Heroes of Newerth North American Cup

North American Cup presented by Alienware Arena

Tournament Date(s) : January 18, 2010 - January 30, 2010
Signup Starts : December 18, 2010 Signup Deadline : January 16, 2010 
Teams : 128
Prize : 1500$
Map : Forests of Caldavar
Game Modes : Banning Draft, All Heroes
Elimination : Single
Eligibility : Residents of USA and Canada that are 13 years of age or older.
Entry: Free
  
Description:

Are you a Champion of Newerth!? Join us for the Heroes of Newerth - North American Cup, an online tournament for the beta version of HoN featuring $1,500 in cash prizes sponsored by Alienware. Registration is free and open now for select residents of the United States and Canada.

[ Alienware Arena Tournament Site ]

[Hon Tournaments]


If you would like to participate and dont have a key, get one here:


[ Beta Key ]

Heroes of Newerth Art

Here is a neat pack of Heroes of Newerth pictures. Its mostly concept art from theirs media section and FSK, but there are some bonuses that are not included there.

Some examples of what to expect:

Witch Slayer

Pestilence

There are around 40 pictures inside and most of them are .jpg

Download link:

http://hotfile.com/dl/21859810/f785198/HonConceptArt.rar.html

Size is around 90 mb

Need a Hon Beta key ? - UPDATE 2

If you do, I have some good news for you. S2 Games announced today that they will open the beta registrations for 24 hours sometime this week. So if you need a key all you have to do is to become a fan of Heroes of Newerth on Facebook and check back when the registrations are open.

From Heroes of Newerth facebook :

24 hours of open beta registration coming this week. We will update all our fans with the special URL to get into the HoN beta. Keep your eyes peeled and you can be part of the HoN craze soon enough! :)


Official Heroes of Newerth  facebook page:


http://www.facebook.com/heroesofnewerth?ref=mf


The Hon Beta key announcement:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=207878878519&id=63037549101

UPDATE:

Registrations are now open

You can use this link to obtain your free Heroes of Newerth beta key.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/open_create_account.php

Note that the registrations are open for limited time.


UPDATE 2:

Open beta registrations are now closed. The link now redirects you to the gift hon page

Patch 0.1.62 - Official Changelog

0.1.62 Patch Notes

---

Version 0.1.62
--------------
Announcement

Due to increased precautions and security measures, when you log into the game and main website you will be prompted to change your password. We recommend you do this immediately. You will have until December 22nd 12:00 PM EST (5:00 PM GMT) to change it, after which you will be forced to enter a new password in order to play.

Your new password cannot be the same as your old password and it must be at least 6 characters long. If you have changed your password in the last 10 days this may not effect you.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

General
- Kongor now drops a Banana instead of Cheese!
- Players can now scroll through the chat buffer in game by holding the z button (Credit to Ice_Phoenix)
- Couriers will no longer run at enemies when attacked (they were too friendly)
- Fixed being able to give neutrals you take control of items out of your stash by accident
- Updated Kongor's area with a more winter theme
- Runes now have spawn/death effects
- Double Damage now plays an extra noise when you attack and have it active
- A few trees are now snow covered
- Fixed a bug that was showing the "leave without penalty" message any time after Bloodlust

- Ensure ui is correctly sized if a mode change happens while the interfaces are being reloaded in the mac and linux clients
- Hooked in functionality for the lobby/hero select interface that allows users to hold shift and hit enter to send a message to the chat mode opposite of what they currently have selected. (Credit to Tisser, Thread 52664)
- Added new AFK and DND functionality (Credit to Norroar, Thread 52727)
* /available -Sets your chat status to available
* /afk - Toggles chat status to AFK, automatically replies to whispers with the message specified.
* /dnd - Toggles your status to DND, automatically replies to whispers with the message specified and stops incoming whispers from being sent to you.
* This requires a chat server restart, might not work right away

- Many new neutrals have shown up on Newerth, including:
* Vagabond Leader, who can cast a wave nuke and has a health regen aura
* Vagabond, who has a targeted manaburn
* Vagabond Assassin, who has a targeted Cleanse/Shock
* Sporespitter, who has a slow on attack
* Earthoc
* Antlore Healer, who has a single target small heal
* Antling

Items

- Added Major Totem to outpost
- Fixed Void Talisman and Frostfield Plate so you can use them while channeling to not interrupt
- Fenrir's Fang removed
- Hack and Slash rework

- Hack (Renamed to Icebrand)
* Old:
Armband (450)
Mighty Blade (1000)
Recipe (800)
Total Cost: 2250

16 Strength
10 Damage
15% chance for -20% Movespeed for 4 seconds (proc)

* New:
Major Totem (540)
Mighty Blade (1000)
Recipe (960)
Total Cost: 2500

16 Strength
4 Agility
4 Intelligence
10 Damage
-15% Movespeed slow on attack

- Slash (Renamed to Firebrand)
* Old:
Fleetfeet (450)
Quickblade (1000)
Recipe (800)
Total Cost: 2250

16 Agility
15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed

* New:
Major Totem (540)
Quickblade (1000)
Recipe (960)
Total Cost: 2500

4 Strength
16 Agility
4 Intelligence
15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed

- Hack & Slash (Renamed to Frostburn)
* Old:
Slash (2250)
Hack (2250)
Total Cost: 4500

16 Strength
16 Agility
12 Damage
+12% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
15% chance for -30% Movement Speed and -15 Attack Speed for 4 seconds

* New:
Firebrand (2500)
Icebrand (2500)
Total Cost: 5000

20 Strength
20 Agility
10 Intelligence
10 Damage
+15% Movement Speed
30 Attack Speed
-20% Movespeed slow on attack

- Geometer's Bane
* Old:
Slash (2250)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (500)
Total Cost: 4850

10 Strength
30 Agility
10 Intelligence
+10% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
Split/Illusion on-use

* New:
Firebrand (2500)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (600)
Total Cost: 5200

15 Strength
30 Agility
15 Intelligence
+10% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
Split/Illusion on-use

- Frostwolf Skull
* Old:
Fenrir's Fang (3480)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (570)
Total Cost: 6150

25 Strength
25 Agility
25 Intelligence
200 Health
150 Mana
-30% Movespeed slow on attack
-20 Attackspeed slow on attack

* New:
Icebrand (2500)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Glowstone (1200)
Recipe (300)
Total Cost: 6100

10 Damage
25 Strength
25 Agility
25 Intelligence
200 Health
150 Mana
-30% Movespeed slow on attack
-20 Attackspeed slow on attack


Heroes

The following heroes now have voices:
- Jeraziah, Puppetmaster, Pyromancer, Rampage, Soul Reaper

Arachna
- Spiderling now grants 60-70 gold when killed.

Dark Lady
- Reskinned and model updated.

Deadwood
- Got a proper background story (Grumble... Mahogany)
- Rotten Grasp now triggers after 1.5 seconds (down from 2.5. Was bugged and doing an extra .5 seconds)
- Rotten Grasp now reduces the armor of anyone caught in it by 2,3,4,5
- Uproot no longer has a cast time, letting you grab and run
- Clearcutting now lasts for 12,14,16,18 seconds
- Willowmaker's strength reduction state (everyone hit with the strength reduction) now slows moment speed by 80% for the first second and 35% for the rest of the duration

Defiler
- Semi-Reverted her third ability to 2.5/5/7.5/10% Movespeed (Stringtables will not show this, but it works).
- Ghosts won't kill runes or chests anymore.

Demented Shaman
- Storm Cloud is now correctly typed as Magic (was a typo, nothing changed).

Engineer
- Cast time on Keg reduced to 0 seconds (from 0.4 seconds). Overall delay is 1 second.

Forsaken Archer
- Crippling Volley now has a 225 radius at all levels (from 150/200/250/300)
- Crippling Volley now has a 1 second delay (including cast time), reduced from 1.295 seconds
- Skeletal Minions no longer burn mana with their attacks
- Number of maximum COLOR=#00ffff]Skeletal Minions[/COLOR] changed to 3/4/5/6 from 2/4/6/8
- Immobilize time on Crippling Volley changed to 1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds (from 2.5 at all levels)

Kraken
- Whirlpool will no longer drag gadget pets such as Engineer's Turret or Arachna's Spider with it

Legionnaire
- Fixed the tooltip for Whirling Blade

Pebbles
- Fixed his effects that were playing through fog
- Fixed up his Ult's tooltip to clarify the damage the thrown unit takes

Pharoah
- Ult will no longer hit PseudoPets (Skeletons from Forsaken Archer) when he has SotM

Plague Rider
- Plague Carrier can no longer target couriers
- Fixed his story

Puppet Master
- Base strength lowered to 19 (from 20)
- Strength gain lowered to 1.9 (from 2.1)
- Puppet Show will now correctly interrupt abilities that are mid-cast
- Damage dealt via Voodoo Puppet will no longer pass through Magic Immunity

Scout
- Cast Range on Electric Eyes reduced by 50
* This fixes an issue allowing the scout to put eyes in spots just out of their detection range

Soul Reaper
- Fixed his level 3 ultimate multiplying by .9 (was using .8)

Soulstealer
- Soul Burst impact time reverted to 1 second (with a 1.5 second total cast time)

Tempest
- Clarified the tooltip for Elementals to say they do not lose charges for attacking buildings

Valkyrie
- Call of the Valkyrie radius increased to 650 from 600
* This allows the skill to hit targets with it when she attacks from her maximum range

Voodoo Jester
- Mojo mana cost reduced to 105/115/125/145 from 110/135/160/185

Witch Slayer
- Got a proper background story 

Older Heroes of Newerth patch changelogs:


 http://hongamer.blogspot.com/search/label/Patches

Patch 0.1.62 - Preview

Patch will be live soon, until its live you can see the unofficial but probably soon official changelog here.

Changelog:

New Dark Lady model - Image below

kongor's banana - Instead of cheese, Kongor drops bananas now

 New neutral creeps - More neutrals form Dota

rune death / spawn animations - Not much more to say, a animation when you destroy a rune and when the rune spawns.

Heroes

Defiler
- Semi-Reverted her third ability to 2.5/5/7.5/10% Movespeed (Stringtables will not show this, but it works)

Forsaken Archer
- Crippling Volley now has a 225 radius at all levels (from 150/200/250/300)
- Crippling Volley now has a 1 second delay (including cast time), reduced from 1.295 seconds
- Skeletal Minions no longer burn mana with their attacks
- Number of maximum skeletal minions changed to 3/4/5/6 from 2/4/6/8
- Immobilize time on Crippling Volley changed to 1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds (from 2.5 at all levels)

Puppet Master
- Base strength lowered to 19 (from 20)
- Strength gain lowered to 1.9 (from 2.1)
- Damage dealt via Voodoo Puppet will no longer pass through Magic Immunity

Voodoo Jester
- Mojo mana cost reduced to 105/115/125/145 from 110/135/160/185
Items

- Fixed Void Talisman and Frostfield plate so you can use them while channeling to not interrupt
- Fenrir's fang removed
- Hack and Slash rework

- Hack (Renamed to Icebrand)
* Old:
Armband (450)
Mighty Blade (1000)
Recipe (800)
Total Cost: 2250

16 Strength
10 Damage
15% chance for -20% Movespeed for 4 seconds (proc)

* New:
Major Totem (540)
Mighty Blade (1000)
Recipe (960)
Total Cost: 2500

16 Strength
4 Agility
4 Intelligence
10 Damage
-15% Movespeed slow on attack

- Slash (Renamed to Firebrand)
* Old:
Fleetfeet (450)
Quickblade (1000)
Recipe (800)
Total Cost: 2250

16 Agility
15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed

* New:
Major Totem (540)
Quickblade (1000)
Recipe (960)
Total Cost: 2500

4 Strength
16 Agility
4 Intelligence
15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed

- Hack & Slash (Renamed to Frostburn)
* Old:
Slash (2250)
Hack (2250)
Total Cost: 4500

16 Strength
16 Agility
12 Damage
+12% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
15% chance for -30% Movement Speed and -15 Attack Speed for 4 seconds

* New:
Firebrand (2500)
Icebrand (2500)
Total Cost: 5000

20 Strength
20 Agility
10 Intelligence
15 Damage
+15% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
-20% Movespeed slow on attack

- Geometer's Bane
* Old:
Slash (2250)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (500)
Total Cost: 4850

10 Strength
30 Agility
10 Intelligence
+10% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
Split/Illusion on-use

* New:
Firebrand (2500)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (600)
Total Cost: 5200

15 Strength
30 Agility
15 Intelligence
+10% Movement Speed
15 Attack Speed
Split/Illusion on-use

- Frostwolf Skull
* Old:
Fenrir's Fang (3480)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Recipe (570)
Total Cost: 6150

25 Strength
25 Agility
25 Intelligence
200 Health
150 Mana
-30% Movespeed slow on attack
-20 Attackspeed slow on attack

* New:
Icebrand (2500)
Blessed Orb (2100)
Glowstone (1200)
Recipe (300)
Total Cost: 6100

10 Damage
25 Strength
25 Agility
25 Intelligence
200 Health
150 Mana
-30% Movespeed slow on attack
-20 Attackspeed slow on attack

Hon Stats - Hon community stat tracking

Here is an site that allows you to see weekly stats for every hero in Heroes of Newerth. For example the most played hero this week is Forsaken Archer with 226,748 matches played, second most is Witch Slayer with 171,330 and the third is Scout with Scout 168,773 matches played. Least played hero is Ophelia with 28,047 matches.
The yellow stats are the biggest values, and green stats are the lowest values.



Stats that are tracked are listed here:
Name
Matches Played
Number Wins
Number Losses
% Win
% Lose
Avg Kill Death Ratio
Avg Assist Death Ratio
Avg Kills
Avg Deaths
Avg Assists
Avg Gold/Min
Avg Exp/Min
Avg Creep Kills
Avg Creep Denies
Avg Mins/Match
Play Hours

Additionaly you can compare stats for multiple heroes. Here is an example graph showing Matches played. From the graph you can see that scout was in most matches on 29.10, and Ophelia is the most underplayed hero in Hon

 Here is the link:

http://honstats.heroku.com/?sort_by=matches_played&sort_dir=DESC

Heroes of Newerth stats checking tools

Here is a Hon stats checking tool. Best thing about this is that you can see some stats that cant be seen ingame and those are EM% that shows how many games you play are EM. And a Rage meter that shows how much time have you spent dead.


Here is how it looks like:

,--- stats for idejder --------------------------------------.
|   Skill: 1816 PSR, 85 APM, 73% Wins                        |
|   Games: 88 (0% EM, avg. length: 40m11s)                   |
|  Scores: 471 kills, 458 deaths, 960 assists (3.12 K+A:D)   |
|    Farm: 3155 gold from 87 creeps (14 denies)              |
|    Rage: 8h18m24s (14% of total game-time benched)         |
`------------------------------------------------------------'

This are idejder-s stats in the moment of writing. Ill use him as an example. As you all can see its convenient for copying and forum use. As a bonus you don't need to download any software to use it.

Here is how you do it:

1. Go to this link: http://gaww.net/hon_stats.php?username=idejder

2. Replace the text on the inside of the red square with a name.

3. Press enter and you will see stats for the player whose name was entered.

Its that simple

 And additionaly a hero use statistics tool. I will again use idejder-s stats for an example. Hero statistics tool shows you: Match ID, Hero, Score (kills-deaths-assists), XP/m, creep kills and denies, result, and how much PSR was won or lost.

It looks like this:

Hero statistics for Idejder:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
MatchID   | Hero             | Score   | XP/m | Creeps | Result | Offset
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
#16007588 | Succubus         | 6-4-19  | 470  | 108/30 | Win    | +4 PSR
#15999457 | Demented Shaman  | 5-6-15  | 273  | 100/25 | Lose   | -8 PSR
#15826510 | Wretched Hag     | 10-5-10 | 418  | 106/19 | Win    | +4 PSR
#14719740 | Succubus         | 4-0-3   | 364  | 51/11  | Win    | +2 PSR
#14716370 | Hero_WitchSlayer | 2-3-8   | 312  | 51/14  | Win    | +4 PSR
#14560458 | Behemoth         | 6-0-5   | 325  | 55/8   | Win    | +3 PSR
#14555429 | Wretched Hag     | 3-4-12  | 421  | 82/15  | Win    | +3 PSR
#14414714 | Voodoo Jester    | 10-3-10 | 410  | 66/18  | Win    | +7 PSR
#13877686 | Hellbringer      | 6-6-12  | 396  | 51/13  | Win    | +4 PSR
#13872361 | Tempest          | 1-3-7   | 334  | 122/4  | Win    | +3 PSR
#13846307 | Demented Shaman  | 5-5-12  | 409  | 88/12  | Win    | +3 PSR
#13834722 | Pyromancer       | 1-8-15  | 298  | 74/5   | Win    | +3 PSR
#13826671 | Succubus         | 7-8-7   | 337  | 60/10  | Win    | +4 PSR
#13820979 | Tempest          | 4-10-21 | 417  | 153/4  | Win    | +4 PSR
#13683456 | Behemoth         | 1-0-5   | 297  | 57/14  | Win    | +5 PSR
#13676603 | Voodoo Jester    | 4-7-1   | 184  | 58/19  | Lose   | -5 PSR
#13667092 | Voodoo Jester    | 7-5-8   | 332  | 80/17  | Win    | +4 PSR
#13650427 | Pyromancer       | 12-2-13 | 410  | 57/12  | Win    | +1 PSR
#13638518 | Behemoth         | 4-9-6   | 345  | 78/8   | Lose   | -3 PSR
#13515368 | Hero_WitchSlayer | 8-4-19  | 468  | 76/6   | Win    | +1 PSR
#13510998 | Soul Reaper      | 6-3-9   | 422  | 52/10  | Win    | +1 PSR
#13504461 | Accursed         | 7-2-6   | 357  | 46/9   | Win    | +1 PSR
#13491697 | Succubus         | 1-2-3   | 304  | 117/29 | Lose   | 0 PSR 
#13474000 | Andromeda        | 4-7-7   | 219  | 54/16  | Lose   | -6 PSR
#13311060 | Arachna          | 3-0-0   | 513  | 87/24  | Win    | +6 PSR
#13297300 | Soul Reaper      | 7-8-14  | 476  | 176/20 | Win    | +2 PSR
#13293233 | Tempest          | 1-5-2   | 267  | 68/0   | Lose   | -6 PSR
#13286235 | Wretched Hag     | 8-6-7   | 351  | 113/13 | Lose   | -6 PSR
#13273189 | Torturer         | 5-11-9  | 359  | 88/8   | Lose   | -2 PSR
#13267176 | Behemoth         | 3-9-4   | 241  | 54/10  | Lose   | -6 PSR
#13144759 | Voodoo Jester    | 6-4-10  | 365  | 73/16  | Win    | +5 PSR
#13138507 | Andromeda        | 5-12-12 | 331  | 92/8   | Lose   | -6 PSR
#13012694 | Behemoth         | 2-9-5   | 259  | 110/11 | Lose   | -9 PSR
#13008166 | Pyromancer       | 9-6-10  | 381  | 87/7   | Win    | +5 PSR
#12877400 | Accursed         | 0-0-6   | 325  | 41/11  | Win    | +4 PSR
#12864577 | Hammerstorm      | 2-8-8   | 314  | 190/43 | Lose   | -5 PSR
#12723318 | Pyromancer       | 6-6-11  | 332  | 94/22  | Win    | +4 PSR
#12718789 | Andromeda        | 2-10-13 | 305  | 43/16  | Win    | +4 PSR
#12582522 | Accursed         | 2-2-13  | 445  | 74/17  | Win    | +3 PSR
#12560913 | Andromeda        | 6-7-19  | 410  | 60/12  | Win    | +3 PSR

 NOTE:  Font size was reduced to better fit the layout

Here is how you get this stats:

1. Go to this link:  http://gaww.net/hon.php?hero_dossier=idejder

2. Again you replace the text inside the red square and press enter.

That is it,
Have fun.

Puppet Master Introduction & Video Guide by Nigma

Here is a really good guide for both, pro and newbie players of Puppet Master. Puppet Master is a Heroes of  Newerth original hero, so for some of  the Dota to Hon newcomers this might be very interesting. This video is made by Nigma. I really like his style, watch the video below. Enjoy

Blood hunter - Guide by Rokman

Blood Hunter
Although the Hunters were members of the Beast Horde in its war against the humans,
they always preferred the darkness to the light, and were won over to the Hellbourne
with the promise of human blood. They are led by the traitor Blood Hunter, a swift and
deadly warrior who feeds on the blood of his enemies and heals with horrifying speed.

Table of Contents
1 Introduction

1.1 Story
1.2 Role
1.3 Stats
1.4 Pros
1.5 Cons

2 Skills

2.1 List
2.2 Usage
2.3 Skill Build

3 Items

3.1 Starting Items
3.2 Early game
3.3 Mid game
3.4 Late Game

4 Gameplay

4.1 Laning
4.2 Pushing
4.3 Ganking
4.4 Good Partners
4.5 Enemies to Avoid

5 Replays

(Coming Soon)

1 Introduction

1.1 Story
Blood Hunter was originally a character within Savage lore, developed by S2. In Savage 2, Blood Hunter was simply called Hunter and was a melee character aligned to the Beast Horde. Here is an in depth video explanation of the Hunter's skills from Savage 2. As you can see, his abilities from Savage 2 are interestingly similar to what he has now! Savage 2's Frenzy has a similar effect on Blood Hunter when you use Blood Crazy on your self, increased damage. Also, Frenzy's life stealing is the same as the HoN version's Feast and Glide Strike with Eyes of the Bat come together for Blood Sense. Sadly, Hibernate, Venomous, and Wingspin did not make it into HoN. Instead, Blood Hunter got a silence and an amazing bleed. In another game, Defense of the Ancients or DotA, there was a character named Strygwyr, The Bloodseeker, Strygwyr, is what Blood Hunter was based off of for Heroes of Newerth. All of Strgwyr's abilities came together in perfect harmony with the Savage 2 version of Blood Hunter.



1.2 Role
In HoN, Blood Hunter's role is a lot of things. Blood Hunter is a great finisher, chaser, ganker, and disabler. As a finisher, Blood Hunter can come into a team fight and swiftly kill an enemy that's already low on hp. This easily transcends into chasing. If an enemy that is low tries to flee from the fight, Blood Hunter is the prime choice to chase them down and finish them off. Thanks to Blood Sense, Blood Hunter should be moving quite quickly with the enemy's life bar in his site. Finally, Blood Hunter is a very good Ganker and Disabler thanks to his "permanent" Silence and his amazing ability to stop an enemy dead in their tracks with Hemorrhage.



1.3 Stats
Damage - 53-59
Armor - 3.36
Move speed - 305
Attack type - Melee (125)
Attack rate - 0.59

Strength - 23 (+2.0)
Agility - 24 (+2.6)
Intelligence - 18 (+1.7)

The only Agility character that has higher average damage than Blood Hunter is Chronos, with 58-64. Also, Blood Hunter has great strength overall, arguably the best of all the agility characters. As you can see, Blood Hunter has a lot going for him, he's one of the best characters at level 1 stat wise, if not the best. While not one of the fastest, he has the best speed gaining ability, Blood Sense. Other speed gaining abilities that even come close to Blood Hunter's are Scout's Vanish and Pestilence's Flight. Blood Hunter's high strength may go unnoticed, but combined with Feast, Blood Hunter's health pool is very self sufficient and long lasting.



1.4 Pros
Blood Hunter is versatile because he can do so many things all at once, as mentioned in the Roles section. Blood Hunter also transcends through each Role easily by how aggressive the player is and how aggressive they are at the right time. Blood Hunter is also incredibly fast because of Blood Sense, if you are near an enemy low on health, you can be nearly speed capped at all times. Blood Hunter is the only character that can stay in a lane forever and is very durable. Because of Feast, Blood Hunter is able to score huge health gains on each killing blow from creeps, even denies. You should rarely have to run back to the pool because you are low on health! In the right hands, Blood Hunter is very dangerous and is a better ganker than any other hero, hands down. Combining his speed, his silence, his staying power, and his ability to see you in the fog, Blood Hunter is a menace to the other team.



1.5 Cons
Blood Hunter's spells require attention to detail and if used improperly can backfire. Looking at Blood Crazy, you need to know when to use it on yourself, your ally, or your enemy. And if you chose the wrong one in a fight, you're potentially dooming yourself or your teammate to an inevitable death. The same thing applies to timing Blood Hunter's abilities. If you apply Hemorrhage too hastily, you could get nothing out of it because the enemy won't even notice your presence and begin running. If you time it too late, you could waste it. And finally, the biggest con that applies to Blood Hunter is team synergy. Blood Hunter's Hemorrhage requires the enemy to scale a lot of ground to do damage. If your team has a slow, the potential damage is reduced. If your team has a stun, the potential damage is reduced. And if your team has a portal/knockback effect, the potential damage is reduced. Blood Hunter thrives on enemies running and if they can't, he won't shine.

2 Skills

2.1 List
Blood Crazy
The Blood Hunter instills a craze for blood in a target unit, causing it to have increased
base damage. While in this state, the target unit will take some damage over time and
be unable to cast any spells.

Applies Blood Crazy to target for 6/9/12/15 seconds. Increases base damage by
20/40/60/80% but silences and deals 20/15/10/5 magic damage per second, until the
end of the duration.

Mana Cost 80
Cooldown 10 seconds
Range 600

Feast
The Blood Hunter feasts on the flesh of every kill he makes, healing him based on the
victim's maximum Health.

Heals for 10/20/30/40% of a Hero's maximum Health, or 10/15/20/25% for non-Hero
victims. Killing gadgets (wards etc.) will not heal Blood Hunter.

Mana Passive
Cooldown Passive

Blood Sense
When a nearby enemy is below 40% Health, the Blood Hunter can smell it. Grants
vision of the enemy unit and increases the Blood Hunter's movement speed.

Can smell the enemies blood from 1500/3000/4500/6000 range. Increases movement
speed by 11/22/33/44% and applies a red circle underneath the enemy.

Mana Passive
Cooldown Passive

Hemorrhage
The Blood Hunter shoots out a sharp spike from his body at an enemy's major artery,
dealing initial damage followed by additional damage whenever they move.

Deals 150/250/350 Magic damage to target and applies Hemorrhage for 5/7/9 seconds.
True damage taken based on 20/40/60% of distance moved.

Mana 150/200/250
Cooldown 70 seconds
Range 1000



This is an example of the distance you can see your enemy with Blood Sense at each Rank. As you can see, at rank 4, the distance is very far and you can almost see the entire map if you stand right in the middle of the river. Don't under ever underestimate the value of information you receive from Blood Sense. For instance, if an enemy were to be at 10%, they would probably try to juke through the jungle or something. Every now and then, you will find an enemy who tries to be extra sneaky and stand still in a little path between trees or even the inside of Kongor's Liar. When this happens, the only way to find them is with Blood Sense. And at Rank 4, you should have no problem seeing where enemies are.



2.2 Usage
Blood Crazy is a very flexible move and can be offensive or defensive based on your use of the skill. Against a spell caster, like Pyromancer, Glacius, or Thunderbringer, it is always a good idea to silence them and limit their options immensely. Against tanks, that don't rely on activated abilities to kill you, putting Blood Crazy on them can very likely play against you. Here is a very basic rule you can use when you first start playing Blood Hunter, if the target is INT, use Blood crazy on them. If the target is Strength, use Blood Crazy on yourself. For Agility heroes, it really is a toss up. If the Agility Hero has an ability that damages random targets around them, like Swiftblade's Blade Frenzy or Moon Queen's Moon Finale, it depends on how many creeps are around. If you run into these heroes in the forest and there isn't a single creep around, by all means silence them right away. If you are in a lane with a ton of creeps nearby, it is unlikely they will use their ult, so put Blood Crazy on yourself. Blood Crazy is also a very good move to put on yourself when you are fighting neutral creeps because it increases your damage output by so much. Something I usually do when playing Blood Hunter, is to toggle on Blood Crazy when I'm inside the jungle so that my cursor turns into the target icon, and I pay close attention to the edge of my fog. Whenever an enemy runs into it, it's usually a race to see who's the fastest. Can Magmus stun me before I silence, can Scout Vanish before I silence, can Slither use his ult before I silence? All of these are prime examples of what I'm explaining, and toggling Blood Crazy is a good skill to pick up. Also, an important thing to remember is that Blood Crazy does not silence item effects.

Feast is essentially the very best lifesteal in the game. When you are laning, Feast offers you such a valuable effect that makes running back to the pool useless. If you get low on hp because of a skirmish in your lane, all you have to do is run into the jungle, snag some neutrals, kill them, and now you're full hp! Feast makes last hitting that much more important. I always notice that my creep kills/denies are so much higher on Blood Hunter because almost the entire game I'm paying very close attention to creep hp. Feast is also great because if you can imagine a one on one melee fight with Swiftblade at level 5, who do you think will run away first? It's like a game of chicken, who is going to not move and keep auto attacking the longest, you know what I'm talking about. So basically, when both of you get down to around 5% hp, you have nothing to fear because as soon as he dies, you get a huge gain to your hp. If he stays, he has to worry about what will happen after he kills you (he won't kill you) because there's a wave of creeps coming up right behind you! This is why Feast is such a great move, lasting power not to mention it makes you almost immune to harassing! Feast is also a very potent ability when you need to farm. Especially since you will save a ton of time not running to the pool, you already have a significant advantage over the enemy and possibly an overbearing lead in experience per minute. Finally, Blood Hunter also gains hp when he kills an illusion. And your illusions also gain hp if they happen to steal your kills! Don't forget that Ballistas and Catapults also give you health even though technically, they don't have blood.

Blood Sense is the all time greatest speed move. Not only does it make you move incredibly fast, it allows you to see enemies, even when they are invisible and/or in the Fog of war. It's almost like a miniature map hack! The first major use for Blood Sense, is the ability to see anyone invisible if they are under 40% hp. This is very helpful when chasing a Madman because he has a short stealth or a hero that has used Tablet of Invisibility. Because of the giant red circle, it makes it impossible to be juked by enemies, which is another great bonus. Don't forget, this passive will active even if you are stunned or silenced, or both!

Hemorrhage is the hardest move to use properly. The biggest mistake I see when others play as Blood Hunter, is they rely too much on the opponent to be a complete moron. As a new player, don't use this as a damage move, pretend it's an immobilization. If you can pretend Hemorrhage's ability just freezes your opponent in place, you can use it so much more effectively. Good players, depending on the situation, usually will hit H, hold, to stop moving when Hemorrhage hits them. 'H' for Hemorrhage! So, what you are essentially doing is freezing them in place. Now, the damage dealing, that's just a bonus, the real effect here, is stopping the enemy. If they are immobilized, that means you and your team mates can surround them for a kill or it let's you catch up to the enemy! Also, this move works great against a team of fasting moving characters, like Pestilence and Scout. If you see them whizzing by on your screen, toss a Hemorrhage on them and laugh at how quickly they die. The faster the enemy, the more ground they cover, the more damage Hemorrhage deals. Also, when you encounter an enemy at full hp, don't use this move right away, wait until they are already low on hp and they try to retreat. You put them in a very difficult situation. Do I run and bleed to death or do I stay and get bat winged to death?

2.3 Skill Build
1 Blood Crazy
2 Feast
3 Blood Sense
4 Feast
5 Blood Sense
6 Hemorrhage

7 Feast
8 Blood Sense
9 Feast
10 Blood Sense
11 Hemorrhage

12 Blood Crazy
13 Blood Crazy
14 Blood Crazy
15 Attributes
16 Hemorrhage
17-25 Attributes

This is a staple build for Blood Hunter in which you get one Blood Crazy early and then max out both Feast and Blood Sense. The reason this build is so popular is because the one Blood Crazy allows you to harass the enemies in your lane. Especially if they are 2 ranged characters because you can't do anything to a ranged hero unless you have Blood Crazy. Blood Sense being maxed out is also very important because that allows you to see an enemy's movement without them knowing you do. So, if by mid game there is a team fight and an enemy gets out, you need Blood Sense to be able to chase them down without getting juked, so maxing that out is essential. Feast is also really great early game because, as already mentioned, it saves valuable time because you shouldn't need to run back to pool for health.

3 Items
3.1 Starting Items

2 Runes of Blight, 1 Pretender's Crown, and 1 Logger's Hatchet (590 Gold)

This is a solid choice for starting item build. Pretender's Crown offer valuable stats and can later be upgraded to Fortified Braclets or Soulcream Rings. The Runes of Blight are of course your survivability outside of Feast. There will come a time when You have a tiny sliver of health and it's too dangerous to try to squeeze in for a last hit without endangering yourself. That's when you can use Runes of Blight. Also, you could toss one of your 6 over to your lane partner if they get in some trouble. It's always a good idea have Runes if you face a team with Keeper of the Forest, also. You can use Runes offensively to remove the enemy's Tree Sight wards usually placed near Tablet spawns. Logger's Hatchet is a very solid early game item that offers you even more survivability for killing creeps faster. Killing creeps faster increases killing blows for Feast and allows you to push your enemies back in the lane even better.



3.2 Early Game

2 Fortified Bracelet and Sword of the High (4820)

Fortified Bracelet is a very good item on Blood Hunter. This item offers a lot of things including increased health, increased damage, and gives you more staying power in a lane! You shouldn't have a problem farming up hoards of gold thanks to Blood Crazy used on yourself and Feast. You can even start pulling groups of Neutrals very early on in the match. You should also have a steady income from ganking enemies as well. Blood Hunter is the best ganker there is and if you aren't racking up kills early on, you're doing something wrong! There shouldn't be any items you absolutely need as Blood Hunter. Surprisingly, Blood Hunter is very self supportive and can work off his own abilities instead of being very item reliant. Lifesteal, cleave items, and boots early game are all huge wastes because you don't need any of that as Blood Hunter. The only thing you should worry about is getting a Sword of the High so that it can become a Mock later. Also, don't ever run to shop at the exact moment you have enough gold! Always try to make it convenient for your life and mana bar as well. Having enough gold is always the first step, but having an excuse beside just shopping is the second.



3.3 Mid Game

Recipe for Mock of Brilliance and Post Haste (4050)

Mock of Brilliance is an amazing item for Blood Hunter because it offers a lot of things for you. Mock of Brilliance adds +60 damage and deals 40 damage to enemies within 650 radius. The extra damage will make farming such a breeze and the area of effect damage the item brings also could help for wiping out creep waves. Don't forget, if your Mock of Brilliance gets the killing blow on a unit, you get health from Feast! One last thing Mock of Brilliance adds to your arsenal is, it can bring so much more to the table for Blood Hunter's damage beside melee swings. Using Mock of Brilliance essentially can make Blood Hunter a ranged character. You'll have Blood Crazy, Hemorrhage and Mock of Brilliance as ranged damage, all of that plus you can batwing enemies to death! Sometimes, when you have Blood Sense and are standing near an invisible enemy, you can chase them around while Mock of Brilliance slowly, but surely, kills them. Finally, I don't know how many times the enemy escapes me with 41% hp. If only I had Mock of Brilliance sooner, I could of damaged them to be low enough for Blood Sense to activate! Another good item, Post Haste, is great for a few reasons. Firstly, if you have Post Haste and get Blood Sense, you are speed capped at 522. Secondly, it's a free port on a 60 second cooldown. This brings a lot to map control and team coordination. While Blood Hunter is fast, he isn't fast enough and you might miss a team battle. But with Post Hoste, chances of missing one are much more slim!



3.4 Late Game

Shrunken Head (3900) or Wingbow (6000) or Savage Mace (5400) or Rift Shards (5500)

Basically, after you get Mock of Brilliance and Post Haste, there really isn't anything else you absolutely need. Shrunken Head is always a very solid choice almost as any character. If you're facing a team with a lot of disable, pick up Shrunken Head, and you might even opt to getting it before Mock of Brilliance. Wingbow is a good choice if you feel like really laying attack speed on thick. The dodge is a nice touch, but not really needed. Savage Mace is a good choice if you see a lot of enemies porting out in team battles. If you weren't aware, Savage Mace has a mini-stun on it at 35% each swing and if you stun an enemy, it breaks their Homecoming stone port. And finally Rift Shards are an alright choice if the enemy's team is very melee heavy and you feel like you can take advantage of an enemy player in a 1v1 melee fight. To be honest, all of this is preference, only thing I'd say isn't is Shrunken Head. Always get this late game, unless you really feel confident in yourself to dodge stuns. Otherwise, pick Wingbow, Savage Mace, or Rift Shards.



4 Gameplay
4.1 Laning
Usually, as Blood Hunter you should try to get a good partner for your lane. Never solo unless it's a pub stomp game mostly because you being melee is easily exploitable by the enemy and usually, the first 6 levels of a match, Blood Hunter needs a bit of assistance getting off the ground. When choosing your lane, always pick the one closest to the Secret Shop. So, if you're on Legion, go top lane and if you're on Hellbourne, go bottom lane. Once there, your entire focus needs to be on last hitting. Last hit the enemy creeps for gold, the sooner you get Mock of Brilliance, the sooner you start racking kills, and deny your creeps whenever you are low on health. Very rarely should you leave your lane for any reason. Only leave once you have a plethora of on hand gold and you are desperate for mana and health. Don't ever leave to check for a tablet, that should be someone else's job to put a ward there or the person soloing mid should be checking them frequently. During creep wave attacks, always keep an eye on the outer rim of the Fog of War if it's early game, so you can run back in the case of an incoming gank. Otherwise, you should be able to stand your ground with your lane partner. If you get to a point where you are really fearful of an incoming attack, pick up some wards of sight and put them in your jungle so you can see if the enemy is coming over. Also, don't ever chase an enemy out of your lane or into enemy territory if you are susceptible to getting killed also. Don't ever trade kills early game, it's just not worth it.

If you are in a pub stomping game and are adamant about soloing mid as Blood Hunter, I would recommend prioritizing Feast over Blood Sense for early leveling advantages. If you can keep up with creep kills/denies you will be very well off compared to your enemy in the middle lane, regardless if they are ranged. Some item options in this situation would be Logger's Hatchet. With an increase in number of creep waves, increasing damage against creeps to score higher percent of kills and denies is crucial for you to be able to compete in the middle lane. Also, consider a third Fortified Bracelet for increased Strength, you will probably need it. When soloing mid, I recommend not getting Bottle, like many heroes do. You shouldn't need the mana and especially do not need health from it. Save your money for bigger and better things. Lastly, if you ever run up to a tower, Blood Crazy yourself.



4.2 Pushing
When taking out a tower or a barracks, it is always a great idea to use Blood Crazy on yourself. The increase in damage is essential in maximizing potential tower kills. Another thing you could try is to run ahead of your creep wave while they're engaged in a creep vs creep fight and solo a creep wave in front of a tower. This can accomplish a few things, it saves your creeps from taking damage, thus potentially soaking up a few more hits from a tower, it also allows more time for your team's second creep wave to catch up to the first so you could have two creep waves on a tower. That's easily a tower kill, right there. When enemies show up and you are solo, always run away first so you can get an idea of what you're facing. Even call for help if necessary, just ping the map a few times. One thing I've done is when engaging a tower, run up past the tower and if you see an enemy, Hemorrhage him right away. If you do this, turn back around and keep hitting the tower, the enemy should be out of range to hit you. If they are dumb and keep chasing you, then it's a free kill and you can still take out the tower. Also, if you have a high attack speed character on your team when you go up on a tower together, toss a Blood Crazy on them so they can maximize their attack speed for more damage.



4.3 Ganking
As already mentioned, Blood Hunter is a magnificent ganker, and for a few reasons. First off, Blood Hunter can control the enemy almost as effectively as Chronos can, but luckily Blood Hunter is far better off on damage and survivability. By controlling your enemy, I mean you can silence them, essentially root them in place, or you can buff up your own damage and finish them quickly. When chasing an enemy, always run towards the direction you predict the enemy will. If you think the enemy is running back to base, cut through the jungle and meet them half way. As Blood Sense levels up in rank, always keep an eye on Blood Hunter's model and listen carefully because when Blood Sense activates, Blood Hunter makes a bat screeching noise and gets the run speed buff, changing to flight mode. When this happens, quickly glance at your map to see where the enemy is that's low on hp. If you need to, you could also ping the map to let nearby allies know there is a low hp target close by. Some basic tips for ganking, always be aware of what enemies are in close proximity. As already mentioned, typical usage of moves can change from hero to hero.



4.4 Good Partners

Pebbles, Devourer, Legionnaire, and Glacius

Any hero that can force your enemy to move is going to be immensely useful to Blood Hunter. Pebbles is a great Hero that has great synergy with Blood Hunter even though he has a stun, although you will need to coordinate on voice so that he doesn't stun right after or during your Hemorrhage. Since Pebbles has a lot of Strength, he is a wonderful initiator and can go into a fight. Because of this, if the enemy is outnumbered, they will likely try to run, this opens you up to use Hemorrhage. If they stop moving, Pebbles can toss them and make them move, taking a lot of damage. This same theory applies to Devourer pretty well, but from the opposite direction. You can apply Hemorrhage and when the enemy is out of range and stopped moving, Devourer can bring them back to him, just make sure the Devourer doesn't use his ult! Legionnaire has a very special type of Synergy with Blood Hunter. It may require you to use voice, but most really pro Legionnaire's can pick up on this trick pretty quickly. You toss up Hemorrhage, Legionnaire rolls up, Taunts, and then drags the enemy around making Hemorrhage deal a ton of damage! And Lastly, my favorite combo, Glacius and Blood Hunter. They kind of go together too because it's red and blue. They're like Double Dragon or something. Anyway, if both of you can time your ultimates together, it's sure a beautiful site. Your enemy can either bleed to death running away or freeze to death in a Blizzard storm. Which would you prefer? Other really viable partners are Magmus, Voodoo Jester, Torturer, and Pollywog Priest. All of these guys have Ultimates that make your enemy want to run away as soon as possible. And either you'll kill them if they run or you'll get an assist.



4.5 Enemies to Avoid

Electrician, Andromeda, Magebane, and Chronos

Electrician was probably the worst hero to face as Blood Hunter. He was a hard counter just like Pestilence is to Scout. Electrician could wipe off all debuffs with Cleansing Shock, but this was later changed and Electrician can no longer wipe off debuffs. Don't even worry about Electrician anymore. Enemies to avoid are ones who can blink. The worst of all the blinking characters is Andromeda. She's worse because she can blink her allies out of range and/or stun you so you can't catch up to the one you Hemorrhaged. Magebane is also a nasty counter to Blood Hunter because Blood Hunter uses his mana somewhat quickly and Magebane can take advantage of that with his Ultimate, causing a frightening amount of damage. Chronos is another character like Magebane and Andromeda, but Chronos can do what the others can't, he can also freeze you in place. This is actually a really big deal in a team fight if you get frozen in place (and time?) you become a huge target to all the enemies around you.

A few ways your enemy, no matter what character they are, could pose a threat to Blood Hunter is if they buy Portal Key. Portal Key allows any character to port just like Magebane or Chronos. This is a very dangerous counter to Blood Hunter because it's so accessible and fairly cheap. Any good player is going to hit H the second they hear a loud gashing bleed and that's exactly why I recommended you think of Hemorrhage as a stun instead of a rupture. Also, if by chance the character fighting against Blood Hunter is very spell oriented, that character could buy a ton of +damage items and get in an auto attack fight with Blood Hunter. With enough damage plus Blood Crazy increasing it, it wouldn't be hard for a lot of characters to out damage Blood Hunter. And finally, if you stay well stocked with Potions and Health Regen items, you can try your best to stay over 40% hp so that Blood Hunter's Blood Sense doesn't activate. If you happen to fall below 40%, just call for help by pinging your map. Chances are Blood Hunter can't take on 3 guys at once, no matter how badass he is!

Original author: Rokman

Source: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=29861