This is my testimonial as a NotParadox subscriber: I have been playing Heroes of the Storm since beta, roughly one month before it launched in June 2015, and fully enjoyed it straight from the beginning. It was my very first exposure to the MOBA genre, so I had no previous understanding of the strategy involved in winning a multi-lane 5v5 PVP game. When I first decided to try my hand at ranked play, I only won 5 of my 20 placements in pre-season back in the day, and I got placed in rank 50 (the very worst rank), then leveled up to rank 40 only because there was no rank penalty for losing UNTIL rank 40. I made it no higher than rank 37 before HotS 2.0 released in Spring 2017, then I placed Silver 5 in the first season, then proceeded to go down to Bronze 2 before getting so angry that I swore off ranked matches and only played AI, QM, and Brawls (I did not win a lot of those either, by the way. Kind of a bad sign when you cannot even win an elite AI match). I quickly developed a "cop out" excuse for my failures in HotS, that because I was in my 30's, I was too old to have fast enough fingers to click and press the right keys at the right times, and that everyone who was kicking my tail was more than likely 12-25 years old with quicker reflexes. That excuse stuck in my head, and I resigned myself to 100% unranked play for a while ........ ....... then I discovered your channel........ I watched almost every video you made the day you would post it, even if it focused on a hero I cared nothing about because you would still bring up good global strategies that I could implement with any other hero in the same role (healer, tank, etc.) Watching your videos drastically changed my perception of how to play the game and how to look at things from different perspectives. Over the next two and a half years, I... -- increased my hero pool in each role -- got several comfy "pocket picks" -- focused more on the macro of the game instead of just the micro within my immediate area -- got familiar with the timing of taking merc camps as the objective is about to spawn -- got faster and more efficient with my lane rotations and soak / waveclear -- got MUCH better at drafting for all the roles -- developed a better sense of when in the draft to pick said roles (i.e. don't lock your entire frontline first and leave the enemy team ample opportunities to perfectly counterpick the tank and bruiser and thus steamroll every team fight) -- learned better text/voice chat etiquette via your video on the "Matthew Method" of always saying something positive -- learned to be specific with plans and strategies (ex. instead of "someone take that camp", saying "Falstad take that camp") -- developed better builds with all my favorite heroes (Leoric, Malthael, Imperius, Greymane, Vikings, Blaze, Johanna, ETC, and Kharazim) and much more! As a result, I was able to rank up to Gold 5 for the first time in July 2018 (video of that match on my RU-vid account!), and after 1.5 years of rubber banding up and down between Gold 5 and Gold 1, I amazingly reached Platinum 5 just a few days ago!!! :) I wanted to share all of this with you as well as the others watching your channel just to show that IT CAN BE DONE. This random dude in his 30's was able to crawl from Bronze 2 to Platinum 5 by being smart and "thinking with my brain", and you can too. Just stop complaining about how rigged the game is against you, how unfair the MMR match-ups are, and how nobody on your team cares or tries. As NotParadox has stated in one of his earlier videos (paraphrasing here): "Your team has at least one person on it that is trying really hard to win: you. That is 1 out of 5. The enemy team still has a chance to have 0 out of 5 people who care. That means that right out of the gate, your team has a 20% higher chance of winning than the enemy team!" Thank you, NotParadox.
Lol i'm 26 and felt something they same, about they reflexes (i played LoL for some years) and i Saw some diferences but nothing is compared to the experience mate.
I know your channel isn't that big (yet) however, I feel like watching some of your tutorials I've learned more than just watching Pro play. I appreciate the work you put into this and making the community better!
by "Pro Play" do you mean Div S? I suggest you look at older HGC games if you want to learn. While it's not up do date (updates happened so new heroes and talents and reworks), the core mechanics of the game didn't chage that much and you also will get a better overall understanding of the game's core more than how to deal with the current meta --> You become a better player overall, and you will understand by yourself how to adapt to the current meta.
If you want my best counter picks that are safe picks overall (master, main warrior, 10 000 games+) Johanna counter most range AA: Valla, Zuljin, Greymane. Diablo counters fast heroes with small hitbox and low hp: lucio, genji, tracer. Stitches counters poke teams: Hanzo, Chromie, Junkrat. Garrosh counters melee bruiser/assassins: Maiev, Sonya, Qhira Muradin counter skill shot heroes: Alarak, Kelthuzad Anubarak, ETC, Malganis are overall very strong if the enemy comp is balanced.
Any chance you'd evaluate on how to play against them? I'd say I know about Johanna and her E and Garrosh's throw + stun, but what about the rest? I'm just a plat scrub, though I'm willing to learn. Also - thanks in advance!
Very helpful. I think a lot of this is common sense to most people who regularly watch your channel, but I think it's always good to hear things like this again. I think a lot of people are probably looking for easier answers than 'use your brain' if I'm being honest, and while I think you covered pretty extensively (and well) why is hard and subjective to make counter lists, it still might be helpful if the content was curated well. Wondering if you might be able to do something like, 'a meta series', where every once and a while you look at some dominate heroes from heroesprofile (or anywhere), and help give tips (maybe with game play?) on how to play against heroes or comps that are current. Regardless, really enjoyed the video, definitely forces you to remember that there are lots of ways to counter during the draft, most of the time the most obviously is probably not the only thing you could do.
Just discovered your videos and they've been really helpful. Not only is the content great but your communication on strategy and ideas is on point. WP
I like Junkrat with Total Mayhem talent against Qhira (the hook where she stuns) or Murky (tentacle ult). It works in QM against bad players :D And I played as Lunara so many times against Butcher in QM, that average Butchers don't feel like a counter for my Lunara. When they chase, u have to time the R very well (and save R for escape, never get too close). I haven't played much rank yet, because I am bad in draft and often I heard we lose on draft and I didn't really understand. I only have a sense for the heroes I play often, so I know who is easy or hard to play against, against which hero I better not encounter in a solo lane (e.g. With Junkrat I hate to go against Tracer in a 1 v 1) This video helps me a lot and I will try to play more ranked with this info in mind. (I played a season of team league in Gold and I am Silver 2 in solo ranked)
It's definitely a good pick when people don't know how to play around it. Murky should NOT use Octograb unless you're low enough (meaning Dirty Trickster already triggered a while ago), but hey we don't find good Murky players those days... Qhira definitely has a hard time with it, it clearly negates a part of her playstyle against you.
@@spheriscore yes you are right. But total mayhem also trighered because if the stun of octograb so it is always death for murky, except when he waits with ult after total mayhem triggered because it has a few seconds cooldown. I encountered Murky's who used their ult several times in row on me and always died. Especially shortly after Junkrat got his rework. So probably they didn't know about his new talent. As Kaelthas, Nova or Fenix you should also wait after I used my ult. I use rocket ride against them. ( I know people say rocket ride is sooooo bad, but I don't think that way. Especially in QM were you often don't have a tank who bodyblocks Nova shots or a healer who can shield or heal you... I would have needed to retreat at low health anyway and this way I can maybe kill someone, or some zerg/spider queen and come back at full health or join another fight on the other side of the map) Btw I get stunned by bosses intentionally so total mayhem is triggered and I do more damage :)
@@Lunedai www.heroesfire.com/hots/wiki/talents/dirty-trickster The talent has an internal cooldown, that's exactly what makes this talent possible to play around, but it's still strong anyway.
i watched your videos last night, i had 50% winrate before, today i got 80%, trying to follow you guides with thrall and greyman and its amazing, i play better and have more motivation, i feel more impactfull but at mid game i still feel a bit lost on what i should do, Thanks so much
Only for bad Abathur players. I've adjusted my play accordingly and I still soak a ton of XP. The main thing is knowing when it's safe to body soak (usually when obj. Is up) and reinforces checking your minimap and checking back with your body. It made Abathur harder to play. You could argue he's always been hard to play, but he was a very 'safe' kind of hard because the odds of you dying in a match were astronomically low unless you were just terrible.
Love these kind of videos Paradox! Please make more of them explaining things like this. What would you say is best to draft if the enemy drafts 2 tanks and are pretty dive oriented? One tank and more damage or counterdraft with 2 tanks? One thing for sure is I always hate being solo frontline against a team that can dive. In my experience dive comps always beats backline comps.
That's the idea of dive, but like the explanation of illidan/abatjur 359 wombat combat some supports or single Target heals EVEN a ragnaros E build can do some diferences
Maiev and Zeratul get countered by brightwing and varian taunt. Also any blind that is timed well counters maiev as she cant activate her pull when she attacks blinded and get the full cooldown. Being a master player maiev main, i also found out that valeera with silence build is like the most easy way to make maiev completely useless. silenced for so long in the right moment she just dies (same with being polied or taunted). That depends on a good timing and awareness of the enemies tho, to really take her down in that short time window
Great video! Some people pick varian to counter my fenix(im a 1 trick) and he is an okay counter pick but alarak is just better because his W and Q can easily cancel fenix's escape.
mephisto can melt tanks so hard with his cc ult and %dmg on his W, + tanks have bigger hitboxes, which makes it easier to hit your spells to reduce cd...10/10 recommend
Alex can counter burst very reliably too with talent adaptation. Picking lifebinder with life unbound and gift of life is very impressive, so long as you cast lifebinder in time.
Just think the ideal playstyle of the assassin, isn't too hard yo find but some like alarak build can be oriented to AA ir genji build mobility to hard poke can be tricky to understand, in special maiev.
Every spell (Q,W,E,R) is magical dmg and every autoattack is physical dmg. So mages (Jaina, Chromie, Kaelthas etc) have more magical dmg and autoattackers (Raynor, Zuljin, Valla etc) have more AA dmg.
I have to argue a bit, because from your description of how you play alextrasa, you are describing what I would consider a counter pick. The difference is knowing how to play against it (baiting out the grenade). Now if you are just intending that people overvalue ana as a counter to alextrasa that is fine, but ana's grenade is a powerful tool against any healers with very telegraphed heals.
Seriously great great content man i love your videos always tune in. My one question is...how do you counter your own team? lol i know it sounds like a joke but i am serious. I find a lot in my meta that people on my own team insist on drafting whatever specific assassin they just LOVE to play (cough Ming) right away. As in first pick or 2nd pick no matter map, team layout, whatever. My initial reaction is to try to build around that specific assassin, but then you encounter the other team drafting heroes that need to be countered (Zeratul, Zuljin, abby/illy, etc) What is your priority here? Drafting so those assassins can actually have some kinda success? Countering? or trying to create a balanced team?
Morales for Medivac dropship, Tyrael for Sanctification, and sustain damage dealers (Raynor, Zuljin, Valla...). Idea is to rush fort/keep in one lane and as soon as your team hits 10, you fly to the enemy's core and delete it (may take a couple attempts).
What cocodufable said. The ones i've seen had a sylvanas to shut down a fort and destroy it at lvl 1. Then it plays like a regular game until lvl 10, at which point they dive a keep and try to inmediatly end the game. Even if you survive they got your keep and about half the core and you know they're gonna try and dive again at any point in the game. Honestly it wins against any comp that isn't aware of its existance.
It can be done also with a Medivh that portals the team in behind a fort and just go for it. Made a qm comp with some friends, just cheesed their buildings with Medivh, Sylvanas, Greymane, AnubArak just to have the beatles to also soak towershots, and a damage Kharazim. Was on Tomb of the Spiderqueen. After we won the game one of the enemy team guys texted us and told us to "F yourselves you F-ing tryhards" haha😂
I would think deckard would be a great counter to alexstraza. Whenever she uses abundance, deckard has 3 CC abilities that can totally screw over anyone who walks into that abundance.
I don't understand this comment, since the exp patch Vikings get more exp than literally every other hero in the game, which has always been their niche, yeah your team will often feel like it's in a 4v5 but the 4 will be level 20 when the 5 are level 16/17.
Real good informative video thank you :) BUT GUYS, I'm in OCE and the queues are insanely long. Do I need to change my region to US and put up with 200 ping to get better queues for Storm League or is the long wait normal for every region?
@NotParadox Thanks for the videos. I notice you use hotsdraft.com. I've used this in the past but it looks like it hasn't been updated in a while. Deathwing is not listed, for example. What are some other websites that are good for drafting and stats that are being updated at the moment?
Biggest problem I see in storm league are people picking counters and don’t play it like its a counter or not taking the most effective talents for the enemy comp.
@NotParadox I'm quite new to the game, Bronze/Silver. As far as drafting, I usually pick last and counter their CLUTCH hero. Like Varian, Butch, Li-Ming, KT, etc. But I guess this is why I'm still in low ranks. QUESTION: How much counter picks vs Obj drafting. *potential video
Always pick to complete your team comp first. It doesn't matter how well you match against the enemy heroes if your team lacks one of these: 1. Waveclear 2. Campclear 3. Objective clear (Depends on map, but heroes with zone control and heroes who can stand their ground usually perform well)
If it was a big net like Zul'Jin's, it'd root. Roots disable movement abilities. Zarya's ults restrict movement, but only make some movement abilities useless. Higher movement speed won't get you out/away/around faster, but teleports of sufficient range will. D.Va using Boosters inside Graviton Surge looks about as funny as Chen using Barrel in Sonya's lvl 20 crater.
@@derizek9677 Yeah, neither of their abilities work on movement speed. They displace the hero by a set distance, unless there is impassable terrain in the way. Then the path will be altered.
Kaelthas is the bane of low leagues. As a healer I look for healers that heal well from a distance. Ie. I love picking Rehgar into Kealthas (often first pick if left open). But heroes like Lucio (especially going party mix) or Lili (q and pop a w on the target) can be helpful. I do not like picking Alex in to high aoe damage teams. I agree with not Paradox. I am less afraid of Ana and more of Jaina, Orphea, and Kealthas. To me, Anduin or stukov is the better pick.
lets say a kt is not banned in low rank game. Anything that gives thatextra "umf" to deny pyro burst can save ur teamate in a teamfight. especially if "protected" or if u r in a team comp with double healing/supp abilities also self sustain/supp abilities. unless he goes fenix then u simply dont stand there and try to close the gap while not running to each other like roaches which is what happens in low ranks either by grouping up and getting flamestriked or spreading living bombs. imo a good medivh can cancel kt but since teams are pepegas in low ranks a good zarya will help a lot by providing shield to the teamate, herself AND getting extra dmg potential while doing it. i aint no expert tho. figured this shit literally yesterday about zarya...gl on ur games
I watch all your vids and have been playing for 4 years but I've just resigned myself that I'm not good at MOBAs. By my calculations I'll need to play 112 matches to get my season quest done and I'll still be somewhere in Silver. Not sure I'll end up bothering. What's weird is in LoL which is more punishing of bad play I tend to do better.
LoL is also more rewarding of one player on your team being really good, so it's easier to make up for one player being bad. In Heroes, if one player is bad, it can really ruin it for the whole team.
League isn't as team-focused as HotS. It's way more about the individual player's skill. Whereas in HotS, having a team that plays well together will typically win against a team that doesn't, but has one or more amazing players. It gets fuzzy at low ranks, since people can be easy to fluster or tilt at that level, but that's been my experience.
Ofk lol is easy, pick nasus or veigar to win in late, shaco and Lee sin to punish jungle or tresh blitz to hook up a flash less xerath jajaja the counter pick sistem is far more easy compared to hots.
Varian counters Tracer if he can go Taunt. He's not the only tank with reliable cc, but point-and-click is definitely valuable against Tracer. I don't know many Varian players who can play Taunt without getting crushed in the sololane, but it is an option. As far as I know, Twinblades Varian as sololaner is "the meta" right now. In that regard, I'd say he's neither good or bad against her. Tracer should be able to stay out of his attack ranged with Blinks, but Tracer also takes an eternity to kill him as long as he can attack something like minions. Otherwise, walking back works just fine in most scenarios. In general, sololaners aren't known for their reliable cc, but a lot of them can provide deadly follow-up cc and damage. For example, if you're playing Sonya and the enemy Tracer just got cc'ed, that's a free spear+aa+slam for you. The stun from the Ancient Spear should give you enough time to get that Seismic Slam in before she can use Recall. That's 173+84+176=353 damage at level 1. Reaching a target with Ancient Spear hits that target with an auto attack unless you manage to cancel the animation somehow, which sometimes happens, but this should only happen if you're clicking around during the spear animation, which you won't be doing if you're looking to slam her next.
@@Yorekani nothing is worse than mediocre players giving lengthy and bad advice. Varian smashes tracer in every situation. Overpower, taunt OR smash. Goodbye tracer. End of story.
@@johnkasarda2138 I'm not sure which Tracers you're playing against, but if they don't know how to blink away after your gap closer, they're probably better off playing a different hero. Edit: To clarify, I'm not saying he's bad against Tracer. Taunt Varian is definitely a counter, but Taunt Varian is one of many tanks countering Tracer. Smash and Twinblades puts Varian in the sololane, which give him good dps against Tracer, but without the lockdown (Stun/Silence) I wouldn't call him a hard counter. Like many sololaners, he will destroy Tracer as follow-up if your tank locks her down or she foolishly used up all Blink charges.
@@Yorekani smash and twin blades does not immediately put him in the solo lane. That's stupid to even say. Colossal smash target makes the person take bonus damage. Totally wasted if he is solo lane. Hes good in a 4man. At higher levels counter picks MATTER where lower leagues, it doesnt as much because everyone is bad. 'Nuff said.
@@johnkasarda2138 Well, if you pick him as dps, I wouldn't consider him any more of a counter than most other burst heroes. The point I'm trying to make is that Varian is a good hero to pick, but I see no reason why he specifically counters Tracer by himselves. He's one half of the puzzle as you want at least one reliable engage/cc to lock Tracer down and then you need a burst hero to pile on the damage, like Varian, Greymane or Jaina.
morales tyrael + 3 high single target damage (such as raynor greymane sylvanas) --- morales medivacs to ur keeps/ core, tyrael sancts, you lose your structures with little to no counterplay
I win 5 match in a row with Juice Pirates: Morales, Nazeboo, Azmodan, Tyreal, Varian comp and we banned ragna and falstad. Only that team can counter this matchup who practiced more than the Juice Pirates.
Just get a group of 4 friends play zagara, gazlowe, nazeebo and TLV Just lane ignore first obj do calculated suicides to get forts/keeps down after u start to get the first keeps around lvl 10(this comp starts to overpower at lvl 10 since zag gets nydus vikings res and gaz mecha lord nazeebo gargantuan 10 is your powerspike just need to hold on till 10 after that u can see the enemy crumble before your feet) then the lane pressure will do the job for you the enemy will be overrun they cant def all lanes at once then they proceed to chase. Lets say gazlowe and naz is pushing top fort down then 4-5 of enemy go chase them meanwhile TLV and zagara destroy bot keep. And the 1 random guy usually starts crying/trolling but doesnt matter ez win still and at the end of almost every game they go silent since we just destroyed the enemy. Only map this doesnt work with is braxis holdout and if your not a pro in this tactic also hanamura will be hard there is only 1 counter for this tactic dehaka/falstad and brightwing since global. And btw 90% winrate with this tactic over 40 games only losses are unlucky counter picks now going at Diamond 3 with this tactic the thing is ppl dont realise you dont need to tf to win but this is a hard tactic to explain/master requires good map awareness and tactical knowledge and usually dont teamfight at all. But as i said this is kinda a mysterious tactic idk at all if anyone else does this but this just requires you to be really good at these heroes especially u need epic TLV player. The TLV player i play with is TLV god.
1: Pick what you're comfortable with 2: Pick what your team needs. 3: Counterpicking is subjective. I am not sure. I rather have a tank/support with little knowledge than no tank/support at all. I guess there are exceptions
I suppose the hidden, fourth tip is "Don't expect the game to bend in your favour just because you don't want to ge out of your comfort zone. If you want to improve, then give an honest try to learning new heroes and strategies that don't fit what you already know." I mean, sure, if everyone who plays this game is a ranged DPS one-trick then yes, we generally agree that "someone has to heal/tank", but I suppose he just assumed it was clear that to be constantly trying to expand your hero/role pool is a good thing that everyone should try to do.
How do I counter Hanzo, Samuro, Johanna, alarak. I tried counter samuro with arthas but the speed bonus talent at level 1is just too much and my Frozen Tempest AoE ability doesn't do anything also his windwalk is not interrupted. Arthas can counter valeera and ilidan but not samuro. I guess I have to ban him every time not to mention his switching with images
Hanzo is countered by pressuring him. So anything that can close gaps quickly. He dies super quick if you can lock him down. Johanna is one of the hardest heroes to counter which is why she’s picked so much. A good samuro can be almost impossible to kill so when I play against him I target someone else.
It is the medivac backdoor combo. Morales, Tyrale with Sanctification ult and 3 very strong solo damage assasins like Sylvanas, Greymane, Raynor. They push one lane, then at level 10 get into the medivac straight to the core and destroy it. Don't know why it's called Juice Pirates though...
I think its because this video is about counterpick. He has other video about which role to pick on macro scale. Like which hero got good wave clear, camp clear, etv.
None of this matters because the majority of the player base is atrociously bad and only plays what THEY WANT. They dont care about drafting to win, they wanna pick nova or kharazim and ruin the games composition. These videos aren't relevant to most of the remaining playerbase because they are just too casual. This is coming from a master play who has done 2 alt accounts and climbed both times from silver to masters.
Duuuuuud wtf is that comentary? We know your current league sucks but if You CARE maybe try to learn something or go Main yasuo with a high priced new skin
How to counter X? --> "Think, I ain't gonna tell you how to do it, I'm not even good at drafting anyway." That's basically the whole video... 34mn of saying nothing... Also thinking Arthas is a good counter to Illidan is wrong, Uther or ETC as main tank, Valeera as a flex or even bruiser, Kharazim does well too... But CC is THE NAME OF THE GAME, especially against Illidan, also sanctification and roll on the enemy :D Anyway, it's nice to see you didn't teach much in this video, but I still like the fact you say people should think for themselves and be creative. So you could have shortened everything to one sentence, but hey giving people content to watch and examples is good, I can commend you on that.
@@szebasztianturbucz308 you dont get my point. If you dont Bann DW but Lets say Auriel. The enemy will Bann DW (or KT) so you have a free Bann. Then if the enemy banns DW. You can Bann Li Ming. Enemy WILL Bann kt if not you pick KT. Easy outplayed
