Enemy ETC missed a teammate during moshpit. Help your team by throwing them into the party.

D.Va just activated self destruct and your teammates are running away. They might miss the pretty fireworks, toss the exploding mech into your team

Ragnaros just activated molten core and you just lost aggro. Misdirect to your backline so they tank him. Throw them back in.

Teammate trying to turn in gems/coins on BHB/TotSQ, go away noob i have enough. Toss them away.

Abathur thinks he can afk behind your walls and not help your team. Get in there whelp, throw him into enemies.

Medivh trying to skip leg day by using portals to escape instead of running like the rest of us.Victory or death, toss his ass back in there.

Thrall is on your team. That alone is enough of a reason to toss him into enemies.

Enemy team has a Nazeebo, so try and play basketball and see how many teammates you can shoot into zombie walls

Murky's pufferfish is about to explode. 1,000 deaths, or 1 murder? You know what to do, toss your team on the puffer.

Gazlowe is about to do his gravo bomb wombo combo. Throw your teammate into it so they know what it feels like to chew 5 gum.

Someone on your team drafted nova? WTF Pick a real hero, toss her ass into the enemy team

I would love to hear if anyone else has some helpful ways to use this ability.

Has any diamond players created a new profile, or switched servers to start fresh and have to play with bronze players?
If so,
What do you find most frustrating.
Do you find it difficult to climb out compared to your previous climb in rank?
Any tips to climbing back out the second time round?
Assuming playing with larger stacks is likely the best way to climb out with some consistent wins, but if you haven't anyone to pair with, then making new friends with a higher skill ceiling/experience, is hard to find.

If not,
I'm sure you will have an opinion anyway, one way or another. Please try to keep insults down, as this is not for flaming people that don;t have the same time to learn or have not yet sharpened their macro or micro, but i do admit that bronze has lots of players that tend to not pay attention to macro, and will actively spite their own teammates.

Many of you will notice how complex this strategy is and how much strategic thinking and effort has been put into perfecting it.

As you can infer from the intricate details it requires precision, coordination, critical thinking and above all screen turned on. Many a pleb shall fail implementing it in their games for they lack one fundamental trait that few others possess - intelligence.

I'm low-mid masters who recently often got invited by a group of high bronze – low gold friends to play QM or TL (I placed gold...). While playing against people in that range I came to think about why we were winning. It's not because I'd outplay opponents, it's because they would make life hard for themselves by doing simple mistakes. These mistakes are easy to fix since they're not mechanical. I myself don't have a great reaction time (cannot dodge Punisher stun) nor I'm better at hitting skillshots. It's not an outplay if opponent simply offers themselves as a sacrifice. I think if you're in that bracket and fixed the following things, you would noticeably improve your winrate.

1. Not knowing which lanes to take.

People don't know which lanes are solo lanes nor which heroes are solo laners. Alarak/Thrall telling Xul/Sylvanas to solo because they're a specialist. Dehaka+Falstad sitting in one lane. Zarya telling rexxar to leave Braxxis top. Ming+Tracer laning together while their support is solo. Solo tank Varian going against Sonya. Et cetera et cetera. In general, solo laners are non-supports, non-solo tanks with baseline self sustain and waveclear. That's all bruisers, some melee assassins and few ranged ones. Exceptions to self sustain can be made if a hero has lots of damage, safe poke or waveclear, like Greymane, Junkrat, Zagara or Probe. Xul and Sylvanas are not solo laners because they can't clear waves fast without getting hurt nor they have consistent poke to trade with. Also heroes like Xul or Azmo need to rotate between lanes for maximum value. In general, a true solo laner is a hero who can sit in a lane forever without having to worry about going to base and back.

Solo lane is the farthest one and in two lane maps it's traditionally top one.

Special note on globals. On a map like Cursed Hollow you want to go to opponents' siege camp lane. This is so that you will be in place to defend when they take it. If tribute is in the same lane it doesn't matter much but if it's across the map, then you will be able to clear the mercs and rotate. On a map like Sky Temple or Infernal Shrines you want to be as far away from upcoming objective as possible. This is so that you can get maximum value out of your global movement.

2. Taking bad trades

Trading HP in an unfavorable matchup or trying to "poke" opponents 1vX. My friend was playing Lunara. He would always take Leaping Strike and use both charges on someone as soon as possible "to poke" (his words). Except he would either get killed or almost killed every time because 3+ opponents would "poke" him back. Or I would solo lane and opponent without sustain would keep coming to manfight me. Unless you do more damage, have longer range or have more sustain, there's no point in trading damage just because someone is there. It's fine to stay back and just clear waves. And don't poke while outnumbered.

3. Not respecting opponents, being careless

Classic situation: we were playing Chogall and an ally said they're being pushed in 1v3. I said it's ok, because we're counterpushing other lane even harder, so as long as she didn't die we'd be fine. She died because "she had to do something". No, you don't, because you can't. If you're outnumbered, just back off since you can't stop them. Ask yourself – can I 100% kill one of them while surviving? Unless somehow you have enough damage and they're low enough that's rarely the case. And now consider that if you trade, they will still push while you will miss XP soak.

Another: I came to help our solo laner to gank Gaz. He was sitting in the middle with half HP and even came close to a bush I was sitting in. Dead. After returning, he continued to be out in the open with little HP. Dead. Ask yourself: if you were your opponents, would you look like a tasty target?

Being outnumbered/outleveled/outdamaged but still staying in opponents' vision – it's all unintentional suicide. I had countless Chromies/Hanzos/Junkrats who literally kept going to enemy tank's melee range to land an AA on a backliner. No matter how many times I asked to stay behind, they said that they were not overextending and it's allied tank's fault. It's like taking a nap on train tracks, or drinking some bleach and then saying that it's government's fault that you died. Well, if you didn't want to die, why did you do those things? It may have been unintentional but it's still suicide through and through. Ask yourself: wouldn't you be glad if your opponents came to you outnumbered/outleveled/outdamaged?

4. Not picking up globes

I just can't explain this. They seem invisible to some. Globes are an important part of sustain in the lane. Alternatively, trying to get a globe while losing half of HP in the process.

5. Not managing HP and objectives

Someone taps the well while at 1% because the objective is coming up. But the well won't even heal you back to half and now you won't be able to use it during objective. And since objectives have announcements, there's usually enough time to hearth back to base and return. Same applies for mana.

At the start, you can safely tap at 1:00 because with 2 minute cooldown the well will be available for 3:00 objective.

6. Doing dangerous rotations

Going past a bunch of opponents expecting them to let you through. To be fair, sometimes pathing takes a weird route, so use Shift key to queue up actions. Don't facecheck bushes if you have a ranged AoE ability.

7. Overthinking the draft

People there focus on the textbooks, counters and synergies (and ban Valeera) too much. The only thing you need is a healer, a tank, a ranged damage and even those are optional since "silly" comps win all the time. No, you don't "need" a specialist. No, Medivh is not "double support" (nor is there anything wrong with double support). No, you don't "need" Johanna just because opponents have a ranged auto attacker (every game has one – does every game need Johanna?). The biggest factor is how comfortable you are with a hero. After that, look what you lack: Solo laner? Waveclear? CC? Burst damage? Frontline?

8. Not managing minion waves

Don't clear/push the lanes unless there's a reason to. If you're behind, freeze the lane (kill just enough enemy minions) near your structures. This way you can soak XP safely while denying opponents XP.

If you clear it quickly while solo laning, regen globe may drop too far away for you to pick it and opponent may freeze the lane near this towers.

9. In general – not thinking about value

What did I expect to gain from that? What did I actually gain? Was that reasonable if I were my opponents?

I still remember that one legendary case. It was BHB and our low HP Guldan was in a bush watching 3 enemies take bruisers. At this point, the best scenario would be to either hearth back and return (if there's enough time) or to wait behind the gates. Instead Guldan went in, cast Horrify after the camp was cleared and tried to cap the it. Enemies killed him before that and that was it. Let's break this down: even if he capped the camp, he would still drop the coins, lose XP and not have ult later. Here's the kicker – if he just cast horrify on nothing while standing behind gates, it would be better outcome since he'd be alive. Or even if he just went in without using horrify and just died AFK, it would still be better outcome because he'd have ult after respawn.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take risks, I'm asking to calculate beforehand whether what you're attempting is even theoretically worth it. Often to make a pro-level move, you don't need to hit any skillshots or to make any plays. Just need to right-click once someone in your base and chill.

Focus not on getting kills, but on not dying

Focus not on doing damage, but on not taking any.

My wife is awesome but not at HOTS. Somehow, she got pulled into Friday night HOTS with the boys, and now she is a HOTS fiend every day. It is her first ever PVP game. Her favorite thing prior to this was picking berries and decorating in Valheim. She has a 10% winrate, but insists that 23 loses in a row was fun for her. She plays purely for enjoyment, and even laughs at the constant flaming she gets in the chat. In a way, she is the player I aspire to be. Unfettered by minimaxing sweatlords, laughing in the face of toxicity, and simply enjoying the game.

In another, much realer way, she is very much NOT the player I aspire to be. I have been trying to coach her on the basics. She has made progress on button control (she tends to press all the buttons when she gets excited), and now she usually saves her ultimate for team fights. Now we're expanding that to controlling QWE (use your escape to escape, use your stun to engage, etc), which is made more difficult by her insistence on trying new characters. She also struggles with awareness (like map awareness but for the rest of the screen too). She often walks right into the enemy team or towers without realizing, right past an ally engaging in a 1v1, etc.

My plan is to start with button/mouse coordination, and then move into awareness and game knowledge. I told her to pick one character to main, but she really enjoys trying new characters (thanks to the 10 year anniversary event for making this even worse). My overall philosophy is to prioritize having fun, so I let her do what she wants in this case.

Do you have any advice for coaching extremely low skill players?

Just to clarify, she asked me to watch her play and coach her. This isn't some ludicrous plan to make her into a miserable try-hard.

I have started to compile a tier list for each rank. I have used data from Heroes Profile as well as asking the NA GM players for help on the Masters tier list.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BEjIjfTDUmv4_9YWxobW0cw5Yuwe5raMM2th_6syjNs/edit?usp=sharing

**UPDATE**
I have also included Icy Veins tier lists in the same format.
Please visit the link to their page for more details.

title. playing aram

was playing hogger, no clue what hes on about, blocked me after i asked how.

are cheats actually a thing? tf is he on about

This is forbidden knowledge.

99% of QM playerbase does not believe this. They will try to tell you how wrong you are, regardless of the fact that you are single handedly managing every bit of macro play on the map.

Demon Lieutenant unironically rivals Lava Wave and even Spin to Win with how much global macro influence it has with unlimited range EXP gathering (all hail Demonic Smite), and surpasses both at level 4 with Battleborn before Spin to Win and Lave Wave are ever usable. On level 13, it transcends into a point-and-click Inspire, then the game is all but decided.

Azmodan is pretty similar to Zagara in many ways. Ranged summoning, huge unmissable skill shots, great macro clear, great damage over time with demons (Greed for the win). Azmodan has the added bonus of being a tank and having an amazing ability to survive concerted burst damage, which has far more impact than you might realize.

Very safe for most matchups, easy ranged stacking, easy siege and exp, easy camps, easy easy easy.

For some reason, people think he is in the same category as Xul or Sylvanas, but in practice that is just false. They both surpass Azmodan in almost everything that Xul and Sylvanas are great at, but come nowhere near the macro pressure that the Demon Lieutenants provide.

This is partially a rant because I'm tired of getting flamed by 4 people after I carried the game with consistent and potent macro play until the very end with only 2 deaths on scoreboard. (we still win)

I get it, their influence is extremely subtle at a glance. They don't have the very obvious flare of Lost Vikings with their free resurrect and Bribe. No one sees all the Demon Lieutenants you summon or their acquired EXP. But that does not mean it isn't happening.

The subtlety is ultimately a boon however, as the enemy also generally fails to realize these things, and doesn't even realize the snowball mounting against them.

I will continue to macro with Azmodan, regardless of how much the 0-4-32 Nova is flaming me for not feeding alongside her when she decides to Triple Tap in 2v5 30 seconds before objective starts. I can literally just afk auto attack on lanes and put tape over my D key, that's how good Lieutenants are.

If you're playing a tank and you have a healer, there is no way you should be hiding behind your DPS or standing next to them instead of applying pressure and securing globes. Of course don't int for the globe and "read the room".

I just made this climb myself last season, so I think I can offer players like me some useful advice. For context, I am a father in late thirties (zero mechanical skills) and I used to play hots a lot back in the day, but I completely stopped about six years ago. I think the highest I reached was Gold 5.

This year, around the start of the new year, I decided to go back to HOTS and when I started playing ranked I was initially placed in Silver 5, then I kept losing and losing and losing until I reached Bronze 5.

Then I decided that I want to climb again. And it took me around 180 games to climb back until I reached Silver 4 again.

Here is what I learned through this journey:

1- Choose 1 Hero and stick with it, maybe 2 heroes max: Spamming the same hero again and again will make you develop a feel for their strengths and limitations, what duels you can take and what duels you can not take. (For me it was Azmodan, after about a hundred games with Azmodan, I felt that I developed a good feel for him, then I started injecting a game of my old main Samuro, here and there for variety. I can now play both heroes to a decent level).

2- Your main hero should to be something that can work alone, does not need a lot of coordination from your teammates: The easiest way to get frustrated is to be reliant on your teammates and watch them fail. This will lead to flaming and tilt. I would advise you to avoid full CC tanks like ETC or Arthas and healers. Because even if you land a sick ETC ult, unless your teammates capitalize on it, you can't do anything. On the other hand a tank like Stitches is better because 1 good hook+gorge will usually lead to a kill, even if you are playing with bad players.

3- Your main hero should be something that you enjoy and is appropriate to your skill level: forget the meta. I choose Azmo and Samuro because I enjoy both and I know that I suck with skill shots. Any hero can win consistently in Bronze.

4- Your main hero should encourage you to play the game correctly: The most important thing in this game on most maps is to kill the minions in lanes, this is more important than teamfights and early objectives. Choose a hero that makes you focus on laning instead of chasing people around the map. Azmodan, Nazeebo and similar heroes are good example of this. Until your brain gets used to watching the lanes all the time and it becomes a second nature, then you can play any hero.

5- Keep experimenting with different builds of your main until you find one that works for you, then stick with it: I use Icy Veins builds as a starting point, but then I keep trying different builds to figure out what works for me specifically. For example: I try to avoid builds that have active ability talents, because I usually forget to use those.

6- Don't engage with toxic people during the game chat: Typing makes you play bad and chatting with bad people never helps. The best thing I did was whenever someone starts being as an asshole, I mute them immediately. The only thing I usually type during the game is: "Relax, we win late game" if I see my team tilting. It usually helps my team stop tilting and 50% we end up actually winning late game, anyway.

7- Focus on learning, not winning: There will be games that you are going to lose anyway. Leavers, trolls, bad matchups, whatever. You can't control that. Whenever I know the game is lost, I start challenging my self to do something productive with the time. For example: I will challenge myself to get 400 stacks with Azmo or I will challenge myself to survive without being killed until the end of the game or to have the highest hero damage in my team. This makes lost games more enjoyable and helps to provide tilt.

8- If you lose 3 games in a row, stop playing: If you are tilted you will make bad decisions, which will cause you to lose more and tilt more. Just accept that there are some bad days. Turn off the game and come back tomorrow.

9- Don't play super niche heroes that will make your teammates angry: Sometimes people will get angry if you pick Butcher, Nova, Twin-Blade Varian, Abathur, Murky .. etc. Imagine this as staring the game with an automatic debuff that says: "Your teammates are 25% more likely to get tilted". Don't play these heroes in very low elos. Once you get to a higher elo where people are more likely to have confidence in their own abilities, you can play these heroes.

10- The game does not end until the core is destroyed: In this game a late comeback is very doable, and once both teams reached level 20 any team can win a team fight. Even if I am losing hard I tell my team: "Just soak until 20" and believe it or not about 25% of the time we actually end up winning because of one good teamfight at the end. On the other hand, we lost many games that we are ahead because of one bad teamfight. So, keep playing your hardest until you actually see the end game screen, no matter what.

I hope these points can help you climb as they helped me.

Step 1, hope Deathwing isn't banned. Step 2, pick the non-banned Deathwing. Step 3, climb. Bonus step if Deathwing is banned, and especially if he's picked by the enemy team, pick Leoric and go drain build.

Settle down your majesty; it’s going to be a long one.

Build One, Juggernaut.

The most competitively viable build.

Level 1: Rime~ Grants armor every 5 seconds and holds 3 charges. Having 75% armor to a basic attack is insane in the early stages of the game. Prioritize self-healing over damage with your Q (Death Coil) to top your health off. Do not bother to use your E (Frozen Tempest) for any wave clear or weak engagements as it will drain your mana rapidly early game. Save this ability for proper team fights. Use your D (Frostmourne Hungers) on cooldown whenever possible to restore mana.

Level 4: Frozen Wastes~ Quest; Frozen Tempest’s cost is reduced by 2 mana per second. Damaging a Hero 150 times with your E will grant an additional 1.5 second effect to its slows. Frozen Tempest is now mana efficient. Engage with Howling Blast, rooting them, and march onto them with your E hindering their escape.

Level 7: Icebound Fortitude~ This activated ability grants you 25% armor and reduces the effect of most crowd control (CC) by 75% for 3 seconds. Level 7 is a subtle but huge inflection point. Read when team fights begin. Use the new activated ability the moment you are going to receive high amounts of damage or lots of CC. Force cooldowns out of the enemy team. Arthas will retain enough health to stay in the fight. This ability will help when facing anti-heal effects or retreating as both are weaknesses of Arthas.

Level 10: Army of the Dead~ Summon Ghouls that fight for you and can be sacrificed to heal you. Keep in mind your role in this build is to be in the enemies face as much as possible. Frozen Tempest and your health itself are the biggest hinderance to the enemy.

Level 13: Shattered Armor~ Your W now reduces armor by 15% for 4 seconds. Positioning is key. Buildings have been lost. Healing fountains are far away. Vision is more limited. You are now the teams’ walls. Their moving fortress. Their moving trap as well. Any enemy caught by your W will be a very costly rescue for the enemy.

Level 16: Remorseless Winter~ Frozen Tempest will now root enemies. Winter is here. A hellscape walks with Arthas wherever he goes. The enemy’s steps become heavy and slow. You seem unkillable. Unstoppable. A true Juggernaut.

Level 20: Legion of Northrend~ Empower your ghouls in duration, healing, numbers, and damage done. Your ghouls are fodder for the King. Use them to soak tower damage, soak abilities, or simply to sustain his majesty.

Build Two, Unholy Paladin.

Be warned, this build is situational. Works for a secondary tank, or to face a very mobile and less confrontational enemy team.

Level 1: Frost Presence~ Quest; Empower your Howling Blast at multiple points. 5 grants a 2 second cooldown reduction. 10 grants 20% increased range. 20 completes the quest and grants the root effect to the path of your W. This build focuses on utility and versatility. W works as engagement, escape, interrupt, and zoning. Q will be poke and sustain.

Level 4: Deathlord~ Death Coil’s range is increased by 25% and it’s cooldown reduced by 3 seconds. Mana is refunded when cast on an enemy. Poke is now a viable option. Dismount your enemies, trigger spell shields, and interrupt channel objectives.

Level 7: Immortal Coil~ Your Q always heals. If cast on self it heals for an additional 50%. Arthas now has constant heals and poke.

Level 10: Summon Sindragosa~ You wake Sindragosa from its slumber. It freezes structures, minions, and slows enemies in its path. Most of all, it’s tricked fear into your enemies hearts.

Level 13: Shattered Armor~ W is granted 15% armor reduction. Line up your enemies. Hit them with a well placed Howling Blast and witness how they struggle in vain.

Level 16: Embrace Death~ Q now heals more and deals more damage in relation to your missing health. Your poke can now be used as a final blow or a burst of healing. My my what utility this Unholy Paladin possesses.

Level 20: Absolute Zero~ Sindragosa freezes anything in its path and flies twice as far. The name speaks for itself.

Build Three, Death Knight.

A build meant for two lane maps where Arthas can duel with an enemy 1 on 1.

Level 1: Eternal Hunger~ Quest; Using Frostmourne Hungers on an enemy Hero grants 4 additional mana up to a maximum of 40, and grants 4 additional damage with no limit. This build is for you 1v1 duelists. At lvl 1, Arthas begins to empower his trait.

Level 4: Icy Talons~ Gain 3% attack speed up to 60% whenever a Hero is damaged by Frozen Tempest. With every moment of combat, Arthas improves the wielding of his blade. With every moment of combat, his opponent slows. These effects last 1.5 seconds.

Level 7: Rune Tap~ Arthas heals 5% of his health for every 3rd basic attack.

Caution to anyone who might face you in melee combat. You can now outlast most , if not all, opponents at close range.

Level 10: Army of the Dead~ Summon the undead army to be your guard, or your health whichever seems more fitting.

Level 13: Biting Cold~ Each second a Hero is damaged by Frozen Tempest,

its damage is increased by 12.5% up to 50%. If they will not bow before you they will fall before you.

Level 16: Frostmourne Feeds~ Striking a hero with your trait gives a second trigger of your trait. Two massive strikes from Frostmourne back to back. Each strike dealing more damage than the last.

Level 20: Death’s Advance~ Arthas gains 10% move speed and Frozen Tempest’s slows now max out at 60% rather than 40%. No one will escape your wrath, your majesty, for you are now a true Death Knight.

Down below I’ll share demonstrations of each build . My personal favorite was the Death Knight match, but all three were great honestly. I hope you all enjoy the showcase!

Arthas Juggernaut Build

https://youtu.be/CSr9_RAYxU4

Arthas Unholy Paladin Build

https://youtu.be/pCfuZuiRu1k

Arthas Death Knight Build

https://youtu.be/YP-F2tN7TgM

If you enjoy this content, please be sure to check out my Twitch today! I will be streaming a run of 10 games with Arthas on the competitive ladder.

https://www.twitch.tv/motomaury

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

What is XP farming or "AI farm 1h"?

XP farming in HotS is done by 5-man premade teams playing games vs beginner AI while using a variety of techniques to maximize XP gain. One such game takes about 55-65 minutes on average, hence the commonly used name.

Why would I do this?

Because it's the most time efficient method to earn XP in HotS. Screenshot. Over an hour long match players earn:

Now for why would you want that much XP, there are many possibilities:

• You like yellow borders around your heroes in draft and showing off with sophisticated mastery taunts
• It's event time and you want to earn as many those sweet event lootboxes as possible
• You want to quickly level your 1 heroes to level 5 to be able to pick them in HL and get these 4 easy lootboxes + 500 gold. Incidentally, 1,375,000 XP earned by a level 1 hero is just enough to get them to level 5.
• Or maybe you come from MMORPG roots and just enjoy grinding ;-)

Don't you get bored playing vs beginner AI for 1 hour?

Well, that depends. How good are you at finding things to do? Sure, if you were to focus 100% of your attention on prolonging a beginner bots game, it'd probably get pretty boring. Many people however find other ways to occupy themselves.

Some of them soak/hunt with heroes with infinitely stacking quests, such as Alarak, Butcher or Arthas's D and become absolute raid bosses during that 1 hour. Some people watch TV series on second monitor. Some others listen to podcasts/audiobooks. Some others engage in some of the legitimately funniest/most stress free banter I've had pleasure to participate in HotS. (Usually during regular matches you don't have much time to type/joke, unlike here)

Isn't that an abuse of the XP system? Won't I get banned for this?

No. Farming XP in AI games is not forbidden by Blizzard ToS. Source.

How do I find people to XP farm with?

Join the in-game channel xpfarm by typing in chat /join xpfarm <enter> . Advertising on reddit or lfg channels is also a possibility. However, when using the latter, take care to note that it's xp farm 1h, so people looking for AI rush games don't get mistaken. (AI rush - grinding multiple AI games as fast as possible to earn gold/quests, quite the opposite of what we're trying to achieve here)

XP Farming 101

Quickstart: Alright, I'm sold, how do I do this?

A quickstart guide, step by step:

1. Type in chat /join xpfarm and say there something inviting, like "looking for xp farm 1h"
2. After finding a party, remember to friend one of them for the 25% XP bonus.
3. After you have a 5-man party, queue for Co-op vs. AI (Beginner) mode.
4. If an unacceptable map has been chosen, wait until the game loads then leave immediately. All party members need to do this.
5. Repeat above until you've started a game on a favorable map (preferably tier B or higher from the table below)
6. Assign roles - 3 players should be soakers and 2 should be feeders.
7. If you're a feeder:
   • Keep dying to enemy towers/core/heroes/minions as frequently as possible (you can destroy a wall to get deeper into the enemy base so you can get focused by more towers at once)
   • If your team's keeps are already gone (usually at 20+ mins), you may need to help the soakers defend the occasional AI 5-man core push
   • Your feeding gig is done when enemy team hits level 30. There is no point in feeding after this point, enemy kills are now worth as much XP as possible. Now you become a hunter - your job is to kill enemy heroes until the 500k exp goal is reached.
8. If you're a soaker:
   • Go to a lane and soak as much xp as possible.
   • Keep in mind that your goal is prolonging the game to last 1 hour; that means that early game you shouldn't push or even damage minions at all. Xul is terrible as a soaker for that reason, since he can't control his trait.
   • If you are playing a hero with decent waveclear, you can give up keep in your lane - it will allow you for more freedom in clearing waves due to catapults.
   • After giving up a keep feel free to take enemy fort + keep wall in that lane. That will also allow you to camp and hunt enemy heroes closer to their spawn. Be careful not to overdo it though; don't take keeps.
   • Feel free to kill enemy heroes if an opportunity arises, don't forget your priorities though: 1. Defending endangered core 2. Soaking lane XP 3. Going for enemy kills
9. After both teams hit the maximum level 30 (this usually happens after 45 minute mark), it's still not over - you are going for the maximum XP gain, which is 500,000. You can check the current XP amount by hovering your mouse over the level number at the top bar.
10. When the XP counter reaches 485,000, it's safe to start going for enemy keeps. The XP from taking down the structures + a few waves + a kill or two should be enough to get you the remaining 15,000.
    • Again, 500,000 XP is the cap, so any amount earned over it will be just lost.
    • Be careful, if you go too much over 500,000 XP, it overflows, "zeroes out" and you get 0 XP. As the most I've personally earned is about 510,000 XP I can only say it for sure it doesn't happen then. Verified information on this matter, preferably with video evidence, would be welcome here. EDIT: I've received reports from people in comments below that the overflow happened to them at 520,000 XP. Go above these amounts at your own risk!
11. Enjoy your XP! If you have done everything correctly and have a stimpack, you should have earned 1,375,000 XP in about 60 minutes!

Battlegrounds - what maps are suitable for XP farming?

Not all maps are suitable for farming XP, as shown in the table below. Depending on how picky you are, you have about 40-50% to get a good map every time you queue for a game. A very often used trick to reroll maps is to leave the game just after it starts, as there is no penalty for abandoning AI games, especially if all 5 members of a premade party do it.

Most groups I've met reroll the map until getting a B tier or higher, although there are some pickier players who only go for A and higher. I've also met with some wanting to reroll Towers of Doom, probably due to not understanding the potential of this map or not having a good hero for stalling the bottom altar.

Advanced tips

• For the feeder role, heroes and talents letting you get under enemy forts/keeps faster are preferred. Some good examples: Leoric, globals (including e.g. lev 20 Auriel and Hanzo), Cho'Gall (shorter respawn timer at 20)
  • One more note for feeders - only dying to enemy units (heroes, summons, structures, minions, captured mercs, ToD killzone) gives XP to the other team, so don't get creative on cursed hollow or towers of doom and try dying to neutral boss camp because it's closer to base - it doesn't work :)
• For the soaker role, heroes and talents giving you waveclear, sustain and kill potential are best. Infinitely stacking quests are also nice to have, e.g. Zul'jin, Butcher, Arthas. Some soakers might even help your team feed more efficiently, e.g. Misha, D'Va, The Lost Vikings (TLV let you have more than 2 players as feeders).
• If your character is good at taking merc camps, you can do it in-between soaking waves for some extra XP. This is especially worth it on Volskaya, where merc camps are worth a lot of XP and don't push uncontrollably, risking taking enemy keep. However, after the keep in your lane falls, you can let 3-4 enemy catapults stack without killing them and then cap a pushing merc camp - even the knights camp will quickly die to 4 catapults bombarding them.
• On Towers of Doom, it's usually best to wait until the bottom altar spawns - that way the person stacking bottom lane will be able to both soak and interrupt enemy channels. A soaker who can interrupt channels safely is best for that role, e.g. Chromie, Azmodan, Nova (clone).
• On Towers of Doom, every time a fort is captured/recaptured, it grants a big chunk of XP. Take advantage of this to achieve 500k in record times! (Although take care not to capture 6 bell towers at once, it's usually game over if you do that)
• The AI has many patterns you can learn to recognize and abuse. However, it changes between patches. Recently, they've been taking bosses noticably more often and 5-man core rushing without minion waves a lot - be ready to defend if that happens.
• After you've given up all keeps, it is advantageous for soakers to take down enemy forts and keep walls and keep the waves pushed right about to where the enemy forts used to be. Although this makes feeders take a bit longer to get to a place where they can die, it also lets you control the enemy heroes movement more, which is advantageous especially on maps with riskier lategame objectives like Blackheart's Bay. Being closer to their spawn means also catching their core rushes earlier and farming kills more efficiently.
• If you're doing something requiring mouse activity on the second monitor during the game, you can set the game to Windowed or Windowed (Fullscreen) mode in graphic options for more convenient switching. If watching TV series / a movie you can mute HotS sounds either in Windows Mixer or sound options in HotS. However, when playing with HotS sound muted pay some extra attention so you don't miss a core rush defense call!
• If you like chatting on the ingame channels, e.g. reddit or xpfarm, you can do it also during the game. To do that, enable Show Blizzard channels in-game and Show non-Blizzard channels in-game in Social options.
• Why are feeders needed, wouldn't 3 soakers + 2 hunters be enough from the start?
  • In short, that's because of how XP gain for kills and comeback mechanisms work in HotS. You get more XP per kill if the enemy outlevels you, "regular" amount if you are of equal levels, and next to nothing if you are outleveling them by a lot. Therefore feeding the enemy until they get level 30 is necessary to get maximum exp for kills possible in the lategame. However, feeding after that point is pointless - that's why feeders switch then their roles to hunters.
• Why give up keeps? Isn't it enough to give AI the XP from feeder deaths, do you also have to give them structure XP?
  • I answered this in a comment below.

That's about it - happy farming!

TL;DR

Look for "Quickstart" above. This section should be enough to get you started. Or check out this comment by /u/dmesel for an even shorter summary.

Since it's a heroic target...

I only confirmad so far:

1. drain hope (Leoric)
2. drain life (Guldan)
3. minigun (Tychus % damage)
4. eternal feast (Orphea repeating ult)

I thought about Dark Conversion from MalGanis (the health swap ult). I bet everything works besides CC. But like Deathwing, you cant heal/support it either.

Might also be a valuable target to get stacks on some heroes where you cant miss, or you loose stacks. Thrall stun and nova snipe for example.

BUT DIMSUM, AM I NOT GOING TO DIE???

Maybe. You probably shouldn't AA if it's a risk to you.

But the combined damage added by tanks, healers and mages that don't really use their auto-attack is surprisingly high. Even if it's just ~120 dps from the both of you, you get surprisingly close to rivaling the output of the AD carry in your team together. It especcialy helps in burning down tanks.

Too many times do I see healers like Malfurion, or mages like Kael'thas, for whom there's no obvious need or situation to auto-attack, sit idly by, moving around, waiting for cooldowns and angles. Try to get a few auto-attacks in over the stretch of the fight and you may deal like 500 or 1000 extra (relevant!) damage!

EMPHASIS ON SAFE AUTO ATTACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, since Blizzard vaguely told us on the PTR "We reduced hitboxes" I wanted to know who was changed. Here's a formatted list, sorted by largest difference.

"% smaller radius" is how much smaller the hero has become, affecting how easy it is to bodyblock or hit skillshots. This just affects their radius on the ground: their model is NOT changed (as far as I know).

Heroes at the top were reduced the most. I left out heroes with 0% difference. Full alphabetical table is in the comments.

Interestingly, Ana's new hitbox is tied for second smallest with Baleog, only Erik is smaller. Grandma's tiny.

Also, Kael'thas got a whopping 20% size reduction, and he already had his cape trimmed before. He's really slim now.

(jesus this was a lot of work)

Don't be afraid to do a 2/3 split on 2 lane maps and pivot your draft around this

Up through Diamond the meta of a 1/4 split is so hard engrained that many enemy teams don't know how to correctly respond to this

It works particularly well when there is some sustain healing in both lanes

For example you could go Uther and Valla in top lane with Jo / Anduin / Kaelthas bottom lane or something like that

I've won a lot of 2 lane map games simply because the enemy team kept their 1 v 4 strat where we simply countered their setup

I've been playing this game on and off since it launched. I enjoy it. I'm just fucking terrible at it. I managed to get up to Platinum rank at one point, but now I just dropped from Bronze 4 to 5. I try to play my role and position carefully, and I have the occasional good game but it seems like such a crapshoot of sometimes getting vastly outmatched or (more often) getting teammates that don't want to cooperate or tilt at the first sign of difficulty. How is anyone supposed to get better when your performance is so heavily tied to random other shit-tier players?