[Poll] Ganking Heroes

So this week we have a poll to find out what ganking hero is generally presenting the most issues for you.  I can do a very in depth help guide for playing against that hero once we find out what hero is presenting the most problems.

Nigma's Wisdom

Nigma has had a pretty good blog for a while, and while he hasn't had an update in a while I've kept a link to a his blog here.   Looks like it paid off, here are 2 blog posts full of awesome:

5 Easy Ways to Lose a Game

5 Worst Pug Heroes

Some other heroes to not play in a pug game if you don't know them how to play them-

Devourer
Valkyrie
... Scout >.> <.<

In other news, Nome's Wisdom is looking for a rename to Nigma's Wisdom... I kid don't ban me Nome!

[Guide] Last Hitting and the Laning Phase

Many new players allow their hero to attack creeps as much as they want, thinking the more they swing, the faster creeps will die and the more gold they will get.  While this logic is used in some circumstances, what we would call pushing, early in the game it is often better to bide your time try to land the last hit.  Last hitting is when you do not attack until either your creep, or the enemy creep is able to be killed with just one hit. This leads to several advantages:

1. You can deny friendly creeps, which reduces the XP your enemies get, and allows you to level faster than them.
2. You can "last hit" enemy creeps, still getting the gold and full XP for yourself.
3. By doing both of these skillfully, you will slowly cause the friendly creeps to lose, "pulling" the creeps back towards your tower, giving you the safety of tower cover at a closer proximity.  A definite bonus!

This link is a Dota video, but the concepts still apply.

Posture, who is scarier? Often times people will talk about OP lanes such as swift blade and Glacius, and how there is nothing they can do to prevent feeding.  While these lanes are hard, denying when you can, and playing aggressive at the start to whiddle swift blades HP down will help.  Trying to knock someones HP down is an aggressive posture.  Remember if swift blade is too low, even if he twirls he'll die, so he'll just sit back and soak XP.  The stance swift blade is taking in this example, the passive sit back and don't die posture, is known as defensive posture.  Remember, posture and your choice of what you actually are can make a HUGE difference to the way you'll play and how easy it will be to not die and get last hits.

While we're talking about posture, sometimes you're going to have to play extremely defensively to not die.  In these cases make sure you are in XP range of the enemy creeps as they die.  To check this, check and see if there is a purple diamond above the creeps head.  If there is, you're in XP range.

Remember, playing your lane correctly and last hitting/denying can make a HUGE difference.

I want to apologize for the lack of pictures in this post compared to normal.  I had a few replays I was going to harvest for good last hitting pictures, but the server issues have made it almost impossible to get to them.  I will try to add them later this week along with more information with those pictures.  Feel free to leave any questions or comments as always.

[Trouble Hero] Tremble

There has been a lot of discussion both on the official forums, on www.reddithon.com, and just about everywhere else about Tremble.  Tremble is an annoying hero to play against, especially as a new player.  The developers have said that they are not going to be directly nerfing him anytime soon, but he will receive a rework eventually (TM).

You'll look like this before he gets a rework

Tremble is an insectoid hero that uses stealth and a crippling poison to bring his enemies to task.  With the fact that both he and his pet have a non-attack modifying slow, getting away from tremble can be painful at best or impossible at worse.  How you're going to deal with this is going to depend on whether you have a lane mate or not.

Picking Phase:  Tremble is annoying but not necessarily game breaking.  If you're afraid your team isn't going to be willing to pony up to buy stealth sight wards; and/or play conservatively, he could be worthy of a ban.  However, if you're confident that you'll get stealth sight wards, and you know your team mates can play carefully, he really isn't worth your ban.  If he's smart, he is going to build a Shrunken Head, so grab some heroes with ult level stun.

Early Game:

• Solo:  You're going to need stealth sight wards.  Ask your support if they can afford to get you one at the beginning. If he can't, you're going to have to do it yourself. Dont wanna?  Tough.  You're also going to need another one before the current one expires,  ask your supports nicely if they'll buy one for you.  If they won't, too bad, so sad; buy them yourself.  Better to buy than to die.  With sight, try and harass tremble as best you can and kill his mounds for the bonus gold.  Just be aware that its almost impossible to get away from tremble once he hits you.
  

• With a Partner:  You may or may not need stealth sight wards depending on what skills tremble gets.  Ask your support if they can afford to get you one at the beginning. If he can't, you're going to have to.  With this sight, try to harass tremble as best you can or tell your babysit to.  If he has mounds try and kill them for the extra gold/denying him stealth.  Just be aware that its almost impossible to get away from tremble once he hits you, so unless your ally has a stun or a very strong slow play conservatively.  Actually, even if he has a stun or slow play conservatively.

Don't feed Tremble or you might have this happen!

Mid Game:  Remember that without stealth sight and a stunner, tremble is extremely hard to gank since he can go invisible or teleport away at anytime with his mounds.  Going with Dust of Revelation and a stunner into the enemy woods to gank tremble is an extremely good idea since he does have a decent end game carry potential and without stealth or his teleport he has no easy way to evade you.  Use offensive wards and make sure to axe down any of his mounds you see to minimize his map presence.

Late Game:  As long as you haven't fed tremble in the early or mid game, you should not have too much trouble with him here as all he provides is his slow.  If he is fed, hopefully you've picked up some ult level stun to deal with him while magic immune.  Also, check his items and have your carry build to counter him.  For example, if he has the evasion granting Wingbow, your carry could get a Savage mace to completely negate that and grant very impressive damage.

As you can see above, tremble, like most heroes with carry potential, is really only a problem once you've allowed him to snowball due to his gold amount.  Remember to pick and ban wisely, buy stealth sight wards and gank him repetitively and you will not have a problem dealing with tremble.

Next post I'm going to try and put together a last hitting guide since the one I thought was informative has been taken down.  Feel free to ask any questions or drop my a comment, especially about tremble, as I know he can be very frustrating.

[Introduction] Welcome to HoN

This Blog was originally intended for people who had minimal knowledge of Heroes of Newerth (HoN), with the intention of getting better.  This post is for people who have never played this game, and would like to learn the basics, and what HoN is. 

Heroes of Newerth is a player vs player game, in which two armies clash.  The objective is for each team to destroy the enemy's throne, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use a variety of heroes to aid the cause, and are assisted by allies (who also use heroes) and AI-controlled allied fighters (generally much weaker) called "creeps".  In RPG style, the hero gets progressively stronger as the game continues.

 

If you're interested in learning how to play HoN, fantastic, but a word of caution.  HoN is an amazingly fun game, that is constantly evolving and I highly recommend it.... however, it is also notoriously hard to learn.  The purpose of this blog is to help make that easier, but even with this, it's not a walk in the park.

That said, if you're interested in learning more, feel free to read up on some basics with my earlier post:  Useful Links and Information

Welcome to Newerth, if you're new, I hope you enjoy yourself.  As always feel free to leave questions or comments!

Many people have been complaining about Tremble and we'll review how to deal with this hero in my next post.

[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.

[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.

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

[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!

Alt Avatars and the Community Store

Many people think that the goblin coin store is just S2s way of making additional money from people who have already paid for a full product.  If you visit the official S2 forums at all, or even some non-official Heroes of Newerth or even DOTA forums you'll see the 6800 signatures all over the place.  Obviously people are upset about things, and some even feel betrayed, but I think its important to think about some of the things S2 gaming is doing right here.

- Goblin Coins allow S2 games to give positive reinforcement for good behavior.  This is currently seen from the coins for wards stats, assists, kills (though I'm not sure anyone needs encouragement to get more kills).  S2 even put in coins for smack downs, which leads to funny situations of humiliation and triumph.  Something I think they could improve on this by gauging rewards to encourage behavior appropriately, as many people I know STILL don't care to buy and place wards when playing support or for buying a courier which you currently don't get anything for.

- Goblin Coins allow s2 to afford to continue pushing more interesting art oriented content. (artists aren't cheap... well not good ones anyway)  The new Slither Ms Ivy, unless this is an April fools joke; in which case i will punch someone, has me very excited.  Until such a time as these purchases offer real game balance effects, these coins are purely novelty items, and as such great rewards.

- Premium items allow s2 to afford to sometimes do expensive projects (like say... hiring someone with a famous voice).  As long as premium items are only those that cost quite a bit to finance, then they truly do fulfill the intent of which I think they were created, and enable the player base to get some really cool items!

- All this said, if s2 ever makes premium items that effect in game balance, we're going to enter a world of pay to play.

Overall I think the store is a great idea, that allows s2 to make money from those people who are impatient, and yet enrich the game with great, shiny, new, motivating, content.  Did I say shiny?

[Problem Hero] Update: Bubbles

So a hero I've heard alot of people complaining about recently is Bubbles.
 

I like turtles!

This is a hero I really enjoy playing and is very strong in the current meta game due to his strong CC and AoE silence.  If you want a link to his hero skills:  Bubbles

Picking Phase:  Bubbles is a very strong hero, that requires a good player/pilot to take advantage of his skill set.  Be aware that in high level games, Bubbles could very well be a problem and if you don't think you can handle the silence and other CC Bubbles has to offer, he is a strong candidate for your ban.  If you can't afford to ban Bubbles, and he does get picked, try getting heroes that don't need to cluster up with their team mates.

Early Game:  Bubbles performs well in any lane, though he is scariest with level advantage and will often go mid because of this.  His early game harass, due to Shell Toss, and well timed dodges, with Take Cover, can make Bubbles very hard to deal with in a lane.  Play smart and don't over commit trying to kill him.

Yes, it can be this hard to kill Bubbles

Mid Game:  Like many other problem heroes, Bubbles is a hero you do not want to get clustered up for because he can bring a lot of damage and CC to bear in one spot.  Also, Bubbles tends to gank during the mid game and with shell toss he can cover a lot of ground.  Keep wards up so you are aware of his position!

 Late Game:  Barrier idol is a blessing against this hero for the team, and BKB/shrunken head as a carry really does help keep you from getting locked down.  Keep being aware of positioning and you can generally outplay Bubbles.  If you're a carry hero be aware that popping BKB before he puts down his kelp field will lead to you being snared just like everyone else.  Int heroes should stay spread out just like mid game, to allow you to minimize the impact of Bubbles silence.

As always feel free to let me know if you can think of any other problem heroes and I'll be happy to try and address them.

[Item Mini-Guide] Tablet of Command

Tablet of command is one of those items that people really underestimate but can be amazing in the hands of someone who knows how to use it.

 Tablet of Command allows you to push a unit 500 units in the direction that IT is facing (not you're facing, or you want it to go >.> Though we can dream)

So to give you a visual of what range you're talking about:

This doesn't look like much till it saves someones bacon

So from that position, if you aim well, you end up:

Weeeee!

It also can be used to get away during team fights be "hopping up" terrain.  Here we start in the river:

What would yoshi do?

And now we're safely away from any danger:

SPRING HOP!

A lot of people say, why not just get a portal key, you can go further.  Here's a comparison of the 2:

500 Jump vs 1200 Jump (Portal key wins)
4 all stats/10 extra int/10 damage vs nothing (Tablet wins)
Effects any hero vs effects only yourself (Tablet wins)
You can cast tablet while taking damage vs PK you can't (Tablet wins)
Tablet costs 2040 vs PKs 2150

So while if all you care about is self mobility, PK is definitely better, tablet of command wins in every other way.

So if I've officially impressed you this is how you build a tablet of command:

   +    +  500 gold  =

Now this is not to say that tablet is for every hero, but for int support that want to have a good escape option, chase down option, team mobility boosting item, that gives stats, and allows you to place wards in new wonky places; this is definitely for you.  I urge you to give this item a chance to be an all star!

Hero Roles and Team Composition

Many people feel the strongest thing they can do in any game is play the carry hero; most people even know what the carry hero is.  However, besides the team having a good carry, many players have no idea what they're going to need on their team.  You can be extremely valuable to your team in many different roles, but part of that is recognizing what your hero is supposed to do and capitalizing on it.  Many heroes have more than one role, so don't limit yourself to doing only one thing.

Support:  These heroes are heroes that don't scale very well with items and/or have supportive skills.  They should typically be buying wards/counter wards and the courier.   Good support heroes need to know the ward spots and place the wards as this will give your other heroes (carries and gankers) time to do what they do best.  Something many players are unaware of is that intelligence heroes are not the only supports.  Classic Examples:  Andro, Demented Shaman, Accursed

Ganker:  These heroes typically have slows or stuns, and don't scale super well into the late game.  These heroes should roam the map, looking for small engagements in which they can kill enemy team members without dying.  Classic Examples: Wretched Hag, Deadwood, Gauntlet, Pebbles.

Nuker:  These heroes may also be stunners or gankers, but the thing that distinguishes them is they deal alot of damage with their skills instead of their auto-attacks.  These heroes should save their skills for engagements with multiple people if at all possible, as they have a very large effect on team fights.  Classic examples:  Slither, Bombadier

Carry:  This heroes job is to farm as best they can, carrying a TP scroll so they can respond to favorable team engagements.  The carry is the teams insurance policy, as if you can't end the game before the late game, you'll  be relying on your carry.  Late game, you should be looking at what you need item wise to survive team engagements, deal damage, and counter the enemy carry hero.  Classic Examples:  Chronos, Madman, Maliken.

Initiator:  These heroes will either have a blink, a way to close distance, or will have skills that synergy extremely well with a portal key.  Your job is generally to catch someone unaware, and start team battles (aka initiating them >.>).  Who you lead on is often important, but sometimes when you lead will be more important.  The question often comes down to, "I'd like to lead on _____, but if the enemy starts on us will we be screwed?"  Classic Example:  Pharoah, Moraxus, Gauntlet

Tank:  These heroes are kind of awkward to define because there are 2 kinds of tanks.  Tanks like Armadon and Legionnaire where you're purposely trying to take damage to deal damage, and tanks like Moraxus where you're saying "kill me or die".  Unfortunately many people see Moraxus and think his ultimate is just for nuking.  Classic Examples:  Armadon, Legionare, Moraxus, Accursed

Stunner:   Obviously this hero is going to have a stun.  Often times, you'll be using your stun with other team mates CC in order to lock down an opposing hero as long as possible.  Make sure to communicate with your team about who is CCing whom in what order.

Pusher:  These heroes have abilities that can demolish towers, and/or have minions that make taking towers much easier.  1 or 2 pushers on a team can make defending towers near impossible, especially with the threat of strong initiation behind them.  Be sure to capitalize on your pushers to try and take as many towers or even barracks as possible.


Now that we know what different roles do, what should we typically be looking for.  When I try to craft a team I'm generally looking for

1 Carry
2 Stunners/Gankers
1 Initiator
1 Support Hero

This is just one example build, their are others but I'll continue with this one for now...

So to give you an example

Witch Slayer -  Support, Ganker, Stunner
Demented Shaman - Support
Wretched Hag - Nuker, Ganker, Initiator
Gauntlet - Ganker, Initiator, Stunner
Madman - Carry

Notice how many heroes have more than one roll.  Please be aware that while you may want to play witch player as a ganker, and not go home often, if you don't have other supports, it would be best for your team if you went home and got wards occasionally.  (your team will thank you, even if they don't say it outloud)

Please, when on the pick screen don't be a stubborn ass, if the team really needs a support hero, try playing it once and a while.  If you have a group of friends, take turns playing the "ward bitch"  as no one wants to do that every game.

Edit:  

Nigma, as often is the case has some awesome stuff for us to look at.  Here's a video the different roles.

Valkyrie Hero Spotlight and 2.17 Patchnotes

So first up, I wanted to highlight the valkyrie hero spotlight, because while many people enjoy playing her... not many are good with her.  This video will help improve your play, and show you the role that valkyrie should be taking most games.

That said, the item build they used could still work but isn't going to be as effective because of the 2.17 patchnotes.  Null-fire no longer propagates to illusions now.  So please keep that in mind for your upcoming Valkyrie games.  Thunderclaw and Frost wolf skull is also a popular build that gets you a slow and tons of damage. 

Now onto the patch notes.  I don't want to post all of them just the ones that are going to have a bigger impact:

 - The following items' Attack effects will no longer propagate to illusions
* Icebrand
* Frostburn
* Shieldbreaker
* Frostwolf's Skull
* Nullfire Blade

 Geometer's Bane
- Recipe cost reduced from 1200 to 800

So as I was saying about the Valkyrie spotlight, illusions will no longer take the effects of attack modifiers.  To compensate for this, geometers bane has been lowered in price.  Please be aware the Frostburn build of Flint Beastwood and similar carries is going to be less effective now.  Not totally worthless mind you, just not as good.  I was gonna link Sand Wraith as the obvious nerf target here... but I don't think its limited to just him.

Aluna
- Deja Vu
* Unitwalking & shadow slow moved to regular form
* Boosted Deja Vu will now cause Aluna to slow any units she runs through (in addition to shadow also slowing)
- Emerald Red
* Manacost lowered from 150 to 75/100/125
* Now uses only 1 charge on use instead of all charges
* Added 0.5 sec cd to skill

Just to make this clear, I'm not sure this is a huge buff to Aluna.  That said, it does give the player/pilot more control and that's almost always a good thing =D.  The Deja Vu buff is definately nice for chase down, and while I personally feel there is only one core item build for her still, maybe similar tweaks will help with that problem.

Devourer
- Guttling Hook will no longer grab people on the way back

 This is probably step one of the devourer nerfs.  That said, this saddens me, as devourer is one of my favorite heroes, and I thought this was a meaningful difference between him and other projectile heroes like Valk.

Besides this, there are a bunch of smaller tweaks and alot of server code optimizations (good for us, less lag maybe?)  Also, UNICORN RAMPAGE >.> He's not very colorful =(.  Oh well, time to go drag someone behind a tower to beat out my frustration.

 

[Problem Heroes] How to Deal With Them

When I load into HoN, 90% of the time I end up playing match making with either banning draft (my favorite) or banning pick as my two options.  The reason for this is that bans let me deal with problem heroes the way I would like to... by not dealing with them at all!  Now, while I don't agree with the community on all of the problem heroes, everyone can agree they exist.

First, what we believe a problem hero is obviously is going to vary from person to person.  One of my good friends believes scout should be an auto ban as he causes huge game imbalances in game.  Sand Wraith is considered an auto-ban by many players due to his ultimate and other factors. Others feel problem heroes are just annoying.  I agree with both parties.  Many people have trouble with many heroes, but the ones I hear the most complaints about being "broken" are as follows:

Soul Stealer
Dr Repulsor
Goblin Bombardier
Pebbles
Wretched Hag
Sand Wraith

There are a few points in the game that you need to deal with these heroes

Picking Phase:  Is there some way we can counter this pick or should we ban this hero?

Early Game: Before this hero gets to level 6 or gets an important early game item, is there anytime I can do?

Mid-Game:  This hero is now somewhere  from 6 to 16 and has its important items.  What should I do?

Late Game; After 16, I now have money to potentially deal with the problem, is there a way to counter it?

That said, lets get started!

Soul Stealer -

Picking Phase - Should we ban this hero?  This is one of those heroes that can be a huge problem is left unchecked.  Please do yourself a favor and ban this guy.  If banning him isn't an option, you're going to need to either pick early game gankers and prevent soul stealer from farming or get heroes with stuns in their ultimate so he can't cast his ult while magic immune from BKB.

Early Game -  Soul Stealer will most likely be mid.  Use Ganks to prevent SS from farming and keep him from obtaining a Portal Key or a Black King Bar.

Mid Game - If Soul Stealer has a Portal Key and a BKB, the best way to deal with this is to get some magic resistance or raw HP so you can survive the onslaught.  Otherwise, keep ganking him!

 These guys ignore Soul Stealer, don't make this mistake!

Late Game - A barrier idol will help you and your team with the assault of magical damage from soul stealer late game.  On a personal level a BKB will also make you immune if you can pop it before he finishes channeling.  Pray your carry hero has enough farm to win the day.

Dr Repulsor -

Picking Phase -  I wouldn't consider Dr repulsor a mandatory ban, that said if you're dealing with a weak banning draft pool, he should be thought of for one of your bans.  When counter picking Dr. Repulsor you should think about getting silences or crowd control (CC) [stuns, etc] that you can chain together to keep him locked down.  Vindicator is an excellent pick if he fits your team comp.

Early Game- Dr Repulsor is another hero that will probably end up in the middle lane.  Most people will not gank before level 6, however he is a strong ganker starting as early as 4 or 5.  Ganking him before 6 is in your best interests, as once he is able to use his ultimate, hes almost impossible to kill without denying their wards.

Mid-Game - If you were unable to gank early, the biggest thing you can do at this point to keep wards up so you're aware of when Dr. Repulsor is ganking.  Beyond that, try not to travel alone and gank the Dr. if he tries to farm.

If you don't control Dr Repulsor, he can really mess up your day

Late Game - Urge your support hero (or yourself, if this works for you) to keep wards up, through this phase.  If your support hero has sufficient funds or if another int hero can sustain it, build a hellflower.  Hellflower shits all over Dr Repulsor's day.

Goblin Bombardier

Picking Phase:  Goblin Bombardier is a very strong nuke hero.  That said, their are other heroes with equivalent damage.  Bombardier has no escape, and his stun isn't very strong.  That said, he synergies extremely well with Keeper of the Forest, Chronos, Tempest, Kraken and other strong CC heroes.  If you feel as though the pool has too much CC to control, and you're afraid of the damage bombardier can deal, he is a good ban choice.  In BP figure out what you need, and make sure that you keep them from picking up both a strong CC team with bombardier.

Early Game -  Bombardier can be found in any lane early.  Often if he's mid, he will be a strong ganker, but be aware of which side-lanes have suitable CC to take advantage of his presence.  He has almost no way to escape ganks, so be sure to take advantage of his vulnerability.

Mid Game-  Getting magic resistance is a good idea if bombardier is presenting as a problem.  Keep being aware of CC

 If you Line up, he doesn't need CC >.>

Late Game-  Don't get clustered up or CC'd in a line if you can prevent it.  Barrier idol is a great idea if you're afraid of the nasty damage bombardier can do.

Pebbles

Picking Phase:  Pebbles is a very strong nuke/Ganking hero.  That said, their are other heroes with equivalent damage, though the cooldown on their burst is generally alot higher.  Pebbles builds a PK early generally, so if he can get some distance, he can escape.  That said, he synergies extremely well with other strong CC heroes or heroes like hellbringer and blacksmith.  While I don't see Pebbles as a mandatory ban, if you plan on getting a team with a few more "squishies" then maybe you should consider banning this guy, because he can really mess you up.

Early Game -  Pebbles will generally be found mid early.  He will be a strong ganker,  He's slow, and has almost no way to escape ganks before his PK, so be sure to take advantage of his vulnerability.  However, if he has 240 mana he can perform his trade mark "toss combo" and probably kill 1 hero if you aren't careful.

 Be Careful... Pebbles can toss combo from 3

Mid Game-  Getting magic resistance or raw HP is a good idea if pebbles is presenting as a problem. Keep wards up so you're aware of when he's ganking and try to initiate team fights before he can start them.

Late Game-  Don't get clustered up.  While pebbles now isn't quite as scary for his blow the hell up factor, be aware that he's still a strong initiate and 1000 raw (post mitigation) damage still hurts.

Wretched Hag

Picking Phase:  Wretched Hag is a very strong nuke hero.  With a skilled player, she can do more damage than most nuke heroes, while being almost impossible to kill or track due to her built in blink.  I personally consider Hag one of my must ban (or pick, muahahaha) heroes, as a skilled player with this can really mess up your day.

Early Game -  Wretched Hag can be found in mid early.  She will be a strong ganker from as early as 4 or 5 but be aware of which side-lanes have suitable CC to take advantage of her presence.  She has a very easy escape mechanic (her built in blink) so make sure you coordinate CC if you're going to gank her.

Mid Game-  Getting magic resistance is a good idea if Wretched Hag is presenting as a problem.  Being aware of positioning is very important to dealing with hag.  If you're clustered up or in a loose line, wretched hag can really take advantage of that and punish your team.

 

Being grouped up is bad Mk?

Late Game-  Don't get clustered up or CC'd in a line if you can prevent it.  Barrier idol is a great idea if you're afraid of the nasty damage Wretched Hag can do.  BKB is also a strong option, if you're afraid resistance isn't enough. 

Sand Wraith

Picking Phase:  Sand-wraith is a very strong carry hero due to his illusions hitting everyone. Illusions deal 40% base damage, and take 200% damage.  He can be managed, but if you pool does not have other strong carries, or you just don't want to deal with him, ban him.  If he is picked, make sure your team has adequate stun to gank him, and a carry capable of dealing with him late game (Chronos is my favorite)

Early Game -  Sand-wraith is extremely weak early game, without farm his ultimate doesn't do much, and he is vulnerable to gank if you have any stun on your team.  Be sure to gank him frequently.

Mid Game- Sand-wraith is likely going to be farming the woods or lanes when he feels he can without pressure.  Be sure to use offensive wards and gank early and often.  Without farm, sand-wraith really is worthless.

Late Game- If you let sand-wraith farm you could be in trouble here, as his ultimate can wreck teams.  However, even now you have an option.  Get a nullstone!  Nullstone prevents sand-wraiths illusions from forming.  Without his illusions sand-wraith's carry potential is greatly reduced!

 Sand Wraith is farmed... I don't believe you!

With these heroes addressed, be aware that this is a pretty cookie cutter way of dealing with the issues, and if soul stealer builds a shroud instead of a bkb, then you're going to have to adapt.  That said, I hope this was informative, and feel free to leave a comment if you think I need to address another problem hero.

Useful Links and Information

Here are a few video guides if you'd like to learn more about how to play HoN:

Video Guide: Pre-Laning
Text Guide - How to ward and what warding does
Premium HoN Hero Guides
Text Guide: How to Juke
Prodex - HoN Hero Index  (This is [s2]Nigma's pet project atm, its a hero role/mini guide reference but its not complete) index


Something I notice alot is people who do silly things like tower diving and dying trying to get the last hit on a kill... that they never get.  That in mind heres a very basic guide to what your mind set should be in HoN:

Priority List of Actions -

1) Do not die
2) Get your carry hero farm (this may mean buying wards to protect the team with sight and awareness)
3) Use your abilities effectively
4) Don't KS, especially the carry hero

This is a link for a trial account, trial accounts can't play with real ones sadly =/.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/trial.php

This is a link if youre interested in purchasing the game:
http://heroesofnewerth.com/ref.php?r=7THER8YJ

(this isn't entirely selfless, I get a referral bonus >.> So if you are gonna buy it please use the link <.<)

[Hero Spotlight] Myrmidon

The Heroes of Newerth (HoN) community is comprised of two crowds: people who "know what they're doing," and people who are still learning.  I will write articles for both groups, however since I'm not a professional player, most of my articles will be observation based opinions.

This particular article is aimed at people who are trying to learn how to play HoN, and who are picking up the game with very little to no experience.  A lot of my friends who are just starting the game ask me, "Paul, whats a good hero I should start the game with?"  I tell them that unless you're always playing All Pick (AP) and you're very fast, you may not always get the hero you want.  I would use the following criteria when picking a hero as a new individual.

First.... Things you don't want -
Does this hero have a vector targeted skill?  Does this hero have some other ability that requires a lot of practice to master?  Is this a carry hero, will I be expected to carry the game? (Carry Heroes will be explained a little later.)

Things you do want-
Does this hero have a stun? Is this hero ranged?  Does this hero have a way to escape bad situations?

If you answer yes to any of the things you don't want, don't play this hero while you're learning the basics of HoN.  Yes, you may have heard from a friend that Soul Stealer is broken or that Gauntlet is [s2]Maliken favorite hero, but if you don't know how to aim demon hand and aren't yet comfortable carrying then this hero is not for you.  Avoid these heroes, they will not be fun to play, unless you're just trying to mess with your own team >.>.

  

Team mates griefing each other

(This never ends well)

After looking at that list and thinking about it for a moment, you may be saying... but there aren't that many heroes that fit all of the good stuff!  And that's right. This is because heroes with all of those characteristics tend to be overpowered and therefore, don't exist.  So as a rule of thumb, getting 2 of the 3 is a good bet, with ranged being a someone higher priority due to the fact that most new people aren't good at avoiding harassment yet.

But, there is a hero that does fit all of this,

 That's right, its Myrmidon.  Not only does he have 1 stun, he might have 2 depending on how dumb the enemy team is!  He also packs in a great travel/escape tool and even brings one scary ass ultimate to the party!

Myrmidon is a fairly straightforward hero, and while I won't be writing a full blown guide here you can find a video spotlight here and a guide here.  Here's some good basics to keep in mind though:

His Weed Field has a 1 second delay before it takes effect, so either use magic carp at the same time to force a stun or aim appropriately.

Magic Carp can be used either with Weed Field or as a nuke/utility ability.  Remember that since it gives sight and tracks, it makes running away very difficult to do for most heroes.

Wave Form not only takes you from point A to point B it also lowers magic armor of enemies hit in the way.  This synergies with all of your skills on offense and is a great move defensively.  Just remember that it does follow normal pathing unlike blinks.

Forced Evolution gives you a Magic Attack with a set damage instead of your normal attack in addition to extra HP.  Be aware this makes you into a melee hero for the duration which can put you into bad circumstances if you're not careful!

Core items:

Steam Boots

 

Shrunken Head (BKB)

These 2 items will be what you need to jump successfully into melee in team engagements.  You can of course join in small engagements (read 1 or 2 people) with your ultimate.   However, before you finish BKB you'll want to avoid engaging in large team engagements because you will be easily CC'd and focused down.  A tip for steam boots is to always keep them on strength, because surviving is a big deal!

I hope this adventure into good starter heroes helps. Watch for my next higher level post about balance and how to deal with certain "problem" heroes.  Also, I'm going to put up a helpful links post for new players.  Please feel free to comment and tell me how you feel or what you'd be interested in seeing.

[Introduction] Beginnings

As this is my first blog, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Paul.  This blog is primarily going to be about Dota2 or Heroes of Newerth (HoN), as I haven't played the original Dota in a few years and my interest in League of Legends is very, very low.

I'm not a competitive player, though I do try to keep informed about the current meta-game and have managed to build up what I believe is a decent sized nugget of Heroes of Newerth knowledge.  The purpose of this blog will be to primarily help new players, and secondarily share information.  I think that if the community shares information, the overall skill level of the community will rise and the game will be more enjoyable for everyone (yeah I know, feel good moment).  That said, welcome to my mad little world, enjoy the ride.