.

Sure, some might find it less exciting than how to pull off a 5-man mosh or figuring out the most efficient micro play to win an Abathur slap fight. It's worth noting, however, that when forsaking strategy, operating on the fly and banking solely on the sheer prowess (or unbeknownst lack thereof) of your improvisational skills you start to look a little like this guy:

Basic Strategic Themes

It's fairly common for maps to have very broad styles of victory condition and in this instance, there are 3 categories that offer variations on the road to victory itself. I will go into greater detail on these three methods but I'd first like to outline them here:

1. The Synergistic Packet Strategy

2. The Turtle Poke Strategy

3. The Split Siege Strategy



All three of these themes have many, many methods of execution but they all require attention to drafting, at least a minimal knowledge of timing, and self-restraint in yelling at the furthest person to you when you die. I'm looking at you, Valeera! Where was the heal!?



What Victory Looks Like on Towers of Doom

With so many different variations in draft and in playstyle, how can we break victory on this map down to 3 broad themes? Well, put simply, it's because of how a map is set up. The core is invulnerable and this results in only four options for dealing damage to it: capturing an altar, having mercenary camps pass a certain threshold, killing the boss, and securing every tower. This means that despite having a very large number of options in terms of draft configurations and playstyles, there are a fairly limited number of ways you can actually attain victory.



A winning strategy seeks to use all of these resources to their advantage, but concentrating your efforts on a few of these actually ends up leading to greater success. Spoiler alert, it doesn't always have to be about capturing every altar as every Azmodan main annoyingly reminds us. So let's dive into these three strategies and find out how we can start implementing them in our own games.



The Synergistic Packet Strategy

Enabled By: Highly synergistic heroes, heavy counters to enemy drafts, strong skirmishers.

Goal: Secure more altars than the enemy through superior matchups.



The basic premise of this strategy operates on the idea that more often than not, there is more than one altar spawning at any given moment. While "stick TOGEther!!1" is often shouted at you by the Tychus who just face-checked a bush full of wild mages, it can work to your disadvantage when you have more than one altar active. In this instance, the poorly coordinated team who splits up will secure 2 shrines on a three shrine phase, you secure only 1 and you will trade even on shrine phases of two and you will hedge your bets with a high risk when only one shrine appears. Mathematically, disorganization wins, which makes little sense, right?



Therein lies the strategy of using synergistic "packets"; heroes in groups of two or three that naturally compliment each other so well that it allows them to win virtually any 2v2 or 3v3 fight, while being able to hold their own while slightly outnumbered. This allows heroes to split off into smaller groups and win more altar control over the opponent. Achieving this end comes from the very foundation of the draft; knowing which heroes synergize extremely well together, knowing how to execute ability chains, and understanding how the enemy heroes are likely to pair together to counter that synergy.



An example would be a team of Tassadar and Valla as one package, and Jaina, E.T.C and Malfurion as a second package. Both groups are extremely synergistic and will through proper execution likely beat their counterparts in 2v2 or 3v3 skirmishes in addition to working well as a 5v5 team. mathematically, this swings the altar phases in their favour, leading them to victory.



The Turtle Poke Strategy



Enabled By: Global heroes, strong poke/ranged heroes, talent reliant heroes.

Goal: To prevent enemies from capturing altars while gaining an experience lead elsewhere on the map.



The idea behind this strategy is simply to have heroes with great poke who can, while staying safe, prevent enemies from capturing contested towers. While they can't capture the towers either, they have a team member (preferably a global) soaking experience elsewhere until they hit a talent tier advantage over their enemies. They immediately capitalize on this talent tier advantage by engaging the enemy and forcing a fight on uneven terms. The advantage they have secured allows them to play offensively and take contested altar in addition something else on the map, whether that be the enemy mercenary camp, the boss or even a tower.



Obviously, this strategy relies on stellar communication and a good knowledge of power spikes in order to maximize. Some of the heroes that really facilitate this style of play are Chromie, Abathur, Li Ming, Jaina, Dehaka (to name a few).



The Split Siege Strategy Highly synergistic heroes, heavy counters to enemy drafts, strong skirmishers.Secure more altars than the enemy through superior matchups.The basic premise of this strategy operates on the idea that more often than not, there is more than one altar spawning at any given moment. While "stick TOGEther!!1" is often shouted at you by the Tychus who just face-checked a bush full of wild mages, it can work to your disadvantage when you have more than one altar active. In this instance, the poorly coordinated team who splits up will secure 2 shrines on a three shrine phase, you secure only 1 and you will trade even on shrine phases of two and you will hedge your bets with a high risk when only one shrine appears. Mathematically, disorganization wins, which makes little sense, right?Therein lies the strategy of using synergistic "packets"; heroes in groups of two or three that naturally compliment each other so well that it allows them to win virtually any 2v2 or 3v3 fight, while being able to hold their own while slightly outnumbered. This allows heroes to split off into smaller groups and win more altar control over the opponent. Achieving this end comes from the very foundation of the draft; knowing which heroes synergize extremely well together, knowing how to execute ability chains, and understanding how the enemy heroes are likely to pair together to counter that synergy.An example would be a team of Tassadar and Valla as one package, and Jaina, E.T.C and Malfurion as a second package. Both groups are extremely synergistic and will through proper execution likely beat their counterparts in 2v2 or 3v3 skirmishes in addition to working well as a 5v5 team. mathematically, this swings the altar phases in their favour, leading them to victory.Global heroes, strong poke/ranged heroes, talent reliant heroes.To prevent enemies from capturing altars while gaining an experience lead elsewhere on the map.The idea behind this strategy is simply to have heroes with great poke who can, while staying safe, prevent enemies from capturing contested towers. While they can't capture the towers either, they have a team member (preferably a global) soaking experience elsewhere until they hit a talent tier advantage over their enemies. They immediately capitalize on this talent tier advantage by engaging the enemy and forcing a fight on uneven terms. The advantage they have secured allows them to play offensively and take contested altar in addition something else on the map, whether that be the enemy mercenary camp, the boss or even a tower.Obviously, this strategy relies on stellar communication and a good knowledge of power spikes in order to maximize. Some of the heroes that really facilitate this style of play are Chromie, Abathur, Li Ming, Jaina, Dehaka (to name a few).

Enabled By: Strong sieging heroes, lane bullies, junglers.

Goal: To gain structural advantage through superior siege capability and threatening damage through taking mercenary camps and towers at key times.



Much of this relies on a thorough understanding of game timings (how long mercs spawn, how long until next altar phases, etc) as it seeks to threaten in targeted ways to force the enemy in a defensive style of play, giving heavy map control to the friendly team. Opening up enemy gates and damaging towers to low health can allow a team to quickly and easily create a huge amount of pressure around large altar phases.



One example of what this might look like would be to knock the top and bottom towers to very low health. When a three altar phase is rapidly approaching, a team might capture bottom mercenaries and then head to the altars allowing a global Zagara to knock down bottom tower and top tower with just a few banelings. In doing so, not only do they have mercenaries threatening the core, but even if they do secure any altar, it will be worth next to nothing compared to the shots the enemy has just secured. Moreover, they are going to begin playing heavily on the defensive to take back towers so that the enemy doesn't secure the last remaining one for an easy victory.

If you know me, you know I love to talk about win conditionsSo how do we put ourselves to, you know, actually succeed in our endeavours of winning games? Adopting a framework on which our win conditions can rest through pre-emptive strategy. Today, I'd like to talk about a map that people often have a love-hate relationship with: Towers of Doom.