Heroes of the Storm Tips for Ranked Play

Heroes of the Storm Tips for Ranked Play by Zanthyst

• Always do a warm-up match first in QM. Try, despite the insanity of QM, to do your best to get MVP by just playing technically sound and carefully. Learn the limits of characters without healers like this because knowing it will help a lot as healers aren’t always reliable in HL.
• Most important one probably. Always track your win-loss ratio for a given session. Once you go below 50 percent stop and go do something else for a bit then come back. Won 2 and lost 1. Okay, keep going. Lose 2 more stop. Lost one, won one, lost one? Stop playing. This is how you prevent losing streaks.
• If you’re on a winning streak keep it going for as long as you can BUT monitor the win-loss rate of your last three games. If at any point you’re at 33 percent in the last three games then you stop. Won 8 games? Great keep going. Lose next, win next, lose next? Time to stop.
• Know the current meta and bans. Read patch notes. Think about them. Adjust this is super important. Know what could be coming and know what you can counter pick to draft or preempt with a ban.
• When a rebalance patch comes out DON’T do HL for a day or two. First people won’t be adjusted to the meta and will make dumb picks. Second, you won’t be adjusted to meta yet, and will make dumb picks :P. Also, see the next tip :).
• After a patch with rebalances… Know the op heroes. Practice them in QM repeatedly until your comfortable with them before going back into hl. The biggest issue I’ve had is, losing because I haven’t learned to counter the new op or play against rebalanced heroes. QM is a harsh training ground but good for this. Currently, I place my top priority on getting an Artanis pick. Barring that if the enemy team drafted all spell dmg then Anubarak if we need a tank. Nazeebo otherwise is my go to at the moment. If you look at Hotslogs you’ll notice a trend on winrates. If something happens and you can’t get those have a roster of at least 2 in each roll you are good with as backups.
• Don’t play on a bad day. If you’ve had a stressful day at work, are worried about something, or have had a bad week just dont play HL. Spend those days working on brushing up on heroes that you want to work on in unranked or QM.
• Communicate right away what you’d like to play on the draft screen. I have many times gotten last pick Artanis or Nazeebo this way. If your team is unwilling to fill and it comes down to it don’t be a dick. Fill healer or tank role as needed. This brings me to my next point.
• Have at least 3 tanks and 3 healers that you are good with. If you don’t have that then STOP playing HL and go practice them exclusively in unranked or QM (pick your poison) until you feel comfortable with them. This alone will massively help you be a better player and a better teammate for your groups.
• Have fun. If you find yourself getting frustrated or tilted stop. If you’re in the middle of a match and you’re getting frustrated and start typing recognize it hit escape instead of enter, then type this instead: “Sorry guys I’m getting tilted, I’m muting allied for your sake” then mute allied. I have had so many games where I was getting tilted and playing terrible / throwing a game. Then I do this, breathe for a few seconds and turn the game back around. Before I started doing this I thought oh well I’ll just let it roll off and ignore the toxic asshole….it never worked for me I was weak and always baited into typing back or sometimes being the toxic dick myself. Muting all allied chat stops you from typing as well as reading what they have. It’s a blessing when you get tilted. Don’t play like this all the time though communication is very important.To mute your allied chat hit escape, options, social, check box in the right (second one down) under chat, hit accept.

Follow these tips strictly and you will find yourself having a much more positive experience and a better win rate. I guarantee it. Hope this has helped at least 1 person. Thanks for your time.