I've gotten over the whole no items thing. Well, mostly because of the talents system.
I also now understand that ultimates have to be weaker in HotS just because of the way the game is played.
However, I am still dissatisfied. Because now that I actually understand the game... well, I understand the game.
Toxic. Everywhere. Literally, you can tell if you're playing with people from LoL, and most of the time, you are. It's pathetic.
Balance issues, holy ****. Melee Assassins are insanely powerful, and nothing can stop them. I main Malfurion, so my plan was if there is a melee assassin on the other team, I would get Shrink Ray.
Two problems: One, there's ALWAYS a melee assassin on the other team. ALWAYS. And second, it doesn't ****ing do anything, Zeradul still 2 shots me before I can do anything.
Don't give me that, they're squishy ********, because Zeradul has a cloak and a blink, so he's impossible to focus.
And I still hate being able to only play certain Heroes. After a long *** time of having the God Pack in Smite, I hate having locked Heroes.
I think I like it better than the last time I played it, but at the same time the game can be very frustrating.
It's not kit. It's gameplay, that matters. Unless you're Li Li.
Edit: Just if this wasn't clear, stealth does not make you completely invisible. There's a shimmer that you can see with practice. Do not be surprised if in high-level games, people literally ignore stealth.
A class doesn't make you better or worse than countering another class. Their KIT does, because unlike Smite, not every single class has everything at once. #facepalm #stopcopyingme
I put Nova as an example because of how ill-suited she is to countering Zeratul, which you'd have understood if you played her or Zeratul.
Zera's stealth can be seen through, but it can't be targeted. That means no W, no E, and only one form of her ult. Her only real hope of hitting him while stealthed is through her Q, a very narrow skillshot.
In addition to that, Nova is extremely squishy, has no escapes, and no healing or hard CC. If you can't see how Nova is weak to Zeratul, you have a problem.
Anyway, you just ignore the part of the post that actually mattered: How Zeratul's stealth can be seen through. If you didn't know, hitting stealthed characters reveals them. This makes talents like Burning Rage very useful, or anyone with wide AoE effects.
Malf has an AoE heal, targeted health, AoE silence, AoE root, and a AoE spammy damage move with good range. That means that if you can see him, you can counter Zeratul just fine. If you can see a Zeratul as Malfurion, you can root him, repeatedly reveal him, even in bushes, and either heal his burst target and/or silence him for 3 seconds. But this relies on constant vigilance and a willingness to adapt.
Seriously, this is not Smite. You can't "counter" someone with a **** ton of CC or massive burst damage. FFS, l2p.
#doublefacepalm
I can't counter him with Malfurion.
And no, I don't have problems with Nova.
Zeratul is one of the easiest heroes to counter, and the hardest, at the same time. It's how he's forced to rely on his stealth to get in close.
And stealth can be seen in HOTS.
Seriously, I bet you have problems with Nova, too. You need to learn how to see through stealth, and then Zeratul is suddenly much easier to deal with. I main Nova, who has literally one narrow skillshot (with the rest being targeted abilities), and I can deal with Zera.
That's not to say he won't get kills. I mean, he is a brutally strong assassin. But he's not some invincible no-counterplay death god. He can be beaten, especially if he's not used to others seeing through his stealth.
As for toxicity? Compared to ranked Smite, I see pretty much nothing. I get toxic matches about once every thirty games. ****ty teammates, on the other hand, are way more common, but in terms of toxic behavior, I don't get them that often.
Edit: If you want to talk about difficult assassins, you haven't seen a good Tychus. If you want to talk about lack of counterplay, you haven't met a good Hammer.
Also the god pack thingy is still only DotA (for free) or smite that has it (as far as I know)