I get this game is not League of Legends… But since they announced they have stopped development on HotS I have swapped to League, so say 3-4 years now.
I played a few games yesterday and today just for a throwback and enjoyed it - but I noticed that there are a few strong differences that, if changed, could make it a lot more appealing to new players / the League community.
I didn’t realize how different they were, one of the main disadvantages to HotS, in my opinion is the massive res timers. 17min in to a game and your timer is 64seconds…?
That’s wildly excessive. I get it makes awareness and strategy more meaningful, but you can’t even get ambient vision because there is not a ward system.
I honestly have always preferred HotS because of the diverse maps and I honestly hate the gold component to League. But if HotS made a few small changes it honestly would take League by storm (should they decide to put resources back in to the game).
It doesn’t take long to get to 20 as your entire team levels together. It was 16-17min with a 64s res timer. I promise.
Regardless, a 30s res timer at 10min is equally as bad. I don’t queue to sit in the graveyard / fountain. I get it promotes awareness, but like I said previously. There is ZERO vision capability. IMO this is where your game failed. Put wards in and reduce res times by 1/3 and you’ll have a much better game.
The long res timers are actually a deliberate decision, as they are considered part of the comeback mechanics. Even if your team is behind on structures, a team wipe late game means you always have a win condition. Granted, it does feel bad when it happens to you, but decreasing those would likely cause snowball matches to be even more snowbally, which also wouldn’t feel good.
Regarding vision, several heroes have warding options, and scouting bushes with abilities rather than foreheads should be second nature. As someone who plays tanks on a regular basis, I often act as a living ward in that I will park myself in a hiding spot on a predictable rotation path to provide vision for my team. I agree, I would like to see more vision options, similar to vision camps on Hanamura, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to have it be universal.
Not really our game. It’s your game as well when you decided to play it. Also, no. Rez time has little to do with the current state of the game. Released too late, pro scene termination are what did it.
It feels like you’re playing this game way too much like LoL (just minus the last hitting and gold part). As in, LoL players who see this as full hero brawl fight fight fight mode. It’s not (more PvE is involved. pushing lanes, destroying forts/keeps → map pressure). 30 sec really isn’t a lot if you consider around 3 deaths total for the entire game.
Little problem with vision as well. There are vision towers, your minion waves provide vision, there are safe routes for rotating, etc. Even without wards, you can pretty much predict where the enemies are, will be, what they’re doing so. Enough not to get ganked, ambushed that is.
Even pros sometimes miss infos from the minimap. Your job while waiting for the rez timer should be to inform your team about macro choices (ping to retreat - enemy incoming, get camps, clear this lane, etc).
You should try ARAM. Game play is more steamlined (laning and pve load reduced), and rez time is also reduced by 2/5, 1/2, whatever. It may be more hero brawl equivalent you’re looking for.
You should note how reduced rez time affects game play as well. Spell cds feel different (less effective. super cd blown to kill the enemy, they just pop right back up), team that made mistakes is less punished, harder to get the angle for the finish. The whole game system is balanced around current rez time. And game isn’t long to begin with.
The long late game revive timers are part of the “match progress” system. Combined with talent scaling making late game extremely volatile and deaths easy and the catapults getting very high damage, it gives the killing team increasing opportunity to end the match sooner rather than later. A team wipe at that stage should be enough for the surviving team to push to and destroy the core.
The system also does not punish players for early deaths. Early game you have significantly faster revive timers, and deaths that occur early do not affect your late game revive timers.
If you are not a fan of long revive times, consider playing the ARAM mode. ARAM has greatly reduced revive timers, to the point that Leoric was removed due to being able to abuse it for cheese.
Level 20 is usually well past the 12 minute mark. 16 to 17 minutes is pretty much end game time, you can expect the match to end within a minute or two.
When dead you can move your camera around freely to watch your allies. Your camera is not locked to the hall of storms, and if it is consider disabling camera lock or clicking the minimap with the appropriate setting enabled.
If you want a hero that can do something when dead with a shorter revive time, consider playing Leoric. If you want to help allies when dead then both Uther and Tyrael have on death effects that take up part of their revive time. Some heroes like Mathael and KelThuzard can cheat death timers.
Death timer is 65 because you aren’t suppose to prolonged the game after 20, get 2 kills → it’s over, make the death timer any less and you will have a rather painful worse experience where you get multiple kills and they recover enough for you to do nothing.
Fun fact, res timers got a serious review back when Haunted Mines was in rotation. Prior to the change, the game’s res times used to be faster.
What ended up happening was the two teams would go down into the mines to fight each other for the boss. The “better” team would win the team fight allowing them to continue fighting the boss. Meanwhile, the “losing” team would have enough time to res up at full health, enter back into the mine, kill the now weaker enemy team and collect the skulls off the now mostly dead boss.
It seemed counter intuitive that the team who lost the fight would too consistently win the objective.
To be honest I don’t mind. Being dead gives you breathing room to sit back and enjoy the show. Being free to see your team mates win an objective brings home the fact that this is indeed a team game. It’s fun to spectate from time to time.
This happens in Cursed hollows and Volskaya as well. Many time on Volskaya, My team controls the objetive, gets 3-4 kills, then the enemy respawns and fights full health and mana and wins.
Yet another reason not to over commit to fighting for that weak objective, at least early on. My favorite is when your teams hyper fixates on getting the protector, forgetting the enemy has Tychus or Zul’jin who can burn the machine down very quickly.
You said it yourself. Death timers punish you for not respecting that dieing has to have consequences for both you and your team. Letting everyone have only 1/3 death timer would just tell feeders its ok to die 20+ times without you get punished for it.
Having zero vision cause you dont got a ward to tell you when enemies are coming is a good thing imao. It force you to use your mini map more often and make decisions from the little infomation you have.
Having a ward to protect you from flank attack just makes it harder for the attacking team to actually get you. You should be punished for overextending not other way around.