I Need a Hero

Hello, my name is Adam, and I'm a Heroes of the Storm addict





Well, at least I was until about a week or two ago. I binged too heavily during the Machines of War event because of the XP and Gold bonuses and I'm taking a break for now aside from games played at the HKN Game Day.

Heroes of the Storm took me by complete surprise. I had never played a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena before, and using Blizzard characters was just the hook to draw me in. Five vs Five, loads of colorful maps that have different gimmicks, and great interactions. I love the gameplay, I love the heroes. I have grown a fondness for siege Specialists, though I'm adept at some heroes in all roles. It had gotten me more into lore of non-WoW Blizzard games and inspired me to give some of them a try.

Plus, it's free. The only thing you need to pay real money for is cosmetic skins, and nobody really needs those to play the game. Games tend to be fast, so it's a great way to blow off 20 minutes of steam in the middle of the day. There's a lot of strategy involved, yet there's also an odd sense of chaos with the map objectives that almost anything can happen.

But equal to the immense love I have for the game and the pleasure playing it brings...is the frustration, anger, sadness, and rage brought on by a lot of the community. ESPECIALLY in ranked games.

Now, I will never be a top player. My computer not always responsive enough, my physical/mental reaction and processing time can be slow, I don't use quick-casts or custom hotkeys, I can't comfortably change my talent builds to reflect the specific game, and while my map awareness has greatly improved I still get tunnel-vision once in a while. I'll never be Master rank. I'll probably never be Platinum rank. I'm 100% fine with that. But I sure as hell know I'm better than Bronze. Yet I am stuck at Bronze, and every time I approach Silver, I hit a losing streak which brings me down in an afternoon what it took months to build.

Why?

Because of the kinds of nihilists that decide the a game is lost the second there's any kind of disadvantage, even if the game has barely started. The people who lower morale by being obstinate instead of working with the team. The people who would rather shout bigoted epithets at teammates they feel are doing poorly rather than playing the game and trying to win. The people who take the fluid and shaky metagame as the unquestioned word of God and refuse to accept that there are no "Bad Talents" or "Bad Heroes", merely Bad Players - and if you waste time berating us for our picks, whether that pick was by mistake or design, then the bad player is you.

I've made legitimate mistakes. I own that. I've mis-picked heroes for the situation, mis-clicked talents in a moment of desperation, not noticed a teamfight on the map until it was too late to join it. I have made all these mistakes and more. And sometimes, even if we all play out absolute best, sometimes one gets outplayed. I'm fine with such worthy defeats, in fact they can sometimes be almost as fun as a win. But even with that, if the playerbase I had to deal with more often than not were not so toxic, my winrate would be a LOT higher than it is, and I often feel severely punished for the mistakes of others. And it's really only one or two people per game like that, so it's not necessarily the majority. But all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch.

And that's why I'm taking a break on the regular play. Because it went from "Just one more game" because I wanted to play more, to "Just one more game" so that I just end my game time on a high non-toxic note. And that gets depressing and stressful, and I play games to de-stress.

I still recommend the game wholeheartedly, especially if you have some good friends to play with. Just make sure to have a thick skin if you decide to try out random matchmaking.

TOP 5

Warriors: E.T.C., Johanna, Leoric, Anub'Arak, Artanis.

Assassins: Chromie, Greymane, Kael'Thas, Kerrigan, Valla.

Support: Brightwing, Li Li, Malfurion, Tassadar, Auriel.

Specialist: Gazlowe, Sylvanas, Murky, Zagara, Nazeebo.