On April 13th for those lucky enough, the great Khaldor casted a fantastic pub match sent his way. The 5-on-5 engagement was on haunted mines. After analyzing the replay (which can be seen here or above) I hope to provide some insights on how to better play Haunted Mines.
One of the first maps announced, Haunted Mines is one of the unique battlegrounds in Heroes. With effectively two maps in one, the battleground forces a calculated game of chicken between both teams. Over committing to the mines leaves your fort vulnerable top but not contesting for skulls similarly can cost you the push advantage. Ultimately the map is focused on not only taking team fights but taking good fights.
Ultimately the map is about taking GOOD fights
One of the key themes over the sway of the game was the ebb and flow of fights. On the surface, Blue was ahead most of the match. They lead in kills the entire affair until around the late game.
At around the 12 minute mark, Blue had a 23-11 kill advantage and were up 15-13 in levels. At this point, most players would go through a range of emotions, a river of hopeless defeat, finger pointing and anger.
What Red did was turtle. They used their group mindset to fight hard. Even when they lost they did enough damage to Blue that after each engagement, Blue had to go heal. In many ways that's a win. By going down fighting, you effective prevent the other team from getting objectives. In Haunted mines especially if a team is hurt they usually play it safe. The end result is you lose experience but little else (you can lose fights badly in the early game, but DO NOT in the late game).
The early Golems aren't that scary (and early game is forgiving)
Focusing on the early game again, in the match, Blue dominated in the beginning. The first golem they got 70 skulls to 30, the second a 76-34 skull advantage. Yet, when all settled, both golems had essentially done the same damage. They both had killed the outer fort and were knocking on the inner wall.
I touched on the early fights. It's really okay if you lose fights early as long as you don't lose fight late game; even losing two heroes for one is incredibly painful because of the long respawn time. At past 30 minutes, if at any point either team significantly lost a fight, it would have been gg.
It's also about split pushing, but only one lane matters
Even after 60 minutes of gaming, the blue team still had their bottom inner fort alive (the side without the enemy golem). Over the entire game, Red never pushed the fort, indeed, they didn't even seem to care about that side. Yet near the end of the game it was Blue that was on the desperate offensive, completely afraid their core would die.
Haunted mines is unique in that often times all that matters is that you push the lane your golem in. Come late game, all that matters is your golem is at their core. Who cares about the other side? It doesn't mean you shouldn't push it if you can, but it does mean you can easily win with it standing. If you're losing, focus on five man team fights.
Late game Haunted Mines can be a Tactical Nightmare
There was a point around the 40 minute mark when Blue, their core at 60% health, refused to kill the golem in the mines (in fact the golem never died for the last 20 minutes of the match). Red already had a 60 skull lead and Blue decided that even if they got the rest of the skulls, a 60 skull golem would destroy their ancient. Their deceptively simple tactic was to prevent Red from summoning the golem, and win a team fight until they could push Red's core themselves. While this is a unique situation it epitomizes how to approach the mines. The mines are a cost-benefit analysis.
There are also cool tactics when it comes to mines. The standard technique is to have your team wait at the bottom for an unsuspecting hero; have quick fingers if you're solo, you can usually get out before they kill you. The "elevator technique" was also widely used. When being chased, teleport up (or down) and then immediately teleport back. This can give you a few seconds of confusion to make your escape. Both teams put it to great use to save their life more than once. Practice this and you will gleefully out micro the enemy.
Finally, some thoughts on Map strategy
I thought I would share some useful facts that may actually provide some meat and help you on Haunted Mines. Here's what I can gleam:
- Blizzard weakened the golem's impact a little. The initial Golems are weaker then they were before, and a significant difference in skull count for the first couple Golems was also nerfed. Don't be afraid of falling behind in the early game
- Keep in mind the golem takes 30 seconds to spawn after all the skulls have been collected
- Late game golem can do up to 5% per swing on your core. At all costs you have to prevent the enemy from getting a large golem in late game.
- When killing the neutral golem, it can usually be handled by two heroes (three in early game). Don't be afraid of the golem killing you, but rather the other team killing you after you've killed the golem, this is when you're most vulnerable (I know, that sentence is a mess, you get the idea).
- There aren't a lot of mercenary camps, make sure your siege camp is always on cooldown.
- When pushing with your golem, remember the golem deals the damage. Your role is to focus the enemy hero and stop them from killing your golem. Three to four heroes is ideal to push with the golem (depending on skull count)
- When defending, if they got a majority of the skulls, minimum three heroes should stay behind. Even then, try to have one hero push with your golem to add some needed support (a solo golem is a sad Golem). That said, five heroes versus one golem with no support can handle the golem surprisingly well.
Haunted Mines is a confusingly great map and it clearly exemplifies what Blizzard was trying to do with their battlegrounds in Heroes. If you have time, most definitely check out Khaldor's replay.
Follow us @gosugamersHotS for more eSports news.
More on GosuGamers Heroes of the Storm:
