Yogscast - 2.1 Patch Preview

Dont forget to watch this one !

HONicle : 2.1 Patch Analysis

Chronos by Erenarik

Balancing

There are a lot of rebalances in the patch notes, but two stand out.  The first is Balphagore's Ultimate Aura gaining charges faster.  It's not a huge mega buff like he needs, but it's a step in the right direction.  Personally, I approve of rebalancing heroes and items in minor ways.  Drastic changes are no good for the meta-game.  The second, and the one that I'm the most grateful for, is the moderate buff to Engineer.  Changing his energy field from percentage-based to static values was bad, especially for an already weak hero, so now they've increased the damage values.  It doesn't fully resolve the most recent issue, and definitely doesn't bring Engineer back from unplayably bad, but it is a step in the right direction.  Lowering the cooldown on Keg is a nice little buff, but until Engineer has significant farm, it doesn't really do him any good, considering how terrible his mana pool is at early levels.  Either way, those two heroes are in serious need of consideration and this patch shows that S2 is at least thinking about bringing them back to playable.

S2Nome : Regarding F2P and EAP

  An S2 designer's viewpoint on F2P/EAP

We are our harshest critics

First things first; as you already likely know, I am employed by S2 Games, and therefore you should come into this topic with tempered expectations. However, if I may, I will ask you to, for the purposes of this thread, take me primarily not as a mouthpiece for my company, but first and foremost a fervent fan of Heroes of Newerth.

When the Early Access Program (EAP) was first announced to the designers several months ago, I was initially apprehensive to the thought. As I sat in Maliken's office along with everyone else, there were a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. I wondered why we were doing this, how the playerbase would respond, and I felt conflicted because I knew that we would effectively be reneging on the avowal of shunning pay-for-power, something every single employee of S2 Games prided ourselves in doing.  

But here's the reality:

Dear Community: F2P & Early Access

HoN Players,

As you may have heard, HoN is now operating under a new, free-to-play model. This was a strategic transition intended to grow our community and solidify HoN as a major player in the ever-growing genre. A thriving player base is part of the content that makes HoN great. This transition empowers us to grow an even larger, more active player base, which will ultimately benefit everyone.

How does this affect you? As an existing player, your account has been automatically upgraded to a Legacy account, giving you free access to the general hero pool. New heroes may be released as part of the Early Access Program which allows you to purchase the ability to play these heroes prior to being available for FREE in the general hero pool.

With a Legacy account, you will also have the option to play in Verified Only games, to ensure that dedicated and vested players can be seperated from Basic (free-to-play non-verified accounts) accounts. If you'd like to play with friends who are joining HoN for the first time, you can also participate in Basic games to show them the ropes. With a free-to-play model, we remove a significant barrier to entry to allow you to bring new players to the game.

Our main goal at S2 Games is to remain committed to making the best game possible and ensure our existing players continue to stay engaged and challenged with new HoN blood in the community. Thank you for remaining loyal and supporting HoN.

Read the F2P FAQ HERE ! 
Join the "discussion" in Reddit 

[S2]Maliken

S2 Staff Member

Patch 2.1 - Free 2 Play Patch

Version 2.1.0.2
---------
- Fixed graphics corruption for Macs
- Tweaked selection coloring
- Fixed Basic members in a group hosted by a Verified player never being able to ready up

Version 2.1.0
---------

- Heroes of Newerth is now Free to Play!

* Please read Maliken's Letter to the Playerbase
* Please refer to our forums for an FAQ that will answer most questions about what this means to you


== Account Type Explanation ==

- Basic: The standard, free account new players will receive upon sign up.
* Access to the weekly 15 free heroes
* Matchmaking restricted to All Pick
* Can purchase access to additional Heroes through the in-game store

- Verified: Basic accounts that have been upgraded through a show of commitment to their account, by either purchasing Goblin Coins or surpassing a certain threshold of play time
* Access to everything a basic player has, plus the ability to participate in Verified Only Matchmaking, to guarantee separation from Basic players if desired
* Can choose to play all matchmaking modes, however the use of Tokens or Passes are required (some tokens are awarded once a Basic account upgrades to Verified)

- Legacy: anyone with a paid HoN account before the F2P switch has automatically been upgraded to a "Legacy" account
* Access to Verified Only matchmaking
* Can continue to play all game modes without the need for Tokens or Passes
* Will continue to enjoy free access to the general hero pool

Downtime, Friday July 29 -- 6:00 AM EST

We will be taking down the logins, chatserver, database, and master servers for up to 3 hours starting at 6:00 AM EST.
Games in progress will not be ended but stat submissions past this time might not submit correctly (or at all!).

We apologize for the inconvenience.

[S2]Idejder

S2 Staff Member

2.1 HoN Patch Preview Showmatch : [MSI] vs [OK]

So what do you guys think about the new Spec UI?

Idejder's Patch 2.1 Hints :
- 2 Neutrals( not new neutrals, but Wild Hunters get changes)
- Courier( maybe another new alt. courier I guess? )
- An item or two ( balance/tweaks? )
- 9 Heroes got balanced tweaks
- 35 bugfixes

And while I read those stuff in here maybe we are going to have another alt.avt for unknown hero, and one of them should be Redneck Alt.Avt for Drunken Master(as what you guys can see in DM Hero Spotlight)

Drunken Master Hero Spotlight

We will have Western Version of Drunken Master Alt.Avt and again another BS censored hero, is it Master of Arm, Blade Dancer or maybe Serqet(Geomancer) ?

Drunken Master Mini Hero Guide :

Patch Preview with MSI and OK exhibition match!

The upcoming patch this Friday, July 29 has some awesome new content that we have been working on and polishing for weeks. Together with BreakyCPK and Honcast, we've set up an exhibition match with Fnatic.MSI (MSI) and Online Kingdom (OK) on our Release Canidate client.

On Thursday there will be an awesome showmatch involving these two teams. By tuning in, you'll get an early preview of our revamped SpecUI, with awesome new features such as more charts and less clutter. This match will also showcase two of the upcoming heroes - Drunken Master and Monkey King.

You can expect to see all of this:

2 New Heroes : Monkey King and Drunken Master

A New Spectator/Replay UI

New Announcer Pack : British Announcer Pack

So tell your friends to make sure to tune into HoNcast Thursday for the MSI and OK exhibition match showing off the new content!

Dont forget to read Behind The Scene of Drunken Master and Monkey King post by SoundWizard in :
http://audiotorygaming.blogspot.com/

Monkey King Hero Spotlight

Drunken Master is in Playable State and White Owl Zephyr Alt Avt coming soon !

Monkey King Mini Hero Guide :

Alienware Coin Giveaway and IGN Tournaments

Redeem your coins now !
note : only can be used once 

Are you just a few coins shy of getting that item you've been wanting in the Goblin Store? Alienware Arena has you covered! Get 100 Gold Goblin Coins by signing up on Alienware Arena. Get your coins by going to http://alienwarearena.com/giveaway/hon!

Looking to score even more by showing your skill? Subscribe to IGN Prime (free for one month) and sign-up for their Noob Bash or Pro Beatdown tournament. Winners will receive a HoN Collectible PC Chassis and 2,000 Gold Goblin Coins for the Noob Bash or 4,000 Gold Goblin Coins for the Pro Beatdown. Hurry to http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/hon/. Sign-ups end soon!  

[S2]Konran

S2 Staff Member

 

Patch 2.0.40 - Flint Boomstick

This is a small bugfix patch. Expect big things soon!

Version 2.0.40.3
-------------
- Old replays should now work correctly

Version 2.0.40.2
-------------
- Fixing the Alt Avatar in the Store

Version 2.0.40
-------------

- Added a new Alt Avatar: Flint Boomstick

- The Tutorial should be much more functional
- Moraxus' Shield Bar should be fixed
- Tweaked tooltips for Revenant

HonBlog 2 Years Anniversary

Corrupted Disciple by Erenarik

This blog was developed 2 years ago, on 21th July 2009 around 9PM at night GMT +7, first time I know about HON by S2Games and Im interested in making a blog about it, so I rushed collecting material to post and gather more information about it, it took 3 hours to make it finish for the soft opening.It was a closed beta stage, but I didnt have a single beta key until 3 months later maybe.
Today HonBlog have 995,461 pageviews and 3000+ pageviews every day, thanks to you guys for visiting this blog.Also lots of achievement for this blog, remembering Garena HON use this blog as their source too, its a huge appreciation for me, also Maide and other S2Staff acknowledge this blog too.
My dream is HonBlog can be more familiar around HON Players and this blog can be no.1 source blog of HON for all players, that's all I want to say for now and again thank you !

2.0.39 NAKED Triple Stacking

Triple Stacking with no item(range only) and no skill used(both range and melee)

Its a very good guide made by xZIGGY and the video guide by APMINTHEHOLE, read the thread and explaination here
 

S2Nome Dev Blog : Monkey King aka Harlequin

The Monkey King stands triumphantly atop the snow-capped peak. Who will challenge this conqueror of the heavens and proprietor of chaos? He has endured a grueling journey to completion, rife with change and sacrifice. Let's see his transformation from a humble harlequin to a peerless disciple of immortals.

The Harlequin was one of my first submitted designs as a community member in 2009; an agility hero who manipulated opponents' movement, whose gameplay was not just at the behest of the player, but followed an implied cadence that dictated a forceful, forward flow. Even after I was hired, I had long desired to implement some form of the Harlequin, but ran into a myriad of problems in its practical implementation, specifically with Carousel. Though it seemed innovative on paper, the manipulation of facing direction and turn rate felt unnatural and unintuitive to the affected players. I decided to effectively start from scratch with the abilities, only keeping an activated, targeted version of the Hop passive that eventually became Heavenly Vault, an ability that became characteristic of the hero's new identity as the Monkey King. This motif is of special importance--it's one of China's most valued mythological figures, and so it was an honor to take inspiration from its rich lore.

HonBlog : Interview with S2Nigma

S2Nigma presents : The Drunken Master !

First of all I would like to thank S2Nigma to let me have an interview with him even it's just via email, and I hope you guys can understand that this is my first time doing this thing, and I hope you guys will like it.

Here you go then :

An2x :  So first of all lets start with an introduction of yourself Sir, short bio and your position in S2Games

S2Nigma : Hello, My name is Markus Steiner and I'm the Community Manager for Heroes of Newerth. It's my job to bring the Community and the Developers closer together by making sure they are always on the same wavelength. I compile Community complaints, suggestions and compliments into objective reports and present them to the designers. I consider myself a member community (in addition to S2 Staff), meaning that I will often join active discussions on forums and argue my side of the story while listening to theirs. I was picked up by S2 originally as a video editor back when I worked or Honcast, where I made weekly tutorial and top 10 videos. I'm somewhat of a walking HoN encyclopedia, and I'm often involved in helping design or fine-tune systems that have to do with making the game more accessible to new players, such as tutorials, videos, or websites. I also wrote and co-designed the Prodex, a flash based HoN guide for all heroes that was out before the current in-game guide system. 

Jungling Guide by Minoxen

$10 HoN Account Sale

Tell your friends: HoN accounts are now on sale for only $10! We are celebrating having over 500,000 accounts, and there has never been a better time to get an account. With the guides feature, your friends can learn the game faster than ever. Get yourself 500 Gold Goblin Coins with a friend referral, while making sure your friends don't miss out on the opportunity to enjoy one of the best multiplayer games for just $10! Refer your friends today at http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/referral.php!
[S2]Konran

S2 Staff Member

 

Honcast Top 10 Plays: Volume 10

Patch 2.0.39 Changelog - Revenant and Sol's Bulwark Patch

Version 2.0.39.1
-------------
- Fixing an auth error (Uploading a new installer now)

Version 2.0.39
-------------
- Added new chat color, Royal Tanzanite
- Added new Alt Courier, Robot Courier
- Stat Resets and Sub Accounts can be bought in the Store with Gold Coins

Scheduled Maintenance - HoN downtime - Tuesday 7/19 3:00am - 8:00am EST

Hey everyone,

We've got some scheduled maintenance coming that will result in HoN being down for a few hours next Tuesday, July 19th, from about 3am-8am EST.

During this time we will be moving from our temporary solution (on which HoN is currently running) to a more permanent setup - at which point we can re-activate features like the XML site, for those of you in need of that.

All in all this is just another step in solidifying the HoN online experience, and shouldn't take long.

[S2]Fielding
S2 Staff Member

 

Subscribe to IGN Prime and get Dryad Warden

Dryad Warden

 Join the IGN Prime HoN Take-Over! Subscribe to IGN Prime today for a FREE trial. You’ll get a free permanent Dryad Warden- available exclusively to IGN Prime members during this promotion, 200 Gold & 200 Silver Goblin Coins, HoN training videos from the S2 dev team, and access to IGN Prime-only tournaments with $1,000’s worth of prizes.

The temporary Leprechaun Blacksmith is no longer being given out for this promotion. All players who have already signed up for IGN Prime will receive a permanent Dryad Warden, as will all people who sign up moving forward.

Visit http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/hon/index.aspx to sign up for your FREE IGN Prime trial and to get your FREE HoN loot.

EDIT: If you already redeemed your IGN Prime promocode, you don't need to do anything. This will be automatic.


[S2]Konran
S2 Staff Member
 

Regarding Leprechaun Blacksmith & IGN

 Again sorry for late update, im off to bed now, and where is Bloodseeker!?

Hey guys,

Clearly, a lot of people are upset about the Leprechaun Blacksmith situation. I'd like to clarify a few points that I think will help everyone feel a lot better.

Apologies for not being more transparent, but this has all happened pretty quick so we haven't had much time to respond. There was some miscommunication internally that lead to a poor choice of words in the announcements - Leprechaun Blacksmith is NOT unlocked permanently for IGN prime subscribers, they simply have temporary access to him for the duration of the promotion (30 days). After which, he goes away from those accounts.

Those of you who purchased Leprechaun Blacksmith during his limited availability still have something special no one else has - you have access to him for all time. No one else has that. Those who got him "free" do not get to use him indefinitely.

ALL store items 50% OFF!

Too bad, freshman week, goddamn slow internet connection and havent patch to 2.0.38 so i cant buy anything

Citizens of Newerth, feel free to rejoice in the 50% off sale on ALL items in the store! Merrick has a sensitive and low tolerance for caffeine, and after sprouting wings, he’s been running about, and bouncing off the walls in excitement! This sale will last until Thursday (7/14) at 5PM EDT when his energy rush fades away. Take advantage of the incredible deal while he’s still bouncing about!

[S2]MsPudding

S2 Staff Member

FREE Leprechaun Blacksmith & Goblin Coins !

And yes I know you guys mad about the LeprechaunSmith Giveaway

Join the IGN Prime HoN Take-Over! Become an IGN Prime member today for FREE. You’ll get Leprechaun Blacksmith, 200 Gold & 200 Silver Goblin Coins, HoN training videos from the S2 dev team, and access to IGN Prime-only tournaments with $1,000’s worth of prizes.

Visit http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/hon/index.aspx to sign up for your FREE IGN Prime trial and to get your FREE HoN loot.

[S2]S2Lulu

S2 Staff Member

Step by step to register without getting any bill Jnas:

0:35 Pandaren Model

First off all, I would like to post it officially that I have a Freshmen Week, the first College Activity for freshmen before enter the university.And it makes me very busy from 4AM to 6PM exclude assignment time, im afraid that I cant online as much as I do as usual, so I hope Bloodseeker will help me to update the blog just from the forum.Since Blackberry is not allowed in the events, so I cant update the twitter or check for updates.And Im sorry for this inconvinience, I will be back after 1 week from today on 19th July.
And also I'm sorry for the Interview with S2Nigma, I will send the questions to him later next week, but please keep posting your questions.That's all and thanks.

Now back to the topic, just downloaded the hero spotlight, and I found that Revenant is an old model hero from savage, i will update the post with his picture later, but his fire is red not blue.
The hot topic about the hero spotlight isnt the new hero, but the Pandaren Model in 0:35 in the video.
In my opinion, it's a placeholder model for an upcoming hero the Drunken Master using Pandaren Model by Blacryu, since S2 used BlacRyu's Green Archer as Warden Place holder model we can assume that S2 use another BlacRyu's Model as a placeholder.It has a small chance to be an alt avatar since it's 99% the same as DotA Pandaraen Model.

Upcoming Hero Preview and Spotlight : Revenant

We've got a sneak peak for the upcoming hero, Revenant! This time, we've got an early spotlight for all of you to salivate over.

Revenant is a ranged Intelligence hero that can be played a variety of different ways. He is primarily a support ganker that can lead group ganks that are capable of deciding the outcome of a game. Play him, and decide for yourself what style suits your Revenant best!

Revenant will haunt Newerth and release its dementor-esque thingies this Friday, July 15th.

HonBlog : S2Nigma Interview

I asked S2Maide, S2Nome, and S2Nigma about getting an interview with them, but S2Maide cant have an interview, no answer from S2Nome yet, and S2Nigma confirm that he can have an interview.To the point already, I want to collect your questions for S2Nigma, he's the community manager and FYI, he wont answer the question that he cant answer.So please put your question and i will pick the best 10 questions or I will add my own questions.Make it constructive, polite and make sense.No spamming or anything like that.
I will close the entry on Friday 16th.

Note :  
Nigma cant answer about design related question, so please ask about community related question. 
Dont forget to put your name on the comment, if you use anonymous please write it down/after your question.

[OFF TOPIC] Dota-Allstars.Com Coming Soon - UPDATED

So, I opened NeutralCreeps.Com few seconds ago and found a post about it, and I think its good to post it here.
The picture says all, so Dota-Allstars.com is going back soon, but what will we have there?Sorry by the way, I didnt play DotA as many as i play HON and I played DOTA not for a long time, so you can say that I tottally blank about dota-allstars.com.
But there is something interesting in the letter, and i quoted it here :

" While I originally intended to leave this out of this letter, in light of the fact that this information is now out in the open, I think it’s important to set the record straight. Many believe that Icefrog left because I wanted to commercialize, and he did not. In reality – I had learned that Icefrog had been secretly working for S2Games after conducting a series of meetings where he was attempting to sell a full DotA game concept to a number of companies (including Riot). The differences of opinion that we had were merely that I chose to be transparent and honest about the project that I was working on, and the direction my career was going. " - Pendragon

So does it mean something?And I realized, there was a topic like this, but im not sure if the letter is exactly the same, it was last year or last 2 years ago.

UPDATE : Join the HOT discussion in Reddit and read about HOT opinion in GosuGamer !!!

So is it true that HON cant port anymore heroes since the contract ends in DotA v6.60?

Nomerology : The Next Generation MOBA #1

Deadwood by derhaudi

In this series, we’ll explore some of the problems that face the genre, and how it must evolve to remain fresh and relevant. Do not miscontrue any of this as an intended design direction for HoN; these are simply my musings and expectations.

Problem: There exists an overemphasis placed upon the picking phase; that is to say, your hero picks represent a disproportionate contributor to the result of a match versus how well the heroes are actually played and strategies are executed. This problem largely arises from the relative immutability of individual heroes; heroes are designed such that they fulfill a largely singular goal, resulting in picking strategies delineating a rigid, inflexible role for each participant that is unforgiving to change. The item system tailors to this notion by not providing enough viable alternatives to a theoretically optimal build. Experimentation is generally frowned upon, as the harsh design of the systems encompassing the game simply fails to account for variability in play style.

Solution: Reduce the hero count, yet give each hero more session-based variability by introducing more than the “standard” four abilities, some of which should allow for completely different styles of play. Allow players to customize their heroes by creating a deficit of skill points; you shouldn’t be able to invest into every ability fully each game. Finally, introduce talent trees and other modifiers that would change how abilities are used. Right now, your hero picks out your strategy because you are effectively locked into strategic commitment due to role immutability. By shifting the emphasis from the picking phase to the playing phase, where most of the action takes place–or should take place–you create a much healthier and dynamic atmosphere of play.

Read Full Article in S2Nome's Blog

HONicle : 2.0.38 Patch Analysis

Today we see three major item reworks and a new item, the first since Spellshards.  It was said by S2Nome a while ago that new items are much more difficult to balance than new heroes, since they have to be tested on every single hero before they can be released, so it’s good to see that S2 is still hard at work.  Without further waiting, let’s look at the changes.

Astrolabe

Old:

• 803gp Shield of the Five (Ringmail + Minor Totem + 200gp Recipe)
• 603gp Refreshing Ornament (Minor Totem + Trinket of Restoration + 200gp Recipe)
• 900gp Astrolabe Recipe
• Passive Benefits:  +5 Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Armor, 900 radius aura granting +3 health regeneration
• Activation Costs:  150 mana, 45 second cooldown
• Benefits:  Self and nearby allies healed for 250 HP and +2 armor for 25 seconds.  Allies cannot be healed by Astrolabe while buff is active

Patch 2.0.38 - Energizer, Phantom Defiler, and Rat Alt.Courier

 

Version 2.0.38
-------------
- Fixed hitting S or H while connecting to a server causing the game to never load
- Updated text when disconnecting from Matchmaking to be more clear
- Fixed players respawning attached to projectiles when Gore Taunted when "no respawn timers" is set
- Fixed custom account icons counting as modified files for the purposes of Tournament Rules
- Fixed exploit with Rampage and Blood Hunter reveal gadgets
- Fixes to Emerald Warden bugs with Nullstone and Magic Immunity
- Nullstone effects tweaked

So we will have Emerald Warden Alt.Avt later?

- Added new Alt Avatar: Phantom Defiler

- Added new Alt Courier: Rat Courier

S2Diva's Drunken Master Dev Blog: Episode 3

  bloody awesome concept art for Drunken Master, courtesy of aforementioned amazing S2 artists

Hi homeos, Diva here with episode 3 of our developer's blog on Drunken Master, an upcoming hero. A quick update on Drunken Master: he has been getting testing in the test client, has created some pretty cool moments, and is overall shaping up to be pretty cool. This section of the Drunken Master blog will focus on his pre-test patch iteration internally here at the S2 office, as well as his test client iteration.


Behind Closed Doors in the Smoke Filled Room:

When we first started the poll for which hero to focus on in this dev blog series, many players expressed concerns about the alternate mana mechanic that was meant to be used on Drunken Master. This outcry grew yet louder when the design doc was unveiled in the first episode of the dev blog, and we took it to heart. We were ourselves initially skeptical of the alternate mana mechanic; I personally was not sure how integral to the hero's design and feel the mechanic was, and whether its benefits outweighed the negatives. So we sat down over several lunches and discussed the merits of the "drunk bar" over a standard mana bar, as well as potential alternatives. The main alternatives that were presented were:

Introducing : Community Events!

UPDATE :Community Event 7/9/11 : Drop Totems 

Community events are periodic days where you will have the opportunity to play a special kind of match. The scheduled matches may be anything from a normal game with item restrictions to a theme game such as Devo Wars or Drop Totems! These games will change often, and the winners will be rewarded with coins or items from the shop!

There is a Zero Tolerance rule in place for griefing. For the purpose of this event, the match rules should be considered game rules. If an individual is griefing a game, he should be kicked using vote kick and reported to Kisheek afterwards. If an entire team is griefing, attempt to play the game out, then report the incident to Kisheek afterwards.
Griefing of ANY sort will result in the offender(s) being disqualified and possibly blacklisted.

HonBlog : 2 New Categories

So today I decided to make 2 new categories, HONCast TOP 10 Plays Video and HONicle.
HONCast TOP 10 Plays, it will represent the video section and HONicle is an exclusive article made by HONBlog visitors and it will represent the exclusive article section.
So that's all for now and I hope you guys will like it.
Also I keep waiting for you guys that are interested in submitting your hero guide to HONBlog !

Honcast Top 10 Plays - RuthlessVoid's Picks

HONicle : Pushing, Not Just for Bullies Anymore

 Devourer by magicantmilty

Pushing: Not Just for Bullies Anymore by Thomas Draper

At its most basic, pushing in HoN is the simple act of assaulting a tower. Of course there is a lot more to it than just attacking towers. There are significant advantages and disadvantages to pushing a tower, some of which are obvious and some of which are more subtle. The obvious advantage of taking a tower is that your team splits well over one-thousand gold pieces. The obvious disadvantage is that your lane is pushed and farming that lane is nigh impossible for the next few minutes, in addition to potentially granting the enemy carry some free farm if lane control is not maintained after the push.

One of the most important, yet somewhat unnoticed aspects of pushing is in the aftermath of a partial push, or a push in which the tower doesn’t die but significant damage is done to it. If the tower hits that magical mark where it can be denied but your team doesn’t kill it, you did something wrong. In many cases discretion would be the wisest choice, but, in pubs especially, the concept of a defensive retreat is generally lost on the group and many near-kill pushes result in a rout and a denied tower, hurting the team’s potential gold advantage from the tower kill and pushing the lane into a good defensive position for the other team to farm your lane creeps. If the tower doesn’t hit the deny range and you can pull your creep wave back before the enemy heroes come in to counterpush, congratulations. Of course, the beauty is in the details. If the other team can establish lane control around a weak but not-yet-deniable tower, it’s quite possible that they can pull the lane back enough that one of your catapults will bring it within deny range and they can still get a free deny.

There are two major decision making aspects of pushing that are important and that we will also look at soon. The first is based in immediate analysis of the current situation and the second is in the selection of characters that are good for pushing or for anti-pushing (sometimes called turtling). I am going to discuss both, mostly separate, although there is really only a very fine line between the two.

Heroes of Newerth #10 Newsletter

 

Read the Vol.10 Newsletter here with Rat Alt.Courier and HONGarena officialy launched