1. Submit your hero in this sub forum: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/forumdisplay.php?f=98
2. S2 will choose the best ideas from those submitted.
3. A public vote will be given were everyone will get a chance to vote on the new hero… of Newerth.

Deadline: The deadline is March 13, 2010 at midnight PST.

Rules: It has to be a STRENGTH hero. And… that’s all.

If you create one link to it in the comments and I’ll put it in the post!

Related posts:

1. New Hero Concept Art
2. Archetypes of HoN : The Conceder
3. Free Heroes of Newerth Closed BETA Key Giveaway!

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: contest, Heroes of Newerth, new hero, S2

Please don’t ever have this type of conversation with me again:

Me: “They have wards up, fyi.”
You wannabe pro nubcakes: “So? So do we.”
Me: “..gj? I’m just saying be careful they’ll see you in the river.”
You retards: “So what? We can see them too.”
“Oh..my..god. Let me try this again. BE CAREFUL WHILE GANKING THEY HAVE WARDS IN THE RIVER SO GO AROUND THEM KK?”
“Dude, we’re a team. We know that. It’s a given they would have wards in the river.”
“….no we are in a pub. It’s never a given that a PUB would put wards up.”
“Dude, we geeeeeeet it.”
“ok pro.”
*watches as someone runs through river and is left confused as to why the other team backed* …

Yes, I get it you are pro.. with your 4 lock in a pub “Noobs Allowed” game. “We’re a team.” A team that stays around 1600. Congrats. Those dreams you have of going up against [x6] or [5] NEVER gonna happen. Wanna know why? Because you think you are the shit and you’re not. Learn a little humility and understand you don’t know everything. MAYBE then you can pull your heads out of your asses and be somewhat decent.

Good day,

Kirei.

Related posts:

1. Locks Are Bad Team Players
2. Dear HoNCast
3. Always The Bridesmaid… Never The Bride

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Heroes of Newerth, Idiots in HoN, open letter, pubs

Another new hero on the horizon. This one will leave a lot of you guessing. We’re excited about what this magical lil turtle brings to HoN’s gameplay.

Wow, I’m late on posting this guy. He was hiding in a different album. I need to check their facebook more often ><

Related posts:

1. Design a Hero for S2!
2. Free Heroes of Newerth Closed BETA Key Giveaway!

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: concept art, Heroes of Newerth - BETA, new hero

Ok we are gonna completely change this up. I had no idea that Newti on the HoN forums has already created a pretty in depth (read: up to date) all heroes mini guide list. While all the strats are based on his opinion, he does seem to offer a second choice. So I’m going to repost his guide giving him full credit. You can find his original guide here on the forums. Since this is based around his opinion, you can add your thoughts in the comments and I’ll add them to this page. Just be sure to back your opinions up. Alright so here ya go.

Rampage
Sand Wraith
Scout
Slither
Soul Reaper
Soulstealer
Succubus
Swiftblade
Tempest
Thunderbringer
Torturer
Valkyrie
Vindicator
Voodoo Jester
Warbeast
Wildsoul
Witch Slayer
Wretched Hag
Zephyr

Skill Build
1 – Stampede
2 – Might of the Herd
3 – Might of the Herd
4 – Horned Strike
5 – Might of the Herd
6 – Favor of Sol
7 – Might of the Herd
8 – Horned Strike
9 – Horned Strike
10 – Horned Strike
11 – Favor of Sol
12 – Stampede
13 – Stampede
14 – Stampede
15 – Stats
16 – Favor of Sol
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
My Skillbuild for Rampage, but i don’t play him often. One level of Stampede for transport and stun. Maxxing Might of the Herd first for movespeed and most important last hitting.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Steam Boots >> Shrunken Head

Very generic Str carry build. Rampage is not very dependant on Shrunken Head but it’s still a very very good item for him. If you face few disables feel free to skip it.
Don’t get ghost marchers, they suck on him. Post haste are an alternative if you farm fast.

After Core:
Icebrand >> Frostburn >> Warpcleft >> Staff of the Master >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth’s Heart

Not much to say really. Frostburn kicks ass!
SotM can be gotten before Warpcleft. At some point you might want lifesteal. Elder Parasite, Abyssal Skull and Whispering Helm all are good options depending on your situation. Use your Judgement.

Alternative Items:
- Insanitarious: You can get it after Frostburn if you really struggle with your farm.
- Elder Parasite: Horned Strike has an internal CD so this might look good on paper but it really isn’t all that great. You can get it after Frostburn if you like the item.

Information:
Roles: Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent (Good base damage)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 1 – Poor
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Can carry if farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Rampage is – in my humble opinion – one of the worst heroes. He has almost no utility, a very confusing last hitting animation (horned striked screwing it up) and no escape mechanism short of his speed. Also his Horned Strike is too random to be reliable.
- You can’t do much early game. Stay in your lane and farm. Don’t charge on enemies, it is very dangerous to do early game! Your priority is to stay a live.
- Use stampede to save you the TP gold if you want to move back to your lane (charge a creep from the fountain/from another lane).

Skill Build

1 – Master’s Incantation
2 – Sage’s Lore
3 – Sage’s Lore
4 – Master’s Incantation
5 – Sage’s Lore
6 – Final Chapter
7 – Sage’s Lore
8 – Master’s Incantation
9 – Master’s Incantation
10 – Glyph of Silence
11 – Final Chapter
12 – Glyph of Silence
13 – Glyph of Silence
14 – Glyph of Silence
15 – Stats
16 – Final Chapter
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Sage’s Lore and Master’s Incantation is maxxed for the optimum of harassment. You can get one level of Glyph at 4 for the int steal but in my opinion its not game breaking while Incantation offers solid harassment and Last Hitting.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, 2xRunes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Bracelet of Fortification >> Astrolabe

Steam Boots on Int while laning or farming, on str while in team fights or ganks. Astrolabe for survivability and support. You are party responsible for setting up wards. Help buying them!

After Core:
Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Frostfield Plate

More int and disable/utility spells. Remember about the Wards…

Information:
Roles: Babysitter
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 5 – Very Hard (Ult requires perfect timing and great awareness, you are very squishy)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Most annoying harasser)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Ult can be game changing in big clashes)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Using Final Chapter at the right moment is easily one of the hardest moves in the game at the moment and depends on the type if Initiation you have. For example: Tempest requires an early silence to cast his Ult or with Shrunken Head directly after his Elemental Void ends. Behemoth is better off if the silence is ~1 second after his Shockwave, etc.
- Cast Sage’s Lore right after your opponent uses a cheap spell so he can’t easily get rid of it.
- Keep harassing with Sage’s Lore. If you go out of Mana let the courier bring you Mana Potions.
- Use Master’s Incantation mainly for harassing and let your carry get the lasthits.

Skill Build
1 – Summon Beardulon
2 – Natural Attunement
3 – Summon Beardulon
4 – Natural Attunement
5 – Summon Beardulon
6 – Natural Attunement
7 – Summon Beardulon
8 – Natural Attunement
9 – Wild
10 – Bear Form
11 – Bear Form
12 – Wild
13 – Wild
14 – Wild
15 – Stats
16 – Bear Form
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
I will only cover jungeling here. A laning Wildsoul is in my eyes not an option. Dont pick him if you know you wont have two heroes capable of soloing.
You will not go into bearform until late midgame, so there is not much use in taking it before level 10. The only time i would skill Bear Form at level 6 is if i get hardcore ganked in the jungle.
Beardulon and Natural Attunement offer the best jungeling power. Once level 9 you should be able to support the Mana for Wild.

Items
I will only cover the classic “Bearmock” build. There are other, new school approaches to be seen in compeditive play going for a straight Dual Ghost Marchers, Frostburn -> Warpcleft on Wildsoul, staying in human form. I will follow this development and update this guide when I see the need for it.

Staring Items:
Wildsoul: Runes of the Blight or Healing Potion
Beardulon: Iron Buckler, Logger’s Hatchet

Core:
Wildsoul: Marchers, 1 slot for homecomings and possibly 4 minor totems as filler.
Beardulon: Gloves of the Swift, Mock of Brilliance, Marchers. When you send Beardulon back to heal for the first time, buy 1x Gloves of the swift on him. The next Item you buy is Sword of the high for your Beardulon. Usually you want to get Mock as fast as possible, which is attainable in 20-25 Minutes of jungling.

After core:
- Steam Boots. Use the gloves from Beardulon to create a pair of steamboots for Wildsoul.
- Ghost Marchers. Upgrade Beardulon’s Marchers to Ghost marchers. He wont get benefits from Steamboots’ Stats and Ghost marchers allow for good chasing and phasing.
- Warpcleft on Beardulon. He’s got that +60 Sword, an entangle proc and massive base damage in general. Attack speed is the perfect stat for him; as your main source of damage is the Bear.
- Frostburn on Wildsoul. Helps you keep up with Beradulon speed wise. Adds the much needed Movement slow for when Entangle doesn’t proc. At this point in the game you start to scale better than Beardulon and will soon be on par with him damage wise.
- Daemonic Breastplate or Charged Hammer. Use the Warpcleft to build either Daemonic Breastplate or Charged Hammer depending on how the game is developing. Leave the item on Beardulon for now. As soon as your enemies are capable of killing beardulon relatively easy (usually around the 45+ min mark) move everything onto wildsoul and go bear form. This is where you turn into a true Hard Carry.
- Wingbow, if the game still goes on.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry, Tank, Jungler
Prefered Lane: Jungle
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Can jungle from level 1)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: Jungler
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Reliant on entangle procs when ganking, needs time to farm up)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Gank your lane from the forest if the opportunity present itself or if your lane mate asks for it.
- Lanepull creeps to help your Short Solo hero. It will allow him to fight at the tower and get a better farm. (You can lanepull while Beardulon is off healing)
- Carry a homecoming stone when jungling.
- Tabbing back and forth between wildsoul and beardulon to give move commands gives you better control. Practice is key.
- Once you have your Core stop jungling! Push towers and Help in Teamfights! With Mock you are better off farming lanes anyways.
- You can run circles around your enemies with Mock-Beardulon to prevent them from initiating with a Portal Key. Especially useful versus Magmus and Behemoth.

Skill Build
1 – Electric Eye
2 – Vanish
3 – Vanish
4 – Electric Eye
5 – Vanish
6 – Marksman Shot
7 – Vanish
8 – Disarm
9 – Disarm
10 – Disarm
11 – Marksman Shot
12 – Disarm
13 – Electric Eye
14 – Electric Eye
15 – Stats
16 – Marksman Shot
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Straightforward build. Eye is taken at level 1 to ward rune + enemy creep spot. At level 4 we take another level of Eye to initiate ganks.
Under no circumstances should you use another build for scout.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Item Build:
Power Supply >> Sustainer >> Steam Boots Strength/Agi >> Runed Axe >> Shieldbreaker >> Brutalizer >> Savage Mace or Symbol of Rage

Power Supply is core. Always get it asap; it can save your life with only 2 charges to be able to vanish. After that get lifetube against a strong lane or manatube against a weaker lane first (Manatube allows for Marksman shot harass while lifetube counters their harass). Complete Sustainer, pick up Steamboots and finish off runed axe. Ghost Marchers are useless as they break vanish and runed axe lets you stay in vanish for almost no upkeep cost.
Once you get Runed axe you can clear a full wave of creeps in a matter of 2 seconds out of vanish. Make use of that to farm your luxury items.
Should you require Lifesteal earlier for whatever reason, feel free to get it at any point after Runed Axe.

Information:
Roles: Carry, (Ganker)
Prefered Lane: short
Difficulty: 1 – Very Easy (probably the easiest hero to play if you don’t use eyes to silence, scales incredibly well)
Farming capabilities: 1 – Poor (goes to excellent as soon as he completes runed axe)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 1 – Very Weak (can’t do **** short of silencing, gets a bit better with his ult)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Very Strong if not countered by Anti-Invis)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Get eyes. Plant them before the creeps spawn at your rune spot and if long laned in their neutral pull spot (put it into the trees next to the camp. This will still block the camp and they can’t easily spot it).
- If they have a jungling hero consider putting both wards into their forest. Or get a third level of Eyes early. It really ****s up a tempest or ophelia.
- Set an Eye before Ganks and blow it up by pressing “E” one second after you break out of vanish.
- Once you get Electric Eye level 4 plant wards in their forest to check for easy gank opportunities.

Skill Build
1 – Blade Frenzy
2 – Stats
3 – Blade Frenzy
4 – Stats
5 – Blade Frenzy
6 – Swift Slashes
7 – Blade Frenzy
8 – Counter Attack
9 – Way of the Sword
10 – Way of the Sword
11 – Swift Slashes
12 – Way of the Sword
13 – Way of the Sword
14 – Counter Attack
15 – Counter Attack
16 – Swift Slashes
17 – Counter Attack
18 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Blade Frenzy and stats are taken for the first levels. Mainly to have enough Mana for Blade Frenzy + Swift Slashes at level 6. Also stats are more useful than Way of the Sword early on as you won’t be auto attacking.
One level of Counter Attack is taken at level 8. The first level gives you a 15% chance while the fourth level only gives a 30% chance to counter attack. You get 50% of the effect for 25% of the cost. Good Deal!
If laned versus two aggressive melee heroes you can take the first level of Counter Attack on level 4.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem

Item Build:
Logger’s Hatchet >> (Power Supply >>) Ghost Marchers >> Runed Axe >> Shieldbreaker >> Staff of the Master >> Symbol of Rage

Get a Logger’s Hatchet from the Outpost asap. Power Supply is situational on Swiftblade, get it if you play against spamming opponents.
Ghost Marchers are better than Steamboots on Swiftblade (Activate + Spin). The rest is basic carry gear. If playing against Hammer/Hellbringer/Jera/… insert a Nullfire Blade after Ghost Marchers for Purge.
If you fancy ancient stacking you can get a Whispering Helm after Runed Axe.

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Strong if paired with a disabler/slower)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Good ganking power with ult, but should farm instead of gank)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Needs decent farm)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
Very Strong with disablers or slowers (Glacius deserves special mentioning as his babysitter)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Remember you can attack while spinning once you reach level 7. This will GREATLY increase your damage!
- You can spin and then use a homecoming stone to make sure they can’t easily abort your TP.
- Early game you can use Blade Frenzy to force the enemy away from his creeps and then use Swift Slashes on him once is he far enough for the kill.
- Later in the game use Blade Frenzy like you would use a Shrunken Head. Thats pretty much what it is.

Skill Build
1 – Poison Spray
2 – Toxin Ward
3 – Poison Spray
4 – Toxicity
5 – Poison Spray
6 – Poison Burst
7 – Poison Spray
8 – Toxin Ward
9 – Toxin Ward
10 – Toxin Ward
11 – Poison Burst
12 – Toxicity
13 – Toxicity
14 -Toxicity
15 – Stats
16 – Poison Burst
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Poison Spray is your strongest ability early game in my opionion; this is why we max it first. Get one level of Toxicity for the slow and regen debuff but max wards first as they greatly help you pushing/creeping/scouting and even killing. The build is kinda flexible, you can change it as you like but always have all 3 spells at level 4!! Some guidelines: With a gankheavy lane (usually paired with a stunner) you should max Poison Spray for early kills. With a very push heavy team (defiler, ophelia, etc.) consider maxing wards first and assist in tower pushing. And finally Toxicity can be maxed first if you play in middle as you most likely wont get early kills with Spray and Toxicity helps you a lot for lane control by harassing.

Starting Items:
Monkey Courier, Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Wards of Sight >> Ghost Marchers >> 2x Soulscream Ring

If someone else gets a courier, buy Wards instead. Your job is to keep the Wards up so keep buying them! This is always more important than your core items! Ghost Marchers are decent to chase poisoned enemies down. They are slowed by at least 10% so you can keep up to most heroes with Ghost Marchers. It’s also good for positioning your ultimate in team fights before you get Shroud or Portal Key. Soulscream Rings can be replaced by Fortified Bracelets as you see fit.

After Core:
1. Staff of the Master because Poison Burst is what you bring to Teamfights.
2. Assassins Shroud or Portal Key for better Ultimate positioning and survivability. Rule of Thumb: The higher skill level your opponents have the more you want Portal Key. Get one; don’t get both.
3. If you are here you most likely did something wrong. You should never reach this point in a normal game unless you “forgot” to buy wards or went farming instead of ganking.

Information
Roles: Babysitter, Initiator, Roamer, Wardhoe
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 1 – Very Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Good Harassing, even with auto attacks)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Very Powerful ult in ganks and teamfights)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Usually not played as a carry)

30-Second-Guide
- Gank, gank, and gank. Buy items that will help you gank, these include homecoming stones, Ghost Marchers, Power Supply and wards.
- Always have enough mana for the Poison spray+burst combo if Poison burst is not on cooldown. The combo takes 320 mana at level 6, 335 mana at level 7, 435 mana at level 11, and 535 mana at level 16.
- Set up Toxic Wards behind you and to your sides when pushing for scouting purposes. They have a 1400 Vision Range. Even at night!

Skill Build
1 – Soulsteal
2 – Demon Hand
3 – Soulsteal
4 – Demon Hand
5 – Demon Hand
6 – Soulsteal
7 – Demon Hand
8 – Soulsteal
9 – Soul Burst
10 – Stats
11 – Soul Burst
12 – Stats
13 -Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Soul Burst
17 – Dread
18 – Dread
19 – Dread
20 – Dread
21 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Soulsteal early to rack up lasthit/deny damage. Demon Hand is useful from level 5+. Ulti is gotten at 9 since you usually won’t gank before that level.

Starting Items:
2xRunes of the Blight, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Post Haste >> 2x Soulscream Ring >> Assassins Shroud

I am a huge fan of rushing Post Haste on Soulstealer. You will get them as early as level 9, allowing you to teleport from lane to lane, farming it up with demon hand. Portal Key is no longer reliable to get the ulti off (increased cast time) so I suggest to use Assassin’s Shround for this purpose.

After Core:
Shield Breaker >> Shrunken Head >> Wingbow >> Geometer’s Bane

Shield Breaker has nice synergy with dread and is generally a very good dps item. Shurnken head is needed as on most agi carries. After that it’s standard luxury.

Information
Roles: Carry, Pusher, (Nuker, Initiator)
Prefered Lane: Solo mid (can be played on long, but i dont recommend it)
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (Nukes are a bit trick and the ultimate needs perfect positioning)
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent (A full creep wave for 150 mana. Fully stacked neutral camps for 225 Mana. Best farmer there is for early and mid game.)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Incredibly Strong Nukes for the low Manacost)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (THE best farmer in midgame, powerful ult)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Solid carry due to his farm, very good pusher)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ good pusher
+ best farmer
+ good in every game phase

30-Seconds-Guide:
- From the point you reach level 7 until minute 35 you can kill a full creep wave with two Demon Hands. Use this a LOT to farm your items.
- When using your ultimate you have to stand as close as possible to your enemy. This is imperative! For maximum damage shroud right on top of them.
- In early game use Demon Hand when your enemies get too close to the creeps. Demon Hand is in general a very good harassing spell if you can aim with it (practice is key).

Skill Build
1 – Cyclones
2 – Gust
3 – Cyclones
4 – Gust
5 – Cyclones
6 – Typhoon
7 – Cyclones
8 – Gust
9 – Gust
10 – Wind Shield
11 – Typhoon
12 – Wind Shield
13 – Wind Shield
14 – Wind Shield
15 – Stats
16 – Typhoon
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
One level of wind shield can be taken early as it is passive and the first level provides significantly more than the following levels. Get this if you get early marchers and need to chase.
Then Max cyclones and Gust first. Generally i max Gust first if I am with a stunner. Cyclones otherwise. Typhoon is now good and taken whenever you can.

Starting Items:
1x Healing Potion, 1x Logger’s Hatchet, 1x Iron Buckler

Core:
(Iron Shield >>) Life Tube >> Helm of the Black Legion >> Ghost Marchers >> Mock of Brilliance

Zephyr, being a very strong tank, is a good choice for Mock. Unlike other chars you can’t rush it naked however. You will need at least Hotbl and some Boots first. Due to your excellent farming abilities you will still have your Mock pretty early tho (Min 25 Ghost Marchers, Hotbl and Mock is easy possible, check the Replays for examples). You can get Plated Greaves instead of Ghost Marchers if they feauture a lot of physical damage or armor reduction.

After Core:
(Tablet of Command >>) Barrier Idol >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Frostwolf Skull

I encourage you to try Tablet of Command. It is an awesome item on Zephyr, giving him his former Leap back and another possibility to push enemies into your Typhoon (only if they face the right direction though). I tried it and liked it very much on this hero!
The rest is standard tank/carry build.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry, Tank, Pusher
Prefered Lane: Any (Can solo mid and can also jungel from level 1)
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (Requires last hitting skills and Gust is a bit tricky to use)
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent (Probably the best amongst melee carries)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (good lane staying power with cyclones, easy to farm early on, decent jungler from level 1 on)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Needs farm to become effective)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Carries hard if properly farmed)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ excellent pusher

30-Seconds-Guide:
- When you have cyclones up, you can use pathblocking to prevent an enemy from reaching his tower, doing more damage than just rightclicking.
- If you use a homecoming stone you will lose all cyclones, keep that in mind.
- Gust has a lot of different uses. Always think about all the possibilities before using it.
- When cyclones expire, the oldest will expire first (thats a good thing)
- If you are at max cyclones always consume one before you do a last hit. The oldest cyclone will be consumed.

Replays:
Match 27855966
Match 27910477

Skill Build
1 – Courageous Leap
2 – Javelin of Light
3 – Call of the Valkyrie
4 – Call of the Valkyrie
5 – Call of the Valkyrie
6 – Javelin of Light
7 – Call of the Valkyrie
8 -Javelin of Light
9 – Javelin of Light
10 – Valkyrie’s Prism
11 – Valkyrie’s Prism
12 – Courageous Leap
13 – Courageous Leap
14 – Courageous Leap
15 – Stats
16 – Valkyrie’s Prism
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Get Javelin of Light first (Leap second) if you plan to rune-gank. It’s probably the strongest rune-ganking skill in the game.
If you start pushing before level 10, get Valkyrie’s Prism earlier.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, Duck Boots

Core:
Bottle, Ghost Marchers, 2x Soulscream Ring

One of the few Heroes I recommend building Ghost Marchers, as positioning is very important for her. Also you should be able to quickly close in after an arrow. Stats are instead gotten from Soulscream Rings. You can build a Power Supply, its also pretty good on her.

After Core:
(Nullfire Blade >>) Geometer’s Bane >> Charged Hammer >> Whispering Helm >> Savage Mace >> Symbol of Rage

Get a Nullfire ASAP if your team needs to counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah. Otherwise go for the listed build.

Information
Roles: Semi-Carry, Ganker, Initiator
Prefered Lane: Any. Can solo Mid, or side preferably paired with another disabler
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (Arrows…)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent (Call helps a lot)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (very dangerous arrow stuns, heavy nuke)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Extremely Strong Ganker, can control the game from mid lane)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Can be 4 – Strong if she dominated the midgame, her ultimate is amongst the best initiation)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- If you have problems hitting your Javelin, wait for someone else on your team to cast a disable, then throw the Javelin at the non-moving target.
- Valkyrie’s Prism is a very strong initiation, escape and counter-gank tool. But the Priority is on initiation, especially if you are lacking other good sources of it.
- Use Call of the Valkyrie (once it’s level 3+) to punish enemy melee heroes if they go in melee range of the creep waves.
- Especially if you play in mid: Gank a lot!

Skill Build
1 – Desert’s Curse
2 – Deserted
3 – Desert’s Curse
4 – Deserted
5 – Desert’s Curse
6 – Mirage
7 – Desert’s Curse
8 -Deserted
9 – Deserted
10 – Dissipate
11 – Mirage
12 – Dissipate
13 – Dissipate
14 – Dissipate
15 – Stats
16 – Mirage
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
This skillbuild is if you lane with a competent babysitter. You can set higher priority on Dissipate if you get harassed and/or ganked hardcore.

Lane Starting Items:
1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, Duck Boots

Core:
(Iron Shield >>) Lifetube >> Steam Boots >> Helm of the Black Legion

Iron Shield can be skipped if the game goes easy.

After Core:
(Nullfire Blade >>) Mock of Brilliance >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Frostburn >> Barbed Armor >> Riftshards

Get a Nullfire after core if your team needs to counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah. Otherwise farm your Mock. Heart and Barbed Armor to make sure no one can kill you without dying first.
You can also Skip Mock, get Nullfire and then work for a Frostburn as an alternative route.

Alternative Items:
You can rush a naked Mock in pubs which will allow you to farm the rest much faster. In higher level games it is NOT recommended!

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry, Initiator, Tank
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 1 – Poor
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 1 – Poor
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Ulti starts to becoma a viable tool)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong

Noteable +/- and synergies:
- Requires a lot of farm, turtle strat

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your ultimate allows you to farm ALL THE TIME. This is what makes Sand Wraith arguably the strongest Carry. If a teamfight is happening just activate Mirage and you are right in the middle of it.
- Always Carry a TP!! When getting ganked while farming throw out a Desert’s Curse (doesn’t matter if it hits anything) and walk straight into the forest where they can’t follow you. Then TP to another lane and continue farming.

Skill Build
1 -Blast of Lightning
2 – Lightning Rod
3 – Blast of Lightning
4 -Lightning Rod
5 – Blast of Lightning
6 – Lightning Storm
7 – Blast of Lightning
8 – Lightning Rod
9 – Lightning Rod
10 – Stats
11 – Lightning Storm
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Lightning Storm
17 – Stats+
22 – Chain Lightning+

Justification / Modifications:
Don’t get Chain Lightning early unless you are getting outdenied heavily (for example versus a soul stealer you maybe wanna get it at level 2)! You don’t have the Mana to use it for last hitting.
I don’t bother with maxing Chain Lightning at all, but you can if you like to. By the time you get level 14 (lvl 4 CL) its kinda ineffective anyways.

Lane Starting Items:
Upgraded Flying Courier, Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion

Core:
Bottle >> (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> 2x Talisman of the Exile >> Wards of Sight

You don’t need stats to start of as your lasthitting is pretty terrible anyways. Eiter drive the enemy back so you have free reign over the creeps or use level 1 Chain Lightning for Last Hitting as explained above. You can start with a naked bottle but imo it is a lot better to get the flying courier who can bring you mana potions and who can easily refill you bottle at the founain.

After Core:
Ghost Marchers >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Sacrificial Stone

Why Ghost Marchers? His Movespeed of 295 is among the slowest in the game. To gank he needs to come into range for his Blast. Also Blast has a very short cooldown and the boots allow you to effectively chase someone for that last cast. And finally the +damage helps your farming a lot more than attack speed.
Keep Buying Wards or at least help buying them.
Then get Kuldra’s Sheepstick to stay viable in late game. Don’t get SotM, ever.

Information:
Roles: Nuker
Prefered Lane: Any, mid preferred
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent (chain lightning)
Item dependancy: 1 – Very Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Heavy Nukes)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Decent Ganker, Brings his damage to team fights)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (“Scales” somewhat into the later game but is much less effective)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Start nuking with Blast of Lightning at level 3. If you run low on mana bring more Mana Potions with your flying courier.
- Get a bottle asap, use the flying courier to check runes and send the courier to refill the bottle if you don’t get enough runes.
- Last hitting and denying is secondary with Thunderbringer. Play aggressive and keep up high pressure.
- As soon as you have ghost Marchers get ready to gank other lanes.
- If there’s an invisible hero that’s in the area, use Lightning Blast on a random creep to reveal the area. If the invis player is bad, chances are he won’t even notice.
- Blast of Lightning has a Ministun.
- Use Lightning Storm before you die, even if it doesn’t kill! Better even, use it at the start of teamfights to prevent Portal Key surprises and to give you an early advantage.

Skill Build
1 – Elemental
2 – Glacial Blasts
3 – Elemental
4 – Glacial Blasts
5 – Elemental
6 – Elemental Void
7 – Glacial Blasts
8 – Glacial Blasts
9 – Elemental
10 – Meteor
11 – Elemental Void
12 – Meteor
13 – Meteor
14 – Meteor
15 – Stats
16 – Elemental Void
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Tempest will always jungle. This is a law of nature and cannot be questioned. Thus you get Elementals up to level 3. Level 4 is overkill for jungling, better max Glacial Blasts first to gank more effective.

Lane Starting Items:
1. Ring of the Teacher, 2x Mana Potion
2. Bottle
3. Monkey Courier, Wards, 4x Mana Potion

I recommend the first build for pubs, the 2nd for for Inhouse/CW when someone else gets a courier and the 3rd build otherwise.

Core:
Portal Key >> Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelets

Preferably Portal Key is the first item you buy after around 6 Minutes into the game. Then get Boots and some HP.

After Core:
Plated Greaves >> Shrunken Head >> Wards of Sight

Plated Greaves add some EHP and combined with your elementals add a lot of pushing power! Shrunken Head is to get your ult of uninterrupted.
After that you are done, just buy wards and other supportive items as you see fit.

Information:
Roles: Initiator, Pusher, Ganker, Wardhoe
Prefered Lane: Jungle
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (Heavy until core, low afterwards)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: Jungle
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Game changing ultimate and good pushing power)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong

30-Seconds-Guide:
- If you want to learn how to Jungle the most effective, watch the video at the bottom of this page: http://www.gamereplays.org/heroesofn…jungling-guide
- Short Version: Double stack the easy and a medium camp at 0.49, use Elementals right after double stack. Clear the easy camp, kill as many as you can from the medium camp until Elementals run out (don’t recast). Lane Pull creeps at the 1.45 mark. Wait until the 2.49 and repeat double stacking. This uses very few Mana and gives you maximum xp and gold/min if done correctly.
- Stop Jungeling once you have Portal Key and Marchers!!
- Gank your lane often, especially at level 6 when you get your ult! (Use courier to send you more Mana Potions for ganks).

Skill Build
1 – Graveyard
2 – Power Drain
3 – Power Drain
4 – Graveyard
5 – Power Drain
6 – Silver Bullet
7 – Miniaturize
8 – Graveyard
9 – Graveyard
10 – Miniaturize
11 – Silver Bullet
12 – Miniaturize
13 – Miniaturize
14 – Power Drain
15 – Stats
16 – Silver Bullet
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Witch Slayer allows for a couple of different builds. This one is my favorite tho. Get Power Drain to level 3 fast for very good harassment and utility.
Other builds include maxxing Graveyard at level 7 (Power Drain and Miniaturize each 1 Point) or even pure Graveyard and Miniaturize. With the listed build however you are never wrong.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, 2x Runes of the Blight, 4x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> 1-2x Fortified Bracelet

Make sure to keep the Wards up.

After Core:
Astrolabe >> Portal Key >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick

Witchslayer is a good carrier for Astrolabe due to his unlimited Mana pool. Portal Key for positioning or disable + escape is good on him.
And finally Sheepstick, the classic on every int hero.

Alternative Items:
Puzzlebox is of course an option if the enemy team has invis or is warding.
Staff of the Master is an option too if someone else is doing astrolabe.
Void Talisman when dealing with a lot of Shrunken Heads or Predators .

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Nuker, Disabler
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent (due to Manadrain)
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Good disable/harass, strong ult)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Always somewhat useful with 2 disables)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Don’t KS with Silver Bullet. You are a support hero / babysitter.
- Don’t overwrite your disables. Don’t cast miniaturize right after Graveyard, use them after eachother.
- Don’t KS with Silver Bullet.
- Use Graveyard + Power Drain on heroes with a low mana pool in teamfights (for example Pestilence or Hammerstorm). It will almost empty their Manapool with one cast!
- Never KS with Silver Bullet, use it either early to get a fast kill or when the enemy is escaping. (Or of course when you are aloe, duh.)

Skill Build
1 – Acid Cocktail
2 – Cursed Ground
3 – Cursed Ground
4 – Acid Cocktail
5 – Cursed Ground
6 – Spirit Ward
7 – Cursed Ground
8 – Acid Cocktail
9 – Acid Cocktail
10 – Mojo
11 – Spirit Ward
12 – Mojo
13 – Mojo
14 – Mojo
15 – Stats
16 – Spirit Ward
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Cursed Ground takes priority as the strongest non-ult nuke in the game, and Acid Cocktail is taken secondary due to it’s incredibly strong uses as both a crowd control skill and as a farming tool. Mojo is taken last, as it helps sustain pushes, but it is worth taking over stats.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Steam Boots

I consider Bottle core, even if not playing mid. The main reason being that invis or haste will offer you an almost guaranteed kill when ganking due to the nature of cursed ground. Power Supply is needed, as your “combo” takes up a lot of burst mana. Bracelets and Steam Boots to compensate for his lack of vitality. If you get Bracelets before Steam Boots consider leaving Steam Boots on Int to be able to get your combo off more reliably. Switch to str later when your Mana Pool is big enough.

After Core:
Staff of the Master >> Shrunken Head >> Portal Key >> Kulrda’s Sheepstick

Staff of the Master has a good stats gain while building it (more Mana allows you to farm faster with Coccktail) and almost doubles your total damage output on a well placed curse + ward! After that get Shrunken head to be able to cast Spirit Ward uninterrupted. I advise to get SotM first as this route is usually faster and offers more direct benefits (exceptions versus very heavy disabler teams obviously). If the game still goes on after this get Portal Key for perfect positioning and eventually the All-Star Kuldra’s.
Note that Voodoo Jester is not a good Babysitter or a typical Ward Hoe (He is a Ganker and maybe even Semi-Carry in some way). Usually there will be a hero in the game who is suited better for buying wards. However if no one else does so you should at least help buying wards.

Alternative Items:
- Assassin’s Shroud: Some people swear by it on Voodoo jester; I think SotM and Shrunken Head have a much higher Priority and after that Portal Key gets the job done better. But the choice is yours.
- Codex: Interesting Synergy with Curse, but the same problem as with assassin’s shroud: Your other Items are better and more important! And a lategame codex is weak.

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Roamer
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (Pretty Heavy for an Int hero)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Medium with the right gear, ult loses power as enemies stack armor)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Always Curse first when possible. Then Mojo, Stun and finally place the Ward. If your enemy is running away you can stun first and follow up with a curse.
- Voodoo Jester is a decent solo mid, as he can use the runes to great potential and is a very vital ganker from level 6 on!
- Acid Cocktail is very effective in the jungle and on crepe waves and must be used to farm neutrals/creeps a lot in order to get your items.
- You are not a particularly good babysitter and giving up last hits early game will hurt you a lot. Try to either go to an aggressive long lane or solo mid.

Skill Build
1 – Chain Reaction
2 – Agonizing Bondsl
3 – Agonizing Bonds
4 – Chain Reaction
5 – Agonizing Bonds
6 – Chain Reaction
7 – Agonizing Bonds
8 – Chain Reaction
9 – Impalement
10 – Impalement
11 – Impalement
12 – Impalement
13 -Torment
14 – Torment
15 – Stats
16 – Torment
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
This is the most effective harasser / killer build. The ulti is gotten late as your other skills are more important and you won’t have the Mana to support Torment yet. If you prefer to build a more pushy build or are fighting invisible heroes or if you are not very good at aiming the stun then leave Chain Reaction on 1 and max Impalement along with Bonds first.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 4x Mana Potion, 4x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Marchers >> Glow Stone >> Post Haste >> Icon of Goddess

Bottle if Mid. Bracers for Survivability, Post Haste to make good use of your ultimate and to be able to farm/push all the lanes quickly.

After Core:
Sacrificial Stone >> Staff of the Master >> Frostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart

Sacrificial Stone turns you into the tank you need to be in order to get full use of your Ultimate. You can’t cast from the second row, you need to be in the middle of the action. SotM provides a fair boost to the ultimate and is your next items; after that keep workin on your EHP.

Alternative Items:
- Kuldra’s Sheepstick: Provides a lot of mana regen but no survivability and I therefore do not recommend it.
- Portal Key: If you have troubles chasing enemy heroes. Or as initiation once you got the tank gear.

Information:
Roles: Nuker, Pusher, (Semi-Carry )
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Mana intensive)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Very strong nukes/stuns)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Nukes decrease in efficiency fast)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Stronger if farmed well)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You are considered a Semi-Carry. That means you should not be babysitting and optimally not giving up the last hits to a carry.
- You have one of the lowest starting HP pools and one of the highest starting mana pools. Thus you are very squishy and should get the Bracelets asap.
- As a proper Semi-Carry you should be farming a lot, don’t be afraid to use your mana to get some extra gold.

Skill Build
1 – Flash of Darkness
2 – Sonar Scream
3 – Sonar Scream
4 – Haunt
5 – Sonar Scream
6 – Bat Blast
7 – Sonar Scream
8 – Flash of Darkness
9 – Flash of Darkness
10 – Flash of Darkness
11 – Bat Blast
12 – Haunt
13 – Haunt
14 – Haunt
15 – Stats
16 – Bat Blast
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Sonar Scream is your main skill for farming, harassing and ganking. One level in haunt is taken for the slow but Flash is maxed before it.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Mark of the Novice

Core:
Bottle >> 2x Talisman of the Exile >> Steam Boots

You have a low mana pool to support the needed spells to kill someone. Fix this by getting a bottle and a couple Int items. You should leave Steam Boots on int for now.

After Core:
Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Staff of the Master >> Frostfield Plate

Sheepstick is teh ****! And Staff of the Master does a lot for Hag.

Alternative Items:
- Puzzle Box: If fighting versus invisible Heroes or if you are sure the enemy is warding get this item directly after the core. Its very very good on her!

Information:
Roles: Nuker
Prefered Lane: Any (Good 1vs2 soloer)
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Mana intensive)
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Nukes decrease in power over time)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
Good synergy with Hellbringer’s Life Void

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Chasing too far with blink is very dangerous because the opposing team is likely to TP near your target and kill you. You have to be very careful and keep an eye on the minimap at all times.
- Try to be aggressive, but never underestimate your opponent. Try to kill creeps when you use Scream on him. This will push the lane, giving you time to go to the runes and refill your bottle.
- When chasing a hero he will most likely try to juke your blink by running in the other direction as soon as he hears the animation. The best way to counter this is to cancel your blink immediately by pressing “S” (this will play the sound and half the animation but not use the spell) then wait for him to juke and instantly blink on him. This requires practice and has to be executed fast to be effective.

Skill Build
1 – Mesmerize
2 -Heartache
3 – Heartache
4 – Stats
5 – Heartache
6 – Succubus’ Hold
7 – Heartache
8 – Stats
9 – Stats
10 – Stats
11 – Succubus’ Hold
12 – Smitten
13 – Smitten
14 – Smitten
15 – Smitten
16 – Succubus’ Hold
17 – Mesmerize
18 – Mesmerize
19 – Mesmerize
20 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Mesmerize is taken at level 1 because you need the skill in your arsenal throughout the game, and Heartache costs so much, and does such little damage at rank 1, that it is virtually never worth using at that stage. Heartache is then taken at every available level, as it is your main way to stay in your lane and deal damage to your opponent. Smitten is not taken till the 12-15 range, because it’s not until later on that Physical Carries become relevant, and shutting them down becomes important.
Because Mesmerize is not really being used to shut down at this point, it is more important (and even preferential) to have it at Rank 1 (4 Seconds) at this stage in the game, so maxing it out is not a priority. Also 1 extra second is not really worth giving up +2 Strength, +2 Agility and +2 Intelligence at this point in the game. It is maxed out later when it reaches the point where you want the target locked out for absolutely as long as possible; but this can be earlier than level 17 depending on your game.
As mentioned before, your skill build can vary as much as necessary. Smitten can be skipped entirely, Mesmerize can be maxed out sooner if you need some serious disables in the team, etc.

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Mark of the Novice, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> 2x Talisman of the Exile >> Ghost Marchers >> Portal Key

Yes you are reading correctly, I don’t only recommend Portal Key on Succubus; I consider it core. You need to have played her with Portal Key to realize the full spectrum of usefulness of this item on her. Her ability to jump in and completely take out two enemies make her a decent initiator even for teamfights and probably one of the best initiators for ganks. Portal Key also makes her an even more amazing chaser hero. She can blink after fleeing enemies and mesmerize them until her allies arrive.

After Core:
Wards of Sight >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Puzzle Box >> Shrunken Head >> Null Stone

Keep Warding, it’s your number one priority. In most games Sheepstick will be the next item for an additional disable. Puzzle Box has good synergy with your Skills (Mesmerize, get out minions, Hold, Manaburn, beat down with minions and finish with Heartache brings down most enemies 1on1). Shrunken to make sure you get your CC’s off.

DO NOT GET STAFF OF THE MASTER ON SUCCUBUS. EVER. PLEASE!
If you really want more damage during your ulti get Puzzle Box, it does WAY more damage and has so many other uses too.

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Babysitter, Nuker, Disabler, Ward Hoe
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 1 – Very Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very strong (Very potent ult)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very strong (High ganking power with her disables, nukes do good damage)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Disables still useful, if she survives)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Early on with Succubus, you are a ganker, that is your role. After level 6 use Homecoming Stones and move around behind the trees to setup kills.
- Not all Heroes (even not all physical carries) suffer the same from smitten. Its mostly the heroes that go for stats instead of pure damage. Here a list of heroes that suffer greatly from the spell and are your number one priority: The Dark Lady, The Madman, Arachna, Puppet Master, Hammerstorm, Maliken, Pestilence, Pandamonium, Nighthound.
- Silence is really strong versus you. If they have silencers use your Portal Key to blink into fights and mesmerize the silencer as your first action to allow you to get your other CC’s off at the start.
- Remember to keep wards up.

Skill Build
1 – Judgement
2 – Withering Presence
3 – Judgement
4 – Withering Presence
5 – Judgement
6 – Demonic Execution
7 – Judgement
8 – Withering Presence
9 – Withering Presence
10 – Stats
11 – Demonic Execution
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Demonic Execution
17 – Stats+
22 – Inhuman Nature+

Justification / Modifications:
This may look counter-intuitive but when you think about it, this is the best Skill Build in most cases. Inhuman Nature does help you lane early on, but it provides far little use beyond that (and thus we either take it very early or not at all). To use it properly you have to constantly push the lane, or simply not take advantage of the mana you get back. The aura harasses a bit in the lane, especially against people who completely rely on bottle or tangos, since they have absolutely nothing to counter-act the degen the aura provides. While it isn’t game breaking, it does make a difference if they decide to tower dive or chase you. Stats can be taken just about any time over aura, as they provide a hitpoint boost and mana boost, in addition to regen.
Another Point is, that if you are babysitting someone you should let your carry get the last hits and thus Inhuman Nature is completely useless.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Battery

Core:
Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Fortified Bracelet

Survivability and Mana Regen is what you need to be effective in Team fights. When laning leave the boots on int, later switch em to str for fights.

After Core:
Sacrificial Stone >> Staff of the Master >> Frostfield Plate >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Post Haste >> Behemoth’s Heart

I am listing that many items because Soul Reaper can actually be played very carry-heavy and he is a decent farmer. If you get some gear you will be a real threat to the opposing team and way more than just a good supporter. After the buff to Sac Stone it is easily the best first item if you choose the carry route.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Supporter, Pusher, (Semi-Carry)
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Aura + Judgement is very dominant)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Can semi-carry if very well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Soul Reaper moves very slow, having a base movespeed of 290(10 under average), as such most of his ganks will be done via counter ganks by utilizing the TP scrolls
- Either offensive or defensive, you should be at every team fight. You’re far too useful at this stage in the game (~7-11) to not be in team fights, as you can literally be a 2k swing in damage with a single spell.
- In mid game, with strength treads on you should be tilting around 1.1-1.2k hitpoints, making you one of the highest health heroes (especially int heroes) in the game.

Skill Build
1 – Summon Hellhounds
2 – Primal Rage
3 – Summon Hellhounds
4 – Primal Rage
5 – Summon Hellhounds
6 – Metamorphosis
7 – Summon Hellhounds
8 – Primal Rage
9 – Primal Rage
10 – Battle Cry
11 – Metamorphosis
12 – Battle Cry
13 – Battle Cry
14 – Battle Cry
15 – Stats
16 – Metamorphosis
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Get your Ultimate at level 6 even if you keep jungling. It is too good to be delayed! Battle Cry is taken last since you wont have the mana to support it along with Hellhounds early.

Disclaimer: I will showcase my very own build here. I know that most people play Warbeast different, rushing abyssal skull. I however find Warbeast one of the weakest heroes already due to the fact that he needs 30+ minutes of jungling to become effective. This is an attempt to make him useful much earlier.

Starting Items:
Ring of the Teacher, 2x Mana Potion

Core:
Whispering Helm >> Steamboots >> Shrunken Head

This might look very weird to you. Why would you want whispering helm when you can get Abyssal skull which is so much better? Or is it?
The main reason for this lies in the nature of your skills. Let’s examine:
Battle Cry applies Rallied to all allied player controlled units for 16 seconds. Rallied increases their damage by 16.
Metamorphosis increases movement speed of self and all owned units to 522 and gives them Unitwalking.
In case you have never seen a Minotaur move at 522 MS with unit walking I can tell you this: You will die.
As soon as you have Whispering Helm dominate a Minotaur (or Skeleton King if you can’t find one). Now press R and rightclick an enemy. Manually control the Minotaur to get in front of him and stun. 90% of the time this will get you a kill.
What benefit does Abysal Skukull provide? Jungling is easier, yay! Making you more USELESS rather than useful. With a Whispering Helm you can tank anything you want anyways, no need for your Dogs to have lifesteal.

Ok, that being said get Steamboots (you are at max speed with ulti anyways) and Shrunken Head.

After Core:
Insanitarious/Shieldbreaker >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Brutalizer >> Daemonic Breastplate

I recommend you get one damage item after Shrunken Head. Shieldbreaker if your farm goes good, Insanitarious if it is slacking (better buildup). Then get Heart and Brutalizer to compete with other carries and for chasing.

Information:
Roles: Carry, Jungler
Prefered Lane: Jungle
Difficulty: 1 – Very Easy
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: Jungler
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Good chaser)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Capable carry if farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Read the Section for Core items to understand the use of Whispering Helm. This makes Warbeast actually useful before he spent 30 minutes in the jungle.
- After obtaining Whispering Helm don’t stick to the jungle. Go gank and help out. In the downtimes you can still farm the jungle of course.
- In case you were wondering, you can still solo Kongor at around level 9-10 even without Abyssal Skull. Just get 2 Health Potions and use them while your Dogs tank.
- Remeber to dominate an additional creep whenever your helm is ready. A Skeleton King along with 2 Minotaurs around the 25 Minute mark will make you pretty much auto-win every 1vs1 fight.

Related posts:

1. [Hero Guide] Succubus
2. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 2 K-P
3. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 1 A-J

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Post tags: Hero Guide, heroes, Heroes of Newerth - Noobie Guide

Ok we are gonna completely change this up. I had no idea that Newti on the HoN forums has already created a pretty in depth (read: up to date) all heroes mini guide list. While all the strats are based on his opinion, he does seem to offer a second choice. So I’m going to repost his guide giving him full credit. You can find his original guide here on the forums. Since this is based around his opinion, you can add your thoughts in the comments and I’ll add them to this page. Just be sure to back your opinions up. Alright so here ya go.

Accursed
Andromeda
Arachna
Armadon
Behemoth
Blacksmith
Blood Hunter
Chronos
Corrupted Disciple
Dark Lady
Deadwood
Defiler
Demented Shaman
Devourer
Electrician
Engineer
Forsaken Archer
Glacius
Hammerstorm
Hellbringer
Jereziah

Skill Build

1 – Time Leap
2 – Rewind
3 – Time Leap
4 – Curse of Ages
5 – Time Leap
6 – Chronofield
7 – Time Leap
8 – Curse of Ages
9 – Curse of Ages
10 – Curse of Ages
11 – Chronofield
12 – Rewind
13 – Rewind
14 – Rewind
15 – Stats
16 – Chronofield
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Escape, Nuke and Chase in one ability. The new Time Leap is superb and has to be maxed first. The first level of rewind gives you +10% chance to backtrack while each following level only gives 5%. Therefore we get that first level asap. Its much better than stats.
After that Curse of Ages is maxxed to increase your Lane presence.

Starting Items:
Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
(Iron Shield >>) Lifetube >> Steamboots >> Runed Axe >> Elder Parasite

Runed Axe is a very good staple item for Chronos. To get the most out of it build it asap. Get an Iron Shield if the lane is hard and you most likely also want an early Lifetube. Then build Steamboots and finish Runed Axe. If you have 3 or more hard carries on your team I strongly suggest you skip runed axe and go straight for Elder Parasite (because you will not have enough lanes/forest to farm with so many carries thus making Runed Axe a lot less effective).
Also undisputed core is now Elder Parasite, giving you the very effective attack speed to steal agility and bash under Chronofield. Some prefer to get Elder Parasite before Runed Axe; I usually don’t.

After Core:
Frostburn >> Savage Mace >> Riftshards (>> Shrunken Head)

Frostburn is essential for some stats (especially HP). Get a Heart at any time if you feel the need for it. Geometers Bane is no good on the new Chronos. Shrunken is very situational (more so than on other heroes). Usually you can eliminate the main threat in your chrono field. Should you still get CCd/Nuked to fast after Chrono field you can consider Shrunken.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (There is a huge difference between Chronofield and well placed and timed Chronofield)
Farming capabilities: 1 – Poor
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak (Time Leap is pretty darn awesome)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 1 – Very Weak (Needs a lot of farm)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (One of the most potent Carries)

30-Seconds-Guide
- This hero needs a lot of farm, and he is not very good at it. After the laning phase go to the lane pushed the least and ask your teammates to leave so you can “static farm” (farming while counter-pushing the lane to stay safe).
- Try to place the Chronofield to trap your enemies right at the edge of the sphere. This way your melee allies can still attack them.
- Always carry a Homecoming Stone when farming so you can Time Leap into the forest and TP out when you get ganked.

Skill Build

1 – Feast
2 – Blood Crazy
3 – Feast
4 – Blood Sense
5 – Feast
6 – Hemorrhage
7 – Blood Sense
8 – Blood Sense
9 – Blood Sense
10 – Blood Crazy
11 – Hemorrhage
12 – Blood Crazy
13 – Blood Crazy
14 – Feast
15 – Stats
16 – Hemorrhage
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
This build is for solo mid.
If you start on a side lane swap the first two skills to get/prevent an early kill. The build is adaptable; usually feast 3 is enough, get feast 2 or 4 before you max out Blood Sense and Blood Crazy if it feels right.

Starting Items:
Runes of Blight, Logger’s Hatchet, Iron Buckler

Core:
Fortified Bracelet >> Marchers >> Mock of Brilliance >> Steam Boots

Blood Hunter is a good hero to rush Mock. It synergizes well with feast and to a lesser extent with Blood Sense (chase down invis heroes). If the game feels easy you can skip the Bracelet and rush straight for Mock. If its exceptionally hard you maybe wanna get Steamboots before Mock or even a second bracelet.
After the Core its a basic Agi Carry build.

After Core:
Shrunken Head >> Savage Mace >> Geometer’s bane >> Behemoth’s Heart

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Solo Mid
Difficulty: 2 – Easy (Last Hitting is very important)
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak (Feast helps somewhat)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Weak harassing, but excellent staying power)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Good Ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Needs farm)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You have to gank with Blood Hunter. If you play mid, its the only reason you are there. Gank whenever your ult is up.
- You can take out the ancient creeps very early with Blood Crazy and you can generally go jungling pretty good from level 5 on.
- When ganking always decide wheter to use Blood Crazy as a damage amplifier or as a silence; depending on the heroes you are ganking.
- When taking out a tower or a barracks, it is always a great idea to use Blood Crazy on yourself. The increase in damage is essential in maximizing potential tower kills.
- Oh and please go gank with Blood Hunter!

Skill Build

1 – Webbed Shot
2 – Harden Carapace
3 – Webbed Shot
4 – Stats
5 – Webbed Shot
6 – Spider Sting
7 – Webbed Shot
8 – Precision
9 – Precision
10 – Precision
11 – Spider Sting
12 – Precision
13 – Harden Carapace
14 – Harden Carapace
15 – Harden Carapace
16 -Spider Sting
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
This is the most offensive build for her. One level of Harden Carapace is taken early to remove debuffs. If facing heavy nukers max Harden Carapace directly after Webbed shot, taking no stats and late Precision.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Marchers >> Soulscream Ring >> Soulscream Ring >> Steam Boots

Her Core is relatively small, the reason being you can divert into different builds after it.

Defensive Build:
Helm of the Black Legion >> Shrunken Head >> Whispering Helm >> Shieldbreaker >> Symbol of Rage >> Wingbow

Offensive Build:
Geometer’s Bane >> Shieldbreaker >> Shrunken Head >> Whispering Helm >> Wingbow >> Symbol of Rage

Alternatives:
Shieldbreaker after core provides zero survivability and is therefore not recommended; get one defensive/semi-defensive item first.
Any combination of the listed Defensive and Offensive builds is viable as long as you get a Shrunken Head. Also, you can build an Assassins Shroud at any point after the core if you really feel the need for it.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short/Mid (voulnerable on long)
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Orb-Walking, Kinda squishy, feed warning for new players)
Farming capabilities: 2 – Low (Nice attack animation, no farming spells tho)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Good Harassing, but fragile)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Reliant on ult to get kills (unless fed ofc))
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Capable Hard-Carry)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Arachna is a very squishy hero; you will need some kind of devensive items.
- You are easy to get ganked. Make sure wards are up when farming; if not buy some yourself.
- Spider Sting is a very, very powerful ability at the moment, it has the potential to do more damage than Pyromancer’s ultimate with Staff of the Master. On 0 armor the Spiderling is doing 1225 damage.
- The Spiderling is extremely hard to kill by 1 hero alone, with 2 heroes the Spiderling will probably only get 3 attacks off before it dies. Early game you should use Spider Sting to get hero kills, never use it if you think your enemy can make it to their tower.
- Also use Spider Sting to escape Ganks.
- If the enemy team has multiple slows/holds wait for them to be applied before you use Carapace. Don’t use it too early.

Replays:
- Match 28109455 (Solo Mid vs Blood Hunter, semi-defensive build)

Skill Build
1 – Charging Strikes
2 – Taint Soul
3 – Taint Soul
4 – Dark Blades
5 – Taint Soul
6 – Cover of Darkness
7 – Dark Blades
8 – Charging Strikes
9 – Charging Strikes
10 – Dark Blades
11 – Cover of Darkness
12 – Dark Blades
13 -Charging Strikes
14 – Taint Soul
15 – Stats
16 – Cover of Darkness
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Her build is very flexible. The one suggested is good if you have the upper hand on your lane, being able to slow and nuke.
If you dont have the upper hand I suggest only getting 1 level of Taint Soul an maxxing Dark Blades and Charging Strikes first. You can also delay the second level of Cover of Darkness to level 14.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Sustainer >> Steam Boots >> Soulscream Ring >> Runed Axe

Power Supply is absolutely needed, always get it on her.
Runed axe will help your mana problems while being a great item on her in general.

After Core:
Shrunken Head >> Frostburn >> Wingbow >> Riftshards

You can build Frostburn before Shrunken Head if the enemy team doesn’t have too many disablers/nukers.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak (Has some farming power in her spells, especially later)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak (Some harassing possible)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Starts picking up after 1st big core item)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Still one of the best and least situational (read: as long as the timing is correct you can use it in every situation) ults in the game)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Dark Blades + Charging Strikes will silence all enemies in the line.
- If you are losing the lane and get zero farm consider leaving taint soul at 1 and use it for last hitting. Max Charging Strikes instead to get a cheap/low cd escape spell.

Skill Build
1 – Comet
2 – Stats
3 – Comet
4 – Aurora
5 – Comet
6 – Void Rip
7 – Comet
8 – Aurora
9 – Aurora
10 – Aurora
11 – Void Rip
12 – Dimensional Link
13 – Dimensional Link
14 – Dimensional Link
15 – Dimensional Link
16 – Void Rip
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Straightforward build, should almost never change.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier/Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards >> Steam Boots >> Wards

Two Bracelets for stats allow more spamming of Comet and Aurora, Steamboots for survivability. Always get wards, its your highest Item priority. You can get a Bottle if you feel the need for it or if there are few Bottles on other heroes, but don’t take away the runes from your mid-laner.

After Core:
Staff of the Master >> Portal Key (>> Nullfire Blade)

This stuff is luxury. You should not have much gold since you are warding and constantly roaming. It’s not uncommon for an Andromeda to finish a 30+ minute game with nothing more than 2 Bracelets and Boots.
That being said, SotM and Portal Key are your two most useful items after the core. Get a Nullfire at any point if your team needs to counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah.

Information
Roles: Roamer, Ward Hoe, Nuker, Anti-Carry, Initiator
Prefered Lane: long / short
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Comet)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Good Initiator and Anti-Carry Hero, Very Good at ganking and roaming)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Late game her job is to single out their carry)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Gank a lot! That’s your primary task. Let your carries get the kills if possible.
- Once you get Portal Key you can queue it up after Void Rip to teleport right back to your allies.
- You are responsible to keep wards up at all times. Delay your items to buy wards.

Skill Build

1 – Steam Turret
2 – The Keg
3 – The Keg
4 – Steam Turret
5 – The Keg
6 – Energy Field
7 – The Keg
8 – Steam Turret
9 – Steam Turret
10 – Tinker
11 – Energy Field
12 – Tinker
13 – Tinker
14 – Tinker
15 – Stats
16 – Energy Field
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Steam Turret at level one to place at the rune. Max Keg for lane dominance and early kills. You can get one level of Tinker at level 4 if you like.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier, 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Soulscream Ring >> Ghost Marchers

Power Supply is pretty strong as your combo will need a lot of burst mana. Also 10 Charges will allow you to cast a Keg with 0 mana. Ghost Marchers are viable as you will have quite a high attack speed later on and for chasing with Keg (it’s an amazing chasing skill).

After Core:
(Nullfire Blade >> Helm of the Black Legion >>) Charged Hammer >> Portal Key

I haven’t found the “perfect” build for him yet, feedback/input is welcome. Get a Nullfire ASAP if your team needs to counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah. Helm of the Black Legion is an option if you keep dying or if the game is going rough in general. Otherwise rush for the Charged Hammer as this item has the best synergy with your Turret. Portal Key is taken for Ulti Placement.

Alternative Items:
- Barbed Armor / Shrunken Head: If you get focused a lot, DUH!
- Astrolabe: Especially in combination with Barbed Armor if you go for a supportive playstyle.

Information
Roles: Semi-Carry
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Not as trivial as it might seem)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (One of the best attack animations, Turrets and Keg, deadly if combined with another disabler)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Can be stronger if farmed well, but is not a Hard-Carry)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your basic combo if an enemy is in range: Throw down a turret ahead of you, use Energy Field and then cast Keg to push the enemy inside the energy field in range of the turret. If he already is inside wait for him to run out, then Keg him back in. If he fights, Keg him out at ~30% hp.
- Energy Field has a low cooldown, use it every fight!
- Always throw down a turret before casting Keg if the Mana allows it.
- Use turrets in the forest to see incoming ganks.

Skill Build

1 – Electric Tide
2 – Static Discharge
3 – Electric Tide
4 – Static Discharge
5 – Electric Tide
6 – Overload
7 – Electric Tide
8 -Static Discharge
9 – Static Discharge
10 – Corrupted Conduit
11 – Overload
12 – Corrupted Conduit
13 – Corrupted Conduit
14 – Corrupted Conduit
15 – Stats
16 – Overload
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Swap Static Discharge with Corrupted conduit if you go mid and fight a melee hero or an auto-attack reliant ranged hero such as Arachna, Engineer, Blood Hunter, …

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, Duck Boots, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Helm of the Black Legion

Bottle is especially important if playing mid, you can skip it on the sidelanes. Get Power Supply in any case however.
Arguments can be made in favor of Ghost Marchers, but usually the speed from Static Discharge is enough to outrun most heroes. 10 Strength adds more much needed survivability. Plated Greaves are fine too, it really depends what kind of heroes you are facing.

After Core:
(Shaman’s Headdress >>) Icebrand >> Frostburn >> Geometer’s Bane >> Savage Mace

Some consider Headdress core, I say its situational. If you get it, upgrade it to Barrier Idol later. Frostburn is a soild all-round choice on him giving you a bit of everything. Then Geometer’s Bane for big dps bursts.
Consider Nullfire Blade after the Core if you need to Counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah.

Alternative Items:
- Mock of Brilliance: He is a decent Mock Hero, but needs Hotbl first. I consider this build inferior tho and only recommend it in pubs where you get a lot of freefarm.

Information
Roles: Carry, Tank
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Know when to tower dive)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Tide is a very strong harass)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Excellent Chaser and Tower diver, one of the best Midgame Carries)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Can carry. Good Tank and Damage Dealer)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ Strong throughout the whole game
+ Doesn’t require a lot of farm to carry, one of the few carries who rely heavily on their skills instead of auto attacks

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Tide is an exceptionally strong harass if properly used (Try to catch the enemy Hero on the outer edge of the circle). On Corrupted Disciple it’s worth it to whore the Bottle with a courier (send the courier to refill it) if you don’t have rune control.
- Corrupted Disciple is one of the best tower divers. He will complete Hotbl very fast and should then lead assaults/ganks beyond the enemy lines, drawing the tower fire on him.
- Gank a lot, especially when playing mid and picking up runes. Your level 7 Wave + Overload is devastating and will not rarely net you a double kill when ganking from mid.

Replays:
- Match 28258871

Skill Build

1 – Call of the Damned
2 – Crippling Volley
3 – Crippling Volley
4 – Call of the Damned
5 – Crippling Volley
6 – Piercing Arrows
7 – Crippling Volley
8 – Call of the Damned
9 – Call of the Damned
10 – Stats
11 – Piercing Arrows
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Piercing Arrows
17 – Split Fire
18 – Split Fire
19 – Split Fire
20 – Split Fire
21 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Get Crippling Volley first if you feel confident in Rune Ganking, but Call allows for lane domination from level 1. Three seconds rape skeletons! (I know you were waiting for this!)

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Steamboots >> 1-2x Soulscream Ring

Post Haste is a viable alternative to Steamboots.

After Core:
(Nullfire Blade >>) Frostburn >> Whispering Helm >> Wingbow >> Symbol of Rage

I have still not found the perfect build for her. The suggested build is used by some top tier players, so I will just list this. Feedback appreciated.
Get a Nullfire after core if your team needs to counter Hellbringer, Hammerstorm or Jeraziah.
Frostburn adds AoE slow with split fire, survival and damage. The rest is basic carry stuff (feel free to ancient stack).

Alternative Items:
- Assassin’s Shroud is good on her as she has no real means of escaping while being squishy. Get it if you can reliably escape with it.
- Shieldbreaker can be good to apply the armor debuff to all enemies with Split Fire. DO NOT GET THIS WITH FROSTBURN. They don’t stack.
- Savage Mace adds the 100 damage mini stun to ALL arrows when split firing.
Note that both items offer no Survivabilty!
- Alchemist’s Bones can be gotten as early as Minute 6 and will pay for them relatively quickly. Can be sold later to make room.

Information:
Roles: Semi-Carry, Pusher, Ganker, Roamer
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Skellies and long duration disable)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Very powerful ult in midgame)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Stays strong if you keep the farm and level advantage, otherwise becomes sub-par to other carries)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ Excellent Farmer / Pusher
- No Escape ability

30-Seconds-Guide:
- A gank at level 7 With crippling Volley and Piercing Arrows will often get you a kill.
- Use Piercing Arrows together with an AoE disable (Tempest Ult, Keeper of the Forest Ult, …) and/or when the enemy is trapped in a choke and can’t avoid it by sidestepping.
- Due to Piercing Arrows incredible range 1300) you can use it to finish off low hp runners if 1-2 ticks are enough.
- Piercing Arrow deals 600/1200/1800 physical damage and is thus one of the most devastating abilities in the game.
- Be careful with Piercing Arrows when the enemy team has one or more Barbed Armors.

Skill Build

1 – Fireball
2 – Flaming Hammer
3 – Fireball
4 – Flaming Hammer
5 – Fireball
6 – Chaotic Flames
7 – Fireball
8 – Flaming Hammer
9 – Flaming Hammer
10 – Frenzy
11 – Chaotic Flames
12 – Frenzy
13 – Frenzy
14 – Frenzy
15 – Stats
16 – Chaotic Flames
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Your staple build for all situations.

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Guardian Ring

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Ring of the Teacher >> Bottle >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> Nome’s Wisdom >> Steamboots

Ring can be completed at the outpost asap. Most of the times I get a Bottle and Power Supply as Blacksmith is very mana-hungry. Then work towards Nome’s Wisdom for the Mana and HP reg. Steam Boots are imho the best choice as Frenzy gives you the Movement Speed bonus you need for ganking/chasing/semi-initiating.

After Core:
Storm Spirit >> Harkon’s Blade >> Hellflower >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick

These four items can be gotten in any order. If you plan to rush Hellflower you can cut the Nome’s Wisdom as Hellflower provides enough mana regen on its own. I prefer to go the order listed here. Harkon’s makes you a force to be reckoned even in late game, and you easily have the mana to support it.
You do not need HP items as you have a very high strength stat gain per level, giving you enough survivability.
Alternative Items include Behemoth’s Heart and Frostfield Plate.

Information:
Roles: Nuker, Supporter, Ganker, Roamer
Prefered Lane: Any (can solo mid)
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Good (Stun and slow, but high cost and cooldown)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Somewhat reliant on Multicast but still a great ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (More of a supporter with frenzy)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Gank a lot with Blacksmith, thats what he is best at!
- Try to use Flaming Hammer before you stun. This will reduce their Magic Armor and greatly increase the damage they take from Fireball. If you have Harkon’s try to hit them once for an additional -5 Magic armor and insta-gib fireballs!
- Blacksmith does scale better into late game than almost any other int hero! This gives him a carry-like touch especially with Harkon’s Blade and Frenzy.
- Keep Frenzy up on all relevant targets. The cooldown is only 5 seconds while the duration is 30.
- Looking for more hints? TOO BAD ITS ME BLACKSMITH!

Replays:
Match 27719643

Skill Build

1 – Ice Imprisonment
2 – Chilling Presence
3 – Chilling Presence
4 – Tundra Blast
5 – Chilling Presence
6 – Ice Imprisonment
7 – Chilling Presence
8 – Ice Imprisonment
9 – Ice Imprisonment
10 – Glacial Downpour
11 – Glacial Downpour
12 – Tundra Blast
13 – Tundra Blast
14 – Tundra Blast
15 – Stats
16 – Glacial Downpour
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Depending on who you lane with, you can swap the first levels of Tundra Blast and Ice Imprisonment, but always max Ice Imprisonment first as the Slow of Tundra Blast is the same across all levels. In some situations you maybe even want to take Ice Imprisonment & Tundra Blast at level 1 and 2, then Chilling Presence from 3-5 (For example when laning with Swiftblade).

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, Runes of the Blight, 2x Healing Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards of Sight

Don’t be afraid to use a Healing Potion on your ally, that’s why you got two in the first place (to save him the money). Power Supply is good on Glacius, also make sure you keep buying Wards as you probably have the lowest item dependency of all heroes!

After Core:
Wards of Sight >> Plated Greaves or Steam Boots >> Shrunken Head >> Portal Key

Get Plated Greaves only if no one else on your team does or if they have heavy armor reduction. Otherwise take Steam Boots on Strength. Keep buying wards as your Number 1 priority!
You don’t need any more items than this. However, if you can farm up some gold while keeping up the wards then start working on your Shrunken Head and Portal Key for better Glacial Downpours.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Supporter, Disabler
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Very Squishy)
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 0 – None
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Slow and Disable, Global Mana reg)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Loses effectiveness fast, not very good ult)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 1 – Poor (even with items a pushover)

3-Seconds-Guide:
- Buy Wards
- Place Wards
- Buy new Wards

Skill Build

1 – Wave of Death
2 – Grave Silence
3 – Wave of Death
4 – Power in Death
5 – Wave of Death
6 – Unholy Expulsion
7 – Wave of Death
8 – Power in Death
9 – Power in Death
10 – Power in Death
11 – Unholy Expulsion
12 – Grave Silence
13 – Grave Silence
14 – Grave Silence
15 – Stats
16 – Unholy Expulsion
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Grave Silence is taken at level two as it is very useful both defensive and offensive. For example to kill evasive heroes like Scout or Magebane.
The rest is straightforward.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 3x Mana Potion, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Steam Boots >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Sacrificial Stone

I consider Sacrificial Stone core on Defiler as this is what lets her scale into lategame. She is such a nice farmer and if properly played can get her Sac Stone relatively early. If no one on your team gets Plated Greaves or if you are facing massive armor reduction heroes, consider Plated Greaves instead of Steam Boots.

After Core:
Here the Choices branch out. Following a List of possible items and when to use them:

The Semi-Carry route:
Frostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Null Stone

Follow this path if you only have 1 or 1.5 carries.

The Supporter route:
(Astrolabe >> ) Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Puzzle Box

This is for when you have enough carrying power. Decide for yourself if it is early enough in the game to get an Astrolabe (usually you will skip it though). Sheepstick and Puzzlebox provide good support but not much survivability.

Information:
Roles: Pusher, Nuker, Tank, (Semi-Carry)
Prefered Lane: Mid
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy (For Semi-Carrying at least)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Dominant Nukes)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Insane Pushing Power)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (can tank with ult up)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your Ultimate is the single best pushing spell in the game. Use it to take down towers starting as early as possible. (You will need your teams support for this tho).
- Wave of Death is a spammable farming nuke, use it to harass and farm up.
- Silence is very very important in teamfights. Never forget to use it!
- If fighting evasive heroes with blinks/vanish/etc you maybe wanna save your silence for when they go low HP to ensure a kill.
- With your ultimate up you are almost untouchable in the mid game. You can take most 1vs1 and even 1vs2 battles. Just make sure you use it before you are at 20% hp.

Replays:
Match 27887609

Skill Build

1 – Entangle
2 – Healing Wave
3 – Entangle
4 – Healing Wave
5 – Entangle
6 – Healing Wave
7 – Healing Wave
8 – Storm Could
9 – Arcane Hide
10 – Arcane Hide
11 – Storm Could
12 – Arcane Hide
13 – Arcane Hide
14 – Entangle
15 – Stats
16 – Storm Could
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
The two core things that are being rushed here are Entangle Rank 3 and Healing Wave Rank 4. Entangle Rank 3 is gotten ASAP as it will provide you with both the 66% movement slow and the 1 second stun; Rank 4 is a non-priority (+15 manacost, +48 physical damage on the DoT, -2 second cooldown) and should be taken only after you’ve finished the rest of your skills. Healing Wave Rank 4 is next as it will give you the maximum of 5 jumps, as well as the 140 damage per wave, greatly increasing it’s damage output; it also brings it to a sweet 6 second cooldown. Storm Cloud can be delayed if you feel Arcane Hide is more important; generally it isn’t tho.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, 2x Runes of the Blight OR Guardian Ring (for a faster Ring of the Teacher)

Core:
2x Scarab from the Outpost >> Power Supply >> Ring of the Teacher >> Marchers >> Wards of Sight >> Nome’s Wisdom

Demented Shaman relies a lot on Mana Regen. This is why we get 2 Scarabs asap from the Outpost for 100% increased regen. One will build into Ring of the Teacher and later Nome’s wisdom, the other will remain in your inventory providing constant 50% mana regen for very little cost. If you started with a Guardian Ring you will upgrade to a Ring of the Teacher asap. I consider Nome’s Wisdom core for Demented Shaman as he is the only real “spell-spammer” in HoN. All his abilities have low cooldowns and need to be spammed in teamfights. Besides, Nome’s has the perfect stats for us. Keeping Wards up is priority one, even if it delays your core!

After Core:
Plated Greaves >> Astrolabe >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Nullstone

You almost always want Plated Greaves unless someone else in your team profits more from them (Tempest for example). After that go the full support route with Astrolabe and Kuldra’s. Healing Wave allows you to farm gold insanely fast, so you should be able to complete at least Astrolabe in every game.

Alternative Items:
- Hellflower: I see a lot of demented Shamans go Hellflower. Certainly not a bad choice as it is providing a bunch of regen and good stats in general. I however conisder it inferioir to Nome’s + Astrolabe unless there is a specific use for the 5 second silence such as: The enemy team has an evasive carry (Magebane, Scout, Madman,..) who can be prevented to get away with Hellflower or the enemy has a very ultimate reliant hero such as Plague Rider or Tempest and you are able to focus him down in 5 seconds.
If you plan to go Hellflower, start with 3 Scarabs for even better regen.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Supporter, Pusher, Ward Hoe
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (One of the strongest Babysitters in the current Metagame)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Heals decrease in power, ult remains powerful)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Demented Shaman is the best farmer of all the Babysitter/Supporter. Make use of this!
- Position yourself so that the enemy creep wave is between you and your creep wave; then cast healing wave on yourself -> +200 Gold in one click!
- Take this 200 Gold and buy Wards of Sight. Mapcontrol for one simply click is pretty awesome isn’t it?
- Use Storm Cloud a lot, it has a very low cooldown. You can use it on your own team before initiation or on the enemy team before a gank/initiation. It has a long cast range, but be aware as not to warn your enemies of an incoming gank and scaring them away!
- This can also be used to your advantag. You can often make the enemy fall back by just casting Storm Cloud on them.

Skill Build

1 – Life Void
2 – Death Boil
3 – Death Boil
4 – Unholy Shackles
5 – Death Boil
6 – Summon Malphas
7 – Death Boil
8 – Unholy Shackles
9 – Unholy Shackles
10 – Unholy Shackles
11 – Summon Malphas
12 – Life Void
13 – Life Void
14 – Life Void
15 – Stats
16 – Summon Malphas
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Usually one level of Life Void is enough for the start. With a well placed DeathBoil and auto attacks it heals you quite a bit. Id you get harassed real bad feel free to take more levels into it in place of Unholy Shackles.

Lane Starting Items:
3x Mana Potion, 3x Mark of the Novice

Core:
Great Arcana >> Marchers >> 1-2x Talisman of Exile

The Arcana will help you with early Manareg and later build into Restoration Stone. The Talisman are needed to support the Mana for 2x Malphas.

After Core:
Steam Boots >> Restoration Stone

Steam Boots can be set to Int once you get the Stone so you have enough mana. If no one on the team has Plated Greaves yet you can also consider getting those.

Alternative Items:
- Puzzle Box: As on most Int heroes a solid choice.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Nuker, Semi-Initiator
Prefered Lane: Any (Good 1vs2 soloer)
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Very Good Staying Power)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Decent Ganker, powerful ult)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Reduced to his ult and some utility)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Life Void got nerfed but is still very powerful especially early game. If you are low HP and need to regen cast it as soon as the enemy creeps are in your tower range, add Death Boil on top of it and auto attack.
- Malphas is optimally not used as an initiation. Let other initiators like Behemoth, Pharao, Kraken, etc. do their job first! Get as many heroes as possible with your life void and then after a couple seconds unleash Malphas.
- If you lack any form of initiation, Summon Malphas can serve this purpose and should be used that way.
- If ganking, try following this pattern: Life Void > Death Boil > Summon Malphas > Unholy Shackles > Malphas’ Fire Breath

Skill Build

1 – Snot Storm
2 – Spine Burst
3 – Spine Burst
4 – Armordillo
5 – Spine Burst
6 – Restless
7 – Spine Burst
8 – Armordillo
9 – Armordillo
10 – Armordillo
11 – Restless
12 – Snot Storm
13 – Snot Storm
14 – Snot Storm
15 – Stats
16 – Restless
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Pretty standard build. Spine burst is his trademark skill, one level of snot storm for ganks and escaping but maxing armadillo first for survival.

Staring Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Iron Buckler, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Helm of the Black Legion >> Steam Boots >> Shaman’s Headdress

A fast Hotbl will ensure safe farming. Headdress for more tanking and finally mock to bring some damage into team fights. Also synergizes well with Spine Burst.

After core:
Mock of Brilliance >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Barrier Idol

Information:
Roles: Tank, Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Somewhat annoying harass)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Needs good farm)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Best tank if well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- The best counter for you is Power Supply (and Manabattery). Every half-decent opponet will get one against you; but there is little you can do about it. Just keep in mid that the enemy has additional 120/180 HP when you are chasing him down.
- Armadon can be a Jungler due to his Quill Spray being able to tripple stack creep camps from level 1 on without boots. Read Blockk’s Guide to Armadon for more details on this.

Skill Build

1 – Fissure
2 – Heavyweight
3 – Fissure
4 – Enrage
5 – Fissure
6 – Shockwave
7 – Fissure
8 – Heavyweight
9 – Heavyweight
10 – Heavyweight
11 – Shockwave
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Shockwave
17 – Stats+
23 – Enrage+

Justification / Modifications:
Enrage can be delayed to level 8, getting another early level of Heavyweight since a 0.3 seconds stun won’t do much (but a bit more damage on a close range fissure comes to effect rarely too). Either way it has almost zero impact.

Staring Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem (OR Logger’s Hatchet instead of Pretender’s + Totem)

Core:
Marchers >> Ring of Sorcery >> Portal Key >> 2x Fortified Bracelet

Get a Logger’s Hatchet if you can farm the lane (no use in getting one if you are forced to stay back and tower hug). Then get your Marchers ASAP! Behemoth is one of the very few heroes where even starting Marchers can be considered. The 50 movespeed help you so much in trapping enemies and punishing their mistakes.
After that get Ring of Sorcery or Bottle (matter of taste, i strictly prefer ring). Portal Key is your obvious Goal for being the God of initiation you are. If you went for Ring grab a couple Bracers, otherwise get 2 Talisman of the Exile.

After core:
Ghost Marchers >> Wards of Sight >> Fostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart

After your core you don’t need any more items. Use your gold to buy wards and to support your team. In case you have Gold left over build Frostfield Plate for additional AoE Rape and survivability.

Alternative Items:
- Puzzlebox: Since you don’t really need anything after the core you might as well get those for counter warding. The stats are actually pretty good but don’t expect too much synergy with your skills/role.

Information
Roles: Initiator, Nuker, Roamer
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (Feed warning for new players)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Medium
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (Very Heavy until core, low afterwards)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak (Fissure can net kills if properly used)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Arguably the best initiator)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Ganking WITH Portal Key: Wait for an opportunity, which in this case is if two or more enemy heroes are surrounded by creeps and within 560 distance of each other. Seize the moment by blinking in, and: Shockwave Autoattack Enrage Autoattack Fissure Autoattack- Ganking WITHOUT Portal Key: It’s all about positioning, Portal Key or not. Stay out of your opponent’s line of sight and fissure enemy heroes into a corner, or separate them so that your allies can more easily dispatch them. After the Fissure run up and Enrage Autoattack.
- Often times you will have to save your idiot partners from their own stupid mistakes. Generally I have managed to save them with a well-timed enrage, but every once in awhile when they really screw the pooch you’ve got to put a fissure between the bloodthirsty opponents and your lovable idiot.

Skill Build

1 – Hammer Throw
2 – Galvanize
3 – Hammer Throw
4 – Stats
5 – Hammer Throw
6 – Brute Strength
7 – Hammer Throw
8 – Stats
9 – Stats
10 – Stats
11 – Brute Strength
12 – Mighty Swing
13 – Mighty Swing
14 – Mighty Swing
15 – Mighty Swing
16 – Brute Strength
17 – Galvanize
18 – Galvanize
19 – Galvanize
20 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
One level of Galvanize is taken early as it is 14% Movement Speed increase on all levels with instant cast. The other 3 levels provide lower CD and higher armor increase which is secondary and delayed until much later.
Stats are better than Mighty Swing early game to not push your lane and you don’t have the damage to support Cleave-Farming yet anyways.
Stats help your last hitting and get you the much needed bigger mana pool.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Steamboots >> Fortified Bracelet >> Shrunken Head

Against appropriate Lanes you can get a Power Supply at any time and skip bottle (or get both, whatever you like). Other than that you usually want a bottle, steamboots and one bracer before you start working on your Shrunken Head. Pretty much always get shrunken, even if they only have a single disable spell in their whole team.
Now that Galvanize is instant cast there is really no excuse to get Ghost Marchers! The +24 damage are NOT affected by Brute Strength while the +10 damage from Steamboots are and that attack speed does wonders for you!

After core:
(Portal Key >>) Frostburn >> Elder Parasite >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Riftshards

Get Portal Key if your team lacks initiation (this is actually very very important). After that or if you have good means of initiation get Frostburn for the speed boost and slow and finally Elder Parasite to make Brute Strength even more brutal. After that Point you can get whatever you like; Heart & Shards are the most common choices.

Information
Roles: Carry, (Initiator)
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 1 – Poor (Cleave kicks in too late)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak (Good Stun)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Decent ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Once he gets his core)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- In the early game when you are forced back to the fountain you should teleport to another lane, walk around the trees and initiate a gank. This will almost always lead to kills for your team as it is not expected and very effective.
- It is imperative to animation cancel Brute Strength. With some practice you can even cast it on the run without stopping at all! (The animation will not play but the hammer glows). A very good demonstration of how effective both these tips can be seen in this replay (chu` playing a perfect 15-0 Hammerstorm): 23370652

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Protective Charm
2 – Inner Light
3 – Inner Light
4 – Righteous Strike
5 -Inner Light
6 – Sol’s Blessing
7 – Inner Light
8 -Righteous Strike
9 – Righteous Strike
10 – Righteous Strike
11 – Sol’s Blessing
12 – Protective Charm
13 – Protective Charm
14 – Protective Charm
15 – Stats
16 – Sol’s Blessing
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
The “pub” build. One level of charm is enough for early game, maxxing it early will actually be counter productive as you can’t heal yourself when charm is on. You can get charm a bit earlier tho at the cost of Righteous Strike.

Starting Items:
Monkey Courier OR Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 4x Mana Potion

Core:
Ring of Sorcery >> Marchers >> Astrolabe >> Ghost Marchers

You can also get a Guardian Ring to start with if you dont have to buy a Monkey or Wards. Ghost Marchers are gotten to rush in and apply the slow. You can get plated greaves if your team needs them.
Another option (especially when planning to get nomes) is to get an early Ring of the Teacher.
Also you are responsible for Wards of Sight!

After Core:
- Nome’s Wisdom: Solid choice if no one else has it.
- Tablet of Command: Works well with Jeraziah.
- Puzzlebox: To counterward and for the stats.
- Behemoth’s Heart: If you have nothing else to buy.

Information:
Roles: Supporter, Ward Hoe
Prefered Lane: Long
Difficulty: 5 – Very hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Incredible heal/nuke)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Best Carry-Supporter and game-changing ult)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- What makes Jeraziah one of the best heroes in the current meta game is his usefulness from the first minute to the last minute of the match. Unlike for other supporters his spells (except for the heal) do not diminish over time. They actually grow in power!
- On the other hand you need perfect timing on both of your lategame skills to make the most of them. This is why Jeraziah is one of the hardest heroes to play.
- You are countered by Electrician’s purge and Nullfire blade. Every decent team will build one to remove your Charm but there is little you can do to prevent this. It also removes Sol’s Blessing.
- If laning versus melee heroes you can use the heal on a creep they are about to last hit for some nice damage.
- Do not understimate your farming power. Once you got the ring you are able to spam the heal for gold.

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Decay
2 – Guttling Hook
3 – Decay
4 -Guttling Hook
5 – Decay
6 – Devour
7 – Decay
8 – Guttling Hook
9 – Guttling Hook
10 – Cadaver Armor
11 – Devour
12 – Cadaver Armor
13 – Cadaver Armor
14 – Cadaver Armor
15 – Stats
16 – Devour
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
I prefer to go Decay over Hook since the range of the hook is the same at all levels. Going for Hook over Decay is fine too tough. Mostly a matter of who you are laning with (with a stunner go decay for sure).

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, 2x Healing Potion, 1x Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Shaman’s Headdress

Get Bottle asap (or after Mana Battery depending on the lane). Then work through Marchers and Power Supply to eventually get your headdress. The reason for that is, that Shaman’s Headdress considerably reduces the damage you take from Decay. ALWAYS get it even if the other team has no magic damage.

After Core:
Post Haste OR Ghost Marchers >> Barrier Idol >> Staff of the Master >> Behemoth’s Heart

Post Haste are very good due to the nature of Decay but Ghost Marchers will do if you don’t get the farm going. After that most of the time you will build a barrier idol for the team; skip this as you see fit. Staff of the Master lets you regen HP when casting your ulti and thus counteracts the damage from Decay.

Alternative Items:
- Portal Key: For Blink-Ult and Hook positioning. This is situational but can be good to counter either invis or blinking heroes.

Information:
Roles: Anti-Carry, Initiator, Tank
Prefered Lane: Any (Can solo mid in pubs)
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Very strong 1vs1 and ganking hero)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (depending on how well he is farmed he can be a good tank)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Getting the Hooks off can be very hard and requires a lot of practice. If you have problems hitting them, try running up to the enemy, activating decay and hooking them as they try to flee. It works pretty good.
- You can activate decay even when you are casting your Ultimate. It will not interrupt the channeling.
- You can chop down certain trees to create a nieche in the forest where you can hook and block the enemy hero so they can’t escape even without you using devour.

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Static Grip
2 – Energy Absorption
3 – Energy Absorption
4 – Electric Shield
5 – Energy Absorption
6 – Cleansing Shock
7 – Energy Absorption
8 – Electric Shield
9 – Static Grip
10 – Static Grip
11 – Cleansing Shock
12 – Static Grip
13 – Electric Shield
14 – Electric Shield
15 – Stats
16 – Cleansing Shock
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
This is what I came up with after testing the new Electrician. Energy Absorption is your main nuking and farming ability and is maxed first. Get one early level in Static Grip for obvious reasons. I then level Electric Shield to 2, this allows you to farm whole creep waves and neutral stacks by just standing next to them for a couple of seconds and then hitting Energy Absorption. Level 2 however is enough for that and we max out Grip first.
If the enemies have no notebale buffs/debuffs that you can cleanse, consider delaying Cleansing Shock until you really need it. It is rarely worth it for just the speed boost over his other skills.

Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Battery

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> Sacrificial Stone >> Plated Greaves

I recommend Logger’s as you will need quite a bit of farm early game to become effective. Power Supply does a lot for you and should be built (depending on the lane you can delay it). Sacrificial Stone is one of the most effective items on Electrician and you should rush for that even before you upgrade the marchers. Plated Greaves will then give you a LOT of EHP through their high armor.

After Core:
Frostfield Plate >> Barrier Idol >> Behemoth’s Heart

If the enemy team is very magic heavy you can build the Idol before Frostfield. Once you get Frostfield however you will be insanely hard to take down.

Alternative Items:
- Helm of the Black Legion: I do not like this item at all on Electrician, yet I see many people get it. It has no synergy with his abilities and is in general a poor choice for him in my opinion. Do not get this.

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Roamer, Tank, Semi-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Good ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (A true beast if well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Electric Shield + Energy Absorption allows you to farm creep waves very quickly. Use this to get your SacStone asap!
- You can remove a variety of buffs and debuffs with Cleansing Shock. At the start of a match take a couple of second to think about which different spells you are able to cleanse considering your current opponents.
- The most important Buffs/Debuffs to remove include: Protective Charm (Jeraziah), Sol’s Blessing (Jeraziah), Corrupted Conduit (Corrupted Disciple), Poison Spray (Slither), Flaming Hammer (Blacksmith), Ice Imprisonment/Tundra Blast (Glacius), Glacial Blasts (Tempest), Entangle (Demented Shaman), Death Boil/Unholy Shackles/Life Void (Hellbringer), Haunt (Hag), Contagion (Plague Rider), Snot (Armadon), Roots (Keeper), Swarm (Pesti), Rotten Grasp (Deadwood), Brute Strength (Hammerstorm).
Also note that Cleansing Shock will deal 600 damage to Malphas (and other summoned units) at all levels.
- Looking at this list you see that you are an excellent counter to Jereziah, Hellbringer and Hammerstorm. Strongly consider picking Electrician when playing against one of those heroes.

Skill Build

1 – Fire Shield
2 – Cauterize
3 – Fire Shield
4 – Cauterize
5 – Fire Shield
6 – Flame Consumption
7 – Fire Shield
8 – Cauterize
9 – Cauterize
10 – Sear
11 – Flame Consumption
12 – Sear
13 – Sear
14 – Sear
15 – Stats
16 – Flame Consumption
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Standard build for all situations. I don’t think it is ever worth to delay your ultimate or to get an early level of sear.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Guardian Ring, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Ring of the Teacher >> (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> Nome’s Wisdom OR Ring of Sorcery

Ring of the Teacher can be completed at the outpost. Then get either Nome’s or Ring of Sorcery depending on your team. I prefer Ring of Sorcery in most situations. Power Supply is situational and can be skipped.
If you don’t get Power Supply i recommend you get a Fortified Bracelet instead.

After Core:

Ghost Marchers OR Plated Greaves >> Astrolabe >> Barrier Idol >> Behemoth’s Heart

The full support route.

Alternative Items:
- Abyssal Skull: Great item if you have other heroes on your team to profit from it. Get it after Astrolabe or Barrier Idol.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Supporter, Tank
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 4 – Hard (Easy to learn, hard to master)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Carry-Support, Tanking)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your Bread and Butter in the early game is to apply Fire Shield to yourself and then cast Cauterize on your enemies. This will blow up your Fire Shield and deal very high burst damage to your opponent.
- As long as you have enough mana, keep your lane partner’s health topped.
- But try to always have mana for at least one Fire Shield.
- Remember that Fire Shield removes a range of debuffs, most importantly slow effects.
- Accursed is a pretty effective tower diver. Diving into tower range with a Fire Shield while right clicking your enemy will make sure the shield blows up and your enemy takes the damage. Using this can easily net you some early game kills.
- In team fights use your skills DEFENSIVELY!! Don’t nuke spam cauterize, use it to keep your most fragile carry up!! You have the best burst heal in the game.

Skill Build

1 – Uproot
2 – Rotten Grasp
3 – Uproot
4 – Rotten Grasp
5 – Clearcutting / Rotting Grasp
6 – Willowmaker
7 – Rotten Grasp
8 – Rotten Grasp / Clearcutting
9 – Uproot
10 – Uproot
11 – Willowmaker
12 – Clearcutting
13 – Clearcutting
14 – Clearcutting
15 – Stats
16 – Willowmaker
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
2x Uproot for last-hitting purposes at start. Max out Rotting Grasp for longer immobilization and magic-damge/-armor. 1x Clearcutting before ultimate to enable unsuspected ganks through the woods. You may take Clearcutting later on if you can do without it and instead maxing Grasp first.

Lane Starting Items:
Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> Portal Key

Portal Key can be built before Enhanced Marchers if you farm well.

After Core:

If you’re dominating: Icebrand >> Frostburn >> Shieldbraker
Safety first: Icebrand >> Behemoth’s Heart

Alternative Items:

Kuldra’s Sheepstick: If you want to prevent anyone escaping your ganks! Giving extra mana-regen to roam around endlessly.

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Semi-Carry
Prefered Lane: Middle, Long
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Uproot)
Item dependancy: 2 – Low (Mana & Boots)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Good (Uproot & Grasp)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Willowmaker, Grasp)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Good (Willowmaker still pwns heads! Well placed Grasps will net many kills.)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ Can gank all on his own
- Map & Rune Awareness required

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Try to get middle lane and last-hit and deny with Uproot to finance your Bottle/Power Supply/Marchers.
- Use Rotten Grasp > Auto-Hit > Oakbolt > Auto-Hit to net a bloodlust in the right occasion.
- When you hit level 6 and get Willowmaker, try to rape your opponent on the lane or gank another lane. Fetch runes and fill up your bottle while traveling to your victims.
- Gank Combo: Pick a gank target > Fetch a tree with Uproot > Place a grasp on targets location (2sec delay!) > Clearcut through the woods straight in target’s direction > Willowmaker > Auto-Hit > Death! (Oakbolt > Auto-Hit again if necessary)

Related posts:

1. [Hero Guide] Succubus
2. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 3 R-Z
3. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 2 K-P

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Post tags: Hero Guide, heroes, Heroes of Newerth - Noobie Guide

Ok we are gonna completely change this up. I had no idea that Newti on the HoN forums has already created a pretty in depth (read: up to date) all heroes mini guide list. While all the strats are based on his opinion, he does seem to offer a second choice. So I’m going to repost his guide giving him full credit. You can find his original guide here on the forums. Since this is based around his opinion, you can add your thoughts in the comments and I’ll add them to this page. Just be sure to back your opinions up. Alright so here ya go.

Keeper of the Forest
Kraken
Legionnaire
Madman
Magebane
Magmus
Maliken
Moon Queen
Night Hound
Nymphora
Ophelia
Pandamonium
Pebbles
Pestilence
Pharaoh
Plague Rider
Pollywog Priest
Predator
Puppet Master
Pyromancer

Skill Build
1 – Smoke Bomb
2 – Pounce
3 – Pounce
4 – Backstab
5 – Pounce
6 – Invisibility
7 – Pounce
8 – Backstab
9 – Backstab
10 – Backstab
11 – Invisibility
12 – Smoke Bomb
13 – Smoke Bomb
14 – Smoke Bomb
15 – Stats
16 – Invisibility
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Pounce for Last Hitting (don’t use it to harass). Make sure to pounce-kill all siege engines. Smoke Bomb level 1 is enough for early game ganks/escapes.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Item Build:
Power Supply >> Iron Shield >> Steam Boots >> Nullfire Blade >> Geometers Bane >> Wingbow

Nullfire in combination with Geometer’s works nicely on Night Hound as they provide a lot of agility and good synergy (Manaburning images).

Information:
Roles: Carry, (Support)
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 1 – Very Weak (Some harass possible with pounce, but it is better used for last hitting)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Smoke Bomb brings a lot to teamfights, but he needs farm as most carries do)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Very Strong if not countered by Anti-Invis)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Nullfire Blade’s Purge and Geometer’s Bane can both remove debuffs from you. Especially Dust and Swarm (Pestilence’ Ult)!
- Cut down Eyes in the Forest with your Logger’s Hatchet.
- Periodically check your opponents’ gear for Bound Eye, Wards of Revelation or Dust so you don’t get caught by surprise.
- Use Purge on your enemies under the Smoke Bomb; this will increase the time they are silenced and trying to run turning their back to you.

Skill Build

1 – Nymphora’s Zeal
2 – Volatile Pod
3 – Volatile Pod
4 – Grace of the Nymph
5 – Volatile Pod
6 – Grace of the Nymph
7 – Volatile Pod
8 – Teleport
9 – Grace of the Nymph
10 – Grace of the Nymph
11 – Teleport
12 – Nymphora’s Zeal
13 – Nymphora’s Zeal
14 – Nymphora’s Zeal
15 – Stats
16 – Teleport
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
One level of stun is taken early for escaping and stunning the enemy near your pods. This can be skipped in favor of Grace of the Nymph if you lane with a heavily mana reliant stunner (Pebbles, Hammer, …).
Teleport can be taken as early as level 6 if you want to actively gank/counter-gank or level 10 if you prefer not to do so. Taking it at level 8 is something in between and should work nicely. (In a higher level game you should consider taking it earlier to assist in counter ganks as these will happen a lot more often and also earlier).

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, Mana Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, Minor Totem

Core:
(Power Supply >>) Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards of Sight

Nymphora doesn’t need primary stats for starting as she will babysit and not lasthit. More important for her is staying alive. With this starting build you get 133 extra HP and you can directly build into Bracelets.
Get Power Supply depending on your lane, I don’t consider it core on her.

After Core:
Wards of Sight >> Plated Greaves or Steam Boots

- Astrolabe (Full Support Route)
- Staff of the Master (If your game is coordinated enough to make use of it)
- Kuldra’s Sheepstick (Otherwise, or after one of the above)
- Charged Hammer (For all those Carry-Nymph players :>)

Get Plated Greaves only if no one else on your team does or if they have heavy armor reduction. Otherwise take Steam Boots on Strength. Keep buying wards as your Number 1 priority!
Then chose one of the three listed items, depending on your/their lineup.
(Example: If they have better carries go Astrolabe since you need to push early, otherwise prepare Sheepstick for the late game.)

Information:
Roles: Supporter, Babysitter, Pusher
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Keep a good overview in hectic battle situations)
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 1 – Very low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (Heal and Mana Restoration + Stun)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Incredible Pushing- and Team-Staying Power)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Heals lose effectiveness, squishy hero)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
Works best with a mana reliant carry (e.g. Madman) or heavy nuker (e.g. Pebbles)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Start using Volatile Pod on level 3. Place it offensive to increase your lane dominance. Place it with your creeps at full hp or out of your creeps’ range to not push the lane too much.
- If not laning with a stunner use Volatile Pod right behind an enemy, then stun him as he is running away to ensure he takes the delayed damage.
- ALWAYS keep Grace of the Nymph on cooldown! If no one else needs mana use it on yourself. Even at level 1 it restores more mana than it costs!
- Use your Teleport Skill at level 2 to countergank with an ally. This is very effective if played right!

Skill Build
1 – Command
2 – Nature’s Wrath
3 – Command
4 – Nature’s Wrath
5 – Command
6 – Ophelia’s Touch
7 – Nature’s Wrath
8 – Nature’s Wrath
9 – Ophelia’s Judgement
10 – Command
11 – Ophelia’s Touch
12 – Ophelia’s Judgement
13 – Ophelia’s Judgement
14 – Ophelia’s Judgement
15 – Stats
16 – Ophelia’s Touch
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Ophelia will always jungle. Period.
This is the standard jungle/ganker build, there are no modifications needed.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier, Wards of Sight, Wards of Revelation

In a higher level game you will need the Wards of Revelation to counter-ward the neutrals as well as the Wards of Sight to jungle in safety. When playing low level pubs you can cut the Wards of Revelation in favor of a flying courier.

Core:
Whispering Helm >> Plated Greaves >> Bracelet of Fortitude

Rush a whispering helm to control one additional creep. The bonus from Command applies as well! Then get Plated for Support and to keep your creeps alive as well as a Bracelet. Make sure you buy wards all the time!

After Core:
- Astrolabe is the typical choice. Nice Synergy with creeps, good support.
- Nome’s Wisdom if your team beneftis from it.
- Staff of the Master otherwise.
- Puzzlebox can be considered in a high level game (counter warding). But note that this means controlling 5-6 Minions…

Information:
Roles: Jungler, Ganker, Pusher, Ward Hoe
Prefered Lane: Jungle
Difficulty: 5 – Very Hard (Hardest Hero to play by far)
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 0 – None
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: Jungle, Good early ganks on short lane
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Insane Ganking and Pushing Power)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 0 – Poor (Minions are useless, she’s a pushover)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Ophelia is very hard to learn and master. Controlling 3-4 additional creeps is very micro intensive.
- Useful Creeps are (in the following order): Minotaur, Skeleton King, Vagabond Leader, Catman Champion, Vulture Lord. The best combination is 1 Skeleton King and 2-3 Minotaurs.
- Note that Vagabond Leader is giving your creeps a health regen aura. This is useful for farming in the jungle (but useless for ganking).
- Start ganking your Lane from level 1 if you find a Skeleton King or Minotaur (otherwise wait until level 3).

Replays:
- Match 28099380 (Not me playing her, but I am in the same game)

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Flick
2 – Cannonball
3 – Cannonball
4 – Flurry
5 -Cannonball
6 – Face Smash
7 -Cannonball
8 -Flurry
9 – Flurry
10 – Flurry
11 – Flick
12 – Flick
13 – Flick
14 – Face Smash
15 – Stats
16 – Face Smash
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
The reason you don’t get Face Smash level 2 on level 11 is, that the duration doesn’t increase, while the mana cost does. Face Smash is a disable not a nuke, so same duration for less Mana is to be prefered especially since you are pretty starved on mana anyways.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
(Bottle >>) Ghost Marchers >> Power Supply >> Shrunken Head

I usually get a bottle but it is not always needed. Make sure you get Ghost Marchers asap, the earlier the better. Once you have them it will be very hard for your enemies to dodge your flicks and kills start happening. Power Supply is core. In most of the games you will then work for a Shrunken Head. If you don’t need one get Insanitatious.
Insanitarious allows you to kill any creep wave with 3 flurries and it makes your ulti so much stronger.

After Core:
(Insanitarious >>) Behemoth’s Heart >> Portal Key >> Riftshards

If your farm doesn’t go well get Insanitarious. The buildup is superb! If your farm is going decent you can skip Insanitarious and go for Heart directly. Behemoth’s Heart will give you a big damage boost for your skills as it greatly increases your base damage. Portal Key for initiation or for blink-ult on their carry. Riftshard crits do happen during Face Smash. If you lack initiation get Key before Heart.

Alternative Items:
- Barbed Armor: Depending on your role this is the first item after your core.

NEVER GET RUNED AXE ON PANDAMONIUM!
I see so many pub players do this but please don’t! Runed axe gives you a cleave but with insanitarious you will instagib creep waves with your flurry, you do absolutely not need Cleave! The flat damage bonus on Runed Axe does not further increase the damage of your skills eihter because it does not increase base damage (again, insanitarious does increase base damage) and if you only want it for the manareg simply get a Bottle and Power Supply.
Always get Insanitarious over Runed Axe for damage and farming!

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Semi-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Flurry)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy (Abilities scale with items)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Very strong midgame ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium

30-Seconds-Guide:
- With the slow of level one flick you are not guaranteed to land your cannonball. Try to anticipate where the enemy is running or wait a second for him to start running before you cannonball.
- With level 3+ flick you are pretty much guaranteed to land cannonball if queued after flick.
- When ganking a lane use flick/cannonball on one hero then switch to the other hero and face smash him while your team mates finish off both heroes.
- Cannonball can be used as an escape skill. But don’t use it to just “blink” away as you will be stunned after you land. Use it to jump up/down cliffs or into the forest where the enemy can’t reach you.

Skill Build

1 – Impale
2 – Flight
3 – Impale
4 – Flight
5 – Impale
6 – Swarm
7 – Impale
8 – Flight
9 – Gore
10 – Gore
11 – Swarm
12 – Gore
13 – Gore
14 – Flight
15 – Stats
16 – Swarm
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Usually Rank 3 Flight is enough and you can go for Gore before getting the last level of Flight. However there is nothing wrong with maxxing Flight at 9.

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Steamboots >> (Power Supply >>) Shrunken Head

Directly aim for Steamboots, a great item for Pestilence (you don’t need more movespeed thanks to flight). Then complete Power Supply if appropriate and work on your shrunken head. Most of the times you will build Shrunken Head but don’t be afraid to skip it if there is really few Disables on the opposing team.

After Core:

Shieldbreaker/Insanitarious >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Portal Key >> Daemonic Breastplate

Shieldbreaker is your item of choice. If you don’t manage to farm it, get the easier-to-obtain Insanitarious. Then Heart and Portal Key for awesome initiation. Breastplate is Luxury and can be replaced by other items.
Important: If your team lacks initiation get Portal Key directly after your core! The time where you want to get Portal Key varies from game to game. After Heart is rather late, often times you will get it earlier; use your judgment of how your team fights are going and if more initiation would help.

Alternative Items:
- Abyssal Skull: The best choice if you desperately need Lifesteal.
- Helm of the Black Legion: I am not a fan of this but I see it being built in competitive games for the fact that he takes a lot of damage often being the first to go in. If you like this item, get it BEFORE Shrunken head.

Information:
Roles: Carry, (Initiator)
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 2 – Weak
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Excellent TP- and Counterganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Arguably one of the strongest and most versatile carries)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Flight makes you one of the best TP- and Counter-Gankers. Always carry a Homecoming stone and be ready to teleport-gank the other lanes.
- Focus on your farm during midgame. Your usefulness will skyrocket once you get Shrunken Head.
- Try to have a stunning/slowing babysitter with you (Demented or Witchslayer for example). This will create enormous lane domination for a carry/babysit lane!
- Always remember that your ultimate will reveal the position of the unit; also on otherwise invisible heroes. Use it on fleeing enemies to prevent them from juking you.

Skill Build

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

Justification / Modifications:
Tormented Soul is taken at start in order to scout out the opponent’s lanes (who’s laning where) and for last-hitting purposes. In most lanes (especially solo mid) you want to max Tormented Soul first for lane control. If you are paired with a slower/stunner however you can max Hellfire over Tormented Soul and try to get some early kills. The damage from a full duration Hellfire is almost in the 4 digits!

One point in Wall of Mummies can be taken early if it synergizes with your lane-partner or you need means to escape. Else leave it for later and keep your mana for Hellfire/Tormented Soul.

Lane Starting Items:
1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 1x Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Iron Buckler >> Bottle >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> Lifetube >> Helm of the Black Legion >> Steam Boots

Remember, you are a semi-tank which is very reliant on having enough mana to pull off his moves/ganks.

After Core:

(Mock of Brilliance >>) Shaman’s Headdress >> Staff of the Master (>> Barrior Idol)

If you’re ricing nicely you should move straight to Mock of Brilliance. You will always fight close to your enemies after you initialise with your ultimate – so +60 damage and the pesky aura will yield you many quick kills.

Shaman’s Headdress and eventually Barrior Idol will help you absorb much more magic damage and tank/chase longer.

Staff of the Master finally will reduce the cooldown on your ultimate down to 20 seconds and enables to target allies – transforming it to a stunning Portal Key!

Alternative Items:
(Note: Your core-items should be enough to the end almost every game. The following items are luxury!)

Behemoth’s Heart: Making you the tank you desserve to be.
Frostfield Plate: Raw armor and a slowing AoE nuke after your ultimate will seal the deal in team-fights.

Information:
Roles: Initiator, Ganker, Tank
Prefered Lane: Middle, Short
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 3 – Medium (You can farm other lanes and stack creep camps from afar with Tormented Soul)
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Strong harassment)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Hellfire > Ulti > Wall of Mummies > Auto-Attack = Kill)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Good (Decent tank, Ulti still shines, Auto-attack damage decreases though)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ Hellfire’s mini-stuns denies a lot of casters to pull off their spells
- Requires other players to roam with you

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You’re alway the first hero to go in!
- Hellfire > Ulti > Wall of Mummies preferably on casters to take them out asap and prevent them from pulling off any channeled abilites or spells with casting time.
- Keep map and rune control (Wards!) to keep your bottle filled and ensures you to roam/gank even longer. This means you have to buy Wards from time to time in pub-games.

Skill Build

1 – Extinguish
2 – Contagion
3 – Contagion
4 – Extinguish
5 – Contagion
6 – Plague Carrier
7 – Contagion
8 – Extinguish
9 – Cursed Shield
10 – Cursed Shield
11 – Plague Carrier
12 – Cursed Shield
13 – Cursed Shield
14 – Extinguish
15 – Stats
16 – Plague Carrier
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Getting Extinguish at level 1 allows you to deny the ranged creep in the first creep wave. This will deny the enemy XP (he will reach level 2 significantly later than you if you lane middle) and it will push the wave to your tower. If paired with a very agressive hero (mostly stunners) you can take Contagion at level 1.
3 Levels of Extinguish are usually enough and this build allows you to get the Cursed Shield one level earlier.

Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, 4x Minor Totem

Core:
Marchers >> Astrolabe >> Plated Greaves

Plague Rider is a pure support hero and should be played as such. Thus your main job will be warding! The gold that is left over will be invested in support items as listed above.

After Core:
Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Portal Key

Always keep buying wards, you don’t need more items than your core. Instead of Kuldra’s you can also go for a Puzzle Box or Nome’s Wisdom depending on your teams needs.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Nuker
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium (Ult not trivial to use)
Farming capabilities: 3 – Medium
Item dependancy: 1 – Very Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 – Very Strong (One of the best harasser)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Devastating ultimate, strong ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 – Medium (Ult and Armor still strong)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- If you are laning mid your reason-to-be is to gank. As soon as you hit level 6 head to the top or bottom lane and try to grab that double tap.
- If you are laning with a partner your job is to babysit. Focus on harassing over denying over lasthitting as with any babysitter except for that your harass actually is more than an annoyance.
- When to cast your ultimate (Plague Carrier): In the Woods with 2-3 Enemies, When ganking and you chase them back towards the tower away from the creeps, When one hero and 2 Creeps are standing very close (solo mid for example), you are about to die and might as well do some damage before you go.

Skill Build

1 – Magical Bindings
2 – Electric Jolt
3 – Electric Jolt
4 – Magical Bindings
5 – Electric Jolt
6 – Voodoo Wards
7 – Electric Jolt
8 – Magical Bindings
9 – Morph
10 – Morph
11 – Voodoo Wards
12 – Morph
13 – Morph
14 – Magical Bindings
15 – Stats
16 – Voodoo Wards
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
If playing against a double stunner lane, start getting morph at level 8 or even 4 as they will interrupt your Bindings. I recommend on always maxxing Jolt first for lane dominance and farming.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards of Sight >> Steam Boots

Power Supply if the lane is in favor for it. The rest is standard, make sure wards are up and at least help buying them.

After Core:
Staff of the Master >> Restoration Stone >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick

After Core is luxury, wards are priority!
The Staff will give you decent stats while further increasing your pushing and defending power. Restoration stone does the same. Don’t get Restoration Stone before SotM as you wont have the Mana to cast wards twice.
As a final Luxury Item Sheepstick is never a bad choice.

Alternatives:
- Storm Spirit: Eul’s was good back in DotA when you could upgrade it to Guinsoo’s. Now it’s very lackluster. If you want to Ward-Trap simply use Morph; there is no need for Storm Spirit in most of the cases!
- Puzzle Box: Becomes viable in high level play when the opposing team is (counter-) warding. Also nice synergy with your CCs (cast minions and shackle the enemy while they beat him up).

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Disabler, Pusher
Prefered Lane: Any, Sides Prefered
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 2 – Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (Nuke and disables)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Good pusing power with ult)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Maybe medium if you manage to stay alive to CC)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- If you are facing a double stun lane ask for a switch. It greatly reduces your effectiveness.
- Ward-Trapping: Cast Morph on an enemy, Place Voodoo Wards around him by targeting him with the Spell, if he is not completely surrounded use Magical Bindings to prevent him from escaping and finish with Jolt.
- You can Gank with Ward-Trapping from level 8 or 9 on (as soon as you get Morph). Don’t go gank alone, its much less effective. You are a strong counter-ganker.
- Always target their stunners/disablers with your magical binding. Otherwise they will interrupt it.

Kirei’s Take on Polly:
I typically don’t level jolt at all. I level bindings>morph and then stats after those are maxed. Even if I’m solo mid. I do this because the CC from these are so much better than jolt. You can easily get first blood and more with a lane partner with these two maxed as high as you can vs jolt.

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Venomous Leap
2 – Stone Hide
3 – Venomous Leap
4 – Carnivorous
5 – Venomous Leap
6 – Terror
7 – Venomous Leap
8 -Carnivorous
9 – Carnivorous
10 – Carnivorous
11 – Terror
12 – Stone Hide
13 – Stone Hide
14 – Stone Hide
15 – Stats
16 – Terror
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Standard build for most situations. If you jungle, max Carnivorous first obviously.
It is possible to delay Terror to levels 10 and 11 but I prefer to get it at 6.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Steam Boots >> Shield Breaker

One of the biggest advantages Predator has over other strengths carries is, that he does not need a Shrunken Head for his core. This allows him to go directly for damage items and making him become effective much earlier. If your farm is slacking a bit and you have troubles saving up for Shield Breaker you can build Insanitarious instead. It also a very solid choice but has a better buildup.

After Core:
Warpcleft >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Riftshards

Daemonic Breastplate gives you all the stats you need. Riftshards is pure luxury.

Alternative Items:
- Insanitarious: As mentioned
- Elder Parasite: It is good since carnivorous scales very well with attack speed and the additional life leech with the Parasite and Carnivorous somewhat make up for the damage taken (IF you can attack). That being said either get it early (before sheildbreaker) or just get Warpcleft (I prefer the latter).
- Shrunken Head: Is an option in very magic heavy matchups. It’s by no means useless but very situational. The stats it provides are however sub par. You want attack speed and – Armor.

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short, (Jungle)
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Very high base damage, built-in life leech)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak (Dangerous with capable babysitter)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Needs farm)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You have a very good Base damage and attack animation, last hitting should be pretty easy.
- Don’t simply activate Stone hide right after you leap. Only activate it if you need it. It requires some practice and anticipation to use it correctly.
- You can block spells mid-air with Stone hide. For example even when Hammerstorm’s Hammer is already flying it will not stun you and do no damage to you if you manage to activate Stone Hide before the hammer hits.

Skill Build
1 – Lunar Glow
2 – Moon Beam
3 – Lunar Glow
4 – Stats
5 – Lunar Glow
6 – Moon Finale
7 – Lunar Glow
8 – Stats
9 – Stats
10 – Stats
11 – Moon Finale
12 – Stats
13 – Multi Strike
14 – Multi Strike
15 – Multi Strike
16 – Moon Finale
17 – Stats+
23 – Moon Beam+

Justification / Modifications:
Moon Finale does no longer require Moon Beam to be maxed. Thus my preferred build is to go Lunar Glow/Stats with one level of Moon Beam for last hitting and stunning. You can still go the traditional route and get Moon Beam level 4, its just a different playstyle. The playstyle described here focuses on carrying.

Starting Items Solo Mid:
Bottle
You move faster than any hero in the game. Use this to your advantage and grab every rune you can. Stats and Aura provide enough base damage for last hitting.

Starting Items Sidelane:
Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply or Bottle >> Steam Boots >> 2x Soulscream Ring >> Whispering Helm >> Shrunken Head
Mana Battery if sidelane, Bottle if midlane. Get Soulscream Rings for more stats and swap Steam Boots as needed (Int if laning, Agi if creeping and Str for ganks and team fights). As soon as you get Whispering Helm start stacking Ancients. You should be able to farm them easy.
Shrunken Head with all the other stats/hp items will help you over your squishy-ness, allow you to get your full Moon Finale off and thus is definitely core.

After Core:
Wingbow >> Symbol of Rage >> Geometer’s Bane

Wingbow is the DPS item of choice. After that upgrade Symbol of Rage and then fill your last slot with a Geometer’s Bane.

Information
Roles: Hard Carry, Pusher
Prefered Lane: Any. Is fine on long, can solo mid
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (once you get Multishot)
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Nukes/Multi Shot vs. Melees)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong (Her Ultimate shines in ganks and early teamfights)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (If farmed well)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
Works best with fast creep clearers (behe, hag, …)
+ fastest base move speed in game (320)
- short attack range (330)
- Moon Finale is weak against Heroes that control Minions

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Use Moon Beam to score last hits on creeps you would otherwise not get. Don’t use it to harass (unless you actually decide to level it).
- Once level 7 go gank their long lane. Hide in the forest, go in with autoattack, if they run back finish with Moon Finale. Save Moon Beam if they try to TP or for the Killing Blow (you are allowed to KS as carry).
- Go for the Runes if you have Bottle. If you meet an enemy in the river use Moon Finale for a guaranteed kill.
- Don’t use Moon Finale if your target can: go invis, go out of line of sight, go invulv (Shrunken Head and some abilities) or when multiple creeps are around.

(1.66)

Skill Build
1 – Flash
2 – Mana Combustion
3 – Mana Combustion
4 – Flash
5 – Mana Combustion
6 – Mana Rift
7 – Mana Combustion
8 – Flash
9 – Flash
10 – Master of the Mantra
11 – Mana Rift
12 – Master of the Mantra
13 – Master of the Mantra
14 – Master of the Mantra
15 – Stats
16 – Mana Rift
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Straightforward build. I can see no situation where you would go another build.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Item Build:
Iron Shield >> Lifetube >> Steam Boots >> Runed Axe >> Whispering Helm >> Shrunken Head >> Symbol of Rage

Iron Shield is technically not needed, but in most lanes it is worth building. It protects you from harass and will help your farming a great deal even later on. As soon as you get Whispering Helm start stacking Ancients. You can take them out easily by that point.

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 1 – Poor
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 1 – Very Weak
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Kills possible with ult against Int Heroes)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Scales incredibly well)

30-Seconds-Guide
- Farm, farm, farm but don’t forget to help in team battles.
- Ancient Stacking is a nice way to get him fat fast.
- Very straightforward to play, nothing really to say here.

Skill Build

1 – Stalk
2 – Barel Roll
3 – Stalk
4 – Barelll Roll
5 – Barell Roll
6 – Stalk
7 – Barell Roll
8 – Stalk
9 – Gash
10 – Gash
11 – Gash
12 – Gash
13 – Berserk
14 – Berserk
15 – Stats
16 – Berserk
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Stalk is nice for early Harassing and you won’t be able to support the Mana for Barrel Roll early on. Thus we get Stalk 2 first. Later with Bottle and Power Supply you can Barrel Roll more often and the Mana Cost for Barrel Roll at level 1 and 4 are the same. This is why we max it first.
You can get your ultimate at levels 10 and 11 but I usually don’t as I wont have the mana to use it (it’s very expensive).

Starting Items:
Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, Mana Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Fortified Bracelet

You need Bottle and Power Supply. Spamming his Spells make Madman such a dominant early and midgame hero. He has low mana and manaregen as you would expect from an agi hero so consider setting steamboots on int for now. GhostnMarchers are trash as you move much faster with stalk and they do break stalk slowing you down.

After Core:
1. Runed Axe is the most popular choice, especially in pubs. It solves a lot of your mana problems and allows you to easily farm up the rest of your carry gear.
2. Shrunken Head is mandatory on Madman. In higher levels of play you will even get this before Runed Axe, but usually you will be fine to get it after.
3. Whispering Helm and later Symbol of Rage is the next Item (consider some ancient stacking in between).

Alternative Items :
- Hellflower solves all your mana problems you will ever have while providing a very useful debuff for Madman. You will see this item a lot in higher level play as it can take out a hero like Plague Rider or Soulstealer before they get off their ultimate.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry, Ganker
Prefered Lane: Any. Can solo mid (but has to go gank if mid)
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (His spells are excellent for harrassing…)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong(… and for farming purposes)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Capable Hard-Carry if well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide
- Stalk behind the target and auto attack for 2-3 hits until they’re on the side, barrel roll, animation cancel till you’re in front. Stalk should be up by then. Rinse and repeat.
- Once one of the teams initiates, you should focus on stunning their whole team with a BR to start, and then Berserk and beat on whatever INT disabler/nuker is closest to you.
- Use your ult early (before the fight/gank), it lasts very long.

Skill Build

1 – Sword Throw
2 – Sword of the Damned
3 – Sword Throw
4 – Sword of the Damned
5 – Sword Throw
6 – Possession
7 – Sword Throw
8 – Sword of the Damned
9 – Sword of the Damned
10 – Hellbourne Zeal
11 – Possession
12 – Hellbourne Zeal
13 – Hellbourne Zeal
14 – Hellbourne Zeal
15 – Stats
16 – Possession
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Standard build for all situations.

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Mana Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, Minor Totem

Core:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Whispering Helm>> Steam Boots >> Shrunken Head

Logger’s Hatchet is needed to compensate for his weak base damage. Get Whispering Helm asap (before marchers) and start stacking ancients!
Steam Boots are the boots of choice since you can escape (and to an extent chase) with blink. Shrunken head is the Core Item on Malkien, being a rather squishy initiator. If you eat only one stun after initiation, chances are high you will die before you do your damage.

After Core:

Shieldbreaker/Insanitarious >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Riftshards

Shieldbreaker is your item of choice. If you don’t manage to farm it, get the easier-to-obtain Insanitarious. Then Breastplate for nice attackspeed and tanky-ish stats. If you farm really good you can directly skip to Heart + Riftshards which will put your damage through the roof.

Information:
Roles: Tank, Initiator, Carry
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 4 – Heavy (Used to be much lower, but since the nerf he needs quite some farm to be effective)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Sword Throw is very powerful, has some staying power)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Needs farm)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your job is to initiate battles with Sword Throw and Possession and let your team follow.
- When farming your ancient stacks use Sword Throw on cooldown and also don’t be afraid to use your Ultimate. It has low cooldown and the splash helps a great deal, especially on large stacks.
- Keep Enchanted Flames active as soon as you get Whispering Helm. The lifesteal counteracts the damage you take. Whenever you drop below 25% hp in team fights, switch to Life Essence and machine-gun you life back up. You are very, very hard to kill in Possession form with Hellbourne Zeal maxxed out.
- Remember you can use Sword Throw to escape ganks. Throw the Sword into the Forest, blink and TP out.

Skill Build
1 – Lava Surge
2 – Steam Bath
3 – Lava Surge
4 – Stats
5 – Lava Surge
6 – Eruption
7 – Lava Surge
8 -Volcanic Touch
9 – Volcanic Touch
10 – Volcanic Touch
11 – Eruption
12 – Volcanic Touch
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Eruption
17 – Stats+
23 – Steam Bath
24 – Steam Bath
25 – Steam Bath

Justification / Modifications:
Lava Surge is your bread an butter. It’s maxed first and mainly used for starting stunning in on ganks, for escaping or helping out teammates.

One point in Steam Bath ensures you life when you get ganked or dropping low in your lane. I prefer to max out stats first before Steam Bath to give you that extra HP/MP for longer teamfights.

Volcanic Touch is your mid-game farming ability which will clear out creep waves with some good timed clicks on low HP-creeps. In harder games get Stats instead of Volcanic Touch and delay it until levels 12-15.

Lane Starting Items:
1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 1x Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Power Supply >> Bottle >> Portal Key >> Marchers >> Fortified Bracelet

Portal Key is your most needed-item! Try to farm it during the laning-phase as fast as possible. If you’re not able to, get Marchers first and get the Portal Key in the early mid-game with help of Volcainc Touch.

After Core:

Ghost Marchers (Post Haste) >> Staff of the Master >> Behemoth’s Heart

Post Haste should be prioritised over Enhanced Marchers, due to being able to push/farm lanes quickly and easily with Volcanic Touch. Staff of the Master will improve your ultimate further. Behemoth’s Heart to top Magmus off and make him much more durable.

Alternative Items:
(Due to Magmus’ relative effectivness with little core-items, you should think about buying supportive items and wards.)

Barrier Idol: Build an Idol if you’re opposing strong magic opponents/ultimates.
Wards of Sight/Revelation: If you’re team is lacking supporters and you got your core-items together.

Information:
Roles: Initiator, Ganker
Prefered Lane: Long
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Volcanic Touch)
Item dependancy: 2 – Low (Portal Key!)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Higher if paired with another stunner!)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium (Can’t gank alone, Lava Surge ensures a kill most of the time)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Good (Very potent Ulti if timed properly, relatively squishy compared to other Str heroes)

Noteable +/- and synergies:
+ Strong early game when paired with another stunner on the lane
- Can’t pull of ganks alone, must be roaming with one or more allies

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You have to hit with your Ultimate in every teamfight!
- With Portal Key: Position yourself outside of the bulk of your team – preferably hiding behind trees or on higher ground – but in range to blink in. Then: Activate Ulti > Wait 2 seconds > Blink in the center of the enemy team > Walk a bit to position yourself perfectly while Eruption continues > Lava Surge to stun/kill/escape (> Steam Bath).
- Without Portal Key: Lava Surge in > Ulti (Opponents will try to stop your channeling though!) OR Ulti > Wait 2 seconds > Lava Surge in (Safer but no guarantee to hit in time in the right place!)
- Once you have Volcanic Hammer level 2+ you can Lava Surge a Creep Wave, hit the ranged creep and then hit one melee creep for a full wave of gold.

Skill Build

1 – Whirling Blade
2 – Taunt
3 – Whirling Blade
4 – Taunt
5 – Whirling Blade
6 – Decapitate
7 – Taunt
8 – Taunt
9 – Whirling Blade
10 – Terrify
11 – Decapitate
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Decapitate
17 – Stats+
23 – Terrify+

Justification / Modifications:
The upgrade from Whirling Blade 3 to 4 is too small, max taunt first instead. One level of Terrify is usually taken to disable Portal Key, stop heal/bottle, etc. This is the same build no matter if you lane or jungle (i will only cover jungling here tho).

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, 2x Iron Buckler

Core:
(Helm of the Black Legion >>) Marchers >> Shamans Headdress >> Portal Key

Some like it, some hate it: Helm of the Black Legion is a controversial item not only on Legionnaire. I usually stack up 2-3 creep camps with 5-10 stacks each while farming the other camps. As soon as i get my helm I can kill the stacks for a quick portal key. Depending on your playstyle and your enemies get EITHER Hotbl OR Shamans Headdress and then get Portal Key. After that you can finish the other of the two tanking items if it makes sense. If you go headdress with no Hotbl you may consider getting Plated Greaves earlier as it helps a lot with jungling.

After core:
Plated Greaves OR Post Haste >> Barbed Armor >> Behemoth’s Heart

Especially if you didn’t build Hotbl you should have the money for Post Haste. But Plated Greaves are very good too.
Barbed Armor is kinda situational but in the majority of the games it is a very solid choice after you got your tanking core and blink. Heart is obvious.

Information:
Roles: Carry, Tank, Initiator
Prefered Lane: Jungle
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent (Among the best)
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (needs core)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: Jungle, decent lane ganker
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak (Gets stronger after core)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Good Initiator and Tank even if poorly farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- If you want to jungle successfully with Legionnaire you need to master the art of creep stacking. He kills 5 Creeps faster and with less health loss than 2 Creeps. There are good written and video guides for this. This Premium Guide for example.
- Once you farmed 1 tanking item and Portal Key stop jungling! From now on you need to initiate team fights and ganks.
- Use a courier to send you health potions while jungling. It is always more efficient than running back to the fountain to heal.
- Help your mid to maintian rune control and gank your lane at level 6 for a rather easy kill.

Skill Build

1 – Splash
2 – Tsunami Charge
3 – Splash
4 – Tsunami Charge
5 – Tsunami Charge
6 – Whirlpool
7 – Tsunami Charge
8 – Tidal Pull
9 – Tidal Pull
10 – Tidal Pull
11 – Whirlpool
12 – Tidal Pull
13 – Splash
14 – Splash
15 – Stats
16 – Whirlpool
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Level 2 Splash is all you need to get those last-hits. After getting that switch priority to Tsunami Charge and max it out asap for increased Range and Damage. Whirlpool is taken at 6 for a chance on early kills (Pull them behind your tower). But you can delay it depending on the situation.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Steamboots >> Portal Key >> Fortified Bracelet

Simple as that. Pick up Steamboots ON INT first to have the mana to support Whirlpool, Charge and Portal Key. If you still have your Pretender’s Crown upgrade it to a bracer.
Power Supply is situational on Kraken. Get it in appropriate lanes, skip it otherwise. I don’t recommend to get it before Portal Key.

After Core:
- Helm of the Black Legion: DO NOT GET THIS ITEM! I see every other pub kraken run around with a helm. You are NOT a tank. You are support. There are 278 better items for you.
- Wards of Sight: Once you got your Core buy wards. Always remember, you are support.
- Nome’s Wisdom: My next item of choice if no one else has it already.
- Barrier Idol: Great support Item in most matchups. Can even be gotten before Nome’s.
- Astrolabe: If barrier Idol is not needed. Don’t get both (it’s too late to be useful after Barrier).
- Puzzlebox: After barrier Idol or Astrolabe.

Information:
Roles: Tank, Initiator, Anti-Pusher, (Anti-Carry)
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent (Splash)
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (Needs core)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 – Weak
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (Game changing ult)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You are defined by your ultimate. Missing it makes you virtually useless for the next two Minutes!
- The first thing you need to look at before you use your ulti is your mana pool. At lvl 6-10 you need to have at least 275 mana to pull off a ult+portal key combo. At lvl 11-15 you need 325 mana, and at lvl 16+ you need 375 mana. Remember to always have sufficient mana before placing an ult.
- Always remember: You are Support. Do not play carry. Get supportive items, plant wards, let the least pushed lanes for your carries to farm.
- The next thing to note is that it isn’t always optimal to get all their heroes with your ulti. The goal is simply to assassinate their most important heroes before the teamfight even begins. That’s how Kraken wins games. Get 2-3 heroes, then continue to push to get an easy tower kill. Back off when they respawn and wait until the ulti is off cooldown!
- Sometimes, mostly early-mid game (around lvl 6-10) it is often worth to ult just to grab a single hero for an easy kill. Ganking their Sand Wraith right when he has saved up 2500g farming for Mock can be gamebreaking!
- Whirlpool has a quite decent cast range, so remember that you don’t always have to cast it on your feet. Use this to your advantage, and try to position the whirlpool exit on a dangerous spot that’s hard to get out of. Ping the map on where you place your ult right before you use it. This way your teammates knows what’ll be happening.

Skill Build Offensive

1 – Tree Sight
2 – Camouflage
3 – Tree Sight
4 – Nature’s Protection
5 – Tree Sight
6 – Root
7 – Tree Sight
8 – Nature’s Protection
9 – Nature’s Protection
10 – Nature’s Protection
11 – Root
12 – Camouflage
13 – Camouflage
14 – Camouflage
15 – Stats
16 – Root
17 – Stats+

Skill Build Devensive
1 – Tree Sight
2 – Camouflage
3 – Nature’s Protection
4 – Nature’s Protection
5 – Nature’s Protection
6 – Root
7 – Nature’s Protection
8 – Tree Sight
9 – Tree Sight
10 – Tree Sight
11 – Root
12 – Camouflage
13 – Camouflage
14 – Camouflage
15 – Stats
16 – Root
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Rule of Thumb: Offensive Build if paired with a ranged hero, defensive build if paired with a melee hero. Also chose the defensive build if you get harassed too much even though having a ranged partner.

Starting Items:
Monkey Courier, Runes of the Blight, 2x Minor Totem, Guardian Ring

Item Build:
Logger’s Hatchet >> Ring of the Teacher >> Marchers >> Nome’s Wisdom >> Sustainer >> Restoration Stone >> Portal Key >> Post Haste >> Frostfield Plate

There is no need to split a core or after core build here, the build-up is fluent. Get Logger’s and a Scarab from the outpost asap and then bring Marchers plus the rest of Nome’s to you via the courier.
Feel free to buy wards if your eyes get destroyed or you can’t place them at the places you wish to (altough this is rarely an issue).
After Restoration Stone get a Portal Key for optimal 2xRoot placement and then Post Haste (Luxury). Finally a Frostfield Plate to complement all the Lategame needs Keeper has.

Alternative Items:
- Mock of Brilliance: A popular choice especially in pubs where you can free farm your lane and reach a 20 min Mock. If you can do that – by all means go for it. It synergises well with Keeper.

Information:
Roles: Suporter, Initiator, (Jungler)
Prefered Lane: Long, (Can jungle if absolutely needed, Can go mid versus other melee heroes)
Difficulty: 2 – Easy
Farming capabilities: 3 – Medium (Very good base damage & attack animation)
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Good last hitter, hard to kill)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 – Weak
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 – Strong (Good initiator)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your first task as Keeper, before the Laning phase even really begins, is to get an Eye onto the top rune ASAP. Usually you will be laning in the long lane (top for Legion, bottom for Hellbourne). This allows you easy access to your opponents jungle from an early level and makes accessing the Outpost easier as well.
- As soon as Tree Sight comes off cooldown ward your opponents pull spot.
- Always leave enough mana for an emergency Camouflage, especially if there is anyone missing, as you never know when you’re going to need it.
- Always carry a Homecoming Stone! If a tower is under attack teleport there and cast Nature’s Protection on it. This will not only increase its armor but will also heal it back up.
- Read this guide for the most important locations to put your eyes.

Skill Build
1 – Stalagmites
2 – Chuck
3 – Stalagmites
4 – Chuck
5 – Stalagmites
6 – Chuck
7 – Stalagmites
8 – Chuck
9 – Enlarge
10 – Slab Skin
11 – Enlarge
12 – Slab Skin
13 – Slab Skin
14 – Slab Skin
15 – Stats
16 – Enlarge
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Not much to say. Never go for another build under any circumstances.

Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Pretender’s Crown, Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> Ring of Sorcery >> Portal Key

It is very advised to get those stats items to start or you will not be able to pull off stalagmite+chuck combos before level 5! (It costs 240 Mana).
If you go solo mid you will need a Logger’s Hatchet + 3 Minor Totems.

After core:
Wards of Sight >> Steam Boots >> Warpcleft >> Daemonic Breastplate

After your core you are not very item dependent and free to assist in warding/supporting. Finish your boots (not very important which ones) and start working on your breastplate. You can get Steamboots before Portal Key or even turn your Pretender’s Crowns into Fortified Bracelets if you find the game to be hard.

Information:
Roles: Nuker, Ganker, (Initiator)
Prefered Lane: Any (Can solo mid)
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good (Mana intensive)
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (needs core)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong (high burst damage)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 – Very Strong (Highest burst damage in the game at level 8+)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Drastically loses power once heroes get solid hp pools)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Pebbles is a ganker. There’s nothing else he can do with his skillset. He is a poor physical DPSer. He is the ultimate one-hit-wonder, with two spells that can be used singly or together for fantastic results, after which he runs like a sissy girl until his spells are back up. Don’t let his main stat fool you: Pebbles is a caster.
- The famous “one-two” combo is accomplished by casting stalagmite on an enemy and then instantly chucking him onto himself. This does abnormal damage and is mostly a one-shot in early and mid game.
- The more advanced “one-two-three” involves manually right-clicking the enemy while he is chucked in the air for an additional ~200 damage before he lands. Try to practice this if you want to improve your pebbles play.

Skill Build
1 – Puppeteer’s Hold
2 – Puppet Show
3 – Whiplash
4 – Whiplash
5 – Whiplash
6 – Voodoo Puppet
7 – Whiplash
8 – Puppet Show
9 – Puppet Show
10 – Puppet Show
11 – Voodoo Puppet
12 – Puppeteer’s Hold
13 – Puppeteer’s Hold
14 – Puppeteer’s Hold
15 – Stats
16 – Voodoo Puppet
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Get one level of Puppeteer’s Hold and Puppet Show early to have some pseudo disables just in case (they hold pretty long for one level). Then Max Whiplash to farm up. Puppet Show is better than Hold in almost every aspect (except maybe the cooldown) and has to be maxxed first.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Pretenders Crown, Minor Totem

Core:
Whispering Helm (>> Fortified Bracelet) >> Steam Boots

Whispering Helm can be gotten asap from the outpost and is needed to start stacking ancient creeps. If you don’t know how to do that, I recommend you read up on it as it is essential to play a good Puppet Master. Steam Boots are easily better than Ghost Marchers due to the survivability they provide. Get 0-2 Bracelets if the game goes rough.

After Core:
(Assassin’s Shroud >>) Shrunken Head >> Harkon’s Blade >> Geometer’s Bane

The new build for puppet. Shroud is situational but can be gotten even in high tier games. Shrunken Head and Harkon’s Blade are insanely powerful and will boost your survivability and damage through the roof.

Alternative Items:
- Kuldra’s Sheepstick: This item becomes very interesting if you are not taking the carry role. If you have at least one very capable Hard Carry in your team you probably wanna pick up this item right after the core and lay low on the pure damage items.
- Hellflower: Not often seen but can be a solid first choice after the core if you need to deal with an evasive opponent carry like Madman, Magebane, Scout, etc. Don’t get this if you are the only carry though.

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry, Disabler
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 4 – Hard
Farming capabilities: 5 – Excellent (Whiplash is amazing)
Item dependancy: 5 – Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium (Pesudo disables)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 – Very Strong (If well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Don’t forget the ancient creep stacking. Every minute at x.50 to x.56 you have to aggro the ancient creeps with your minion and draw them out of their spawning area for an additional set of creeps to spawn.
- Farm the ancients once you reach 4-5 stacks. Then continue stacking.
- Focus on last hitting over harassing, because harassing is not a good idea when you have pseudo-disables and no nukes.
- If the enemy is slow to retreat from a creep wave, cast puppeteer’s hold or puppet show.
- Your bread and butter: Open with puppet show if there is someone for the target to attack, and then chain with puppeteer’s hold. Ult if needed (before puppeteer’s hold but after puppet show) and auto-attack till dead.

Skill Build – IN DEVELOPMENT
1 – Dragonfire
2 – Phoenix Wave
3 – Phoenix Wave
4 – Dragonfire
5 – Phoenix Wave
6 – Blazing Strike
7 – Phoenix Wave
8 – Fervor
9 – Fervor
10 – Fervor
11 – Blazing Strike
12 – Fervor
13 – Dragonfire
14 – Dragonfire
15 – Stats
16 – Blazing Strike
17 – Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
The Fervor Change to Pyromancer will change his skillbuild. I do not yet know how exactly the new build looks. The liste build is currently used by some top tier players so i suggest you go with that.
This will be updated in the near future.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, Mana Potion, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
(Bottle >>) Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Wards of Sight

Get Bottle if you lane mid, otherwise don’t. Always get Power Supply and then Steam Boots. Keep Wards up all the time!

After Core:
Manatube >> Portal Key >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Behemoth’s Heart

Manatube for better regen, will build into Kuldra’s later. Portal Key can be a very good item on Pyromancer if you know how to use it! (Otherwise don’t get it). In a normal game you will probably not even finish Kuldra’s since you need to continuously buy Wards. In case you do finish Kuldra’s however, start working on a Heart.

Information:
Roles: Chain-Nuker, Ganker, Ward Hoe
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 – Good
Item dependancy: 1 – Very Low
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 – Strong
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 – Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak

30-Seconds-Guide:
- When possible avoid solo mid, you are much more useful with a partner (if that partner also stuns, the better!)
- You are not a carry. You are a Ganker and Supporter. Play accordingly.
- Gank mid whenever your ult is up.
- Never get Codex or Staff of the Master

Related posts:

1. [Hero Guide] Succubus
2. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 3 R-Z
3. 30 Second Hero Guide Part 1 A-J

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Post tags: Hero Guide, heroes, Heroes of Newerth - Noobie Guide

S2Idejder:

So to jump right into it, here are the upcoming Deadwood balance changes:

This is a general sweeping rebalance of this hero to bring him more in line with where we want him. Reducing his lategame scaling slightly along with making his Oakbolt better and balancing the Punch a bit for earlygame.

Keep in mind other then internal games, these changes are generally untested. This is what the beta-beta build is for when we can make one.

And now, onto the part I am sure a lot of you want to see shots of;

The Tutorial

Now, I am not going to walk you through every new step, voiceover, and effect in the tutorial. That would ruin the fun for when you test and play it yourself. Keep in mind what you are seeing is just a fraction of all of the cool stuff we have scripted for this.

When you get into the game on the new interface, you will see this great button on the left side of the screen:

Clicking this will load and launch into the tutorial.

When you finish loading you are presented with a very direct menu:

Most people will click “Start Full Tutorial” the first time through, but using the different segments you can pick up later if you decide to stop part way through.

I am going to show one screenshot of a cool moment during each of the segments.

1. Overview

2. Basic Hero Controls

3. Hero Types
* This is also what the new hero picking screen looks like as well, minus the color pointing out the Strength hero section. Leaking! Also, we added more slots. How did we do that?!?

4. Items and Shopping

5. Gold and Experience

6. Laning Phase

Related posts:

1. Patch 1.61 …Hellooooo Deadwood
2. [HoN] Official 1.66 Patch Notes
3. [HoN] 1.64 / 1.63 Patch Notes

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: deadwood, Heroes of Newerth, patch, patch notes, upcoming patch

Related posts:

1. Heroes of Newerth Noobie Guide 2 – Basic Laning
2. Heroes of Newerth Noobie Guide 1 – Terms
3. Dear HoNCast

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Heroes of Newerth - Noobie Guide

I often play support and then I play more support and then.. more support. Even with my group of friends, which 95% includes Gray Fox / Jon, I play dun-dun-dun support. I’m the ward whore, the courier bitch, the disable, and of course the healer.

Wanna know why? Because if I don’t do it, no one else will. Even if they try they can’t do it as well as I can. They don’t buy couriers, they don’t keep wards up, they don’t disable when they need to, and they never help the team as well as I can help the team.

There are some that I play a lot with. If I play Demented Shaman I get support items, wards, courier, whatever is needed. My friend plays Demented Shaman and he’s never heard of wards unless he was previously bitching at me last game about why my wards were down.

There’s a quote often given on the BETA forums. “Wanna win pubs? Play support.” It’s true. Mostly because no one else plays it. Everyone wants to play the “LOL did you see that?! I 2 shotted him!” heroes.

I just wanna be a bride every so often and not feel like my bridesmaids suck.

Related posts:

1. Dear Locked “Pro” Pub Players,
2. HoN ~ Like a Whisper?
3. Heroes of Newerth Noobie Guide 3 ~ Advanced Laning

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Heroes of Newerth, support