Heroes of Newerth: Get yer game on.

Custom Special

Heroes of Newerth is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, very similar to its Warcraft 3 mother-mod, Defense of the Ancients. The player controls a single hero within the arena, together in a team of 1-5 players. As you kill opposing creeps and heroes, your hero gains power through upgraded abilities (each hero has four, hotkeyed QWER) and gold to buy better items with.

The game is now in Open Beta until official release. After that, the game goes live and everyone who hasn't pre-purchased loses their account and name (pre-purchase guarantees your account name at release).

If your name isn't on the player list, just post in the thread. I'll try to read everything, but if you still don't see anything after a few days, try again to help me pay attention (or just PM me).
I'll try to keep this junk updated so we can enjoy the game and get some in-house games. At least that way, we won't yell at each other and can have some fun.


Current players:

Custom Special : F4ll0ut
Valiance : valiance
Skutskut : DaBigBoi
Drakmathus : Dark_Helmet, Drakmathus
c4tch : firecane
Spawnbroker : crazyguy7398
jdmichal : RangerX
Saphier : PAErrant
fsmith1 : fsmith1
Lunysgwen : Lunysgwen
iusehappymod : TheDoctor_
greeble : greeble
TheBana : TheBana
Sevorak : sevorak
Karnius : Drakonius
softCactus : softcactus
Indica1 : iloveshrooms, san_shou, c0ncept404
Blight : TheBlight
stevemarks44 : Stevemarks44
Zombie Hero : Zombie_Hero
Forfeit : Forfeit

Getting started:

1. Don't die.
2. If you can't see an enemy's hero on the minimap, back that truck up. It is often too easy to let your guard down, your allies don't call a missing player, and you have half the enemy team combo stunning you into the ground.
3. Are you Chronos? Then DO NOT buy an Elder Parasite unless your team is just ridiculously stacked and you want to hear the awesome laugh and kill people.
4. The entire HoN community hates you until you've played 100 games (roughly). Play with friends if you can help it. Look on the beta forums for the LN or HfH beginner clans for lots of other nubs to start off with.
5. The role your hero plays actually matters. A carry carries your team, a support keeps the carry alive or helps them kill faster. Learn your role and play it well. (I prefer support myself)
6. Sadly, Pretentious's hatred is not entirely misguided. Guides and "how-to's" aren't going to teach you the game. You have to play and make friends who will help you in order to gain a solid understanding of where to go, when to run, and who to engage.
7. ???
8. Profit

iusehappymod wrote: »

The game types in hon are

ap - All pick. All heroes are available and can be picked by any player in no particular order
ar - All Random. Every player gets a random hero. You can swap among your team, or repick your hero (for another random) to take a cut in starting gold
sd - Single Draft. Each player has a choice of three heroes. You can swap among your team.
rd - Random Draft. Teams alternate picking from a random pool of heroes
bd - Banning Draft. Same thing as Random draft, except there are four more heroes on the board, and each side gets two bans.
bp - Banning Pick. Similar to all pick, except picking is alternated (like the draft) and 6 heroes from the complete hero pool are banned.

em indicats easymode. Exp gain is increased and gold per second is doubled. Theoretically makes the games shorter. Just ends up being total shit.

USW Means the server is on the West Coast of the united states. Other options may include USC, USE, or USS.

no AB means the game will not be autobalanced when you get into it. Autobalance moves players around according to their PSR (Thats the 1500++ stuff) so that each team has an even chance of winning. NO AB usually means its a team of 5 players who want to pub stomp.

Control+F guide/information emporium

The giant 'a little bit about everyone' guide...thing (does not have the 0.3.0 patch in it) (requires beta forum login to view)

HoN League youtube channel with some helpful starter and hero videos.

Watch the pros do it, with play-by-play commentary at HONcast

Wishpig

Goddamn I love my Engineer and Blacksmith.

Engineer is fun cause I love tossing down a turret infront of a tower, cast tinker, and laugh as the tower is rendered useless! Plus turret + field may be the most epic combo in the game.

I love Blacksmith because people don't expect much from me late game and I get to feel all helpfull and stuff casting Frenzy like no one's business!

iusehappymod

I play as TheDoctor_

P10

Don't rely on guides to teach you how to play this game.
Guides just rehash popular cookie-cutter builds that are usually bad, and most do a poor job of explaining what your hero's role actually is. They don't help you understand the underlying mechanics of the game, which will really cripple your skill in the long run. They might allow you to familiarize yourself with the hero, but ultimately I consider them more harmful than helpful.

valiance

PRËTËNTIÖüS wrote: »

Don't rely on guides to teach you how to play this game.
Guides just rehash popular cookie-cutter builds that are usually bad, and most do a poor job of explaining what your hero's role actually is. They don't help you understand the underlying mechanics of the game, which will really cripple your skill in the long run. They might allow you to familiarize yourself with the hero, but ultimately I consider them more harmful than helpful.

So what do you recommend? Watch pros play?

greeble

Experience is probably the best teacher. And in general listen to your teammates when they warn you to back up, etc. Also look at the guys that seem to kick ass and check out their gear and see what they do.

Add me to the list please, HoN name is greeble.

khain

valiance wrote: »

PRËTËNTIÖüS wrote: »

Don't rely on guides to teach you how to play this game.
Guides just rehash popular cookie-cutter builds that are usually bad, and most do a poor job of explaining what your hero's role actually is. They don't help you understand the underlying mechanics of the game, which will really cripple your skill in the long run. They might allow you to familiarize yourself with the hero, but ultimately I consider them more harmful than helpful.

So what do you recommend? Watch pros play?

That doesn't help either because a lot of items are game dependent and pros play a way different game than pubs. I don't really know a fast way to learn, but you need to figure out what items help your hero against the enemy line up and then buy them and potentially change it up dependent on if your doing well or not.

Drakmathus

im also on as drakmathus, not just dark_helmet. drak is actually my pre-paid account so it will stick around longer...

Docshifty

I wouldn't really say there is a fast way to learn this game. Like Dota, suffer through the horrible learning curve and then find the real meat of the game.

Having a set of people to play with over a period of time makes this infinitely better.

Spawnbroker

New thread + open beta = more players from PA? Maybe?

Vic

Just had a game that impressed me, in a small way. We had one excellent player and one awful player. Our carry was Pollywog Priest, he got something like 15 kills in the game running around like crazy. It was a delight to see someone fuck people up so bad with a support hero like that.

The awful though... we had a Keeper of the Forest. In theory he is one of the easiest heroes to play. Invisibility for escape, pretty durable, regeneration inbuilt, good at last hitting. All you have to do is put up trees everywhere and use your ulti to make a contribution. For the first 30 minutes of the game he did not earn a single kill OR A SINGLE ASSIST. He never put up trees. Most of his points were in stats. I have seen bad players before some who have died more than this guy, but most of them at least try. This guy... I don't know. The icing on the cake was that just before the game ended he bought the recipe for Heart of the Behemoth. He did not have either of the required pieces.

TheBana

Downloading now.

TheBana

Not sure I'll play much as I've just re-started WoW, but I'll give it a go.

Spawnbroker

I just had an awesome game as Soul Reaper. A couple friends of mine invited me to do a pub stomp, but there were a couple guys who were real noobs on the team. I killed Electrician enough that he rage quit, and another person on their team disconnected. It ended up as 3v3 (our two feeders disconnected).

It was Soul Reaper, Corrupted Disciple, and Armadon on my team against Forsaken Archer, Pandamonium, and a Chronos with 20 kills. Chronos was near unkillable, but my ultimate was able to kill him if we could get him low enough. Game ended with something like 40 kills on their side, 36 on our side, and Chronos had 25 of their kills.

I can't believe we won that game, I've never seen a Chronos lose that has been fed so much. Yay nerfbat!

Fuga

This is a videogame.

P10

Fuga wrote: »

This is a videogame.

No, it's pretty clearly a post.

jdmichal

You might want to mention the Clan PennyArcade channel. That way at least everyone has a single spot to hang out in for games, even if they're no interested in having the clan tag. I hang out in there when I'm on. If you see me, message me and we'll get our game on!

übergeek

I check in every now and then, I'd create some new officers like happy and Drak, but only Lawinator has that power.

TyrantCow

oh fallout, how cute.

SkutSkut

I play, but usually with a separate group now. But feel free to add DaBigBoi.

valiance

re: the blacksmith item build in the other topic
ghost marchers + stormspirit + frenzy = haste speeds
then get a sac stone or a kuldra or something.. gg

jdmichal

valiance wrote: »

re: the blacksmith item build in the other topic
ghost marchers + stormspirit + frenzy = haste speeds
then get a sac stone or a kuldra or something.. gg

Nome's Wisdom is also an item of note, since it really helps Blacksmith's low MP pool, while also giving a major boost to your team via its aura. Or Hellflower, since it also helps the low MP pool, and the damage boost / silence is super-helpful. In fact, I think I would almost always prefer Hellflower over Stormspirit, since it's so easy to do the wrong thing with Stormspirit, and Hellflower disables for much longer. You really don't need the movespeed, since Frenzy gives you enough with even just plain Marchers. And I would prefer Steamboots over Ghost Marchers, as you can use the stats more than the movespeed for the same reason. (And I'm not sure whether Phase still cancels when you cast a spell, which is obviously not a good synergy for Blacksmith.)

Kuldra's is definitely a buy, if you think you can farm it. But definitely invest in Nome's Wisdom first, so that you have the MP pool to help you farm Kuldra's.

Fuga

9/4/10 new patch new hero woo

DuoRCN

Source?

SkutSkut

Maliken himself said it.

Sevorak

Downloaded this, played one game, was reminded of why I stopped playing dota. I was matched with a bunch of people who hadn't played before (I think?) and was still cussed out when I didn't do everything perfectly. Except now the douches have mics. Not the best way to grow your community.

I'd be up for playing with PA peoples though, at least for a couple games. Name is sevorak

Spawnbroker

Sevorak wrote: »

Downloaded this, played one game, was reminded of why I stopped playing dota. I was matched with a bunch of people who hadn't played before (I think?) and was still cussed out when I didn't do everything perfectly. Except now the douches have mics. Not the best way to grow your community.

I'd be up for playing with PA peoples though, at least for a couple games. Name is sevorak

That is the biggest turn-off for this game for a lot of people. The community are basically a bunch of elitist assholes who expect you to know everything about the game, even in 'noobs only' matches. You just have to power through it so you get good enough so people dont bitch at you, and even then they'll bitch at you. The real gems are the people who bitch about the team being terrible, yet they're one of the feeders. Yes, I've had feeders bitch at me for not playing right when I'm the one carrying the team in kills.

BaronVonNub

Oh my days, wow.
I just played about 5 games to try this game out. I've only played DotA once or twice but I play a lot of LoL - this genre isn't really new to me. But this comminuty is the worst I have ever seen honestly, I went in with an open mind trying to not believe the hype but I was consistantly amazed at the rock bottom cussing going on. I mean honestly I haven't seen the word jew used like that in aaaages. I grew up.
Maybe in a premade group of like minded individuals this game shines, maaaaybe. But I can't see this staying on my hard drive long. Unless there's a way to completely turn off the chat box?

Lunysgwen

You guys need to find a clan, preferrably [LN] Ludas Novicius. You can find them in the training grounds forum in the offical forums. They're geared for newbies, and are super friendly. I highly reccomend you give them a shot. Made all the difference for me.

DJ Cam Cam

I'm going to throw in my towel too. I tried it, but you have to have iron skin to try and play this as a new player. I did one thing wrong and got roasted over the voice chat. This game makes the Eve Online community seem like flowers and sunny fields...

greeble

Honestly I'm surprised you guys haven't learned to just ignore the assholes. The people who I really dislike are the ones that intentianlly throw the games. Like this last game one guy picked the fairy and just flew around goofing off. He fed the other team (died 15 times) and never attempted to really play or help.

SkutSkut

play nostats goof off in practice. nostats will still have assholes but you won't lose nothin

valiance

greeble wrote: »

Honestly I'm surprised you guys haven't learned to just ignore the assholes. The people who I really dislike are the ones that intentianlly throw the games. Like this last game one guy picked the fairy and just flew around goofing off. He fed the other team (died 15 times) and never attempted to really play or help.

man the plants from the other team who intentionally feed are the worst. and of course you can't kick them or do anything about it.

that said im 3-0 for the night and above 1650.. alllright :winky:

Spawnbroker

I was up in the 1600s, but now I'm back down to the 1550s after a string of bad games.

Klyka

people really leave voice chat enabled in games?

that's what ventrilo with PAers is for!

SkutSkut

I'd be happy to do nostat inhouses and maybe teach you new people. I use skype though, not vent.

iusehappymod

I can do that do, I'm competent with every hero (except for pharoah and maliken, who I've like, never played) and can show you builds/helpful strats and hero roles.

Lunysgwen

That would be really useful, actually. When can you guys do that?

valiance

I'm an average player ~1600ish PSR but I've been playing HoN forever and DotA for a while before that, and I'm on daily (I'm on right now actually!) so msg me whenever for games/advice whatever. I'd be willing to help out in your noob training fest thing too

Karnius

I'm gonna throw my hat in to the ring and try this out for a week or two. If you want to add me to the OP, I'll be playing as Drakonius.

iusehappymod

I'll be online probably around 8:30 cst. TheDoctor_ is my sn, feel free to send me a message or add me as a friend.

iusehappymod

Got home from work early. Jumping on now!