How am I supposed to play Hanamura?!?!

[xcutter]

Hey everyone,

I've been playing a lot of HoTS lately, even ranked. (I'm kinda noobish though, ended hero league ranked Bronze 2, only played a total of 25 ranked games though)

Everytime I play Hanamura though, it's like an instant loss. Or maybe 4 times out of 5 I lose. I'm in desperate need of tips, as I have absolutely no clue of the map's meta and how it should be played.

Or if y'all know where I can find info, tips, w/e on how to play ranked HoTS, feel free to share!

Anything, really, is appreciated! Thanks

[Nasuuna]

strong defensive heroes escort your payload

strong poke/aggressive heroes harass theres

control the center boss

Idk what I'm actually saying, but I'm diamond in league so I got that going for me :3

[Etselion]

Its all about timing.

[RH92]

Hanamura is actually very simple map to play as there are not many options what to do really.

Draft:
The map is heavily draft dependant. Ideally you want overall strong team fighting team, one has to be strong solo laner. Usually it is played in 1 top and 4 bottom split. You also want to make sure you have one Hero who is good at taking camp, but you should prefer high single target DPS 'jungler' as you mostly care about Healing Pulse (Bruiser camp, the Samurai robot). Or you can do it with Bribe.

You often see a ton of Specialists being picked, but I am not huge fan as most Specialist have strong early game, but decline down the line and their team fighting is not strong. Or you have Nezeebo and Azmodan who hit their massive power spike late in the game, after most Hanamura matches end.

Strategy:
Mantra of this map is simple: you should always soak experience, simply trade and try to fight when you have advantage. When you win, you either siege their base for extra shot or take boss.

Why? Well, the map usually ends pretty fast (Commonly around level 16 mark) and there is not much room for comebacks and every bad fight can matter. When payload spawn for both teams and you are on same talent level, you simply capture yours and let them capture theirs (aka trade). If they rotate for 5v4, you just play the patience game as your solo laner is applying pressure on their structures while you are having Mexican standoff. Eventually one from enemy team has to leave to deal with it and when he does, you should be having level advantage, force 4v4 fight and capture when you win it to snowball further. However Healing Pulse plays major role in team fights, it is like free Tranquillity. If enemies has it and yours not, you are in rather big disadvantage when you are on same levels.

If you do this correctly and force mistakes from enemy team, after a while you can simply start to 'deathball' and smash them. If both teams are playing well, it is mainly about being better in team fights, as I said, if you win a fight you get a chance to siege base or take boss.

[Deleted]

In Bronze 2, you will most likely be hosed, as people are more likely to understand quantum mechanics than this map.

Keys on this map are pushing and merc camps, as they give a crapton of xp. Also important is mobility. Not important are the payloads; ignore them. Yah really. I mean it. For a bunch o reasons: if you go for a payload early, you will most likely miss out on xp, getting behind in levels. If you on the other hand let your payload linger and kill a structure, you double the value of your payload. If you let your payload linger for a while, you get another one, which makes defending for your opponents much harder.

You want robust heroes with waveclear, mobility and/or bribe: Azmodan is godlike as he can push both lanes and realistically can not be bullied here, Sonya, Samuro or Brightwing for camps. You don't want easy targets without mobility as this map is super wide open: no Morales, no Chromie, no Murky despite bribe.

Best tactic theoretically should be bull rush one lane with five men, just send one or two periodically off for camps. However GL convincing your team of doing this.