_Introduction_Welcome to HoN! If you're a fan of exciting, team-based multiplayer games, you'll find it a lot of fun. The first thing you should do is make sure you have the latest map. You can find it at the official download site, here.
HoN is set up as an epic, ten player battle that takes place over the course of about an hour-long game. There are ten players at a time, split into two teams of five. Each player takes control of one hero, and the teams fight it out across the battlefield with the help of computer controlled units and structures until one side destroys their opponents' Ancient. The Ancients are heavily defended structures situated in the middle of each base.
There is an incredible amount of depth to HoN's gameplay and at first it can be quite intimidating. Because of this, we've prepared a set of guides to help you learn the ropes of the game. However, we don't just tell you some of the basics, we have guides on advanced techniques as well, so that you'll have things to keep learning once you've mastered the fundamentals. We'll be updating and expanding these guides frequently, so don't be afraid to speak up and tell us what else you'd like to learn about!
_Basic Survival_Introduction
When your hero dies in HoN, several things happen: You have to wait a designated time (your level x 4 seconds) until you revive at your base fountain, the opponents gain experience and gold from killing you, and your allies lose a valuable asset temporarily. Dying in HoN can be an unpleasant experience, even more when it happens to less experienced players. These are a few fundamentals that you can learn will help you to stay alive when facing better opponents.
Starting the Game
Basic Items
A lot of newer players tend to go right for items like Boots of Speed or Gloves of Haste in the beginning of the game, and tend to ignore cheap ways of increasing your survivability dramatically; some even give you an offensive edge!
* Regeneration
Runes of the Blight: Runes provide uninterrupted healing so you can get right back to the middle of the action.
Health Potion: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Salves heal about 1/2 to 3/4 of your life early on.
Clarity Potion: Interrupted upon receiving damage, stay back after using. Allows you to cast more spells.
Bottle: Heals HP and mana. Empty Bottles automatically refill when you return to your fountain, making them useful all game. They can also store runes. For more information about rune powerups, visit here.
Power Supply: Accumulates heal/mana on standby, this item is great against opponents who use spells frequently.
* Statistic-Increasing
Crushing Claws / Duck Boots / Mark of the Novice: These items give you very minor +3 bonuses to a specific attribute
Pretenders Crown: +2 Rounded attribute bonuses usually if you intend to make Fortified Bracelets, Soulscream Rings and Talisman of Exiles
Minor Totem: +1 to stats, Cheap and effective, these fill out slot spaces nicely
Patience
Keep an eye on the timer at the top-right corner of your screen. When it counts down and reaches 0, that is when the first wave of creeps will spawn from your base and at your three towers and walk outwards. They will continue walking along the lanes until they reach the enemy creeps or tower. It is a good idea to stay near and behind these creeps because they can provide you with safety from enemy attack.
Creeps and Towers
Creeps
While you can easily kill one on its own, their strength lies in their numbers. A common mistake many players make is to engage multiple creeps by themselves. Stay behind the safety of your own creeps so that you can fight them at your leisure. Creeps spawn every 30 seconds.
Towers
The primary defensive measure for both teams, standing in the safety of your tower is a strong incentive for enemies to back off. Towers deal a sizable portion of your hit points in damage, making them powerful unless there are other targets already in their attack range. Try to figure out how far this distance is so that you do not take unnecessary damage.
Both creeps and towers will change their targets to attack you if you have chosen to attack an enemy hero in the vicinity. This can be seen clearly in our first example.
Example: In the first part, the creeps are content to attack each other until Sniper starts attacking the Priestess of the Moon, at which point they switch to attacking him. Note that the creeps do not go for the Priestess when she attacks the Sniper back because she is too far away from them. In the second part, the tower stops attacking the creeps in order to attack the Sniper when he attacks the Priestess.
Spells
Dying to spells is very common to new players who might not understand the individual effects or mechanics of the many heroes in HoN. There are hundreds of unique abilities in HoN, so it would appear to be very daunting to have to learn and read about EVERY single hero. Instead, try to place the spells that you have seen your opponents use into major categories so you know how to react to them in the future:
* Direct Damage
These spells often deal lots of damage quickly to an opponent, great for harassing and/or finishing them off. Try to be careful of these spells by keeping your current HP relatively high.
Examples: Sticky Bomb (Bombardier) and Decapitate (Legionnaire)
* Area of Effect
Affect only the area specified by your opponent. These spells can sometimes be avoided if you can be unpredictable as to confuse your opponents or keep your distance so that the spells do not reach you.
Examples: Sonar Scream (Wretched Hag) and Sawblade Showdown (The Chipper)
* Damage Over Time
Rather than instant damage, these abilities do their damage in segments but can come with extra effects, such as slow. While this will prevent Health Potion and Bottle from healing you, regeneration items and specific abilities or items such as Mekansm can still be used.
Examples: Poison Spray (Slither) and Flaming Hammer (Blacksmith)
* Disable/Stun
These spells stun you or prevent you from responding in some way - movement, attacking, casting spells, or sometimes in combination. Generally you have to watch your distance or have an ally to assist you in case this happens.
Examples: Tongue Tied (Pollywog Priest) and Succubus' Hold (Succubus)
* Buff/Debuff
These spells either make you or your allies stronger or opponents weaker in some way such as increasing damage, armor, prevention of status effects.
Examples: Protective Charm (Jeraziah) and Cursed Shield (Plague Rider)
Just be careful because sometimes certain spells fall under more than one category: the best way of dealing with these spells would be from gaining experience, learning from your mistakes, and good teamwork.
Buying Items
While it can be tempting to go for huge damage items like Buriza-do Kyanon and Radiance, it helps to know that buying items in a certain order can really help a lot for improving your survivability. Here are some tips:
* Fortified Bracelets/Soulscream Rings/Talisman of Exiles
Sometimes it can be useful to make 2-3 before going for more expensive items. They provide useful bonuses that help you survive and use more spells or deal more damage.
* Steamboots/ Ghost Marchers / Post Haste
Upgrading your footwear will also give you both a movement speed boost and may come with useful abilities. Steamboots are good if you want the attack speed, Ghost Marchers give you a little more damage and armor, and Post Haste gives you a teleportation ability to any allied unit.
* Buying order
Sometimes players tend to purchase items in the wrong order, so in order to explain this more thoroughly, let us look at the components of an item, the Linken's Sphere, which is comprised of:
Sustainer (Lifetube [875] + Manatube [875]) + Blessed Orb [2100] + Recipe [1325]
It is a good idea to start with the Lifetube or Manatube to help provide regeneration in the lane. This will help you survive and save up the 2100 for your Blessed Orb. Of course, if you were fortunate enough to get that much gold early then feel free to buy the more expensive component. NEVER BUY RECIPES FIRST.
* Homecoming Stone
The reason this item deserves special mention and its own category is because it is one of the most important items that EVERY hero gets. While you do not have to buy one at the beginning of the game, this item is extremely useful and provides you with the ability to escape from enemies or to defend your buildings. Be wary of its channeling time, because it can be interrupted by some spells and items. You definitely want to be carrying at least one of these at all times, especially later in the game.
The Map
The map terrain and features are not only for decorative purposes, something that newer players will understand very quickly when they are facing opponents who do have the knowledge to make use of the environment and playing field: Here are several aspects of basic understanding that will help you to learn about the static features of the HoN map:
* Elevation
Players in low areas cannot see enemies located above them: They also suffer a 25% miss chance when fighting higher targets. Players often get surprised when they seemingly get attacked without warning near a ramp. In short, the higher you are, the better.
* Terrain
There are many small pathways and little areas of trees that obscure vision and provide perfect hiding spots for your enemies. Sometimes it can be a good idea to run into the trees if you are trying to escape from them.
* Time
You will have less vision at night, making it easier for opponents to close in and surprise you. Bonus fact: Some heroes like Drow Ranger and Nightstalker have higher than normal vision at night. More information here.
* Crossing the River
The River divides up the territory between Sentinel and Scourge. Please be extremely cautious when you decide to travel across to the other half of the map. One of the most common mistakes for less experienced players to make is to fight creeps too far into the other side and eventually get killed as a result of this. Unless you are extremely confident in your abilities to escape, or bring allies with you, entering enemy territory alone will always result in an easy target for the opposing team to exterminate.
Example: Look at the trouble that Sniper gets into from crossing the river alone! This play by Sniper is doubly bad because he also goes uphill into the fog, which severely limits his vision. He can't see the enemy team lurking above him until it's too late.
Summary
Hopefully, after reading this guide and learning more about some fundamentals, you were able to pinpoint some of your mistakes as a newer player to HoN. Learning how creeps and towers function, dealing with spells, which items are useful, and understanding the map itself will allow you to better survive against players who have learned this through their experiences. Dying happens to everyone, use the knowledge gained by those deaths to improve as a player and you will be a great asset to your team in the near future.
I would like to come to a close by reminding you that HoN, while full of individual play and customization, is still a team game. Nothing gives you more survivability than the 4 allies fighting alongside you, so having coordination and teamwork can often be the difference between surviving together, or dying alone.
EPT
