Sunday, April 10, 2011

[Hero Spotlight] Witchslayer

 

As I promised last week, this week we're going to be focusing on Witch Slayer.

Witch slayer is a ranged support/ganking hero, that is very item independent, but brutally effective none the less.  Since he is so item independent, getting wards for your team should be a top priority, and enough survival items so you don't just explode in team fights.  He is ranged, brings a stun, and is a great babysit for your carry, so he is definitely a hero to pick up early in any of your games.

I don't wanna go home!

Many people think Witch Slayer's power drain is worthless, however at max rank it takes 400 mana from a unit up to 750 feet away and gives it to you.  400 mana is often enough to shut down enemy strength heroes with important casts like kraken, for an entire engagement instead of just 3.5 seconds like miniaturize.

In fact, you can even drain neutral camps without them attacking you, giving you more staying power.  Good Witch Slayers can gank around the map, never going home until things go poorly for them and they need to heal.


Is it kinda creepy i feel at home in this graveyard?

Witch Slayer's graveyard skill allows him to stun all targets within a 700 unit line.  However, the cast range is only 500, so it will often go farther than you expect.  Be sure to lead this skill on the ground, as sometimes you can still get heroes even if you can not cast on them directly.  Also, this ability does give you some time to channel mana drain, if you're afraid the enemy hero is going to harass you while you drain.

His miniaturize is just a plain old point stun, and while that's nothing to sneeze at it is kinda boring compared to his other skills.  At max rank, it lasts for 3.5 seconds, so it definately is a huge contribution to team fights.

Finally silver bullet is the skill everyone fears, as it unleashes 500/650/850 damage single target nuke.  Many people save this until they're sure they're going to get a kill with it.  In team engagements, it's better to use this early; and on an important enemy hero, like the carry, so they flinch because they're suddenly low on HP.

Core items for Witch Slayer:

    

Nome's Wisdom demands a bit of a explanation as many people don't understand why its so good on casters like Witch Slayer.  Any time you cast a spell, Nome's Wisdom heals you, or puts a shield  on you if you're at full HP, for an amount equal to 25% of the mana used to cast the spell.  With silver bullet, Nome's Wisdom is 50/105/162.5 extra HP in every team engagement, while giving your team regen, and extra HP, for only 2240 gold!  It will definitely bring all the boys to the yard!

You might wanna leave some kills for your carry >.>

Witch Slayer is a hero that is easy to play, but the best players make him into a powerhouse.  I'd definitely recommend adding this hero to your list if you're trying to learn HoN.




Thursday, April 7, 2011

[Item Spotlight] Puzzlebox

Puzzlebox is one of those items, that back in dota (when it was necromonicon) this item was considered a golden goose.  Most games you'd see one Puzzlebox one Mock Brilliance (radiance back then), and it was a legitimate build, as it was VERY strong.

In HoN, we don't see puzzlebox as much, which is especially awkward when you think about what puzzlebox is capable of in the current ward, counter ward meta game.





Puzzlebox Item Details
+6/10/14 Strength
+15/21/24 Intelligence
Summons a Puzzlebox Mauler and a Puzzlebox Wizard under your control for 45 seconds
At level 3 the Puzzlebox wizard gains true sight.
Cooldown 90 seconds
Mana Cost 50 
Puzzlebox Mauler  
Hit Points:  400/600/800 at 6/8/10 physical armor
Damage: 21/41/61 at 1 base attack time
Abilities:
  1. Mana Combustion: Burns 25/50/75 mana with each attack, dealing 60% of that amount in Physical damage. 
  2. Last Stand: Explodes on death, dealing 200/400/600 True damage to its killer. 
  3. Reveals invisible units.
Puzzlebox Wizard 

Hit Points:  400/600/800 at 6/8/10 physical armor
Damage: 31/61/91 at 1 base attack time
Abilities:
  1. Mana Burn: Burns 125/175/225 mana from the target dealing that amount in magic damage. (Once per summoning)
  2. Haste Aura: Increases friendly units' within 350 units movement speed and attack rate by +3/6/9% Movement Speed, +3/6/9 Attack Speed.
These little guys will allow your support to counter-ward the entire rest of the game, while providing them with a nuke (mana burn), a speed aura, decent base damage (this little guys hit pretty good, 181 DPS), and true sight against enemy stealthers as well.  
If you farm 230 gold per minute, you can have this by the 30 minute mark, which is definitely feasible for support heroes.  This will save you SO much gold from that point forward as it allows you to counter-ward every 90 seconds for free, and gives TONS of benefit in team fights.  

If you don't think its that effective in team fights, check out this video

Puzzlebox brings the funny


Now, while Puzzlebox is an amazing item, be aware that it doesn't make you super tanky, so if you need a lot of survivability this is not the item for you. This definitely deserves to be picked up on channelers like pollywog priest and succubus. It's an amazing item and I urge you to try it out and get a good laugh yourself.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Hero Builds

So over the weekend I started working on some hero mini guides, and I figured that new players would be interested, so here's a link.

Starting Hero Mini-guides

Friday, April 1, 2011

[Hero Spotlight] Slither

Slither

So while this hero does not meet too much of the basic criteria in my original "what to play build", as he doesn't have a stun or an escape mechanism, I believe slither is a very strong hero.  He doesn't carry, he is relatively easy to play, and he offers huge benefits to your team.  That said do not pick this hero if your team needs:

More stuns
Fast nuke damage
Tanky heroes

As he is vulnerable to gank, has no stuns, and most of his damage is over time.

Slither's Skills


Poison Spray - Slither sprays a torrent of toxins toward a target location, infecting any enemies that come in contact with the torrent. Infected enemies take some initial damage followed by damage over time and reduced Movement Speed.


This ability does 50/70/70/100 damage up front when maxed, and then 10/20/40/50 damage 5 times over 15 seconds.   This ability also applies a 50 percent slow that restores itself to normal over 5 seconds.


Toxicity - Slither adds poison damage to his attacks. His attacks then reduce target's movement speed, deal damage over time, and negate health regeneration.


This ability applies a 10% Movement Slow and 40%/60%/80%/100% Reduced Health Regeneration, as well as dealing 5/10/15/20 Magic Damage per second.

This ability is an attack modifier

This ability really shines in the laning phase and is good all game as the extra 140 damage per attack is amazing.  With its ability to shut down health regeneration, enemy runes of blight become worthless as long as you continue to harass. This is the first skill I max as it makes your harass in a lane almost unstoppable.


Toxin Ward -  Slither summons a ward at target location that will attack nearby enemies, dealing minor damage and slowing their movement speed. The ward is immune to Magic.

This ability summons a ward that has a sight radius of 300 and attacks near by enemies.Realize if it doesn't have something else to sight for it, it's limited by its own sight range.  If you're gonna be trying to push, max this out as soon as possible.


Poison Burst: Applies Acidic Poison to targets in a 950 radius for 12 seconds. Grants 800 day and night clearvision around Slither for 3 seconds.
Slither's Potential

This ability, Slithers ultimate, deals 36/58/81 non-lethal damage per second for 12 seconds.  Non-lethal means it deals damage till the target is at 1 HP, but won't kill them.  Either of your other damage over time effects will kill the target just fine =D.   Try saving this for engagements with multiple targets unless you really need it.

Now if you just did the math, thats right it does about  450/700/1000 AoE (read team wide) damage! That's sick!

Slither Role and Suggested Items

Slither is all of the following:

Nuker, Ganker, Pusher, Carry (kinda >.>)

Now, there are going to be different builds depending on how you're going to play Slither but the real decision you have to make here is if you're gonna try and semi-carry, or if you're going to gank/push.

If you're ganking/pushing get:
Striders
If you're gonna try and semi-carry get:
Steamboots

No matter if you're pushing, ganking, or semi-carrying the best item by far is Slither:


Geometers Bane

After this if you're trying to deal more damage and Gank get a null-fire, if you're having trouble getting nuked down get a BKB, or if you're just plain pushing a Puzzle Box is ideal.

Important Slither Facts

Your attack range is slightly shorter than most heroes (500 rather than 600), but your attack with toxicity is brutal.  You may take a hit or two to land your harass if your enemy is super aware, but it is probably worth it.

Slither has an attack modifier already, so don't build another one unless you really need it.

Stacking your dots can be brutal, and many enemies will find themselves dead without realizing where the damage came from.

You don't have a scaling skill like splitshot, and/or a crit, so you won't be anywhere near as hard a carry as others.

If your farm isn't going well, play slither as a support, get wards and buy some HP items.

This concludes the slither hero spotlight, if you're interested in another hero, let me know.  I'm going to be working on a Witch Slayer guide for my next hero spotlight!