The roles in Heroes of the Storm are different from traditional roles in MOBAs, such as League of Legends or Dota 2, mainly due to the variety of maps, and the flexibility of the laning phase. There are also some differences between the Western regions, although not huge. In this article I will try to explain the roles, and how they work in the different team compositions.



Europe



European teams tend to define their roles by the type of character they play for their team.



Damage dealer/assasin: These players are looking to be the primary damage dealers for your team. They will play Ranged/Melee Assassins or high damage Specialists. The most picked heroes include Azmodan, Falstad, Jaina, Kael’thas, Hammer, Sylvanas, Valla, and Zagara.



Support: Your support player will be the person charged with keeping the team alive, and providing utility for your team through heals, speed boosts, vision, and of course providing and countering CC. Currently the most picked suports are Brightwing, Malfurion, Rehgar, and Uther.



Tank: Your tank player will be looking to bring the primary CC and damage soak for your team. They will also often be the ones engaging or disengaging fights. The most commonly picked tanks include Anub’Arak, Arthas, ETC, Johanna, Muradin, and Tyrael.



Flex: As you can see, the Flex role ends up playing pretty much every single hero in the game. To understand why this is, you need to understand the compositions that are currently in the meta. They are listed below in order of popularity.



Team Compositions



2 Damage, Support, 2 Tank: The most common composition in competitive play is a standard double tank, where your primary focus is strong brawling. Your Flex player would be filling in with a Tank in this composition.



2 Damage, Support, Tank, Hybrid: The second most common composition is a bit harder to understand. There are two ways to play this composition, with an off-support, such as Tassadar or Tyrande, or with a Melee Assassin, such as Illidan, Kerrigan or Zeratul. Your flex player will play the Hybrid here.



Damage, Support, 2 Tank, Hybrid: A composition that again can be run in two ways. You can run a ‘Zergy’ style with a Melee Assassin, or a more reserved style with Tassadar or Tyrande. In this composition, your flex player fills in with a tank, and one of your damage players will fill in with a Hybrid.



2 Damage, 2 Support, Tank: A common tactic that aims to engage the enemy team and draw the fight out over a long period of time, which leads to you out-sustaining the enemy team. Your flex player will be playing the second support here.



Your Flex player will be looking to fill whatever role you need to complete your team composition, whether that be an extra support to keep your team sustained, an extra tank for the CC/engage, or even another damage dealer. This is an integral part of any competitively viable team composition, and although it is most definitely possible to build compositions by juggling other players on the team around, the general consensus in Europe is that having a Flex player is the most efficient.



In Europe, the focus of roles is on narrowing down the required champion pools of the players, allowing them to become incredibly good on the few Heroes that they are required to play. This style leads to increased proficiency in teamfighting, but can leave weaknesses in the lane if a weak laning composition is picked, or if an unfamiliar lane setup is used. This is the major difference between Europe and North America.



North America



North American teams tend to pick for lanes, instead of the Hero archetypes used by Europe.



Tri-laners: These players will pick 3 heroes which work well together in a tri-lane, either in a pushing or skirmishing style. Your tri-lane will be looking to go against the enemy solo laner if he is stronger than your own, the enemy with the weakest wave clear if your tri-lane has better push, and the enemy tri-lane if your tri-lane has weaker push. You will tend to see a combination of damage, support and off-support heroes in this category.



Roamers: Two players from your original tri-laners will be designated roamers, with the third becoming a second Solo or off-laner. You will typically see a Tank, a selection of Flex heroes (Tyrande, Kerrigan, Nova, Zeratul) or Jaina/Kael’thas in these roles. The goal of the roamers is to stop the enemy lanes dominating, by providing pressure to the map, and giving ganks when needed.



Solo laner: You solo-laner’s primary goal will be to win his lane, whether it's by getting kills or pushing towers. Solo laners will be looking to face the enemy Solo or Off-laner, and to avoid the enemy tri-lane. As such, your solo laner will always be playing lane dominant Heroes, such as Chen, Illidan, Sonya, Sylvanas, Tychus, Tyrael, Lost Vikings, Valla or Zagara.



Off-laner: The off-laner’s primary goal is to soak experience, while the other lanes do their thing. It is possible that your off-laner will become a solo laner, although it usually doesn't happen in the current meta compositions. Your off-laner will play the last hero left, which is usually the Tank, second Damage dealer, or second Support.



I hope this has given you some insight into the different roles in competitive Heroes of the Storm, and you have enjoyed reading through it. For more content like this, be sure to regularly check the SK Gaming website, and follow me on Twitter at @SK_Bakery. Thanks for reading!