Hanamura Temple Introduction
Welcome to our strategy guide for Hanamura Temple, a Map in Heroes of the Storm. In these pages, you will find everything required to understand how it is designed and how to play it.
Hanamura Temple's Overview
Hanamura Temple is a 2-lane Map with rotational symmetry, meaning that the bottom-left zone is equal to the top-right zone and the top-left zone is equal to the bottom-right zone.
Being an Overwatch-themed Map, the signature Objective of Hanamura Temple is a Payload that deals damage to enemy Structures once successfully escorted to its final destination.
On this Map you can also find two unique types of Mercenary Camps that are not present elsewhere: the Sentinel Camp, that is so powerful that it is the primary component of the recommended strategy for playing Hanamura Temple, and the Recon Camp, that works similarly to a Watch Tower.
Hanamura Temple's Heroes Drafting
- Effects relying on impassable terrain
- Extremely long cooldowns
Prefer
Sustain Damage

Considering that the Objective takes a lot of time to be won when contested by the enemy team, we recommend picking Heroes who are specialized in sustain damage and/or poke damage to constantly pressure the enemy team, forcing them to waste resources to stay on the battlefield for longer.
Mercenary Clear

Being able to quickly clear Mercenary Camps (for example Raynor with
Exterminator at Level 1) is important because you need to capture the
Sentinel Camp and the Fortification Camp on your side of the battlefield as
fast as possible, especially when the Objective is already active.
Sustain Healing

Considering that the Objective takes a lot of time to be won when contested by the enemy team, we recommend picking a sustain Healer (such as Malfurion). Combined with a smart use of the Healing Fountain, they will help you stay on the battlefield as much as possible without needing to Hearthstone too much. When your team does not have enough sustain healing coming from your Healer, prefer Heroes with good self-sustain instead (for example Blaze).
Siege Damage

Heroes who can help their team to take down enemy Structures (notably Sylvanas) and/or can deal a lot of damage to enemy Structures on their own are good on Hanamura Temple because they can siege with the Samurai rewarded by the Sentinel Camp. Sometimes it is even possible to do that with the Turret Item from the Fortification Camp, however, it is highly recommended to keep them for team fights.
Point Control

Point control tools are good to deter the enemy team to invade your Mercenary Camps
or, alternatively, to invade Mercenary Camps in the enemy territory while they are trying to capture them.
Displacement effects (for example Wrecking Ball
by Garrosh) are also useful against Heroes
who like to play aggressively near your Structures in order to take them down.
Waveclear

Despite being a 2-lane Map, having a good amount of waveclear will give you more time to do other things across the battlefield and will also help you to defend your Structures from enemy Heroes. Quickly killing enemy Minions will drastically reduce the enemy team's siege power and sometimes they will even be forced to retreat.
Avoid
Terrain-related Effects

Hanamura Temple features a lot of wide areas, therefore you will not be
able to fully unleash the power of Heroes that need to fight near impassable
terrain (such as Diablo with Shadow Charge)
or that can create it (for example Hogger with
Loot Hoard).
Long Cooldowns

Considering that the Objective takes a lot of time to be won when contested by the enemy team,
we recommend avoiding Heroes that have Abilities with extremely long cooldowns
(such as Dragonqueen by Alexstrasza),
even if they are not that bad because the games on Hanamura Temple
tend to reach the late game, when long cooldowns are not an issue anymore.
Hanamura Temple's Tips and Tricks
- Use the first Healing Fountain (2-minute cooldown) before 1:00 minute because the first Objective on Hanamura Temple activates at 3:00 minutes, so you will have it back in time. If possible, use Hearthstone to refill Health and Mana before the Objective phase, so that you will be able to use the Healing Fountain during it.
- Start the Samurai Camp at 1:00 minute and capture it as quick as possible. Repeat every time it is available after that, even if the Objective is already active, because they deal a huge amount of damage to enemy Structures.
- After capturing the allied Samurai Camp, make sure to collect the Turret from the allied Fortification Camp as it will be useful while team fighting or while sieging.
- Make sure to defend your Structures from the enemy Samurai. Avoid leaving your Offlaner alone against that, especially if the enemy team is trying to push at the same time.
- Avoid clearing Recon Camps just to get Experience. When ahead, it is not worth it. When behind, it is dangerous. Instead, primarily clear them to unlock the Watch Tower effect for extra safety, especially while contesting the Objective.
- Even if your team almost delivered the Payload at its final destination, when lacking resources (notably Heroes, Health, Mana, and Heroic Abilities), you should immediately retreat and try again after recovering them. The same is true when having a Talent Tier disadvantage. That said, don't retreat if that would be the game-winning Payload for the enemy team.
Changelog
- 07 Jan. 2022: Guide improved and reorganized.
- 07 Dec. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Major Patch.
- 06 Jun. 2021: Guide improved.
- 02 Jun. 2021: Guide created.
Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game. He also produces more teaching content on his Tips of the Storm page on Ko-fi.
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