Knowing how to play the various objectives in Heroes of the Storm is critical for being a good player. There are so many objectives that learning to be effective on all of them can seem like a daunting task. That is where this guide is going to come in. I am going to be pulling a few maps at a time and giving some strategies that generally seem to be the most effective for maximizing the potential of their objectives. There are six important questions I am going to be asking for each map and set of objectives. These questions are: How important is it to group as five at the objective? Is the objective less important than maintaining early game soak? Can you trade the objectives and how do I effectively navigate that? What level is pushing with the objective priority? How do I effectively pilot the objective? What heroes excel on this particular map? The only question about this map I will not be answering is how to pilot the objective because it does not apply. By answering these questions I should hopefully have improved your understanding of the maps and help you improve your own personal play on each map and objective.

The map of choice for this week’s guide is Cursed Hollow. I titled this article A Game of Trades because this map truly is all about making smart trades, knowing when you have advantages, and how to use those advantages to snowball to a win.This map goes in cycles. The objective grows in priority depending on how close each team is to a curse which allows for creative ways to win. Split pushing is extremely valuable on this map because team fights can be avoided in favor of taking structures. Overall, this is one of the most diverse maps that has varying degrees of importance for various aspects depending on each unique situation in the game. It is a strategically interesting map and allows for several play styles that can be all equally viable depending on how you execute. If you pay attention to the key points of this guide, I promise it will make you a better player on this map and in Heroes of the Storm in general.

Is the objective less important than maintaining early game soak?

This question has different answers based on the situation your team finds themselves in. If it is not a curse tribute and your team has a good split pusher it can be very advantageous for that person to keep pushing to try to generate an experience lead. If your team does not have a strong split pushing hero it is probably more important that you get the tributes than splitting off. If your team does not siege well you will need the curse and the bosses to push so it is better to have numbers advantage at the tributes to help ensure your team secures them. Long story short the simple answer to the question is no unless your team can secure a curse or the enemy team can secure a curse by getting the tribute. In all other scenarios, it is more important to try to gain an experience advantage, take a boss, or make up the experience deficit that your team has accumulated. This leads me to the next question as to the importance of grouping as five on the objective.

How important is it to group as five at the objective?

My answers to the previous question give a pretty good idea on this question as well. Grouping as five on the objective is extremely important when either team is at two of the three tributes required for a curse. The rest of the time the tribute drops in priority below gathering experience and taking bosses. The best time to group as five and force on a tribute is when your team has a talent advantage over the enemy team. I would say that it becomes more important to obtain tributes at this time because it could lead to an opportunity to create an advantageous team fight for your team. Grouping as five, just like with all the other maps, becomes more and more important the later in the game it goes. It becomes very important to stay together to avoid getting picked and killed as well as to look for opportunities to create a pick on the enemy team. The late game generally becomes a matter of who trades well, rotates well, and finds key picks that lead to important objectives. This leads me into how to manage trading between the tributes, bosses, and structure kills.

Can you trade the objectives and how do I effectively navigate that?

This best guideline to follow has been the same thing I’ve repeated in both the paragraphs above. If you only take one thing from this article make sure you get this down. The tributes only become the highest priority when a curse will be the result of securing it for either team. The importance when there is not the threat of a curse is experience and structure kills first (especially if the structure killed is a keep, the new minions make killing keeps have crazy value), followed by bosses, then tributes, and finally other mercenaries. The priority on tributes shifts to the very top when you have a chance to secure a curse or prevent the enemy from cursing you. The best way to trade is to follow that shifting scale of importance and make sure you are getting the highest value you can out of trading.

The best way to get back in a game outside of a miraculous team fight in which you ace the entire enemy team is by creating situations in which you get a higher value target than they do. If your team is behind and the enemies are taking a non-curse tribute and you feel that you can get a fort or a keep, make that trade! If you are forced into a trade scenario remember the scale and take the best thing you can in that situation. Also remember when you have a choice between one objective or another, try to choose the one that is higher up on on the scale in priority. If you have a chance to take a keep or a boss, take the keep, if you have a choice between a curse and a boss, take the curse. The curse will give you the necessary time to either take a keep, or take a boss at the very least. A curse is always the number one priority. Never trade anything for one unless your team is so far behind you cannot fight for it. Then try to get the highest value objective you can instead of suiciding to stop the curse.

What level is pushing with the objective priority?

Pushing with a curse is always the top priority. The curse is just as strong at the beginning of the game as it is in the end. The only thing that causes this to change is the increasing power level of your team. If you group as five and push down one lane with a curse you are forcing the enemy team into a lose-lose situation. They either choose to group middle and stop your push as a team while the other two lanes naturally push in, or they choose to send group members to stop all lanes of push letting you have a numbers advantage while pushing. Almost always push with the curse if no one on your side is dead.The only time you should not is if all of the keeps have been destroyed, a boss is up, and you feel that pushing for the nexus is too risky. Then it is okay to go for a boss, but I would still recommend trying to go for the win and then peeling back to the boss if your team fails to end.

What heroes and compositions excel on this particular map?

There are a wide range of heroes that excel on this map. So instead of just giving heroes that excel on this map I will give an ideal team composition and then give examples of heroes that can fill each role of that composition. The ideal composition is one split pusher, preferably one that can push with relative safety (Zagara, Sylvanas, and Azmodan) , one long range poke damage hero to help with interruption and stalling on tributes (Chromie, Li-Ming, and Azmodan)and either another dps that can take mercenaries quickly and efficiently (with high remaining health and mana) or a DPS with a global that can allow them to get around the map quickly. Good choices for this are Illidan, Falstad, and Sonya. Generally the best types of tanks are ones that either have some way to get them resurrect more quickly after they die (Leoric and Diablo), tanks with really great self sustain to help with the poke wars (Johanna, Muradin and Chen), or tanks that have global presence that can apply split push pressure and still make it to objectives in an instant (ETC and Dehaka). The best supports are those with high sustain healing (Brightwing, Lili, Malfurion, Morales). Burst healing is nice but usually is not as strong as the ability to keep topping heroes off after poke. So what would the perfect team composition be? In my opinion it would consist of Zagara with Nydus Network, Li-Ming for poke and burst on picks, Illidan for mercenary taking since there are so many mercs on this map, Chen for sustain and pick potential with Wandering Keg (really all three of the tank choices are equally good), and for the support role I highly recommend Brightwing because of her global presence and her ability to sustain heal without using mana. Obviously, not all of these heroes will be available all of the time and you still need to make sure to try to pick to synergize with your team, but if you are looking to play hero league with a group of friends, I would definitely give this composition a spin.

Conclusion

Cursed Hollow is an oldy but goody. This map has great strategic diversity and there is not just one perfect way to win the game. You can win through split push pressure, dominating team fights to get curses, or by just effectively rotating and out valuing your opponent. For those reasons I think this is a great map and I think it will stand the test of time. The big takeaways or the TLDR for those of you who do not have ten minutes to read an article are tributes are the priority when it will lead to a curse for one of the two teams, if it will not, experience becomes priority. Grouping as five becomes more important as the game goes on. Trading objectives is extremely prevalent on this map and knowing which trades are good trades is critical. Grouping and pushing with a curse is the highest priority on this map. It forces the enemy team to make hard decisions that will generally lead to a win-win scenario for your team if you play it properly, and finally the hero pool for this map is wide but it is generally best to have a split pusher, a poke hero, a dedicated mercer, a tank with good sustain, and a healer that is sustain based that does not run out of mana quickly. Hopefully, you will keep these things in mind in your future games of this map and you have some great games on Cursed Hollow because of it. Thanks for reading and do not forget to leave me comments!

-Caleb “PanDuhChuu” Jones

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