A lot of questions from someone new to HoN

[Cade]

So I recently purchased HoN and I have a few questions.

1. What is the purpose of luring/double stacking jungle creeps to bot/top lane (depending on your team?) I heard about it but I have yet to see it in any of my games.

2. What are the jungle spawn timers? Such as how the runes are 0:00 2:00 etc..

3. Are there any level 1 strats? The ones I see most are just 3 top rune 2 bot rune or vice versa.

4. What do you do when you are against a hard lane like Pyro Magmus or just plain outpicked in a lane? It takes a long time to get any Null item before they get their beefy combo, plus that delays some carry's builds.

5. What heroes are generally considered OP/strong picks and bans? UP/bad picks?

6. What can I do to help my mana early on for certain champions who are very mana reliant? Is buying a manatube early a bad choice, or not always?

7. Is blood chalice early/altogether a strong item? I like the mana it returns, but then it also costs health and the health regen on it is minimal and usually I wouldn't imagine grabbing life steal on INT heroes.

8. It always seems to me like your hero is not that much stronger after items. Am I mistaken or what? Maybe I play too much :witc:

[Draintrainy]

1.) Approach the creep-camp at xx:50-52. They'll follow you, and you have to pull them from their camp as far as you know. If they aren't close to their camps at xx:00, the new set of creeps will spawn.

2.) Every minute, apart from the start. Their first spawn is at 00:30.

3.) Depends on your team, it seems. Keep 'em balanced..

4.) Swap lanes ASAP, or call for ganks.

5.) IDK... many of them:D Chronos, Scout, Arachna.. but every of them have a great counter, and can be killed if you don't let them farmed.

6.) Blood Chalcie, i would say.

7.) It's a really great and useful item, if you use it well. After sacrifice, a fast gank, or some runes of blight..

8.) Well, try different items. As a Witch Slayer, go for Astroblade, and then you're free to choose... Sheepstick or Windstick for another disable, or Nome's Wisdom for more support, Wards to help.

[Axas]

Will just add some

1. You pull the creeps if the bottom(legion) or top(hellbourne) lane is pushed, or, if the opponent lane is owning you badly. That way you get more creepkills and let your teammate get lasthits at tower aswell.

2. X:00

4. You can roam aswell as pull if you're top(hb) or bot(legion). Hug towers in the worst case.

5. There are a few threads with good/bad picks. Check a few honcast replays, you might get an idea of what heroes are often picked in competetive play.
@Draintrainy, - scout nor arachna have any crowd control. Chronos requires a good player.

6. You can always get a couple of manapotions, or not waste your abilities til level 3, 5, et cetera.

7. Good on some heroes, others don't need it. You wouldn't get it on scout or magebane, for example.

8. Witchslayer must be played as support. Buy your team a courier and support them with a bunch of wards.
Heroes that have passives are most likely item dependant. You'll figure everything out within time. Consider sticking to gankers/supports. If you don't know where to place wards, give them to other players, they'll take care of it, and the ward you bought will count as "placed ward".

And don't call heroes champions. Get's on peoples nerves.
Also, try out hero with his abilities in practice mode once before playing. Helps alot.
Try out every hero. You will get better eventually.
Hope I helped atleast a little.

[SmackTrickz`]

I also would like to add that pulling creeps makes only sense if you pull double stacked camp, as otherwise neutrals won't kill your whole wave and it can only make matter worse as they will join next wave and proceed to push. Stacking is very important for farm purposes for carries: especially melee hard carries with runed axe.

If you get strong lane, you should either call for gank/swap or start roaming and setting up some ganks. No need to stay on lost lane and die.
If you're carry just keep pulling and stacking, clear easy camps etc.

Strong picks, well its different case on different pub levels. Your pubby lineup should consist of strong support, another support aimed for ward*****, ganker, carry, aoe initiator (:witc::glac::pebb::fors::magm:) . That's very simplistic though, as sometimes your team can decide to go like heavy-push strat (:poll::slit::deme::defi::balp:) or heavy-turtle (:wret::temp::souls::sand::behe:).

Blood chalice is considered very good item, remember it returns hp if you kill someone using mana of it during 15 seconds. Also mana >>>> hp in hon.

INT heroes remain useful in late game due to cc or fast initiation (try grabbing portal key or hex on witch slayer). Heroes that benefit most from items are called hard carries: :mage::sand::dark::chro::scou: etc.

[Boet]

Q-1. What is the purpose of luring/double stacking jungle creeps to bot/top lane (depending on your team?) I heard about it but I have yet to see it in any of my games.
A-1. Helps prevent your lane from over-extending. Helps gain additional experience for your lane. Allows you to potentially deny, or kill a whole wave of your own creeps so that your opponents don't get a chance for that experience or gold.

Q-2. What are the jungle spawn timers? Such as how the runes are 0:00 2:00 etc..
A-2. Starting at 00:30, then every minute starting at 1:00, 2:00, and so on

Q-3. Are there any level 1 strats? The ones I see most are just 3 top rune 2 bot rune or vice versa.
A-3. Some teams that plan ahead may send 4-5 to a rune, or to the opposing jungle hoping to catch 1-3 of the other heroes and get first blood. In a recent competitive game on HonCast a level 1 team rushed and killed kongor before the one-minute mark (don't count on this in pubs ^.- )

Q-4. What do you do when you are against a hard lane like Pyro Magmus or just plain outpicked in a lane? It takes a long time to get any Null item before they get their beefy combo, plus that delays some carry's builds.
A-4. This is where you need to adapt to the situation. You may need to change up your lanes on the fly. Or you may need to call out for a gank from your mid lane asap. Hug the tower, if your lane starts to push too far out (over-extending) then lure your jungle creeps to the lane to pull a wave. Either way, play conservative until you get a gank or leave the lane.

Q-5. What heroes are generally considered OP/strong picks and bans? UP/bad picks?
A-5. This is a tricky question because it's based on the skill level of the game you're in. The bans in noob games may be on Plague Rider and Swift Blade, whereas the bans in competitive games may be on Dr. Repulsor and Bombadier. This is situational and likely to change from one patch to the next. To see what heroes are getting banned in competitive play watch HonCast games.
As for the strong picks - this is highly situational and there is no one-rule to follow. Just play adaptive and use your head in every scenario.

Q-6. What can I do to help my mana early on for certain champions who are very mana reliant? Is buying a manatube early a bad choice, or not always?
A-6. Mana potions are underrated in beginner games and almost always picked up on all heroes in competitive games. Depending on the situation you can use the courier to bring you a bottle asap (not generally a good starter item unless you're going mid in some situations). Blood Chalice can be good depending on the situation. Also a Ring of the Teacher :RingOfTheTeacher: has its place in the right situation.

Q-7. Is blood chalice early/altogether a strong item? I like the mana it returns, but then it also costs health and the health regen on it is minimal and usually I wouldn't imagine grabbing life steal on INT heroes.
A-7. Very situational item. It's even very useful on melee STR heroes like :devo: :pebb: :phar: when used in conjunction with the right other items and again, in the right situation. There are times on these same heroes when you should never get a Blood Chalice. Depends on the lane situation and your team/opposing team.

Q-8. It always seems to me like your hero is not that much stronger after items. Am I mistaken or what? Maybe I play too much :witc:
A-8. Not sure about the question. Some heroes are more item-dependent than others depending on how early/late the game is, the hero, and the items.

[Shinzuwa]

1. What is the purpose of luring/double stacking jungle creeps to bot/top lane (depending on your team?) I heard about it but I have yet to see it in any of my games.
You stack because you want to optimize your carrys farm. You pull because you want as much solo xp as possible (it also gives some gold and xp to the one doing the pulling), usually you doublestack before pulling as it kills the creepwave.

2. What are the jungle spawn timers? Such as how the runes are 0:00 2:00 etc..
At XX:00 as long as there's noone in the camp (corpses/heroes/other living stuff/wards), because of this you're able to stack camps.

3. Are there any level 1 strats? The ones I see most are just 3 top rune 2 bot rune or vice versa.
Yes, but not really commonly seen. One would be killing kongor pre 00:00 (req certain heroes), another would be a 4 or 5 man gank in either jungle (suppousing the enemies stands waiting for the rune, you enter the jungle another way and sneak upon your enemies from the back).

4. What do you do when you are against a hard lane like Pyro Magmus or just plain outpicked in a lane? It takes a long time to get any Null item before they get their beefy combo, plus that delays some carry's builds.
Play defensive and take advantage of their mistakes. Ganking them. Go into the forest, giving solo xp. Pulling is important. If everything else fail you can alway go gank the other lanes.

5. What heroes are generally considered OP/strong picks and bans? UP/bad picks?
Watch some honcast to get a feeling of this http://www.fileplay.net/channels/honcast (no hero is really bad, some are just more situational (maybe except rampage)), the banned heroes are usually the most powerfull, then the picked ones. But most heroes are actually good, if played right. :doct: is permabanned in the comp scene, so I'd say him to answer your question.

6. What can I do to help my mana early on for certain champions who are very mana reliant? Is buying a manatube early a bad choice, or not always?
Mana potions? Having another pick glacius. Rushing a bloodchalice (recomended on most str heroes and some more, works well in combination with a bottle). Manatube is good if you build it into something else (runed axe, nullstone, sheepstick or whatever), don't get it on your own.
Ring of the Teacher is popular for ranged carries too.
Powersupply is a good all around early item. I think it's enough, most of the time, for mana hungry flint.

7. Is blood chalice early/altogether a strong item? I like the mana it returns, but then it also costs health and the health regen on it is minimal and usually I wouldn't imagine grabbing life steal on INT heroes.
Oh yes it's good. Don't get it on int heroes, unless you have a bottle and need more mana, int heroes have other ways of getting mana. As I said, prefered on a str hero or in combo with bottle.

8. It always seems to me like your hero is not that much stronger after items. Am I mistaken or what? Maybe I play too much :witc:
If you buy a sheepstick, then 3 sec extra disable on the über farmed warbeast means a lot. 5 sec silence on dr repulsor from hellflower is also huge. The initiation from a magmus with a portalkey compared to without 1 is huge too. I'd rather face a lvl 25 gladiator without items than one with helm of the black legion, assassins shroud, lvl4 riftshards and behemoth heart.
But you're right in one way, your hero dosn't get too strong from items, but they do get stronger, and buying the wrong items might result in a loss. It's balanced m8 :) Oh, and you're also right that carries benefit more from farm than any other role, that's why you should give them all the farm. chronos>nymphora when it comes to farm.

[AndrewReily]

So I recently purchased HoN and I have a few questions.

1. What is the purpose of luring/double stacking jungle creeps to bot/top lane (depending on your team?) I heard about it but I have yet to see it in any of my games.
Pulling is the normally used word, instead of luring. It's purpose is to keep the lane closer to your tower, so as your lane mate gains easy farm / xp.

All the while, you get jungle XP, and you try to kill your creeps with the enemy heroes far away.

You double stack, because generally a normal creep wave can beat a single stack of jungle creeps. Which means, that you'll be doing a counter productive move, because not only will there be the original wave pushing forward, but also a slightly weaked half creep wave pushing wiht it, obviously this will end up near THEIR tower.

Double stacking, allows you to deny entire waves from the enemy, and reset a push to their tower to be at your tower instead.
It's VERY important, not to push the lane pre-maturely.

2. What are the jungle spawn timers? Such as how the runes are 0:00 2:00 etc..
1:00 and on the min, like it's been said.

3. Are there any level 1 strats? The ones I see most are just 3 top rune 2 bot rune or vice versa.

In a public game setting, all you will see is rune fights. If you watch competive they will sometimes have a set up to allow for earlier ganks, but rarely.

4. What do you do when you are against a hard lane like Pyro Magmus or just plain outpicked in a lane? It takes a long time to get any Null item before they get their beefy combo, plus that delays some carry's builds.

It may seem.. hurtful to leave a lane behind to be freefarmed by another hero. But, if your dying to a powerful combination, that is your only option.

Win someone else's lane, to make up for you losing yours.

That, or play hyper passive, allow them last hits, and just take whatever you can get in the end.

5. What heroes are generally considered OP/strong picks and bans? UP/bad picks?

It's more each player's preference, although it's been varying in meta-game (current state of the game) throughout the game's life.

Right now, top bans / picks would be DR, TB, mora, and some of the stronger supports like glac, and ws.

That takes time to learn the specialties of picking / banning.
alot of players still don't know it.


6. What can I do to help my mana early on for certain champions who are very mana reliant? Is buying a manatube early a bad choice, or not always?

Manatube shouldn't be bought early unless your a hero who is using it to be built up.

consumables (mana pots) should be your solution. But, keeping your mana at a decent level, and saving your spells somewhat is a skill in of it's self.
A bottle helps in the later game depending on heroes.


7. Is blood chalice early/altogether a strong item? I like the mana it returns, but then it also costs health and the health regen on it is minimal and usually I wouldn't imagine grabbing life steal on INT heroes.
It's ok to take the hit, you don't need life steal on any hero just because you got a blood chalice BUT, it's not an item meant for mana control with a lower skilled player.
It is a difficult item to get right, and against players that arn't up to my level, I salivate when I see it being popped. Just saying, it's really putting a big target on your head unless you know when and how to use it.
(not to mention most heroes you would get it on, shouldn't be farming that much to blow 650g on a mana control item in lower tier games. Spending it on survivability would be more beneficial. Something like a vestiments, or a bracer.)


8. It always seems to me like your hero is not that much stronger after items. Am I mistaken or what? Maybe I play too much :witc:

As you play this game more, you'll realize that certain heroes (:witc: included) need LITTLE to NO items to be effective. Boots and survivability (maybe mana control) will help you out, but their whole purpose is to make themselves known early game, then middle-late get off every spell possible without dying. And staying out in fights to try to help with fights)




seems you got alot of answers already, but here's my 2 cents (red words up above)