Friday, January 20, 2012

Version 2.5.7 - New hero Gravekeeper

- Free Hero Pool has been updated. The current list is as follows:
* Forsaken Archer
* Arachna
* Slither
* The Madman

* Soul Reaper
* Pyromancer
* Bubbles
* Glacius

* Maliken
* Legionnaire
* Amun-Ra
* Tundra
* Deadwood
* Jeraziah
* Keeper of the Forest

- Significant optimizations have been made to the UI. Most of these are aimed at memory usage and memory management, improving performance, and stability.
* These changes reflect dramatic improvements to the core framework of the game client, resulting in a streamlined end-user experience and reducing the hardware requirements necessary to Get It HoN!
* Memory usage has been dramatically reduced to help alleviate hardware limitations for players both new and old
* All Mods should be disabled once the game has been patched, as they will not reflect optimizations made to the client and will need to be updated

- Fixed a reconnection overwrite issue that caused players disconnected from a game to lose the ability to reconnect to the server if logged into another account
- Fixed MMR reward issues where players were given more MMR than they should have been when a teammate disconnects from the game
- Fixed time waited calculations to reflect when a group is placed back into queue
- Increased the size of Fist of Sol Taunt and added splatter effects based on community feedback
- Increased the size of Dumpster Taunt and added a new effect - Dumpstered!

- Added new Early Access Hero: Gravekeeper
- Added new Limited Edition Early Access Alt Avatar: Shinigami Gravekeeper

- Added new Fayde Alt Avatar: Gypsy Fayde

Amun-Ra
- Phoenix Ra's Path of Destruction animation has been modified to boost visual feedback of the skill

Gemini
- Fire and Ice is now interrupted if either dog gets stunned or silenced while channeling
* Gemini is undergoing extensive balance changes which will be revealed and implemented as the hero undergoes substantial testing in the coming weeks

Gravekeeper EA skin:

 

Friday, January 13, 2012

Hero Teaser: Gravekeeper

Gravekeeper is a ranged intelligence hero who calls upon the dead to aid him in battle! Gravekeeper is effective at skirting around the edges of the battlefield harassing his enemies with the dead themselves. The more death around him, the more potential Gravekeeper has to unleash unparalleled havoc!

Abilities Teaser:


Corpse Toss


Corpse Explosion


Defiling Touch


Zombie Apocalypse

Look forward to seeing Gravekeeper's Defiling Touch in the hero spotlight coming soon!

New Dark Lady Alt

The new upcoming Dark Lady alternate avatar:

Shop Screen Display



Full Screen with Price



2.5.6 Patch Notes - Phoenix Ra

Version 2.5.6
------------
- The current Free Heroes were changed. The current available list is as follows:
* Corrupted Disciple
* Moon Queen
* Hammerstorm
* Predator
* Night Hound
* Kraken
* Balphagore
* Behemoth
* Witch Slayer
* Chipper
* Slither
* Bombardier
* Demented Shaman
* Empath
* Voodoo Jester

- Groups with less than 1150 MMR should have an easier time finding a match now
- If a matchmaking game ends prematurely (whether due to an early remake or a player fails to connect) any groups who were in the match should now be able to re-queue and leave off at their previous wait time
* A message will be broadcast notifying the group when they have been re-placed into the queue
- Made a few changes to how point gain/losses are adjusted for team mates if there is a leaver on the team, it's now a bit more lenient in terms of what conditions must be true in order for the team with the disconnected player(s) to receive an adjustment
- Made some adjustments to match fidelity slider, selecting "Fairer Matches" should now do a bit better job at finding other groups close to the skill range of the group that selected this option
- The UI should now remember the match fidelity slider setting selected when creating a group and entering the queue
- Greatly improved how the game client re-connects to game servers
* Players should no longer have to type "Reconnect" on the console or re-login manually as the client will automatically try to reconnect to the game server. Players can still reconnect by re-logging or typing reconnect, but they will no longer have to do this, they can simply wait for the reconnect dialogue to display

- Gold gained from creeps and neutrals now normalizes over time
* An example: Two heroes farm a lane for 20 minutes getting equal creep kills. Before, their gold values would have differed greatly. Now, they will have nearly equal amounts of gold.

- Added a new Amun-Ra Alt Avatar: Phoenix Ra

Phoenix Ra Screenshot:


Concept Art: