© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: comic, forums, new patch, rage, S2

- Removed general kick vote
- Players who are marked as AFK are no longer auto-kicked, but instead can be vote-kicked via a team-only vote
- Changed AFK detection to include all areas of the map
- Remake time limit extended to 7.5 minutes
- Remake will now pass with a 70% majority vote, 50% if there is a leaver in that time
- Pause vote will now pass with a 70% majority
- Added a green “no help” button to the left of the teammate portraits that will toggle their ability to use certain abilities on your units:
* Andromeda – Void Rip
* Blood Hunter – Blood Crazy
* Nymphora – Teleport
* Glacius – Ice Imprisonment
* Ophelia – Ophelia’s Judgement
* Tempest – Elemental
* Succubus – Mesmerize
* Pebbles – Chuck
* Gladiator – Showdown
* Item – Stormspirit
- Updated shop icons to more clearly indicate their categories
- Updated several jukespots on Caldavar
- Added three new music tracks to the ingame music
- Fixed Hellbourne ranged super creeps having the same icon/portrait as Hellbourne melee super creeps
- If a player is Taunted and picks up an illusion rune, those illusions will have the taunted icon play above their heads
- Players attempting to spam game servers with courier sharing messages will now have their sharing messages blocked and subsequent requests they send will be ignored. Waiting a few seconds before sending another share request will eventually remove this block.
- Kongor
* Fixed so wards/gadgets can properly attack him
* Increased the size of the area in which you can attack without missing slightly

Lobby/Pregame

- Added /pingall (and /pa) chat commands
* These commands display the ping for other users in the game. This is intended primarily for settling ping disputes in tournament matches. Note that another player’s ping does not affect the quality of the game for anyone other than that player
- Added “fs_disablemods” console command. (This is experimental!) When set to true, HoN will try to ignore custom archives/files (mods) the next time it starts up
* This is for players having difficulty using tournament mode. More support for this will be added in the future.
- Fixed an issue where players could connect to the same game server using the same account. The server will now disconnect the connecting player with an appropriate message if it finds two account_ids that are the same.

General

- Some updates to the Report a Player interface and functionality
- Fixed a crash relating to when a check for match stats fail
* This mainly fixes the issue some players had of crashing after a game ends, when they go back to the main menu
- Fixed a few other miscellaneous crashes
- “Invite to Clan” requests will no longer notify players in “Invisible Mode” or in “/dnd” mode. If the player is invisible, the player inviting them to a clan will receive a message indicating they are offline. If they are in /dnd mode the player inviting them will receive a message indicating they are in /dnd mode.
- “Add Buddy” requests will no longer work on players in “/dnd” mode. Players inviting them will receive a message indicating they are in /dnd mode.
- Un-checking the Options -> Interface -> Friends -> Request checkbox will now disable the message printed out to chat, in addition to the notification.
- Non server game clients will now print additional system details towards the end of the console.log

Items

Bottle
- Fixed an issue causing Double Damage to only last 30 seconds when used. Now lasts the correct 45 seconds

Codex
- Recipe from Neophyte’s Book + Punch Dagger changed to Neophyte’s Book + 2x Punch Dagger
- Recipe cost from 1350 to 1000
- Passive damage bonus from 9 to 18

Insanitarius
- Cooldown from 10 secs to 7 secs

Geometer’s Bane
- Lower strength from 15 to 10
- Changed total agility to be equal to the sum of its parts, from 30 to 26

Restoration Stone
- Will now refresh Shrunken Head

Heroes

- New Hellbourne Intelligence Hero: Doctor Repulsor
* Based on Storm Spirit from DotA

Accursed
- Fire Shield casting range from 400 to 350
- Fire Shield mana cost from 100/105/110/115 to 100/110/120/130
- Cauterize range from 750 to 700

Arachna
- Strength gain lowered from 1.9 to 1.7
- Hardened Carapace duration reduced from 6s to 3s

Balphagore
- Movement speed from 290 to 295
- Hell on Newerth will no longer reset to zero after dying with Token of Life

Blacksmith
- Flaming Hammer’s negative magic armor debuff is now in the tooltip properly
- Flaming Hammer projectile speed from 800 to 950

Bubbles
- Base damage from 38-49 to 45-50
- Shell Surf will leave vision behind properly when teleported to that spot
- Increase speed of the shell from 600 to 850
* Will still only go a max of 1800 units, timer updated accordingly

Devourer
- Cadaver Armor strength gain per hero kill from 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8 to 2 at all levels
- Cadaver Armor strength gain per non-hero kill removed
- Cadaver Armor Magic Armor from 1/2/3/4 to 0/1.35/2.7/4.0
- Devour slightly reworked. While channeling Devour, 1 charge is added each second, which last 10 seconds. Each charge:
* Increases the size of Devourer
* Increases the radius of Decay by 50
* Adds 15/25/35 attack damage
* Max health increased by 100/150/200

Engineer
- Increase the projectile speed of the turret’s deployment by 50% and remove cast time
- Limit to the number of times someone can be hit by the Turret from 5 to 10
* Max snare of 35% is still achieved at 5 hits, slowing 7% per hit

Fayde
- Cull cooldown from 10 secs to 11 secs
- Cull radius from 350 to 300
- Stance blocking from 50 damage to 40 damage
- Reflection no longer leaves behind an illusion
- Shadow Cripple now deals the first tick of damage immediately, second at end of 1, third at end of 2 (used to be end of 1, end of 2, end of 3)
- Shadow Cripple still reduces healing by 50% for 3 seconds

Forsaken Archer
- Agility gain from +2.7 to +2.5
- Call of the Damned skeletons poison from 4/8/12/16 to 6/8/10/12

Gauntlet
- Infernal Instability no longer snares
- Infernal Instability no longer applies its buff to ult or second ability
- Infernal Instability on use will give max charges on Enfeeble
- Grapple cast time lowered from 400ms to 200ms
- Grapple projectile speed increased from 1500 to 1600
- Max charges on Enfeeble now scale from 30 to 20/25/30/35
- Duration of Enfeeble slow decreased from 5 seconds to 3 seconds
- Max slow on an enemy by Enfeeble is now 50%
- Gauntlet Blast damage reduced from 300/450/600 to 300/400/500
- Gauntlet Blast range from 600/700/800 to 600 at all levels
- Gauntlet Blast cooldown from 75/65/55 to 80/70/60
- Gauntlet Blast Consumed by Power AoE from 200 to 200/225/250

Gladiator
- Call to Arms now uses the same cast animation as Pitfall
- Removed the backswing time on his abilities
- Lowered the ‘trigger time’ from 2s to 1.6s on Pitfall
- Showdown now issues a stop command to whoever is teleported back
- Call to Arms now plays no sounds other than at the impact time

Keeper of the Forest
- Camouflage cast range from 300 to 500, cast time halved
- Nature’s Protection cooldown from 7 secs to 5 secs, cast time halved

Legionnaire
- Terrifying Charge from +40/80/120/MAX to +60/100/140/MAX, charge will last max of 5 seconds
- Movement speed from 290 to 295

Madman
- Barrel Roll no longer slows attack speed
- Barrel Roll cooldown increased from 11s to 13s
- Barrel Roll’s debuff is now dispellable

Magebane
- Base strength from 16 to 17
- Strength gain from 1.6 to 1.7

Night Hound
- Added a third variation for the attack animation on his third ability

Nymph
- Damage from the stun from 25/50/75/100 to 70/100/130/160
- Stun duration increased to 1/1.3/1.6/2

Rampage
- Lower base armor by 1
- Stampede cooldown from 25 to 30
- Movespeed slow from Might of the Herd (when used) is now static -35/50/65/80 MS as long as they stay around him. Lasts for 4 seconds at all levels from 1/2/3/4. 1 second timeout when moving out of the affector.
- Damage from Horned Strike rescaled from 100 to 40/60/80/100

Soul Reaper
- Strength gain from 2.0 to 1.7
- Withering Presence from 1000 radius flat to 700/800/900/1000

Tundra
- Speed up the ice spikes from 1.25s lifetime to 1s lifetime
- Bird is now magic immune

Vindicator
- Sage’s Lore duration changed from 5/6/7/8 to 7s
- Sage’s Lore damage/burn from 20/10,30/15,40/20,50/25 to 14/7,26/13,40/20,57/28.5
- Sage’s Lore cooldown from 14 to 15
- Sage’s Lore manacost from 75/95/115/135 to 80/100/120/140
- Glyph of Silence AoE from 950 to 800
- Glyph of Silence will no longer silence heroes that Vindicator does not have vision of
- Glyph of Silence int gain from 1 Intelligence to 2 Intelligence per kill
- Glyph of Silence silence duration from 0.75/1.5/2.25/3 to 1/1.75/2.5/3.25

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1.0.7, afk, Heroes of Newerth, hon, kick vote, patch notes

Before I get into the list and everything THERE IS NO MAPHACK. Please stop using my search function to search for a maphack. It’s not going to happen. S2 has made it impossible to maphack. Go away.

So here’s a list of mods that have come up for discussion:

Tower Range Indicator

This mod shows the attack range of towers.

As you can see the attack range is noted by the white line and almost transparent circle. It doesn’t show the reveal range however the reveal range is only 200 difference. Reveal range is 900 and attack range is 700.

The Good: It allows noobs to learn just how far they can go and can even stop them from tower diving.
The Bad: While it does not show the reveal range, the attack range is still an unfair advantage to players to know EXACTLY how far away they can be.
The “Ugly”: There’s not too much ugly here. Tower diving receives a whole new meaning especially in the side lanes. You can easily hide in trees to avoid the tower with the help of this mod. However more veteran players have already picked up this skill to make this mod almost useless. Players that make it to competitive play may in fact find out it hinders them once Tournament Mode becomes standard in tournaments and they can no longer rely on the white circle of safety.

Valkyrie’s Javelin Glow

This mod brings back the old javelin glow.

As you can see it’s much brighter and easier to see. The javelin used to be like this back in BETA before S2 patched it to make it the “arrow” we all know and hate today.

The Good: On older PCs that have to play on lower settings this allows them to see the javelin easier.
The Bad: It’s pretty hard to miss a giant glowing arrow with sound no matter how noob you are.
The “Ugly”: While many say that if you are pro with Valk they won’t see it coming anyway, but it’s pretty hard to miss in my opinion. Makes me think back to all the competitive games I watched and seen a really amazing arrow get juked and it suddenly becomes less amazing.

Stumps

This mod replaces the trees on the map with stumps so that juking spots can be seen easier.

This mod does not change whether or not you can actually see people in the jungle without line of sight, but it does give you a better idea of where they may of went.

The Good: This mod helps noobs learn juking spots easier than seeing a map with lines on it.
The Bad: This mod makes it harder for people to juke effectively. Especially if a juke spot only has one way to go.
The “Ugly”: Most argue that it’s not really a learning tool as it is a “wipe your butt for ya” tool. Will most people even remember where these juke spots are without this mod? Lets not even bring up AoE spells by heroes that you can cast  into the trees with a more accurate idea of where they went.

Power Supply Mod

This mod gives a debuff to your hero when someone within 1600 units has a power supply.

As you can see it even works through fog.

The Good: There’s really not a whole lot to “learn” from this mod..
The Bad: At higher levels of play just about everyone has a power supply or bottle, hell maybe both. There may really be no better way to prevent a gank attempt than this mod.
The “Ugly”: Unfortunately I think this is one mod that I have to put full support on banning. There’s nothing to learn from it. The fact that it works through fog makes it completely ridiculous and shows a very clear advantage. Then again, to play devil’s advocate the use of wards prevents gank attempts just as easily. However, you can’t have wards everywhere.

Soulstealer Hands

This mod shows the range of hero abilities, but we’ll look specifically at Soulstealer’s hands.

As you can see it shows you the range of all 3 hands, where they overlap, etc.

The Good: It can teach new players how to nuke easily.
The Bad: Soulstealer alone is a very powerful hero. His last hitting abilities, amazing farming skills, powerful nuke damage and ult all make him almost unstoppable if built correctly. Most people can destroy with just the help of a portal key at lower levels. This mod makes even the most unskilled the ability to become over powered.
The “Ugly”: While it may seem like “easy mode” for most people, pros and those that have already learned Soulstealer’s abilities find the range circles annoying and down right distracting. It doesn’t make good players better, but noobs somewhat decent.

Automatic Attack Modifier Cycling

This mod cycles through all your attack modifiers based on your attack speed automatically.

The Good: Allows newer players that aren’t used to using key binds to cycle through their various attack modifiers.
The Bad: It automates an aspect of the game which shows a clear disadvantage to other players.
The “Ugly”: Truth be told this isn’t as great as it sounds. It constantly cycles. Meaning that it won’t continue to hit the target with “Frost” toggled on until it stacks up. It won’t continue to hit the target with life steal when you REALLY need life steal activated. It’s a poor mans substitute.

There’s a list for ya, which of these do you think should be banned? Or do you think no mods should be banned at all?

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ban, bannable mods, Heroes of Newerth, hon, mods and addons, power supply mod, stumps, tower range mod, valk javelin

Ok, I’m done. I’m weirder than usual the later it gets..

While you may see those big go to items and think the more you have the better you’ll soon find out how wrong you are. You can only have 1 (ONE) Exclusive Attack Modifier at a time. While it is possible for you to toggle through each modifier if you are not a pro it’s best to just stick with one. The following is a list of exclusive attack modifiers that do NOT stack.

Hungry Spirit
Whispering Helm
Elder Parasite
Symbol of Rage
Icebrand
Frostburn
Frostwolf’s Skull
Shieldbreaker
Harkon’s Blade
Volcanic Touch (Magmus)
Sear (Accursed)
Tangle Claw (Wildsoul’s Booboo)
Toxicity (Slither)
Cripple (Gauntlet)

I’ve colored coded them to show which are Life Steal, Frost (Chilled/Freeze), Broken Armor, and Hero Skills.

None of those stack together. NONE OF THOSE STACK.

But you’re a carry, and you’ve got lots of gold! What else are you supposed to get? The following items WILL STACK with the above.

Thunderclaw / Charged Hammer (One or the other as they do not stack with themselves.)
Nullfire Blade (Does not stack with Magebane’s Mana Combustion)
Brutalizer
Savage Mace
Geometer’s Bane
Firebrand

Thunderclaw and Charged Hammer seems to be the most common route of them all, but Savage Mace is amazing in the fact that its mini-stun will stack with Brutalizer because it’s not a bashing effect.

I mentioned earlier that Harkon’s Blade does not stack with other exclusive attack modifiers, but I’d like to get a little more in depth with you. Since you can toggle Harkon’s Blade on and off it may seem a little confusing. Even in it’s OFF state it is still considered an exclusive attack modifier. So for example, you have Frostburn and Harkon’s Blade even though Harkon’s is turned OFF… NEITHER effect will work. I know it’s confusing, but just read this paragraph a few times and let it sink in. Or just accept that it doesn’t work and we’ll be golden.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: attack modifiers, exclusive attack modifiers, frostburn, Heroes of Newerth, hon, life steal, shieldbreaker

This one is gonna go back to my tendency to rage about female gamers. Did you know that I’ve never been called a whore, slut, cunt, bitch, or any derogatory term for women in HoN? Even when players find out I’m a girl due to either using my mic or friends referring to myself as “she/her” I have never been made fun of because I’m a girl. That’s not to say that I haven’t been raged at. I’ve done many things that are rage worthy, some that are not, but none of that is because of being a girl. Also, I’m not saying that I’ve never been given some variation of the kitchen jokes, or the sammich jokes, but they were just that JOKES. I can laugh about them especially if it’s one I haven’t heard before.

Are you surprised? After all, we all hear the cries of girl gamers being treated differently, being made fun of, and being put down by the man. You would think HoN would be twice as bad considering the community.

I’m not surprised. Not one bit. I don’t get those type of comments because of the way I portray myself. I don’t jump into a HoN game and quickly type out “*giggle* Hey guys! I’m a girl! Who wants me on their team? *wink*” I don’t remind people over and over again that I’m a girl. I don’t flirt with players. I’m not there to get attention, I’m there to play the game.

The biggest issue that I’m seeing lately is girls portraying themselves in such a negative light. Not only do they do this but they also complain when they get negative feedback from people.  If you show people that all you want is attention then you can’t complain when you receive bad attention. If all you do in game, on the forums, in public is flirt flirt flirt don’t be surprised when guys call you a slut. When you constantly remind people that you’re one of the cool girls that play video games don’t be shocked when they rip you to shreds on your game play and you in general.

You want to be treated like equals? Play the game. That’s it. Guys don’t play video games to meet girls. They play them to have fun. Isn’t that why you play games? Or are you playing games for a different reason?

I was going to try to transition myself into this part, but fail. The reason girls aren’t on competitive teams you damn drama queen feminists is because none of them have shown the skill and, oh Idk, tried out for a team? There’s a good chance that a girl with the skill of H4nn1, Trixie, Levent, Kebap, or any other top tier player tried out for a team they’d be on it. Competitive teams don’t have a “No girls allowed” sign hanging below their banner. Yet, I see girls trying to make competitive teams with a “No boys allowed” sign whining about how competitive teams don’t have girls. Grow up.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: competitive teams, girl gamers, Heroes of Newerth, hon, kitchen, no girls allowed, Rant

Bang! Crowd Control Timers

These timers not only allow you to keep track of crowd control spells, but how much longer wards you place will last. Here’s a few screen shots of what they look like in game. You can place them anywhere.

Here you can see Pollywog’s CC spells. And below you can see my ward hoe..ness.

As you can see these are extremely useful if you plan on playing a ward hoe. AKA..Glacius.

If you thought timers were enough Bangerz also provides us with a really customizable options menu. (Click to Enlarge)

As you can see you can change height, width, color, and what you want shown. Here’s the description for ya:

• Timer bars for the vast majority of crowd control spells cast by allies or yourself
• Timer bars for Sheepstick and Stormspirit when cast by yourself
• Timer bars for select critical buffs (e.g. Jeraziahs magic immunity, Sols Blessing)
• Capacity to customise timers for 100% of abilities and items *requires minor modding knowledge*
• Menu to change colours, sizes, location etc
• Ward timer for wards that you place yourself
• Optionally: Displays duration on ally nameplate Here
• Place the box high when using ‘bars grow up’

This addon is a must have for supports and honestly even for carries.

This mod requires other mods to work. They include:

Mod Options Framework. (Thread) (Download)
Movable Frames. (Thread) (Download)
HoN Mod. (Thread) (Download)

Download Bang! Crowd Control Timers by Bangerz here.

Go to this thread for support, bugs, and issues.

If you would like to donate to Bangerz via Paypal click here.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: addons, bang cc timers, bangerz, CC timers, crowd control, Heroes of Newerth, hon, mods, ward timers

Sorry. Allow me to better phrase that…

AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahhh.. good stuff. With the recent patch S2 brought about their new Report a Player function, or as it’s known on the forums RAP. Those of us that have played MMOs know about this feature, and honestly, how much it just doesn’t work. I can’t tell you how many times in other MMOs were you report someone and feel absolutely no gratification in doing so. You’re mostly felt feeling you wasted your whole 5 seconds to report the player and will more than likely never do so again as you never see the results.

Oh, but S2. You have proved us all wrong. The flood of forum posts from banned users has shown that you’re actually getting these reports and LOOKING at them! A few weeks ago S2 posted an announcement looking for volunteer GMs to sort through the vast amount of reports and give out warnings/bans for offenses that they find. I would of applied myself, but I am much more of a lurker than a poster on the forums and one of the requirements were to have at least 100 posts. With this being a new system, with new GMs, the rules and guidelines haven’t been ironed out to the point of having no gray area. Meaning, some people are being banned for things while others are scooting by with a warning for the same sort of behavior. With such a gray area many reports go by what the personal GM thinks of said behavior. Some may find certain words and phrases to be disgusting and inexcusable, while others find going through reports a good laugh and simply do not issue a warning whatsoever.

So what can you be banned for?

Quote from S2Shawn: (Thread)

As you can see, I have used the Scout icon for this post. I can think of no better way to sum up how the community has been feeling about our new Report a Player system.

Many of you have voiced some concerns, to say the least. We want to address those concerns. Note that this post was a combined effort from Idejder, and JohnnyUtah, and myself.

First off, do not doubt that S2 takes input from the playerbase very seriously. Your concerns are not falling on deaf ears.

Secondly, our intentions are good. We do not intend to put excessive restrictions on the community. Report a player is primarily to allow each HoN game to progress to its conclusion without it being intentionally ruined.

For example, feeding a dozen monkey couriers to the enemy team or suiciding your hero in a dedicated manner multiple times can only mean you are intentionally ruining the game, and should be punished for it.

The Report a Player system is new. As with any new system, there are bugs that need to be worked out. S2 asks for, and thanks you for, your patience during this time.

There is something hard to understand, but absolutely crucial about this new system: every day, there are a massive number of reports to sort through. What this means is that, right now, it will be difficult for us to make an accurate decision in every single case. We will get better at this with time. Again, we ask for your patience. We have already overturned several recent decisions that were deemed to be unfair on appeal.

We will be making a few adjustments in regards to how penalties are being handled. Note that we may change how the penalties scale in the future, but this will never change: Your first offense will result in a warning only, never a suspension.

1st Offense – Warning
2nd Offenses – 1 day (24 hour) suspension
3rd Offenses – 3 day (72 hour) suspension
4th+ Offenses – 1 week suspension

Each offense will last a period of 4 months.

Currently players who have committed an offense will receive an email informing them of their warning/suspension and how to appeal it. We will be implementing ingame popups/notifications in the near future to make sure you are aware if your account receives a warning and that you can appeal the decision.

We will also be setting up a publicly viewable forum section for players who have received penalties to submit their appeals where they will be reviewed and decided upon on an individual basis. This system will replace the previous appeal method by email and should provide more transparency into our decisions and let you hold us accountable if the community believes a decision is unfair and unjustified. Remember, we want to make the game as enjoyable as possible for everyone in all situations.

Here is a quick recap all of the things that you can be given an Offense for:

Advertising
Repeatedly advertising or spamming a service in a game or public channel is not permitted.

Bad Nickname
Players with racially offensive, sexually explicit, or profane nicknames will have their accounts flagged so that they can change their nickname. Those who do not do so in a timely manner will receive an offense if reported again.

Bug Exploitation
Deliberate and malicious exploitation of bugs to gain an advantage over the enemy team or grief allies is not permitted.

Feeding/Boosting
Manipulation of stats, rating, or game outcome via multi-accounting, plants, or PSR bugs is not permitted.

Illegal Content
Sharing anything that violates US Law or the Terms of Service is not permitted.

Impersonating S2Games
Impersonation of S2Games employees or volunteer personnel to intimidate or otherwise gain an advantage over other players is not permitted.

Verbal Abuse
Excessive in-game verbal harassment of another player is not permitted.
Special note about this: Don’t be afraid to let the spirits of competition and rage flow free. Talking smack is part of the game, just don’t go too far with it. Be mindful not to go into any territory you wouldn’t if that person was sitting next to you in the same room. No one enjoys playing with someone who says more swear words than anything else.

Harassing someone via whispers or PMs is not tolerated at all, and neither is getting your friends to harass players. People attempting to circumvent our chat filters will definitely find themselves in trouble.

General Abuse
General in-game abuse of heroes, items, or abilities to grief your teammates is not permitted.
This includes but is not limited to the following:

• Abuse of allied control, including courier
• Destruction of allied items
• Abuse of items and abilities
• Calling out allied positions

We will most likely tweak these rules as we get more feedback from you guys as a whole, but we will always keep you informed of any changes.

Now, these are brand new rules and procedures. The “First offense = warning” has just started, so many that were reported BEFORE these changes were banned on the spot. Can’t help, but add a big old “LULZ” here.

You see, I’m happy you got banned. I’m happy that instead of playing with you in a game you are instead crying on the forums trying to get your ban appealed. I’m happy that grieffers are finally getting what’s been coming to them.

Of course, I’d like to think I’m part of the majority of HoN players. There are those that feel S2 is being too harsh. I don’t think they’re being harsh at all. I think it was just a shock of the system actually working. Once this system is in place for awhile we just might see a better HoN community.

Good job S2. Good job.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ban appeals, banned players, bans, Heroes of Newerth, hon, report a player, S2

Version 1.0.6.1
————-
- Gladiator voice

Version 1.0.6
————-
- Improved pathfinding most noticeable during the laning phase.
- Some effects tweaks to heroes to clean things up
- Some tooltip fixes
- Added note about AudaciousSam’s Blood Chalice to the 1.0.5 patch notes

Vulture Lord
- Removed armor aura

Nullstone
- Recipe price from 825 to 1000
- No longer reduces cooldown if hit by a spell while in cooldown

Steamstaff
- Damage increased by 2
* This means any item that uses a Steamstaff in some way was increased accordingly

Chronos
- Fixed Curse of Ages level 2/3/4, it will now properly stun and reset charges
- Curse of Ages now counts “down” in charges rather than up, always stunning when no charges are left

Gauntlet
- Fix to make sure when gauntlet activates Infernal Instability while the glove is in midair it works properly after it’s return and can still go off

Glacius
- Ally-freeze through Ice Imprisonment damage reduction from 20/40/60/80 to 20/30/40/50%

Gladiator
- Fixed Showdown so it does not teleport magic immune units
- Fixed Flagellation going on cooldown correctly when you attack gadgets

Rampage
- Fixed the instant death bug

Version 1.0.5
————-
General

- “Report A Player” added
* Upper left on the System Bar, ! symbol
* Fill out the form to report another player for inappropriate actions
* False reporters will be punished

- Tons of tool tip updates and fixes
- Fixed a bug allowing Post Haste to teleport to couriers. Post Haste can teleport to player owned pets, such as War Beast’s wolves
- Gave Vulture Lord’s second ability an icon (means the aura no longer displays a black and white checkerboard)
- Stores will no longer remove the ‘can buy from me’ state if you or a courier goes invulnerable
- Decreased in-game font size slightly
- Added a new message when the courier is killed by a non-hero unit, it will now show a minimap ping along with the appropriate game message indicating which team the courier was killed by

- Fixed an issue where players would add a chat channel to auto connect to upon startup, and then later be unable to remove this channel from their list because they were banned from the channel. Players attempting to join channels they are set to auto connect to and are also banned from will have that channel automatically removed from their list if they attempt to connect to the channel they are banned from
- Pressing the “Alt” key (or whatever key the player has defined as chat_gameLobbyChatToggle) when in the game lobby will no longer toggle the chat type like it used to. It now must be held down and used in conjunction with the enter key, or with the mouse click of the “Send” button
- Fixed a Mac/Linux crash
- Fixed issue preventing players from selecting a potential hero during the banning phase.
- Disconnected players will no longer random when it becomes their turn to pick, unless they run out of time.
* Disconnected players are not allowed to use “extra time” in BP mode (if it is their turn, and they are disconnected, then they will pick their potential hero or a random hero)
- Fixed an issue in duplicate hero mode where if two players had the same hero “potentially” selected, only one would get it and the other would random
- Misc server optimizations to improve stability
- News is hidden when choosing to follow a player
- The client will no longer display a message indicating the player will get a leave for disconnecting if they are in a replay or a practice game

Invis Rune
- Now has a 2s fade time. Any spell, ability, or item can be used in this fade time without ending the stealth.

Items

- Mana Battery is now in Supplies
- Power Supply is now in both Supplies and Initiation

New Item: Blood Chalice (Initiation)
* On use, grants 150 temporary mana in exchange for 150 health. Mana will disappear slowly if not used. Damage cannot kill.
* Special thanks to user AudaciousSam, who originally suggested the concept for this item in DotA and gave us permission to use it in HoN.

Astrolabe
- Fixed a bug so the debuff cannot be dispelled

Bottle
- Fixed it so when you have illusion bottled and use it, the illusions still don’t have it bottled!
- Double Damage will now correctly last 45 seconds instead of 30 seconds when used out of a bottle

Frostfield Plate
- Can no longer be used by Couriers

Geometer’s Bane
- Illusions now gain the 0.1s invulnerability as well

Ground Courier
- Will be attacked by creeps/towers again

Loggers Hatchet
- No longer works on splash damage

Puzzlebox
- Melee minion abilities moved to slots 3,4 to make it clear which is which
- Puzzlebox Minions will no longer be able to attack towers unless the owner is within 925 units of them

Void Talisman
- Applies -5.5 Magic Armor for the duration

Whispering Helm
- Can no longer be used by Couriers

Heroes

- New Legion Strength hero, Gladiator, based off DotA’s Kunkka
* We know he is missing a voice right now. We had it re-recorded for quality, it will be hot-fixed into the game within a few hours.
- Updated recommended items for several heroes

Balphagore
- Balphagore’s third ability will no longer consume gadgets. Om nom nom.
- Hell on Newerth
* Cast time removed
* Expanding ring now ‘sticks’ on Balphagore as he moves and expands to max distance 300ms faster

Behemoth
- Shockwave will no longer hit couriers

Bubbles
- When toggled on, Take Cover will now automatically be used if the source of damage is owned by an enemy hero (enemy pets/gadgets will trigger it)

Blacksmith
- Fixed an issue causing Frenzy multicast to not apply to the correct number of targets (usually one less than it should)

Chipper
- Players are now deny-able if they are burning from the Tar Toss + Rocket combo
- Tar Toss duration lowered from 5s to 2/3/4/5 secs

Chronos
- Rewind heal rate doubled (max 50% per second)
- Curse of Ages
* Buff/Debuff time lowered from 10s to 8.5s
* Bashes every 8/7/6/5 hits
* Deals 20/40/60/80 magic damage on bash hit
* Bash stun from .25/.5/.75/1 to 1s all levels
* Agi steal from 1/1/2/3 to 1/2/2/3 agility per hit against heroes
* Can now build charges between targets for Curse of Ages
* Can now gain charges from denies

Devourer
- Devour now reveals any target bit for the duration

Electrician
- Shield is now a self target cast instead of a toggle
* Cast time removed
* Costs 20% of max mana to cast, if mana is less than that, uses all of it
* Mana consumed is applied as the shield for 12s
* Absorbs 50% of damage at the cost of 2/1.66/1.25/0.75 mana consumed per damage taken
* DPS of the shield AOE increased from 12/24/36/48 to 15/30/45/60
* Shield is unremovable

Engineer
- Turret reworked
* Changed to a vector targeting ability to decide the direction it is facing
* Manacost lowered from 120 to 100
* No longer controllable and only lasts 6 seconds
* No longer gets a copy of Engineer’s items
* Lays down suppressive cover fire in a cone shooting 6 times across the cone’s 800 range, 400 unit spread, 30 shots total
* Each bullet deals 25/40/55/70 Physical damage and applies a 7% stacking movespeed snare (5s duration) to all targets hit
* Units hit are pushed 25 units away from the turret
* Can only be hit by a max of 5 bullets
- Energy Field
* Will no longer hit couriers
* Duration lowered from 6/9/12 to 6/8/10
* Hits to kill lowered from 5 to 4

Forsaken Archer
- Crippling Volley
* Ministun removed
* Radius lowered from 225 to 200
* Damage done increased from 85/140/195/250 to 85/150/215/280

Fayde
- Strength growth from 2.2 to 2.0
- Base agility from 21 to 19
- Lowered movement speed from 305 to 300
- Charges from Scythe/Shadow Stance lowered from 2/3/4/5 and 1/2/3/4
- Reflection
* Movespeed while stealthed rebalanced from 10/20/30% to 10/15/20%
* Duration rebalanced from 30/35/40 to 20/35/50

Gauntlet
- Undev
- Reworked
- Base STR reduced by 2 (24 to 22) and armor decreased by 0.5
- Infernal Instability
* Applies Infernal Instability to self for 4 seconds. Granting 10/20/30/40 movement speed for the duration
* While Infernal Instability is active, Gauntlet’s hand will detonate on the first target that it comes in contact with.
* This includes auto attacks, Grapple, or Gauntlet Blast. This ability can be activated while the glove is in mid flight.
* Upon detonation, deals 120/180/260/320 Magic damage in the radius, pushing back units near the hit target and applying a short minor snare for 1.5s
- Grapple
* Hand goes 800 range
* Can only hit heroes, goes through creeps
* Now only grabs units on the way out, not the way back
* Moves both Gauntlet and the target to where you click, dealing 100/140/180/220 Magic damage to the target and stunning him for 1/1.2/1.4/1.6 seconds
- Cripple renamed to Enfeeble
* 30 Max charges
* 0.8/0.6/0.4/0.2 time between a charge is gained
* On attack, transfers all charges to the target, slowing 1% Move, Attack, and Cast speeds per charge for 5 seconds.
- Gauntlet Blast
* 75/65/55s Cooldown
* 600/700/800 Range
* 100/150/200 Manacost
* Shoots the glove out at the target unit. Any enemies within 200 units of the glove as it flies are stunned for 4 seconds. This stun is broken if they take any damage after 1 second of being stunned.
* When the glove strikes the target, they take 300/450/600 Magic damage and all buffs are purged
* The target hero is stunned and revealed for 1.5 seconds.

Legionnaire
- Int gain increased from 1.6 to 1.9
- Terrify
* Cast time removed (0.6 -> 0)
* Now grants vision of the target for the duration of the charge
* Now reveals target for the duration of the charge
* Now grants 40/80/120/MAX movespeed (used to be max at all levels)

Madman
- Base strength increased from 17 to 18
- Barrel Roll
* Stun removed
*Manacost lowered from 130 to 110
* Applies a 30/37/44/50% Movespeed and Attackspeed snare for 3.5s
* Damage increased from 100/150/200/250 to 100/160/220/280

Nymphora
- Nymphora’s Zeal now deals 25/50/75/100 Magic damage when hitting someone
* Can be hit on both the send and return trip
* No longer grants bonus AS / MS

Pebbles
- Can no longer throw invisible units

Plague Rider
- Extinguish is now a true deny (awards the stat)

Puppetmaster
- Puppeteer’s Hold
* Fixed a rare bug causing Puppet Strings’ floating handles to never disappear
* “Snare” effect while under the effect halved from 155 force to 80 force
* Negative Attackspeed removed
* Cast point sped up from 500ms to 300ms

Rampage
- All Magic damage changed to Physical
- Stampede Reworked
* 9001 Range
* Same mechanic, charges target unit
* Gains 15/20/25/30 Movespeed per second
* Gains Treewalking after 4 seconds
* Does not gain Magic Immunity and no reveal state is placed on enemies
* When Rampage gets within 450 units of his target, he pounces on them almost instantly
* Causes a Stun and Pushback upon impact instead of just a stun
* Movespeed boost retained for 3s after impact
- Might of the Herd Reworked
* No longer has a team aura
* 50 Manacost
* Gives self 4/6/8/10% Movespeed
* Gains 3/6/9/12% of movespeed in attack damage
* On use, stomps the ground every second for 1/2/3/4 seconds, applying Herded (-15 Movespeed) to all enemies in the radius for 5 seconds. This stacks.
- Horned Strike Reworked
* 10/9/8/7 second cooldown
* Still stuns and pushes back the target on attack. 100 Physical damage at all levels
* While in cooldown, one second is subtracted for every 1000 units traveled by Rampage
- Favor of Sol removed
- New Ultimate: The Chains that Bind
* Rampage can use chains he carries around to grab an enemy hero, stunning them and dragging them behind himself for a limited time
* 200 Range
* 175/200/225 Manacost
* 105/90/75 second cooldown
* Binds the target to Rampage for 3/3.5/4 seconds and the target will be dragged behind him as he moves
* Rampage is Disarmed while dragging someone and the dragged target will take 20/30/40% of the distance they are dragged in Physical damage
* If Rampage and the target he is dragging get separated by more than 500 units the chains are broken

Slither
- Toxin Wards will no longer apply their movement speed slow when they miss

Soul Reaper
- Demonic Execution will no longer be usable on couriers

Soulstealer
- Demon Hand now has a better indicator to its actual radius

Tempest
- Purge should now affect Tempest’s elementals after they split

Thunderbringer
- Third ability’s damage marked as splash (so it doesn’t break Succubus’ sleep, Gauntlet’s ult etc.)

Vindicator
- Glyph of Silence will properly silence heroes that go invulnerable during casts (Magmus, Madman, etc.)

Wildsoul
- Illusions will properly copy themselves when he is under the effects of Bear Form

War Beast
- Illusions will properly copy themselves when he is under the effects of Metamorphosis
- Hellhounds will no longer be able to attack towers unless War Beast is within 925 units of them

Zephyr
- Gust
* Stun Removed
* Damage increased from 75,125,175,250 to 75,150,225,300

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1.5, 1.6, hereos of newerth, hon, patch notes

With the announcement of this weekend, as with any major change, it’s brought with it it’s fair share of forum threads. Mostly filled with “we don’t wanna play with them!” Of course their reasons aren’t as crazy as you may think. For starters people are afraid of feeders, stat padding, MM match ups, and just overall griefers. A cry for allowing these free accounts to only play “No Stats” games has been heard. I highly doubt S2 will approve of it. After all, if you played during BETA and came back would you want to be stuck in “No Stats” games a long with all the other noobs? No, you want to see the improvements with matchmaking… that they kinda made. Point is how is S2 supposed to sell the game to these accounts if you guarantee them a horrible time in “No Stats” ? That’s the point of this free weekend. Current players that are complaining about it ruining their time, S2 doesn’t care. You paid for the game. They’re done with ya.

For those thinking that S2 were adding new heroes because the current community wanted ports, you’re wrong. They are adding ports to bring new players.

Well, this post turned into something unexpected didn’t it? It was supposed to be an announcement of the free weekend.. well shoot. Along with this free weekend, comes a new patch with another DotA hero port.

Quote from S2Lulu:
This Friday we will be introducing a patch that has some really strong updates. A quick preview of what you will see in the patch includes:

1. Report A Player functionality
2. New hero based on DotA’s Kunkka – The Gladiator
3. Complete Rampage rework
4. Gauntlet changes and undev
5. A new Item
6. Bunch of misc. balances and tweaks

To go along with this excellent patch, we will be inviting all existing beta accounts, (that have not purchased) to come back and play HoN for FREE over the weekend. Starting Friday at noon EST and ending Sunday 11:59pm EST anyone can login with their old beta account and enjoy HoN once again.

…and that’s all that they’ve released or said on the subject. If you’ve forgotten your BETA info go here: http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/cs.php#user_by_pass

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beta accounts, gladiator, Heroes of Newerth, kunka, new hero, new patch, play heroes of newerth for free, play hon for free, upcoming patch

I’m splitting each hero into their own post because when updating from his guide this will be.. A LOT easier on me, and you can enjoy a quicker update than normal.

Special thanks to Newti, the creator of this guide.

Skill Build
1 – Call of Winter
2 – Piercing Shards
3 – Call of Winter
4 – Piercing Shards
5 – Call of Winter
6 – Avalance
7 – Call of Winter
8 – Piercing Shards
9 – Piercing Shards
10 – Stats
11 – Avalance
12 – Coldblooded
13 – Coldblooded
14 – Coldblooded
15 – Coldblooded
16 – Avalance
17 – Stats+
23 – Grapple+

Justification / Modifications:
Call of Winter at level one to scout runes/rune ganks.
Maxing Call of Winter before Shards when laning is better since you will get strong harass (Coeurl) and good Scouting (Shiver) in one spell while Shards only offer damage. You don’t have the mana to support Shards and Call.
If you are jungling, max shards first, followed by Call of Winter.

Lane Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, Bolstering Armband

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> Puzzlebox >> Post Haste

You are starting with a Bolstering Armband for extra HP/dmg and for a faster Puzzlebox. Your aim is to get Puzzlebox as fast as you can.
Bottle is required since Tundra is very mana hungry and your skills are very powerful. It is also a good ganking tool.
Once you got Puzzlebox Level 3 you should get Post Haste. The Aura from the Box + Post Haste allow you to chase/gank very effectively. Also your role towards the later stages of the game will shift from Ganker more to Pusher. Post Haste are the best pushing item.

After Core:
Daemonic Breastplate >> Kuldra’s Sheepstick

Everything here can be considered Luxury. Breastplate and Sheepstick are both semi-support items that offer a lot to the team which is a criteria you should have in mind playing Tundra.

Alternative Items:

Portal Key: Not having to waste 1+ seconds of Avalance stun when running at your target to beat on it can make the difference. Can also serve as semi-initiation. Get it after your core if you want one.

30-Seconds-Guide:
- When casting Call of Winter group yourself with the dog (Coeurl) and put the bird (Shiver) in another control group. Use Shiver to scout and Coeurl (+yourself) to harass.
- Either use Shiver at a rune spot as a mobile Ward or actively move him around to spot for ganks. Make use of the Patrol command.
- You maybe wanna share control over your hero to your allies so they can help you maintain good map control with Shiver. It is near impossible to always keep moving Shiver while playing your hero.
- It is important to cast Piercing Shards at max distance since this will increase the speed at which the Shards travel. The shorter the distance you cast them, the slower they travel and the higher is the chance you will miss. So cast them ahead/behind of the enemy hero.
- Avalance is considered one of the best ultimates in the game at level 6. It is best used in ganking, so gank a lot in early/mid game.
- To gank: Cast Call of Winter -> Avalance -> Puzzlebox -> attack with all units -> Manaburn with Puzzlebox -> Cast Piercing Shards at max distance.
- Later into the game you should switch to pushing mode and try to get towers down with all your pets. You can even suicide them into a tower to get a fair bit of damage done. Don’t push every lane all the time tho, your carries also want some safe farming.
- Tundra can jungle (or at least its dota counterpart can). I will try to record a short video or something of him jungling.

Counters:
- Kill Shiver on sight to deny map control.
- If he uses Shards, move sidewards to only get hit by one Shard.
- Wards are the most important thing if you don’t want to get ganked into oblivion.
- Once he switches to Pushing Mode you should have people carrying TPs at all times.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 30 second hero guides, Hero Guides, Heroes of Newerth, hon, Newti, Tundra