Hump Day Help Day: Mini-Map Discipline
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
This hump day I will go over one of the big things that cripple a lot of new players and that is the ever elusive Mini-Map. I would venture to say that I personally look at the Mini-Map for about 80% of my time played. Why? Because all the information you ever need is all in one place.
Fancy looking crates or your team killing the golem boss with Malfurion peeking in to the west?
Think of the Mini-Map as your auto pilot, it’s set to cruise to your destination with information of threats and safe passages. When the asteroids of death start flying toward your ship, that is when you need to flip the switch and start pulling off some barrel rolls to survive. While the Mini-Map won’t auto aim your skill shots for you, it will help you mentally prepare for a set up or when you need to simply GTFO.
Killing the enemy golem but their team is doing a massive push bot
I know this is going to sound obvious but the best way to get used to using a mini-map is to simply force yourself to stare at it more. If you play with friends, get used to the habit of sending them vocal twitter updates of where the enemies are over VOIP. Even if it can be annoying, notifications of enemy whereabouts are always helpful.
How do you deal with the unknown?
Where is everybody?
Sometimes no information is plenty to make an educated guess of what people are doing. Don’t ever get comfortable when you see no one on the map, in fact you should be worried. Lack of red portraits means that they are grouped up, doing merc camps, or in this case they are probably getting ready to either push with their golem or defend against ours.
Heroes doesn’t have wards like in Dota and LoL, we instead get set watch towers on certain maps and Hero abilities such as Sentinel and the talent Clairvoyance which allow you to gather crucial map awareness.
You can see Raynor and Malfurion but no one else. Which means 3 people are unaccounted for.
You can see Gazlowe at the eye to the North West and 2 others being pushed into their base which means if our team all goes for the tribute to the west, it should be no contest.
Spotting where stealthed Heroes are when they decide to show themselves is also very crucial info. If you see Zeratul pop up somewhere, then you will be able to handle the stealthed mechanic much easier by knowing when to look for it.
You have to also keep in mind where you show yourself on the map as well. If you are crossing a lane where enemy minions are then you will show up on the map, but if you wait for them to pass then they will have no vision. Keeping this in mind will help you apply better ganks while keeping the enemies (literally) in the dark.
With Heroes having four completely different maps, it will time a little more time to get comfortable with all the nooks and crannies. Like with anything in life it will take time and practice.
Read about the 4 maps in the previous ‘Hump Day Help Day’s here
