The Bro Code (version: hon)

[Genjuro]

The Bro Code
"Public games are comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel!!"

Do you want do dominate public games? Do you want high winpercentage, solid K/D/A, teammates who love you and opponents who whine about "your team using the bro-code"? - Here's your guide to a new life.

In order to obtain victory in Heroes of Newerth, there are rules you need to follow - some more simple than others.
The more you follow, the higher chances you have of winning the game.

1. The queuing phase

1. Location filter: If you're American, queue as one, and Visa Verca if you're European. Don't try to interact with eachother, it will never work out. If you have relations to Russia or countries in it's nearby, queue as an American, suffering a bit of ms is the least you can do. (Reason implied between the lines)
2. Mode filter:
   
   1. AP: Try to avoid it, unless you're playing with a stack of 3, you don't want to team up with 4 players who whine about you picking scout when they wanted him. (AP players are usually carry/mid-players)
   2. SD: Noobmode - This is the place where people go if they don't know how to play any heroes. They let faith decide and then pick whatever fits a mid-position, and when the game starts they start shouting "i mid!" - Beware, most KS-heroes are picked here.
   3. BD/BP: Oh so you're getting serious? - These are the "real" modes where skills are involved already in the picking phase. Make sure your team knows how to pick a solid team, cause chances are your opponents will trilane with , feed on your bad teammate (Orange player always goes solo top vs trilane), and then win the game.
   4. AR: Man mode. Respect if you play it, don't expect teamwork in forms of courier/wards on a lower level of manmode.
   
   
3. Do i need friends?: Real bosses do not need friends in order to win, but having some might help you win the game. Make sure your friends have read The Bro Code though, otherwise they are not worthy of playing with you. Don't be more than a 3-stack though, as that will make the queue ignorant to reason.

2. Game found: Picking phase

1. Should i mid?: Highest psr/mmr always gets to decide who goes mid. You want the best player to mid, since mid is 50% of the game when it comes to public. The best hero to play in mid differs from skill-level. (Remember: This is based on my own opinion/experience - and it's based on solo-play, not teamgames)
   
   
   1. 1400:
   2. 1500:
   3. 1600:
   4. 1700:
   5. 1750:
   6. 1800:
   7. 1850:
   8. 1900:
   9. 1950:
   10. 2000:
   
   CHIPPER!? Where the **** is my lovely Chipper? - Glad you ask, Chipper is a very very solid midhero, but he is also very situational. If you want to pick him, you should only do it if:
   
   1. Enemyteam has no healers (good harras)
   2. Enemyteam is weak and easy to kill with a good combo
   3. Enemyteam has a lot of single-target nuke, where focus buffer is useful. (Gankstrats viable)
      
   
   
2. Should i get a carry?: See rule no. 1 - Carry is the second most important part in a public game. Avoid getting carries like , as these heroes rely a lot on your teams performance. GO:
3. I'm the lowest psr, am i not allowed to play what i want?: NO! - You need to realize that you are about to play with people who, based on statistics, are better than you. Being the new guy also happens in Hon - you help others, untill you are good enough to make the new guys help you. - If your teammates are douchebags, you can get in order to KS or ninja them into bad positions.
   
   
   1. Buy a courier at first, if that is already bought - buy wards.
   2. If you're the only support, you're responsible for both courier and wards.
   3. A support never steals lasthits from the carry. Not CK's, not HK's, only denies.
      
   4. As the game progress, try to stack for your teammates, in order to increase farm. (Singlestack at timestamp :53, and double-/tristack at 49)
   5. Some supporters do not need experience as much as the carry, try to avoid stealing exp from your teammate (this gets more important the higher PSR you get)
   
   
4. I don't want to play support. **** you and these noobmates picking scout and deadwood!: Too bad, this happens. You can still win the game by being a good supportplayer though. In worse case scenario, go forest with and carry the game yourself (Do not try if your colour is orange or brown!)
5. Should we trilane?: This is the easiest way to win games, but only works properly if you are 3 players who know eachother. At a higher MMR-level you can do it without friends. Try to trilane against their carry in order to deny your opponent experience/gold, and make sure to ward his pullspot. Get heroes that scale well with farm, , and go rape. Make sure your soloheroes can fair well alone, especially if he is not on the shortlane. (Sololanes must carry a tp in order to help out trilane in times of trouble)

3. The laning phase:

1. Always goes mid, if there are more of these heroes - see 2.1.
2. Carries lasthit. This counts for CK's and HK's. (Supporters deny as much as possible, and harras as much as possible. These should also try to provide regen for the carry, so he doesn't have to waste gold).
3. We are winning top, should i go gank?: No. If you gank, you will lose gold/exp and the hero you leave behind will be unable to farm if faired against 2. If urgently needed, gank mid - mid and carrylane needs to win!.
4. When do i stack/pull? - Excellent question, glad you asked. It is sooo dangerous to do it wrong, here are some of the golden rules of when to pull/stack.
   
   1. Unless you have a masterplan about pushing, always stack the pullcamp before you pull it.
   2. When you pull, the idea is to "kill your own creeps", in order to deny gold and exp from your opponent. Don't autoattack the neutral creeps once you've pulled.
   3. When you pull, make sure that your lane is pushed - if you pull and deny your creeps, it's bad if the opponent creeps are hitting the tower.
      
      1. Because your carry will have trouble lasthitting against a tower
      2. Because your tower is taking unecessery damage
      3. Because your opponent may towerdive / dive you in forest.
      
      
   4. Stay on lane if your opponent has the ability to kill your carry while you're gone.
   
   

4. The game-progress

1. Should we teamfight now?: If you have the level/goldadvantage, you can take teamfights - but don't overextend. Overextending is a really easy way to lose, so pick your fights carefully, prefferably in open areas without creeps. Make sure everyone is in the teamfight, and not just 4.
2. Should i take kills? Mid+Carry may killsteal whenever they want. They are the MVP's of the game.
3. Should i still keep on warding?: Yes, warding is essential to winning a game. Picking fights at the right time, watching their ganks and avoiding them doing kongor in the shadows.
   
4. In order to win teamfights, makes sure:
   
   1. Everyone has a tp, so they are ready to fight whenever.
   2. You explain your team who to focus, what to Protective Charm/heal, and how to spread from your opponents -ulti.
   3. Everyone has full mana/health, and has their cooldowns ready. (including Shrunken head)
   
   
5. Our carry can farm himself now, i'm just waiting for us to teamfight, what to do?: Stack. Stack stack stack, or stay close to your carry to avoid him dying.

4.1 I'm carry, how do i win the game?
10 "Golden" tips:

1. Having a tp makes you able to escape and port yourself to wherever you can farm.
2. Death's are GPM-Killers, DO NOT die. ("I know, i know") - Deaths are a gpmkiller. Death's also provide an opportunity for the enemy to push towers or kill kongor, or blow up the rest of your team.
3. Having regen/consumable can allow you to stay farming without having to go back to fountain.
4. Killstealing = Profit (Do it as a carryplayer, but only if it doesn't mess up the teamfight)
5. Towerkills are great for the gpm, especially if YOU or Hellbourne/Legion gets it. Your supporters should NEVER take a tower, unless it is in danger of getting denied.
6. Having GPM-Boosters like Alchemist Bones and Runed axe is great, but only if you get it somewhat early - later on they will be less useful in teamfights, and will be too pricey to really pay back. (Usually drop the idea if you do not have bones before 13 minutes, and sustainer at 16). (Please note that runed axe is only good if your teammates are stacking for you (Look at p. 10)
7. Alchemist Bones can be used on Catapults, which is good - but avoid it, because: see point 10.
8. Whispering Helm can make you dominate a creep, which allows you to stack a camp without being there yourself. (Stacking ancients is really good if you have a hero with splashdamage like Puppet, or a melee with runed axe.)
9. If your hero has global effects (tdl, sw, etc) - An assist is also a good way to boost your gold, and can sometimes help your teammates win a fight while you are farming.
10. The most important tip for newbs: Static farming
    
    How so?
    - You go to a lane, which is pushed by the enemy (this is the safest way of farming, because it will be close to your base if you do it right)
    
    Right, you go to your lane, and start farming - but only by lasthitting. You start denying your own creeps when you can, and only bring the last hit to the enemy creeps. - do not tank creepdamage.
    This will make the lane unable to get pushed, and you can farm at the same point for ages.
    
    Now you may think: This is gonna be slow?
    - No, creeps spawn just as fast as they would if you killed them fast (every 30 sec).
    
    Why not just push it?
    - By staticfarming you also deny your enemy farm.
    - By staying close to the base, you can avoid getting ganked a lot easier

4.2 I'm the mid, how do i win the game?
This is the hard part - winning mid is difficult, i will just give you a couple of really good standardtips.

1. Try to deny as much as possible, the more you deny, the more in the lead you get. (Quickest to get level 5-7 usually wins the lane, since that advantage will keep your opponent out of the lane)
2. Mid is very regen-heavy. If you only bring 3x regenrunes to the lane, you will get outharrassed by any ranged hero, so against other rangeds, you want to go for atleast go for 3x runes + 1x healthpot. (Sometimes you can handle less, if you go for a quick bottle)
3. Runes? - Runes are gamechanging, i believe S2 is about to change the runes so you cannot get DD/Illusions at the 00:00 mark, which is gonna change mid a whole lot.
   
   1. I'm winning the lane, but he always gets runes, what do i do?

If your opponent goes for the rune at :50, it is nearly impossible for you to control them, unless you follow him to the spot, but then he would just run to the other place. But if your opponent does that, that either means that he is losing hard and knows you can beat him to it, or that they dont have any runewards.

How to handle it?
You handle it by pushing the lane, so when he has he to go for the rune, there will be 3-4 creeps that he is not getting exp/gold from. He will have to sacrifice A LOT to get the rune.

2. I'm losing the lane, and he pushes my lane so i cannot get runes, what do i do?

This is really ****, cause that means that your opponent has complete control of the game. So you what you wanna do, is that you want to ask your teammates for ganks, or atleast for them to pickup toprune, while you go bottom. - It's difficult, but mid is like 50% of the game early on, so you simply cannot let this happen. Remember to call miss in any situation.

3. I'm winning the lane, should i stay or should i gank?

Depends on your opponent. If you're like, level 7 ish and your opponent is level <6, you can actually try to push the tower and keep him down. If you however play a hero like devourer, it's very hard to push the lane, and very easy to gank. It's a question of how your teammates are doing, but also what hero you're playing.
I suggest staying on lane untill the tower is down as Defiler, Soulreaper, Flint, Pollywog, Hellbringer, Wildsoul and Tempest - the rest should be good to gank.(unless you luck a haste/dd rune)

4.2 I'm Support, what tips can you give me?

1. Courier > Wards.
2. Wards > Boots. (I joke you not) - Don't get boots if there's no wards on the map. I know this is annoying and rude, but if you don't have anyone else to ward, it's sooo important that you get it.
3. Supporters usually go striders, so they can make the ganking/strats.
4. To answer a replier's question: The supporter should always pull. When you pull, the enemy creeps will come in range so he can lasthit in safe. - Your carry can however, come to you and take the cks.
5. Try to counterward. - Counterwards are worth it if you know where their wards are.

5. Top 10 Win-tips:

1. doesn't require your teammates to do much. If you are alone, hag is the best way to win a game on your own.
2. If your support doesn't ward, you should. 200 for 2x 6 min wards is nothing. A good mid/carryplayer usually gets a good 380 GPM.
3. Static-farm as much as possible. Farm, have a port ready - tp when needed.
4. Try not to flame your teammates - being constructive and helpful usually brings the better in people.
5. Some trolls cannot be helped, they may try to ruin your game - but nothing you can do about it, just deal with it, play your best and report him afterwards. Make sure you report, so others do not experience what you just have.
6. Unless you are the carry, try not to killsteal. Killstealing = Taking a kill that was obviously dead already (If there's a chance the enemy will get away, you killing him is not a killsteal!)
7. When playing an initiate-hero (SW/Pharaoh/TB/Magmus/Behemoth/HB), you especially wanna "ready?" your team before going. A bad initiate is a lost fight usually.
8. If you're facing a deadwood mid - there's no reason to stay when he gets level 6, unless you're an STR-hero. He will kill you, it's just a matter of time, so you need to make sure you spend the gold you gain quickly, and try to gank sidelanes if he's just waiting for you to get closer. (Same counts for devo if he has ghostmarchers/striders)
9. ALWAYS HAVE A TP EQUIPPED - It is needed to counter ganks, to keep up farm, to get away - everything. TP's are the easiest way to win.
10. Never attempt to push a tower unless you're sure that you will get it. If an opponent is denying the tower you just pushed, obviously it was not worth it.
11. Try to always call miss, and do not miss your chance to tp-gank as a ganker if your lane is pushes.

Thats all for me folks - add more to the list!

[Genjuro]

Different strategies commonly used in public

It is very important to have an overall idea of "what this game is gonna be like."

Please note that this is advanced stuff, and beginners should have Post #1 covered before going further on to Post #2

Very common strategies:

1. Gankstrat
2. Pushstrat
3. Turtlestrat
4. The initiator
5. Carry/push
6. Tankhealstrat

These are some of those strategies you can usually encounter, most commonly used are the top3. I'll go through all of them, and tell you how they work and how to deal with them.

1. Gankstrat


This strategy usually bases itself in the idea of ganking a lot, while one of your heroes farm - or even just gank so much that the opponents gpm will drop significantly. Especially Nymphora and Pharaoh makes this strategy dangerous, as it is very hard to spot them coming before it's too late.

Pros:

• Grants levels and opportunities for farming
• Usually renders opponent unable to teamfight (you can use this for pushing)
• Can grant you early Kongor
• Usually gives a good GPM-Lead

Cons:

• It is hard to fit a solid carry into a 100% gankstrat, you will need to sacrifice one player to farm.
• Gankstrats can fail misserably if they dont get the upper hand before 15 minutes. (If you dont have leveladvantage, you will lose every single gank if the opponent tp's)

How to counter:

1. Wards - You must be able to farm
2. Static farming - don't push the lane, stay close to tower while farming.
3. Jungling - It's hard to judge where you are if you're jungling
4. TP's - both from your teammates and your opponents
5. Some heroes are good at coping with ganks, here are some examples:
   
   1. - All has a very good shield
   2. - Silence and blocks interrupts ganks
   3. - The longrange vision and stun/swap from long range makes it hard to gank
   
   

BONUS: - The baitgank: - You basically show your carry being alone bottom, while 2-3 (depending on nymph ulti level) pushes top/mid - as soon as you notice them going bot, you tp somewhere and hide. Whenever they try ganking, you're ready to surprise them. (this is advanced and very hard to perform with publics)

Good strats to use for counter: Pushstrat + Tank-healstrat

2. Pushstrat


This strategy is very reliant on early pushes, which usually leaves you in a very good goldlead, however, a pretty lousy experience-situation, since you have to be 5 most of the time.

Pros

• Lots of gold (Itemlead)
• Chances of early victory
• Easy to play
• Very hard to public teams to deal with
• If the opponent picks 2 semi-hardcarries, its almost impossible to defend.

Cons

• If enemy reads the strat, it is pretty easy to counter with the right heroes
• Lost if you're not allowed to push early
• Usually pretty bad teamfights when not pushing
• Lategame requires 1 gank before being able to push, which is not always easy to get.

How to counter:

1. Aoe-turtleheroes
2. Towerarmor or to beat the enemy in your favour: Demented Shaman.
3. Longrange harrasheroes (not viable if they have plenty of heal)
4. Earlygame winners:

Useful counterstrats: Tankhealstrat, The Initiator

3. Turtlestrat
:chro:

Usually people find this the most boring strat, cause it usually involves 1 hardcarry getting fed in the end - very commonly is a team losing all game, but in the end their Sand Wraith gets a mock, and the game is over.

Pros:

• Hard to counter if played right
• VERY hard to counter if you have no push/gankpower
• It's a very good way to beat "better" teams than your own.

Cons:

• If 1 of your turtlers is dead before the fight, it's hard to turtle
• Usually leaves your opponent to do whatever they want outside your base. - Basically because you will have bad teamfights if you dont have the uphill-advantage.

Countered by: Pushstrat, gankstrat, carrypushstrat.

4. The initiator
:chro:
Initiatesupporters: Chipper, Hag, Pollywog, Plague, Slither, Flint, Forsaken Archer, Defiler, Soulstealer, Voodoo Jester

This is my favourite, but also the one i hate playing in publics. The idea is to initiate on the opponent while unaware, and let combined ultimates smack them down (This is not a turtlestrat, as this can happen anywhere on the map).
The idea is to have such a great initiate, that you can rape the enemy team in the blink of a second.

Example: Chronos leaping on 3+ players and ultimates, hard to get more when the mmr increases, and your teammates will during the Chronosphere be able to finish off the enemies inside.

Pros:

• These heroes have short cooldowns, so they dont have to rely on ultimates as much as other setups.
• This provides a very good chance to counter opponent carries, cause you can usually kill it off before it pops things like shrunken or similar damage neglecters.
• It is by far the overall most succesful lineup if you have good communication and your opponents are not good at warding/counterwarding.

Cons:

• Requires a lot of warding / counterwarding
• Is hard to control with bad communication
• If the enemy carry manages to pop shrunken before initiated on, the right is over for you.
• Requires a certain setup of heroes, and these heroes are limited and sometimes easily countered on their sololanes (soulstealer and hag for instance)

How to counter:


Counters: "The initiator" as an opponent, the gankstrat, sometimes the "Tank-heal" depending on the golddifference.

5. The tankhealstrat
:jera:

The general idea of this strategy is to be able to tank whatever the opponent comes up with.
You usually need to sync your itemsbuilds, as many of the items that is needed for this strategy are aura-items and is useless on several heroes.
:BarrierIdol::HelmOfTheBlackLegio:NomesWisdom::Rin gOfSorcery::FrostfieldPlate:
- Some of these items appear repeatedly, but that is alright, since sometimes it doesn't matter if 1 player has barrier idol and the other has Shaman's headress. - Magic armor is simply needed once in a while.

Right, to make sure everyone understands this setup:
If they are 5, you are 5. If they are 4, you dont need to be 5.
If you are 5, you can aoe-heal, and they will have to nuke very god damn hard in order to beat you up. This provides excellent teamfights, which can be forced by doing early pushes, Kongor, killing their forest, continously hunting their carry - and so on.

Pros:

• Very hard to lose teamfights if decently farmed
• Great chances to do Kongor
• Great chances to Push
• Rarely die, which leaves the opponent with a usual low GPM

Cons:

• Requires decent farm to win, if more than 1 lane loses, its hard for the others to pick it up.
• Downscales more than other lineups if 1 player is missing or dead.
• Can be countered by silence (Defiler, Vindicator, Bubbles)

Countered by: Gankstrat, The Initiator.

To trolls: This is all based on my own opinion and experience, i am open to discussion and suggestions - but please do not troll just to troll.

PS: I realize that Hero-pictures would be great in some cases, but i'm limited to only using 65. - There's also a lot of heroes that i may have forgotten in certain strats, but please leave that.

[penduzecat]

Nice post

[Xozzen]

thanks, I expected some troll or some other waste of time, but this is actually good. Especially the static farming thing. But I can think of many cases where you don't want to static farm and rather autoattack/lasthit combination.

[KarChee]

Well, most of it seems quite right, but few things...:
You mock SD for being random and praise AR?
You give a tips how to play 2000 mmr mid and yet you are 1700.
You tell people to play supports if they are not the best ones on the team and yet you have no support in top 5 and you have 0,4 wards per game.

[Perry]

Legen... wait for it...

[[LowB]GentleChad]

@Karchee
Just because he isnt 2k MMR it doesnt make any of his points less valid. I agree wholeheartedly with this post and I wish S2 would make players read it before playing, it would make pubbing much more enjoyable.

[Genjuro]

Well, most of it seems quite right, but few things...:
You mock SD for being random and praise AR?
You give a tips how to play 2000 mmr mid and yet you are 1700.
You tell people to play supports if they are not the best ones on the team and yet you have no support in top 5 and you have 0,4 wards per game.

I don't play pubs, cause people haven't read the brocode.
I only play games with my clan pretty much. I ALWAYS lose in public games, so now i wanted to write a thread for everyone explaining how we can win together.

I always get the leavers, the afk'ers, the scoutpickers, the suiciders.

Anyhow, i'm quite sure if you had some competitive insight you would know who i am, but if you don't, i'll introduce myself.

My name is Frederik "FJ" Jacobsen, a 19 yeared old player from Denmark.
I'm the leader of team wake, a top15 upcoming clan. I was 1950 before i resetted (My way of supporting S2) - Plus, i'm no supportplayer.

[[CLPW]xSirushimox]

Bro-ring post.

[Ossydxb]

... dary

[Lasagna]

This should go in the guide section tbh..

[Schirokko]

bros don't take hos as their account icon.

[KarChee]

I don't play pubs, cause people haven't read the brocode.
I only play games with my clan pretty much. I ALWAYS lose in public games, so now i wanted to write a thread for everyone explaining how we can win together.

I always get the leavers, the afk'ers, the scoutpickers, the suiciders.

Anyhow, i'm quite sure if you had some competitive insight you would know who i am, but if you don't, i'll introduce myself.

My name is Frederik "FJ" Jacobsen, a 19 yeared old player from Denmark.
I'm the leader of team wake, a top15 upcoming clan. I was 1950 before i resetted (My way of supporting S2) - Plus, i'm no supportplayer.

I am sure you are a very good player with your clan. But as you stated you have limited experience from pubs and from playing supports. All i am saying is that you cant make pubs play as organized teams, so different more egoistic tactics needs to be employed. Thats why some tactics from tournaments just dont work at pubs. You have some knowledge of that as you stated to pick carrys that dont need that much cooperation from your team. All i am saying is that you dont have that much hexperience from pubs, you just want pubs to play as good as organized teams.

Ill add some insights so it wouldnt be a rant only post:
- As a pub support steal exps, you dont know how good your carry is and the risk of dying too much as underleveled support is big.
- If you have a doubt that enemy will flee, kill him. Your carry will flame but its much better than lost kill for your team.
- Dont rage at your teammates. No matter how bad they are insulting them will only make them play much worse.
- Encourage you teammates. Use compliments. Explain them what to do in a very polite way. HoN players are mostly teenagers with overinflated ego and childlike mentality. Adapt to that.

[[Elms]MrCosgrove]

nice guide, should be stickied in guides section?

[Genjuro]

KarChee - very valid points, i've added some.

And btw, i do have plenty of pubexperience, more than 2k public games i believe. I basically stopped cause i got tired of the lack of communication, and griefers not being punished for their actions.

Thank you for the help tho

[GOAUDIO]

DAmn son this FJ knows his pubstuff zzzzzzzz<3

edit:

serious note, everybody should always try to be able to play every role. Its not like you sacrifice the entire game if you play a good support. Support is harder in pubs on low level due to every little person think they can carry a game. MOST CAN tho with proper support. I've seen sad examples of kids with 78 avg ck and a kd lower than 0.8 that really just rapes an enitre game due to their earlygame support ^^...

But FJ's post is right aswell as the mocking on him don't get it. Ofc. he can play any role IF HE WANTS TO .. But as he claimed he has another set role for himself he's more confident in.

But cha, Very good post and I think if alot of peaople read through and think and try to learn it'll be fine. =)

It's a good source to learn more!

[[BRO]Mellow]

Can you bold the parts that are specific for brown/orange players

[GuyHunter]

If everyone use the brocode in pub games, they will become insanely boring to play.

[[TL]Gowerly]

I always get the leavers, the afk'ers, the scoutpickers, the suiciders.

Hands up who else thinks this applies to them? Everybody? Ok.

[[EBC]Witchking]

tl;dr

So what's the point of posting then?

Good and very valuable hints!