Hello!
Today I'm going to be going over some tips I have for new players of Heroes of the Storm in several categories, such as Economy, EXP, Learning to Play a New Hero, among others. If you are a veteran, feel free to discuss what I've gone over, or even share things I might have missed. New or returning players, read through and then if we missed something you feel should be covered, feel free to ask here!
Please be civil here. Old ( meaning previously accurate, but no longer) or inaccurate information should be striked through, but not removed. Mods: If you see violations of this rule, feel free to enforce, but I'm not going to ask you read through the thread a billion times a day looking for such thread rule violations.)
Without further ado, we will start with learning to play a new hero.
First off; the best way to learn is hands on. Drop into Try Me mode with the hero (accessed by finding the hero in your collections > heroes tab) and play around with the hero. Get a feel for what each ability does, how well the hero can clear lanes of minions, and a overall basic feel for how the auto attacks, basic attacks, and Ultimates work and what they do.
Then, you can either purchase the hero outright with gold/gems or use the hero when it gets slotted into the weekly free heroes selection, and then proceed to learn how the hero is affected by a full 5v5 environment (Elite AI recommended for this) with human team mates. This'll take about 5-10 matches depending on the difficulty, before jumping into Quick Match.
Definitely play some quick matches with the hero before jumping into Unranked or Storm League play so you have a basic idea of how real people will try to play with, counter, or outright play around your hero's kit. Learning positioning is key. You don't want to be in the front lines as Tyrande, and Johanna is useless hanging around your team's back line.
Gaining Experience.
In Heroes of the Storm, experience is accumulated team-wide. You will gain the same amount of experience in one lane regardless of whether there are no team mates there, or you have your entire team there. However, the most efficient way to gain EXP in-game is to have a minimum of one hero in each lane, so something like 1-3-1 or 2-2-1 in a three lane map, or 1-4, 2-3 in a two lane map. Collecting exp nodes from minions will provide good EXP over time, and you can get loads of exp from taking down enemy structures or heroes.
When the match finishes, you will be awarded EXP to your hero based on how much EXP your team earned overall. Longer matches tend to provide more EXP then shorter ones for this reason.
As stated, your hero will be awarded EXP based on how much EXP your team earned overall.
The overall breakdown will look something like this:
Team EXP earned*modifier that changes depending on the mode of play you engaged in = X
Bonus if you won the match = X/2
Playing with a friend bonus = X/4 (really, it's X/2 because you also get a bonus from being in a party with one person)
etc etc. Quick Match provides more exp then Versus AI, Unranked more then Quick Match, etc etc.
Economy
You earn gold for completing a match.
10 or 15 in Versus AI,
20 or 30 in QM, and so on.
In addition, you have Daily Quests. Complete your quests for the day to earn gold bonuses. Often several hundred gold. It's usually better to complete these quests in Versus AI or Quick Match simply because the level of competition you see from the enemy team is a lot lower, and you won't be punished by having a team comp designed to make your picked hero completely useless.
"Heroes can be purchased with gold, but things such as shards only drop from lootboxes?"
This is incorrect. You can purchase shards at no expense to your wallet using gold. 2,000 gold for 100 shards, or 10,000 for 500. Even with this being the case, it often is cheaper to purchase skins/portraits/banners/etc with shards, and heroes with gold, then it is to constantly buy lootboxes in the hopes you'll get lucky simply from mathematical probability.