HOTS guide collections

Rundown: I've seen a lot of people complain about this map recently. I still think this too soon to say whether or not the map is properly optimized, but I'll go ahead and say I like it, and the biggest reason people dislike is because they are not completely sure how to play around it.

I'll try and see if I can make a difference there.

Things as damage the enemy core

• All towers belong to you - volley of Shots/Bullets/Pellets 6 damage to the enemy core.
  
• Merc camps run past the captured towers (and into the killzone) to damage the core. They deal 1 damage to the enemies core per sucessful mercenary unit in the killzone.
  
• Capture Altars
  
  • The more towers you have, the more damage altars will do (1 more per tower)
    
  
  
• Boss Captured will deal 4 damage
  

Useful Tactics

• The bottom lane is the most important lane
  
  • Why do you ask? Simply because there are more mercs down there.
    
    If you can capture the tower down there and ensure the merc camps a clean runthrough, you got a free 3 extra damage to the enemy core (and a better grip on the merc camps). Though do keep an eye on the boss so you don't give a free 4 damage to your own core.
    
  
  
• If possible, you will want a good pusher at the toplane to keep control of the area.
  
  Preferably your map alignment would be: 1 top, 1 middle and 2 bottom with the last person roaming. This of course, is not always possible if you prefer to play Quick Match where the charm of the mode is utterly random compositions of teams.
  
• Push gates in all lanes fast
  
  Just so that your first merc camps aren't wasted on something you could've done fast, since the tower damage is negligible right now.
  
  
• Early Ganks
  
  The map is tiny and with the increased death timers as of the latest patch, use this to your advantage.
  
  
• Maintain low health on enemy Belltowers.
  
  It is incredibly difficult to play around low Belltowers as you are forced to make a decision. Do I let this tower die and recapture (THat's a lot of seconds you'll have to be prepared to return in) or do you defend this low tower and waste time running back and forth? Defending the almost dead tower is usually the bad choice. While you are wasting time defending, the enemy team is utilizing their extra free time to cap an extra of your towers, or take your mercenaries.
  
  Once they got this tight a grip on your balls you can hardly shake off the hand without tearing something in the process.
  
  Keeping towers low also gives you little bit of insurance? Had a teamfight and altars just spawned? Go grab that tower and just to make sure you take a tidbit less damage to your core. Keeping them low also makes it easier if you just won a teamfight and want a huge volley of bullets/pellets/Shots
  
  
• Utilize the chaos:
  
  If you're feeling confident for a fight: When the altars spawn (during the 30 seconds) you force a Belltower/Keep down. Make the enemy make a choice of whether they want a to contest you getting 1-2 extra Belltowers, or them securing maybe a single Altar before you can challenge them at the Belltowers.
  
  
• The boss is not alway a good idea
  
  The Headless Horseman deals A LOT of damage. He deals percentage damage and it chunks you HARD. I've had teams go in and wipe because they thought they could quickly focus him down. Be sure you have atleast 70% hp going into that cage - it's a better throwpit than the boss in Sky Temple. Be catious if your healer isn't there.
  

During downtime you should:

• Pressure the boss if you have the chance and the HP to do so.
  
  
• Capture towers, but most importantly capture the botlane tower (to secure merc camps) and try to make the mercs push through for possible core damage.
  
  
• Ambush single laners and try to get an experience advantage.
  

Random information

• Portal to the midle lane spawns/opens at 12 minutes.
  
  
• In between the enemies core and Belltowers (Keeps) there is a killzone, marked by a line on the ground where the earth changes colour, which will damage you heavily if entered.
  
  
• First altar spawn at 1:30 and respawn around 110 seconds after the last altar has been capped.
  
  
• Sappers spawn at 2:00
  
  
• Headless Horseman spawns at 5:00
  
  
• Mule do repair the towers, though I'm uncetain howuseful this talent really is, as towers either are getting bursted by players or sappers and they'll usually die fast if ever attacked.
  
  
• If 3 altars are up 1 tower can fire 2 bullets 3 times - in other words 1 tower can do 6 damage.
  
  
• Mercenary Lord coupled with Sappers will 100-0 a Belltower (or very close).
  

Good Heroes for Towers of Doom:

Since there is a lot of fighting going both in lanes and on points littered with chokepoints and small alleyways heroes with a lot of sustain and zone control are the best to bring.

• Zone Control - Heroes like
  
  • Kael'Thas, Jaina, Leoric, Tyrael, Zagara and Diablo
    
  
  
• Sustain - Heroes like
  
  • Healing wise - Kharazim, Malfurion and Tassadar
    
  • Damage wise - Raynor, Hammer and Nazeebo
    
  
  
• Good Pushers for top lane
  
  • Zagara, Sylvanas, Sonya or Murky.
    
  
  
• Honorable mentions:
  
  • Abathur - can soak and pressure the lanes opposite of the altars to great extent.
    
  • Thrall/The Butcher - Great early game ganker
    
  • Nova - Great at picking off targets and getting away because of the corners as can help get quickly out of vision again.
    
  
  

Rich Cleave build Zeratul gameplay



Build Guide
1 Greater Cleave
4 Rending Cleave
7 Wormhole
10 Void Prison
13 Mending Strikes
16 Void Slash
20 Shadow Mending

Rich Zeratul Gameplay



1) Shadow Hunter
4) Psionic Strength
7) Wormhole
10) Might of the Nerazim
13) Mending Strikes
16) Void Slash
20)

-OVERVIEW-

Maiev's one of my favorite heroes to be added to HotS in recent months. Having a viable melee assassin for the 4-man feels very nice as they're some of my favorite heroes. Maiev is a hero with a kit based around flashy 1v9s and playmaking. She excels at punishing out-of-position opponents and carrying teamfights with her wardens cage, multi-tethers and Q resets. She also has decent wave and camp clear and is difficult for the enemy to pick off due to her high mobility and juke potential so there's always something proactive you can do without needing a real team to follow-up on her.
-DRAFT-
Maiev is so strong she can really be picked anywhere right now and still do well. But she excells vs targets with low mobility as they're easy to dive, tether and kill. To really carry a teamfight she's paired well with some kind of aoe damage or ult like malf or diablo or a support such as rehgar to give her the survivability to kill the enemy team by herself with Q resets. She's countered by some tanks like jo quite effectively as blinds are really annoying for her to deal with but not insurmountable. Maiev doesn't really have any bad maps but I'd say her best one was Tomb of the Spider Queen.

-TALENTS-

1) Naisha's Memento
It's a lot of extra damage, synergises with your 16 and is fairly easy to recharge when you want to be proccing it anyway. The other options are a hard-to-stack quest and a talent that doesn't do as much. Since this build revolves around doing a lot of damage with auto attacks this talent does the job beautifully.
4) Blade Dance
The PVE clear and guaranteed extra damage especially once you get your 16 is too good to give up in comparison to the risk/reward of Pin Down. The best Maiev players don't take Pin Down so neither should we.
7) Elune's Wrath
More damage if you hit at least 2 people. Generally it will get more value than Bonds of Corruption but the armor reduction is strong and sometimes works if you can always get the pull on tether.
10) Warden's Cage or Containment Disc
Warden's Cage will be the pick 90% of the time but sometimes containment disc works when there's a crucial hero to isolate out of the team fight and cage just doesn't look like it will get value - e.g vs a heavily mobile enemy team or perhaps an aba comp.
13) Bladed Armor
Just way easier to guarantee then the others. You should be able to keep up permanent armor in a team fight meaning your 16 is constantly online. The other talents are just less reliable.
16) Armored Assault
This synergises beautifully with your 13, 1 and 4 and adds a heap more damage. The other talents are less reliable and worse damage.
[b] 20) Shadow Orb: Huntress
This is the talent with the most synergy with auto attacks and physical damage, it also helps you kite and chase and get value on tethers and even on top of all of that it's the easiest to recharge.

-GAMEPLAY-
Macro
Maiev's camp and wave-clear is very good. She can clear fast past 4 and clear camps fairly easily as well. She's very safe in lane so can sometimes push quite far out.
Micro
The most important thing on Maiev as with all melee assassin's is not letting yourself get insta-burst. As you will often be engaging non-laterally you want to look ahead of time and see what you need to pay special attention to dodge with your trait and also make sure your team are in position. It's also cruicial in team fights to hit the Q reset. If your Q doesn't reset your damage is drastically reduced so make sure to practice the Q hitbox as it's quite different from other skillshots in the game.

-CONCLUSION-
Maiev is a great hero to pick up for people who like divey melee assassins. She also has a lot of carry potential so is a great choice for hero league once you get good at her. Focus on keeping your deaths low as a sign you're doing well on her and understanding your limits. Enjoy.