Heroes of the Storm Common Hero Mistakes

Heroes of the Storm Common Hero Mistakes by werfmark

A tip for each hero to avoid the most common mistakes you see with them!

Abathur: Use the body to soak, yes there is some risk to it but it’s extremely valuable.

Alarak: Don’t only use Telekinesis to combo or escape yourself. It’s also a very valuable tool to peel for a teammate!

Anub’arak: Don’t overpick Cocoon. Yes Cocoon is a niche ultimate that can be good in the right circumstances, but those are rare actually especially in public games. Cocoon is good against some channeled ultimates like Kerrigan’s Maelstrom, Malfurion’s tranquility and Morales Stim drone because the timer keeps running while in the cocoon. Or against Cho’Gall. Most of the time Locust swarm just gives way more value though.

Artanis: when playing with artanis, don’t top him off constantly, let him use the shield and then top him off later when nothing is going on.

Arthas: when you take immortal coil, do try to Q an enemy always. Just like tyrande’s heal it becomes almost strictly better to target something else than yourself then. Only Exception when you really need the heal ASAP.

Auriel: Resurrect is cool and all but rarely actually useful. Just take crystal aegis!

Azmodan: Black pool, also increases your AA and laser damage. Very useful to stay in it for teamfights and not use it for globes only!

Brightwing: Use your global! Instead of moving with the team for a rotation try to stay in lane, be the one that caps the camp etc while the rest already rotates. Then teleport after them later.

Butcher: You can cancel charge… O and do try to focus on completing your trait quest early, it’s a huge deal.

Chen: Don’t try to start drinking when the enemies can easily outdamage it. Often running is a better way to stay alive than drinking!

Cho: The damage mostly comes from Gall, no need to dive in all the time. You’re mostly a ranged character with a melee attack as well.

Chromie: Counts for most mages but mostly Chromie: don’t just randomly rotate between lanes if you don’t know it’s safe. On your own through bushes you are VERY vulnerable.

Dehaka: Make sure you arrive in battles with your trait full, like the moonwell, don’t just waste it randomly before an important objective comes up. You can also hearth and Z back to heal up..

Diablo: Use your abilities in combo, your teammates rely on it to land spells. And don’t randomly proc apocalypse, set it up yourself with R-Q-E or wait for a another root to garantee some hits.

E.T.C: Facemelt often ruins the abilities of teammates, don’t use it on creepwaves or camps when someone like Kael or Jaina is with you..

Falstad: Gust is cute and a great pick in coordinated games. In public games, just consider hinterland blast. And when you do have gust, don’t try to be a hero and fly over and gust their team into yours all the time… that move is actually counterproductive often if they get a 5v4 out of it with your ult used already…

edit: so this is the most controversial one by far apparently, which makes it even more important. I’m not saying Gust is bad, not at all, it’s a great ult. But there is so much miscommunication and mistakes with it that it has atrocious results compared to Hinterland blast in heroleague games. Heroes get gusted into teammates while they already scattered as they thought they couldnt follow. Gust to disengage while teammates just fired off ultimates.. And hinterland blast is wrongly accused of being such a terrible ult, it does quite decent damage… There is good reason these two ults have one of the biggest win advantages in favor of hinterland blast, and even if you check teamleague or high level games only that remains.

Gall: you got little to do but at least anticipate when Cho throws the Rune bomb and explode them on time…

Gazlowe: yes he is always lowest tier by the pro tier lists.. but don’t underestimate him in pub games. If you let him solo and splitpush he can wreck your diamond level games easily. Just make sure to gank him with more than 1 hero occasionally..

Greymane: don’t dive in too fast, this hero is the definition of high damage but super fragile so be patient!

Gul’dan: when playing with him, please let him clear the wave and soak the minions for health most times. Killing the minion he is soaking hurts his sustain..

Illidan: you haven’t waited 10,000 years to hunt in 1v5… Consider metamorphosis and don’t use it to engage too much but to avoid burst damage.

Jaina: counts for many heroes but most of all jaina: don’t blow your important cooldowns for nothing. Blizzard is hard to land and has 15 sec cooldown, wait for a setup to hit it.

Johanna: as with many tanks, peeling and keeping your carries going is more important than doing damage yourself. You’re not going to kill most heroes alone anyway, don’t go to deep but peel for teammates.

Kael’thas: In fights using your trait on stun is usually best. It pierces and increases stun length, trait on flamestrike only increaases area which is useless if the stun already garantees that you hit! Extra 0.5 secs of stun however can be crucial.

Kerrigan: you live and die by the combo but good players can easily evade it. Use it after some setup, against big heroes etc. If you miss completely consider backing out if possible.

Kharazim: When you’re specced for heal it’s important to just hit something to keep heal up, don’t go deep but just hit their tank most of the time!

Leoric: waveclear is your thing, midgame you’re often best separated a bit and keeping that soak and pressure up. You don’t need to move as 5 only..

Li li: her best build is serpents with water dragon usually, draft her with that in mind, not as some weak full healer!

Li-ming: don’t mindlessly firstpick her. Maps with lots of small minions like infernal shrines or haunted mines she isn’t good anymore without calamity to give her some waveclear!

Morales: as with any support but most of all morales: manage your mana. Healing up someone that needs to hearth for mana anyway is a waste. Also don’t heal up heroes to 100% usually, with health globes, regeneration and sustain spells they can top themselves off often.

Lunara: Leaping strike is fun but it’s mostly useful as a way to avoid spells, don’t pick or use it just for the damage.. thornwood vine does that way better.

Malfurion: Counts for many heroes but i’ll list it here. you’ve got moonfire and possibly scouting drone. Really no reason to facecheck bushes ever if you’re not sure it’s empty..

Medivh: reconsider this pick in pub games, yes he can be great in great hands in a great team. But if one of those things doesnt apply he sucks massively. Don’t assume you’re the exception to this unless you got some fenomal results to back it up.

Muradin: if you’re playing with muradin, don’t waste heals on him outside of combat.. he will heal himself up. Similarly muradin players, only use wells if you’re just going into combat or need the mana.

Murky: something that happens with lots of spells but most with murky’s fish. Let the player that’s most efficient clear waves! So often you see murky throwing down a fish and then a flamestrike on top of it anyway..

Nazeebo: You CAN lower your zombie walls..

Nova: just because you’re stealthed doesn’t mean you should always be completely alone on the map trying to pick someone off 1v5.. Try to circle around your team instead.

Ragnaros: If you’re waveclearing with meteor roll it WITH the wave, not against it.

Raynor: with any ranged hero but most fitting for raynor. Stutter step, always!

Rehgar: Lightning shields on totems are cute, but don’t use this as the default way to clear waves..

Rexxar: Taking 2 minutes to solo a boss early on is actually not all that great, early bosses do very little and if you’re doing this at the cost of soaking or objectives it’s not worth it.

Samuro: yeah you can stealth but you’re not a good ganking hero.. you ARE great at mercing however, so do it.

Sgt.Hammer: Sieging doesn’t actually increase damage against heroes unless you’re splashing on several. Don’t siege up constantly, most times fighting out of siege mode is better.

Sonya: If you took the heal on AA you’re better off AAing instead of whirlwinding against single targets..

Stitches: Be careful what you hook. Hooking an E.T.C or Muradin into your team is just counterproductive usually..

Sylvanas: Your E stands for Escape not for Extra damage…

Tassadar: don’t draft this as solo support but as a secondary support for vulnerable targets like illidan and tracer.

TLV: splitting up all 3 vikings is nice if you’re godly. For the rest of us, better go 2 and 1..

Thrall: You can poke all day, until you run out of mana.. Poking heroes that easily sustain themselves just to up your hero damage won’t help you win..

Tracer: Trying to harass a hero with better AA damage like raynor won’t work well..

Tychus: try to start a gank with trait then follow them with Q, not the other way around.

Tyrael: you’re very many hungry and your abilities suck for damage. Try to avoid wasting mana for waveclear whenever you can leave it up to an ally just the same.

Tyrande: true for most supports but most of all tyrande. Your value is in being with others, sometimes you might be forced to sololane but try to communicate with the team so this almost never has to happen!

Uther: Divine shield is often best cast BEFORE the damage, don’t wait for heroes to be 10% hp to cast this when it only helps their escape..

Valla: True of many ranged assassins but i’ll put it here, just because you’re 10% hp doesn’t mean you should always run out. You can often safely still participate in the fight and you might prevent a teammate dying by (threatening to) killing enemy heroes.

Varian: you absolutely suck before level 10, perhaps inform your team to soak instead of going hard for objective if your team consists of more heroes with late powerspikes.

Xul: Not bad at sololaning but the value lies in rotating! Most times try to time your rotations as a group though, your root is much scarier when you have teammates to follow it up. Plus sharing globes is very useful.

Zagara: keep spreading that creep at crucial spots, even lategame. Vision control is key for zag.

Zarya: with many warriors but perhaps most tricky with zarya. You’re a bruiser, not a tank, dont draft as the only warrior!

Zeratul: ganking is fun, sure. But just because you’re zeratul doesn’t mean you never have to soak…