Wretched Hag Hero Guide - HON Tutorial - Heroes of Newerth

If you played DotA and remember Queen of Pain, you should have an idea how to play Wretched Hag in HoN (the ultimate was reworked). Wretched Hag is an easy hero to counter(with Shrunken Head) at late middle game, but in the other hand it is one of the best gankers/nukers(AOE) in the game so if you do your job at early/middle game your team should be victorious. This Wretched Hag tutorial should give you the basics of how to play this hero.

Wretched Hag is a ganker with an amazing ultimate(AOE nuke), so it is important that you manage to hit as most enemy heroes with your ultimate as possible. Wretched Hag is also a great chaser and initiator(on small ganks! at team fight always stay behind and get in after your team initiator) since she has a 10 seconds Slow and a blink that allows you to jump in to a enemy hero, catch a low life runner or jump out of battle to avoid dead. Mid is the Lane for Wretched Hag since she is deadly on early game. But as almost all heroes a well feeded/farmed Wrethed Hag, can carry a game.

Skills:

Haunt: 

Type: Magic
Range: 400
Cast Time: 1.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 80 / 100 / 120 / 140
Cooldown: 20.0 / 17.0 / 14.0 / 11.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 50 / 70 / 70 / 100 initial Magic damage, then applies Haunted to target for 15 seconds.
Haunted Effects
10 / 20 / 40 / 50 Magic damage inflicted every 3 seconds.\n20 / 30 / 40 / 50% Movement speed slow initially, which wears off over 10 seconds.

Notes:
If you follow my suggestion for Skill/Spell build  this will be the last Skill to max. But you will take at least 1 point at the first levels. This Skill is used to slow enemies. Having a 10 seconds slow is always an effective method to chase or save an ally.

Flash of Darkness:

Range: 800 / 900 / 1,000 / 1,150
Cast Time: 1.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 12.0 / 10.0 / 8.0 / 6.0 Seconds
Activation
Teleports self to target position.

 Notes:
This is one of the best ways to initiate a fight, it is a free pk, port in and use your ultimate but you best port to a place where you can hit all enemy heroes. Also remember that this is your escape method so avoid jumping in if not needed, use the fog in your favor.


Sonar Scream:

Type: Magic
Radius: 400 / 450 / 475 / 500
Cast Time: 0.8 Seconds
Mana Cost: 140
Cooldown: 7.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 85 / 165 / 225 / 300 Magic damage to targets in radius.

Notes:
This is one of the best ways for you to farm and to be successful when ganking. It has a really low cooldown and a big magic damage. At start when ganking use Flash of Darkness-> Sonar Scream and if in need Haunt to slow down your enemies while you finish your job.

Skill Build:

1. Flash of Darkness (1)
2. Haunt (1)
3. Sonar Scream (1)
4. Sonar Scream (2)
5. Sonar Scream (3)
6. Bat Blast (1)
7. Sonar Scream (4)
8. Flash of Darkness (2)
9. Flash of Darkness (3)
10. Flash of Darkness (4)
11. Bat Blast (2)
12. Haunt (2)
13. Haunt (3)
14. Haunt (4)
15. Stats
16. Bat Blast (3)
17. Stats until Level 25

With this Build you will max your nukes and survival/ganking ability's. Wretched Hag is a squishy hero so 6 seconds cool-down on Flash of Darkness will be of great use.

Item Build:

Start:

You may want to get 1 Pretenders Crown and go for just 1 Talisman of the Exile, another option is to go for bottle at start. But i like this better. You should be able to buy the bottle really fast since with this Item Build it should not be hard to get almost all the last hits.


Early game:
     


Mid Game:
     

As i said Wretched Hag is a squish hero. Even in pub games you will always catch stuners/ disables or even nukers. So Nullstone must be apart of you Item Build. At this point you may think of putting your boots in strength. It all depends from how is going the game.

Late game:



 Your empty slot if for the Portal Stone remember to alway have 1. If you are really farmed you can buy Post Hast , replace your old Steam Boots and fill the 6 slot with Frostfield Plate, Harkon’s Blade or Hellflower.
 


Hope this guide was of help, for improvements to this guide just leave the tips on comment bellow ;) 

thanks for reading.

Pharaoh Hero Guide - HON Tutorial - Heroes of Newerth

If you played DotA and remember Clockwork Goblin, you should have an idea how to play Pharaoh in HoN. Pharaoh is a tricky hero to play.You must have some skill, as mastering animation cancelation is pretty handy. This Pharaoh tutorial should give you the basics of how to play this hero.

Pharaoh has many roles in team, he is really a "Handyman"!
Pharaoh is mainly a ganker and initiator, but is versatile skills able him to push lanes/assist fights anywhere in the map, control/scout the map at a really low mana cost, unable enemies (with a big animation time) to cast spells or even auto-attack, slow down an enemy hero that is running away... Pharaoh can not win a game at late game,  since he wont be a match to a hard carry unless you are extremely farmed and the carry is under-farmed, but on early/mid game it his a force to be feared.

Hellfire

•  Self - Visible Enemy Units
•  Radius: 300
•  Mana cost: 75
• Cooldown: 32/28/24/20 seconds

For 10 seconds, impacts a random target in radius every 0.75 seconds, dealing 10/30/50/70 Magic damage and stunning them for 0.1 seconds.

Notes:
Hellfire is a great slowing/chasing skill. The mini-stuns will do the slowing/enabling job. You and your team mates just have to kill. Hellfire is also an extremely high damage attack, at level 4 it can deal up to 910 magic damage if you catch your enemy alone in Hellfire range. So it is important that you don't catch your enemy near creeps or the damage and mini-stuns will be randomly given between the creeps and the enemy hero.
As all stuns/mini-stuns Hellfire will cancel Homecoming stones and channeling spells, but the greatest advantage is that consecutive amount of mini-stuns will also cancel auto-attack/spell animations(read my last post about attack animations), making it impossible for an enemy hero like Soulstealer to cast his ultimate.
But there are somethings to have in mind when using this skill. It has a big cooldown, so use it wisely, if you are chasing an enemy you shall activate the spell prior to the chasing or master the animation cancellation, otherwise you will just miss the enemy hero since Hellfire range is pretty small.

Wall of Mummies

•  No Target
•  Mana cost: 50/60/70/80
•  Cooldown: 15 seconds

Spawns 8 Mummies around self for 3/4/5/6 seconds. Pushes away nearby enemies who are outside the circle of Mummies, dealing 55/70/85/100 True damage and draining 55/70/85/100 Mana. Each Mummy can perform 1 push. Each Mummy takes three attacks for others to destroy, one attack for self to destroy.

Notes:
Wall of Mummies can be used either as an offensive spell as a defensive one. You can use it to imprison an enemy hero inside making him a siting duck for your allies and your self, to separate one enemy from the rest of his allies, or to simply run for your life. Remember to chose a narrow spot and by the time your enemies get pass the block(1push back + 3 attacks) you and you allies will be far away. Another thing to remember is that Wall of Mummies push back goes trough magic immunity, if you get a "greedy" Swift Blade trying to get a kill just put Wall of Mummies up and he wont be able to get you or your allies.

Tormented Soul

•  Target Position - Enemy Units
•  Type: Magic
•  Range: 9999999
•  Radius: 600
•  Mana cost: 50
•  Cooldown: 30/25/20/15 seconds

Launches projectile to target location. When projectile reaches target location, it damages all enemies within radius for 80/120/160/200 Magic damage. Target area is then revealed for 10 seconds.

Notes:
There are so many uses for Tormented Soul that I just hope I don´t forget any of them. You can use it to:

• scout any place on the map;
• push/defend lanes from anywhere;
• to harass and get last hits at early game;
• to snipe enemy heroes running at low life;
• Assist on ganks(enemy or your team) even if you are not there.

As all delayed spells you need practice to use it right. But don´t be afraid of trying, the mana cost is really low and the explosion radius is pretty big, why not give it a shot?
Just remember that a Tormented Soul fired from the world tree will take approximately:

• 18 seconds to enemy fountain;
• 7 seconds to middle river;
• 13 seconds to Bottom  tower 1;
• 15 seconds to Bottom  tower 2;
• 16 seconds to Bottom  tower 3.

Wrath of the Pharaoh

•  Target Position - Non-Neutral Enemies
•  Type: Magic
•  Range: 2000/2500/3000
•  Mana cost: 150
•  Cooldown: 80/60/40 seconds

Fires a projectile in target direction, taking 0.5 seconds to reach its maximum range of 2000/2500/3000. Upon impacting a non-neutral enemy unit, stuns that unit for 0.5 seconds and drags self over 0.5 seconds toward the impacted unit's location. During the drag, any units that pass within a 200 radius of self will be stunned for 1/1.5/2 second(s) and receive 100/200/300 Magic damage.

This ability can be boosted by Staff of the Master.

Staff Effect: Can hit ally heroes. Decrease cooldown to 20 seconds.

Notes:
Wrath of the pharaoh is your precious ganking skill  at early game, your initiating skill for team battles trough all game and may be you "runaway" skill if ganked. Remember that it has a HUGE range, so you can initiate/gank from fog with a tremendous speed. the enemy wont even know what hit him until the mummies rise, that also applies for escaping, you can easly escape a gank by casting Pharaoh's ultimate on a creep that is far away. Remember that the cooldown and mana cost are low, so don´t be afraid of using it.But when you use it at early game for ganks, remember that if you are going to cast Hellfire you to make a good shot. since you dont want any creeps being hit by your Hellfire mini-stuns and damage.

Pharaoh Skill build:

Lane Build:

1. Wall of Mummies (1)
2. Hellfire (1)
3. Hellfire (2)
4. Tormented Soul (1)
5. Hellfire (3)
6. Wrath of the Pharaoh (1)
7. Hellfire (4)
8. Tormented Soul (2)
9. Tormented Soul (3)
10. Tormented Soul (4)
11. Wrath of the Pharaoh (2)
12. Wall of Mummies (2)
13. Wall of Mummies (3)
14. Wall of Mummies (4)
15. Stats
16. Wrath of the Pharaoh(3)
17.  Stats until 25

The main propose of this build is to get kills with Hellfire, Tormented soul "only" use will be to interrupt potions, scouting or to last hit. We need to finish boots asap, so it is better if you have a stunner or a slower as lane partner.Wall of Mummies  will be your escape/saving option and a easy way to drain mana from heroes that truly depend of it.

Solo Build:

1. Tormented Soul
2. Wall of Mummies
3. Tormented Soul
4. Hellfire
5. Tormented Soul
6. Wrath of the Pharaoh
7. Tormented Soul
8. Hellfire
9. Hellfire
10. Hellfire
11. Wrath of the Pharaoh
12. Wall of Mummies
13. Wall of Mummies
14. Wall of Mummies
15. Stats
16. Wrath of the Pharaoh

Tormented Soul will be maxed first to have as much lane control as possible, this way Pharaoh can harass while last hitting, Wall of Mummies is taken to avoid ganks and to drain mana from enemies that depend on a small mana pool. Hellfire is taken at level 4 to get you ready to gank at level 6 it is worthless to max it at early game since you wont be able to use it effectively without a stun or a slow and since the tower are really close to each other (if you are mid).


Item Build:


Start:
If you are mid:
 

If you are at other lane:


You may consider getting an Iron Buckler asap.
Core Items:


You can also consider the bottle instead of chalice.

at end of early game/ start of midle you should have pinished you boots, have your core items and be on the way to finish either

or

is upon you to chose which to do. If your enemies have a lot of magic damage go for Shaman Headdress other wise Helm of the Black Legion will be your choice.

After this i can´t give you the rest of your item build. Pharaoh is not really an item dependent hero. From now on you need to build what can helps your team. I can just give you examples from what may be useful.



Barbed Armor and Behemoths Heart are really the only "selfish" items you can get in addition to your core items. To the top list you can also add Daemonic Breastplate.

Hope this guide was of help, for improvements to this guide just leave the tips on comment bellow ;)

Thanks for reading ;)

Hon Gameplay - Auto-attack/spell Backswing Cancellation - Heroes of Newerth

When you are chasing or in a team fight, there is more then just trowing spells, and auto-attacking.

Things like animation cancellation is what makes the difference between a 1600 and a 1800+. Most time when you watch (pro) HoN replays you can see that on team fight they are always moving the hero without "losing" auto-attacks, that they don't get behind(at least not as much as regular players) when chasing and auto-attacking.
Their enormous amount of actions per minute does not come exclusively from clicking on the ground 20 times in a row just to get from fountain to the shire :D , they are actually "playing" on most of the clicks.

We can say there are three types of animation cancellation:

• Auto-attack Back-swing Cancelation
• Spell Back-swing Cancellation
• Spell Cancellation

Auto-attack Backswing Cancellation

When you give the attack order, the hero must go through the attack animation. This animation consists of two parts: pre-attack animation (required to make the attack) and back-swing animation (optional).
If you order another command while your pre-attack animation is going on you will cancel your attack(this is useful when you are trying to last hit a creep or a tower tricking the enemy hero. So you should do it after preswing animation is finished.
After pre-attack animation finishes, the actual attack will be made, if range the "thing" will be thrown if melee the damage will be dealt. At this point the damage has been done(or will be if range) and there is nothing you can do to cancel that. But what is the point of waiting for the back-swing animation's end to walk or cast a spell?

Back-swing animation can be longer or shorter, depending on the hero, but the important thing is that it can be canceled. It is done by ordering another command right next to the attack(damage if melee, trown if range). So instead of your hero being stationary and doing the back-swing animation, your hero could be running after the enemy or away from him.

Note that by canceling the back-swing animation you wont attack faster, it just allows you to move. This just makes sense on some heroes(where the back-swing animation takes longer). Many of you may think that it is worthless, the moving you can do without "missing" auto-attacks in minimal, but it can make the difference. 

Summary: Right-click an enemy to attack him. When your auto-attack projectile starts flying away (ranged hero) or you deal damage (melee hero), right-click the ground to issue a move command. Your hero will move instead of doing the back-swing animation.

Spell Cancellation

Spell casting animation also consists of pre-spell animation and back-swing(there is also the casting time but lets keep it simple). Note that some spells don't have pre-spell animation(instant spell).But if there is an pre-spell animation and you press the hold key"H" you're canceling the spell and it won't be casted.

This can be very useful to trick your enemies. Examples of heroes with a big pre-cast animation time are Gladiator, Pyromancer, Valk,... on Gladiator Pitfall he will raise is sword , Pyromancer will stun... While they are doing that you can cancel the spell tricking the enemy, and making them try to dodge and "imaginary stun".

Summary: Click to cast the spell and press the 'Hold' key while the pre-spell animation is still running. You have canceled your spell with no mana wasted and no colldown.
 


Spell Back-swing Cancellation


It works on the exact same way then auto-attack back-swing cancellation. But here, the advantage is not only being able to move instead of standing there waiting for the animation to end, but also giving less clues that you have actually casted the spell.

For example: as deadwood you can cast Rotten Grasp and after 2 seconds that selected area will be affected by the spell. Rotten grasp has quite a long and recognizable back-swing animation which can help your enemies to notice. If you cancel the back-swing, maybe your enemy won't notice so easily that you casted the spell and even if they do, you can use that time to move. A good way to avoid being tricked by this is being aware of the opponent mana pool, if it drops you know that it was no bluff.

Summary: Cast the spell and order the hero to move or attack as soon as your hero casts the spell. Your hero will perform the requested command instead of doing the spell back-swing animation.

For improvements leave the tip on comment. Thanks

Flint Beastwood Hero Guide - HON -Heroes of Newerth Tutorial

If you played DotA and remember Sniper, you should have an idea how to play Flint Beastwood in HoN. Flint Beastwood is a pretty easy hero to play if you can last hit and maintain distance. This Flint Beastwood tutorial should give you the basics of how to play this hero.

 Flint Beastwood is a natural Damage Dealler with a amazing ulti(nuke), so if you manage to keep your distance and buy the right items, Flint Beastwood will just play with your enemies life with is amazing damage/attack speed and ministuns.

Skills:

Flare:

Deals 75/150/225/300 Magic damage to units and 25/50/75/100 Magic damage to towers on impact, leaving a burning flare for 4 seconds.

Activation
Target Position
Type: Magic
Range: 800
Radius: 300
Mana cost: 120
Cooldown: 14 seconds
The burning flare gives vision and applies Flared to all enemies in the radius.
Flared Effects
14/20/26/32% Movement Slow

Hollowpoint Shells:

On Attack Impact
25/30/35/40% chance that a bullet will explode, dealing 20/30/40/50 bonus Physical damage and stunning for .05/.1/.2/.2 seconds.

Dead Eye:

 

Increases attack range by 60/120/180/240.

Outrange:
Levels 3 and 4 allow Flint to outrange towers.

Money Shot:

After a 1.7s cast time, fires a shot at the target. Deals 355/505/655 Magic damage and stuns for .2 seconds.
Activation
Target Unit
Enemy Organic Units
Type: Superior Magic
Range: 1500/2000/2500
Channeling Time: 1.7 seconds
Mana Cost: 175/275/375
Cooldown: 20/15/10 seconds

Yes 10 sec cooldown on a 655 magic damage attack, but don't get too happy, is mana cost 375 and you low mana pool will cut your wings :).

Flint Beastwood Skill build:


Some players claim that you should do:


1 Dead Eye (1)
2 Hollowpoint Shells (1)
3 Hollowpoint Shells (2)
4 Dead Eye (2)
5 Dead Eye (3)
6 Money Shot (1)
7 Hollowpoint Shells (3)
8 Hollowpoint Shells (4)
9 Explosive Flare (1)
10 Explosive Flare (2)
11 Money Shot (2)
12 Explosive Flare (3)
13 Explosive Flare (4)
14 Dead Eye (4)
15 Stats
16 Money Shot (3)
17-25 Stats



Because of your low mana pool.
Well I think this is just stupid. You should max Flare. It is just a high damage AOE that damages towers, reveals stealth units and gives Movement slow.

My advise for skill build is:

1 Dead Eye (1)
2 Explosive Flare (1)
3 Hollowpoint Shells (1)
4 Explosive Flare (2)
5 Explosive Flare (3)
6 Money Shot (1)
7 Dead Eye (2)
8 Explosive Flare (4)
9 Dead Eye (3)
10 Hollowpoint Shells (2)
11 Money Shot (2)
12 Hollowpoint Shells (3)
13 Hollowpoint Shells (4)
14 Dead Eye (4)
15 Stats
16 Money Shot (3)
17-25 Stats

This "just" maxes your nuke ability, your probability to get towers, your lane farm, gank and "running". Maxing your Hollowpoint Shells  at start isn't a great thing to do, since your attack speed isn't that high at start. Getting lvl 1 gives you a 25% change to deal a mini-stun that is enough and can come to be of great use to cancel a channeling enemy skill ;).

Item build:

Starting Items:

x2for extra health and to make into a Fortified Cracelet
x2 for health regen
quick health regen

At this point you need to last hit and harras .

From the side shop/courier and get agi/strenght Steamboots
x2 More health


Midle Game Items:

Geometer's Bane. This is just the best item you can buy for Flint Beastwood. Allying Flint's DPS, range and ministuns from  Hollowpoint Shells to 2 more"Flint's" is just half way to kill an enemy hero.
At this point you shall also stat getting your Charged Hammer, in case there are dangerous nukers on the other team getting a Null Stone may be a thing to do.

Late Game:

Charged Hammer

Frostwolf Skull - This will be your attack modifier, you can get Shield Breaker or FrostBurn instead. But personally i like Frostwolf better since it gives you a significant bust on your hp and damage. If you are fighting fast enemies or have trouble positioning your self in time for batle FrostBurn can be a good choice.


Optional Items:

Null Stone - This item can fill some Flint Wood lacks, mana regeneration, hp, and it gives you protection from targeting spells if it isn't in cooldown. If you get this you can consider getting Shield Breaker as your attack modifier.

Assassin's Shroud - This item will provide you with an easy escape , giving you the possibility to farm and push lanes(but be careful, your enemy's will probably buy Revelation Wards and Dust).

Riftshards - This item will improve your damage making your attacks really lethal! 



Just remember. Your job is to deal damage, you can't do that if you are dead, so stay away from the center of the battle(3 or 4 hits from a carry and you are dead), use your range to deal damage from the fog or trees and take down low life running enemies with Money Shot.

Hope this guide was of help, for improvements to this guide just leave the tips on comment bellow ;)