I’ve casually played MOBAs, but figured out of any of them, HoTS personally seems the most appealing.
I know the game is in “maintenance mode,” but as a new player, what’s the best way to learn the “meta” and catch up and learn what’s needed?
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To get a feel of the maps and heroes vs A.I is a good place to start. It won’t help learning all the strategies or how to play against others, but can lay the ground work of what to do on maps, game mechanics, and the various heroes.
While not quite the most accurate place to look, Heroes of the Storm Builds, Guides, and News - Heroes of the Storm - Icy Veins has a good amount of information pertaining to hots.
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First of all, asking for help here is the right answer, so good on you!
Second, Troubled is correct about starting vs the AI to learn the basics.
Third, and this is important: HotS IS A TEAM ACTIVITY. This affects every part of the game:
- Unlike other MOBAs, XP is shared among all players of the same team. This means that deaths are way more impactful than last-hits (going 12-7 kills/deaths is actually a recipe to lose), something counter-intuitive to someone coming from DOTA or League. This also means that soaking XP in lane is important for the entire team, but that you’re not fighting with your own team for gold or somesuch.
- Characters in the game are generally designed around the teamfight, so much so that characters which are solo champions (Zagara, for instance) are noteable for that difference.
- Objectives matter, and matter a lot. Be sure to show up on time. You can win by split pushing during an objective, but that requires coordination with the rest of your team.
Fourth, the single biggest skill to learn at the beginning is to look at your minimap.
Seriously, look at it.
Look.
LOOK.
More than anything, learning to keep track of and understand what’s happening in that little corner of the screen is the single biggest difference I’ve seen between Bronze-Gold players, and every one else above that.
Finally, when you find yourself on the receiving end of some nerd-rage from someone in the game, just remember HotS Rule #1: It’s always someone else’s fault.
Good luck out there, and welcome to the game!
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Also to add onto my previous comment, if you plan on playing with others, do not linger to awful long in vs A.I. You will develop really bad habits fighting the A.I as they will allow you get away with things most players will not let you get away with. On the flipside, you can get away with certain strategies, as well as skills, that you cannot get away with against A.I.
Skills such as Sylvanas’ Wailing Arrow can be borderline worthless against the A.I as they are not coordinated enough nor do they stay dead long enough to make such an impactful skill’s usage worthwhile. However, against actual players a properly fired Wailing Arrow can have devasting effects and change the pace of the game.
Additionally, sacrificing yourself to take out a bot is not only ill advised, but strongly discouraged, whereas sacrificing yourself to take out a troublesome opponent could give your teammates the opening they need to pull ahead of the opposing team.
Those are just examples that I can think of, but if you just want to lollygag in vs A.I with live teammates or bot teammates then it won’t be an issue.
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Use IA to give you an idea of the game, watch the other heroes and the maps. Even if you come from other mobas I advice you to don’t try quick match from the beggining.
After you get the idea of the maps layout (objetives, structures, lanes, mercenaries etc) and some basic heroes interactions; start to think which heroes are interesting for you.
In the starter menu: Collection>Heroes. You can pick and try any hero to get an idea of how it works. For some reason in this game you need to buy heroes (with ingame currency) and some heroes cost a lot relative to other mobas, so that’s why I advice to look very well which toons are appealing to you.
No idea what is the trigger because I never used other account, but in: Collection>Hero Bundles, will be avaliable a pack of heroes for 100 gems (in game currency). You can only pick one, but 100 gems is a very low cost. The bundle is like 20 heroes, but you can only pick one this way, after that the other bundles become real money price if I’m not mistaken.
As any game, your focus is undestand what is happening, so you can take the boring route and read every hero skill and talent or the normal videogame aproach and discover while playing.
Saw some cool or strange kit from ally or enemy IA? Go and try the hero.
After that you can know what the hero can or can’t do. I will focus a lot in learn what stuff is a skill shot and what not, so you can have an idea when you can outplay stuff by “micro”, get an idea of cooldowns, delay or instant, etc.
Excuse my french, but what you mean by this? Which heroes are in demand or something like that?
If not, the game need players that look at minimap and don’t tunnel vision, especially in teamfights.
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The best way is probably to have a friend/player/coach, but outside of that I’d echo a bit of the above posts: use the “try me” mode and ai to get a grasp of a few heroes before jumping into pvp.
HotS doesn’t have gold – as a resource – and generally doesn’t benefit from last hitting, but it does help to ‘try’ heroes (through the collection) and practice some spell combinations and talent picks on a target dummy to get a feel for range and timing, especially if you have previous experience with other “MOBA”
Some ai games can then introduce map objective variations, but some specific maps can be picked through the custom-games mode and fill slots with ai so you’re not reliant on rng for some map choices. Healers provide more routine healing in HotS than other games I’ve played and they trade that for, conditionally, less killing potential.
Dota & Lol generally dictate the team-role based on gold distribution, but for HotS, it’s mostly based on initial hero choice for tank/initiator, healer/support, and dps. The game-culture generally favors ‘filling’ so people advice learning at least 4 heroes: a tank, a healer, a ranged dps, and then a +1. Since 1 hero is all it takes to get all of the team xp, some levels of play favor having specific heroes do most of the xp collection for a decent chunk of the game while the other 4 players roam, take mercenary camps, or push lanes, so the “+1” could be one of the odd-ball heroes that can play multiple lanes.
There are a few HotS discord servers so you might be able to use their LFG tools to ask someone to assist with pointers or playing out some games since that’s more ‘real time’ than the forums, but I also haven’t used those in a few years myself. Here’s a link for one that seems to still be active if discords are more your jam:
https://discord.com/channels/127283257120129035/127288051293618177
Lastly, regarding meta-gameplay, there is a third-party parser site for checking stats: heroesprofile.com/. Hero popularity and ‘influence’ tabs can help indicate what are ‘powerful’ heroes that may then be more common to encounter, or may indicate a niche expert, or “OP” hero, and potential build-choices for those heroes if you try to counter-pick around those details.
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Good link!
One note of caution for the new player, though: you’re better off being good at a few different characters and doing the basics (map, macro, etc.) well, than trying to play something you don’t know just because it’s perceived as OP, or as a counter to another player’s pick.
The reason for this is that 1) again, it’s a team game, and thus basic skills and teamwork beat comp, especially at lower levels, and 2) while the game has plenty of “soft” counters, there are few “hard” counters.
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definitely don’t ask on these forums for advice, you’ll get the same 3-4 players giving nonsensical, bad advice, while actively silencing anyone else who might say anything to you.
so instead of providing something helpful, you post dishonest overgeneralized claims that are unsubstantiated…
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my advice to OP, if you had actually read my post, was to avoid the forums and just have fun, as there are a group of 3-4 le epic formies (including yourself 
) who actively silence and gatekeep the community.
Look, I call you out on falsehoods and effectual lies frequently. If you’re going to deride someone about reading your post, it might help if you bothered to be aware enough of your our writing.
definitely don’t ask on these forums for advice, you’ll get the same 3-4 players giving nonsensical, bad advice, while actively silencing anyone else who might say anything to you.
There’s a direct lack of what you claim in your content.
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Xenterex lives in your mind, rent free. 
Just use block bro.
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Ideally if you have a group of friends, it’s easy. Play together, try out heroes, no pressure.
I only played AI sparingly, mostly just to test stuff.
I don’t know how it works as a new player but Quick Match offers something I was direly missing from DotA 2: the opportunity to keep practicing.
When playing a hero, I usually play several matches. As advice I’d say 3 is a bare minimum, I did 12 and now 10. If I don’t know the hero, first match I signal my intentions by not even joining the initial teamfight. Test my abilities during the first few minutes without awful pressure, and then likely 1v1 a bit. Unless I get ganged. Second match I likely joing the mid fight to check what I offer, and then the rest should be fine.
I usually stick to a build but you could also say that 10 matches give you time to get a little familiar. I find that it usually takes until hero level 10-15 to really start understanding what each talent offers.
This is very similar to the original Heroes experience. Paid heroes aside, we played the free rotation and made sure to reach level 5 with each hero to earn the gold and the portrait.
You may also find that some role suits you better, and want to delve deeper into its pool. It can change over time, like I’m still best with ranged assassins but I also like to make big moves and that’s generally a bruiser move, plus-minus (tank and certain melee assassins like Qhira).
Edit: If you seem to get disconnects, uninstall and move away as quick and far as possible. The game is beyond finicky and fragile, in my case it’s a constant issue for the past two months. Only when we’re ahead, not curious at all.
One more thing, chat. Some people use it, some don’t. It’s best to learn ping communication. Double pings give emphasis (I’m going there, I’m really going. Or, going there, assist! Retreat, retreat!)
Oh and one more thing: STAY AWAY FROM GENERAL CHAT.
Do not turn that on. Crawling inside the Chernobyl reactor number 4 the day after it popped its lid off would be a healither decision than gazing into the abyss of nightmares that is general chat.
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Yeah, let’s pin that at the top.
Their conversation reminds me of those dated plot devices often found in romantic comedies where a couple is antagonistic, because they are secretly madly in love with each other.
For Xen’s sake, I hope I’m wrong about this.
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Watch a few YouTube guides if you want to do some research.
I used to watch mfPallytime A-Z and while not the most up to date guides these days, he’s nice and generally pretty user friend for someone starting out.
But I will say practise makes perfect so keep at it 
for your first few games let everyone know your new as well so they qre more forgiving of mistakes and might even give some helpful advice.
I play on the Australia servers so if your also this way I can play a few games and help you with some basic advise.
Also I’d suggest to type “/leave general” as soon as you next in game as nothing really of value comes from that chat.
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LOL!
How can those two even concentrate? The tension is so palpable.
…
Back on topic:
My advice? When you do decide to venture into pvp (which is way more fun), I suggest starting the match by introducing yourself as new.
“Hey guys, im new. Any tips appreciated”.
Players have played this game so much that the game knowledge is first hand. They forget that this knowledge had to come from somewhere.
By being humble right off the bat it’ll break any tension. Players won’t get so mad if you’re out of position or [insert expectation here].
Your experience will be more positive when you’re not getting yelled at.
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I’m guessing that the anticonvulsants ran their course, and the dosage hasn’t been reapplied.
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