Heroes of the Storm - Drafting Guide (Main Tanks)

We've discussed the first cornerstone to the necessary drafting triangle, the Sustained Damage, the Main Tank and the Main Support, now regarding the Main Tank. A Main Tank is a Warrior-Class hero that must be able to successfully:

- Crowd control and lockdown enemies
- Mitigate damage or have self-sustain
- Move in and out of combat easily

Except Stitches, Sonya and Chen (you, you, you, you, NOT YOU GUYS)

Although not all Main Tanks completely check those criterias, the best Main Tanks certainly do, heroes like Anub'arak and ETC for example are the top picks when it comes to Main Tanks. Given that some Warriors do not classify as Main Tanks but rather Bruisers, so here's a list of Main Tanks along with explanations for each requirement:

Anub'arak

CC and Lockdown
- This hero is special in a sense he has two basic abilities that stun can enemies, a rare advantage which explains why he is one of the go to tanks in competitive and can fare really well in any situation. That and the fact he can single-handedly stun lock a target makes him a really scary hero to deal with when paired with a solid backline

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain
- Anub'arak inherently has 15 Spell Armor, meaning he can tank burst damage from mages. Pair that with his Hardened Carapace that allows him to generate his own shield, he becomes a tank that can easily soak up damage from Assassins when coupled with a fast player. Where he fails somewhat is his slightly low health and no ability to self-sustain until level 10, Locust Swarm isn't the best Heroic option but it does allow him to regenerate health when he needs to.

Mobility
- Anub'arak's Burrow Charge makes him very handy when engaging or escaping. The stun that comes along with the ability also adds value to his kit, plus he can out maneuver stuns or repositions that are clearly telegraphed if you time the burrow properly. Never underestimate a pocket Unstoppable.

Other Advantages
- Anub'arak also supplies a surprising amount of waveclear, his Impale coupled with his Trait that spawns beetles whenever he casts a basic ability. He can also turn a 5v5 fight into a 4v5 with his Cocoon ability.

Arthas

CC and Lockdown
- Arthas thins the line between a Main Tank and a Bruiser quite a bit, while he has a way to slow enemies in an area around him using Frozen Tempest, his lack of mobility means that he has to rely mostly on his lockdown ability, Howling Blast to get in close for the slow. At Level 10, he gains a long range, devastating slow with Summon Sindragosa.

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain
- With a base physical armor of 10, Arthas can take hits from Basic Attacks like a champ, and he can heal his own health whenever necessary with his Death Coil ability. He gains more self sustain when he reaches level 10 with Army of the Dead. Also note that because the zombies surround him while the ability is active, they can intercept skillshots for you so that counts as Damage Mitigation I guess?

Mobility
- This is where Arthas' falls off a bit, he doesn't really have a way to engage the enemy or escape from a bad fight which is why support heroes that boost mobility like Lucio are often paired with him. He can somewhat dissuade long chases with Frozen Tempest.

Other Advantages
- Arthas can shut down Structures and Minion waves with Summon Sindragosa allowing his team to apply pressure on enemy fortifications without contest. He can also fill the role of a solo lane hero, with his high health pool, good waveclear and self sustaining capabilities.

Diablo

CC and Lockdown

- Diablo's crowd control comes in the form of displacements rather than slows, by forcefully repositioning enemies at will and then knocking them into unfavourable positions or worse, WALLS. Which is where his lockdown comes from as targets get stunned when knocked against a wall. The sheer tenacity and imposing nature of Diablo is what allows him to act as a Main Tank really well. What makes Diablo a terrifying (yeah, I went there) hero to deal with is Apocalypse which can devastate teamfights and quickly lead to a team wipe.

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain

- While Diablo does not have any base armor, his advantage comes in the form of a gigantic healthpool. Diablo gains health every time a minion or hero is slain within his vicinity, allowing him to reach ridiculous amounts of hit points. His self sustain comes from various talents that allows him to regenerate more health over time based on a percentage of his health instead of a fixed amount.

Mobility

- Diablo's mobility isn't as reliable as Anub'arak's because you need to target an enemy to use it, but I've seen some players get really creative with it by using minions or mercs as a get out of jail free card when in a bad engage. 

Other Advantages

- Diablo's Trait allows him to respawn after 5 seconds if he dies with 100 souls. The problem with this is that he loses all the bonus health and regeneration he gained from that 100 souls. But it allows him to sacrifice himself if needed, knowing he won't be gone for too long before the next teamfight. Most Main Tanks have an acceptable level of waveclear and Diablo is no exception, the difference here is that he actually gets a lot of value out of rotating from lane to lane to collect experience as he can collect souls as well in the process.

ETC

CC and Lockdown

- ETC can stun and displace enemy units with Powerslide then Face Melt, While he doesn't have much slows until later in the game, the intrusive nature of his abilities make him very hard to deal with in the hands of a skilled player.

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain
- ETC can restore his own health with Guitar Solo and you can even spec him into a somewhat side support with his Prog Rock talent. His trait allows him to generate Armor at will with the use of his basic abilities and he can even supply a healthy amount of physical armor for his teammates as well if you configure him towards that.

Mobility
- ETC engages and disengages with his Powerslide ability, which you can spec so that he can move over terrain as well. The stun that accompanies the ability helps him set up for his teammates and force an enemy out of position with Face Melt.

Other Advantages
- Mosh Pit is a game breaking ultimate that can lead to many one-sided fights, having a 4 secomd stun is no joke in a game this fast-paced. If you need a pseudo-global ability, Stage Dive allows ETC to split push during objectives and Stage Dive in when he is really needed. While his waveclear is not as prominent in the beginning, you have talents as you progress into the game to improve his waveclear.

Johanna

CC and Lockdown

- I'm not a player that necessarily likes playing as Tanks or Warriors, but Johanna is a good hero to start with, her kit is easy to pick up and her CC and Lockdown abilities are quite easy to land when chaining together her abilities. She can drag enemies near her with Condemn and then follow up with a powerful slow with Punish. Because the initial slow from Punish is 60%, it's almost as good as a 0.5 second root, an opening which lets her team really pile on the damage. Her lockdown gets even better at level 10 with Blessed Shield, which allows her to stun multiple targets at once.

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain

- Johanna's trait gives her a hefty shield but there are talents that help her heal health as well. This coupled with a baseline 25 physical armor really allows her to counter basic attack heroes. She can even blind multiple targets with her Shield Glare which allows her to supply some damage mitigation to her team.

Mobility

- Mobility is one of Johanna's weaker sides, although her trait allows her to walk through stuns and roots as well as slows whenever she needs to. If she really needs to make a grand entrance, her other Heroic, Falling Sword can be taken instead.

Other Advantages

- Johanna has really good waveclear, especially when you chain Condemn together with Punish and you can enhance this with the burning rage talent as well. She even has a second chance talent at level 20 with Indestructible.

Muradin

CC and Lockdown

- Muradin is your bread and butter tank, and that's a good thing, he has a good stun from Storm Bolt and a slow with Thunder Clap. If you land Storm Bolts regularly, he can stun 2 targets at once. More aggressive players can opt for Haymaker to push an enemy into your team for a quick takedown.

Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain

- Damage Mitigation and Self Sustain are where Muradin shines the most. He has incredible self sustain with his trait Second Wind, healing by a percentage of his max health when out of combat, so much so he can be quite independent from the rest of the team. He has damage mitigation in the form of attack speed slows with Thunder Clap and physical armor talents, but his damage mitigation extends to his teammates as well thanks to the attack speed slow. Avatar adds to this by increasing his health and making him more tanky than he already is.

Mobility

- His Dwarf Toss allows him to jump in and out of combat, but when using it to engage he deals damage to the landing area. While it does supply him with some armor, please note that the jump is interruptible so use it when you're sure you won't get CC'ed.

Other Advantages

- Muradin is one the greatest tank heroes you can use in terms of damage taken for the team thanks to his immense self sustain. You can zone out areas with his Thunder Burn talent or just punish over extends with his damage increasing talents.

These are just the quintessential warriors you should have in game, there are also others you can use, like:

Tyrael, who doesn't have much CC but can definitely mitigate a ton of damage with his constant shields and his Sanctification. He can dart in and out of battle with El'druin and can help his team reposition and escape with Smite.

Blaze is one of the best tanks you can have in game, simply because he can assume both roles, either a solo laner, with his waveclear or a main tank. He has amazing zoning capabilities and can self sustain quite well thanks to hit kit. He also great initiation with his Jet Propulsion and some damage mitigation thanks to his trait, Pyromaniac. On top of that, he can provide damage mitigation for his allies with his Bunker Drop. Just a great overall hero to have in your kit should you need a tank.

Have fun and prove to your enemies that immortals really do exist!

Why I'm not playing Overwatch... Anymore

Excuse the clickbait-y title, but it's a question I find myself asking myself a lot lately, more accurately, since the Lunar New Year Event and now even more so with Brigitte's release. I've had a lot of games on my mind. But even though I love Overwatch, it hasn't occurred to me, for almost over a month now, that I should pop back in for a looksee.

Who's Brigitte you ask? This girl right here.

I play 5 of the 7 Blizzard titles in Battle.net (oops, Blizzard App) right now, and the only two I'm not playing are World of Warcraft (WOW) and Starcraft Remastered. So I've experienced Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Overwatch. Overwatch being special because I actually tried it on the Free to Play Weekend before actually making the purchase.

A list of Blizzard's current franchises on the Blizzard App

But out of the 5 that I have in my games library, I only find myself gravitating towards Heroes of the Storm (HotS) and just recently again, Diablo 3 (D3), after a 2 season hiatus. But never Overwatch. (Starcraft's a longer story but the TL:DR of it revolves around personal incompetence and the difficulty to maintain a high enough APM, self-loathing and multitasking problems. Why?

So here's what I've gotten to so far, after long, pondering sessions on the toilet seat (TMI, I know but not untrue) and multiple thinking gifs to demonstrate the amount of time I spent thinking about this subject, here's what I've gotten so far.

Just a heads up, I'll be using HotS and D3 a lot for comparison because I know those franchises a lot but just to shake things up, I'll also use Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSgo), to the degree of knowledge I have about it, as a game for comparison as well.

Player Incentives - Progression and Unlockables

What Overwatch lacks is the features that bring the player back to game daily, features which other games include in the form of Daily Quests and so on. The only form of progression you have, at the time of this post, is leveling up your account, which by doing so awards you a single, measly, loot box.

How it feels like after opening box after box of disappointments

You could also include the seasonal currency you get that allows you to purchase gold weapons but I've tried competitive in HotS and almost burned myself out of the game so I'll leave competitive to the players that actually go for that kind of thing and enjoy it.

And what do you get from that one measly loot box after leveling up?

4 cosmetic items with a 18.2% chance for Epic items and 7.4% chance for Legendary items. Which by the standards of the last Overwatch Anniversary Event means you have a 1.85% chance of getting the skin you want cause all of them are legendary (this isn't even including the probability of getting those legendaries in the sea of all the other legendaries), which are mostly what people want from the Loot Boxes anyway. And you only level up after playing 5 extremely long games, which take around 15-20 minutes per game, if not, you have to play up to 10 games, should your matches last between 5-15 minutes. Pair this with salty or foul-mouthed players that are pros at the blame game, the very apparent performance gap you and your teammates have against your opponents and unfair 5 vs 6 matches you'll have due to a missing teammate, there's only so much a person can take TO LEVEL UP ONCE. All for working towards a box whose contents you have no control over.

me, 100%

In Heroes of the Storm, you have a main account level, just like in Overwatch, each individual hero you use has their own level as well, the more you use a hero, the more they level up. Each time a hero levels up, you're awarded a Loot Chest (Overwatch - Box, HotS - Chest) and your account levels up as well, so your account level is the cumulative level of all the heroes in your roster. The difference here is that HotS also has Daily Quests, which once you complete award you Gold which you can use to buy new heroes. Daily Quests are what bring the players coming back day after day, and as your completing your daily quests, you're leveling up your heroes along the way. AND you can reroll bad Loot Chests using your hard earned Gold, which also gives you more incentive to check in every day. 

Overwatch's Lunar New Year Event

Overwatch's main attraction, which brought even yours truly back for a year or so, are different events based around real world celebrations or in-game crucial moments. The latest example would be the Lunar New Year Event for Year of the Dog. During which, new or unique limited time game modes are introduced as well as new limited time in game items are available which can be obtained from... LOOTBOXES!!! Overwatch allows you to buy specific items you want with Credits (or Coins), an in-game currency you get by getting duplicates from Loot Boxes. But for these limited time items, the cost is tripled that of a normal one of the same rarity. And should you get a duplicate of the event item, you're awarded the same amount of Credits as a normal item. Sure you get ONE complimentary Loot Box, courtesy of the Overwatch Team, but really, how much does that really add in the long scheme of things?

wait... Whut?

The incentives available in Overwatch to keep a person playing are very little, and the main events that are supposed to help with attracting players to continue playing do nothing to solve this problem. HotS uses a much more organic approach, by providing small, incremental rewards that keep a player engaged and invested. And these in-game items have no effect whatsoever in how well your character plays, they are simply cosmetic items that allow you as a user to customize the character to how you see fit. Seems very trivial, I know, but as Dota 2 and CSgo have proven, it's a lucrative business model.

Overwatch's Business Model

Heroes of the Storm's Business Model

Here's a diagram of how the business models of both games look. In Overwatch, there is very little you can work for as compared to HotS, which, judging by how interwoven the different currencies and ways of obtaining them are, makes playing Heroes of the Storm more rewarding. AND HOTS IS THE FREE-TO-PLAY GAME HERE.

Speaking of cosmetic items (nice segue, I know, I'm working on it)

Visibility and Accessibility of Cosmetic Items

Cosmetic items are what drive players to invest hundreds of hours on Loot Box hunting, they are a form of reward players get for their hours spent on a game. But for a game like Overwatch, you hardly get to look at the character skin you worked so hard for in game. The only times you get to the see the full skin while playing are when you die (which is from the person who killed you's point of view) and if you a get the play of game. Everyone else sees your hard-earned skin all the time you're in their vision range. 

One of my favourite Mercy skins, but also which I sadly do not own

This applies to Highlight Intros as well, since it only plays if you get Play of the Game, if you're a support player, that means no Highlight Intros like 99.9% of the time. Sprays are also hardly visible as there are so many different levels on Overwatch and so many facades, it's hard to notice which wall has a spray on it. That being said, a well-placed spray is still funny when you do actually stumble upon it.

... then back to salt

So I've selected the skin...

But I don't see most of it

In Heroes of the Storm, because of how the game is, you can constantly see skin you chose. The effects and such are always visible, and though I don't constantly go ohhh and ahhh at the changed effect or skin, there are those moments when I hearth back to base, I sit back and admire the amount of work put into the design of the skin which lead to me grinding to get it for myself.

Skin's right there

The same goes for sprays as well, it's laid out, on the ground for everyone to see. Banners too, which ultimately remind the players what they lack and then as they've worked hard to obtain it, the reward of their labours.

You plant a Banner if you capture a camp or objective, and it even has you name on it!

Sprays are there for all to see, completely visible for a duration of time, and I'm not including mounts

But Heroes is played from a birds eye view, Overwatch is from a first person point of view, these differences don't apply. Indeed they don't but the fact that it exists doesn't help Overwatch's case. Now compare Overwatch to CSgo, the same point of views and visibility but CSgo allows players to buy and sell skins they don't use. Which adds another method of acquisition for players that can't splurge on 50 Loot Boxes in one sitting. When you allow different and simpler avenues for players to get what they want, it encourages them to work towards it, given it's not as steep of a climb. 

Glad to know I can spend 10 cents or 300 dollars on a skin

I have to admit, being able to spend 8 cents on a cosmetic item in Dota 2 was what got me buying different in game items, which when you add up how much I've spent in total, it could easily amount to around 30 ringgit OR MORE. Now I'm not saying that Overwatch is bad for making the skins not visible and such, but the point I'm making here is that the visibility of the item affects how much the players want it. In order to counter this, they have to give players other ways of obtaining the skin.

Amount of In-Game Content

As a game that costs as much as it does, it should have other game modes that cater towards the single player experience. Because all games now require an always-on internet connection, to combat pirating and whatnot, I'm going to let that one slide. But Overwatch's primary gameplay experience revolves around its multiplayer experience, so there's very little you can do if you're on your own.

you, if you're looking for single player content

Overwatch delivers a solid multiplayer experience, don't get me wrong, but it's those times where that multiplayer aspect fails where the other features come into play to keep you enjoying the game. A game mode where all you have to focus on is the growth of one character you love and not care about what other people do, progression. Something that Diablo 3 definitely delivers. 

The game allows you to collect items and level up your character, and you keep at it, simply because you know you can get your character to a better spot,

better damage,

and better gear.

If not, give them goals to work towards, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, in small increments within arms reach. A reason to keep playing the game they first fell in love with and wasted 2 days of their life, not doing anything productive in the real world because of the free to play weekend. Opening each loot box, watching with glee at the new skins they got to equip. Spending the first few Credits they got on a colour variation for a character they really connected with just because they liked the character that much. Entering a game with teammates all going through the same thing and treating each other nicely, because no one had ranks back then, everyone was just starting out. And how everyone just cheered when a teamfight went perfectly with 5 strangers you didn't know but all came together because they enjoyed the game so much.

But then again, how could you think Overwatch would have single player content? Like have you seen the posters?

There's no "I" in Overwatch, *checks Overwatch* Oh, thank god

So I'm not going to play Overwatch for now, but if there's anything I've learned from playing Overwatch, you'll just have to wait and see. Because things could always take a turn for the better.

THAT'S ALL AND HAVE FUN PLAYING THE GAMES YOU ENJOY!!!

Heroes of the Storm - Drafting Guide: Sustained Damage Dealers

During my first few weeks into Heroes of the Storm, the first thing I picked up on was the importance of damage in any game of HotS, and to some degree, it's kinda true. Damage is the source of most interactions you have in HotS, you need to push lanes, take down towers, defeat and capture mercenary camps , push back objectives or even benefiting off of objectives. And that all excludes hero interactions, a healer is only useful if there's damage to heal in the first place, and damage mitigation is only needed when incoming damage is kept in mind. Damage was such a crucial breakthrough for me that, for a time, the only advice I would give to newcomers regarding talents were, "When in doubt, go for damage!". Because regardless of the situation, you can always find a way to put extra damage to good use, as I mentioned earlier. Although this is still true sometimes, and please note I've only just gotten into heroes at the time, I overlooked hero roles and other key aspects like maps, globals and objectives.

But it does make a good starting point, in any draft you should always have a Sustained Damage Dealer or Sustained DPS, because no matter what draft you have, you can't do anything without enough damage output and if you don't know what that means, keep reading and if you're unfamiliar with Hero Classes and Roles, go read my post about that here.

Valla, AKA the Queen of Sustained Damage

A Sustained Damage Dealer is a hero that can constantly dish out damage, which differs from a Burst Damage Dealer, which deals a large amount of damage in waves and not constantly, there are delays between each instance of damage. 

A good rule of thumb is a Sustained DPS hero must be ranged so that you can safely deal damage from a distance and must have high attack damage or attack speed. They're mostly from the Assassin Class but that's a bit of a grey area.

Here's a list of some Sustained Damage Dealers in HotS:

- Valla ( at the time of this post, the BEST Sustained DPS)

- Greymane

- Falstad

- Zul'jin

- Gul'dan

- Tracer

- Lunara

- Raynor

- Cassia

- Tychus

Valla, Greymane and Falstad are top picks for the Sustained DPS role because of the fact they have great sustained damage but at the same time are capable of dealing significant burst damage when needed. Gul'dan is the only mage class Assassin that can be considered a Sustained DPS hero so if you like mages, try Gul'dan out! Valla and Raynor cost 2000 gold in the shop and are good purchases if you're just starting out in Heroes of the Storm. Tychus and Cassia are the least favoured because of their shorter attack range although both have unique skillsets when needed. Tychus can easily melt heroes with high health because he can deal damage based on a percent of the enemy's health while Cassia is exceptionally tanky against physical damage.

Ok, so now how do you play a Sustained DPS Hero?

One of the skills you have to learn with this type of hero is the Stutter Step, look it up on YouTube for a clearer example, but to put it simply, it's the ability to move between attacks. This allows you to reposition your hero, whilst attacking a nearby target. This ensures you have a steady stream of damage being dealt to the enemy even though you need to retreat or engage. Tracer can attack while moving so this doesn't really apply to her, but you need to make sure your attacks target the right enemy while you're vigorously clicking.

Isn't it annoying seeing her attack non-stop? Yeah, be that Tracer!!

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that, your damage is completely free, meaning if you're not attacking whenever you can, then you're missing out on precious damage that could have decided the teamfight. And by this I'm not asking you to charge head on into the enemy, a Sustained DPS should be placed between the frontline and the support backline, ready to step forward to get some damage out, and then retreating behind the Main Tank and Bruiser back to safety. Lunara is a hero that benefits a lot from poking (dealing damage constantly in small opportunities) her enemies because of her poison. So you're actually making it really hard for the enemy team's healer to keep up with your damage.

The Queen of Poke, IMHO

Sustained DPS Heroes should never let the enemy's engages and initiates be uncontested. Whenever a tank hero tries to charge in or a support is left out of position, it is your civic duty to attack that hero. This equates to more damage their healer has to heal back up leading to using up more mana which causes two things to happen, the hero takes too much damage and has to return to base or their healer runs out of mana. Both grant you a significant numbers advantage, given the fact that one hero is missing from the fight which is what can lead to you winning a decisive battle that can win you the game. With this in mind, the DPS Hero should always prioritize taking out a Support Hero or DPS Hero over the Warriors but should not pass the opportunity to damage the Warrior as well if there aren't any other nearby targets.

Warrior? Support? Assassin? Which ONE?! You'll get the hang of it ;)

Last but not least, your presence is required if your team is taking Boss Camps or contesting objectives. Especially those times where there are Garden Terrors, Dragon Knights, Spider Queens or Zergs attacking your base. Your damage is your worth so if you can't deal damage, you're worthless.

Brutal, I know, BUT TRUE!!!

But out of the 3 Main Classes needed in every draft, the Sustained Damage role is the easiest, so just practice and make sure you're never alone when engaging or treading into unknown territory.

Have fun and kill those heroes with your SUSTAINED DPS!!!

Heroes of the Storm - Basic Drafting Guide to Hero League

So I've been playing Hero League for a while now, but always only within the first 10 placement matches. However, during the last season, my rank dropped really low so as soon as I was done with my placement matches, I kept playing Hero League, despite the long wait times, despite the toxicity and forced hero selections. And I kept losing. I kept losing because of bad hero picks and bad team compositions, very rarely do I lose due to poor matchups with players too far below or above my rank. As you can imagine, one can only take so many losses.

At the same time, HGC (Heroes Global Championship) was going on so I watched a ton of games to see if I could draft better heroes and ban heroes properly. Which got me like this:

Me, watching team drafts in HGC

So after a few weeks of contemplating before sleep and discussions with my friend, I've come with some basic guidelines on how to start drafting if you wanna have some sort of success in Hero League. Also I hope people I have played with read this so that we can achieve victory better (because usually when I lose I only know why after the game is already over) as Heroes of the Storm is a team game.

This is the screen you'll see when you start Hero League

The heroes (or more specifically classes) you need in any draft and I mean ANY DRAFT is:

- 1 Main Warrior

- 1 Main Support

- 1 Sustained Damage

Exactly in that order as well,

The reason for this is you need a Main Warrior first and foremost because warriors allow you to do basically anything you need to do in game.

Main Warriors allow you to:

- Engage or Disengage

- Create a hindrance to enemies so your damage dealers can actually deal damage

- Lockdown or interrupt enemies for counterplay

- Protect the rest of your team like supports and assassins

The problem here is that not all Heroes in the Warrior category are actually Main Warriors. So here is where it gets tricky, because I could either give you a list of heroes to memorize as Main Warriors or I could explain to you what makes a Warrior a Main Warrior.

Main Warriors must be able to:

- Take a large amount of damage meaning Large Health Pools

- Mitigate damage, ie, reducing damage or absorbing damage

- Crowd control (CC), ie, displace, stun, slow, trap or root a large number of units at one time

- and finally, Move around quickly or cover some distance quickly

From these main aspects, you can kind of have an idea of what heroes belong in the Main Warrior category. Some of the most popular Main Warriors are Muradin and ETC. Please note that Main Warriors must be able to do these things with their basic abilities, so if a Warrior Hero only completes these criterias after a Heroic Ability, that hero is not a Main Tank (until he gets his Heroics).

As for the Warriors that don't fit the criterias, they would most probably fit the Bruiser category. To elaborate, Bruisers trade off one or more of those aspects for more damage. Bruisers are important as well but should only be considered after you've planned those first 3 classes. They don't really fit a single role as some Bruisers can Solo Lane, some can act as a Side Support.

The next is a Main Support, and just like Warriors, some supports are not considered as Main Supports but rather they are split into Main Supports and Side Supports. Uther and Malfurion are the most popular Main Supports.

Main Supports must be able to:

- Heal a significant amount of health and not provide temporary health

- Provide some form of CC

Side Supports trade off some of these aspects by adding more CC, or damage.

And finally the string that ties all this together, the Sustained Damage Assassin. There are many types of Assassins but the Assassin with the damage type you need the most is Sustained Damage. Sustained Damage usually refers to Assassins that mostly rely on Auto Attacks for damage. Because Auto Attacks don't require any sort of resource to dish out, they are the most reliable in the hands of a good player and they can consistently deal damage no matter how long the team fight drags on. Hence the name, Sustained Damage. Raynor and Valla are good examples of Sustained Damage and the most important thing to know when using a Sustained Damage Hero is positioning (so you can deal damage safely) and stutter stepping (so you can deal damage while positioning). The easiest way to discern a Sustained Damage Assassin is the hero must be Ranged and they have High Attack Damage/ Attack Speed.

The other Assassins would either fall into the Burst Damage category (most mages are in this category), the Bruiser category (most melee assassins fall in this category) or the Backline category (assassins that can pressure the enemy backline).

If you want to learn just the basics quickly you can stop here, but I have a few more categories to go over and how they all come together to form a viable team composition.

Bruisers are heroes that have abilities similar to Main Warriors but they are not as disruptive as Main Tanks, most Bruisers have CC that affect only one hero and if they do, it is often displacements, slows and traps but not stuns or roots. However, the trade-off to this is that, they can deal more damage than Main Warriors and have ways to self-sustain through teamfights. Bruisers exist because they help take the pressure off of Main Tanks by tanking some of the damage themselves and then retreating to the backline whilst healing back up until they are needed again. Opponents cannot simply ignore them as they can do a sizeable amount of damage and they can tank some damage while regenerating health as well as the fight goes on. The main difference a Main Warrior has with Bruisers are that Main Warriors have a huge presence on the battlefield and are very disruptive whereas Bruisers can only disrupt one or two enemies.

Side Supports are Heroes that are able to slowly regenerate health over time or provide a significant amount of damage mitigation while simultaneously providing CC and damage to the team. Being Side Supports, they help to keep the team healthy through long fights or take the brunt of an attack, 

getting rid of burst damage.

And finally, we have Specialists.

Specialists are the hardest class to explain, but to put it simply, they fulfill some of the requirements of two or more classes. The difference Specialists have with Multi-Class Heroes are that while Multi-Class Heroes are similar at the start of a game to Specialists, Multi-Class must ultimately commit to one role at the end of the game whereas Specialists continue to fill the role of different classes until the end. Therefore, Specialists are best to pick if you have a very odd requirements to fill in your composition. Another attribute unique to most Specialists are their ability to pressure and push lanes really well. In fact, when left unchecked, they can destroy forts before Level 4.

One last thing I want to address is the role needed in Professional Games, the Solo Laner. I left this for last because unlike tournament games, most casual players don't play as pro players do. In tournament games, most games start off with 4 heroes pushing down a lane and 1 hero (the Solo Laner) pushing down another lane. The 4 heroes then proceed to rotate from one lane to the other while the Solo Laner stays on the last lane. The reason this is not common in casual games is because it requires a lot cooperation from all players to rotate at the same time and such. This arrangement acts as a sort of stalemate between teams as the 4 heroes can devastate a lane if the opposing team commits some heroes to take down the Solo Laner, which is a hero that has enough self-sustain to survive a gank from the opposing team. This stalemate goes away when huge rotations occur due to objectives and ganks which is when the teams try to create advantage in any game.

A Solo Laner is a hero with:

- Good waveclear

- Some form of self-sustain

Ok now you know what different classes of heroes provide to a team and the base composition required in any team. Now let's see how they fit in a team.

Starting with the 3 required hero classes:

- Main Warrior

- Main Support

- Sustained Damage

You can add a mage class to this composition, giving you more burst damage, in which case a hero with more lockdown would make this composition more effective, so adding another Warrior or Bruiser to the composition wouldn't hurt. Now you have a composition that has a lot of damage and quite a healthy frontline.

Or you could add a second support class to your team, making the whole team more survivable, meaning a team with 2 Assassins could work. Or you could play it safe and go for a Bruiser to ease some pressure from your Main Warrior.

Although this is the simplest way to introduce drafting to you, in Heroes of the Storm, there are more things to consider as well when drafting like map objectives and wave clear but it's something you'll learn overtime but at least you'll have a guideline to start with while at the same time considering those other aspects.

Good Luck!!

And as always, have fun playing HotS =D (Let's hope you don't almost burn out like I did because of Hero League)

INDEX

DPS - Damage per second or refers to a hero that supplies the damage to a team

Physical Damage - Damage dealt by auto attacks

Spell Damage - Damage dealt by spells (can also be called Ability Damage)

Percent Damage - Damage dealt equal to a percent of health

Burst - A large amount of damage dealt in a short amount of time to quickly take down a target

Self-Sustain - The ability to regenerate health by yourself

CC (Crowd Control) - The ability to displace, slow, trap, stun or root enemies

Displacement - Moving enemies against their will, during movement the affected is considered stunned

Slow - Having reduced movement speed

Stunned - Preventing movement and action to the affected

Root - Preventing movement or abilities related to movement but allowing action

Time Stop/ Stasis - Prevents movement and action but prevents damage to the affected

Trapped - Creating impassable terrain limiting movement

Silence - Prevents usage of spells and abilities by the affected for the duration

Damage Mitigation - The ability to reduce damage taken

Shields - Gains temporary health that is consumed first when taking damage, shown as white in health bar

Physical Armor - Reduces Physical Damage

Spell Armor - Reduce Spell or Ability Damage

Armor - Reduces all sources of damage except percent damage

Damage Reduction - Reduces all damage sources

Protected - Prevents all damage sources

Unstoppable - Prevents all CC except stasis

Invulnerable - Prevents all damage and CC

Gank - Using a numbers advantage to overwhelm and take the enemy by surprise

Lockdown - Keeping a target in place by means of chaining CC one after the other

Rotation - Moving across the map to engage objectives, lanes or targets

Wave Clear - The ability to clear minions quickly and effectively

Soaking - To stay in lane to gather EXP for the team, optimally for maximum soak, all lanes must have 1 hero to soaking experience

Numbers Advantage - Removing a member of the team to gain advantage

Snowball - Getting stronger with each hero takedown

Escape - The ability to retreat effectively from an unfavourable situation

Backline Harass - The ability to dive past the frontline to take out weak targets in the backline

Dive - To charge into the enemy