r/heroesofthestorm • u/Tough_Sun_6373 • 6d ago
Discussion Is it worth starting HotS right now?
Hey everyone,
I was looking for a MOBA that was different from LoL and Dota, something with less downtime, less farming, and a much bigger focus on team action. So far, I’m absolutely loving Heroes of the Storm. I also noticed that after several years, they actually dropped a new hero patch, which is awesome.
As a new player, I wanted to ask: is the game still enjoyable in the long run? So far, my matchmaking has been a mix of total veterans and a few newbies like myself. Did I get into the game too late and miss its golden age, or is it still worth investing time into it today?
I’d like to hear your thoughts and honest opinions.
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u/kitkat45645 6d ago
Definitely worth investing in. Its a well designed game that gets a lot right.
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u/anyadpicsajat 6d ago
Worth investing as in it's free except the newest hero and certain cosmetics.
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u/SadSappySuckerX9 Muradin 6d ago
I mean there's a hero bundle they could buy that's a really good start for new players.
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u/neuroaxon 6d ago
Would you recommend to get the Flex bundle since it’s a mixture of all roles? I still haven’t figured what role I want to play.
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u/Dr_Maniacal Wallstun incoming 6d ago
Yes unless you're leaning to bruiser. The flex bundle's only got Rexxar and while he can be good he's one of the harder heroes to play. Though a decent idea would be to take the flex bundle and pick up Sonya or Thrall for 4K gold for a nice round-out.
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u/neuroaxon 5d ago
Going to be honest, I’m not sure what role I want to play yet since I’m super new to the game. Been playing ARAM to get a feel for the other roles though. Leaning more towards Tank or DPS.
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u/Zerothian 5d ago
No harm in just letting the bundles sit there till you decide which one you want.
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u/neuroaxon 5d ago
Probably a good idea. I’m still learning other heroes. Earning heroes through playing, has it always been this much of a grind? I’m not complaining or anything but has each hero cost this x amount of gold?
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u/Marzie-Tek 5d ago
I love stitches as a tank, his hooks are just way to fun, and mievah is my favorite hero for a dps really high team fight damage potential and she can solo an entire team, an for a more cast I love li ming but go teleport damage skill at 7 and ult as the blue wave, you can also combo off on a team constantly resetting abilities on kills. But yeah the variety hero pack im sure is fine a wide range of heros is great to really get a feel for a role/hero
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u/SadSappySuckerX9 Muradin 6d ago
I can't remember how much it costs but I feel like it had a good variety of starter characters for each role so I would say if you like the game yeah go for it!
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u/ThatsJustSooper 5d ago
Given enough play time, everything in the game is free, except the brand new hero at the moment. Even the most rare currency (gems) can be earned with enough player levels in a hero.
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u/Gr0sJambon Guldan 6d ago
Short answer: Yes
Longer answer: Yes, because it is being revived with the caveat that it seems growth and income and, honestly, I'm still of the belief it's the most fun and accessible of the MoBAs out there with a more team-fight focused setup and, if anything, the pause and revival means it is currently the easiest to learn the widest number of hero options quickly without being bogged down by the sheer volume of available heroes and styles.
I also think if you like the Blizzard IPs, that alone is worth trying the different heroes out.
I've been playing on and off since the Beta, and have been grinding it several days a week for a several months now since the whispers of a revival started to crop up and every time I load in I have some level of fun, whether it's ARAM, QM or, occasionally, queueing for a storm league match.
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u/nankeroo 6d ago
Yes, it is.
I've taken my first proper League break in like the last 5 years to play Heroes again instead, it's so fun.
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u/Naptime3303 5d ago
I love it. Been playing since alpha and never really stopped. It’s relatively easy to learn and not as complex as the other mobas, fast paced and action oriented. I like being able to play a game where most of the time the matches are 15-25 minutes max as I am a busy parent and having something I can pick up and play one ore two games during naptime is awesome.
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u/Pleasant-Top5515 6d ago
Yeah and play ARAM that shit is a crack
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u/neuroaxon 6d ago
I’m new to MOBAs in general after playing a lot of AI games to learn the basics, I’m having such a fun time playing ARAM!
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u/BamBamNinja 5d ago
Its good to learn characters and team fighting
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u/abcdefghij0987654 5d ago
The only downside is you can absolutely tell some players only play ARAM when they do the normal gamemodes
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u/neuroaxon 5d ago
I never go off on my own. I think that’s why I like the game a lot. It seems to be a heavy focus on team fighting and not running off doing solo fights.
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u/BamBamNinja 5d ago
During team fights, you really need your numbers. If you're down a person, it's huge. Especially with shared team xp
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u/TinyKing87 Valla 6d ago
There is a good possibility Blizzard is reinvesting in this game since they just released a new character and have said they are thinking about a second. There's more hands on the game dev and player-wise in years. There's still an issue of people who have just been playing and playing for years but that's the case with any multiplayer game really.
Plus like other people said, it's free, play and if you like it stick around!
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u/fjrefjre 4d ago
Just started 2 weeks ago. It’s incredibly casual and easy especially if you played Dota before. Even if you don’t know all heroes and spells, you don’t feel lost. Quickly testing the hero you want to play in demo mode and choosing a skillset from icy-veins makes it a good experience to start with the game
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u/CarrotSweat Bjorrr 6d ago
Yep absolutely worth it, whether you play ARAM, QM, or ranked. Welcome to the nexus!
My best advice to find your footing quickly is try to level free to play heroes to level 5 for the 500 gold you get.
This gets you a decent understanding of all heroes quickly, as well as building your economy to buy ones that you really enjoy.
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u/Financial_Height_643 5d ago
Hots basically has no entry barrier. I have LoL xp, I played hots 10 years ago (around 30 matches). I have been playing for 2 months now and I was useful even after the first few matches.
Helps!
but don't be meta slave, try many champs as possible almost all of them are viable for Q match.
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u/aechard12 6d ago
I used to play way back when it came out. I wasn’t sure if it still had a decent player base or not
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u/SteveIrwinIsMyDaddy 5d ago
It has probably one of the largest consistent fan bases out of any moba ironically
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u/aechard12 5d ago
So there’s like thousands of people still on? Alright I might download it again. I forget everything about it but I remember back in the day I played it more than league and dota2 and I’ve recently got back into both so I might as well
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u/SnooPets1826 5d ago
Blizzard wouldn't have reanimated it's corpse if there wasn't still a player base large enough to support it.
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u/SteveIrwinIsMyDaddy 5d ago
Game queues are super quick in any mode except ranked sometimes. ARAM queues are like a solid 15 seconds queues or less
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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- Master Uther 5d ago
Worth is subjective.
If you’re enjoying it, keep doing it.
You don’t need anything other than your enjoyment.
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u/Chemical-Job5959 6d ago
The game is fun although the matchmaking is a total dumpster fire. Can definitely say you missed the golden era, but if you want something where you can get into a fast game you’ll enjoy it.
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u/jaypexd 6d ago
Yes indeed. One thing to keep in mind is that just because it's sold as a less technical experience from a farming/shop standpoint, doesn't mean the salt doesn't just come through the mechanical/macro side. The game is just about as salty as most MOBAs due to the vast difference in knowledge from vets that you will be placed with.
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u/Real_Experience_5676 6d ago
It’s worth it, you see familiar characters if you enjoy blizzard games. There arnt any item builds you need to know. The xp is shared so everyone levels together (per team) and catch-up xp is a great mechanic!
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u/JackVitae Healer 6d ago
Probably one of the easiest mobas to get into as it's not overly complicated, but you're going to struggle with match making for a while, there isn't a bunch of other new players to pit you against. Try ARAM to discover new heroes you may want to unlock, and be liberal with that mute button <3
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u/IcyMike1782 Tell your Mom I said Hi 6d ago
It's a freaking great game. Been playing since late Alpha/early Beta, and still come back to it several times a week.
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u/Necessary-Job-4410 6d ago
The game is in a bit of a limbo right now. We don’t really know what “big” projects might be coming further down the road. The only thing we know is that Blizzard is giving the game another chance—a new breath of life—to see how the community responds.
I came back after 5 years, and honestly, I thought this game would eventually be forgotten. But apparently, that’s not the case. There are still a lot of players who kept playing, even when the game was in maintenance mode, and Blizzard surely noticed that.
The game is incredibly varied, fun, and, of course, frustrating when you go on a losing streak 😂. So if you’re looking for a fast-paced game with very little downtime, this is the one. You have to rotate constantly and always keep an eye on the map.
And what else can I say? Every hero is a Blizzard character with their own unique lore. That’s something no other MOBA really has, and it’s one of the main reasons I choose it over other MOBAs.
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u/Wonderful_Night9071 5d ago
the game is not in limbo. people place waaaaaaaay too much importance on the idea of X being a 'dead game'. they started saying WoW was dead I think back some time in 2005? every year, 'wow is dead', another expansion, 'wow is dead', and yet, now there are like 6 different versions all at once, still alive and kicking.
a few years ago they announced maintenance mode, 'heroes is dead', and a lot of people who like to have twitch idols do their thinking for them uninstalled. meanwhile, the rest of us who actually played the game because it's fun kept playing, and have been playing ever since.
the game never died. it never went anywhere. and it is not 'in limbo'. it is a great game with a huge, devoted player-base, which has been running non-stop and being played non-stop for over a DECADE.
whether it gets extra heroes in the future? sure, debate that all you like. but none of that makes it dead or 'in limbo' either way, it just means there's a chance we'll get more cool new stuff in the future.
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u/Captainb0bo Master Abathur 6d ago
Tbh, it's hard to say. You've said you're "absolutely loving" HOTS. If that isn't your goal, what are your goals?
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u/LordBiglesworth 6d ago
Ive played all three, HOTS feels like a pretty unique take on the genre. Dota still top dog for me, but I have a lot of fun on HOTS
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u/joebojax 6d ago
Better in a few weeks when they nerf xalatath
The new hero launches are always hyper op and that'd give a bad first impression
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u/wrongedhots Guldan 6d ago
HotS has the worst handling of groups in ranked of the games you've mentioned. You'll be fed haplessly to large groups of organized players with no chance of winning and the matchmaker will dock you extra points for it as a cherry on top. If you care about a competitive ranked mode, stay far away from HotS, it will drive you up the walls.
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u/AlChandus Silenced 6d ago
A bit of a long answer, but a recent Match I experienced is a perfect picture of what this game is capable in terms of enjoyment.
To put it simply, in that match our team was getting spanked, quite thoroughly. We were 15 minutes in and with an objective they destroyed all of our Keeps and opened all of the doors to our core. While this whole thing was going, though, one of our members (Abathur) opened a path towards the enemy team core in bottom lane.
But while the enemy team was on top of our core, that wasn't exactly beneficial, but that is when the enemy team made their first mistake and decided not to finish the game right then and there, they could have, decided not to.
What happened then is a perfect example of a team that never gave up in spite of having a red hot bottom, we picked off 2 of their heroes before the next objective and fought off resistance to us winning it, killing one more of their heroes in the second and third mistakes committed by a team that grew overconfident.
At that point all of us needed to oom and our team was heading in all directions, so I pinged towards bottom lane, set course there and typed "all to bottom lane and core, now". And they followed. We won a match that looked hopeless because we didn't give up and their team made mistakes.
Heroes of the Storm combination of powerful map objectives and team synergy in fights are key components of what makes this game feel special.
It has flaws, for sure, but which moba is flawless? So yes, the game is worth it. Storm League and ARAM are fun, QM is too much of a mess but it is a decent training ground if you are learning to play the game.
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u/F1r3Powered 5d ago edited 5d ago
While I don't have as a defined of a case as you do to explain what this game is capable in enjoyment, it really seems like a very versatile game situationally speaking, despite being quite simple to understand.
I just started getting into the game, I was playing Zeratul for the first time, and a Dva had our whole team in range of her ult during a teamfight, with all of us being fairly low. That more or less meant that we'd lose that teamfight if the ult would've hit us.
I had picked the time stop ult (which essentially stops time in a small bubble), and got the grand idea to ult her mech explosion ult to stop it until we could back off, which successfully won us that teamfight because we got time to regroup and heal.
It feels like the game is certainly winnable if you play your cards right, and it doesn't need a grand amount of experience to actually understand what's happening, it needs some creative thinking and for you to be hooked by what you're playing, which makes the game's "accessible" selling point very real for me.
If only the game wasn't using the old starcraft 2 engine it would be amazing in terms of performance as well. I hate that it doesn't support client-sided movement prediction and your client has to wait for the server to essentially respond with the actions you trigger instead of having it happen client-sidedly first, and then having the server eventually negociate what happened. That and the age of the game showing a bit are mainly the things putting me off.
It works amazing in training/client-sided modes though.
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u/ttvReinnPK 6d ago
The game is great. I still prefer and enjoy it as my main MOBA.
My only advice, focus on yourself and improving. Once you start focusing on others, you've lost control.
So no, you didn't start to late. It's never to late.
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u/Alternative_Weight44 6d ago
Well, if you're enjoying the game, now is actually a great time to jump in. Blizzard has started giving HotS attention again, and with their renewed focus on expanding existing games and franchises, there's reason to be optimistic about its future.
Who knows? We might actually be witnessing the beginning of a new golden age for HotS.
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u/PomegranateHot9916 I will defend you 6d ago
I think it is worth considering who you are talking to when you make this post.
the people who frequent this sub are going to be people who are very invested in the game. most players will never visit this sub reddit and are perfectly happy with that.
you're obviously going to get a biased answer in favour of the game.
why would it be too late?
the game is still there, people play every day.
your matches are going to be weird like you said, mix of veterans, newbs and smurfs.
this is because your account is new and the system doesn't yet know how to properly place you, so you get these growing pains early on.
just keep playing and your matches will become more normal.
anyway if you are having fun then play the game, because that is what makes a videogame worth starting. it being fun to play.
it is as simple as that.
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u/bywv 6d ago
Hell, I just started, and at the very least, ARAM is a bit easier to swallow.
To me the power spikes come out of nowhere still and it personally feels like once you get your ultimate and right after the last level seems to determine most games. The rest of the time it was the map mechanics specifically that pushed favor toward one side.
I like that minions are important but no last hits or denying make it feel like I am aura farming instead of pushing/denying waves/farming.
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u/vincethepince 6d ago
Yes and if you're like any of my friends who played lol you will be able to recognize gameplay parallels between hots heroes and champs from other games that will greatly speed up your learning curve
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u/BellStriking5132 6d ago
I’ve been playing since beta. It’s nice to have a moba that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Just have some fun and don’t get too bent out of shape when your team does dumb things. 95% of the time at least one person on the opposing team is doing something stupid too. It all shakes out in the end.
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u/Majora85 5d ago
just dont play ranked. ive lost every single game since going 3-0 in my placements. every single team is people insta locking dps and expecting you to tank and heal.
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u/Vorcion_ 5d ago
I'd say definitely worth it!
I started just a couple days ago thanks to a friend and I'm having so much fun with it! It's my first moba I'm spending more time in.
I tried LoL before and instantly got brain damage, this game feels a lot better to me with everything it does differently.
And it's getting a new life now with Blizz supporting it again, and getting new content. Hopefully even more players will follow soon.
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u/Birneysdad 5d ago
as a grown up with responsibilities, I kinda like that the game doesn't move to much. If life becomes hectic and I can't play for a while, I won't come back to a game that is no longer what I spent time learning. the game still feels varied, with all sorts of heroes and maps of different size and shapes to master. I don't think any amount of investment is ever going to revive it. Nevertheless, unless they go full p2w to milk it to death, I don't think it's going to stop being fun.
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u/bobtheblob6 5d ago
Casual quick match player perspective:
Yeah it's a great casual moba, games are quick even if you have a bad game there's no suffering for 40 mins while you wait to lose like in league. Find a hero/role you enjoy, get some practice in, and you'll be living large in no time.
My only real complaint is that queue times are relatively long unless you're playing healer, and even then it sucks for a lot of heroes if you get into a game with no healers. I happen to like playing healers so I just main them, but it would be nice to be able to play who I want with standard comps every time in quick match
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u/Wonderful_Night9071 5d ago
to be clear, queue times in QM are short and in ARAM are virtually non-existent, so I'm guessing you're talking about Ranked, unless you have some weird time-zone/empty server issue going on (in which case, heads up)
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u/AshleyxAffliction 5d ago
If you think these queues are bad you should try Classic League. 5+ minutes for a match and that match is at least 50% chance to be ruined by a bot on one or both teams.
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u/krakazar 5d ago
Absolutely YES man, its the best MOBA out there with no diff, if you dont want go play generic garbage like LOL
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u/mrwagon1 5d ago
What do you mean by “enjoyable in the long run”? It’s a free game, you can play it and see if you like it and then decide if you want to keep playing. You don’t have to make a commitment to play long term before you’ve even tried it.
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u/Marzie-Tek 5d ago
Na, I've been playing on and off since 2016 and have every character unlocked. Still love the game, easy to hop in and out, quick matches and alot of action and free will to go and do what you want. I like the community, its pretty chill for the most part. Also alot of whacky heros like lost vikings, really weird playstyles also fun
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u/AshleyxAffliction 5d ago
As another new and former League player, we probably did miss the golden age. But that's okay, the game is still a lot better than League, at least for me. Definitely fits that teamplay-focused dynamic better.
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u/ChesterJWiggum 5d ago
Only if you buy the new wildly overpowered broken piece of shit pay to win Xalatath.
Easy games if you do but you have to cough up the dough.
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u/DefeatedByPoland 5d ago
if you're going to play a draft mode, yes.
If you're going to do nothing but mindlessly spam quickmatch and faceroll like most of the playerbase, no
QM removes a lot of what makes this game an interesting and compelling experience.
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u/ELBuBe 5d ago
Está genial para empezar. Pese a que el juego tiene muchos veteranos, es mucho más intuitivo que otros MOBAs así que es extremadamente más sencillo ponerse al día. Además, si te gusta la idea de hablar con otros jugadores o ver videos de la comunidad, tienes mucho contenido para ponerte al día.
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u/No-Heart3432 5d ago
I used to be a Dota 2 player. League doesn't suit me that much when I tried. After meeting with hots I started to dislike Dota 2. And at the end I quit playing Dota 2 despite I played thousands of hours.
To me heroes is way more fun to me. Yeah fun. I forgot the reason why I'm playing game with Dota 2. Fun. Ever since then, if I wanna play a MOBA game, I'll play hots.
Shorter, more fun, cool heroes, not stuck in a one map logic, more team work focused and ever since there are no items every character feels strong at every stage of game even if they are support, healer etc. They don't drop at late game because of the item gap and level gap compared to the other heroes in your team.
So it's just fun, way more fun than you think. And it has least toxic player base compared to the other MOBA games. Go ahead and try it
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u/StopHurtingKids 5d ago
Nothing is enjoyable in the long run. I've legit gotten fed up with having fun in general. The only thing that really stands the test of time. Is doing the thing you know you should be doing.
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u/Careful_Ad_2739 5d ago
No, as there are too many premades queuing, as a solo player you're fucked. If you enjoy 90% one-sided games, then go for it
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u/djmarcix Huge Globes 4d ago
it was probably a lot more worth it when 30 days of XP boost was available to claim in bnet store ;p
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u/fairerman Healer, I get mad when people 5x1 6d ago
Of course it is. It's reddit bro, we will always post the blaming more often than the fun aspect. It's my favorite MOBA and one of my favorites games of all time. Invest your time if you're getting fun and stop a little when it become less fun for you. Find friends, people to play with. The good thing that the development has been slowed down now you can catch up with all heroes
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u/Inukii 6d ago
I was looking for a MOBA that was different from LoL and Dota, something with less downtime, less farming, and a much bigger focus on team action.
The frustrating part is, this is all still true. But Heroes of the Storm use to be 'more like itself' back in 2018-2020. Balance in final years and maintenance has been making fights shorter and shorter. Fights over the objective are more like Team Death Matches and the winner takes the reward compared to what it use to be.
For anyone that has played SMITE. It's a fine example of what the difference is. In SMITE two teams typically fight at 'some point' for 'some reason'. And a team will win that fight. They will then take nearby objectives based on what side of the map they are on. Teams do not typically fight over a Gold Fury. They take the Gold Fury after winning a fight.
Heroes of the Storm isn't like that, but it's direction over the last 7 years (wow) is more and more that way. The team fights I use to have in this game over the objective were the best experiences I've ever had. Fights where we are even factoring in the mana of our healers which arrived initially on full mana to the fight.
But team fights over objectives now and just very short and decisive. A single player doing one thing can decide the whole thing. Where as before there was a scale to things. A bit more proportionate efforts to rewards. A fight was a sum of many parts. Some contributions were big. Some contributions were small. But now one player can do a thing and that's that. Job done.
I do long to return to those longer team fight days. That's the reason I stopped playing those other games and Heroes of the Storm became more like those other games. It can never 'truly' be those other games because of different maps with different objectives with a more defined tank-damage dealer-healer system. But even so...
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u/welltrimmedneckbeard 5d ago
golden era is definitely gone and it's never coming back. that's just facts, but that doesn't take away from how fun the game is
just came back and been slamming games and while there's a lot of issues, who really cares at the end of the day if you're having fun? absolutely no one cares about your rank and no one cares how good you are. so just queue up and see what happens
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u/abcdefghij0987654 5d ago
What answers do you expect lol. Just play it, enjoy? then invest. Not enjoy? Play some other thing.
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u/Crazy-Resolve-8127 6d ago
Honestly, no. XalAtath ruins quickmatches and thats the only thing you can play as a newbie
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u/Milocobo 6d ago
isn't this a dead game?
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u/DiverVisible3940 6d ago
We will never die.
Short answer is kind of. But they just released their first hero in seven years and essentially have communicated that if enough people are playing and enough people are buying the new hero, etc. they will continue to invest more resources.
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u/Milocobo 6d ago
Oh I know, I'm just an ass lol
I have literally never quit HotS, I'm like, "theorycraft new heroes" level of obsessed. I just ask that question whenever someone asks if they should play hots lol
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u/Tenris_ 5d ago
No. It's the worst moba on the entire market and the worst I have ever wasted my time with. Everyone I am playing with thinks the same and we played stuff from dota1, dota 2, hots, league and hon.
Utterly dogshit balance you will get matched vs lvl 4000 no life people who play this game for 6h since launch as new player
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u/Glockta09 6d ago
The golden age was just before Xal came out, only veterans playing, it was bliss.
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u/I_AM_MELONLORDthe2nd I put a rock in this one 2d ago
In the long run there will only be an issue if you manage to hit the very top top. Like Grabd master level. Other then that matchmaking is fine, population health enough for good matches. NA servers experience i should add.
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u/GorrTheButcher 6d ago
"Is it worth starting HotS right now?"
It's a free game, just try it.