Play The Objective #3
This week in Play The Objective (PTO) I examine experience mechanism in Heroes, spend time with the Lord of Terror, and summarize the (suddenly) eventful Heroes scene.
Thought(s) of the week
One of the problems I’ve found with Heroes is the game is so simplified it’s hard to understand the damage and what a level advantage really means. In Dota one can always see their current damage output, how much damage each spell will do, and because of the attributes how much damage, mana, health they will have the next level.
My interest was really piqued watching a Khaldor cast. A team fight brewing, and Khaldor commented that one team was in an unfavorable position as, while four heroes were jockeying for the team fight, one was top pushing the lane. The comment left me wondering, when is there advantage in having a hero soak experience, and at what point does this not matter. For example, if your team loses a team fight 4v5 but you are soaking experience, what is the net change?
I did research in the manner, and it seems the internet has no answer to the experience dynamic in Heroes. The concept is understood, team experience is universal and gained based on having minimum one hero in experience range in any lane or killing mercenaries or heroes. This is binary, there is no additional gain with multiple heroes, only one counts. I could only find one post by another dedicated gamer on the Blizzard forums who tried to analyze the experience game in Heroes. It was a good read (check it out here) and I’m trying to add onto his analysis.
If experience requirements go up 10% per level, it means that until at least level 3-4, soaking experience is extremely important.
I confirmed that (at least) the first creep wave is worth 452 experience points. It’s 70 for melee creep, 62 for the wizard and 60 for the ranged creeps. So what does 452 actually mean? It’s hard to accurately capture this data, but my (educated) estimates in terms of level growth is below:
- Getting to level 2 is about 1200 experience points
- Getting to level 3 is about 2600 experience points
- Getting to level 4 is about 4000 experience points
Other experience sources I estimate are: first blood seems to be worth about 440 experience points (equivalent to one creep wave), regular hero kills are worth about 300 experience, the siege camp and bruiser camps are worth about 300-500 experience. On hero kills, keep in mind Blizzard uses a dynamic system that rewards more experience if a team is behind (a bounty system).
If experience requirements go up 10% per level, it means that until at least level 3-4, soaking experience is extremely important. One wave is worth close to half of your experience to level 2. Think about it like this, if it’s the beginning and your team gives up a first blood in a 4v5 situation, if the fifth member is soaking experience and the other team’s going to lane (likely on the bigger maps), that first wave of experience will about nullify the first blood advantage.
While creep waves have equivalent experience values, hero kills are much more important in the grand scheme. They allow you to push lanes, aggressively target mercenary camps, and strategically limit the other team’s ability to soak experience, but it should not come at the cost of lane experience in the early going. Ganking is great, just make sure there's a hero per lane. You need the early experience to have a good position going into the map objectives.
One last thought is the value of level advantage. Level advantage really only matters when it comes to the talent plateaus (1, 4, 7, 10, etc…). Per level, all heroes gain 10 mana points (not huge), on average 150 health points (depending on the hero class) and roughly 8-11 damage. It means, if your team is level 8 and down a level, you can take a fight.
Avoid fighting around the key levels when the other team has a talent advantage.
That single level difference should not deter you from fighting if your team is in a favorable position. But you need to fight around the plateaus. If your team is level 9 and the other team is level 10, than you should almost never take that fight. Being an ultimate down is a significant disadvantage. Same goes if you are level 3 and they are level 4, etc…
Soaking experience for the first few levels is extremely important as it gives your team a strong platform for the eventual fights. When you’re behind, don’t be afraid to take fights but avoid fighting around the key levels when the other team has a talent advantage.
Free to Play of the Week: Diablo (of course)
When I first joined the GosuGamers team, the ESL tournament was in full swing and I remember one game where Diablo was the last pick. It was kind of a big deal as he had never been picked in a professional match. Today, Diablo is the trendy pick. He is generally found worthy of first pick/first ban status.
His skills set is well defined and reminiscent of his namesake game encounter. He has a charge attack, an AOE nuke and a slam that brings the hero around. His ultimate is one of the better warrior team fight heroic regardless of which one you select.
Aesthetics: Over the course of the three Diablo games, Diablo has gone through a graphical upgrade. In the original he looked like a man dressed in a Diablo costume (see here), in Diablo II they upgrade his physique making a beefier version with a sprawling chest and big arms, in Diablo III he took on a more feminine, yoga oriented build with a slender, longer body (very strong similarities to the Alien Queen). Thankfully the Heroes version of Diablo is an ode to the old school version. Here is a brute of a warrior, with his trademark horns sticking out and his massive chest and arms. He looks big and nice, but in the context of Heroes, a little cartoony and not really that intimidating in the battlefield (especially the hilarious murloc version). Still it’s as faithful of a reanimation of the Diablo II version (best Diablo game by the way) so that means something.
Skillset: I was watching a game cast by Khaldor (teaser, see below) and post a boss fight, the opposing team’s Diablo sat on the control point and the other team couldn’t move him, losing their boss reward. This cleanly sums up what Diablo brings to the battlefield. He’s got a big character model (biggest in the game?) and simply stomps around the map exerting his will. I found, with a lot of heal support, in team fights I could do as I pleased.
And please my teammates I did. Bursting clumped heroes with lightning storm is crazy effective. Overall Diablo has a great skillset. He’s a slow hero so the charge is crucial for gaining a position advantage, and his slam is great for catching fleeing victims. His nuke I was continually disappointed by. Essentially it’s lines of fire that spread out from Diablo. I couldn't’t tell if the nuke did no damage or my first lines just missed the heroes, that’s how depressing the damage output is.
For such a frontline hero, Diablo is also kind of boring. I’m a Muradin guy. I love his hammer (super satisfying) and leaping around the battlefield. It’s thrilling to be in battle with him. Diablo lacks the flair. He marauds the map, smacking heroes around and spraying fire. Think Moe the Bully from Calvin and Hobbes.
Difficulty: Medium. Positioning is key for Diablo (given how slow he is), and if you go with his lightning breath ultimate, you need to know when to channel it without dying. Otherwise, just right click and move.
Verdict: 7,000 gold is not a bad price. I liked the hero. Good skill set, great team fight, and if your team only has one warrior class, no question he is the pick. But I also personally didn’t enjoy his play style. Pass.
Around the Storm:
- Sylvanas Wind Runner (secretly one of the hottest Blizzard characters) is coming to HoTs. My first impression is seems pretty similar to Valla but with some extremely fun spells and cool animations. Other announcements at PAX was the launch of the rumored Tomb of the Spider Queen map, and various tweaks to the game interface and experience. Overall, satisfying but I’m still waiting for the Butcher. See our full coverage here.
- The Enter the Storm tournament starts up this week (March 14th) from GosuGamers. To summarize, there are four qualifying rounds, held in each successive week with the top two team advancing from each round. If you missed this qualifying round, don’t be afraid to register for next week’s. I am neutral to all tournaments, but this one and ESL Go4Heroes cup series are the best opportunity for new and amateur teams to break into the scene and get some experience in live matches. Register here.
- Speaking of ESL, ASH (ArthasStroitHram) won the Go4Heroes February. For those who don’t remember the weekly cup series is offered by ESL and has a prize pool of $250. My favorite team name? “Staff WoT Germany Testing Team”.
- In the ESL Major League (Europe), a battle of the undefeated happened between Gamers2 and Team-LDLC. Team-LDLC unfortunately lost 2:0, and Gamers2 formerly (3DMax) solidified their status as the best team in the scene right now, in my opinion. In America, EG and Murloc had a great Game 2 (I think it was) in their BO3. It was a great comeback by the Americans from a pretty large deficit and I like to think reiterates what I wrote about. I still think Murloc is a sleeper team.
- In Asia, Heroes Big League from Afreeca TV had their grand finals on March 7th, and this all I really know about the tournament (Like literally cannot find who won the tournament). But Wolf burnishes his nerd credentials with his profile picture on the homepage.
- Blizzard joined the new frontier of college recruitment in a drive to get more traction on the professional scene. They announced a new college-based tournament that will have a total prize pool of $450,000 (ahem, tuition allowance). This is in partnership with ESPN which will broadcast the final round live. Cool news, but seems pretty aggressive considering the professional scene is not even close to hitting those kind of financial incentives. Story is here.
- GosuGamers overworked staff has published a series of easy to understand but informative guides on various heroes. I promised content was in the pipeline, and here it comes. Check out the great articles under the "Guide" section at our HotS page.
- For sentimental reasons EG’s HoTs team is my favorite, specifically for Grack. As a longtime Starcraft fan, Idra has always been one of my favorite players, blemishes and all. People need to appreciate how hard it is for a Westerner to compete (and hold his ground) against Koreans in Starcraft. And when SC2 first came out, he did just that.
And as always, never forget to Play The Objective.
More on GosuGamers Heroes of the Storm:
