Ask DrmDestryr #6

DrmDestryr,

Abathur is free to play! What do I do with him?

- Winning

Dear Winning,

Abathur is an insanely fun hero but only if you enjoy a busy game – even in co-op is heavily involved all the time. The best way to get to know him is to play him. You could even start a you and all computers game.

As Abathur, know that you are not like every other hero. You do not engage in direct combat. Ever. The only time you join the team is either as a Beholder through Symbiote or as a copy of one of your teammates.

Now, your active abilities are Symbiote and Toxic Nest. You also have Locust Strain, but this activates on a regular basis sans button push. As a “specialist,” you will need to “specialize” in one of these three trees. You can certainly spread yourself thin and pseudo-buff each one, but why would you cheat yourself of power?

Unlike the other heroes as well, Abathur’s Heroic Ability is one in number: Ultimate Evolution. You make an exact replica of one of your teammates for 45 seconds. Some say use it as many times as it cools down. Some say wait for team battles. The choice is yours, but always be aware that it will take you a few seconds to transform - a few seconds in which you are a helpless cocoon that can be quashed by enemy forces.

My final note with this is that, as a rather immobile character, you need to learn how to minimap. Learn to use your cursor on the minimap to jump the camera around (if you don’t already). This allow you to watch over everything as the benevolent god you are pretending to be.

- DrmDestryr

DrmDestryr,

I want to play Uther, but he's boring. What do?

-Smite_Bringer

Dear What2Do,

If you stick with the safety net of all passives, Uther is, unquestionably, a boring hero. Break out of that and look at Uther’s talents. Of the 7 tiers, 5 of them allow you to add an active ability. That’s 5 additional buttons you can add to your gameplay experience – leveling your button skill to 9.

In case you can’t be bothered to search for these, here are the names of the actives that can be added: Shield Ally, Clairvoyance, Cleanse, Sprint, Shrink Ray, Rewind, and Storm Shield. Now, go read about each one so you figure out how to work them into your play style. If you manage to implement all 5 buttons and use them well, you will be a busy Paladin during team fights.

Ain’t nobody likes a good Paladin but everybody want one.

-DrmDestryr

Ask DrmDestryr is your weekly Q&A/advice column for Heroes of the Storm. Have a question for DrmDestryr? E-mail her your mental musings at drmdestryr@gmail.com or send happy twoughts her way @DrmDestryr.

Ask DrmDestryr #5

DrmDestryr,

If my team is behind, how should we get back in the game?

- LostHero

Dear LostHero,

The important thing to assess why you are losing. Are you losing the team fights? Are you ignoring objectives/mercs? Is the other team always together? Are you doing OK but a whiny c**tbag is insulting everyone in chat?

If you are losing in team fights, don’t engage in team fights. Find ways to isolate the enemy. Break them, and you break their team.

Why are you ignoring the objectives and the mercs? If you can’t hit both then you damn well better hit the other as hard as you can.

Tell everyone that you can do it and to ignore the kid with personal issues! Bolster the team morale and you could very well turn the tide of war.

Either way, once you isolate the reason you’re behind, you can come up with ways to work around it. That’s how you get back in the game – thinking outside the box when the chips are down.

- DrmDestryr

DrmDestryr!

When should I ignore the objectives?

-What2Do

Dear What2Do,

Objectives and mercs walk a thin line together. Focus too hard on one, and more often than not, you’ll lose the game. Though the maps vary in objectives, the strategy remains relatively similar.

If you choose to really pound away at the objectives and are good at it, don’t lose sight of the mercs. An unattended merc assault will clear your towers in no time, weakening your defenses. You don’t need an entire team to stop these guys, just one of the assassins or specialists as they are the only ones with enough damage to hold their own. This allows the rest of the team to keep the opposition busy.

If it looks like the other team is smacking the objectives around like it ain’t no thang, focus on the mercs. Grab as many as often as close to their base as you can. This way, when they do finally complete an objective, they’ll be too busy fending off mercs to press the advantage, buying you time to fend off a golem or raven onslaught.

If the other team is on top of both? Keep your eyes open for an opportunity. Sometimes they leave an opening, allowing you to swoop in and stem the tide of defeat.

-DrmDestryr

Ask DrmDestryr is your weekly Q&A/advice column for Heroes of the Storm. Have a question for DrmDestryr? E-mail her your mental musings at drmdestryr@gmail.com or send happy twoughts her way @DrmDestryr.

Ask DrmDestryr #4

DrmDestryr,

Are there any hero types you don’t see played a lot that I should play as?

- HelixisBest

Dear HelixisBest,

Ah, the age old question as to what is better: the chicken or the egg? Do you choose a hero type based on need or based on what you like? If you are worried about team build but aren’t on a team (you queue alone in pvp), type does not really matter as you will be paired randomly so there can be no way to predict your team build.

However, if you play a character that you like and are great at, you will be far more beneficial. A group of five that has moderate hero control but the assumed “perfect” lineup will still lose to a team that does not have the lineup but knows how to play their heroes damn well. Conforming yourself to the cultural restraints of needing to play the “best” hero in the “best” grouping will only keep you from actually becoming good.

In the end, the only type you should pay attention to is type of practice.

- DrmDestryr

DrmDestryr!

I really want to play PvP but people always yell at me in the chat. What do I do?

-MyFeelings

Dear MyFeelings,

Don’t look at it. If you can’t not look, find a few items. Do you have post-its? If not, do you have paper and tape? Once acquired, cover up the chat box area on screen. Problem solved.

While tempting to see others critique your play style, why would you listen to them? Why would you take criticism from high blood pressured, angry gamers? The person yelling at you may very well be a 12 year old kid that hasn’t even reached puberty, and you’re going to allow them to bring you down? And I do mean allow. You are the one reading chat. You are the one that needs to accept that if you read chat, there’s a chance you’ll fall prey to a new, popular insult. Therefore, it is your responsibility to not pay attention. In the future, we’re all hoping Blizzard adds a feature to report the toxic players, but until that patch, it is up to you to take responsibility for your own feelings and simply ignore. What can you possibly hope to gain by justifying the griefer’s delusion that any recognition is good recognition?

Take charge of your game.

-DrmDestryr

Ask DrmDestryr is your weekly Q&A/advice column for Heroes of the Storm. Have a question for DrmDestryr? E-mail her your mental musings at drmdestryr@gmail.com or send happy twoughts her way @DrmDestryr.

Ask DrmDestryr!

Hi DrmDestryr!

What’s the best strategy in Heroes?

Thx! Born2Win

Hi Born2Win!

A wonderful question you have posed. I have to admit, this one stumped me for all of five seconds. “The Best” strategy is popping up in Heroes forums all over the interwebs at an astronomically fast speed, so I dare not claim to be “Pro.” However, if advice for your cherry pop game is what you seek, let me provide you the only bit of advice I received before my first DOTA 2 game – sweaty palms, nasty insults, and all:

DON’T. DIE.

Just don’t. Run away with your tail between your legs if you have to. No one cares. You could run up to a fight and then run back to your towers without so much as activating an ability, but as soon as you die, you are on everyone’s radar. Suddenly, you’re no longer just a timid damage dealer – you have been transformed in the minds of your teammates to the feeder of the group. Because of you, the other team now has an advantage. Because of you, your team may never recover the XP they just lost.

You should fear your hero’s death like you fear the inescapable end of your own insignificant mortality.

UrWelcm! DrmDestryr

Dear DrmDestryr,

I’m super stoked to play Heroes of the Storm, but I often hear it called a MOBA. Care to elaborate?

-Nubkins

Dear Nubkins,

A fine question to ask at such a pivotal time in this gaming style’s infancy! A MOBA, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, is a team oriented game. Teams generally consist of five players each. These “teams” work to destroy the opposing team’s main structure. Each MOBA’s main structure has a different name, and in Heroes of the Storm, it is known as the palace. Once destroyed, the winning team is filled with a heaping helping of unwarranted self-importance while the other team reports their fellow players for sucking so super hard.

Often, on the losing team, you will encounter language not seen on a winning team. This language spouts forth from the keyboard of the self-appointed Swiftian satirist of the team. They are quick to call out each team member in turn and insult them in rousing and varying ways. How they type the sheer volume of insults they do while simultaneously playing the game is as yet unknown, but scientists, gamers, and mathematicians alike are working round the clock to unlock this mystery. Once known, it will shed light on why the worst player of the team consistently suffers from egotistical hyperinflation.

-DrmDestryr

Ask DrmDestryr is your weekly Q&A/advice column for Heroes of the Storm. Have a question for DrmDestryr? E-mail her your mental musings at drmdestryr@gmail.com or send happy twoughts her way @DrmDestryr.