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 ;)