Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA (massively online battle arena) game that brings together over 90 heroes and villains from games like Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and more, so you can choose your favorites to play as. One character, the two-headed orc mage Cho'Gall, is designed to be played by two people, each controlling a head and its powers—he can be a fantastic hero or a hilarious disaster depending on how well the players work together!

Game Information

You're placed in a team with four others: survive or die together; you'll all earn the same amount of XP, no matter how skilled you are. Each hero starts each match at level zero, but you can quickly level up to take on larger and more difficult enemies.

Each team member has a "lane"; making sure someone from your team is in each lane to maximize your points earned across the board is a good way to get ahead.

Each hero has a set of three abilities, all geared towards the ultimate goal of taking down your opponent's tower and preventing them from taking down yours.

Your cooldown, also known as your ability cooldown, is quite short, so you never feel overly exposed on the battlefield, ready to go again in a matter of seconds. Each map has a unique objective that can dramatically change your game—which, if you're losing, can work in your favor—but be careful about leaving your lane, which you'll almost always have to do to earn objectives!

For example, one map has a sublevel where you can explore dungeons and collect skulls. These skulls are then transformed into a giant golem that can crush the opposition—the more skulls, the bigger the golem!

All of these objectives are timed and follow predetermined patterns; they're a refreshing break from the main game, especially if your opposing team is crushing yours—and they can transform and overwhelm the whole thing, allowing you to sweep victory from the back of the field, if you play well.

Things to know

At first you can only play in three game modes, but more are added in later levels, as you level up and gain more experience – enough to hold your own against other experienced players.

In general, you should stay in your lane to get the most experience points, but leave your lane for fun, achievements, or just to dodge waves of overwhelming minions!

The game is easy to learn, with individual battles lasting relatively short, about 20 minutes. Once a battle is over, you can quickly turn around and return to another game with as little downtime as you like.

Initial game modes

AI Practice Matches: These games act as tutorials to get you up to speed on other modes. Custom Private Games: You can create a private lobby for up to 5x5 players (ten friends in total), with various options available to be toggled on or off at will. Quick Match: In this mode, you team up with anyone nearby, which sometimes results in the perfect team, but sometimes results in your team having too many healers and not enough attackers, or vice versa. It all depends on who else is waiting to join. This is the place to get the most XP and get promoted to the next level in the game, which occurs when you reach level 30, where you can join the Hero League. Heroes of the Storm is said to be a MOBA for people who don't like MOBAs, or at least for those who don't yet know they absolutely love them!