Like a lot of gamers out there I have spent A LOT of time with League of Legends.

And why not? It’s the most popular MOBA! So it must be the best one, right?

Well, I’m here to convince you that it may not be the case.

In fact, I believe that most people would enjoy Hots more than League if they would try it. The issue is that Heroes of the Storm have a horrible stigma among other MOBA communities, so few people give it a shot.

Even though I was an avid League of Legends player and knew of the bad reputation, Hots had, I just had to try it out. As a lifelong fan of all the different Blizzard titles.

Before I even knew it, I was hooked, and today I struggle making it through just one League of Legends game with my sanity intact.

In this article, I will go over the objective pros & cons of both games in an attempt to match them up in a fair way.

2019 UPDATE: Blizzard has slowed down support for Heroes of the Storm and stopped their support for the professional league entirely. So while I personally love Heroes of the Storm it is important to factor in the reduced support of the game.

Suns out guns out Wallpaper for Heroes of the Storm3 Most Common Misconceptions about Heroes of the Storm

There is A LOT of myths and bad stigmas surrounding Hots. So let’s start out by taking a look at the 3 most common myths about the game.

1. It’s for noobs!

This is probably the most common argument, you hear from LoL players when talking about Hots. So is it true? Well, that depends if you find last hitting minions and soaking lanes for 20 minutes to be a challenging and engaging experience. If yes, then sure.

Due to the objective based maps of Hots, you generally don’t spend a lot of time in your lane. Instead, the team fighting usually starts a few minutes into the game. So if you think soaking and last hitting is a real challenge compared to team fighting, then LoL is genuinely more challenging. However I find that team fighting is the most significant test of skills in a MOBA, so this myth is far from the truth.

I will give League of Legends this though. Since it’s been out for so long, it has an enormous pool of champions, which also mean that there are more champions with a higher skill cap than in Hots. Hopefully, Heroes will catch up soon as they release new heroes at a much faster pace.

It is worth noting that Hots has 15 completely different maps to offer, which means that due to the considerable variation and importance of objectives, there is a lot of skill involved in learning to play the maps correctly.

2. You cannot carry

This myth is partly true. Because of the shared experience and reliance on your teammates, it is a lot harder to carry in Hots. But it is also far from impossible.

The way you carry in the two games is just so vastly different. Whereas in League, you have to get some early kills so that you can out gear your opponents. In Hots you must take leadership of your team, carry the team fights and play the map correctly.

It comes down to personal preferences, which kind of carrying you enjoy more. Carrying in League is bound to give you more attention as you can become outrageously overpowered. However, if you learn to carry in Hots, it is very consistent and more reliable.

3. You cannot carry a bad team

A follow-up to the second myth, but essential to talk about nonetheless.

This can be true if your team are genuinely insanely horrible. But is it very different in LoL?

If you have a team-mate in LoL that keeps feeding your opponent’s AD Carry, It is pretty much game over, unless if the other team has 1 or more players feeding as well.

The big difference is though: It is considerably easier to make a comeback in Hots due to objectives and late game experience gains, which means early feeding etc. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over.

Related: Best Mice for MOBA Gaming

Top 5 Reasons HOTS is Better than League

Let us start out by taking a look at the 5 biggest ways that Heroes of the Storm is better than its competitors.

1. Talent System

Screenshot of Varian's hero pageLeague of Legends uses the same system as the original ‘Defense of the Ancients’ from Warcraft 3. You earn money from last hitting minions, killing monsters and players. This causes an endless stream of problems.

First of all, it screws up balancing. When Riot has to adjust the meta in LoL, they cannot ignore items as a part of it. This means that tweaking an item may completely ruin 1 hero, just so that another hero isn’t too overpowered anymore. This problem is absent in Hots because hero specific talents replace items.

It also makes your power gap in between games feel unbearable. When you finish a game, you’re used to having a full set of items and all abilities, and generally feel really powerful. So when starting over at Level 1 in a new game is a horrible feeling. You suddenly find yourself without any attack speed, movement speed, abilities, etc.

It is not because the power gap isn’t significant in Hots between early and late game. It’s just less noteworthy. This is because you start off with all your abilities and talents generally don’t alter your heroes base power (attack speed etc.) in the same way items does.

Related: Best Gaming mice – Full list.

2. Team Fighting vs. ‘Last hitting’

In-game screenshot of a teamfight

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that team fighting is more fun than farming minions for 20 minutes. I’d even argue that the reason most people enjoy Moba’s are because of team fights. So why wait 20-30 minutes when you could get straight into the team fights?

In league is it crucial that you last hit minions to gain that precious gold for your items, however, since Hots maps are all objective based you are forced into a team fight after a few minutes if not earlier.

It is also worth noting that last hitting actively makes your teammates into competitors. Which is probably one of the reasons League is known for having the most toxic community in all of the gaming.

A lot of League players argue that last hitting is one of the reasons LoL are more skill based than Hots, which can be true if you think it is hard a hard mechanic to master.

3. Innovative Hero Design

In-game image of Ragnaros in hots


Blizzard has endless lore rich characters to choose from when making new heroes. The Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch and Diablo universes, all have a rich lore and fantastic characters. This means that most heroes have a deep background story, and Blizzard fans are excited whenever a fan favorite is announced.

This is all great, but not what is really important. What really matters is the actual hero design, and this is where the Blizzard development team really shows off their creative capabilities.

Most champions in League has a tendency to be quite similar. Most Champions has one gap closer, 1 Area of Effect ability and one single target burst, etc. This doesn’t mean that they are all the same, it just makes them a bit similar.

The developers behind Heroes of the Storm have time and time again proven they aren’t afraid to mix it up. Here are a few examples of innovative hero design in Hots:

Cho’gall: 1 colossal hero, being controlled by two people. One person is the caster/assassin type, while the other one controls the movement and functions as a tank.

Abathur: The fan favorite slug, never have to leave his base. Instead of directly fighting his opponents he instead manipulates his teammates, minions and the battleground to his team’s advantage.

The Lost Vikings: Brought in from one of the first Blizzard franchises ‘The Lost Vikings’. This 3-in-one hero is controlled by one person, and roam together or are split apart to soak up all lanes.

And these a just a few examples of the creativity and love, which goes into Heroes of the Storm hero development.

4. Maps & Talents: Replayability

Concept art of the Hots map Battlefield of EternityThis was the big selling point for me. As much as I enjoyed League of Legends back in the day, after a couple of games, it quickly started to feel very repetitive. Same map, incredibly weak early game, etc.

The talent, wacky heroes and map system in Hots is the games biggest advantage over other MOBA’s and keeps it fresh for endless hours. Not only is the early game engaging and filled with intense team fights. But all 15 maps are hugely different and forces you to change up your play style. And Blizzard is far from done with adding in more new and exciting maps. Hopefully, we will see some Warcraft specific maps added somewhere shortly.

On top of this, there are also weekly brawls. This is a game type which varies each week, one week it’s all-random-all-mid with a couple of preselected heroes that all start with their ultimates and are just straight out team fighting from beginning to finish. Next week it’s a map where you play against the environment to defend a base from endless zerg waves.

5. Hots 2.0: Better Progression & Reward System

Official logo for Heroes of the Storm 2.0Back in April 2017, Heroes of the Storm received a significant overhaul to its progression system with the ”Heroes of the Storm 2.0 update”.

This update included endless level progression, loot boxes, sharding and more.

While loot boxes undoubtedly have a bad reputation in the gaming community, and with good reason. I’d say Heroes is more of an exception to the rule.

First off, it is entirely free to play, and the content of the loot boxes do not affect your in-game performance.

Secondly, they are exceptionally generous with their loot boxes compared to most games. You gain one for each time you level a hero up which really don’t take more than a few games, even at the high levels. Additionally, you can reroll the chests with in-game currency in case you are not happy with the content.

So regardless if you play around in Quick Match or if you try to climb in Ranked Mode you will be rewarded for your efforts with plenty loot boxes.

The only real downside to this system is that skins are no longer purchasable alone for real life money. Which is quite annoying but the upsides of this progression system heavily outweigh the few negatives.

Honorable Mention: Very Consistent Content Drops

If you play Hots for just a little while it becomes clear that the developers really put a lot of love into it, The game is ever-changing and has hotfixes and balance patches every 1-2 weeks while bringing in a new hero each 3-4 weeks. This again helps to keep the game consistently fresh and exciting.

Update: Heroes of the Storm is no longer releasing heroes every 3-4 weeks, at least not right now. The developers are taking a small break to focus on reworking old heroes, balancing the roster, and adding requested features. Such as the Third Ban for ranked play, Match Making and Rank decay, and more coming in the ranked update coming with 2018 Season 3.

Related: Best Gaming Chair – Buying Guide.

Top 5 Reasons League of Legends is Better than HOTS

Now to take a look at the things that make League of Legends the superior MOBA.

1. Bigger Esports Scene

Image from League of legends esl tournament

Whether you talk about viewers, the casters or the prize pool, League of Legends are difficult to compete with as an Esport. League has some of the best casters in all of Esports, if not the best. They have an insane amount of viewers and crazy prize pools.

You could argue that it is because League has been around for so long, which is partly true but I don’t think it’s just age alone. It is only natural that a game that held the title as the ”most popular game in the world” for so long will attract great casters, talents, and sponsors.

2. Huge Player Base

More players bring a lot of great things to the game. More players, mean more money, which in turn give Riot the resources to spend that much more money on the tournaments, promotion, and Esports in general.

It also means that there most likely will be an endless amount of players at your exact skill level. So matchmaking will feel smoother and generally better.

Lastly, rising to the top is that much harder and thus, more prestigious.

3. More Champions, More Bans

Wallpaper of the league of legends champions

League has been around for so long now that they hardly need to produce any more champions. The champion pool is almost at 140, which is insane compared to Heroes of the storms that are around 80 or so heroes. So even though ‘Heroes’ does a fantastic job at bringing new heroes way more often, there is still a way to go.

More champions mean more choice, which is always great in any game. The huge champion pool also means that every player in League gets their own ban in ranked mode. Which mean that in Ranked League of Legends play each team has 5 bans(6 in Professional tournaments), Compared to Heroes of the Storm that only have 2 per team.

Update: Blizzard is implementing a third ban in ranked and professional Heroes of the Storm play with the upcoming season.

4. Great Streamers

In the MOBA genre, Twitch and streaming are a big deal. So it is a big plus that there are so many great League streamers that play League of Legends, whereas Heroes only have a handful of talented ones.

5. Easier to Carry

Gaming meme from Athene

The most common argument against Hots is that you cannot carry. While I don’t think that is true, I cannot argue against the fact that it is easier to carry in League. If you are a great player and learn how to get an early lead, you’ll have a pretty easy time carrying. The power spike you gain from an initial level/gold lead is just insane, but also pretty damn fun if you are the one who is fed.

Update: Heroes of the Storm has since added the ‘Quest’ mechanic. Which to a certain extend lets you get relatively overpowered if you play well with certain heroes. Now, these bonuses gained from ‘Quest talents’ are not nearly as big as the bonuses you gain from being ”fed” in League of Legends, but it brings the two games a bit closer. Riot even borrowed from this idea and added Support specific items with the same ‘Quest’ mechanic.

Related: Best Mechanical Keyboards – Complete top 10. 

Other Noteworthy Differences Between Hots & LoL

Heroes of the Storm wallpaper for PVE BrawlLet us finish up with a couple of core game differences yet to be mentioned in the article. We are not saying these differences are good or bad as these are highly subjective.


Mounts is one of the core differences between Hots and other MOBA’s. This allows players to increase their running speed which further increases the intensity and decrease downtime.

Lore & Story

Heroes of the Storm characters have always had more in-depth lore and story than any other MOBA. However, Blizzard recently doubled down on this and will begin to focus on lore and stories specific to the Nexus and Heroes of the Storm. This is done through in-game events and Heroes of the Storm comics. Most recently the ‘Dark Nexus’ patch that brought new skins, mounts, and an event-specific in-game UI. All the while the Lore of the event was covered in the first official Heroes of the Storm Comic: Rise of the Raven Lord.


On top of the talent system in Heroes of the Storm, there are also specific ‘Quest talents.’ These require you to perform specific tasks, such as hitting 20 Heroes with an ability without dying. Upon completion of Quest talents, the hero receives a considerable bonus to reward higher skilled players.
Update: League of Legends has taken a bit of inspiration from this and added support items with the same sort of ‘Quest’ system.


Heroes of the Storm has an additional game mode, known as Brawls. The Brawl will change up every week and is widely different from regular games. It can be anything from ”All-random-all-mid” maps to something as wonky as a Dodgeball brawl or even ”Player versus Environment” Brawls that let you and four friends hold off waves of Zergs or rush through a horde of enemies and bosses.


Instead of jungling for gold, in Heroes of the Storm, you gain control of the camps once they are defeated. This causes them to push down the nearest lane and put pressure on the opposing team. Also, this makes it so that camps become a significant tactical element, and further add depth.
Update: League of Legends did eventually find inspiration in the way that Heroes of the Storm camps work. Now the top lane mini-baron, The Rift Herald, will drop an item that lets it push down the lane with your team.

Duo Queue

In League of Legends, you can queue with a single friend in the ranked solo queue. Whereas in Hots you are forced into Team League if you wish to duo queue with a friend.


League of Legends has an out of game progression path that slightly increase your in-game power. These so-called ‘Runes’ function very much like a talent tree in MMORPG’s and lets you talent into specific bonuses. Such as increased ability power, true damage, etc.

Two Ultimates

In Hots you have the choice between two distinct ultimates(more in a few rare cases. In League, you have 1 per champion.

Start with all abilities

Apart from your ultimate, you start off with all core abilities in Heroes of the Storm. Whereas in League you choose a new skill or ability to upgrade each level.


Supports in Heroes doesn’t just provide a few buffs, but actively heal and mitigate dmg.


    • That’s alright matey. Everone likes something different, but Im curious. How did Hots fail? Except for making the mistake of releasing it 6 months to early.

  1. Having played HoTS and LoL I can say the big difference is the team vs individual focus.

    HoTS forces teams to play together. Objectives force teams to fight. You need to be on the same page right from the start. If one of your teammates just stays and lanes while 4 try to fight 5 enemies at the objective the team will lose.

    HoTS also suffers from the team focus. While a top tier player cannot carry a team to the same degree in HoTS as they can in LoL, a bad player in HoTS will hurt the team far more than a bad player in LoL. In league you are as good as your best player, in HoTS you are as good as your worst.

    Finally HoTS trades micro stratgies of gaining gold and XP for macro strategies. Camps provide lane pressure. You can capture a camp after an objective to have it cleaned up instantly by the enemy team, or you can capture that same camp just before an objective and have it push hard in lane while your enemy contests the objective across the map. The map macro strategies of what objectives to fight for, what to delay, and what to ignore and all the associated timings make the macro game for HoTS far greater.

    In League, the micro game is more important. Small decisions on how you take out minons, where you push a lane and where you let it push in and who on your team you try to feed sets up the relative team strengths in the late game.

    Personally I find HoTS suits me better, it cuts down on the boring tedium while forcing people to work together to synergize better.

    • That’s some good points. I will gladly admit that the article is written by a Heroes fan. But there are so many people and articles trashing on Hots, so thought it nice to make one from a Heroes players point of view.

    • I like your points about macro versus micro. It’s that forced team synergy which makes it feel SO good when you pull off some good decisions. Wiping a team trying to sneak boss for example, then taking their second boss, there are moments when randomly your entire team will just synchronise and damn it feels good to be part of.

      That’s why team league is so much more fun, team league is the environment hots was meant to be played in, imo.

      • Could not agree more. I mean, I do enjoy HL and unranked draft, but TL is one of the best competitive gaming experiences ever. If not the best, for me personally atleast.

      • I think that’s one of the things in HotS I like the most is that people can take bosses who then push hard down lanes taking down forts. In addition to the large variety of maps which have different quests to destoy forts, unlike LoL which is just the same map over and over and over(makes it pretty boring). Not to mention that the players are more mature in HotS, where in LoL about all players are like 8-15 yr olds who complain 24/7.

  2. I remember, when I came back to moba after the original Dota back in the days, I found LoL and HoN. LoL was pretty new and Dota2 and Hots werent even on stage. I chose HoN, because everyone told me LoL was a colorful game for the Unskilled. Well, a couple of years later LoL turns out to be the Skill-Game and HoN is dead. And I stopped playing til now.

    This time I didn’t do the same error and went to Hots immediately. It’s way better than people make you believe.

  3. I play Overwatch in addition to MOBA’s like Dota 2 and LoL. When I heard that Overwatch was having a skin special for people who played 15 games of HotS (The Nexus Challenge), easy to say I was pretty excited.
    This was the first time I would play HotS, I had barely heard of it before then apart from vague whispers in various game lobbies.
    I’m sorry to say I was disappointed.
    My friend and I queued up to play those 15 games and it became a tedious struggle. While the maps kept things fresh, it lacked the strategy that Dota 2 and LoL had offered.
    I gave it a try, and while I do talk shit on the game pretty often (sorry), I formed my own opinion from my own experiences, and I appreciate the efforts of the game designers nonetheless.
    I feel as though you cannot judge the game from rumours spread online, the only way to tell whether you will truly enjoy it or not is by hopping in and trying it out.

    • Each their own 🙂 But claiming that it is lacking on a strategical level compared to DOTA is probably not entirely fair. Seeing as you have played tons more DOTA than HoTs. The first 15 matches are obviously just one big clown fiesta, as it is in DOTA and League.

  4. I r right that is what got me to hots in the first place apart of a friend who asked me to play it so we can party up. And since then the game became one of my favourites

  5. Great read. Just wondering, how is the HotS esports scene. I love game, but I want to find a game that I can connect with in esports when watching.

    • Hello Oliver. While the Heroes of the Storm Esports scene is not on par with League or CS:GO it is still very much alive and thriving and remain among one of the biggest in the world(just below all the giants). Personally, I think the scene could expand even more if Blizzard put a larger focus on it as it is the most thrilling and exciting Esport to watch right now, in my opinion, that is.

  6. I started MOBA with Heroes of the Storm, but I still remember a friend (a LoL player) when he tried hots for the first time, he told me “Now I understand why they call you blizzard’s son” he was amazed XD

  7. Hi, I found your article by googling the differences between these 2. I’ve played LoL for a number of years, and I’m not getting as much joy as I used to. I will try HotS probably tonight and see.
    Let’s see if it’s more for me. Personally I’m not too much in practicing combos or reading about how to counter or how to build different champions. I have a full time job, a wife, friends and play sports, so when I have free time at home, I prefer to just play. I like in-game strategy and team thinking.

    The only thing that brings me down is that forcing you to play as a team, can be a bit of a double edged sword. I’m afraid I’ll end up once again being told by a kid half my age how much my mom likes his dick. Please tell me it’s not like that.


    • Hello Sixten
      I would be lying if I pretented that hots don’t have toxic players because that is a problem All online competitive games have. However, it is a considerably more friendly experience and that kid is further between than in league. Also, as someone with a busy life beside gaming i think you Will really enjoy the fast paced nature and games of hots.
      Do not hesitate to let us know how your first experience was once you try it 🙂

  8. I suggest you try StarCraft II instead 🙂 It has an extremely healthy community, toxic people are rare and if someone is not nice in chat you can always block communications with that player – it is 1v1 game, you don’t have to talk much with your opponent other than saying gl hf in the beggining and gg in the end. Plus it is purely about you, there is no team play as it is 1v1 game. Another important point that the game is extremely fast with average game lasting between 15 and 20 minutes and with active battle starting by 4th or 5th minute. I personally find StarCraft II a lot more plus it recently went free-to-play 🙂

  9. Wait you compare lol teamfights to hots teamfights? LOL
    Hots is like playing a cutscene, league teamfights rely heavily on skill.
    I hate both games but hots isnt even a real game, its for people who are basicly handless.
    Whole concept is “nearly nothing matters”.

    • Hello RB,

      Appreciate your opinionated response. However, I do wonder what you are referring to, as team fights are actually one of the few things that are quite similar in Hots and LoL. Same amount of buttons to press(some hots chars have quite a bit more) but attacking is the same, spells are the same, stutter-stepping are the same. Any elaboration would be great 🙂

      • I dunno what he meant but I wil tell you from the perspective of the person that actually played both games:
        In lol the teamfights are pretty interesting from the beginning up to the end. It’s not like you kill one, two or even 3 ppl and teamfight is done, nope, the tides can turn around if played correctly where in hots once one person die it’s pretty much over. It’s really hard to win teamfight using characters mechanics. In lol there are some champions that, when played correctly can really outshine.
        So in general – the individual skill in teamfight is much more important in lol than in hots.

        • I agree in the sense that there are way more specific champions in League of Legends that has that ”turnaround potential”. However, if you play heroes such as Kel’thuzad or Zeratul, you have the power to turn any team fight around with the right amount of mechanical skill. Even if you end up in a 3 versus 5 or so. I do agree that Hots could do with more or these types of heroes.

  10. I am level ~110 in Hots, and have primarily played LoL. Though I spend most of my time on competitive FPS games like Rainbow Six: Siege, when I do choose to play a MOBA I tend to lean toward LoL.
    None of my real life friends play LoL, and I have few friends that do play LoL. I play Hots with them at times and just finished my argument on Hots vs. League and I figured I would share my opinion as I’ve read through most of these comments and haven’t seen some mentions.

    Firstly I have to admit that I played League way before I played Hots, and a large portion of my opinion will be based on the fact that I don’t want to learn a new moba, even if I have friends that play it.

    I’ll admit that team fighting is always more fun than laning, but I wish you’d touched base with aspects in laning outside of CSing. There are some other aspects of it I find enjoyable such as coordinating with a jungler for a gank, or more so trading with the other player. It’s a lot of back-and-fourth and I admit it can be tedious. I still find the laning phase to be a lot of fun and am upset that Hots doesn’t have a similar thing.

    That being said; I find Hots to be a very static and unchanging game. It’s true practically every game is the same thing with slightly different tweaks and variables (champions, players, etc.). If you compared 1 League game to another they feel very similar, however if you compare a League game to a Hots game they’re quite different. In League there’s a laning phase, then a teamfight phase. In Hots it’s a teamfight phase constantly. I agree that teamfighting is more fun than laning, but if it’s non-stop (in Hots) it gets to be very repetitive for me. I can only play a few games of Hots at a time, even with different objective the core-concept feels too similar each time (not to say it isn’t in League). I like to picture it was a line graph where in League you start at the bottom and steadily go up until the game is over, if you put them back-to-back it looks like a very steady line with minor jumps. In League it’s quite a bit different since you start at the bottom and grow slowly until the end of the game and then a hard drop into the next game. I think that keeps the game more fresh that an unchanging line if I’m honest.

    I find Hots to be very direct and precise with the right move, it feels too similar. 1 thing happens so you do the counter. Someone compared it with microing vs. macroing and I think that’s a very accurate way to describe it. In Hots once objective is up it means teamfight, when you get the objective you push. It’s a back-and-fourth game when I play it. In League it can be dependant as it is far less reliant on the game (objective) telling you what to do. It comes down to the team’s choice. If you wipe your opponents you can get an objective or push a lane, if you push bot out you can push the lane, recall, get dragon, roam mid, etc. There’s a lot more ‘free-will’ in League. In Hots the game tells you what to do.

    Items in League compared to the talents in Hots: The Items in League (again) offer more choice and you aren’t forced to pick from a list of a few talents (in Hots). I’ll agree that League builds often follow a similar path per champion, the same way they do in Hots where you go for a specific build like throwing all your talents into 1 ability. I saw another person compare items to talents in a very specific way and I don’t think I can agree more so I digress.

    I feel Hots is more static than League even if there’s different maps, they’re all extremely similar and it doesn’t feel different to me. Team fighting in Hots feels a lot more simplified in a lot of ways especially focusing on when-to, but also the fact that the lead-up and follow-up feel the same every time. Hots tells you what to do and when, LoL is a lot more free-willed when it comes to decision making since the objective isn’t as game-altering.

    I have played a decent bit more League than Hots, I played League first and 1 thing that bothers me is having to learn all the new heroes and their abilities. I am not exceptional at either game, I don’t primarily play mobas at all, and instead play Siege semi-professionally. I enjoy the competition games have to offer, however I haven’t played either Hots or League enough to feel the need to get ranked, I also don’t have many people that I can play with on either.

    Hots feels too linear and static for me to enjoy it despite the several maps (All feel the same), League has phases including laning phase which I enjoy the skill in trading & last-hitting. Hots tells you when to teamfight and has very simple if-then gameplay (in my experience), League is more ‘free-willed’ and isn’t reliant on the game telling you what to do.

    • Hello Nathan,

      First off, thanks for the detailed comment, always fun to hear well thought out arguments and opinions on the subject.
      I guess this is what’s beautiful about human beings, we are the same yet so different in some regards. Most of your arguments against Hots is why I like it and I personally feel that League is the static one, which I found kind of funny. I found the progression in League quite slow and unrewarding, the games(while they have different phases) feel exactly the same each time, with the only difference being the champion you pick. Secondly, the feeling of going from being a fully fed AD carry to a level 1 without all your abilities just feels so much worse than the gap between each Heroes game. Lastly, about talents, at the higher level of plays where you start realizing how most talents are actually viable in certain situations, they become a lot more fun. If you try watching the HGC(pro play) you will start to see how almost all talents see play, there is a cookie cutter build but more often than not something changes to fit the situation, map or team compositions. Which is something I personally feel League items fail to do as well.
      That being said, it’s hard to argue against opinions and yours are obviously well grounded. The discussion of Heroes of the Storm vs. League of Legends needs more people like you.

      Btw. If you miss the laning phase there is always the option to pick a solo lane hero. On most maps, this will extend the laning phase by quite a lot and give you a more varied experience in terms of laning and team fighting.

  11. I ended up here looking for how many players actually play hots as of august 2018, and this is the best comparison ive ever read. Ive been playing hots for some years now, lvl 717 here, and i gotta say i enjoy it much more than lol but not because lol is a bad game.

    Back in the day i had finished diablo 3 and looking through some stuff online i found out of this game where my favorite characters from diablo were featured. All my friends played lol and countless times had they tried to get me into it, but it just never was for me. However, i asked them if any of them had tried out this heroes of the storm thing since it took my interest. One of them recognized the game and simply said “it looks ok”.

    One day i decided to try it out for my self and its a decision ive never regretted. The game has gave me countless hours of fun since it was so immersive to play with all the famous characters from blizzard (some i knew and some i had heard of). Ive been trying to get my friends to try it out for themselves but it is as you say, everyone takes it for a noob game. Even though ive recently had success because the game has been gaining more popularity ive always stated that whether you play lol or hots it a matter of what you prefer in a match.

    Personally i like having different objectives in every match, and that champions are way more unique,but the selling point for me was the fast pace of the game. Some people consider those things a negative point though. In the end it comes down to whether you want a 20 min match or a 40 min match, you want coop play or single skill play, you want talent trees for unique champion customization or you want items that you can relate to from game to game, any of those things are fair but i personally prefer the choices hots gives me.

    To close it up, ive been playing the game since 2016 i think and i agree on everything you wrote about. Im sending this review to all my friends that are now interested in the game. As a finishing question do you know if the player base is increasing or decreasing these days? its kinda hard to find out

    • Hello Gus,
      Glad you enjoyed the article and are having fun in Heroes of the Storm, it is indeed an underrated gem 🙂
      To your friends who are doubtful, you should perhaps send them a link to our recent interview with Wunder from G2. A professional League player who find Heroes of the Storm to be a lot of fun 🙂

  12. TOO bad it’s a dying game because of the bad changes in every patch but mostly the horrendous mmr and matchmaking system. I mean 10k players looking for a game in NA HL and decreasing means it’s dying. Check hotslogs.


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