Dear DrmDestryr,
Did you catch the Blizzcon Heroes games?
-Tatuin
Dear Tatuin,
Heck yiss I did! And they were absolutely the best thing my eyes have beheld since the beauty of a perfectly toasted English muffin. I actually brought out my notebook as I watched them. While getting caught up in the moment is fun, analysis is even funner. Look at what I learned!
Pair Smartly
When the game starts, pair off with a good opposite. Range with melee or tank with healer or some other variation. This gives you a much stronger chance of killing more minions, allowing you an early game lead in the race for level 10.
Force your Enemies
This involves forcing them to respond to your decisions. Get them to hook the wrong character. Goad out their heroics (so long as you can survive such a move). This will leave your team the advantage in protracted battles.
Raven Tribute
Only one hero needs to grab the tribute. If your other four team members are strong enough to chase away opposition, you can grab the talent, and everyone retreat back to a safer defensive position with little to no sacrifice.
Spore Queen's Curse
A brilliant move I noticed during a Garden of Terror game was how this attack was used to momentarily prevent passage between structures, buying even more time for that offensive push.
Plant Horror Overgrowth
Yet another awesome move was placing Audrey II behind your Garden Terror and amidst the team. This makes it hard to target, ensuring it can damage structures that much longer. To do this successfully, study how far away it can be laid before it becomes useless.
-DrmDestryr
Dear DrmDestryr,
I really like Team Liquid but they lost! What happened?
-SProuts
Dear SProuts,
While Team Liquid was breathtaking when it came to constant, unrelenting pressure from merc camps and gate pushes, they were not sufficiently skilled during team fights. But beyond this, the very moments of their two losses were very obvious.
Garden of Terror
The whole game, Cloud 9 was performing damage control left and right but ever so slowly falling behind. Then, at level 20, all five Team Liquid members chose Resurgence of the Storm and opted for a Hail Mary. This was when they lost the game. While they may have thought dying in that last ditch effort was not a big deal since they resurrected almost immediately after, it lost them control of the map. Cloud 9, from that point on, was nigh unstoppable.
Haunted Mines
Zagara grabbed the last skull. This sealed Team Liquid's fate. See, Cloud 9 clearly had a superior golem, but one skull was left in the mines to prevent the golems from rising - a smart move on the part of Team Liquid. This meant that fighting was based strictly on team fights and map pressure, something we already know Team Liquid is impressive with. Unfortunately, someone thought it a good idea to grab the final skull, spawning the golem that led to Team Liquid's ultimate 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.