Glorify1
06-04-2009, 09:15 PM
A lot of people who play this game don't seem to understand what makes a good team, and what makes a bad team. This guide is here to help you understand how to set up a team, and effectively out pick your opponents from the start.
First off, you'll have to learn what a good team is actually comprised of. Lots of players make the mistake of thinking you need a carry, a tank, and support. While generally this is true, taking any old heroes is hardly effective. You have to break down your team into far more complex groups to figure out what will win the game. For example, every team should have a solid initiator. You can label the hero what you want to label it, but an initiator goes in first, he's what signals your team to jump into the battle. His skills should heavily favor your team to win the team fight if landed correctly, and in turn disable or massively damage a large aoe of people. I'll list some examples:
-Axe (legionaire)
-Earthshaker (no idea his hon name)
-Venomancer(^)
-Warlock...dude(he summons a big ass dragon)
These heroes will effectively start the skirmish, the goal being obviously to wipe the entire enemy team. They're used, normally in conjunction with a blink dagger for positioning, to hit the opponent when they're in an undesirable position and previously thought they weren't in any danger. The best case scenario, you lock their team in stuns to the point where they cannot even counter with any damage, and completely wipe them.
Your team also needs a viable end game, which could be anything from a Krob to a dark lady. Most teams are based around big damage aoe skills, but there is always times where you won't effectively land these skills. Therefor you require a viable carry, that can both cleanup any heroes not killed in your initating attack and followup, but also deal with their carry. There are basically two types of carries, one that is heavy physical damage, and one that is heavy caster damage. Not all heavy physical damage is a viable carry, and the same goes vice versa.
-Krob(No idea hon name) derives most of her damage from her spirits, which deal a ridiculous amount of damage to a single thing when focused. It also takes down buildings, which becomes extremely helpful in pushes when you've wiped the team earlier and need to take a tower or raxes quickly. What makes her so deadly however is her spammable aoe nuke, silence, and the fact that she doesn't have to even attack or cast to deal damage when her ult is on.
-Leshrac(Tormenter) carries through spammable spells and lots of aoe. His goal is to get into the center of everything and cause havoc, while at the same time with his spells he's able to focus down any targets. He too, does not need to attack or cast to deal damage. He is weaker than krob because he doesn't silence, and does less focused damage. But either way, he's a lot of damage.
-Dark Lady is a physical carry, but a lot of her skills are aoe and cause disruption. She can silence anyone she hits with her spin move, her ult makes team's unable to function for the duration, she can snare and deal damage with her nuke. And she has a buffed double damage for 6 seconds whenever she wants.
-Lycan(No idea hon name) puts out a ton of physical damage, can move and max movespeed, crits and attacks super fast. He takes advantage of a cheap item that adds loads of dps/damage at the cost of sacrificing health slowly over time. Armlet, renamed in hon though I'm unsure as to what, makes lycan a powerhouse. He also has invisible wolves that give map control, and a howl that increases everyone's dps.
If you've read all of that, you've probably noticed that carries either have abilities that help your entire team, or degrade their entire team. So you now have 2 out of the 5 heroes you need. Keeping in mind that you require strong lanes, you'll also need someone who can solo. Most melee heroes are bad solos, generally you want someone who can solo mid and abuse runes with a bottle. This means, the hero will need spells that are effectively cast, either to farm or kill the enemy. A bottle will fuel their regen and mana needs(though you should never buy one first), and allow them to outlane any 2 man lane or opposing solo you might run into. Lots of heroes can solo, and I've already described what they need to solo, so I'll just list a few:
-Zeus
-Nevermore
-Krob
This leaves you with two heroes left, you can pretty much pick any hero you'd like for these roles, just keep in mind you want STRONG LANES. I cannot stress enough how important strong lanes are. If your lanes collapse, you lose map control, ability to farm, and experience. If people are constantly having to come gank for you, they're leaving their lanes either open or weakened and allowing opponents to farm.
To finalize what a team should have, is two support roles should buy a chicken, and wards(observer). A chicken allows everyone to stay in the lane as long as possible, and wards prevent ganks and allow you to see where the rune is. Runes are extremely powerful, and should always be captured with a bottle if one is available.
Never try to lane two melees, it's ineffective and easy to harass. Generally in lanes, you want 1 person last hitting and 1 person harassing. The person last hitting obviously farms and denies the enemy, while the one harassing keeps them off of him. There are generally two types of lanes, defensive lanes and offensive lanes. Offensive lanes try to score kills as often as possible, and at the same time tries to completely deny enemies their ability to farm. A defensive lane tries to outfarm their opponent, scoring kills off their opponents mistakes.
Offensive lanes:
Pharoah-Glacius
Pyromancer-Glacius
Legionaire-Glacius
Defensive lanes:
Glacius-Dark lady
Puppet Master-Lycan
Creating a team is actually very easy, a rule of thumb until you're more attuned to HoN and dota is never have a lane without a ranged in it. It leaves the lane open to get easily harassed, and it's impossible to farm in it if your opponents are slightly good.
First off, you'll have to learn what a good team is actually comprised of. Lots of players make the mistake of thinking you need a carry, a tank, and support. While generally this is true, taking any old heroes is hardly effective. You have to break down your team into far more complex groups to figure out what will win the game. For example, every team should have a solid initiator. You can label the hero what you want to label it, but an initiator goes in first, he's what signals your team to jump into the battle. His skills should heavily favor your team to win the team fight if landed correctly, and in turn disable or massively damage a large aoe of people. I'll list some examples:
-Axe (legionaire)
-Earthshaker (no idea his hon name)
-Venomancer(^)
-Warlock...dude(he summons a big ass dragon)
These heroes will effectively start the skirmish, the goal being obviously to wipe the entire enemy team. They're used, normally in conjunction with a blink dagger for positioning, to hit the opponent when they're in an undesirable position and previously thought they weren't in any danger. The best case scenario, you lock their team in stuns to the point where they cannot even counter with any damage, and completely wipe them.
Your team also needs a viable end game, which could be anything from a Krob to a dark lady. Most teams are based around big damage aoe skills, but there is always times where you won't effectively land these skills. Therefor you require a viable carry, that can both cleanup any heroes not killed in your initating attack and followup, but also deal with their carry. There are basically two types of carries, one that is heavy physical damage, and one that is heavy caster damage. Not all heavy physical damage is a viable carry, and the same goes vice versa.
-Krob(No idea hon name) derives most of her damage from her spirits, which deal a ridiculous amount of damage to a single thing when focused. It also takes down buildings, which becomes extremely helpful in pushes when you've wiped the team earlier and need to take a tower or raxes quickly. What makes her so deadly however is her spammable aoe nuke, silence, and the fact that she doesn't have to even attack or cast to deal damage when her ult is on.
-Leshrac(Tormenter) carries through spammable spells and lots of aoe. His goal is to get into the center of everything and cause havoc, while at the same time with his spells he's able to focus down any targets. He too, does not need to attack or cast to deal damage. He is weaker than krob because he doesn't silence, and does less focused damage. But either way, he's a lot of damage.
-Dark Lady is a physical carry, but a lot of her skills are aoe and cause disruption. She can silence anyone she hits with her spin move, her ult makes team's unable to function for the duration, she can snare and deal damage with her nuke. And she has a buffed double damage for 6 seconds whenever she wants.
-Lycan(No idea hon name) puts out a ton of physical damage, can move and max movespeed, crits and attacks super fast. He takes advantage of a cheap item that adds loads of dps/damage at the cost of sacrificing health slowly over time. Armlet, renamed in hon though I'm unsure as to what, makes lycan a powerhouse. He also has invisible wolves that give map control, and a howl that increases everyone's dps.
If you've read all of that, you've probably noticed that carries either have abilities that help your entire team, or degrade their entire team. So you now have 2 out of the 5 heroes you need. Keeping in mind that you require strong lanes, you'll also need someone who can solo. Most melee heroes are bad solos, generally you want someone who can solo mid and abuse runes with a bottle. This means, the hero will need spells that are effectively cast, either to farm or kill the enemy. A bottle will fuel their regen and mana needs(though you should never buy one first), and allow them to outlane any 2 man lane or opposing solo you might run into. Lots of heroes can solo, and I've already described what they need to solo, so I'll just list a few:
-Zeus
-Nevermore
-Krob
This leaves you with two heroes left, you can pretty much pick any hero you'd like for these roles, just keep in mind you want STRONG LANES. I cannot stress enough how important strong lanes are. If your lanes collapse, you lose map control, ability to farm, and experience. If people are constantly having to come gank for you, they're leaving their lanes either open or weakened and allowing opponents to farm.
To finalize what a team should have, is two support roles should buy a chicken, and wards(observer). A chicken allows everyone to stay in the lane as long as possible, and wards prevent ganks and allow you to see where the rune is. Runes are extremely powerful, and should always be captured with a bottle if one is available.
Never try to lane two melees, it's ineffective and easy to harass. Generally in lanes, you want 1 person last hitting and 1 person harassing. The person last hitting obviously farms and denies the enemy, while the one harassing keeps them off of him. There are generally two types of lanes, defensive lanes and offensive lanes. Offensive lanes try to score kills as often as possible, and at the same time tries to completely deny enemies their ability to farm. A defensive lane tries to outfarm their opponent, scoring kills off their opponents mistakes.
Offensive lanes:
Pharoah-Glacius
Pyromancer-Glacius
Legionaire-Glacius
Defensive lanes:
Glacius-Dark lady
Puppet Master-Lycan
Creating a team is actually very easy, a rule of thumb until you're more attuned to HoN and dota is never have a lane without a ranged in it. It leaves the lane open to get easily harassed, and it's impossible to farm in it if your opponents are slightly good.