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.
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.
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:
Mana Combustion: Burns 25/50/75 mana with each attack, dealing 60% of that amount in Physical damage.
Last Stand: Explodes on death, dealing 200/400/600 True damage to its killer.
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:
Mana Burn: Burns 125/175/225 mana from the target dealing that amount in magic damage. (Once per summoning)
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.
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!
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?
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.
