In Heroes of the Storm experience or XP is the most important aspect in winning a game. If your team has the XP advantage then you will always have a higher rate of winning fights and securing objectives. In a similar way to how Gold works in other Mobas like League of Legends, XP determines which team has the greater advantage. The value of a talent lead is incredible and so many people underestimate it. Controlling XP means that you are controlling the game and have a a constant advantage over your opponents.
Gaining an advantage in XP depends strictly on how well your team can soak lanes whilst remaining alive and pushing. When looking at a game you should understand that at the start each team has exactly equal options for gaining XP. Minions waves contain the same XP, Towers, Forts and camps all have an XP value that is waiting to be taken. Every piece of XP that is soaked by your team that is not equally soaked by your enemies team, you gain an advantage. So lets say that no one leaves lanes and no ones takes objectives,camps or pushes towers and no kills are made. Both teams woulds continue to be at the same XP as each other all game.
So to gain an advantage you have to force your opponents away from gaining XP whilst your team continues to gain it. The easiest option would be to simply out slay your opponents, this way you would gain XP for killing them and also gain XP in lane whilst they are at base. But things are never that simple. Instead you must be clever in the way that you soak lane XP, trade attacks with your laner, rotate for ganks/pushes and your control of objectives and teamfights.
The safest way to gaining an early advantage is to make sure that you focus on how you are playing and concentrate on not making mistakes. If you think you can get a kill, go for it, but never if it may risk your own life. It is better to stay alive and be soaking XP safely than to make a risky play to try to gain an advantage. If you die, the enemy now has an XP lead over you. So my best advice is to make sure you are playing and soaking fine, and wait. Wait for your opponent to go out of position. Wait for your opponent to make that risky play. And when they do, you punish them. Let the XP advantages come to you. If you play well and don't die, then they enemy won't gain an XP advantage.
However it is very important to understand the value of a players life is in a game. As we mentioned before, there is an equal amount of XP in each map for both teams. But each player also holds XP for their life. Consider kills as bonus XP to be gained. And it should only be considered as bonus XP. The real big chunks of XP are in the forms of Towers, minions, mercs and the other objectives on the map. Control the main sources of XP revenue and let the kills become bonus when you catch your opponents out.
So to gain an advantage you have to force your opponents away from gaining XP whilst your team continues to gain it. The easiest option would be to simply out slay your opponents, this way you would gain XP for killing them and also gain XP in lane whilst they are at base. But things are never that simple. Instead you must be clever in the way that you soak lane XP, trade attacks with your laner, rotate for ganks/pushes and your control of objectives and teamfights.
The safest way to gaining an early advantage is to make sure that you focus on how you are playing and concentrate on not making mistakes. If you think you can get a kill, go for it, but never if it may risk your own life. It is better to stay alive and be soaking XP safely than to make a risky play to try to gain an advantage. If you die, the enemy now has an XP lead over you. So my best advice is to make sure you are playing and soaking fine, and wait. Wait for your opponent to go out of position. Wait for your opponent to make that risky play. And when they do, you punish them. Let the XP advantages come to you. If you play well and don't die, then they enemy won't gain an XP advantage.
However it is very important to understand the value of a players life is in a game. As we mentioned before, there is an equal amount of XP in each map for both teams. But each player also holds XP for their life. Consider kills as bonus XP to be gained. And it should only be considered as bonus XP. The real big chunks of XP are in the forms of Towers, minions, mercs and the other objectives on the map. Control the main sources of XP revenue and let the kills become bonus when you catch your opponents out.
Now that we understand the concept about the way XP is given out on the map, we can look at how to gain it in the fastest possible way.
Soaking is obviously the starting point. You should be trying to soak every last drop possible from the minion waves, especially in the early stages of the game. However you only need 1 player to soak each lane. That often means you are left with 2-3 other players 'left over'. As long as you can make sure the lanes will not be pushed by your enemies, these other players should be taking Merc camps and aiding in the pushing of towers.
Objectives are always important in Hots, but many of the top teams decide to only partly control early objectives on some maps (eg cursed hollow tributes) in favor of having players remain in lane for XP advantage. You should make sure you don't forget about the objectives though, as if you leave them to your opponents control, you will suffer terribly as they will gain XP advantages instead from the objectives. So finding a balance is the best option. Try to make sure you prioritize objectives, but still have some way to soak at least one of the lanes (unless you are committing to a team fight where everyone will be needed).
The outer ring of enemy towers should always be a priority for your team. The outer ring of towers offers significant XP that can be used to gain a Talent advantage, especially on the race for level 10. But a major advantage is also that you take the enemies pressure off the middle of the map / jungle. This will allow your team to invade enemy merc camps, and have a better control of positioning and rotations around objectives and team fights.
Your team should look at the map as little pockets of XP waiting to be taken. Your job is to take as much as possible and get to level 20 as soon as possible, whilst giving up as little XP as possible to your opponents. If you control the map and have talent advantages you will almost always win the game. The only way you will lose if you have the XP / Talent advantage is if you and / or your team fucks up.
Soaking is obviously the starting point. You should be trying to soak every last drop possible from the minion waves, especially in the early stages of the game. However you only need 1 player to soak each lane. That often means you are left with 2-3 other players 'left over'. As long as you can make sure the lanes will not be pushed by your enemies, these other players should be taking Merc camps and aiding in the pushing of towers.
Objectives are always important in Hots, but many of the top teams decide to only partly control early objectives on some maps (eg cursed hollow tributes) in favor of having players remain in lane for XP advantage. You should make sure you don't forget about the objectives though, as if you leave them to your opponents control, you will suffer terribly as they will gain XP advantages instead from the objectives. So finding a balance is the best option. Try to make sure you prioritize objectives, but still have some way to soak at least one of the lanes (unless you are committing to a team fight where everyone will be needed).
The outer ring of enemy towers should always be a priority for your team. The outer ring of towers offers significant XP that can be used to gain a Talent advantage, especially on the race for level 10. But a major advantage is also that you take the enemies pressure off the middle of the map / jungle. This will allow your team to invade enemy merc camps, and have a better control of positioning and rotations around objectives and team fights.
Your team should look at the map as little pockets of XP waiting to be taken. Your job is to take as much as possible and get to level 20 as soon as possible, whilst giving up as little XP as possible to your opponents. If you control the map and have talent advantages you will almost always win the game. The only way you will lose if you have the XP / Talent advantage is if you and / or your team fucks up.
When observing the Map the next thing we need to understand is how there is 2 types of XP. These can be classed as Static XP and Non Static XP. Here is a list below:
Static XP:
Structures.
Non Static Xp:
Minions.
Mercs.
Kills.
Objectives.
To explain more clearly: Every structure on the map has 1 life and 1 'lot' of XP. Once it dies, it does not comeback and you can not gain any further XP from it that game. However Non Static forms of XP will regenerate and allow you or your enemies to take that XP as many times as they want.
So what does this mean? Well both static and non static XP have strong value and influence on the game. It would seem that total control of all non static XP would give you the bigger lead, but destroying the structures is also how you win the game. An ideal situation would therefore be to control as much of the non static XP revenues as possible whilst still ultimately focusing on destroying the enemies base.
A good way to view the map is to think that the enemies building is not going anywhere. It will be in the same place, and its XP value can be taken at any point. However many of the Non static XP sources such as the Merc camps and objectives can be contested by the enemy team. It is often then best to control the Non static XP sources in priority over static XP sources when trying to gain an advantage or subdue the enemy teams advantage. Let me use an example:
My team is level 9 and we have just wiped the enemy team. We can either push a lane, or we can take the enemy boss / hard camp. In this situation you should look to take the enemy boss / hard camp. This way you take opportunities for your enemy to get XP gain away from them. This also now would give you the chance to push the lane after taking the enemy camp/boss as the enemy now has to either respond to it, or let it split push, whilst you now engage an advantaged fight in the lane you wanted to push (since you either have XP advantage or player numbers advantage 4v5 if they sent someone to respond to the camp).
Forcing situations like the one explained above is how you control the tempo of the game. Controlling Tempo is closely linked with XP advantage. You can find a guide on controlling tempo on this site.
When observing the Map the next thing we need to understand is how there is 2 types of XP. These can be classed as Static XP and Non Static XP. Here is a list below:
Static XP:
Structures.
Non Static Xp:
Minions.
Mercs.
Kills.
Objectives.
To explain more clearly: Every structure on the map has 1 life and 1 'lot' of XP. Once it dies, it does not comeback and you can not gain any further XP from it that game. However Non Static forms of XP will regenerate and allow you or your enemies to take that XP as many times as they want.
So what does this mean? Well both static and non static XP have strong value and influence on the game. It would seem that total control of all non static XP would give you the bigger lead, but destroying the structures is also how you win the game. An ideal situation would therefore be to control as much of the non static XP revenues as possible whilst still ultimately focusing on destroying the enemies base.
A good way to view the map is to think that the enemies building is not going anywhere. It will be in the same place, and its XP value can be taken at any point. However many of the Non static XP sources such as the Merc camps and objectives can be contested by the enemy team. It is often then best to control the Non static XP sources in priority over static XP sources when trying to gain an advantage or subdue the enemy teams advantage. Let me use an example:
My team is level 9 and we have just wiped the enemy team. We can either push a lane, or we can take the enemy boss / hard camp. In this situation you should look to take the enemy boss / hard camp. This way you take opportunities for your enemy to get XP gain away from them. This also now would give you the chance to push the lane after taking the enemy camp/boss as the enemy now has to either respond to it, or let it split push, whilst you now engage an advantaged fight in the lane you wanted to push (since you either have XP advantage or player numbers advantage 4v5 if they sent someone to respond to the camp).
Forcing situations like the one explained above is how you control the tempo of the game. Controlling Tempo is closely linked with XP advantage. You can find a guide on controlling tempo on this site.
Many fights are lost on Heroes of the Storm because people do not understand when it is good or bad to engage. Every situation will be different but here is some general tips on when you want to try to force a fight:
If you have a Talent advantage.
If you have a player/ number advantage.
If the enemy team have low mana.
If the enemy team do not have heroic abilities.
If you are not behind and have a lane split pushing.
If you have the advantage in XP or players and know an objective will be up soon.
When you don't want to fight:
With an uneven number of players. EG 4v5
If you have a talent disadvantage.
If you have a lane split pushing against you.
If your team has Heroic abilites on cooldowns.
If you are low on Mana.
Make sure that you make a risk assessment before deciding on a fight and take into account all of the factors mentioned above.
If you have a Talent advantage.
If you have a player/ number advantage.
If the enemy team have low mana.
If the enemy team do not have heroic abilities.
If you are not behind and have a lane split pushing.
If you have the advantage in XP or players and know an objective will be up soon.
When you don't want to fight:
With an uneven number of players. EG 4v5
If you have a talent disadvantage.
If you have a lane split pushing against you.
If your team has Heroic abilites on cooldowns.
If you are low on Mana.
Make sure that you make a risk assessment before deciding on a fight and take into account all of the factors mentioned above.
In Heroes of the Storm teams will gain passive XP. The team that is in the lead will gain a very very tiny amount of passive XP that will be barely even noticeable at all. However the team that is losing will gain a decent amount of passive XP. This was implemented to stop teams snow balling really hard.
So what does this mean? Well it means that if you are losing, you should make sure that you do not die! As long as you do not die, and continue to effectively match your opponents soak, then you will catch up on XP.
The expression 'turtleing' is often used and refers to being safe when you are behind and waiting for the XP ration to even out. A key point to remember is that once both teams reach level 20, there is no more relevant advantages to be gained from controlling XP. This means the team that gets 20 first has the biggest advantage, but if they do not end before the other team also reaches 20 then you are back to being on equal grounds in terms of talents / ability advantages.
You should keep in mind that being too 'safe' will just let your enemies walk all over you. A happy balance needs to be found where you are keeping safe but defending well and controlling XP to help you become equal or look for a lead.
So what does this mean? Well it means that if you are losing, you should make sure that you do not die! As long as you do not die, and continue to effectively match your opponents soak, then you will catch up on XP.
The expression 'turtleing' is often used and refers to being safe when you are behind and waiting for the XP ration to even out. A key point to remember is that once both teams reach level 20, there is no more relevant advantages to be gained from controlling XP. This means the team that gets 20 first has the biggest advantage, but if they do not end before the other team also reaches 20 then you are back to being on equal grounds in terms of talents / ability advantages.
You should keep in mind that being too 'safe' will just let your enemies walk all over you. A happy balance needs to be found where you are keeping safe but defending well and controlling XP to help you become equal or look for a lead.
When you have the talent advantage you need to make sure you keep it and use it effectively. Ultimately you need to be using your XP advantage to win fights and force objectives and lanes to destroy the enemies Core. When you are ahead you need to play more aggressively and try to take the enemy Mercs and forts, whilst not dying and making sure you are matching or exceeding the enemy teams XP soak.
An example of using your advantage could be:
Your team has level 10 whilst your opponent is level 8. Here you should group up around either a fort or objective on the map and force a fight. The enemy either have the choice to defend and fight you, in which case you have the advantage as you have Heroic abilities and they do not. Or the enemy can back away and give it up. Either way you win.
However, you must always consider not to be greedy. It is better to stay safe, not die and not give XP and tempo to your opponents and instead just safely win the game slowly. Gradually suffocating the enemy by taking objectives 1 by 1 and never over extending or getting caught out, this way you will never lose the advantage you have gained.
An example of using your advantage could be:
Your team has level 10 whilst your opponent is level 8. Here you should group up around either a fort or objective on the map and force a fight. The enemy either have the choice to defend and fight you, in which case you have the advantage as you have Heroic abilities and they do not. Or the enemy can back away and give it up. Either way you win.
However, you must always consider not to be greedy. It is better to stay safe, not die and not give XP and tempo to your opponents and instead just safely win the game slowly. Gradually suffocating the enemy by taking objectives 1 by 1 and never over extending or getting caught out, this way you will never lose the advantage you have gained.
