Hanamura Temple Strategy

This priority list illustrates the recommended strategy for playing Hanamura Temple.

1. Always capture the Samurai before doing anything else because it deals a lot of damage to enemy Structures and you do not want to risk the enemy team stealing it from you after they take the one on their side of the battlefield.
2. Collect the Turret as often as possible as it can be used everywhere, defensively or offensively, and you obviously do not want the enemy team to steal it from you either.
3. If possible, prevent the enemy team from delivering the Payload, so that they cannot deal more damage than you to Structures.
4. Deal damage to nearby enemy Structures whenever you get a chance, preferably in the closest lane to where the Payload is.
5. Capture any nearby Recon Camp that is controlled by the enemy team, so that they will not be able to see your movements.
6. Escort the Payload to its destination, not necessarily by committing multiple Heroes as they could be better allocated for doing something more valuable, such as capturing a Mercenary Camp or to deal damage to enemy Structures.

Due to how the Recon Camp works, simply capturing it will not result into a net gain of Experience. The enemy team captures it, receives Experience, then you capture it back, and receive a similar amount of Experience. To actually get a net gain of Experience, you should let the enemy team clear the Recon Camp and then invade. Heroes with mobility and who can pass through impassable terrain are great for that.

The distance between bottom lane and bottom Samurai Camp is about the same (within 2 seconds of traveling time) as the distance between bottom lane and top Samurai Camp, therefore it is not really necessary to swap who goes top and bottom based on which side you are playing on. The only noticeable advantage that the left-side team has over the right-side team while both teams are playing with 4 Heroes in the bottom lane is the fact that some Heroes are able to exploit the impassable terrain near the Samurai Camp to deal damage or to quickly travel from/to there with some Abilities.

Hanamura Temple has rotational symmetry, so you can swap who goes in the top lane and who goes in the bottom lane because they have the same value. That said, keep in mind that lane assignments in Heroes of the Storm are not strict and you should always adapt to the situation.

When facing a 1-3-1 formation, you should ideally pick Heroes who can deal high damage to enemy Structures and go for a 1-4 formation. The idea is to deny the enemy team the opportunity to get value from ganks and at the same time pressure a single lane so hard that they will not be able to respond. When enemy Heroes are missing, your Offlaner should definitely play safe. If the enemy team stops pressuring bottom, then one Hero good at ganking can temporarily move in the top lane to help relieve pressure and hopefully capture the Objective.

If the enemy team heavily relies on a 1-4 formation, you can respond with a 2-3 formation in order to get a huge advantage in a lane (2 vs 1) at a small cost in the other lane (3 vs 4). Ideally, you should pick a second Healer instead of a traditional Offlaner and send that Hero and the main Ranged Assassin (for example Valla or Hanzo) together in the offlane. They have to play aggressively while the main group holds the other lane defensively with dedicated Heroes (such as Junkrat). If the enemy team stops pressuring bottom, then your Tank has more freedom to move around, for giving vision near the bottom lane or even for helping in the top lane.

To counter a 2-3 formation, you can go for the advanced 1-3-1 formation. The burden of execution is fairly high as your team will need to constantly move between lanes in order to create a numerical advantage in a lane (4 vs 2) or another (4 vs 3). A strategy like this requires a roaming squad of 3 Heroes (for example Muradin, Genji, and Kharazim) who are strong at ganking (with crowd control, mobility and burst damage), an Offlaner in a lane, and an Anchor in the opposite one.