General

Another new hero joins the pool

With today’s patch we see another new hero ported from DotA.
The new hero is called Flint Beastwood , an infamous replica of Sniper from DotA.

My first thoughts on this hero were, Oh great another Scout-esque hero we beg those nubs on our team not to pick. But then i got reassured from a friend of mine that Sniper is actually played competitively in the Asian DotA scene. He went on to tell me that he is used as a defensive hero to stop/delay enemy pushes, this information in itself gave me  a little bit of hope that this hero would actually be useful in HoN.

So i fire up a practise game to check his skills out, and i notice his hero model. I think to myself …? This supposed long ranged assassin has had his two arms replaced with shotguns, the most inaccurate and short range weapon as all first person shooter fans and gun enthusiasts ( love Americans? ) will know.
Secondly, his model is an ORC….. Orcs are renowned for being melee units with high armor. Sniper is neither of these.  Despite these minor nuisances i still think, used correctly he can be an awesome hero.

Kill them all

Enter The Gladiator!

The gladiator a somewhat cheesy name for such an epic hero. Yes this Kunkka port does what it says on the tin.
With one of the best ultimates from dota this hero is a force to be reckoned with. The ability to farm in a dual or solo lane helps him become a beast late game, although he still rocks early and mid game.
When combo’d with Glacius or other support heroes landing Pitfall becomes easy.
Once your Runed Axe is ready you can farm that Shrunken Head fast, leading to a “good game” in no time.

Tired of noobs hurling abuse at you in game ?
Loosing too many games against people who you think might be cheating ? (probably aren’t)
Well look no further ….. S2 have added the Report a Player function.
But be warned, false reports will not go unnoticed according to the developers.

Invisibility runes now have a 2 second fade time, this means you can spam a couple of bottle charges without breaking invisibility.

New item Blood Chalice has been added. This item basically trades 150 health for 150 mana, great for heroes like Succubus, Jeraziah and Demented Shaman. Whats great about this item is that it only cost 875 gold to build.

So its time for this weeks hero nerfs and buffs.

Buffed:

Chronos – Rewind can now heal up to a max of 50% of his health A SECOND……

Gauntlet – Now deals an epic amount of burst damage.

Rampage – Most spells have been reworked, pretty imbalanced now.

Legionnaire – Terrify now reveals invisible units while charging.

Nerfed:

The Chipper – Tar toss duration has been lowered to 2/3/4/5 at each level.

Engineer – Turret has had a massive hit with the nerf stick, it no longer carries engineers items and lasts for a brief amount of time.

Fayde – Her starting stats and move speed have been nerfed.

The Madman – Barrel roll no longer stuns but snares.

Zephyr – Gust no longer stuns.

So thats it for today, keep tuned for a Gladiator guide and good luck in those matches.

Whats hot and whats not this month

Tundra the Rexxar port was added today.
He can deal alot of melee, and magic damage at range, he can scout with his bird, and he has a GREAT ulti for team fights.

Whats hot this month

Accursed – His ultimate no longer auto casts. Some might see this as a nerf but used at the right time makes it extremely effective.
Behemoth – Ultimate now deals superior magic damage, initial damage now going through magic immunity.
Chipper – The last hit burst damage monster is a smoking hot pick right now.
Glacius – Making a come back from the early beta days with the fairly recent patch changes, Glacius is a strong support pick.
Fayde – Played with either a Puzzlebox or Codex, this hero has one of the highest burst damage combinations in HoN right now.
Nypmhora – Teleport skill now teleports one extra ally.
Pollywog – Along with the flavour of the month being pushing strats, his wards and long disabling skills are hot right now. Try playing him with Puzzlebox.
Succubus – Cooldown on her ultimate has been reduced, only 100 seconds at level 3.
Tundra – Like most dev heroes, a little bit overpowered when they are first added. Definitely a good addition to any team.

Whats not hot this month

Hellbringer – Base armor has been reduced to an abysmal 1.4, Life void cooldown increased.
Zephyr – Huge nerf, cyclones now deal HALF damage to non hero units. No longer the epic ricer.

New hero added Bubbles

Along with today’s patch changes a new INT hero called Bubbles has been added. Bubbles is a direct port of Puck from dota.
Having played around with him a bit in practice mode i noticed a couple of minor issues, one being that you cant directly port to his projectile from ‘Take Cover’. Instead you have to move before you can teleport hence canceling the channel.
Secondly since Bubbles is a direct port of Puck , you would expect his spells to be in the right order, however, his second and third skills are back to front.
I found this a little bit tricky to get used to.
Besides these little nags, Bubbles is a great addition to the hero pool.
He makes a great lane partner with Kraken, and also a good solo mid hero.
And for those of you unfamiliar with his play style, he is mainly played as a ganker/initiator which means you will be initiating big team fights with your teleport + silence + ultimate.
He also makes a great lane pusher with his first and second skills, perhaps in combination with a Boots of travel and Frostfield plate. Totem of Kuldra is also a great item for this hero.