Tips and Tricks To Climbing the Ranks In Hero League

The first step to improve your rank is to admit that you are not perfect and that you can always improve. With Season 3, it's no longer possible to queue up with friends, so now it's time to step up and take charge of your own placement on the ladder. It's true that you can't control your team completely, but all the players in your game is most likely around the same level so you have a great opportunity to be the deciding factor and take home the "W" and rise in the ranks. In this article, I will take you through a few key areas where you can improve yourself as a Hero of the Storm player.

When we talk about drafting, one of the most important things to look at is your hero pool. If you want to improve your rank, you have to be able to play all the roles just in case you end up as the last pick. Of course, you don't have to master every single hero in the game but 2-3 Warriors, Supports, Ranged DPS, and Melee DPS characters should have you covered. To make yourself suited for even more situations you can play 3 heroes in the same role who fit into different situations.

As for Warriors, it could be Muradin, Stitches and Tyrael. Muradin would be the classic Tank who stays in the frontline protecting and peeling for your teammates. Stitches would be the playmaking Warrior that can be really good if you have other heroes in your composition to follow up on your hooks. Tyrael is more of a Tank/Support hero that would be a good pick up if you have a Melee Assassin in your composition, so that you can dive in after them to give them shields or turn a teamfight with Sanctification.

For Supports it could be Malfurion, Lt. Morales and Kharazim. Malfurion would be good for waveclear and crowd control, but does not have the burst healing. Lt. Morales would be the healing monster that could keep the whole team up with constant healing if there are no diving threats on the other team. Kharazim is the Tank destroyer. If there is a big chunk of HP on the other team like a Cho'Gall or any solo Tank who could be separated from their teammates, he basically adds that extra hero damage you could need in a more waveclear focused composition.

For Ranged DPS it could be Valla, Li-Ming and Sylvanas. Valla would be your classic Auto Attack Assassin who works the enemy health bars down at a constant pace and can work down a map objective like an Immortal pretty fast. Li-Ming is the classic mage who relies on ability damage and can do big bursts of damage if you land your skillshots. Sylvanas is more of a pushing hero that makes sure to use the map to your advantage by taking camps and disabling enemy towers while pushing with an objective or the rest of your team.

For Melee DPS it could be Illidan, Kerrigan and Dehaka. Illidan is the classic Melee Assassin with fast Auto Attacks who can play really aggressive and stick to his target. Kerrigan is more of a setup hero who can pin down the enemy heroes for your teammates to collapse on. Dehaka is the special one here, he is what we call a Bruiser. Bruisers are technically marked as Warriors, but they aren't tanky enough to be the only Warrior in a composition. These heroes often do more damage or special traits that make up for their lesser survival skills. Dehaka is no different. He has good waveclear and he also has the ability to travel great distances on the map in a short time.

If you can play a few Heroes of each role, then drafting should not be a problem for you. Let me make sure to point out that the heroes mentioned above are not the only heroes you can choose, they are just indicators of different Heroes within each role. Valla could be changed for Falstad, Muradin for E.T.C, Dehaka for Sonya and so on.

An important thing in drafting is banning. If you are the one banning in the draft, then you can already have a big impact on the game. When choosing the first hero to ban before the draft begins, you should see if the person who is first pick on your team has selected the hero they want to play before you ban the biggest threat you can think of. It would be a shame if you had the chance to have one of the strongest heroes in the game at the given time on your team. Otherwise, you should ban out one of the strong heroes in the meta that you think would be hard to deal with, if your first pick doesn't want to, or can't, play that hero. The mid-draft ban is more interesting. Here you have a chance to dig deeper into the enemy team's hero pool or choke them out of choices on a specific role. For example, if you're team has already picked a good Warrior, then you can ban another good Warrior so that the enemy team has fewer Warriors to choose from. Maybe you have forced a player on the other team to play a hero that they are not very experienced with and lowered their chance to have a big impact on the game.

Another thing to look at in the draft is you own position in the pick order, if you are at the top as first or second pick you should pick a solid hero that does not rely on other heroes to gain value. That means that Heroes like Tassadar, Illidan, Tracer, Dehaka, Sonya and such are not ideal picks because they either require another Tank or Support in the composition and you won't be sure that the rest of your team will be able or willing to play these Heroes.

If you are in one of the last positions, then of course you should fill out the role that is needed. If your team needs a Warrior, then pick a good Warrior who has enough survival that you can tank alone. Likewise with Supports and the other roles.

A lot of people who play below Grand Master and Master League say that they can't really feel the 10% nerfed mount speed, but this is a change that you can really take advantage of. The nerf to mount speed means that it takes longer to get to the objective on the other site of the map. This means that it is even more important to rotate quickly as soon as the objective is announced. If you get to the objective as a full 5-man team, you can start to secure the area and take the teamfight in an advantageous position.

If you are playing a Hero who is good at clearing Mercenary Camps, then you should learn the timers for the first spawns of camps. An example would be a scenario where you play Sylvanas or Illidan on one of the original maps. The first Siege Camps spawn after 2 minutes. When the timer is around 1:50 you should start moving to the Siege Camp and be ready to solo it as soon as it spawns to gain some early pressure. It may seem like it's not worth it, as there will always be enemy heroes in all the lanes at the beginning of the game, but if this camp is able to secure you a tower or maybe just push in the lane, it still gives you an advantage when the first objective spawns. (Timers can be found here) 

One of the things HotS players use to judge the skills of one another is your death counter in a game. It's easy to point fingers at a player with 10+ deaths and blame the loss on that person. Avoiding deaths is important, as it gives the enemy team experience and takes you out of the game for a certain amount of time. But you can't just run around and avoid enemy players to stay alive, as that would make your contribution to the team just as low as if you just went in and used all your abilities and died. So, we have to find out how you can be a good asset to your team and find the right amount of aggression.

The first thing that you will quickly learn is that you should not fight if the enemy team reaches level 10 before you do. This tier simply gives too much power against someone who only unlocked 3 upgrades to basic abilities. If a map objective pops up and you are about to take a fight with level 9 vs. level 10, then ping retreat (V) on the objective and make sure your team soaks experience in lane instead. If you are less than a level behind, then you should most likely be able to soak your way to level 10 before the enemy team is done with the map objective and you can easily defend against it and maybe take a fair teamfight.

In general, the same rule applies at the other talent level points, but 10, 16 and 20 are the most crucial ones. The scales are not tipped too much in the early game, and 13 is only really good for a few specific heroes, so if you got your team into a good area for a teamfight 12 vs. 13 then you can still take the fight.

Right, so this is where you can throw all your hard work away all too easy. Keeping a calm mind is essential if you want to have a successful grind towards the higher leagues, especially now that Hero League is solo queue only. You will be on a team with four randoms that you don't know and maybe they don't have the same gameplan as you. The important thing to remember here is that the other team also has five random players. This means that you have a great chance to be the one to tip the scales.

Tip number one comes into play even before the game has started, the draft is important for sure, but it won't help you or anyone else to rage at the Nova picker for several minutes before the gates has even opened. You will, without a doubt, run into some weird and sometimes even completely out of meta picks, but for all you know that could be the only hero that the player is comfortable playing on in ranked. Even if that is the case, they might be decent at that hero and would do more damage than good to the team if they were forced to play something else. This is common in every league up through the ranks and you can only take it as a fun experience.

There are however those games where you are completely stomped by the other team, but don't despair or start throwing your hardware around the room. Simply get up and do something else to calm yourself back down, blame everything and everyone in your thoughts and let it go. When you feel relaxed and calm minded again, resume your grind with a positive attitude and believe that this next game is going to be fun and bring you even closer to your next promotion match. 

- Admit that you are not the best player on the ladder and even you can improve your own gameplay and decisions.

- Make sure that you can fill in as any role if you end up as last pick in your draft.

- Learn the timers for each map and take advantage of your knowledge.

- Think to yourself if the fight you are about to take is worth it.

- Stay calm, don't flame other people, and take breaks if necessary.

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