poking the other 2 enough to delay time for something to happen.
I mean that’s more a matter of the fight being worth it or not. Towers of doom is a map where it’s extremely important not to slip behind because of this because if 2 towers spawn and 1 team is a talent tier ahead, the other team is now going to have a real problem on their hands. Especially if that talent tier is 10 or 20.
But why? It would just turn every game mode into brawl. Which already exists for that very reason. You could just play brawl if you just want more fights and no macro.
Why do you feel solo laners need more chances? It would make the game last a lot longer if you get nothing after winning your lane. Especially since you already reduced xp gain. This means Micro matters even less. You have no motivation for winning your lane, since you won’t get anything done while your opponent is dead.
(I also have to point out that making minions deal more damage to structures doesn’t do anything if you also increase the health of towers)
Those changes would make grouping in one lane the best strategy every time. Macro heroes would never be played.
Well, to be fair, it does mean that players must now deal more damage to destroy them, as would camps. The rest of the points you made were solid, though, but there are 4 groups to consider there so a change to 2 of them isn’t exactly zero sum.
HOTS’s macro emphasis is why I play this game and not other MOBAs. I like it because it rewards intelligent play and awareness over rote mechanical ability. The game still has high skill cap heroes that reward mechanical ability, but not at the expense of macro skill.
I know it isn’t for everyone, but to me this is a core part of what sets HOTS apart from other MOBAs, and if you don’t like it maybe HOTS isn’t for you.
Somehow LoL pulls off making micro important than macro. There are splitpushers in LoL but typically teamfights are also a strategy going into the endgame just like hots
This game when compared to Dota and LoL are reversed. In LoL and Dota, you spend the first 15-20 min focusing primarily on micro play while the end game is more dependant on macro play.
In this game, early game Macro seems to be more significant than late game macro while late game micro is far more important than early game micro.
I see no purpose to fix these differences. It would however be nice if Blizzard incorporated more heroes that could solo merc camps from lvl one without requiring too much assistance.
It kinda doesn’t at low skill levels. This is one of my main issues with HOTS. You actually can be a brain dead split pusher, cover lanes, have minimal contact with enemies, and soak your way to gold, but that is actually one of the least skilled things in the game.
This is why so many people get stuck at gold/plat, because they’ve been taught terrible habits because it actually is a legitimate way to rank up.
Once they start facing people who know how to respond and don’t let you push freely, these players struggle so bad. They start complaining why people are fighting all the time, and think their only way to get back into the game is to double down on soaking, rather than actually being good at the macro to know where to go and the micro to respond to situations once you’re there.
they actually changed this sometime 3 or 4 years ago, before, you couldn’t avoid things like the siege giant rocks
now they are thrown on the ground instead of being an invisible homing missile against you… and every hero can solo them if given enough time by avoiding the rocks
Very good post. Now that I think of it, it has parallels to chess. You can get severely outplayed no matter how much you memorize things or are good at quick moves. (The best grand masters in chess can think as far ahead as 10-15 moves, known as ‘depth’).
I wish the game had more stuff like the Medivac cheese that completely bypasses certain “features” like teamfights and objectives.
There are a lot of ways to get to the enemy core and checkmate it. Makes HotS fun.
That sounds terrible. And that’s not to say that’s a wrong way to play a kind of game. Just sounds terrible in THIS game. Play a strategy game if that’s what you want.
LoL, that’s impressive. I’d like to see that. But I don’t see how that’s a good analogy. Not getting warp gate makes the game harder. To succeed, you have to more than make up with your talents in some other manner. Being a bad super soaker doesn’t make the game harder for you until you get to the ranks where it stops being effective. Because the truth is, the way they played macro was never intelligent or skillful, it just worked.
Did artanis collect xp after the minute mark passed? Xp gains increase throughout game time even if they’re on the ground before each specific minute mark
