Comparison with HotS

Azure Hamster·7/9/2018, 3:13:11 PM·16 votes·14,296 views

So I've been playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm recently. Trying to rank up just before the season ends. That game is designed in a lot of ways to reduce intra-team friction. Everyone's the same level, last-hitting almost never matters, etc.

But I still find that my games have more annoying players in them than my LoL games do. People who mute all and just wander around the map doing their own thing, ignoring the teamfights (HotS focuses on teamfights every couple of minutes with the map objectives). People who are annoying in pre-game draft. People who are abusive.

Whatever Riot is doing it's working better than what Blizzard is doing. Riot's game has a less toxic environment than HotS does, despite having many design elements that lend themselves to arguments among teammates.

39 Comments

webstar19957/9/2018, 3:43:32 PM8 votes

I have about 3 days of playtime on Hots and ive noticed how annoyed i get at everyone. When i play with friends of course it is fine, but almost every game there are a couple players that just do not do objectives. Hots is all about objectives. Even more that league. I league if you have 30 kills you are going to do what you want and the other team cannot stop you. in Hots you can have 100 take downs and not stop a push from the enemy team that worked together to get a monster.

PerchancetoGame7/9/2018, 3:57:25 PM5 votes

It's true that a lot of HotS players bring a "League mentality" to the game - not understanding that objectives trump kills (unless said kills are to secure an objective) and thinking they can carry a game. There's no such thing as getting "fed" in HotS, I mean, sure you get some team XP but it's not worth as much overall than getting the Dragon Knight or Tribute.

Jo0o7/9/2018, 7:42:01 PM5 votes

Oddly enough, I'm in the opposite boat.

Following with my friends and roommates, I've been playing more HotS than League these days. I'm still only level 10 in HotS, which I thought would get me a lot more hate, like entering a League game where you're too low level/off meta/low rank and your teammates call you out on it. But so far, the only random person who has even brought it up has said something like "Cover for Muradin, he's new", to which I replied "I appreciate it, but I'm actually a League player" or something to that extent. HotS has barely had any toxicity for me. Meanwhile, I've probably had to report somebody in about half the recent League games I've played.

Sir Prepuzius7/9/2018, 3:38:46 PM4 votes

from what i heard and can recall hots community is much much less toxic than league

and it make sense, since there is no concept of carrying, so edgelording and saltiness is implicity reduced by a big margin

moreover there is no last hitting and no gold, so additional stress reduced

and, as you said teamfight are much more prevalent so you're kinda forced to team play

i played hots myself, tho very little of it

in conclusion i'm sorry but i don't believe you when you say that HotS has a more toxic environment than league.. it just can't be, for how the game is designed

Joseph Gladstone7/9/2018, 5:45:15 PM4 votes

you must be playing at a low elo, bc hots is so much better than league

Azure Hamster7/9/2018, 3:51:07 PM4 votes

Weird how a healer will go solo lane. I'm like "we need you healing us, not laning". "Then someone else needs to lane." "Well, yeah. But tell us, don't just run off." Or how many times do people stop for camps on the way to Tributes on Cursed Hollow. No, Tributes are more important than anything on that map. And they're timed so you have very little opportunity to do anything else until the curse actually hits and gives you a break.

Caitlyn

Jerry SeinfeId7/9/2018, 6:03:42 PM3 votes

Because no one can pickup your slack. When I played hots it was for free ow skins. I didn't care about the pletora of BS maps they had.

Only the crows and skeletons maps are kinda fun (the crows is pretty much SR with broken baron buff).

IDC about what the goal is, there's no point as there's no personal skill expression anyway.

One person can't win, but they sure as hell can lose the game

LoneByrd7/11/2018, 1:52:27 AM2 votes

I was actually just having a similar discussion with some friends recently. We've all played a lot of both games and our conclusion was similar to yours, the community in league was bad but hots is by far worse... but why? Many reasons but I'll stick to the big ones

my background for both games:

I've played roughly 4000 matches of league. I was around platinum-diamond skill level. (I played from launch until season 4, then quit)

I'm level 822 in hots, I've been master rank most seasons since launch and grandmaster one season.

Causal POV - The game is viewed as causal because it's more simplified than other MOBAs, therefore it's taken less seriously and ultimately makes for a trash community. No items/last hitting/nor gold contribute to the causal pov.
Split pushing - Hots is the most teamfight focused moba (to my knowledge), there is very little lane phase to be had unless you're playing as the solo/soaker. Because it's teamfight oriented, just having one team mate that isn't paying attention/doesn't care/wants to be a split pusher god will quickly ruin your gameplay experience whereas in league, the same situations may lose you a few team fights but it may also pay off in the late game with a farmed up solo top.
Matchmaking - League honestly has great matchmaking compared to hots. I in hots.. You can't queue up as selected roles, people for some reason afk and ignore drafts almost always. Quick match tends to give an abomination of a team comp 70% of the time. I have a decent mmr, in the top 10%. I regularly find myself in matches with people who barely know how to play the game with low mmr.

Honestly I love hots but blizzard is doing a crap job with a game that could be so much more.

Avicou7/9/2018, 8:59:50 PM2 votes

Heroes is way more balanced than League is at the moment. Their talent trees that are customized from hero to hero is way better and easier to manage than League's fustercluck of items, masteries, and summoner spells. Heroes does have power creep, but a much higher percentage of their roster is viable compared to League's. Heroes' design team routinely pumps out interesting new characters, whereas League decides to design their game around pro play, gimmicky meta-game, and giant rolling changes every two weeks.

That said, Heroes doesn't realistically have a very high skill expression. A lot of the characters play very similarly, whereas League has many champions with diverse playstyles of varying viability.

The community is about the same level of toxxxic as LoL, but it feels worse since there's no solo carry potential and it's completely objective based.

YerroFever7/10/2018, 5:36:50 AM2 votes

I play league and hots and there's toxicity in every gaming community but Riot has started pruning the leaves earlier than Blizzard so I feel like the League community is slightly better in terms of frequency at which I encounter toxicity, but when I meet toxic people in LOL, they're just as toxic as in HOTS.

For example, tonight, I played a game where this Medivh was complaining we were all noobs and that I wasn't healing him. I was playing Lucio, so if people don't know, Lucio heals in an AOE centered around him. Medivh was constantly opening portals and going far away to fight and coming back nearly dead while I was hovering around the other 3 players on our team.

End game, he had the most deaths on our team, second least siege (I was the least as a healer) and second least damage (I was the least as a healer) and the least EXP contributed. He had 0 kills and 13 assists and 6 deaths. I had 3 kills, 26 assists, and 1 death. He also didn't get any medals. I got 41% of team damage healed and got 3 honors from my teammates.

He had literally nothing to complain about. We won and we carried him but he was still calling every single person on our team a noob and complained I didn't heal him yet I had healed 41% of the team damage AND I healed more than the enemy healer.

A bad player on the team screaming and calling everyone else noobs and blaming everyone for their failures.... sound familiar to toxic players you run into on LOL? DOTA2? and every other online game ever?

Personally, I run into them less frequently on LOL even though I play more games of LOL and although that's just anecdotal evidence, it's proof enough for my own edification that Riot's behavior system is going in the direction they intended. It may not be going there as fast as they want or as fast as the community wants, but it's headed in the right direction.

Jeiku7/10/2018, 2:52:51 PM2 votes

Nothing beats LoL toxicity. Do I make myself clear?

Exentrick7/10/2018, 4:22:30 PM2 votes

I'm gonna add in here to agree with OP. Now I will say, toxic behaviour is more severe and impactful in league. But i find saltiness in and general team work to also be better in league. Like it does both extremes better. My theory before reading this post was cause I'm playing blind pick quick matches at like level 25 in hots while I'm mid gold most my games in league, but now I think blizz doesn't punish toxicity in the same way. You can only report during game too I think which is odd.

I got people upset with me taking my support heroes solo lane, but I find some of them excel alone... Also the others immediately went 2 and 2 to the other lanes, so was I supposed to just leave a lane empty?

I think the meta and objective understanding is less understood in hots than league, even at relative low levels of MMR. Because in league just getting kills is effective at pushing towards victory, as where a handful of kills in hots can be completely useless if nothing is done during the death timer.

AmazoX7/10/2018, 3:51:15 AM1 votes

Let's not compare League of Legends to any other game because during the time of its "Glory" these games didn't exist.

AccidentalGenie7/10/2018, 5:28:01 AM1 votes

They don't manage that game anymore. They basically but not literally gave it over to their least skilled staff to control and keep afloat. Don't compare a company with more than one game to a company that's reached the most downloaded and played in history with a single really bad and addicting game.

Hyquiem7/10/2018, 5:34:10 AM1 votes

Blizzard vs riot [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

Xidphel7/9/2018, 5:34:33 PM1 votes

All I care about HotS is the story and gameplay.

TheZacStreetBoys7/9/2018, 7:35:50 PM1 votes

I'm sure it's better that DOTA2's community, where I uninstalled after 2 games because in both every single person was disgustingly racist or just an asshole.

YuGiHo7/9/2018, 7:35:40 PM1 votes

league is way more toxic than hots, it sounds like you were in really low elo. i play 5-11 games of hots daily by myself without friends and i only experience the toxicity you have stated about once every 3-4 days. for me people are usually nice, even going out of their way to be nice and teach you how to play a certain map or hero during the game. i believe the focus on team play pushes players to try to be better teammates overall.

SanKakU7/9/2018, 8:48:22 PM1 votes

I agree, Blizzard does almost nothing to encourage good behavior.

Arammus7/10/2018, 7:02:16 PM1 votes

i played dota2, hots and LoL and i have to say

dota2 is the least toxic due to prisoner island lol and hots are the same. especially the things you said (people wandering around the map not helping, annoying in champ select etc) are things that happen way too often in both games. honestly i see no difference in toxic levels. hots just tilts me more for the same reason others mentioned before. hots is more focused on teamplay/objectives and ppl not doing them is just more tilting. tho to be fair, hots is way more balanced