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Things The Pros Do: Attacking Walls

by - 8 years ago

There are many differences between how professionals play this game and how average people play it. Some of these differences are obvious but others are quite subtle. Even if you do notice a contradiction between how the pros do something and how you would do it, the reasoning behind it isn’t always clear. This will be the first is a series of recurring articles highlighting these differences and explaining the why behind them.

If you have watched competitive Heroes of the Storm games you may have noticed that it is quite common for teams to attack, and eventually destroy, the walls. Unlike gates and towers, walls do not grant experience so there is no intrinsic value in destroying them. In fact, I have been in more than one game where someone will berate another player for ‘wasting time’ attacking walls. High-level players don’t waste time though, so there are clearly situations where it makes sense to attack the walls or they wouldn’t be doing it. Let’s look at a few reasons why attacking the walls can be the right decision.

To Trigger Talents and Traits

This first example is deceptively simple. It seems so obvious once you know it but it is often overlooked even by veteran players.

There are numerous Talents in the game that provide a benefit to your Hero whenever you attack. As a result, attacking walls can be a great way to proc these effects when there are no other targets in the area. Depending on your Heroes’ Talents, attacking walls can be the great way to lower cooldowns (Battle Momentum), increase your damage (Focused Attacks), or get a little extra healing (Vampiric Assault, War Paint). Several Heroes such as Kerrigan, Valla, Thrall, and Illidan even have Traits that can make attacking walls worthwhile.

There are way too many examples to list, so take a look at your favorite Heroes and try to find ways that you could benefit from a few well-placed wall attacks. Take note, all of the examples covered in this section revolve around auto attacks. If your reason for attacking the wall is to buff your Hero, you only want to attack enough to proc the desired effect and then stop. You are not trying to destroy the wall, you are trying to use it to your advantage. Mindlessly destroying the walls will keep you from being able to do this again later.

As a Means of Escape

One of the reasons that you don’t want to arbitrarily destroy walls is because they can be used as a way to enhance Hero movement. Several Heroes have abilities that can be used to as escape mechanism if used on a wall. Examples include Sonja’s Ancient Spear, Illidan’s Dive, Chen’s Flying Kick, and Kerrigan’s Ravage. Other Heroes, such as Brightwing and Kharazim, have the ability to move to the location of another Hero, so one Hero pulling themselves towards a wall and away from danger can sometimes benefit multiple Heroes. Again, your goal here is to use the wall to your advantage, so don’t do any more damage to it than necessary.

Vision

As helpful as enemy walls can sometimes be, there are situations where it is advantageous to destroy them entirely.

While walls do not do damage or pose any threats on their own, they do block vision which can lead to unwanted surprises. As the game progresses into the mid to late game and team fights increase, it often makes sense to go ahead and take down the walls to increase your team’s vision. It is much easier to decide whether not to engage if you don’t have to worry about enemy Heroes that you can’t see. Since many abilities work based on line of sight, removing the walls will also help your team push or team fight more effectively. You also don’t have to worry about enemy Heroes using walls to break line of sight on Nova’s Triple Tap or other channeled abilities.

Freedom of Movement

Like Vision, this is also more of a mid to late game consideration. Completely destroying the walls gives your team a lot more freedom when it comes to movement and positioning.

Being restricted in the routes that you can take and where you can fight leaves you vulnerable to AOE attacks and Wombo Combos. Have multiple paths available and room to spread out greatly reduces the danger during team fights. Consider the effect of Tassadar’s Force Wall when your team is retreating. If the enemy walls are still up, a well place Force Wall might block your escape entirely and lead to a team wipe. If the enemy walls are down, the Force Wall is only a mild annoyance, and you can easily move around it can make your way to safety.

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While the purpose of attacking the walls may vary, it is obviously a helpful tool that can help improve your game. Remember, walls can be useful so don’t destroy them needlessly. When is the right time to destroy the walls is a judgment call and it can vary depending on which Heroes are on your team and how the game is progressing.

Generally speaking, leave the walls up early when the focus is primarily on laning and most of the fighting is near the first set of walls. As you reach the mid to late game when your team is pushing farther into enemy territory and team fights are more common, taking down the outer walls is a good idea. Walls die easily, so when you do decide to obliterate them don’t bother wasting mana or ability cooldowns. They will go down quick enough to auto attacks.

Good luck, and have fun!


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “Things The Pros Do: Attacking Walls”

  1. KingMarvel says:

    I attack the walls when I have a self-healing talent linked to auto attacks. Or say with Valla and I need to keep my anger stacks high. I’ve definitely saved myself by diving a wall with Illidan during an escape. They are useful. People that kill them randomly annoy me though.