HoN All Hero Skill & Item Builds / Guides – Updated Retail Heroes of Newerth Strategies & Tips
This is the second and fully updated popular HoN hero guide for ALL heroes. It is constantly updated for the newest versions of retail HoN. 100% of the heroes now have guides updated for the latest HoN patch!
UPDATED FOR 1.0.12
(9/20/2010)
To use this guide: Select your hero in game then use Alt-Tab to switch back to this guide in your browser. If you have dual monitors, place this guide in the second monitor. Find your selected hero: click on the hero portrait in the image below, use the alphabetical list, or use Ctrl-F to use your browser’s find feature.
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A little about the goals of this guide: This guide attempts to acquaint you, very quickly, with each hero and how to play them in a standard game, such as a Matchmaking game. This guide is intended for beginner and intermediate/experienced users, though very experienced “pro” players likely won’t benefit since there is no lengthy conceptual discussion. There are so many heroes and items to learn in this game that even experienced players can have a tough time deciding how to play. Making mistakes early on can handicap you and your team, ruining the rest of the game. However, nobody wants to spend 5-10+ minutes reading a lengthy discussion of each of the dozens of heroes, so this guide tries to find a happy medium of brevity and necessary information. When possible and feasible, multiple play styles and item builds for each hero will be mentioned. Keep in mind there are always multiple viable options of play!
Questions, suggestions, and arguments are 100% welcomed (see comments at the bottom of the page).
Explanation of Guide Format:
Example Hero Name
Hero Role (ex. Support) • Lane (Recommended lane to start in)
- Item Build
Generally these items will be listed in the order you should buy them. Items in (parentheses) are situational or optional items- Start: (items to buy before you leave the base at the start of the game, usually adds up to about 600 gold)
- Core: (must-have items for your hero to operate effectively)
- Luxury: (not required, but if you have the gold and don’t need wards, get these)
- Note: While saving up for your core items, do not neglect buying wards, Homecoming Stones, and Health / Mana potions or Runes of Blight as needed. During the early game at least, you will always want at least a way to heal yourself. Throughout the early-mid-late game you will always want a Homecoming stone to escape, return to base, or defend a tower.
- Skill Build
- 1 – Take this skill at level 1
- 2 – Take this skill at level 2
- 3 – Take this skill at level 3
- (etc)
- Note: it is generally more important to stick to a recommended skill build at least up to level 6-10
- Quick Hero Overview
- A few quick tips on how you should play your hero and use your items
~ Legion Heroes ~
The good guys. Located on the left side of the hero select screen.
Legion > Agility
Agility heroes. Located at the top third of the hero select screen. Agility heroes generally deal massive damage, but cannot take much punishment.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Monkey Courier or Wards (or Pretender’s Crown)
- Core: Marchers, Power Supply, 2x Fortified Bracelet, Wards of Sight, Steam Boots
- Luxury: Staff of the Master, Portal Key
- 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+
- 1 – Comet
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Void Rip to swap places with an enemy and place them in the middle of your own team for an easy kill
- Swapping places can leave you vulnerable to the enemy team in turn, try using a portal key to teleport yourself back immediately after swapping
- Your role should be using your swap and stun to help surpise-gank
- You are responsible for buying wards, this will enable you to know where and when to gank and help the team immensely
- Item Build
- Start: Healing Potion, Runes of the Blight, Mark of the Novice, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Potion
- Core: Marchers >> Power Supply >> Talisman of Exile >> Plated Greaves >> Portal Key
- Luxury: Shrunken Head
- Skill Build
- 1 – The Keg
2 – Tinker
3 – Tinker
4 – The Keg
5 – Tinker
6 – Energy Field
7 – Tinker
8 -The Keg
9 – The Keg
10 – Steam Turret
11 – Energy Field
12 – Steam Turret
13 – Steam Turret
14 – Steam Turret
15 – Stats
16 – Energy Field
17 – Stats+
- 1 – The Keg
- Quick Hero Overview
- Engineer’s Steam Turret has been changed in HoN patch 1.0.5 / 1.0.6. Your turret now sprays bullets without aiming and does not get bonuses from your items. This guide has been updated to reflect this huge change.
- This build focuses on being able to spam cheaply The Keg for early harass. Be sure to practice aiming so you push enemy heroes back toward you, then autoattack. This works extremely well if you are laning with a stunner.
- If possible, use The Keg to push enemies into your tower and/or use it after your lane-mate has already stunned for easy aiming.
- Initiating Teamfights: (Steam Turret) >> Shruken Head >> Portal Key >> Energy Field >> (Steam Turret) >> The Keg. Aiming The Keg will be easy in combination with Energy Field. Use the Keg to knock enemies into or out of Energy Field. Ideally use Steam Turret first if it can be aimed to where it will keep hitting enemies caught near your Energy Field position.
- Steam Turret fires straight ahead in a pretty narrow cone. Be sure to aim it down a lane or narrow path so enemies will be in the line of fire for as long as possible.
- Buy Wards of Sight!
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply, Iron Shield, Steam Boots, Nullfire Blade, Geometers Bane, Wingbow
- Luxury:
- 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+
- 1 – Smoke Bomb
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Pounce to last hit, especially siege engines – this will get you early gold and experience
- Click on enemy heroes periodically to check and see if they have invisibility-revealing items like a Bound Eye or Dust
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Ghost Marchers >> Runed Axe >> Shieldbreaker >> Abyssal Skull >> Staff of the Master
- Luxury:
- 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+
- 1 – Blade Frenzy
- Quick Hero Overview
- Once you reach level 7, you can attack while spinning for extra damage!
- Right at the beginning of the game, try to delay your creeps by standing in front of them. Then, sneak around behind the enemy during the first creep wave, attack, and use your blade frenzy spin on one of them. If you have just a little help from a lane mate, you should get an early kill.
- Your Blade Frenzy makes you magic-immune. Use it for escapes, for example you can use a homecoming stone immediately after casting it so you can’t be stunned.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Iron Shield >> Lifetube >> Steam Boots (STR) >> Runed Axe >> Abyssal Skull >> Shrunken Head >> Frostburn >> Wingbow
- Luxury: Alternative options – Geometer’s Bane, Brutalizer or Savage Mace, Behemoth’s Heart, Nullstone, Rift Shards
- 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+
- 1 – Flash
- Quick Hero Overview
- Very strong late game, pretty weak early/mid game while he tries to get his items. Iron Shield helps a ton with early creep killing & survivability.
- Farm the ancient creeps (doublestack them) for faster gold / exp. You should be able to take the ancient creeps on at about lvl 12-13, once you have runed axe, possibly abyssal skull
- Be sure to use your Ultimate, Mana Rift, on targets with little to no mana (likely after attacking/mana burning them, but not necessarily). Bonus points if it is early or mid fight and lots of enemy heroes around.
- Blink ahead of your target so you get an extra 1-2 auto attack hits in before needing to chase
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: (Bottle (mid lane) >>) Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> 2x Soulscream Ring >> Whispering Helm >> *Shrunken Head
- Luxury: Wingbow >> Symbol of Rage >> Geometer’s Bane >> (*Alternate: Assassin’s Shroud)
- 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 – Multi Strike
13 – Multi Strike
14 – Multi Strike
15 – Multi Strike
16 – Moon Finale
17 – Stats+
23 – Moon Beam+
- 1 – Lunar Glow
- Quick Hero Overview
- Times to NOT use your ultimate, Moon Finale: when there are creeps around, your target can go invisible or run out of range/sight quickly, or target has Shrunken Head (magic immunity). Be ready to chase the target since they will most certainly try to run.
- If you meet an enemy hero on the river (like near the runes), you should get a free kill with your ultimate. It will do massive damage against one hero alone.
- Use your stun spell, Moon Beam, to last hit creeps you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get. Instead you will be using your ultimate and your auto attack to dish out damage to heroes. Reserve Moon Beam to stun heroes out of Homecoming Stone casting, channelled ultimates, etc.
- Alternately, Moon Beam could be levelled early and used to harass if you are with a lane mate who will provide stun/dmg needed for a kill.
- *Assassin’s Shroud can be useful for escapes and a great trick is to cast your Ult, then go invis with the shroud and chase a hero. Moonbeams will continue to hit while you’re invis. If you decide to get this, you’d probably want it instead of Shrunken Head.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: (Power Supply >>) Sustainer >> Marchers >> Runed Axe >> Steam Boots Strength/Agi >> Whispering Helm >> Shrunken Head >> Symbol of Rage
- Alternative: Shieldbreaker (instead of Whispering Helm / Symbol of Rage)
- 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+
- 1 – Electric Eye
- Quick Hero Overview
- Scout is extremely controversial. He has a horrible (and rightly earned) reputation of being constantly picked by newbie players, then providing zero benefit to the team, while occasionally just stealing kills.
- Ultimate – Marksman Shot: this is an OPENING attack. Use it to initiate ganks especially, and also right before the start of teamfights. The decent damage and great slow effect will help immensely. Commonly (incorrectly) used to steal kills. DONT.
- Use your Electric Eyes ability all the time. Plant them while invisible, then set them off to silence before trying to pick off a hero in a lane. Also do the same before teamfights. Otherwise, plant them at the runes or in the forests for scouting info.
- Runed axe is the most important item to get; get it right away as it then enables you to farm like a madman. You’ll probably want to get it before even getting boots. Once you have the axe, farm the jungles or lanes while planting eyes to make sure you aren’t ganked.
- Your goal is to get levelled/farmed quickly since you are very strong later in the game.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> 1-2x Soulscream Ring
- Luxury: Geometer’s Bane >> Charged Hammer >> Whispering Helm >> Riftshards >> Symbol of Rage
- Alternate: (Nullfire Blade)
- Skill Build
- 1 – Javelin of Light
2 – Courageous Leap
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+
- 1 – Javelin of Light
- Quick Hero Overview
- The Javelin skill is a very strong disable, but can be extremely tough to aim and fairly easy to dodge. Try throwing it down a straight lane rather than across (but usually aim out of the regular creep path). Use it to disable running heroes, or to attempt to initiate. Remember, the farther the javelin travels, the longer the stun.
- Use your ultimate, Prism, before a teamfight to enable great initiations, or to save yourself or others from being killed.
- Use your nuke, Call of the Valkyrie, to get last hits on multiple creeps and to harass melee heroes in your lane.
- Item Build
- Start: Wildsoul: Healing Potion … Bear: Iron Buckler, Logger’s Hatchet
- Core: Wildsoul: Marchers, Homecoming Stone, Minor Totems/Logger’s Hatchet… Bear: Gloves of the Swift, Mock of Brilliance, Marchers
- Mid/Late: Wildsoul: Steamboots >> Bear: Ghost Marchers >> Bear: Warpcleft >> Wildsoul: Frostburn >> Bear: Charged Hammer (swap to Wildsoul in late game when Beardulon is killed too easily)
- Luxury: Wingbow
- Skill Build
- 1 – Summon Beardulon
2 – Natural Attunement
3 – Summon Beardulon
4 – Natural Attunement
5 – Natural Attunement
6 – Summon Beardulon
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+
- 1 – Summon Beardulon
- Quick Hero Overview
- Early and mid game you will be relying mostly on your bear for damage and his disable Entangle. You won’t use your Bear Form. Late game you will match then pass your bear in usefulness.
- Wildsoul should only be jungling, NOT in a lane (until you get all core items, roughly 20-25 minutes) Gank the nearby lane any time after you hit level 5 so your bear will have entangle.
- It is recommended to look up guides on jungling, it is too much to cover here but there are ways to farm the jungle efficiently.
- Send your bear back occasionally to be healed and to buy items. While he is travelling, pull the jungle creeps near your closest lane and have them fight your creeps (requires some simple timing).
- He is fairly tough to play since you have to control 2 units all the time. Select yourself and your bear, then use tab to switch control back and forth quickly.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- After: Barrier Idol >> Frostburn or Frostwulf Skull >> Behemoth’s Heart
- 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+
- 1 – Cyclones
- Quick Hero Overview
- Practice directional pushes with gust (on yourself and others). Its great for ganking by shoving heroes into your tower or pushing them back into the loving arms of your team.
- You are great at chasing with gust and cyclones. You can just run next to fleeing heroes for extra damage. Mock of Brilliance helps greatly with this.
- You should be jungling and can do this very well with the help of your cyclones. Always consume a cyclone if you are at your max number before you last hit a creep, and before they disappear if you need HP. Gust can give you extra damage or save you from a gank.
Legion > Intelligence
Intelligence Heroes. Located in the middle third of the hero select screen. Usually these are powerful spellcasters with a lot of mana, but are also very “squishy” – or easy to kill.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Minor Totem, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, Healing Potion, Runes of the Blight
- Core: Power Supply >> (Bottle) >> Marchers >> Fortified Bracelets >> Steamboots (STR) >> Frostfield Plate
- Luxury: Kuldra’s Staff or Storm Spirit, Portal Key, Barbed Armor
- Skill Build
- 1 – Shell Surf
- 2 – Take Cover
- 3 – Shell Surf
- 4 – Song of the Sea
- 5 – Shell Surf
- 6 – Kelp Field
- 7 – Song of the Sea
- 8 – Song of the Sea
- 9 – Song of the Sea
- 10 – Take Cover
- 11 – Kelp Field
- 12 – Take Cover
- 13 – Take Cover
- Quick Hero Overview
- Be sure to set your Take Cover on autocast during the early laning stage. It will protect you from enemy hero stun and nuke spells.
- When running from danger, throw your shell to a safe location then use Take Cover to become invincible. Teleport to your shell once it reaches the safe location, watch the timer for when the shell will end. Alternately, you can use Take Cover to allow your Portal Key 3 sec. damage timer to end, then blink out.
- Initiation combo for teamfights and ganks:
- 1. Throw Shell Surf into middle of enemies (ideally surprise them from out of trees). Press Q again to teleport into them.
- 2. Immediately cast Song of the Sea to silence them and avoid getting stunlocked
- 3. Immediately cast Kelp Field, try to position so most enemies are at the edge of the radius-this will stun them when they start running (your teammates should be here now).
- (Cast Frostfield Plate if you have it)
- 4. Use Take Cover when you get targetted, or if your team is late, use it immediately after the silence ends so you dont get stun locked.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, 3x Minor Totem, Mana Potion
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers
- After: Mana Tube >> Staff of the Master >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Sacrificial Stone
- Skill Build
- 1 – Rocket Barrage
2 – Tar Toss
3 – Rocket Barrage
4 – Tar Toss
5 – Rocket Barrage
6 – Sawblade Showdown
7 – Rocket Barrage
8 – Tar Toss
9 – Tar Toss
10 – Focus Buffer
11 – Sawblade Showdown
12 – Focus Buffer
13 – Focus Buffer
14 – Focus Buffer
15 – Stats
16 – Sawblade Showdown
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Rocket Barrage
- Quick Hero Overview
- It will take practice to learn how to aim the rockets from a distance. You can shoot a LONG distance, and through trees and friendlies, so this is helpful in assisting a chase or helping a teammate flee. The easiest shots are straight down a lane, around the creeps.
- Shoot rockets into the trees to scout – they provide sight.
- Spam all your rockets at the same time when you have a sure shot for a ton of damage.
- Aim Tar Toss so it lands dead center on the target for maximum slow. Then hit them with at least one rocket to set them on fire.
- Use the rocket’s stun to knock enemies out of channeling (Tempest, Electrician, etc)
- Staff of the Master gives your ultimate a very nice slow and turns it into an amazing spell.
- You will need a ton of mana regen (Bottle, Power Supply, etc.) to spend on rockets.
- While laning, harass with your rockets constantly.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Guardian Ring
- Core:(Mid only: Bottle >>) Logger’s Hatchet >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> Storm Spirit
- After: Sacrificial Stone >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Harkon’s Blade >> Hellflower
- Alternate Options: Behemoths Heart, Frostfield Plate
- Skill Build
- 1 – Fireball
2 – Flaming Hammer
3 – Flaming Hammer
4 – Fireball
5 – Flaming Hammer
6 – Fireball
7 – Flaming Hammer
8 – Fireball
9 – Chaotic Flames
10 – Frenzy
11 – Chaotic Flames
12 – Frenzy
13 – Frenzy
14 – Frenzy
15 – Stats
16 – Chaotic Flames
17 – Stats+Note: this build focuses on harass and actually allows you to deal more damage than just maxing fireball and chaotic flames right away.
- 1 – Fireball
- Quick Hero Overview
- Cast Flaming Hammer before Fireball to reduce magic armor and increase damage dealt.
- Keep Frenzy active on all friendly heroes that would benefit from it (it gives cast speed, attack speed, and movement speed)
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards, Mana Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, Minor Totem
- Core: (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards of Sight
- After: Wards of Sight >> Plated Greaves or Steam Boots >> Astrolabe, Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- 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+
- 1 – Nymphora’s Zeal
- Quick Hero Overview
- Always use Grace of the Nymph for free mana, either on yourself or an ally
- Cast Volatile Pod behind an enemy hero then stun them with Zeal when they try to run away.
- Unless you are trying to take down a tower, don’t use Volatile Pod where it will heal your creeps.
- You should be helping your lane mate by healing them and giving them mana whenever they need it.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards, Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Marchers >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Wards of Sight
- After: Wards of Sight >> Plated Greaves or Steam Boots >> Shrunken Head >> Portal Key
- Skill Build
- 1 -Tundra Blast
2 – Ice Imprisonment
3 – Chilling Presence
4 -Chilling Presence
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+
- 1 -Tundra Blast
- Quick Hero Overview
- You are responsible for constantly buying wards because you are not item-dependent.
- Shrunken Head and Portal Key are to help your ultimate. Portal Key into the enemies, use Shrunken Head for magic immunity, then cast Glacial Downpour.
- Chilling Presence is a great help to your team giving an automatic mana regen boost to everyone at all times!
- Resist the urge to take Glacial Downpour immediately as it is useless at level 1.
- Item Build
- Start: Upgraded Flying Courier, Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion
- Core: Bottle >> (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> Talisman of the Exile >> Wards of Sight
- After: Ghost Marchers >> Tablet of Command >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Sacrificial Stone
- Skill Build
- 1 – Chain Lightning
2 – Lightning Rod
3 – Blast of Lightning
4 – Blast of Lightning
5 – Blast of Lightning
6 – Lightning Storm
7 – Blast of Lightning
8 – Lightning Rod
9 – Lightning Rod
10 – Lightning Rod
11 – Lightning Storm
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Lightning Storm
17 – Stats+
22 – Chain Lightning+
- 1 – Chain Lightning
- Quick Hero Overview
- Once you hit level 2, start using Chain Lightning to last hit creeps (this will also harass the enemy with the bounces and Lightning Rod effect). Your auto attack is extremely weak and you will have a tough time last hitting without a spell.
- You should be constantly spamming your spells. Lightning Rod damages heroes in a large radius for a percent of their health whenever you cast.
- Blast of Lightning has a mini-stun that can be used to knock heroes out of channeling or using a TP.
- Use the courier to refill your bottle (and therefore mana) constantly.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier, Wards of Sight, Wards of Revelation
- Core: Ring of the Teacher >> Marchers >> Codex level 1 >> Plated Greaves
- After: Nome’s Wisdom, Astrolabe
- Alternative: Whispering Helm instead of than Codex
- Skill Build
- 1 – Command
2 – Nature’s Wrath
3 – Nature’s Wrath
4 – Command
5 – Command
6 – Ophelia’s Touch
7 – Command
8 – Nature’s Wrath
9 – Nature’s Wrath
10 – Ophelia’s Judgement
11 – Ophelia’s Touch
12 – Ophelia’s Judgement
13 – Ophelia’s Judgement
14 – Ophelia’s Judgement
15 – Stats
16 – Ophelia’s Touch
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Command
- Quick Hero Overview
- I like the Codex build rather than Whispering Helm Build as controlling extra minions is already a chore in my mind–no need to add even more! (Same with Puzzlebox!) However, Domination from Whispering Helm does synergize extremely well with Ophelias other skills and items.
- You should be able to take on Kongor by yourself as early as level 7 or 8! You’ll need to have good creeps with you, like Minotaurs / Vulture Lords.
- You are a great ganker and should be constantly ganking the lane near your jungle. You’re also a great lane/tower pusher with your creeps.
- Have yourself and your minions grouped then use Tab then the hotkey (Q) to easily switch control and activate the abilities. This works very well with Minotaur’s AoE stun.
- Creeps to take control of:
- Minotaur (aoe stun, attack speed aura)
- Catman Champion
- Vagabond Leader (health regen aura)
- Vulture Lord (tornado spell)
- Skeleton King (good HP, weakish attack)
- Snotter Boss (move speed aura)
- Wolf Commander (30% damage aura)
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> 1-2x Fortified Bracelet/Talsiman of the Exile >> Wards of Sight
- After: Staff of the Master >> Restoration Stone >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- Skill Build
- 1 – Tongue Tied
2 – Electric Jolt
3 – Electric Jolt
4 – Tongue Tied
5 – Electric Jolt
6 – Voodoo Wards
7 – Electric Jolt
8 – Tongue Tied
9 – Morph
10 – Morph
11 – Voodoo Wards
12 – Morph
13 – Morph
14 – Tongue Tied
15 – Stats
16 – Voodoo Wards
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Tongue Tied
- Quick Hero Overview
- An important but easy trick: cast morph on your target to disable a target, then cast your ultimate around them. The wards should trap the hero momentarily and then make short work of them. If they start getting away, use Tongue Tied to hold them in place.
- Your ulti, Voodoo Wards are great tower pushers and can often result in taking down a tower by yourself unless defenders show up quickly.
- You are responsible for buying Wards of Sight often! Don’t worry about the gold cost, it will result in more kills for you and your team.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- After: Manatube >> Portal Key >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Skill Build
- 1 – Dragonfire
2 – Phoenix Wave
3 – Phoenix Wave
4 – Fervor
5 – Phoenix Wave
6 – Blazing Strike
7 – Phoenix Wave
8 – Fervor
9 – Fervor
10 – Fervor
11 – Blazing Strike
12 – Dragonfire
13 – Dragonfire
14 – Dragonfire
15 – Stats
16 – Blazing Strike
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Dragonfire
- Quick Hero Overview
- Definitely buy a bottle if you are mid lane. Otherwise it isn’t required, but I find it useful to keep your mana up.
- A fairly straightforward hero to play, but timing the Dragonfire stun is sometimes tricky. Lead it slightly.
- You will almost always want to cast Dragonfire>Phoenix Wave>Blazing Strike>Autoattack in extremely fast succession. This often nets you a kill on anyone but tanks.
- Always gank the nearest lane whenever your ult is ready.
- Item Build
- Start: Ring of the Teacher, 2x Mana Potion
- Core: Portal Key, Marchers, Shrunken Head
- After: Plated Greaves >> Wards of Sight >> Restoration Stone
- 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+
- 1 – Elemental
- Quick Hero Overview
- You need to rush to getting your Portal Key. Jungling will allow you to get a ton of gold early on and you should jungle. If the rest of your team makes poor picks and absolutely can’t go mid, you could manage but this would delay your PK. Once you have PK you should stop jungling and start ganking.
- Everything you do will center around your ultimate: Portal Key for surprise perfect positioning, Restoration Stone for more Ults, jungle early on for quick gold for Portal Key right away.
- Portal Key is basically required to use your ultimate.
- Use Shrunken Head before Portal Key>Ultimate if there is any chance you could be stunned. If you don’t have Shrunken yet, try to catch all stunners in your ultimate or you will be stunned out of channeling immediately.
- You can jungle and push lanes extremely well with your Elemental Spell. Elementals split after a certain amount of attacks, so try not to let any of them die before the split.
- You should have your Core items early. After that always buy wards when they are available.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Bracelet of Fortification >> Astrolabe
- After: Wards >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Frostfield Plate
- 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+
- 1 – Master’s Incantation
- Quick Hero Overview
- Early on you should be spamming Sage’s Lore, on both enemy heroes in the lane if possible. Use it after they cast a spell whenever possible, so they can’t easily get rid of it. Spamming Lore should leave them with almost no mana at all times while also dealing good damage. Use mana potions to keep spamming Lore (have courier bring more if necessary).
- Time your ultimate, Final Chapter at the right time. A good time is right after your team’s initiator’s stun ends.
- You should be buying wards for your team.
- If you are up against heroes with a very cheap, low cooldown spell (like Armadon or Slither), consider swapping lanes early so your powerful Sage’s Lore doesn’t go to waste.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, 2x Runes of the Blight, 4x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> 1-2x Fortified Bracelet
- After: Astrolabe >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- Luxury: Portal Key >> Staff of the Master
- 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+
- 1 – Graveyard
- Quick Hero Overview
- You should be able to spam Graveyard for damage and stun early on in your lane. Try to lane with a hero who can take advantage of the stun for more damage or kills.
- Use Power Drain on ranged creeps or enemy heroes to refill your mana (especially immediately after hitting them with Graveyard so they can’t run).
- Witch Slayer is a pretty easy hero to start playing with. Graveyard > autoattack > Miniaturize > autoattack > Silver Bullet is an easy way to get kills on INT heroes or anyone with slightly reduced HP. Often just Graveyard > Silver Bullet will do plenty of dmg.
- Remember, don’t take kills when your team’s carry hero would otherwise get it (called Kill Stealing or KSing). They need the +exp and gold to help your team win.
- Portal Key could help you get into position for chasing or escaping, or getting a good Graveyard off for a teamfight. It could be taken after core if you really need it, but I generally find it isn’t required in average games.
Legion > Strength
Strength Heroes. Located in the bottom third of the hero select screen. These heroes can usually absorb a lot of damage while providing other useful skills to the team.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- After: Mock of Brilliance >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Barrier Idol
- Alternate: Nome’s Wisdom
- 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+
- 1 – Snot Storm
- Quick Hero Overview
- You will be spamming your cheap spells so any decent opponent will get a Power Supply. This means they will constantly have mana and health regenerated. You can’t stop this, just remember when chasing that they will usually have an extra 100+ hp boost.
- Your goal early on is to harass with Spine Burst at lvl 3 and beyond.
- For ganking, use snot storm to slow, then chase with your lane mate. Spam Spine Burst and autoattack while chasing.
- You are a great tank, especially when your back is turned thanks to the Armordillo skill.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Marchers >> Ring of Sorcery >> Portal Key >> 2x Fortified Bracelet
- After: Ghost Marchers >> Wards of Sight >> Frostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Wards
- 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+
- 1 – Fissure
- Quick Hero Overview
- A very fun hero to play because you are so useful in both teamfights and ganking. You can easily change the tide of battles, make sure you are with your team mid to late game and never farming alone.
- Since you are an initiator, be prepared to die. However, thanks to your massive AoE damage and stuns, you will at least be getting some kills.
- How to initiate:
- Use Portal Key to teleport into a group of enemies. (Ideally surrounded by their creeps for extra dmg).
- Set off your Ultimate Shockwave immediately, then autoattack a “squishy” target once
- Use Enrage then autoattack once (same target)
- Use Fissure (aim to separate & stun the enemy team but don’t cut off your own team) Autoattack again.
- (You could skip the autoattacks and enrage steps if you find you are being stunned quickly. Make sure to get fissure off at least.
- Be careful when using fissure, especially while chasing in the jungle. Don’t cut off your teammates.
- Remember, Heavyweight causes all your spells to do extra dmg and stun in a small radius. You can use your cheap Enrage spell to stop channeling, homecoming stones, or just to slow.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Marchers >> Power Supply >> Steamboots >> Fortified Bracelet >> Shrunken Head
- After: (Portal Key >>) Elder Parasite >> Rift Shards >> Behemoth’s Heart
- 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+
- 1 – Hammer Throw
- Quick Hero Overview
- Unless this is changed in an update, you can cancel the animation on Brute Strength – just use another Move command immediately after casting. (Press R, right click immediately). This is slight but helps.
- You can often hide in the trees, then come in behind an enemy hero. Use Hammer Throw to stun, then Brute Strength. If you have a lanemate, or are ganking another lane, this should often net a kill.
- Use Galvanize for the extra cheap move speed and armor. It does not stop you any more.
- Portal Key is taken only if your team really needs an initiator. Portal Key in at opportune moments, then Hammer Throw > Brute Strength > Animation Cancel > Autoattack while your team moves in.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier OR Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 4x Mana Potion
- Core: Ring of Sorcery >> Marchers >> Astrolabe >> Ghost Marchers
- After: Wards of Sight >> Tablet of Command >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Puzzlebox
- 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+
- 1 – Protective Charm
- Quick Hero Overview
- Your heal is amazing early game. It is great for harassment damage and for healing your lanemate. If at all possible, use it to heal your lanemate, last-hit creeps, AND harass enemy heroes-all at the same time! (Or any combination)
- Use your ultimate, Sol’s Blessing, at key moments during teamfights. Usually this would be about mid-late, when teammates are damaged but before they die.
- Use your Protective Charm on your team’s carry so they cannot be stunned or disabled.
- Tablet of Command is helpful for fleeing and getting into position, but get it only if you are comfortable with it.
- Remember that your autoattack provides a 30% slow splash attack every few seconds. Useful for chasing and ganking and keeping melee heroes off of your teammates for a few extra seconds during a team fight.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, 2x Iron Buckler
- Core: Helm of the Black Legion >> Marchers >> Shamans Headdress >> Portal Key
- After: Plated Greaves OR Post Haste >> Barbed Armor >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Frostfield Plate
- Skill Build
- 1 – Whirling Blade
2 – Terrifying Charge
3 – Whirling Blade
4 – Taunt
5 – Whirling Blade
6 – Decapitate
7 – Whirling Blade
8 – Taunt
9 – Taunt
10 – Taunt
11 – Decapitate
12 – Terrifying Charge
13 – Terrifying Charge
14 – Terrifying Charge
15 – Stats
16 – Decapitate
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Whirling Blade
- Quick Hero Overview
- A VERY unique hero who is fun to play, but requires some experience.
- Ideally you will jungle with Legionnaire. You must learn the trick of “creep-stacking” first, however. A VERY short rundown of creepstacking:
- Creep Stacking: Creeps spawn at 0:30, 2:00, 4:00, every 2 minutes in this way. To stack creep camps in the jungle, run in to a creep camp at about xx:53, then run away. The creeps will follow you and as long as there are no corpses or wards in the camp when the timer hits the even number (2:00, 4:00 etc), new creeps will spawn. Then the original creeps will stop following you and there will be double creeps present. You can stack up to three times per camp. Stacked creeps will attack you more often resulting in more Whirling Blades and a TON of damage! Start attacks on stacked camps with your Terrifying Charge.
- Use Terrifying Charge to initiate when ganking a single hero early on. Since you should be jungling, feel free to gank the close lane nearby every now and then when enemy hero hp is a bit low.
- Remember, your strength is your Whirling Blade counter-attack, NOT your autoattack.
- When possible, get creeps to attack you while you are near enemy heroes. Lots of weak attacks against you are great for your Whirling Blade often.
- To initiate, Portal Key into a group of enemies (with enemy creeps nearby if possible), then use taunt immediately. This will disable them and cause them to attack you, which will trigger your Whirling Blade damage while teammates come in with more stuns etc.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: (Bottle >>) Ghost Marchers >> Power Supply >> Shrunken Head
- After: (Insanitarious >>) Behemoth’s Heart >> Portal Key >> Riftshards
- Alternative: Barbed Armor
- 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+
- 1 – Flick
- Quick Hero Overview
- Try Flicking a hero into the range of your tower.
- Use Flick, then Cannonball immediately after for a guaranteed stun (at flick lvl 1, you will need to lead Cannonball a bit).
- You can use Cannonball to escape by jumping up or down cliffs or into trees.
- Your ultimate, face-smash, does not do much a whole lot of damage, but is a long disable that is great for ganking and when you outnumber the enemy team.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Steam Boots >> Shield Breaker
- After: Warpcleft >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Riftshards
- Alternative: Insanitarious (instead of Shield Breaker if you can’t farm the gold)
- Alternative: Elder Parasite
- 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+
- 1 – Venomous Leap
- Quick Hero Overview
- Predator’s hero killing is all about reducing your armor then ripping you apart with physical attacks given bonus damage with the Carinvorous ability (up to 7% of your health per hit BONUS damage, but this is physical damage and is negated by armor).
- When attacking an enemy hero, generally: use Venomous Leap to initiate, then Terror to reduce their armor and increase your attack and movement. Then autoattack until they die! Use Stone Hide to negate any stuns or to escape after the deed is done.
- Stone Hide is an excellent skill and replaces the need for a Shrunken Head for magic immunity. Try to only use when absolutely necessary so it isn’t on cooldown when it is really needed.
Rampage
Hero Role: Semi-Carry, Initiator, Ganker • Lane: Short Lane • Updated for 1.0.6 Skill Changes
Hero Role: Semi-Carry, Initiator, Ganker • Lane: Short Lane • Updated for 1.0.6 Skill Changes
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Marchers >> Bottle >> Ghost Marchers >> Shrunken Head
- After: Behemoth’s Heart >> Shieldbreaker
- Alternative: Portal Key, Assassin’s Shroud
- Skill Build
- 1 – Horned Strike
2 – Stampede
3 – Stampede
4 – Might of the Herd
5 – Stampede
6 – The Chains That Bind
7 – Stampede
8 – Might of the Herd
9 – Might of the Herd
10 – Might of the Herd
11 – The Chains That Bind
12 – Horned Strike
13 – Horned Strike
14 – Horned Strike
15 – Stats
16 – The Chains That Bind
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Horned Strike
- Quick Hero Overview
- Note: July 2010 saw a bunch of changes to Rampage’s skills. This has been updated to reflect new items and skill builds needed. Rampage is less of a carry now.
- Stampede can’t be used from across the map anymore, but still has good range. Use it for chasing, initiating ganks, and to get back into position in a lane.
- Horned Strike is great for harass–100 bonus damage every 10 seconds! Use it to dominate early.
- Use Stampede then Chains That Bind (Ulti). Stampede’s movement bonus lasts for an extra 3 sec. Pull enemy heroes into your tower, or out of safety so your team can gank them.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Pretender’s Crown, Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Ring of Sorcery >> Portal Key
- After: Wards of Sight >> Steam Boots >> Warpcleft >> Daemonic Breastplate
- 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+
- 1 – Stalagmites
- Quick Hero Overview
- Although Pebbles is a Strength hero (and a giant stone..giant), he is actually only a spell caster and will rarely autoattack heroes.
- Use Stalagmites on a hero to stun from medium/close distance. Then use Chuck to throw them back onto themself. This does extremely high damage early and mid game. You can also right click the target while they are “chucked” mid-air for extra damage.
- Portal key is used to position for the Chuck-Stalagmite combo and is a requirement on Pebbles.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier, Runes of the Blight, 2x Minor Totem, Guardian Ring
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Ring of the Teacher >> Marchers >> Nome’s Wisdom >> Sustainer
- After: Restoration Stone >> Portal Key >> Post Haste >> Frostfield Plate
- Alternative: Mock of Brilliance
- Skill Build
- 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+
- 1 – Tree Sight
- Quick Hero Overview
- Your ultimate is a great help to your team in fights.
- Use your invisibility (stick near trees when using Camouflage) for positioning, scouting, escaping, etc. You can also use it on allies so they can get good positioning or escape.
- You should constantly be using your tree wards so your team has good scouting info, especially in your own jungle and at wards for defensive purposes. When possible, (on offensive ganks, for example) also place wards in the enemy jungle. Note that these may be killed before too long though.
- Watch out for opponents with dust, invis wards, or potentially even a bound eye. You should be able to scout the enemy jungle safely in most regular games however (just stay Camouflaged)
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, Bolstering Armband
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Puzzlebox >> Post Haste
- Luxury: Daemonic Breastplate >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- Alternative: Portal Key
- Skill Build
- 1 – Call of Winter
2 – Piercing Shards
3 – Call of Winter
4 – Piercing Shards
5 – Call of Winter
6 – Avalanche
7 – Call of Winter
8 – Piercing Shards
9 – Piercing Shards
10 – Stats
11 – Avalanche
12 – Coldblooded
13 – Coldblooded
14 – Coldblooded
15 – Coldblooded
16 – Avalanche
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Call of Winter
- Quick Hero Overview
- The item build shown above is a support and tower pushing type, though it is feasibly possibly to try more of a carry / gank setup. Item possibilities for that would include Elder Parasite, Brutalizer, Ghost Marchers, Insanitarious, Shrunken Head. Basically try to maximize damage via autoattack during your Avalanche stun and the resulting short chase.
- Regardless of build, you will want to be using your Ultimate all the time to gank, it will pretty much guarantee a kill in most situations with a long 4 second stun. ALWAYS have enough mana for your ultimate.
- Piercing Shards can hit a target twice, once on the way forward and once on the way back. Take advantage of this. Try to use it before your Ultimate and after, while chasing, if necessary.
- Use Shiver, your bird, to scout constantly. Especially use it early game to watch the jungle/river for incoming ganks. You could try sharing control of your hero if you trust your team, then they could move it around also.
- Group your hero with Coeurl so you move and attack together. This helps last hit creeps and slows your targets.
- Side note: personally, I find it annoying to have to cast Call of Winter and regroup/reposition the bird every 60 seconds, but it is necessary for maximum potential.
- Item Build
- Start: 3x Minor Totem >> Crushing Claw >> 2x Runes of Blight >> Health Potion
- Core: Power Supply >> Marchers >> Fortified Bracelet >> Ghost Marchers >> Riftshards
- Luxury: Shrunken Head >> Savage Mace
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud
- Skill Build
- 1 – Flagellation
- 2 – Pitfall
- 3 – Flagellation
- 4 – Pitfall
- 5 – Flagellation
- 6 – Call To Arms
- 7 – Flagellation
- 8 – Pitfall
- 9 – Showdown
- 10 – Showdown
- 11 – Call to Arms
- 12 – Pitfall
- 13 – Showdown
- 14 – Showdown
- 15 – Stats
- 16 – Call to Arms
- 17 + Stats
- Quick Hero Overview
- Gladiator has some interesting synergies with items thanks to his Flagellation ability. Riftshards can give AoE True Damage crits, which is amazing! Assassin’s Shroud can help you get into position before initiating and the bonus damage also applies to Flagellation’s splash!
- Call of Arms, your Ulti, should be timed so you and your teammates can take advantage of the 5-7 seconds of (temporary) half damage. I’d generally recommend using it a couple seconds after a team fight begins if possible. This also will also help ensure the stun and AoE magic damage hits.
- Showdown is great for ganking and chasing once it gets to lvl 3-4. Cast it on a fleeing hero then cast Pitfall on the Colosseum when there is about 1 second left on the Showdown Time. The target will be teleported back to the Colosseum, then immediately hit by Pitfall and slowed!
- When not using the Showdown/Pitfall combo, be sure to lead Pitfall for the 2 sec delay.
- Flagellation will help with last hitting and harass.
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~ HELLBOURNE Heroes ~
The bad guys. Located on the right side of the hero select screen.
Hellbourne > Agility
Agility heroes. Located at the top third of the hero select screen (right side for Hellbourne). Agility heroes generally deal massive damage, but cannot take much punishment.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Marchers >> Soulscream Ring >> Soulscream Ring >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Helm of the Black Legion >> Shield Breaker >> Wingbow >> Shrunken Head >> Geometer’s Bane
- 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+
- 1 – Webbed Shot
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Harden Carapace to remove debuffs like slows and/or during fights where you will be targetted by magic.
- To use Webbed Shot, generally just hit Q manually to fire off 1 every now and then. Early game you won’t have the mana to leave it on automatically. This is a great slow when chasing.
- Spider Sting, your ultimate, is a great tool for ganking. It will usually guarantee a kill if you find a hero alone.
- Be sure to buy a defensive item like Helm of the Black Legion fairly early on as you are very squishy. After, you can focus on high attack damage.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: (Iron Shield >>) Lifetube >> Steamboots >> Runed Axe >> Elder Parasite
- Luxury: Geometer’s Bane >> Savage Mace >> Riftshards
- Alternate: Shrunken Head (buy late)
- 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+
- 1 – Time Leap
- Quick Hero Overview
- Prefers the short lane since he is very weak early on and it is the safest.
- You MUST farm a lot, and if you don’t do this you will not do well. The problem is that Chronos is not great at farming. Utilize the jungle and any empty lanes to farm safely. You can always blink away into trees for safety with Time Leap. Your team needs to understand that you need to farm to help them out late game, but you must also understand games can be lost if you only farm and don’t help. Ideally your team would be able to stand 4v5 until mid-late game.
- Try to position your ultimate’s bubble so that enemy heroes are trapped at its edge. This way your teammates can attack enemies inside too.
- Runed axe is taken to improve your farming capabilities. If you aren’t going to be able to farm lanes and the jungle freely for whatever reason, skip to Elder Parasite for more damage output in your bubble.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, Duck Boots, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Ghost Marchers >> Power Supply >> Helm of the Black Legion
- Luxury: (Shaman’s Headdress >>) Geometer’s Bane >> Shrunken Head >> Wingbow >> Symbol of Rage
- Alternate: Nullfire Blade, Mock of Brilliance
- Skill Build
- 1 – Electric Tide
2 – Static Discharge
3 – Electric Tide
4 – Static Discharge
5 – Electric Tide
6 – Overload
7 – Electric Tide
8 -Corrupted Conduit
9 – Static Discharge
10 – Static Discharge
11 – Overload
12 – Corrupted Conduit
13 – Corrupted Conduit
14 – Corrupted Conduit
15 – Stats
16 – Overload
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Electric Tide
- Quick Hero Overview
- A very strong hero throughout the game. One of the “easier” carry heroes to play, especially since you are not so reliant on items (i.e. good farming) to do any good.
- Ganking is fairly easy, just come in with Electric Tide, cast Overload, and chase while your ultimate kills heroes automatically. Try to have enemies get hit near the outer edge of Electric Tide for more damage. You should be able to pull off double kills easily this way, especially with a stun from an ally in the lane.
- Remember to cast Corrupted Conduit on the enemy team’s melee damage heroes during teamfights. This also gives additional vision of the hero.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier, Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Wards of Sight >> Ghost Marchers >> 1-2x Soulscream Rings OR Fortified Bracelets
- Luxury: Nome’s Wisdom, Staff of the Master, Assassin’s Shroud OR Portal Key
- Skill Build
- 1 – Poison Spray
2 – Toxicity
3 – Toxin Ward
4 – *Toxin Ward
5 – Toxin Ward
6 – Poison Burst
7 – Toxin Ward
8 – Poison Spray
9 – Poison Spray
10 – Poison Spray
11 – Poison Burst
12 – Toxicity
13 – Toxicity
14 -Toxicity
15 – Stats
16 – Poison Burst
17 – Stats+
*
Start maxing Poison Spray at 4 instead if you are paired with a good lanemate for early kills (ie a stunner, etc)
- 1 – Poison Spray
- Quick Hero Overview
- Right at lvl 6, you should gank. Your ultimate + Poison Spray should net you a kill, especially if you have an ally or get in a couple autoattacks.
- Be sure to get your ultimate and Poison Spray off in teamfights. The earlier the better as long as you don’t miss with it.
- Assassin’s Shroud and Portal Key are to position your ultimate. Assassin’s Shroud seems to work well in low-mid level games and pubs, use it before teamfights and to escape and move around. Don’t get it if you have Night Hound or Scout on your team since the team will likely have a lot of invis detection.
- You are responsible for buying Wards of Sight for your team!
- Use Toxin Wards to scout when pushing. Especially early-mid game while in your lane, place them in the jungle for advance warning of incoming ganks.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Potion
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Steamboots >> Soulscream Ring
- Luxury: Geometer’s Bane >> Nullfire Blade >> Wingbow
- Skill Build
- 1 -Scythe Stance
2 – Burning Shadows
3 – Burning Shadows
4 – Cull
5 – Burning Shadows
6 – Reflection
7 – Burning Shadows
8 – Cull
9 – Cull
10 – Cull
11 – Reflection
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Reflection
17 – Stats+
23 – Scythe Stance+
- 1 -Scythe Stance
- Quick Hero Overview
- Generally a ranged stun is preferred, so using Shadow Stance is recommeded to give you this.
- For clarity’s sake: Shadow Stance gives you a ranged stun spell and close-range damage spell. This is swapped for the other stance. You start in Scythe stance, which gives the close-range AOE stun. So take 1 point in your stance skill so you can switch, then leave it there all game.
- Your ultimate’s invis can be used for escape, HOWEVER consider using it before a gank or team fight so you can misdirect and surprise. Leave your reflection in the lane, then switch to another lane for a gank. Or bait with your illusion, etc. Note that if you use it long enough before a fight, it may be ready to use again by the end of a fight anyway.
- Remember your illusion does full damage – this could be a great tool for chasing. You can also use it while laning lvl 6-10 or so for heavy harass and last hitting creeps while hiding and positioning for a ganking.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Minor Totem, 2x Duck Boots
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Striders >> Soulscream Ring
- Luxury: Assassin’s Shroud >> Icebrand into Frostwulf Skull >> Shrunken Head
- Alternative: Geometer’s Bane instead of Shroud and Steamboots instead of Striders
- Skill Build
- 1 – Dead Eye
2 – Flare
3 – Flare
4 – Dead Eye
5 – Flare
6 – Money Shot
7 -Flare
8 – Dead Eye
9 – Hollowpoint Shells
10 – Hollowpoint Shells
11 – Money Shot
12 – Hollowpoint Shells
13 – Hollowpoint Shells
14 – Dead Eye
15 – Stats
16 – Money Shot
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Dead Eye
- Quick Hero Overview
- Dead Eye up to level 3 is fine for most of the game. Keep in mind that at level 4, while nice for ganking and teamfights, will put you out of experience range of creeps etc.
- You are great at ganking and harassing. Use Shroud for position before a gank and escape if necessary. Shroud + Striders provides amazing move speed.
- Assassin’s Shroud is perfect, but avoid it in high level games or if your team has other invis heroes like nighthound.
- Once you get Icebrand for the slow, you should be able to pick off people without letting them get too close to you.
- Keep your distance and use Shroud to escape if you start to get cornered.
- Item Build
- Start:Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Steamboots >> 1-2x Soulscream Ring
- Luxury: (Nullfire Blade >>) Shieldbreaker >> Shrunken Head >> Charged Hammer >> Wingbow
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud, Post Haste, Alchemist’s Bones
- 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+
- 1 – Call of the Damned
- Quick Hero Overview
- Don’t get Split Fire. Your other skills and stats are FAR more useful in getting kills, pushing towers, etc. If you were playing just for fun however, there are a number of items with attack effects that could be fun. Prepare for your team to be pissed though!
- You MUST learn to hit with Crippling Volley. Leading takes a little practice due to the delay, just take a little time to learn the timing and try to aim where enemies must walk through – choke points, ramps, etc. It has good range.
- Be sure to aim your ultimate down the lane or down a path so it can’t be dodged easily. It fires a long distance but not very wide.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of Blight, Logger’s Hatchet, Iron Buckler
- Core: (Iron Shield >>) Marchers >> Mock of Brilliance >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Frostbrun >> Shrunken Head >> Savage Mace >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud, Post Haste, Alchemist’s Bones
- 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+
- 1 – Feast
- Quick Hero Overview
- Remember to use Blood Crazy to silence any AoE stun casters or other strong spellcasters at the beginning of ganks and teamfights. Otherwise, use it on yourself for a lot of extra damage.
- ALWAYS switch lanes and gank when your ultimate is up. With any help at all you are guaranteed kills.
- Use your ultimate to help initiate, though you should not be first in without Shrunken Head active. Choose the target wisely. You can use it to stop melee heroes in their tracks, or use it to get an early kill on spellcasters, etc. Decide what is best for your team.
- You are great at chasing with pseudo-visibility and super-speed vs anyone with low health.
- Item Build
- Start:1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, Duck Boots
- Core: (Iron Shield >>) Lifetube >> Steam Boots >> Helm of the Black Legion
- Luxury: Nullfire Blade >> Mock of Brilliance >> Frostwulf Skull >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Barbed Armor >> Riftshards
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud, Post Haste, Alchemist’s Bones
- Skill Build
- 1 – Desert’s Curse
2 – Dissipate
3 – Desert’s Curse
4 – Dissipate
5 – Desert’s Curse
6 – Mirage
7 – Desert’s Curse
8 -Dissipate
9 – Dissipate
10 – Deserted
11 – Mirage
12 – Deserted
13 – Deserted
14 – Deserted
15 – Stats
16 – Mirage
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Desert’s Curse
- Quick Hero Overview
- You can use Desert’s Curse to escape – fire it into trees and follow the path where nobody can follow. Also use it to chase as it is a long distance, solid slow effect. (Carry a homecoming stone to teleport once safely hidden in the trees)
- Use your ultimate as an instant teleport into team fights. Use it to initiate as, a few seconds before your team moves in. Be sure to teleport in before your illusions are gone though. Also use it to switch lanes quickly.
- Your ultimate is also great in allowing you to pick off jungling enemy heroes. If you catch an enemy alone, teleport in after a second then start autoattacking. Deserted gives you solid bonus damage. Use Desert’s Curse to slow and chase your target.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, Mana Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Power Supply >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Runed Axe >> Shrunken Head >> Whispering Helm >> Savage Mace >> Symbol of Rage
- Skill Build
- 1 – Stalk
2 – Barel Roll
3 – Stalk
4 – Barell Roll
5 – Barell Roll
6 – Stalk
7 – Barell Roll
8 – Stalk
9 – Berserk
10 – Gash
11 – Berserk
12 – Gash
13 – Gash
14 – Gash
15 – Stats
16 – Berserk
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Stalk
- Quick Hero Overview
- Teamfights: cast Berserk (ulti) beforehand, then use Stalk to get into position, cast Shrunken, then try to take out a squishy enemy spellcaster early. At some point it will do more damage to autoattack than use Barrel Roll, so save BR to slow any running enemies. Use Stalk to escape if things go badly.
- Barrel Roll now provides a good slow rather than a stun like it used to. It still does good damage and will assist you in ganking, but is now less useful in teamfights.
- For ganking: cast Berserk, then Stalk, then run behind the enemy. Then autoattack a couple of times until they start to pass you. Then use barrel roll to slow. At this point Stalk should be ready again. Repeat this at most a couple times for a quick kill.
- If you get stunned and targetted, you are quite weak, especially early game. Shrunken Head will help with this, but usually get Runed Axe first as it gives you plenty of mana and allows you to farm far better.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Duck Boots, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Steamboots >> Portal Key >> Shrunken Head
- Luxury: Shield Breaker >> Wingbow >> Geometer’s Bane
- Alternatives: Assassin’s Shroud (replaces Portal Key), Post Haste (replaces Steamboots)
- 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+
- 1 – Soulsteal
- Quick Hero Overview
- Your real feature is your ultimate. If you set it off close enough to an enemy, you can often get an instant kill. For maximum effect, you should use Portal Key or Assassin’s Shroud to position yourself right on top of an enemy before setting it off. Ideally choose a key enemy hero such as a stunner or powerful squishy hero.
- You can use Demon Hand to make farming extremely easy. 2 Demon Hands at skill lvl 4 will kill an entire creep wave instantly.
- Early on, use Demon Hand to last hit creeps when the enemy hero is nearby for added harass.
- Demon Hand takes a little practice, but is not too tough. It always fires directly in front of you (it can’t be targetted). You have 3 different activations with individual cooldowns, one short, one medium, one long. On stationary targets, you will need to start with your long, then move closer and set off the others as you close the distance. For enemy heroes you can fire off short-medium-long as they flee or reverse that if they are coming toward you.
- Assassin’s Shroud is preferred for pub and low-mid level games, but NOT if you have Night Hound or Scout on your team. The enemy would be sure to have invis detection then.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Power Supply >> Sustainer >> Steam Boots >> Soulscream Ring >> Runed Axe
- Luxury: Shrunken Head >> Harkon’s Blade >> Wingbow >> Riftshards
- 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+
- 1 – Charging Strikes
- Quick Hero Overview
- A simple combo is to activate Dark Blades (silence on attack), then use Charging Strikes to silence and damage multiple enemies in a line.
- Taint Soul is a great tool for harassment. If you are having trouble farming in your lane and have no chance of killing enemy heroes in your lane, you could potentially put only 1 point into Taint Soul (for lower mana cost) and use it on creeps for easy ranged last hitting.
- Cover of Darkness + Charging Strikes and Dark Blades (for multi-silence) is a good team fight initiation tool. However, she is quite squishy so you need your team to move in with stuns etc before Cover of Darkness ends.
- Runed Axe is taken to help your farming for your luxury/late game items. It also helps with mana and health regen.
- A very versatile and strong late game hero that seems rarely picked in pub games. This is likely because she can die so easily until late/mid-late game.
Hellbourne >Intelligence
Intelligence heroes. Located at the middle third of the hero select screen (right side for Hellbourne). Usually these are powerful spellcasters with a lot of mana, but are also very “squishy” – or easy to kill.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Mark of the Novice
- Core: Bottle >> 2x Talisman of the Exile >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Staff of the Master >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Frostfield Plate
- 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+
- 1 – Flash of Darkness
- Quick Hero Overview
- Flash of Darkness (blink spell), haunt, and your other damaging spells make you great at chasing.
- Your spells do great AoE damage. Flash/blink in for position, then use Bat Blast and Sonar Scream for damage.
- Use haunt on any enemy hero caught a little too far away from their team. You and your team can then move in for the kill. If the enemy team tries to come in to help, you should already have the advantage.
- Your item choices should focus on mana, as that gives you your big damage output.
- Frostfield plate gives you some helpful armor and another AoE damage/slow that should be set off after blinking, right before Sonar Scream.
- Item Build
- Start: 1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 1x Mana Potion, 1x Minor Totem, 2x Mark of the Novice
- Core: Bottle >> Ghost Marchers >> Power Supply >> Sacrificial Stone
- Luxury: Frostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Null Stone
- Alternative: Storm Spirit or Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- 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+
- 1 – Wave of Death
- Quick Hero Overview
- Be sure to use Wave of Death to both last hit creeps and hit enemy heroes nearby at the same time for harassment. It has a wide path and good distance so this should be easy.
- Your Grave Silence (AoE) is huge in teamfights! Be sure to hit their stunners or other key casters with it if you can’t get everyone. Use it to initiate if necessary, otherwise right after your teammates AoE stun hits.
- Your ultimate is great for pushing towers. Remember, it keeps hitting however you right click even when you are stunned or disabled. As long as you have right clicked an enemy, you can chase them (without attacking) and your ultimate will tear them apart. Use Ghost Marchers and your silence to ensure they can’t get away.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards of Sight, Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, 4x Minor Totem
- Core: Marchers >> Astrolabe >> Plated Greaves
- Luxury: Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Portal Key
- Alternative: Staff of the Master
- 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+
- 1 – Extinguish
- Quick Hero Overview
- You are responsible for buying Wards of Sight!
- Use Extinguish to fuel your Contagion nuke as well as cause the enemy to push into your tower early-mid game. Using it on the ranged creep gives you less mana but will cause the lane to get closer to your tower (which is desirable)
- Contagion is a great harass tool. Use it constantly on enemy heroes in the lane. You can also use it for easy last hitting, but beware it will push the lane, something you don’t want early game.
- Your ultimate is amazing if fired off at the correct time. Use Portal Key so you will be in position to set it off. Use it on enemy heroes grouped together. Note that it can only bounce 7 times, ideally this would be off multiple enemy heroes, but if necessary it can bounce from a hero to a creep then back to the hero.
- Use Cursed Shield on your weaker teammates and melee carries constantly.
- Item Build
- Start: Mark of the Novice (150), Health Potion (100), Runes of Blight (90), 2x Minor Totem (106), 2x Mana Potion (100)
- Core: Talisman of Exile >> Steamboots >> Sacrificial Stone >> Harkon’s Blade
- Luxury: Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Stormspirit
- Alternative:
Nullstone midgame for more mana and to counter disables.
Kuldra’s before Harkon’s if your team has enough damage output already.
- Skill Build
- 1 – Magnetic Contraption
2 – Electric Frenzy
3 – Magnetic Contraption
4 – Opposite Charges
5 – Magnetic Contraption
6 – Ludicrous Speed
7 – Magnetic Contraption
8 – Electric Frenzy
9 – Electric Frenzy
10 – Electric Frenzy
11 – Ludicrous Speed
12 – Opposite Charges
13 – Opposite Charges
14 – Opposite Charges
15 – Stats
16 – Ludicrous Speed
17+ – Stats
- 1 – Magnetic Contraption
- Quick Hero Overview
- For items, you will want to be getting mana. You will be casting constantly, and your ultimate, Ludicrous Speed, eats up mana.
- Use your Ludicrous speed to chase, escape, and get into position to pick off enemies.
- If you see an enemy in a vulnerable position, you should be able to pick them off by yourself. Use your ult to quickly get to them, use your disables and ult to keep them from getting away while you take them down.
- Remember you are invulnerable while your ult is active.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier OR Wards of Sight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Mark of the Novice
- Core: Great Arcana >> Marchers >> 1-2x Talisman of Exile
- Luxury: Steam Boots >> Restoration Stone
- Skill Build
- 1 – Unholy Shackles
2 – Death Boil
3 – Death Boil
4 – Life Void
5 – Death Boil
6 – Summon Malphas
7 – Death Boil
8 – Life Void
9 – Life Void
10 – Life Void
11 – Summon Malphas
12 – Unholy Shackles
13 – Unholy Shackles
14 – Unholy Shackles
15 – Stats
16 – Summon Malphas
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Unholy Shackles
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Life Void to heal HP, especially early game. Use it on enemy creeps when they start getting killed by your tower.
- Death Boil is a great harass tool, especially early-mid game. It does a ton of unavoidable damage over time.
- In teamfights, cast Life Void early on on as many enemy heroes as possible, right after your team’s initiator stuns. This will keep you alive if you get targetted. Also use Death Boil early on and try to hit heroes grouped together; up to 4 targets can be affected.
- Summon Malphas, your ultimate, is ideally used shortly after the fight truly begins (not to initiate). The stun radius is huge, but the effect lasts only 1 second.
- Restoration Stone can let you have two Malphas’ out at the same time (also gives you 2 huge radius stuns for teamfights).
- Malphas can be used for harass, farming, and especially tower pushing. However, don’t let enemy heroes kill it for free since it gives fairly good exp and gold. Retreat him if necessary.
- Remember Malphas has a spell too! It is an AoE fire breath attack that does some average bonus damage and is great in the middle of teamfights. It can be tough to micro that in a teamfight, but should be easier to use on creeps when pushing a tower.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Battery
- Core: Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Fortified Bracelet
- Luxury: Sacrificial Stone >> Frostfield Plate >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Post Haste >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud
- 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+
Note: Instead of Withering Presence max Inhuman Nature only if you are not with a carry. It is only useful if you are last hitting. Normally your lanemate will be doing that.
- 1 – Judgement
- Quick Hero Overview
- You should be in all teamfights. Spam your Judgement spell for damage and keep in range of the action so your aura is in effect. To do these things you need mana regen and survivability so your item choices focus on that.
- Your ultimate at level 3 can kill an enemy when they get to roughly 40% health. It also provides a nice stun so keep in mind even if the target is at 60% or so it could be used to stop channeling in a pinch.
- Assassin’s Shroud is an option. It gives you survivability in a different way; use it after casting judgement when low(ish) on health so you can stay in the middle of a teamfight while your aura keeps dishing out steady damage.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Pretenders Crown, Minor Totem
- Core: (Fortified Bracelet) >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Shrunken Head >> Harkon’s Blade >> Charged Hammer
- 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+
- 1 – Puppeteer’s Hold
- Quick Hero Overview
- Your spell casting strategy: cast Puppet Show first if a valid enemy hero is in range. Then cast Puppeteer’s Hold before they are released from Show. Cast your ult while Puppeteer’s Hold is active then attack the puppet that pops up.
- Remember that Puppet Show stops enemies from channeling (spells, homecoming stones etc).
- When ganking be sure to open with one of your psuedo-disables so as many of your teammates as possible can get there to dish out damage and possibly throw in an extra stun.
- Puppet Master is a huge ranged damage dealer, perhaps the most dangerous one. Harkon’s Blade further increases your damage by turning your regular attack into magic to mitigate regular armor.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Guardian Ring
- Core: 2x Scarab from the Outpost >> Power Supply >> Ring of the Teacher >> Marchers >> Wards of Sight >> Nome’s Wisdom
- Luxury: Plated Greaves >> Astrolabe >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Nullstone
- 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+
- 1 – Entangle
- Quick Hero Overview
- You are responsible for buying Wards of Sight! This will give both you and your teammates more kills and a big advantage!
- Storm Cloud should be used before all teamfights. Use it on your team or the enemy team based on your personal position. If at all possible hit both, but remember the effect only adds or remove one armor per second. If used in the middle of a teamfight you won’t get much benefit. Try to cast it 6 seconds or so before initiation on your team.
- Entangle is a great slow for surprise ganking and helping your lanemate get early kills in combination with a stun.
- Healing wave does a good amount of damage to enemies around your primary target. Take advantage of this by healing friendly creeps while enemy melee heroes are trying to last hit them. Even better, use it on a friendly hero while they are near enemy heroes.
- Mid game you can use Healing Wave to farm creep waves. However, you are support so you should always defer creep and hero kills to your team’s carry hero.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- Luxury: Wards of Sight >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick >> Shrunken Head >> Null Stone >> Puzzle Box
- 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+
- 1 – Mesmerize
- Quick Hero Overview
- You are responsible for buying Wards of Sight! This will give both you and your teammates more kills and a big advantage!
- Use Mesmerize at the start of teamfights. Ideally use it on either a silencer or stunner. This will allow you to successfully cast your Ult and disable another target for the length of the fight. Succubus can take two enemy heroes out of the fight–a great tradeoff!
- Portal Key is used to ensure you get your Mesmerize+Succ.Hold off. Time the blink right as your team arrives so you are not picked off while they are still getting in range. You should initiate small fights and ganks, but don’t be the first in during 5v5 fights.
- Item Build
- Start: Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, 3x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> 1-2x Fortified Bracelet >> Steam Boots
- Luxury: Staff of the Master >> Shrunken Head >> Portal Key >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick
- Alternative: Assassin’s Shroud (replaces Shrunken)
- 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+
- 1 – Acid Cocktail
- Quick Hero Overview
- Ideally you should not lane with a carry since early farm will help you out a ton. You don’t want to be sharing last important last hits.
- Acid Cocktail is great on multiple creeps when farming.
- Cursed Ground is a great spell! It deals damage to enemies based on how much damage they have taken since Cursed Ground was cast. It lasts 12 seconds so use it at the start of teamfights, be sure to hit the early targets with it.
- Cursed Ground > Acid Cocktail > Spirit Ward is your general order of spells. When ganking you may need to cast Acid Cocktail right away if time or position doesn’t allow the full order.
- Remember you can be easily stunned, silenced or disabled out of channeling your ultimate. If this is a problem consider Shrunken Head before SotM. Assassin’s Shroud is also a very viable option, especially in lower level games. You can cast your ulti, then use Assassin’s Shroud and you can’t be target-stunned or target-silenced out of channelling.
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 4x Mana Potion, 4x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> 2x Fortified Bracelet >> Marchers >> Glow Stone >> Post Haste >> Icon of Goddess
- Luxury: Sacrificial Stone >> Staff of the Master >> Frostfield Plate >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Nullstone, Portal Key
- Skill Build
- 1 – Chain Reaction
2 – Agonizing Bonds
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+
- 1 – Chain Reaction
- Quick Hero Overview
- Ideally don’t lane with another carry and/or don’t choose Torturer if your team already has a couple of carries since you should be getting last hits to farm up and don’t want to be sharing them.
- Use Portal Key to position yourself in range for your Chain Reaction Stun and Ult. You can initiate when ganking, but in larger team fights, PK in only after your initiator has moved in.
Hellbourne > Strength
Strength Heroes. Located in the bottom third of the hero select screen. Right Side for Hellbourne. These heroes can usually absorb a lot of damage while providing other useful skills to the team.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- Luxury: Ghost Marchers OR Plated Greaves >> Astrolabe >> Barrier Idol >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Abyssal Skull, Mock of Brilliance
- 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+
- 1 – Fire Shield
- Quick Hero Overview
- Throughout the game you will be helping your lanemate then all teammates. Keep them healed with Cauterize and use Fire Shield on them to save them from damage.
- Remember your Fire Shield does great damage early and mid game when its owner takes enough damage. A good combo is to use Fire Shield on yourself, get aggressive, then use Cauterize when near enough to an enemy hero. Cauterize and the Fire Shield explosion will combine for great damage.
- You should always be using your skills to keep your teammates alive and healthy, not for dealing damage.
- You need lots of mana to be able to spam your shield and healing spells. I prefer Ring of Sorcery since to Nome’s Wisdom for pure direct bonus mana, though Nome’s gives extra benefits.
- Remember your Ultimate, Flame Consumption (turns damage into healing) is MANUAL now! It used to trigger automatically at 400 hp, but you must remember to hit it manually. It is a great skill that can keep you alive when you are being targeted.
- Your ult and Fire Shield remove debuffs. Fire Shield can be used on a stunned ally to remove the stun (and slows/debuffs).
- Item Build
- Start: Logger’s Hatchet, Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Potion
- Core: Blood Chalice >> Plated Greaves >> (Power Supply) >> Abyssal Skull
- Luxury: Barrier Idol / Behemoth’s Heart >> Tablet of Command
- Skill Build
- 1 – Regurgitate
2 – Corpse Conversion
3 – Corpse Conversion
4 – Demonic Pathogen
5 – Corpse Conversion
6 – Hell on Newerth
7 – Corpse Conversion
8 – Demonic Pathogen
9 – Demonic Pathogen
10 – Demonic Pathogen
11 – Hell on Newerth
12 – Regurgitate
13 – Regurgitate
14 – Regurgitate
15 – Stats
16 – Hell on Newerth
17 – Stats+
- 1 – Regurgitate
- Quick Hero Overview
- Your biggest strength is your ability to push towers with your minions (even when you have retreated!)
- To gank, be sure you have enough charges for about 3 minions. Come in from behind with your minions, then cast Regurgitate which slows. When to use Demonic Pathogen is situational. At spell level 4 you get 4 seconds of silence and deal 60 dmg/sec. Often you’ll want to use it when you get in close so they don’t just stun and walk past you. Cast your ultimate while they are still in full range. It provides moderate bonus damage and if you have 40 charges, applies a great slow as well.
- The cooldown is fast at only 35 sec. so don’t ever be afraid to use your ult.
- In teamfights, ideally you will use your ult about halfway into the fight, after the enemy has fired off their first volley or two of spells. More spells cast around you means your ult will have greater effect. Try to get 40 charges at least.
- At 80 charges, your ult will spawn a minion on each enemy hit that autoattacks and chases and will explode if attacked. Note that ranged heroes on your team should also try to target these minions so they will explode.
- Plated Greaves and Abyssal Skull give great bonuses to your minions.
- Spawn your max minions, apply Plated Greaves to yourself and a creep wave, and push a tower by yourself with a big army! Feel free to retreat at any time as the creeps+minions can do great on their own.
- Use Blood Chalice to spam Regurgitate for free damage, slow, and corpses for healing.
- Item Build
- Start: Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> Portal Key
- Luxury: Daemonic Breastpate >> Behemoth’s Heart
- 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+
- 1 – Uproot
- Quick Hero Overview
- With Uproot and Logger’s Hatchet you should have no problems last hitting creeps. Try to get mid lane or lane with a non carry hero so you can take advantage of this and get your early items very quickly. Then proceed to roam and gank!
- Remember, when you use uproot to pick up a tree, you can then use the skill again to throw it for a small stun and slow effect.
- To gank: Uproot a Tree, hide in the trees by your target, cast Rotten Grasp (remember the delay), use Clearcutting to make a path through the trees (and movement speed bonus), cast your ult Willowmaker then autoattack. Throw your uprooted tree for a ministun and slow if necessary and continue to autoattack.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, 2x Healing Potion, 1x Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Shaman’s Headdress
- Luxury: Post Haste OR Plated Greaves >> Barrier Idol >> Staff of the Master >> Behemoth’s Heart
- 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+
- 1 – Decay
- Quick Hero Overview
- Practice with the Hook spell. It requires some experience to know when and where to use it for the best likelyhood of a catch. Remember the hook can also grab on the way back. After casting, walk sideways, the hook will end up going laterally a bit for more of a chance to hook.
- Use your hook from hidden locations. The easiest would be from the trees right outside a lane.
- Use Devour immediately after your hook to completely disable enemies. Be sure to to use decay while Devour is active (you can turn on Decay while Devour is active without stopping it).
- Use Decay to take down creep waves. Also use it whenever you are attacking heroes for the extra damage and slow. You can turn it on when
- Item Build
- Start: 2x Runes of the Blight, 2x Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Battery
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> Sacrificial Stone >> Plated Greaves
- Luxury: Frostfield Plate >> Barrier Idol >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternative: Nullstone
- 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+
- 1 – Static Grip
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Static Grip then Energy Absorption toward the end of the grip time. This does AoE damage and mana drain.
- Never pick Electrician first. His main feature is his great grip spell for ganking (though Energy Absorption is pretty good up to mid game as well). Unfortunately grip can be easily cancelled by the enemy team.
- Use your ultimate, cleansing shock all the time to speed yourself or teammates up. It is also great for removing debuffs like poisons and slows, or to remove positive buffs on enemies.
- Electrician does not scale well into late game. At that point he is really just a tank or a disable that usually only works against a lone enemy. He does not have much damage output at that point. Early-mid game he can be very deadly however.
- When ganking, use Cleansing Shock on yourself for speed. Then target an enemy with Static Grip while your teammate pounds on them. Use Energy Absorption at the end of Static Grip then slow the gank target with Cleansing Shock.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Pretender’s Crown, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Steamboots >> Portal Key >> Fortified Bracelet
- Luxury: Wards of Sight, Barrier Idol and/or Astrolabe
- 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+
- 1 – Splash
- Quick Hero Overview
- Although Kraken appears to be a big beefy hero, his role is as support, not tank or carry.
- Your role in the game is to use your ultimate, Whirlpool, to initiate by grabbing 1 or 2 enemy heroes and bringing them back into the waiting arms (and spells) of your team.
- Using Whirlpool: Cast Whirlpool when you are near portal key range of the enemy team. Target Whirlpool back by your team, if possible near a nook of trees or other choke point that will make it tough for enemies to escape from. Then use Portal Key to position yourself right next to the enemy team. Try to just get a couple of the enemy, but if you get 4 that’s not bad either. Try to time your arrival right when the Whirlpool ends (6 seconds at lvl 3) so the enemy has no time to respond or escape. Use Tsunami Charge if necessary after PK to get in perfect position. When the time ends, all units near you will be teleported back to where you originally cast Whirlpool where your teammates will take them out.
- ALWAYS have enough mana for Portal Key and Whirlpool. This is your role and can win games for your team.
- Use Splash to last-hit creeps. Generally don’t put it on auto-cast, but before a teamfight you could if you have plenty of mana.
- Item Build
- Start: 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
- Luxury: Wards of Sight >> Ghost Marchers (Post Haste) >> Staff of the Master >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternate: Shrunken Head, Barrier Idol
- 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+
- 1 – Lava Surge
- Quick Hero Overview
- Stats are taken before maxing Steam Bath since it is really just used to keep you alive (inivs) as a last resort. It could potentially be maxed starting around lvl 15, if you find the damage useful, but you give up some HP that is important in keeping you alive.
- You should be buying Wards of Sight after you get Portal Key and Marchers. You are not item-dependent.
- Your main purpose is getting your ultimate off in teamfights as well as stunning multiple enemies.
- Using your Ultimate: get in position by hiding in the trees or other place out of sight, but in range of your Portal Key blink (hiding in trees etc). Hit R to start casting Eruption (2 sec channel before it starts). Immediately after hitting R, use your Portal Key by pressing ALT-W (or whatever item slot PK is in), then shift-click into the middle of the enemy team. This will teleport you immediately after the spell channel ends for maximum damage. After teleporting in, walk where necessary keep enemies in range of your ult. Use Steam Bath to stun if they start retreating. Your allies should be here by now and you can use Steam Bath to escape damage if you are still being targetted. If you get Shrunken Head, use it right after PK.
- Volcanic Touch helps you farm well mid game, but you should let your carries have priority for farming.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Mana Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, Minor Totem
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Whispering Helm>> Steam Boots >> Shrunken Head
- Luxury: (Insanitarious) >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Riftshards
- Alternate: Shrunken Head, Barrier Idol
- 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+
- 1 – Sword Throw
- Quick Hero Overview
- Initiate by using Sword Throw into the enemy team, then blink in after it. Cast Possession to disable enemies around you for up to 2 seconds while your team moves in.
- Using Sword of the Damned: Use Enchanted Flames for extra damage and before a sword throw. Leave it on permanently once you get Whispering Helm (lifesteal). Use Life Essence (green glow) always early game, and when you get low on HP in teamfights.
- Hellbourne Zeal increases your attack speed based on how much HP is missing. In comination with Sword of The Damned, you can heal a ton of life quickly or deal out a lot of extra damage.
- Use Sword Throw to escape by throwing it into trees then using a Homecoming Stone.
- Item Build
- Start: 1x Runes of the Blight, 1x Healing Potion, 1x Logger’s Hatchet, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Iron Buckler >> Bottle >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers
- Luxury: Puzzle Box >> Shaman’s Headdress (>> Barrier Idol) >> Behemoth’s Heart
- Alternate: Staff of the Master, Frostfield Plate
- 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+
- 1 – Tormented Soul
- Quick Hero Overview
- Tormented Soul is great for harass and can also be used to farm and push from across the map! Bottle and Power Supply will allow you to cast it often. It is also a good scouting tool and can snipe low HP retreating enemy heroes.
- Hellfire should be used along with your Ulti Wrath for extra damage and ministuns around you when you initiate.
- How to Initiate: Hellfire >> Wrath of the Pharoah (Ult) (target a squishy caster) >> Wall of Mummies >> Autoattack
- You can use Wall of Mummies to block a lane or path so enemies can’t chase you. Don’t use it to trap a melee carry with you since you will likely be out damaged.
- Item Build
- Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem
- Core: Logger’s Hatchet >> Steamboots >> Portal Key >> Shrunken Head
- Luxury: Shieldbreaker or Insanitarious >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Daemonic Breastplate
- Alternate: Abyssal Skull
- 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+
- 1 – Impale
- Quick Hero Overview
- After early game, always have your Ulti active on one of the enemy team. It has good range and can usually be cast safely. Be sure to use it on any enemy invis heroes (Scout or NH) as it reveals them.
- Flight is great for chasing and escaping but remember you take more damage.
- Once you get Behemoth’s Hearth, Insanitarious can be left on all the time.
- Pestilence is a solid hero to start out playing with since he is forgiving thanks to armor, HP, a stun, and Flight for escape, but if played well he can be extremely powerful and get a bunch of kills.
- Item Build
- Start: Ring of the Teacher, 2x Mana Potion
- Core: Whispering Helm >> Steamboots >> Shrunken Head
- Luxury: Insanitarious >> Behemoth’s Heart >> Brutalizer >> Daemonic Breastplate
- Alternate: Abyssal Skull instead of Whispering Helm
- 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+
- 1 – Summon Hellhounds
- Quick Hero Overview
- Abyssal Skull is a viable alternate. It will make jungling very easy (hounds stay alive with lifesteal) and you don’t have to control an extra creep from Whispering Helm’s Dominate. If you do take Whispering Helm, use Dominate on a Minotaur for its stun and aura.
- You should always jungle with War Beast. Hopefully a teammate will buy a courier, otherwise get one on your first trip back to the fountain to bring you Mana and Health Potions if necessary.
- Use your Hellhounds to jungle easily. Micro them to keep them alive longer.
- You should start ganking the jungle side lane after getting Whispering Helm and Marchers.
- Late game, after successfully farming, nothing is more dangerous than Warbeast + Ult + Shrunken Head chasing after you. He will chew through heroes.
- You can initiate for your team with Shrunken Head if necessary (target a caster first). With your ult active and lifesteal, you should survive just fine and even get a kill by the time your team shows up.
- Item Build
- Start: Logger’s Hatchet, Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Potion
- Core: Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> Storm Spirit
- Luxury: Shrunken Head >> Daemonic Breastplate
- Skill Build
- 1 – Infernal Instability
2 – Grapple
3 – Infernal Instability
4 – Cripple
5 – Infernal Instability
6 – Gauntlet Blast
7 – Infernal Instability
8 – Cripple
9 – Cripple
10 – Cripple
11 – Gauntlet Blast
12 – Stats
13 – Stats
14 – Stats
15 – Stats
16 – Gauntlet Blast
17 – Stats+
23 – Grapple+
- 1 – Infernal Instability
- Quick Hero Overview
- Use Infernal Instability along with your Ulti Gauntlet Blast for extra damage.
- Grapple knocks enemies out of channeling and using Homecoming Stones
- Storm Spirit should be used on your target while ganking. Cast it, then run up and use your other spells and autoattack. Grapple should be used to move enemies out of position, like into your tower or somewhere they can’t easily escape.
- You don’t do all that much auto attack damage so you really only have your burst damage via spells. Late game you will not be doing much. You aren’t a carry.
Why would you use moon beam to last hit creeps rather then harass?
In the build given, Moon Beam is not leveled until very late game. This means it wont do much damage, and the stun is so short at all levels you aren’t going to be ganking any heroes with it any way. If you happen to be laning with a good stun or other early harass hero and think you can get some early kills but need another 100 or so burst damage, consider leveling moon beam then using it to harass. Only harass with it if you level it up early. Otherwise, the build given will be giving you fairly strong auto attacks early on for damage. As always, there are multiple ways to play given your team and opposing heroes, and you should be flexible and thoughtful in your decisions. Good question, I will add a note about this to the MQ guide, thanks!
thanks for the reply. good luck with your guides! very helpful!
Wow, some amazing pointers, I just started playing an hour ago and I got my ass handed to me as a scout, after taking a quick look at this guide I tried again and got a 11/1 k/d. VERY HELPFUL, Make more!
It has been a while and its still on 38%, keep’em updates coming. This is a great guide!
This ain’t a guide, this is just a build structure and items to get. You may have all of these, but you will still not know how to play the heroes.
This is covered at the start of the article/guide. This is meant to be an on-the-go tool used while playing. If you want deep in depth strategy, you’ll need to spend more time than you have at the beginning 2 minutes of a game! I think most players will get what they need from the build info and the quick tips included for each hero, and it can all be taken in in seconds here on a single easy to use page. Thanks for the comment!
Excellent guide. Along with the previous guide this has helped me tremendously. I’m mostly playing all random, always trying out new heroes and as such having a guide like this one on the 2nd monitor has really been invaluable.
Witch Slayer missing staff of the master …..
Thanks for the note, that is a good point and is being added to the guide, but do remember you should be a support hero and should be assisting your team’s carries, not taking kills with your spells. The other items listed will help you support your team much better and portal key will allow you to get your stun, disable, and ult off where and when it counts in fights. Basically most games probably wont reach SotM. If you are going for kills, by all means get it earlier but thats often not what’s best for the team. Thanks and remember there are many different valid strategies!
Rampage is all wrong, or for me that is. You want at least horned strike at lvl 1 for you to easily last hit, killing a creep at 2/4 hp is easy. You also want phase boots/ enchanted boots. I know what your thinking, he has all the speed in the world, why would he need it? It’s for his 2nd skill thats why. When you charge in with stampede, once you hit, you want to use your boots. This gives you the extra boost to your 2nd skill for damaging down your enemy. The boot is also great for your ult. Your ult deals damage to them depending on the distance you drag. The thing is, you have a time limit. You want as much speed as possible to quickly transfer that damage over. Once your ult is over, you will still have 2-3 extra seconds left on your enchanted boots. This is a good call to run in front of your enemy and bash them back plus you will have that extra damage from your 2nd skill with the extra speed enable. And about not rarely charging in at early game. That is just a bad flaw. You can easily gank anyone across the map before they even have time to miss call. Just get out of line of sight and charge. You should frequently charge middle since you are most likely laning.
You should mention for Ophelia that once you once a lot of creeps (minotaurs espcially), you can press tab + q every 3 seconds or so for a long stun AoE. You can also use vultures for some good DoT damage in the area. But yeah, the tab + q is pretty important for ganking because most people don’t consider Ophelia a ganker.
Thanks, it will be added in the next update
Updates for Hon Patch 1.0.5 / Patch 1.0.6 have been made to this guide. Basically Engineer and Rampage skill changes required their guides to be mostly redone.
Madman: Barrel Roll doesn’t stun anymore. ;)
Thanks, updated The Madman guide
great guide, but it would be even more awesome if u add counter-items and -heroes (eye for Night Hound is an example, not difficult to understand) and what heroes that are extreamly good lane partners or ganking partners (such as andromeda and swiftblade/moon queen)
nice guide, this have helped me alot when i random new heroes ;)
Awesome guide man, helps a lot when you random a char you have never played before. I also used your old one when i just started playing HoN, thanks so much! It taught me all the basics on items and such for characters :)
Also its not massive but you might want to include something about decapitate in the description of Legion, just like not to use it to kill steal but to use it on heroes like accursed and such who you might have some sort of saving ability like a teleport to get out at the last moment
Doctor Repulsor and other small updates for 1.0.7 / 1.0.8 will be added soon. Leave comments if you have any thoughts on the changes. It looks like there weren’t any major item/hero changes that should majorly effect the guides here
thanks for the effort, in most cases this a very useful guide for beginners
i dont think theres a guide for tb here i cant seem to find it
Thanks for posting that. it is in there, but for some reason BOTH the links to it at the top of the guide are messed up. You can find it by hitting CTRL-F then typing thunderbringer
I’ll try to get the links fixed sometime soon.
Looking forward to see guides of Doctor Repulsor and Flint Beastwood :)
When will they be released? ^^
i disagree with your nh build.
Item Build
?Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
?Core: Power Supply, Iron Shield, Steam Boots, Nullfire Blade, Geometers Bane, Wingbow
?Luxury:
Item Build (my)
?Start: Runes of the Blight, Logger’s Hatchet, Shield
?Core: Iron Shield, Steam Boots, parazite
i dont know the maths here for starting items. But i love lifeleech and attackspeed is great with nh since he will get good dmg from behind anyways.
After this i go frostburn, i dont know if its better then nullfire, but it gives u slow without having to use item(newbie friendly) and also runspeed which i think is good when u only have steamboots.
After frostburn comes the choice problem, but geo, wingbow, and rift shard is all good choices, also runed axe works for getting your farm up faster.
Why riftshard when he uses agitility? Well, shortly because u have decent agi, and decent dmg from behind.. the ass attacks can be critted, so your crit will be really good, also your pounce can crit, so if you are lucky you can 1hit int heroes with pounce, and it is much cheaper then wingbow, atleast each item is.
Geo is nice for survival and farming and some small extra dmg, wingbow is the best choice, but it is not certain that u will get wingbow fast enough, and crit is much faster to farm, and lvl1 riftshard is way better then dancing blade. When u have wingbow also, if it gets to be a long game, and you crit your pounce, you will do close to 2000 dmg, and then around 500 per hit and 900 crits… with a huge attackspeed, both with and without parazite.
Update the site its been forever bro
disagree on nh guide
i disagree on nh guide too Start: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger’s Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem
Core: Power Supply, Iron Shield, Steam Boots, Nullfire Blade, Geometers Bane, Wingbow
Luxury:
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+
Quick Hero Overview
Use Pounce to last hit, especially siege engines – this will get you early gold and experience
Click on enemy heroes periodically to check and see if they have invisibility-revealing items like a Bound Eye or Dust
kragen is a tank O.o
“Reserve Moon Beam to stun heroes out of Moonstone casting, channelled ultimates, etc.”
Hahaha no one else notice the typo there? XD
Where is the typo?
“Reserve Moon Beam to stun heroes out of Moonstone casting, channelled ultimates, etc.”
Moonstone…. I think he meant homestone casting. /facepalm
at first: thnx for u’r guides. this is a nice overview of heroguides, and u try to keep em up a.s.o..
can i support u also if i am out of an other country -> dont buy @ amazoon.COM (de)?
need a Guide for Flint Eastwood :) please update
I’m disappointed that you didn’t mention anything in the War Beast section about Puzzle Box. If you go the “alternate” way (I prefer this way) and get Abyssal Skull, you couple that with Puzzle Box lvl 3, you will be a putting out more dps at earlier lvls than any hero in the game. You farm faster with Skull and push like a champ with just PBox lvl1, allowing you to buy PBox lvl 3 in no time. The max speed, +25% as/dmg and +44dmg buff to you/helllhounds/pbox critters is formidable. Lastly you get lifesteal/sight(situational) auras and mana drain. Level 13 Kongor helps with BDing…
A guide on Repulsor as well please :D
I’m still into your guides :D but will you update em or will they remain like that?:)
Hi everybody! Thanks for the continued visits and use of the guide. I’ve just updated the guide by adding Flint Beastwood and Doctor Repulsor. The only other major change that would maybe be needed is adjusting item builds for when Striders may be a good choice. As always, any constructive comments and critiques of guides, as well as your own personal builds, are very welcome!
I also just want to mention again that supporting the site and guides by clicking the Amazon link before a purchase really does help and would help with more updates. (I have yet to even cover the monthly hosting costs for the site!)
Thanks!
Hi, I will try to update with an option shortly for amazon.de etc (edit: updated, you can just use the specific links now up for amazon.de and amazon.co.uk – they should be in the Support page, and also to the right in the sidebar),
And as always, if iomething interesting in a google ad and click on it, that helps a little too!
Thanks for the support!
On the Magmus guide, in the section about ultying, it says you should use Steam Bath to stun. Of course you meant Lava Surge, and everyone should know that, but I figured you may want to change it.
Thank you for pointing that out, it will be fixed the next time the guide is updated.
And gauntlets infernal instablility no long combines with his ult/grapple :(
I also noticed you don’t use chalice of blood on anyone. You should give it a shot especially on some guys that it should be core. Like devourer, succubus, and soul reaper. It is also good early game on bloodhunter and tempest.
I agree with XDracoX, I love blood chalice on tundra and works well with demented shaman.
I like the ending of the Devourer guide “You can turn it on when”
Was just wondering about when when is :)
Could we get an update with Bombadier please and thanks again for the great tips and builds :D
Just a Comment on another possible build for Scout, as the build you have for scout w/ whispering helm shrunken head is one that i currently use, with wingbow and savage mace as luxury, and i at times replace shrunken with frostburn, as the ms allows scout to chase and position better for flurry(just depends on amount of ccing and how bad im placing my silences) Ive found this build to be potent, but when i go against teams tht usually will have high armor ill go for a different luxury. Harkon’s Blade turns people into butter on Scout, u will literally flurry someone and kill them. Not to mention people don’t prepare for Magic damage when facing a Scout and even so u can only mitigate magic damage so much. Other hardcarries like Dark Lady, Night Hound, Chronos and the such, ive all faced, and focused in under 5 secs after flurry if not w/ under 5 secs. Even tanks become butter, but the other builds work just as fine, sheildbreaker is gg if under 25 mins, the stated build above for competing against hardcarries, or Harkon’s Blade, which you can completly turn around a game with this item, ill post a match ID of its power as soon as i can find one.
Yeah, i’d be happy bout bombardier guide too:)
please continue your work! its great!
I believe Kraken’s skills and ultimate have been updated. Thanks for the help in the guides.
please update this :) i love this quick guide
Please update hero guides, items etc.
Great guide!
I think you’re missing Moraxus :p
So this site has now become outdated :-( so when are we getting some new info?
Would love to get an update on this with new heroes/patches taken into consideration!
Please update this, it would be the most amazing thing if you did.
wow awesome heroes guide, gratz
Fantastic guide!
– But please update it, there’re several heroes missing ..
please update it, there are lot of heroes missing
UPDATE THE GUIDE PLEASEEE
Will there ever be an update to this? Does anyone know of a good alternative website?
wew :D
Please send me Hero guide for Midas… Thanks a lot!
It sounds good but you need to upgrade it please, and it will be better.
Thank you :D
update po please. ,
UPDATE THE GUIDE PLEASEEE
Sacrificial Stone or icon of the goddess name wrong :(