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? 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 first map I am going to analyze is Dragon Shire.

Dragon Shire

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

Dragon shire is a map that is different than most maps in the game. It is an objective that forces players to divide and conquer. Grouping as five on this map is generally not an option unless it is time to push with the Dragon Knight or in the very late game when death balling to each shrine becomes a viable strategy. Generally it is best to leave one hero that can solo in the top lane while the rest of the group rotates between middle and bottom clearing the waves and soaking the experience.

Is the objective less important than maintaining early game soak?

The answer to this question is pretty simple, yes. Early in the game the focus should be to deny the opponent from getting the dragon knight while finding picks and opportunities to create an experience advantage and turning those advantages into opportunities to secure both shrines. Not dying is the priority, especially if you are the person that has been designated to solo lane. Dying gives the enemy team an experience advantage and creates a much higher chance of brute forcing the shrines to take the dragon knight. Obviously this changes the later the game goes. The dragon knight is your best way to win on this map and experience becomes less important after you have hit every talent tier. Level twenty and post level twenty the dragon knight is a monster and securing it should be the number one priority.

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

It is very simple to continuously trade the shrines to ensure that you maintain soak. The best way to manage trading is to abuse the advantage you have in your solo lane or your four roamers. If your solo laner has better wave clear then ensuring that you hold the top lane shrine should be priority and your group of four should focus on clearing the waves as quickly as possible and rotating. The bottom shrine should only become a priority when the enemy team sends back up to the top lane and your top laner cannot hold the shrine.

When is pushing with the objective priority?

Pushing with the knight in the early game should not be the main priority. As with most objectives in Heroes of the Storm the dragon knight gains power as the game goes on. In my own personal experience it is best to switch from soaking experience while the dragon knight distracts to grouping and pushing with it around level ten. When your team has all your heroics and the dragon knight has reached a point when it can do some real damage. There are times to deviate from this strategy. If your team is behind in experience it is probably best to continue to focus on soaking experience. If your team is ahead by several levels it is probably okay to have one person split pushing a lane while the rest of the team focuses on pushing with the dragon knight. Generally it is best to have everyone with the dragon knight in the late game incase the enemy team tries to force an engage. Most of the time you can still win this 4v5 because the dragon knight does massive damage and can kick one person away, but there is the off chance that a great crowd control chain lands and your team gets wiped.

How do I effectively pilot the objective?

Using the dragon knight to kill the outer gates while the rest of the team soaks is the ideal scenario. The person piloting the dragon knight should have the goal of keeping it alive as long as possible. The best way to do this is pushing to the gate and getting as much damage as possible before the enemy team groups on you and then rotating to avoid the destruction of the knight. Always try to maximize the value of the fire breath by hitting minion waves. Use the kick to push the highest single target dps hero away or if your team is trying to engage use it to kick the healer away. This strategy of piloting forces the enemy team to follow you around while you get free soak in other lanes and free experience from the towers you kill. As the game goes longer you are rewarded more and more for brute forcing on structures with the knight. The dragon knight becomes extremely tanky the later the game goes and gets to the point where its basic attacks do over one thousand damage to structures.

What heroes excel on this map?

The best heroes to choose based on the objectives on this map are heroes with high sustain and good lane clear for the solo lane (Thrall, Gul’Dan, Sonya, Johanna, or even Xul). Having a hero with good escape potential is the best person to have in the dragon knight, but many times your team will not have control over who gets the knight, so having multiple heroes with escapes is always a plus (Tracer, Rehgar, Anub’Arak, and Sylvanas for example). Heroes with globals or semi globals excel on this map due to their ability to turn even fights on shrines into numbers advantages for your team (Falstad, Brightwing, Illidan, Dehaka, and others).

Conclusion

Dragon Shire is a classic map that has been around since the beginning of the game, yet I still make mistakes on it and see others make mistakes as well. The six questions I asked about the map objectives are ones you can ask yourself every time you get ready to play. I hope the information I have given will help you as a player and I hope that you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts or questions on anything I have provided or if there is more information you would like to see in future articles of this type. Thank you for reading and thank you for any feedback you can give.

-Caleb “PanDuhChuu” Jones

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