Things The Joes Do: Defend

by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

If there is one thing that I have learned during my years playing Heroes of the Storm it is that people like to defend. I mean, they really like to defend. For many average players, defending is their go to action regardless of the situation. Capture an Objective, go defend. Win a team fight, go defend. Take a Boss, better go defend!

Haunted Mines used to be the perfect example of this. It was a common sight to see a team get an 80 skull Golem and end up with multiple people on their team who would decide to hearth back and defend against the other team’s 20 skull Golem. The fact that this Golem posed no threat, and would likely be half dead by the time they reached it, didn’t prevent players from making this same mistake over and over, game after game. It also doesn’t prevent them from doing the same thing now on Braxis Holdout when facing a tiny zerg rush.

Another common mistake is reacting late to a threat rather than creating a threat of you own. Consider this example: You are on Cursed Hollow and your team has all gone to the bottom of the map to collect a Tribute. The enemy team decides to pass on the Objective and instead starts to push hard in the top lane.

For many players, the only option is to immediately head to the top lane and defend against the push. It is instinctual, they don’t even consider doing anything else. They just react. “OMG, they are going to take our Fort. We have to do something!”. Unfortunately, what they end up doing is nothing at all. They spend all of that time traveling to the top lane and by the time they get there the Fort is already destroyed anyway. Those 15 to 20 seconds could have been better spent helping the rest of their team push bottom, or maybe by capturing a merc camp. The fact that the enemy team takes their top Fort could easily be offset by the fact that they take the enemy’s bottom Fort, plus their team also has an extra Tribute locked up.

Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely times where defending is the correct choice, but those times are much less common than most people think. In a game like Heroes, it is difficult to have hard and fast rules, but when it comes to defending you should primarily be worried about your Keeps and your Core. Aside from those threats, if there is an opportunity to create pressure of your own, that is often the better choice.

Whether or not to defend can often be decided by answering the following questions:

• Is this threat more than our Minions and Structures can handle on their own?
• Is there enough time to rotate to the threat before it is too late?
• Is the enemy threatening to win the game with this push?

If the answer to at least two of these questions is yes then defending might be the right choice. I say might be because there is always the potential for your team to press the attack instead. You don’t need to worry about them taking down your front Fort if you can take down one of theirs as well. You don’t need to worry about them taking out a Keep if you can take out one of theirs in exchange. You don’t even have to worry about their Core push if your team is going to be able to take down their Core first.

You can also use the fact some people want to defend to your advantage. If you push aggressively some of the enemy may decide to break off their own attack to deal with yours. Not only does this lessen the effectiveness of their team’s attack, but there is also a chance for your team to get an easy Hero kill if one of these eager defenders gets out of position.

On those rare occasions where defending is the right option, you also need to consider how many people need to respond. Sending five players to deal with something that could be handled by one or two players is inefficient. Sending two players to something that is going to require the whole team to stop is ineffective. Some players seem unable to tell the difference between these two situations. The key is to consider each threat on a case by case basis, and don’t just react out of habit.

Aggression is what wins games, not stalwart defense. When faced with a choice between the two, lean towards attacking. Defending is often just a slower way of losing. All it takes is one late rotation when defending to fall into the trap of endlessly chasing after your opponent. The next thing you know you are stuck in your base while they capture merc camp after merc camp. Even if you get that miraculous team wipe at your Core you can’t win anyway because you haven’t taken out any of their Keeps.

Players are often looking for a reason to defend, when they should be looking for a reason to attack. Consider both options before making a decision, but lean towards appling pressure whenever possible. Attacking isn’t always the right choice, but if you are going to make a mistake it is usually better to err on the side of being aggressive. Every time a player, or a team, has to make a decision there is a chance for them to make an error. Make them respond to you, not the other way around. It is much better to be the team dictating the pace of play, than the team responding to it.