Dampeer

The Heroes of Newerth team will be launching a new hero called Dampeer this Wednesday, and we got the exclusive first look at him thanks to the folks at S2 Games. Here's the 411:

Dampeer
Do I... dazzle you? In the darkest days of the war, when starvation stalked the land, it is said that some men turned to eating the flesh of the dead -- and then, the flesh of the living. Perhaps that is the origin of Dampeer, a monster who feeds on the lifeforce of his foes, spreading terror before his tattered wings, his pants the only remnants of his humanity.

Abilities: Terrorize: Dampeer instills terror within nearby foes, damaging them and causing them to run around like headless chickens.


Vampiric Flight: Dampeer takes flight toward his target enemy, damaging and stealing life from foes he passes through.


Bloodthirst: Dampeer and nearby allies gain lifesteal on attacks.


Consume: Dampeer takes a massive bite of an enemy's flesh, inflicting damage and healing himself for the damage dealt.

Dampeer is coming to a Newerth near you to find his Bella on Wednesday, Dec. 22nd 2010.

Hon2.0 to 2.0.4 - Patch changelogs

2.0.0 Patch Notes

---

Version 2.0.4
-------------
- Added a new Hero, Dampeer
- Added a new Alt Avatar for Dampeer in the store: Vacation Dampeer!
- Added a new Alt Avatar for Flint Beastwood in the store: Captain Flint!

- Added new account icons to the Store
- Added more flags upon request to the store
- Added new Icons for the minimap

- Added a new "Terror" overhead icon for When you are feared
- Improved feedback in Matchmaking for leavers
* This now tells you how many games you need to play to be a non-leaver
- Romanian string table update
- Fixed crash if you used the mousewheel over a playerlist in a chat channel without clicking, and then hit Up
- Fixed a drawSelectedPath crash
- Fixed any attempts to auto-follow into matchmaking games
- Fix to prevent alt avatars from being selected during hero loading
- Fixed Neutrals aggro and added a ZZz effect over their heads when they are asleep

- Added Spellshards as recommended items to some heroes
- Fixed Geometer's Bane to correctly remove the "Attack this hero!" indicator when used

- Fixed Maliken's Alt Avatar!
- Fixed Maliken's weird textures with sword mode on
- Fixed Legionnaire's Charge so it doesn't cancel when you use it on someone on the edge of fog
- Fixed Legionnaire's Charge affector interacting poorly with Moraxus' Shield; it now procs it only if Moraxus is the main target of charge.
- Fixed Rampage's Charge so it doesn't cancel when you use it on someone on the edge of fog
- Fixed Night Hound's Pounce so it always does the bonus damage
- Fixed up the weird interactions with Pharaoh mummy and other heroes. You could get pushed and pulled from weird angles and this fixes that
* Also makes the circle around him of mummies slightly more circular
- Fixed Bubbles' and Gladiator's abilities with timers so they reset to 0 correctly if you use the ability early
- Fixed Soul Reaper's Judgment, it was hitting siege units before



Version 2.0.3
-------------
- Added more Winter/Christmas stuff, including a new courier and three free new Alt Avatars in the store!

- Maliken, Keeper of the Forest, and Deadwood now have alt avatars in the store that cost 0 coins. Merry Christmas!
Christmas Maliken is currently removed due to a bug.
- Fixed some matchmaking bugs
- Fixed some UI bugs with the minimap and RAP
* This should fix the FPS issues players have been having
- Added some new icons and country flags that were missing
- Fixed gold report's GPM calculations (this the popup you get when you hover over your gold)
- Fixed Ophelia's targeting with Judgment
- Fixed Nymphora and her ultimate on Grimm's
- Fixed a few spots on Caldavar you could get perma stuck
- Fixed Pollywog's alt shooting lightning from the wrong hand

Version 2.0.1
-------------
- Winter Maliken and Kongor!
- Added snow and snow trees to Caldavar for Christmas
- Editor Load Map division by 0 fix
- Fixing Night Hound's Alt Avatar display name in the Vault
- Nemesis/Payback now only count on direct kills, not assists
- Hooked up "mystery hero" icon for blind picking in SD
- Fixed music streaming when there is a Unicode character in the path
- Fixed interaction with the alt-clicking buildings/heroes and Attack-Moving and other actions
- Updated weather effects
- Updated several effects and sounds

Ophelia
- Can no longer teleport herself back to base like lawls

Slither
- Wards will no longer be able to hovered over on the minimap


Versions 2.0.0.2 and 2.0.0.3 were minor bugfixes for certain effects at certain resolutions.

Version 2.0.0.1
-------------
- Fixed public games list being empty
- Cleaned up the 'First Time Purchase' window to clearly show the bonus
- "/weather rain" should now always start the rain effect
- After a match starts, the game music starts playing immediately after hero loading
- Remove the "Voting/etc has moved" box when you hit F6
- Fixing Blacksmith's Account Icon name
- Fix for the unexpected interaction between pathing and holding Alt
- Fixed some performance issues

These changes were in 2.0.0, just were not in the changelog:

Vindicator
- Base strength increased from 17 to 20
- Master's Incantation cooldown from 3/2/1/0 to 2/1/0/0


NOTE: If you cant see games you will need to delete startup.cfg from: my documents/heroes of newerth/game folder. This will however delete all your custom options like hotkeys etc; which you will need to setup again (obsolete with 2.0.1 patch)

Version 2.0.0
-------------


== Team Matchmaking ==

- Find matches faster! Boasting arranged-team or solo play, this innovative and intuitive feature increases the efficiency of game creation by automatically gathering player statistics from a variety of group sizes, formulating teams, then matching those teams in as fair a manner as possible. With the ability to customize game mode, region, and map preferences, as well as group up with players on or off your friends list, the new Matchmaking will not only make it much faster to find a game of HoN, but also maximize the fairness and quality of the match.
- Playing Matchmaking rewards you with valuable Goblin Coins! Check out the new end-game scorescreen function after a Matchmaking game.
- Matchmaking will be disabled initially, we'll enable it when we're ready to begin public testing on it this week. Once enabled, expect it to have cycles of going up and down as we gather data, iterate, improve the algorithms, and fix any bugs.

== Cosmetic Store ==

- With goblin coin currency, which can be earned or bought, players can purchase in-game brag-worthy cosmetic upgrades. The micro-transaction based store, controlled by Merrick the goblin shopkeeper, lets players customize their experience without affecting game play or allowing the purchases to change the level of competition.

- Cosmetic upgrades include:
* Alternate hero avatars
* Taunt
* Account icons
* Alternate announcer packs
* Name color options.
* Account Symbols


== New 3v3 Map: Grimm's Crossing ==

- A new action-packed and exciting map that includes a two-way teleporter in the middle area, allowing for more innovative fighting strategies and tactics. Grimm's Crossing is a battlefield for the bloodthirsty. The terrain favors the cunning and aggressive, as hidden paths within the trees can provide a quick way to rout unsuspecting enemies. There is precious little territory to be contested over; battles are won and lost at frantic paces, often beginning and ending unexpectedly.

- Features of the new map:
* 2 lanes that are very close together
* Only one set of towers outside of each base
* Small, tightly packed map
* Neutral creeps spawn only in the middle section of the map
* No elevation at entrances into bases
* 1 rune spawn location in the center
* Towers' armor scales with number of players alive; Buildings have 100% of armor when all are alive, scaling to 0 armor when your entire team is dead. This is active if with both Casual and Normal mode on this map.
* Twin teleporters for quick transit and fun surprises
* It's a winter wonderland! Try the snow weather on this map!


== New Game Mode: Casual Mode ==

- This entirely new mode of play will provide new HoN players and casual gamers with a more “fun,” less punishing way to learn and play HoN. Elements in Casual Mode speed up progression and increase rewards in ways that remain true to the game's core identity, delivering a version that can be embraced by new and veteran players alike.

- Changes from Normal Mode to Casual Mode are as follows
* Exp range from 1000 to 1300
* Removed gold loss on death
* Increased hero bounty
** Hero base gold bounty: from 200 to 300
** Hero gold bounty per level: from 5 to 10
* First blood bonus: from 200 to 300
* Gold bounty per streak: from 50 to 75
* Hero assist gold totals 50% of kill amount, split between all assisters
* Radius assist gold base: from 30 to 0
* Radius assist gold per level: from 5 to 0
* Respawn time per level from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
* Denies no longer deny experience
* Uphill miss chance removed
* Creeps give 1.25x of average normal mode value, no gold fluctuation
* Buildings give 1.5x of average normal mode value, no gold fluctuation
* Towers give global experience when killed, even to dead people, (by tower level): 150,200,250,300
* Tower last hit gold bounty: from 470,520,570,620 to 300,350,400,450
* Tower Team gold bounty: from 200,240,280,320 to 300,350,400,450
* The amount of experience required to reach the next level increases as the game goes on. This means that at the beginning, players level up a lot faster than in Normal Mode, but in the mid and late game they level up at about the same rate as in Normal Mode.
* Buyback costs are at 1.75x normal mode values
* Towers' armor scales with number of players alive; Buildings have 100% of armor when all are alive, scaling to 0 armor when your entire team is dead.


== New Interface Features ==

- We have revamped the in-game interface to be more dynamic, informative, and efficient.

- Enhancements include:
* Advanced mini-map interaction. Try hovering over heroes, buildings, or wards!
* Pull down tabs in the upper right for intuitive access to vote functions and game options
* Graphic kill messages for feedback when you net a kill in the upper left.
* A gold counter to see the breakdown of your gold earnings from different sources. Hover your mouse over your gold count to see the exact breakdown!
* Experience range indicators to mark enemies within the experience gain range. You will notice a small purple diamond next a creep's health bar when you are in range and a purple diamond effect will play when they die if you got experience.
* Context-sensitive pings to highlight the object and send out alert messages to allies. Try Alt+Clicking an ally, enemy, or building.
* A hover-over inventory to allow for quicker inventory feedback on allies and enemies. Hover over an enemy to quickly see their inventory.


== BETA Map Editor ==

- With the exact same tool that we used to make HoN, users can now create and edit maps for enhanced single-player experiences. Users who are inspired to create multi-player maps can submit their map designs to the HoN DREAM website for potential inclusion in HoN. Also, in conjunction with scripting manipulation, players can create their own custom modes.
- This is still a BETA version of the Map Editor, and as such still has features to be added, polish to be done, and bugs to be fixed. Keep this in mind!
- To open the editor, use the editor.bat file in your HoN directory or re-install the game and it will automatically add a shortcut to your start menu as well


== Weather Effects ==

- A storm has arrived on Newerth with HoN 2.0 and it shows! Change the weather of the map you are in at any time through the Options menu and feel free to sing in the rain.
- Players can set their preferred weather effect in the interface options or with a chat command. Right now we support "Rain" and "Snow". The default is "Off".

- Chat commands are as follows:
* /weather
* /weather None
* /weather Rain
* /weather Snow

- We included a text file with instructions on how to make your own weather effects in the HoN directory


== New Item: Spellshards ==

- It's time for the magic users of Newerth to show their true power! With Spellshards, they can pierce the defenses of the enemy and burn them to a crisp that much faster.
- The wielder's spells ignore a portion of their enemy's magic armor, causing increased magic damage.
- After obtaining this item, the recipe may be re-purchased to upgrade it. Can be upgraded two additional times.
- Components: Great Arcana (1675) + Recipe (1000)

- Stats:
* 6 Intelligence
* 17 Damage
* 10 Attack Speed
* 3/6/9% Cooldown Reduction
* 75% Mana Regeneration
* Causes any Magic damage you deal to ignore 2/4/6 of your target's Magic Armor. This effect can never cause their magic armor to go below 0.

- Note: The item "Trophy Belt" did not make it into this patch.


== Nemesis and Payback ==

- Beat down an opponent hard enough and you will become their Nemesis! Be careful, though, for payback is sweet revenge.
- A 'Nemesis' against an opponent is gained when you kill them 4 times in a row without them killing or assisting in a kill against you.
- A 'Payback' is given when you kill or help kill your Nemesis.


== New Music ==

- Newerth's citizens, every now and then, take the time away from the battlefield to learn new musical scores. They have brought us six new songs to encourage us in battle!

- New songs:
* The Missing Rune
* Hope
* From The Depths They Rose
* The Chase
* Overrun Lane
* Kongor's Lair

- Each map now has a custom music soundtrack that plays songs in a pre-determined order.

- In addition, several music related bugs were fixed:
* Fixed music looping
* Fixed playlist looping
* Fixed music fade-out/fade-in
* When a music track is stopped, it defaults to fading out
* Music is now streamed rather than loaded upfront. This fixes an issue where lower-end computers would randomly hitch when the music switched.
* When a music track ends, its memory is now freed


== Other Features ==

- BP bans increased from 3 to 4
- Single draft now has blind pick, meaning you won't see the other team's hero picks during hero selection
- Banning draft will now switch bans immediately
- Mid-bar completely redone for HoN 2.0
- Streak stats are no longer recorded for public games
- Fixes for Caldavar so the creeps won't start in tower range in bottom lane and the middle lane will be more even


== General ==

- Fixed GPM calculations. Gold that wasn't counted in GPM before:
* Passive
* First blood bounty
* Assists
* Radius bounty
* Was counting how much a player should have lost on death, rather than what he actually lost if he didn't have enough gold

- Fixed a spot you can hit Kongor from outside of his pit
- You can now also "buy all components" for items without components and it'll just buy the individual item.
- Swapping the minimap to right side now also swaps the location of attack modifiers
- Added sounds to the pause/unpause countdown
- You can no longer transfer items from your stash onto units that can't carry items
- Toggling mute on a player no longer /ignores them
- Tweaked effects, voices, and animations of several heroes
- A code tweak that will increase load time for computers with limited amount of virtual memory, but should help alleviate crashes due to running out of virtual memory (32 bit Vista and 7)
- Gold will now max at 65535 instead of looping back to 0
- Sped up Frostwolf Skull projectile to 1500 (medium speed based on high and low ranges)

- Fixed up a lot of the stringtables
- Fixed some divide by zero errors
- Shrunk some giant textures
- Custom Game renamed to Public Game
- Fixed some map textures
- Fixed follow coloring to update when first displayed
- Fixed a crash when viewing match stats containing a null player slot
- Added a unit voice delay slider to the options panel. Credit to Bangerz for the initial implementation.
- Follow is now removed when removing buddy
- Fixed model quality change crash
- Fixed Tournament Mode not working on linux client
- Replay_autoSkipPause cvar for auto skipping pauses in replays
- Deleted un-used voice commands


== Bugfixes ==

- Previously, if a courier dropped an upgradeable item on you when you had a full inventory, including a recipe for that item, the recipe would be consumed but the item wouldn't upgrade. Fixed.
- Fixed a Bombardier Boom Dust bug relating to casting it from long ranges resulting in quirky behavior
- Chipper ult won't draw on the minimap anymore
- Fayde's Burning Shadows now give small clearvision
- Legionnaire's ult damage when he doesn't kill now correctly does Magic damage (was a script error)
- Pharaoh's Wall of Mummies will now grab people correctly to the middle
- Tempest's Glacial Blasts won't stun magic immune units or invulnerable units anymore
- Fixed Arachna's ult still spawning if the target dies first
- Thunderbringer's ult won't hit illusions anymore
- Vindicator's illusions won't steal int from him anymore and will get the +2 int popup so it's not obvious who the real one is
- Blacksmith can now hit himself with Frenzy when it multicasts on another target
- Gladiator's ult won't wonk out anymore if he casts it while frozen and can't turn
- Gauntlet's fist won't wonk out anymore if he casts it while frozen and can't turn
- Fixed the manacost of Defiler's Silence to match the tooltip correctly
- Fixed Thunderclaw and Charged Hammer so they won't go off on denies
- Added double activate to Blood Hunter Blood Crazy
- Added double activate to Succubus Mesmerize
- Made Succubus ult undispellable
- Made Tablet of Command unbind it's target
- Warbeast's Wolves won't take the craters they come out of with them anymore


== Neutrals ==

- Neutrals now sleep at night
* They have zero aggro range at night and normal aggro range in the day

Minotaur Neutral Creep:
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast


== Heroes ==

- Fixed some effects playing through fog:
* Gladiator Pitfall
* Moraxus Stomp
* Bubbles'teleport-to-Shell-Surf "water splash"
* Bubbles' Song of the Sea

Balphagore
- Fixed his illusions from eating creeps

Chipper
- Fixed his ult from drawing on the minimap like silliness

Devourer
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Doctor Repulsor
- Fixed missing tooltip info

Electrician
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Engineer
- Turret now shoots twice as fast and the cap of number of hits removed.
* Damage per bullet starts at 10/20/30/40 and is lowered by 10% for every bullet that hits you
* The push starts at the same it was, but gets weaker the more you are hit
* Snare is still max of 35% from 10 hits

Gauntlet
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Gladiator
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast
- Added a glow to the whip

Legionnaire
- Fixed a typo in his ult damage (was doing 300, should be 350) if you missed with it

Maliken
- Re-exported and cleaned up voice

Moraxus
- Axes damage from 80/100/120/140 to 60/80/100/120

Myrmidon
- New sounds
- Fixed infinite life weed field
- Fixed a bug that caused him to have a projectile with Frostwolf Skull even in melee form
- Fixed a permanent vision bug

Nymphora
- Pod is now 250 AOE, 1 second delay, and 60/120/180/240 Damage/Heal. Used to be 325 AOE, 2.5 second delay, 90/180/270/360 Damage/Heal.

Pebbles
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Sand Wraith
- Fixed an issue with Dissipate that let him get some long range damage
- Fixed a bug with the ult that reset the cooldown to the max length incorrectly when Mirage was used
- Fixed the illusions incorrectly giving vision the whole duration of the ult instead of just while they are alive

Soul Reaper
- Fixed him getting mana from hero kills correctly

Succubus
- Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast
- Fixed heroes ulted by her not doing their idle animation after it ends

Tundra
- Fixed his charge and interaction with Moraxus' Shield

Wildsoul
- Fixed a bug that caused him to have a projectile with Frostwolf Skull even in melee form


== Console Commands / UI Commands ==

* This section is mainly for modders

- StopMusic(true) will now fade out the current music track
* StopMusic() will still stop it instantly

- New console command 'MusicInfo'
* Displays the name of current track, length of current track, and position within current track

- New console command 'MusicSeek'
* Allows you to jump to a specific time index within the current music track
* The argument can be in 'mm:ss' format, for example 01:30, or in seconds, for example 90
* If the argument begins with '-' then it represents a time offset from the end of the track (for example -10 would seek to 10 seconds from the end of the current track)

- New console command 'PlaylistStart'
* Begins playing the specified tracks in order. Example: PlaylistStart music/track_01.mp3 music/track_02.mp3 music/track_03.mp3

- New console command 'PlaylistClear'
* Clears the current playlist

- New console command 'PlaylistNext'
* Plays the next track in the playlist
** Fades out the current music track and fades in the next music track

- New console command 'PlaylistInfo'
* Displays information about the current active playlist, including number of tracks, name of each track, and which track is currently active



- Coloured by ElementUser

Patch 1.0.20 & .21 - preparing for HON2.0

 Version 1.0.21.1
-------------
- Fixed Myrmidon effects

Version 1.0.21
-------------
- Added a new Legion Intelligence hero: Myrmidon!

- All Wards are now sold for 100g in stacks of 1
- Plated Greaves: recipe removed
- Andromeda: Aurora dubuff duration from 20s to 14/16/18/20s
- Succubus: Heartache cooldown from 20s to 15s
- Rampage: Chains that Bind no longer disarm Rampage during the duration
Patch 1.0.21, in addition to bringing a friendly fish from under the sea to Newerth, introduces a significant change to the mechanics of Wards of Sight and Revelation.

Ward Changes:

* Wards (both of Sight and of Revelation) are purchased in packs of 1 instead of 2
* Each ward costs 100, so the cost per ward is the same

Explanation:
Wards are a hugely important part of HoN, and there is a lot of game dynamics (and intra-team contention) that revolve around wards. They are incredibly effective, and good placement and control of wards will often make the difference between a win and a loss. However, in public and lower level games, they are very infrequently purchased. We've had extensive discussions about how we can get that to change.

We attributed the dearth of wards in public play to the following:
* Wards are extremely costly. Not only do they cost gold, but they also require a player to collect it from the courier and then walk to place them, resulting in lost experience and farm. Sometimes, the gold cost itself can be prohibitive when a team is far behind.
* Wards do not convey an immediate, obvious benefit to the person who places it. Placing a ward does not give a tangible and immediate sense of satisfaction and reward to the person placing it. Its effect is not "poppy," and is therefore often underestimated- until you get ganked, then it's the end of the world and you blame your teammates for not having peppered the map with wards.
* The Free-rider problem. Externalities, public goods, blah blah economics jargon blah. Lowdown is that each member of the team pretty much benefits equally from the wards being up, but the cost is almost never split. In a disorganized team, there is often dispute as to who should be responsible for wards, and to which extent each deputy is liable. This results in people waiting for others to take on the burden of providing the team with the shiny orange public good. When so many are running around with a "I'm going to carry you, stfu and get on my back" mentality, what that actually means is that you'll be staring at a whole bunch of fog on your minimap.

After much deliberation on the subject, and the investigation of all kinds of outlandish and radical ideas, we've settled for now with the most direct, simple, and minor change. Despite the simplicity and scale of the change, however, we're very confident of the positive effect it will have. The lowered "barrier to entry" from 200 to 100 makes it much simpler to grab a ward to go as a side of fries rather than as a main course basket. It makes splitting up the responsibility a lot easier, as the increments at which wards are purchased have decreased. Finally, it opens up greater possibilities of item bundles that include wards, especially at the very beginning of the game with that fabled 603 gold. While it does not solve all of the problems presented above, we're very optimistic of the effects this change will have, and view it at worst as a significant step in the right direction.

As always, we eagerly await your feedback, both in words and through your gameplay. Game HoN!

Gladiator guide

Gladiator's are the manliest of men who stare death in the face every day. Unfortunately for us, this Gladiator is not quite as manly (voice wise), and hides his sexuality behind throat numbing quotes and a bumchin. He does, however, wield mindblowing physics defying powers enabling him to summon chariots and anti-gravity pitfalls wherever he pleases.



Table Of Contents

1. Introduction
   • Description
   • Stats
   • Statistics
2. Skills
   • Description
   • Skill Build
3. Items
   • Starting Items
   • Core Items
   • Luxuries
   • Items to Avoid
4. Gameplay
   • Laning
   • Ganking
   • Teamfights
   • Tips and tricks
5. Drafting
   • Lane partners
   • Teamfight partners
   • Vicious Foes
6. Replays
7. Credits

________________________________


Introduction

Gladiator is the 68th hero to be added to Heroes of Newerth. Gladiator excels in intiating teamfights, melee lane harassment and very powerful disables. Gladiator spends most of his time throwing boats [chariots] and pitfalling people with gravity defying results. This guide is designed to show you the most optimal way to play Gladiator and how to utilise his skill set to wreak havoc on your opponents. Gladiator's largest weakness is that your skills can miss, and they can miss very easily. Without good fore-sight and positioning skills you'll end up being called out by every try-hard on your team for being a big noob because you missed one little spike trap. When playing Gladiator, make sure you are always in the right spot at the right time. Without good timing your skills will be entirely unerwhelming and you'll never hit a boat [chariot], even if your life depends on it.

Gladiator is a direct port of Admiral Kunkka from Defense of the Ancients.

Role in team

Intiator, ganker, semi-carry.

Stats

Strength: 21 (2.7)
Agility:15 (1.2)
Intelligence: 16 (1.5)

Damage: 47-57
Armour: 2.8 (14%)
Movement Speed: 300
Attack Range: 128 (Melee)
Attack Rate: 0.59

Attack Point: 400ms
Turn Rate: 540

Statistics

Coming soon...

________________________________

Skills

Description

Pitfall

Action: Target Ground

Type: Magic
Range: 1500
Radius: 225
Cast Time: 0.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 120
Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds

Activation
After a 1.6 second delay, any non-boss-enemy in the radius will be thrown in the air for 1.53 seconds, taking 60/90/120/150 initial damage and then 6/9/12/15 damage every .15 seconds while in the air, dealing a total of 120/180/240/300 damage. Once the target lands, they have Spiked! applied to them for 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 seconds. Gives clear vision of 400/400 (day/night) radius from the Pitfall's location for 4 seconds. Targets are stunned while airborne.

Spiked!
-30% movement speed

Synopsis


Very similar to Deadwood's Rotten Grasp, this skill has huge potential damage, dealing both a stun and slow combined with considerable damage. The trade-off for the tremendous output is that it is relatively difficult to land, having a total cast to action time of 2 seconds, it's very easy for opponents to dodge if they see it coming. This skill is best used from fog, while the targets are stunned / slowed, or when the enemies have only 1 safe trajectory to go to (as in, if they don't walk into it, they'll die anyway).

It is important to remember that the damage is not all dealt instantly, half of it is applied on impact time and the other half over the flight-duration. This is important to remember when trying to farm creepwaves, since sneaky allied creeps can steal your kills between the damage over time.

Showdown

Action: Target Enemy Heroes

Type: Magic
Range: 500 / 650 / 800 / 950
Cast Time: 0.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110
Cooldown: 30.0 Seconds

Activation
Summons a Colosseum at the target's location and applies Challenged to Fight to them for 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 seconds. Gives clear vision of 1000/1000 (day/night) radius from the Colosseum's location for 5 seconds.
Ability is replaced with "I Have No Patience" for the duration.

Challenged to Fight
Will be ported back to the Colosseum and issued a Stop command after 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 seconds

I Have No Patience

Action: Target Self

Type: Magic
Cast Time: 0 Seconds
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 5.0 Seconds

Activation
Instantly ports back the selected unit to the Colosseum.

Synopsis
The perfect initiation tool. If you target somebody with this skill then no matter where they go, they'll be ported right back after the duration, forcing fights when they suit you best. Using this skill you can gaurantee Pitfalls to land by bringing your opponent back as soon as the Pitfall is about to go off. At rank 2 Showdown, casting Showdown and then casting Pitfall on the Collosseum will cause the Pitfall to hit almost without fail or the neccessity to use I Have No Patience. Remember that I Have No Patience costs 50 mana. Here is an animation showing a rank 2 Showdown -> Pitfall combo.



When at higher levels, you can use Showdown to easily land Call to Arms on any single target. Showdown at max rank has 950 range, and Call to Arms travels 1000 units, making it very easy to aim your boat [chariot]. While you might only land the stuns on one person, it will act as area denial from all of their allies, putting the Showdown'd target in a very unenvyable position. Here is an animation showing a rank 4 Showdown -> Pitfall + Call to Arms -> I Have No Patience combo.



Timing I Have No Patience with Pitfall is easiest done off of a sound cue. Pitfall makes three distinct sounds (di-di-di) which are shortly followed by a 'shing' sound which plays as the Pitfall goes off. If your Pitfall is right on top of the Showdown, using I Have No Patience between those two sounds should guarantee Pitfalls to land. This is only necessary / useful for levels 3 and 4 of Showdown.

Rank 1 of Showdown while seemingly useless (1 second is very short), has a couple of subtler uses (this applies to higher ranks of Showdown as well). Since it issues a stop command when bringing enemies back it can be used as a channel breaker, stopping things such as Magmus' Eruption, Tempest's Elemental Void and Homecoming Stones. Since the range on the pullback is infinite, if an enemy target has a blink and is about to use it to escape a nasty situation, you can use this on them just before they blink bringing them right back.

Flagellation (Fla-jell-ay-shun)

Action: Passive

Radius: 380 / 420 / 460 / 500
Cooldown: 16.0 / 12.0 / 8.0 / 4.0 Seconds

On Attack
Grants 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 bonus damage.

Applies 100% True damage splash in a 380 / 420 / 460 / 500 AOE and triggers cooldown.

Attacking Buildings will not trigger the splash, but will still trigger the bonus damage and cooldown. Attacking allied units will not trigger the splash or the cooldown, but will still trigger the bonus damage.

Synopsis
First off, covering the exact mechanic of how the range of this skill works. The damage inflicted is equal to Gladiator's attack damage plus 15 / 30 / 45 / 60. The damage done is True damage, and won't be blocked by Physical or Magic Immunity. The main target will take armour reduced damage, all other targets will take 100% full true damage. A Logger's Hatchet will not affect the damage, not even to the main target. Attack modifiers and bonus damage from Manaburn, Savage Mace (and Halberds) will still apply to the main target, but not any other targets. Bonus damage from Assassin's Shroud will apply to all the targets. Critical damage will apply to all the targets (Critical damage will also multiply Assassin's Shroud's critical damage).

When you whip a target, an invisible gadget is placed 380 / 420 / 460 / 500 in front of you, that gadget will deal the damage in a circle with a radius of 380 / 420 / 460 / 500 units. This means that in a straight line the whip will have 760 / 840 / 920 / 1,000 range.


The creep in front of Gladiator was hit with a level 1, 2, 3 and 4 Flagellation. The creeps with red health are hit by rank 1, orange rank 2 and below, yellow rank 3 and below, and green rank 4 and below. The Pitfall is there for a metric.

This is probably Gladiator's most interesting skill, having a huge potential for hilarious kills. It is also the reason why Gladiator is considered to be a semi-carry. With a good amount of farm and good positioning (or bad positioning from your opponenets) you can half kill entire teams. While the potential is there, don't get too worked up about this skill. It's unlikely that you'll ever hit 5 enemy heroes with a single Flagellate, however this skill alone is the main reason why Gladiator needs so much farm to be successful.

Call to Arms

Action: Target Ground

Type: Superior Magic
Range: 1000
Radius: 400
Cast Time: 0.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 150 / 200 / 250
Cooldown: 100.0 Seconds

Activation
Summons a Chariot 1000 units behind The Gladiator that travels to a location 1000 units in front of where he casted it, in the direction that he casted it. Any allies within 400 units of where it passes have Call to Arms applied to them for 5 / 6 / 7 seconds. The Chariot gives clear vision of 800/800 (day/night) radius from its center, and lingers for 3.34s after it deals the stun/damage.

When it reaches the end, it deals 300 / 400 / 500 Magic damage and stuns all enemies in a 400 radius for 1 second.

Call to Arms
10% Movement Speed
All damage is halved for the duration. Reduced damage is taken over 5 / 6 / 7 seconds at the end of the buff as nonlethal damage.

Synopsis
The Chariot moves at 750ms, and it will always travel 2000 units. This means that the delay until the Chariot reaches its destination is 2.66 seconds. The Chariot will always travel to exactly 1000 units in front of where you were when you casted it.



This means that if enemies are all up in your face, it's going to be difficult to target them with it. This is why good positioning is extremely important with Gladiator, if the enemy gets the jump on you your skills will be a lot less effective (the same could be said of all initiators).

The Call to Arms buff makes you and your team extremely tanky, however the cut back damage should not be forgotten about. It often occurs that a Gladiator goes in with all his shiny Roman glory, gets the enemies on the run after a big Showdown and starts diving towers. His HP then starts rocketing down, and Gladiator looks like a clown. Remember the stun is only 1 second, so don't go flailing your arms around wackily when you realise it barely lasts long enough for you to whip someone.

Skill Build

1. Pitfall / Flagellation
2. Flagellation / Pitfall
3. Pitfall / Flagellation
4. Flagellation / Pitfall
5. Flagellation
6. Call to Arms
7. Flagellation
8. Showdown / Pitfall
9. Showdown / Pitfall
10. Pitfall / Showdown
11. Call to Arms
12. Pitfall / Showdown
13. Showdown
14. Showdown
15. Stats
16. Call to Arms

The first 4 levels can be a mix-up of whatever pleases you most. I'd generally suggest getting the build on the left since the first few levels of Flagellation are rather underwhelming, and Pitfall's in lane are really where most of your lane presence comes from pre-5. Flagellation is however maxed as soon as possible since its low cooldown at max rank is extremely powerful / useful. Call to Arms is always worth getting wherever possible.

2 ranks of Showdown are generally gotten at level 8 / 9 so that you can land Pitfalls easily. Rank 2 is all you need mid-game, so continue maxing Pitfall once it's reached that point. You could get Pitfall maxed if you feel confident in hitting them, or if you have a stun heavy team setting them up easily.

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Items

Starting Items

Laning Gladiator



This should be your starting items almost every game. Easy buildup into chalice and enough health regen to last until you farm a lifetube. If you feel like the lane you're going up against is going a bit difficult to deal with, whip out a an iron buckler and make your inventory look something like this.




Solo Mid Gladiator
If you happen to be soloing mid, it should only be against caster mid heroes such as or , or if you simply feel like you can outclass your opponent. Generally, you'll want your items at mid to look like this:



This is to make last-hitting as easy as possible while making enemy harassment minimal. You can substitutes the Buckler in for more regen and 2 totems if you're going against a weak opponent, however most of the time Gladiator mid is not the best option.

Core Items

This is your core build-up for every situation. You will have plenty of mana with Blood Chalice / Power Supply, and Helm of the Black Legion gives you health regeneration early game (lifetube) but more importantly, extremely good survivability. 300hp and 40 block is nothing to be scoffed at, and staying alive is a lot more important than anything else can give you for 2,000 gold. If you skip Helm of the Black Legion you will find yourself dying a lot more than you need to, since Gladiator is generally taking a lot of the flak needing to be up close and personal to deal his whip damage.

Boots are a matter of personal preference. Personally I'd rather go for Phase Boots if you're doing well, Steamboots if you're not doing so well. Phase Boots make ganks a lot easier, since you can catch up to running enemies a lot faster and your whip does more damage. However, the survivability from Steamboots is important whenever you aren't doing too well.

Core Continued
Once you've finished your Helm of the Black Legion, you're going to want to start building up some damage for Flagellation to really start hitting hard. In most cases, you're going to want to opt in for an:

Assassin's Shroud

Cost: 3300

• Steamstaff: 800
• Bastard Sword: 1400
• Recipe: 1100

Passive Bonuses
+10 Attack Speed
+38 Damage

Activation
Target Type: Self
Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 18 seconds
Applies Stealth to self for 9 seconds

Stealth
+20% Movement Speed
Unit Walking
Invisibility
The first attack out of stealth will do +125 damage

Assassin's Shroud's bonus damage will apply to all the targets of Flagellation. This means that you can dish out an extra 120 damage to every enemy hero by doing an invis whip. Not only this, but it serves as a good escape mechanism. Not only this, but if you later build a Riftshards, the +120 damage can be multiplied by a critical hit, dealing damage capable of wiping out entire teams.

If you're facing a team with heavy stuns, or if invisibility is not really a smart idea, then opting for a bit more survivability is not such a bad idea. If you're not getting Assassin's Shroud, make sure you have Phase Boots. Unitwalking is very necessary to lining up whips in the right direction. With no unitwalking lining things up properly becomes extremely difficult.

Shrunken Head

Cost: 3900

• Mighty Blade: 1000
• Rockhammer: 1600
• Recipe: 1300

Passive Bonuses
+10 Strength
+24 Damage

Activation
Target Type: Self
Cooldown: 80 seconds
Applies Magic Immunity to self for 10 seconds and dispels debuffs.

The cooldown and duration of the activation are reduced by 5 seconds and 1 second respectively after each consequtive activation, with a minimum of 55 seconds and 5 seconds respectively.

Shrunken Head you to survive through teamfights and deal damage unempeded. This is only really necessary if you're facing a lot of heroes with Area of Effect stuns or stuns that won't go through immunity. If you're finding yourself unable to maneavour through team fights due to the number of stuns being thrown around, then picking this up would be a respectable choice. This also adds a total of 34 damage since Gladiator's main attribute is Strength.

Runed Axe

Cost: 4350

• Bastard Sword: 1400
• Broadsword: 1200
• Sustainer: 1750
  • Lifetube: 875
  • Manatube: 875

Passive Bonuses
+65 Damage
6 Health Regeneration
150% Mana Regeneration
40% Splash in 225 radius

Does not grant splash to ranged attacks

This is an item that a lot of Gladiator players seem to favour. It is definitely a nice item, giving both a high amount of damage and added splash damage. The splash also stacks with Flagellation additively, however it is not as simple as that. If you have Runed Axe and rank 4 Flagellation, units within a 500 radius circle 500 units in front of Gladiator (refer to Flagellation's description) will take 100% of Gladiator's damage, and units within a 225 radius circle 225 units in front of Gladiator will take 40% of the damage dealt to the main target (totalling 100% true splash and 40% of the damage dealt to the main target). The two splashes are separate entities and do not conflict or influence each other in any way.

Stacking splash is mostly a gimmick, and in general I tend to avoid this item, however it has some potential.

Luxury Items

Once you've got at least one item from the continued core, you will want start looking in to buying some luxury items. The first luxury item you'll ever want to buy is of course:

Riftshards

Cost: 5500

• Broadsword: 1200
• Punchdagger: 500
• Recipe: 950
• Recipe: 950
• Recipe: 950
• Recipe: 950

Passive Bonuses
+45 / 55 / 65 / 75 Damage
10% / 13% / 16% / 20% chance to do a 1.8 / 2.0 / 2.2 / 2.4x Critical Strike

The reason to pick this item up should be obvious. Nothing is more gamebreaking or amazing than a whip-crit that half kills everybody on the enemy team. Since critical hits work with Flagellation, there's hardly ever a time where there's a better item to get than this. It's only suitable as luxury however, since the Critical Strike is a multiplier and won't be anywhere near as devastating without an additional damage item.

Behemoth's Heart

Cost: 5500

• Axe of the Malphai: 3200
• Beastheart: 1100
• Recipe: 1200

Passive Bonuses
+35 Strength
+0.75% Health Regen per second

Staying alive is important, and once you've got Riftshards there isn't much else to do but make sure you can stay alive to continue pumping out those whips, however if you're feeling like a baller, there's always another option...

Doombringer

Cost: 5800

• Sword of the High: 3400
• Slayer: 2400

Passive Bonuses
+250 Damage

Drops on death

Riftshards + Doombringers + Flagellation = ???
...you know you want to.

Items to Avoid


Lifesteal is useless. You don't deal damage through constant auto-attacks, you deal damage through whips and boats [chariots]. I can't see any reason to get Lifesteal, that's just not how Gladiator plays effectively.
Armor reduction is also useless, since the whip damage is true damage to everything except your main target.
Attack speed is not very effective, since Flagellation doesn't come off cooldown any faster than once every 4 seconds, and even Pebbles attacks fast enough to make use of that. It's still good once you're extremely farmed though, since Gladiator has pretty poor agility gain. When you have low attack speed, due to the diminishing returns nature of +Attack Speed it's still quite effective DPS wise to invest in an attack speed item such as Demonic Breastplate as a 4th or 5th item.

Gameplay

Laning

Gladiator most commonly lanes in the vertical lane, this is the top lane for Legion and the bottom lane for Hellbourne. The reason for this is not so much that Gladiator needs to gank, but that Gladiator can't take the horizontal lane since his Flagellation pushes the lane. If you're already at their tower pushing the lane with your whip won't make much of a difference, and you can make full use of its harassing power. You can still send Gladiator to any lane, since he's a very strong laner in general.

In lane, your main goal is to be getting lasthits where possible, and harassing enemies with Flagellation. If no creep is within a recognisably low amount of health, you should go inside of fog for a short time to scare your enemies. A Gladiator in fog is scary, much like any other hero with a skillshot, because if the enemies can't see the direction you're throwing your skill, they can't dodge it. When you're in the fog as Gladiator people start to act erratically, and this is general is just good for mindgames. If you see an oppurtunity to land a Pitfall, do so. If there isn't much of a way to follow up on a landed stun, simply whip a creep. A whip and Pitfall will do about 250 damage, and is a good bit of harassment necessary to winning lanes. You will in almost all cases be the secondary intiator. Pitfall is extremely unreliable for landing stuns, so you will want your ally to slow or stun the enemy enough that you can guarantee your Pitfall.

Lasthits are very important for Gladiator, and you will hopefully have at least Marchers, Lifetube, Iron Buckler and Blood Chalice by the end of laning. You should finish Blood Chalice first for obvious reasons (regen, inventory space). If you're getting low on regen get a lifetube before Marchers, if you're doing really well in your lane you can get Marchers and even sometimes Ghost Marchers before a Lifetube.

Ganking

Ganking with Gladiator is really all about landing Pitfalls, and that is mostly practice. Pitfall is best used either:

• From fog
• When the enemy has nowehere else to go
• When the enemy is disabled
• After Showdown

If none of those conditions are met, it is somewhat unlikely that you'll hit your Pitfall. But hey, you could get lucky...

Timing of ganking is pretty general of all semi-carries. Take farm when you can, push lanes for map control and carry Homecoming Stones at all times for counter-gank opportunities. You can't intiate ganks very effectively without Showdown, and even with it Gladiator does not have a lot of single target burst damage. Gladiator's strengths is in area of effect burst, and not so much single target burst. You can't be expected to go around one-shotting enemy heroes at any point in the game (sans Doombringers), so without adequate support it isn't worth taking your time to gank a lone enemy carry by yourself. Your best bet is to either try to harass them out of lane or to go farm yourself to compete with them.

Teamfights

Gladiator is a really good initiator, being able to catch people out of position from 950 units away while giving your team 4 seconds to catch up to the victim. Unlike any other initiation method, this is extremely delayed which means that both teams have an opportunity to react to it. Do not use Showdown on any hero who can activate Magic Immunity at a whim, if you waste all your spells on a Showdown target who isn't even brought back by it you look like a prime fool. Ultimately, if you see someone out of position, Showdown -> Pitfall (-> Call to Arms). If it's a gank situation (your team vs one or two enemies) then don't bother with Call to Arms, if it's a situation where the enemy has a chance to fight back, then use Call to Arms for the damage redcution and extra nuke damage (and I guess the negligible stun is worth noting).

Line up your whips properly. This is extremely important for any teamfight, since once you have a few items your whip is dealing the majority of your damage. There is no point having a tonne of items if your whip only hits 2 people, the area of effect is friggin' huge. If you have the opportunity to, whip a creep instead of a hero. The only person who takes armor reduced damage is your main target, and if that target is a creep you're optimising your output. It is generally inadvisable to stick around in the centre of teamfights while your skills are on cooldown. Gladiator's autoattack damage is horrendous, and unless you're at a huge advantage in the fight maintaining good position is generally more beneficial than getting in 2 autoattacks. That isn't to say that you can't maintain good positioning and hit people at the same time...

Tips & Tricks

These things have mostly been covered over in the guide, this is just a short bullet point lisiting of a few important things:

• Magic Immunity and Death is the only thing that will stop Showdown from working - don't use Showdown on heroes with Magic Immunity
• Flagellation does armor reduced damage to the main target and the main target only - output is maximised by hitting an insignificant enemy [creep]
• Cast Pitfalls from fog to stop enemies from seeing the direction it is cast at
• Pitfall and lv2 Showdown's cast times are not exactly in-sync - if you use Pitfall immediately after lv2 Showdown the Pitfall will in some cases miss
• Call to Arms will always travel exactly 2000 units over 2.66 seconds, and will always land exactly 1000 units in front of the point where you cast it from, in the direction you casted it
• Flagellation pushses the lane, be sure to consider this when thinking about lane positions
• Showdown gives a large amount of sight at the Colosseum, if you're being juked terrible you can cast it on yourself and then instantly cast I Have No Patience to get 1000 units of flying vision for 5 seconds

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Drafting

Gladiator is a team player, and needs the right team to compliment his skills. He's an unsuitable hero to choose is when your team already has too many item dependent heroes. Gladiator needs money, and he pushes lanes when he's getting it. If other heroes need that money as well you're going to be in for some trouble. Gladiator also needs supporting stuns to make landing Pitfalls as easy as possible, and ranged harassment for the laning phase.

Lane partners

The best lane mates for Gladiator are item-independent ranged heroes with reliable stuns or strong slows. If an enemy is stunned or under a strong slow, Pitfalls are guaranteed. Item independent lane partners are necessary because you need to farm Helm of the Black Legion as fast as possible to make your mid-game as breezy as possible.


Andromeda is a great combo with Gladiator, and in general is a great hero to have on your team. Her stun (including travel time) lasts a perfect amount of time to synchronise with Pitfall, and Dimensional Link makes your whips deal more damage.
Slither has an extremely powerful slow which, when landed, guarantees Pitfalls to land. His ranged harassment combined with Flagellation will keep almost anything out of the lane.
Nymphora has insane nuke potential when combined with your skills. The delay on her stun makes predicting Pitfalls easy, if it's going to hit you can cast your Pitfall pre-emptively.

Teamfight Partners

There really isn't any other hero that really shines more than Bubbles for you, since his Kelp Field has a radius of 400. This means that if you target your Chariot directly in the centre you're guaranteed to hit everyone inside of the field - pretty neat!

Vicious Foes

Magic immunity completely screws over your whole combo. Playing against either of these guys is really quite a bother.