The best alternative to LoL is much easier to understand and has nicer players, keeps me occupied almost daily for 3 weeks

Completely out of nowhere, Blizzard has breathed new life into Heroes of the Storm. Even though it is still unclear how the MOBA will proceed, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has been playing almost daily since BlizzCon. Heroes of the Storm does many things simply better than the competition.

I already predicted right after BlizzCon that I wouldn’t play much else but Heroes of the Storm for a long time. I have been playing Blizzard’s MOBA since the beta in early 2015 and have more or less continued ever since, with some breaks in between.

While I still manage to make time for current hits like The Blood of Dawnwalker and The Witcher 3, which is currently punishing me badly, at least 3 to 4 rounds of Heroes of the Storm are in the cards almost every day.

Of course, I am a bit biased here, after all, I played Heroes at a semi-professional level and earned money with it. However, I have spent a lot of time in various MOBAs, not just LoL, but also long-dead competitors like Infinite Crisis or Demigod.

Still, I believe: If someone wants to enter the genre, if the start in DOTA is too complicated and the LoL community is too toxic, they should definitely take a look at Heroes of the Storm, especially now.

Blizzard’s Philosophy: Easy to learn, hard to master

In Heroes of the Storm, an important aspect is removed that has been deterring players in LoL for a long time: the toxic player base. Even in Heroes, there are players on your own team who can be unfriendly, but usually, no one gets too abusive.

There is no general chat in the game, meaning: opponents cannot talk to you. Experience shows that insults in LoL predominantly appear in the “All Chat”, not only from opponents but also from team members who vent about their teammates. In Heroes of the Storm, that simply does not happen.

Gameplay-wise, Heroes of the Storm offers some peculiarities that make the entry significantly easier than it is the case with the competition:

• There is no shop, no gold, and no items, but talents. Heroes, their play styles and counters, as well as their “builds” are much easier to learn and recognize.
• Teams level up together by default. A lane cannot fall significantly behind, and an opposing player will not get “fed” by diligently eating minions and heroes.
• New heroes can be extensively tried out in a “Try Out” mode in a special testing environment without having to buy them first.

Especially the latter is an important point. Because “smurfs”, meaning actually strong players who intentionally play with much weaker teammates and against much worse opponents, cannot just wipe out the opposing team and win a round single-handedly.

A MOBA without annoying hyper-carries

The entire concept of characters who can win a “1 against 5” with enough farming does not exist in Heroes of the Storm. Such a large level difference is theoretically possible but not practically.

Even huge advantages bring a team nothing if they make too gross mistakes. I have often found myself in situations where I managed to turn around a seemingly lost game, where opponents were already at our Nexus, because in the end, we regrouped, played more cautiously, and punished the opponents’ overzealousness.

Here lies the great strength of Heroes of the Storm, which is why I love the game so much. The MOBA places great value on teamwork: not only do you level up together, but you also have to coordinate the fights well and play together to win. More so than is the case in LoL.

In Heroes of the Storm, the rounds do not follow the same procedure every time, as you do not play on the same map every time.

Heroes of the Storm does one thing decisively differently: the map

Unlike in LoL, DOTA, and the like, you do not always play on the same map in Heroes of the Storm. Instead, you have more than 20 different maps that vary significantly from one another. You are not just here to farm minions and buy items in every game, but to collect coins for a pirate captain, grow plant monstrosities, or assemble a bone golem.

These “map objectives” ensure that you regularly have to face off against opponents with your team in order to claim the objective for yourselves. On the other hand, games come to a forced end and do not drag on forever.

At this point, it also becomes clear when you are no longer a “beginner” in Heroes of the Storm, but rather start to truly understand and “master” the game:

• Which hero counters which opponent specifically?
• Which combination in the team achieves the best synergies?
• How do I gain an advantage with the team I have, and what strategies are possible – or not?
• Do I play the current map objective or let it go to the opponents this time to catch up, or do I even pursue a completely different strategy?
• And above all: How do my hero and my teammates’ heroes function on the respective map and how do they interact with the specific objective of the map?

Certain heroes can be absolutely OP on a map while being useless everywhere else or vice versa. “One Trick Ponies” are thus significantly limited, and it is less likely that you will encounter such an annoying player. All these little differences draw me back into the game time and again.

League of Legends itself has recently surprised with an exciting mode that I did not expect to be so much fun – and indeed, it is ideal for beginners, even though it is fully aimed at veterans: League Classic does one thing differently than LoL and is exactly why it is much better suited for beginners