Heroes of the Storm Map Strategies

Heroes of the Storm Map Strategies by Dreadnaught and Wordswrath

Towers of Doom

• 1-1-3 (1-4 possible but distance between mid and bot is rather large)
• Sieging is irrelevant, so xp soak is the name of the game (for lvl, and possibly talent tier, advantage). But if you destroy all 3 of the opponents’ forts, their core will take 1 damage every few seconds.
• Team fights will be unavoidable over objectives, that is why xp is so relevant.
• Because death timers are so long late into the game, late game is what matters most. Do not worry about losing shots on their core early in the game, worry about being 1/2/3 levels above them later in the game due to better xp gains. Late game level advantage will pay off a lot more than early shots on the core.
• Top lane is the safest, bottom lane the most dangerous.
• Bottom lane is also the most valuable. You have 2 mercs down there that can deal up to 3 core damage each if the opponents’ bottom fort is destroyed. For this reason it is best to cap those mercs when they can shoot straight for the core.

Infernal Shrines

• 1-1-3 or 1-4 (distance between 2 bot lanes is small)
• Mercs do nothing except shaman camps. As for most merc camps, it’s best to cap them right before objectives.
• Objective bosses suck ass. Let John Cena come to the gate, then bait him over the wall and kick his ass. Don’t let John Cena catch you outside the gates.
• Midgets at objectives take forever to kill, so sustain comps will have an easier time contesting objectives.
• If you kill one opponent, get back to completing the objective instead of chasing or the dead guy will be back with full health and your team will have taken lots of poke damage in the process.
• Don’t die contesting the objective, it’s not worth it.
• Once John Cena spawns, make sure all lanes are being soaked. No more than 3 people should attack with/defend against John Cena.
• If you have a big advantage at the objective, stop at 39 midgets (do not cap instantly) and go back to soaking. Let the ennemy team waste some time killing midgets, then send 1 person to kill 1 last midget.

Battlefield of Eternity

• 1-4
• If you have early game kill potential, force some shit – if you don’t, then do not force some shit.
• Be at the objective when it spawns, not after it has spawned – it’s more important than soak or mercs.
• Attack their immortal, do not defend yours. If they come defend, nope the hell out of there. When they leave, go back to their immortal. The reason for this is that because of proximity, they’ll be doing less damage to your immortal than you will to theirs. Losing the race is still better than defending (immortal’s shield will be weaker).
• 4 players push/defend with/against the immortal, 1 must soak.
• Cap shaman camps before the immortals spawn. If opponents send one guy to clear the shaman pushing, force a 5v4.

Tomb of the Spider Queen

• 4-1 (rotate between top and mid)
• Mercs don’t matter at all.
• Boss allows you to turn in somewhat peacefully if they defend against it.
• Bottom lane is the safest, solo goes there.
• This map is all about turning in gems.
• Chokehold corridor between mid and bot lanes is very long and something you should abuse more.
• Push 3-1-1 with webweavers because boss is top.
• Zagara is a beast on this map as solo laner. She has vision on the bot turn in with creeps, can delay turn in with her poke, and can bully most heroes sent to face her 1v1.

Sky Temple

• 1-3-1 or 4-1 (so solo laner bot)
• Controlling sight is crucial.
• Mid shrine is slightly more valuable since it will focus the fort’s turret before the fort (top shrine focuses the fort first) = slightly more xp. Also, mid shrine’s big dude provides lots of xp if you last hit him.
• The team to get on the shrine first almost always wins.
• Do not contest mid shrine without controlling sight.
• Once you see top/mid’s last shots going down, wait for 2 minions waves then go take mercs. They’ll be perfectly timed to be pushing as bot shrine activates.
• If you can’t win the fight at bot shrine, go do anything else (soak, push top, etc…). Don’t force a fight you cannot win and waste xp in the process.
• Bot lane is the most import one to push (Boss + bot shrine activates the most often)
• If you can destroy the opponents’ bot lane’s well somewhat safely before the bot temple activates, do it. It’s a pretty big advantage when fighting over bot temple.
• You can get the first few shots off shrines without having to fight their spawns.

Blackheart’s Bay

• 4-1 (strong solo laner bot) then at 1:55 one of the 4 players separates to jungle.
• As the game starts, clear the top lane wave first then rotate to mid as chest spawns at 0:50.
• If opponents react to mercs you turn in, if they don’t you get value out of mercs.
• Turn in with a talent tier advantage if possible.
• Push top if given the choice to push a lane (Boss)

Cursed Hollow

• 1-1-1 with 2 men roam squad or 1-1-3 (unclear which lane the 3 should be in)
• Get the giants camp at 1:50 (it will start split pushing as the first objective spawns)
• Get mercs after you have finished fighting over tributes, they will start split pushing as the following tribute spawns.
• Rotating before your opponents is the key to this map.
• Understand that ennemies can be grouped in a bush to gank you.
• Once you get the curse, NEVER go get mercs or start fighting a boss right away. Instead, if your team starts on the right side of the map, you start by pushing bot and leaving the fort half dead. Then you rotate to mid and destroy the fort. Finally, if you have enough time remaining you go destroy the top fort. If you don’t, you go take your boss. Either the opponents will have to prevent you from getting your boss, or they’ll miss out on a ton of xp since you’ll have an army of minions bot who will have finished off the fort and who will be on their way to suicide to bot keep’s turrets. If you have taken the boss, you push top fort with it (or go take their boss if your team really sucks at team fights). If you start on the left side on map, it’s the opposite: you push top and leave it half dead, etc…

Dragon Shire

• 1-3-1  with 3 man rotation between mid and bottom. The two most important lanes are mid lane and the bot lane. The reasoning for this is that the lanes receive minions faster than the top lane.
• Put the least effective player for team fights in the Dragon Knight. Never put the healer in the DK.
• First DK is weak, use it to take out middle and bottom turrets+front wall. Continue to soak 3 lanes.
• Push the lanes as far out as possible and always try to take a teamfight near the objective you desire.
• Concentrate most of your push to the bottom lane. The reason you want to be pushing bottom lane is because it is close to mid (does not require that much travel time) and because this is the only lane in the game with 3 mercenary camps on it.

Garden of Terror

• 1-1-1 with 2 men roam squad or 1-1-3 (unclear which lane the 3 should be in)
• Top is easier to gank if you’re the blue team, bot is if you’re the red team.
• If you have the more aggressive early game, position yourself to take the objectives closer to your opponents first.
• Always go for objectives the second that they spawn.
• The small minions that spawn during the objective are what wins games if taken correctly, not the 2 big dudes.
• If your opponents capture mercs on one side of the map, make sure you capture the mercs on the other side.
• Once all seeds are collected, taking mercs in the downtime is very important to split push with the terror.
• First 2 terrors: Terror should push top or bot while the rest of the team pushes the opposite lane, forcing the opponents to respond to one or the other. Following ones, group up and fight!
• Force your opponents to chose between the lesser of 2 evils.
• Late in the game, the terror is insanely strong.
• Never let your tank or support take the terror. Squishiest/most useless hero in team fights should take it.

Braxis Holdout

• Make sure to have a wave clear / pushing hero per lane.
• When objectives spawn, it’s crucial to position yourself appropriately and win a teamfight for one of the objective points while maximizing the soak from both lanes.
• Have your tank lead the rotations and try to wipe the enemy team to control both points.
• When they respawn and come to contest, don’t spread like chickens, be smart and get ready to defend your points.
• When the Zerg wave is released, if you have a lot more and/or Sylvanas in your team, push with the wave. If it’s balanced or your lost, defend. Alternatively you can push even if balanced zergs on both sides if you have a great wave clearer defending your lane.

Warhead Junction

• This is a pretty big map, heroes with global presence will always be amazing for their ability to soak a lane, and join a fight whenever an objective pops ups. Zagara with Nydus, Brightwing, Falstad and Dehaka are extremely potent on these maps.
• Winning fights will result in extreme levels on pushing on this map, and losing your nukes on death is pretty unforgiving. Double tank compositions thrive excellently for their ability to drag out a fight. So strong team fighting and global map presence makes Dehaka one of the best heroes to pick up on this map.
• On the other hand heroes that excel at split pushing or heroes that are slow at rotating, are probably not the best heroes on this map. Having a jungler is also a great idea, since a camp can put up a lot of pressure when you are fighting for the spawned warheads. Heroes like Sonya and Zagara excel at this.
• To summarize, a team comp made of a heroes that can apply global pressure, have strong engages and disengages excel at this map. So be on time for the nukes, try to pick off enemy heroes that carry nukes, and focus on pushing lanes hard.