I used to play a lot of League of Legends in the past. I quit because of the amount of tilt I got from each death - it became ingrained in my brain that dying once would snowball the enemy out of control, and I would be a useless pawn for the next 25 minutes of the game.

So imagine my delight when I tried switching to HoTS. This game solves almost every problem I had with League.

Shorter average game length means there's no half-hour-long games that you know are lost but that you have to play out till the end anyways. Multiple maps are a delightful way to mix up your game experience, especially since all maps are connected to other Blizzard games, which is sure to awaken some nostalgia for those who played them in the past. The constant teamfighting nature of the game is also great when put in contrast in other MOBAs where you have to farm all the time in order to stay relevant.

And don't even get me started on benefits of the shared XP and talent system:

-Every death is less tilting, because instead of feeding that singular enemy and making them snowball out of control, you just fed the entire enemy team a little bit.

-Conversely, every XP you gain feels like you're doing something for your entire team, which grows with you - which means that you won't be rendered useless for the rest of the game because of a few early misplays, and if you did well, and another ally didn't, you can fix their XP losses with your XP gains.

-Removing the item system means that every character's talents and abilities are personalized to them, which allows them to go all out without worrying about items impacting the character in broken ways. I was very surprised when I saw how well they preserved Tracer's kit from Overwatch - in any other MOBA game, her autoattack-spamming-while-moving nature would move the character an absolute balance nightmare, but in HoTS she doesn't share items - and therefore, balance restraints - with other heroes. This results in them being able to make fun and wacky characters, like Cho'Gall. Seriously, I still can't believe how fun Cho'Gall looks. Can't wait to play him with my friend.

Now, this doesn't mean I think the game is perfect. I think many character designs look a bit generic, which is an issue I have with DoTA too, but the game has such a variety of them that everyone can still find something they enjoy.

My main complaints would be with the artstyle of some of the older characters and maps, and the lack of content from Blizzard. (And also the quest system. Please stop forcing me to play vs AI.) But I'm glad that despite no large updates, this game is still working, the queue times are under a minute, and I'm excited to get to know this game up close and personal.