Drunken Master - Hero Guide and Spotlight - HON Tutorial - Heroes of Newerth

Update: Drunken Master guide and Spotlight

Drunken Master is only up on the Test Client for now, but there is a great chance it will be the next new Hero to be released by S2.

Here is a text posted by S2 Staff Member Diva.

This section of the Drunken Master blog will focus on his pre-test patch iteration internally here at the S2 office, as well as his test client iteration.


Behind Closed Doors in the Smoke Filled Room:

When we first started the poll for which hero to focus on in this dev blog series, many players expressed concerns about the alternate mana mechanic that was meant to be used on Drunken Master. This outcry grew yet louder when the design doc was unveiled in the first episode of the dev blog, and we took it to heart. We were ourselves initially skeptical of the alternate mana mechanic; I personally was not sure how integral to the hero's design and feel the mechanic was, and whether its benefits outweighed the negatives. So we sat down over several lunches and discussed the merits of the "drunk bar" over a standard mana bar, as well as potential alternatives. The main alternatives that were presented were:

1. Create a third bar on top of mana and health for this hero
2. Make Drink give charges that were expended from and kept in a state
3. Ditch the entire concept of pre-drinking and drink charges impacting the hero
4. Make Drinking restore mana, and mana be the sole resource

After much deliberation, we came to the conclusion that the alternate mana mechanic was not what drove the hero; the hero's defining characteristics that shape his feel come from the abilities themselves, not how they are cast or enhanced. We did, however, want to keep the drinking = getting progressively more drunk = more potential power dealio. We went with option 2, making Drink give charges that are used from and kept in a state. While it injects a tertiary resource for players to manage, and requires maintenance and static periods (whereas the hero's other abilities really encourage unpredictable, mobile play), we feel that it adds depth to the character and really pounds in the feeling that you're playing a true drunken brawler.


Initial Testing and Reception:

When Drunken Master was first put into the test client, his temp art was... bad. I'm not nearly as good with temp art as Nome is, and I couldn't find anything suitable in the modders section. This contributed to an awkward feel for the hero. It's truly amazing how much art contributes to how a hero feels and plays, and for that I am incredibly grateful that we have AMAZING artists on staff here at S2. This didn't stop us from getting some good feedback and data though! People liked the idea of a drunk dude punching enemies. It's supposed to be cool or something.

Out of the gate, Drunken Master did great in lane. We expected this- Lunge is a fast initiation ability from range that both stuns and displaces enemies, and Stagger is an early disjoint and approach tool. Initial test builds ranged from maxing Drink early (1-4-1), which I adopted as my personal favorite, and ignoring Drink entirely to max Lunge and Stagger. All builds picked up Numb to Pain when available, as it provides immunity to all forms of CC. The hero often dominated lanes, hit a lull period in the midgame, and if allowed to peak, peaked high in the late game.


Change through Testing, Prettifying through Blacryu:

Luckily for my artistically handicapped self, Blacryu made a model to serve as temp art for Drunken Master. You guys can find it in the mods section- it's freaking fantastic. This helped HUGELY, as the hero now had the proper feel and look to him. Thanks again Blacryu!

Although Drunken Master dominated his lane, we found through much testing that he had a difficult time farming up and retaining his high effectiveness. The combination of his difficulty and high item dependence made him a tough hero to get through the mid game and to his peak. Many builds were toyed with; straight Insanitarius, tanking with HotBL, straight Frostburn, etc. The hero just needed too much: attack speed, movement speed, extra beefiness, and damage are all crucial to this kind of hero. To remedy some of this, we gave him a series of buffs, as well as toning down his lane dominance with Lunge:

• Stagger now deals minor physical damage in the AoE that he staggers to
• Stagger's drunk damage and move speed enhancement lasts for 4 seconds, up from 2.5 seconds
• Numb to Pain now gives (5/10/15)% Movement Speed
• Drink channels for up to 3 seconds, down from 4, and gives more per second to compensate
• Lunge mana cost from 90 to 120

With these changes, I'd still peg Insanitarius as a great early pickup, but defensive items make him really difficult to bring down. In a recent test game, one of our competitor-level players, JoshP, built Nullstone and HotBL on Drunken, and was nearly impossible to take down. Straight Frostburn still sounds really appealing, as that early strength is very nice and the slow application works with Lunge's double attack. We'll see how the hero shapes up moving forward, as we aim to complete testing on him and get him to a balanced and fun state!

[S2]DivA

S2 Staff Member 

    

 Will be waiting for Drunken Master to be released for all to make a decent guide and introduction to the new Hon Hero Drunken Master.