How To Get Better: Just Stop Dying!

Hi lads, our HotS boosting team is on duty again! Today we will cover a pretty important topic: dying. It’s common knowledge that in every game dying is a bad thing, but many players can’t really understand why. During our duo queue boost sessions, our clients often try to make risky playing thinking that a kill trade is worth, but most of the times this is not true.

First of all, when you are dead you can’t soak experience, setting your team behind. On top of that, the enemies have more resource and an opportunity to make plays with the number advantage. If you have an important role in your time, ie you are the main damage dealer or the initiator, your team will have a great disadvantage and will either lose a fight or give up something to avoid a team fight. Now that you know why you shouldn’t die, let’s see the most commons scenarios.

Greed

You probably make or see greedy plays everyday - a 1vs3, an unneeded dive, a chase across the whole map. Dives are risky, and you should avoid them unless your team is there to support you swapping the aggro. Same goes for 1vs2 or 1vs1 situations: we see them in competitive matches all the time, but keep in mind that pro players know exactly how much damage their hero can deal and receive.

Many heroes have particular skills that allow them to be strong duelist or even survive a 1vs2 situations, and they are at the top of our HotS tier list, but knowing how much damage you can deal is difficult.

So before trying an outplay or a “duel”, consider the map, your cooldowns, your health and mana bars, the enemies’ cooldowns, health and mana, and in the end consider if it’s worth it. You shouldn’t trust your instinct or go full “yolo”, but make a calculated decision.

Most of the times, according to our Heroes of the Storm boosting team playing defensively is the best option. About the chases, it’s even easier. If the enemy is already running away from you, probably he is gonna back anyway, so just go back to soaking and be happy about the resource denial. It’s way more efficient than wasting 10 seconds without soaking any experience just to find two more enemies in the bush

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Dying On An Objective

This is the worst suicide, in my opinion. I’ve seen myself many times players getting killed just to delay the enemies for a few seconds, just to see them capping the objective three seconds later. It’s never, never worth it, unless, your team is collapsing on them and they have a number advantage, and since you are dead, this won’t really happen. There are two better options: poking and trading objectives.

Many of the best heroes, according to our Heroes of the Storm tier list, have poke abilities: Nazeebo, Jaina, Kael’thas and many others come to mind. They can harass the enemies from a safe distance, delaying them from capping the objective without sacrificing their precious lives.

Trading objectives is also a good idea: outplay your enemies with your rotations and don’t let them get any break! Cap a merc, push a lane, or simply keep soaking: don’t stand there watching your enemies mindlessly, but use your time wisely. As you know, time itself is a precious resource .

Getting Caught Out Of Position

Oh boy, this is the most recurring situation in solo queue. No matter what, this will happen many time in every game, on both sides: Our HotS boosting team's rule of thumb is to always be with your team after the heroics are unlocked at level 10.

The later the game goes, the harder splitpushing becomes. Only do that if your team is covering you or is applying map pressure elsewhere, and you have enough map vision or mobility. Many heroes that dominate our HotS tier list have mobility abilities that allow them to get out of crazy situations, but you need to be sure to recognize them! If you are splitpushing, always control the map and ask your team to ping if an enemy is MIA (missing in action).

On the other hand, if someone on your team refuses to group and keeps dying for that, we will give you a tip. Follow them like you are a stalker, and ask your team to do the same. They can’t be out of position if the whole team is with them, right? If you get two or more people who can’t be helped, pray the elo gods or go assist them, there is not much you can do. ...but sometimes it’s worth it!

Sometimes dying is not a bad thing, but there are specific conditions. Let’s take a look at them!

When Is Dying Acceptable?

Even in a winning team fight, deaths are unavoidable. If you are the main tank, it’s almost your job to CC the enemy while your team tries to kill them. If you are the support, it’s your suicidal, selfless duty to draw attention away from your carries. As long as your team gets an advantage during the fight, dying is not that bad.

Delaying the recalls if your team is about to destroy the core. Simple as that. If your team is “backdooring”, trying to finish the enemy core while the opponents are somewhere else on the map recalling, JUST DO IT! Suicide yourself to stop the teleports, and watch your team finishing the job for you. Who cares if you died, as long as you win, don’t care at all about your score.

Trading when you are behind in experience is also an option. Sometimes to make a comeback you will need to take small risks, for example you may need to splitpush buying enough time for your team to take an objective elsewhere, allowing them to soak experience freely. It’s a hard call, I know, since the enemies may get something out of your death, but you can’t win just playing passively. Take calculated risks and always think about what are you achieving with your death.

Our guide ends here. If you liked it, check our site in the next few days for more articles and content in general, and remember to check our Heroes of the Storm tier list too!