Hi guys, thank you for reading this thread, which is meant as a little help for new and inexperienced players!
I will talk about following things:
- Hero roles / what am i supposed to do with my hero
- Picking phase / what am i supposed to pick
- Chose your lane / where and with whom do i go
- Items to start with / what am i supposed to buy
- Laning phase / what am i supposed to do in the early game
- Summary of gameplay / things you should do and avoid
- Hon vocabulary / the most common terms and abbreviations (external source)
Hero roles
For starters, there is a variety of different roles in HoN, every single hero is superior/inferior to other heroes in a certain way.
simplified you can say there are 4 big groups:
GANKER
If the hero of your choice excels in disabling/stunning paired with a good amount of damage output.
Main objective:
Run around across the map and kill other heroes! Make sure that you give your team a little space to breathe by moving to a different lane and set up a kill.
Especially a few early ganks on the opposing mid-hero can be very devastating!
e.g. 
...
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SUPPORTER/BABYSITTER
If the hero of your choice excels in helping lanepartner (carry) to stay in lane!
This can be achieved through heals, mana regeneration, harassing enemies, setting up wards.
Main objective:
As the name says you are supposed to support your team
- buy courier
- make sure your carry gets farm and kills
- give vision through wards.
As a supportplayer you dont really need items, if you finish a 40 minutes game with just boots a mana battery and maybe one more item like a tablet of command / astrolabe (anything that can help your team) it is more than sufficient.
If you provide vision with wards throughout the game your team is better off, than having 2 more items on your hero.
The hardest thing to do though, is to minimize your own deaths!
e.g.
...
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INITIATOR
If the hero of your choice excels in starting fights with a big nuke/disable.
Main objective:
you go in first and draw focus of the enemie team on you by stunning/disabling a lot of enemies at once.
While doing so try to kill one of their heroes as fast as possible (e.g. low-hp supportplayers) to turn the fight into a 5vs4 right from the start.
e.g.
...
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CARRY
If the hero of your choice excels in dealing a lot of DPS (Damage per second) mostly with autoattacks.
Main objective:
As carry you should have the highest amount of gold income in order to buy the items that you desperately need to be effective as the game goes on.
You could say the carry is the "Superman" of the Team.
Avoid dying/farm items/kill enemies whenever possible.
The carries are a group of heroes who are fairly useless without any item.
In opposition to Supportheroes like e.g. Nymphora who is still usefull without any items.(her healing abilities wont grow stronger even with items, while the damage a carry puts out does!)
Currently ranged carry-heroes are more often used because they can hit from a save distance and have better early farmpotential than melee types altough the most ranged carries lack of an escape mechanism!(an ability that allows the hero to flee the battlefield instantly like e.g. blink/invisibilty)
Melee carries like Magebane or the Dark Lady have an ablity to charge out of dangerous areas and thus not as easy to kill as for example Flint Beastwood - who can only slow the enemies down a bit with his Flare-spell.
On the other hand they sometimes will have a hard time lasthitting without getting permanently harassed because they have to be next to the creeps!
You can improve your farming by buying the item Runed Cleaver as a melee-carry - but don't buy it every game on every hero, it is a situational item!
Most Carry-heroes are AGILITY-based, but there are also Carries with STRENGTH and even INTELLIGENCE as their main attribute!
e.g.
...
One hero can have more than one role !!
e.g. Torturer is a PUSHER, a GANKER, a SEMI-CARRY and even playable as SUPPORT -
but he would not be my first choice as Supporter, because that would waste his great potential,
there are heroes who fit this role better.
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MOST COMMON MISTAKES:
- People tend to think that most heroes are gamebreaking carries! that is definitely wrong!
Empath could never carry a team as hard as for example Chronos!
We have different hero roles, and you should play them accordingly.
- People tend to think that certain heroes are useless.
I would say it depends on the lineup!
- A hero is only as good as the player behind it
Hammerstorm has one of the best Stuns in the game, but that doesn't matter if you don't know how to use it correctly
- People don't know the role their hero is supposed to fulfill and thus dramatically decrease the teams efficiency!
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Picking phase
The outcome of a match is often decided in this very stage!
If you pick a team that has no synergy you will most likely lose.
The most common 2-1-2 setup is:
- one Carry / e.g. :chro: farming his DPS items as fast as possible
- one Hardsupport / e.g. lanes with carry, buys wards
- one Support-Ganker / e.g.
usually lanes with the Initiator - one Ganker / e.g.
usually solo mid - level advantage - one Initiator / e.g. wants to farm a fast portalkey
If we look at this setup, we have all we need:
HEAL
SLOW
STUN
BURST DAMAGE
AOE DAMAGE
A teamfight with these heroes could look like this:
- BEHE jumps in with ULTI - and maybe takes out one Supporthero
- DSHAM follows with his ULTI - backs off - ready to heal allies
- CHRONOS jumps in uses his ULTI - focuses down the opposing carry
(the synergy with Dsham-Ult will let him cut through them like butter!) - PYRO tries to BURST DOWN the hero who still has the most HP
- HAG cleans up with ULTIMATE and Sonarscream
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If your Team looks like this though
you have made several mistakes:
- 3 and a half melee heroes
(Moonqueen has very short range)
- 4 of these 5 heroes can be considered as carry and need farm
- 3 heroes with invisibility - all countered with one itemno abilities to heal
- A fairly squishy Team (low Healthpool - easy to kill)
THATS WHY YOU SHOULD THINK WHEN PICKING!
Here is a little checklist of what is needed / nice to have
Heroes who have strong spells to dominate early on
...
Lane presence - you should be feared, not scared
...
A carry who can farm well in all situations - preferably ranged
...
A hero who can handle solo mid - preferably a heavy ganker who takes advantage of higher level gain
...
Team up heroes with complementary abilities to create synergies:
Double Stun Lane
Double Slow Lane
Mass minus armor
Mass minus magic armor
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You should decide on heroes who fit your playstyle and strategie
- Earlygame orientated -
Dominate in the first 20 minutes with excessive ganking and win fast
+ Crush your enemies moral by owning them on every lane
+ No excessive farm required you get gold from kills
- If you fail the ganks the other team will have better farm and eventually turn the game around
e.g.
Legion bot
Legion top
Mid solo
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- Midgame orientated -
Farm a few items push hard and win:
+ You can start building up pressure on the other team right from the start
+ If you make sure you limit your deaths and get decent farm a pushing team is always hard to stop
- Easily countered by Behemoth
- Counterpush can catch you off guard (carry TP!)
e.g.
Legion jungle
Legion bot solo
Legion top
Mid solo
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- Lategame orientated -
Try to survive early and midgame play defensive and farm your carry up till he can destroy the whole opposing team
+ Farmed carries are nearly unstoppable
+ Very defensive and safe playstyle
- Needs a lot of wards to evade ganks
- Games may not last long enough to get your carry farmed
- If your hardcarry gets constantly ganked your mid solo player is your only hope therefore get a strong mid hero!
e.g.
Legion bot
Legion top
Mid solo
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MOST COMMON MISTAKES:
- People instantly pick a hero claim midlane and do not care about anything else.
- Everyone likes to play carry and get kills, but with 5 carries it should be close to impossible to win a game
- Even though when people pick support heroes, they do not support
- no courier
- no wards
- they lasthit creeps -> steal farm from other heroes ... etc.
- People pick the hero they want to play, not the hero that would suit the situation best
- People usually do not counterpick opposing heroes / strategies
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Chose your lane
Which lane you are going to occupy depends entirely on the teams setup and of course your own hero!
MIDLANE
As a new player you would probably not want to go mid because you are on your own, and most likely will not perform good.
The midlane is usually a solo lane, therefore you should only go mid if your hero can handle soloing very well.
It is said to be the hardest lane to play on because you have to think of
many things at once, which new players arent always capable of:
Where are my enemies? am i in danger of being ganked?
Where is the rune, and will i be able to get it before him?
Farming is as important as denying the experience of your opponent, once mid reaches lvl 6 sidelanes are always in danger, it is always good to reach lvl 6 before your enemy!
If i push too far, will i be able to stay in experience range without putting myself at risk?
Damage the opposing hero with autoattacks, if you use spells make sure to use them to lasthit creeps at the same time
BOTLANE
(legion)
Botlane is the "safe" lane because the first creepwavesmeet near the Legion tower.
Usually you would want to put your Carry in this lane,accompanied by a Supporter.
You are fairly safe as long as the first tower is not destroyed and you can pull creeps in this lane (explanation follows)
TOPLANE
(legion)
Since the toplane of legion resembles the "safe" lane for hellbourne you would want to put aggressive heroes with big nukes here to annoy the opposing team and reduce their farm to a minimum.
(Obviously the hellbourne team will have their carry on the toplane!)
- for HELLBOURNE Top and Bot are switched -
JUNGLE
(legion)
Jungling should only be done, if you have another hero besides mid who is capable of handling the BOT-lane solo!
There are few heroes who can make use of their abilities to take out neutral camps from early on.
Mainly heroes who have minions or a huge damage output.
Popular heroes to jungle with:
e.g.
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MOST COMMON MISTAKES:
If you decide to jungle, you should start right on from level 1, or the hero that u leave behind on bot will have a disadvantage against 2 heroes of the same level !
For example:
You pick Wildsoul, your teammate has Bubbles.
both of you go to the botlane, once you hit lvl 3 you start jungling.
bubbles is now level 3 as well, because he had to share the experience with you, while the opposing heroes are most likely at level 3 as well.
That puts him into a dangerous position assuming the enemies have heroes like Pyromancer +
Electrician who can ditch out a lot of damage at level 3!
Therefore it would be better to start jungling right away, bubbles will hit lvl 5 by the time the others reach lvl 3 putting him into a slight advantage!
- TWO MELEE on the same lane:
That is not a good idea, split up your ranged and melee heroes so that each lane has at least one ranged hero!
- Going mid with every hero:
There are heroes who are just not suited for playing solo mid for different reason.
You go botlane as Wretched Hag, Demented Shaman goes middle.
thats a waste of potential, Hag can be so much more devastating with the level advantage of solo-laning while Demented is great as a babysitter with his heal.
- Seperate stuns/slows/aoe:
It is good to have a stun on each lane but it is actually better to have both stuns in the same lane for maximum effectiveness!
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Items to start with
Once again, it is situational, it depends on what you are playing, and whom you are up against!
Some basics though:
Hardsupport / Babysitter
:Courier: x1 :WardOfSight: x1 :HealthPotion: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 :MinorTotem: x2 = 596 Gold
Support / Ganker
:WardOfSight: x2 :HealthPotion: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 :ManaPotion: x1 :MinorTotem: x2 = 546 Gold
Melee-carry
:LoggersHatchet: x1 :IronBuckler: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 = 565 Gold
or
:IronBuckler: x1 :HealthPotion: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 :MinorTotem: x3 = 599 Gold
Ranged-carry (agi)
:HealthPotion: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 
uckBoots: x2 :MinorTotem: x2 = 596Gold
or
:HealthPotion: x1 :RunesOfTheBlight: x1 :PretendersCrown: x1 :MinorTotem: x3 = 534 Gold
Some situational items
:GuardianRing: (upgrade to :RingOfTheTeacher: in sideshop)
:CrushingClaws:+:MarkOfTheNovice: (upgrade to :chal: in sideshop)
:ManaBattery: (good choice against a spellspammer like e.g. 
)
:Bottle: (usually for mid solo, but i recommend not getting it as first item!)
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MOST COMMON MISTAKES:
Dont do this, ever - the only good thing about that is, that you are faster back at your base - where you will definitely go after 3 minutes without any healing items!
Damage is nice, but more survivability is even better! try to gain some additional HitPoints early to stay in lane
In the time you walk back to get your items, your enemy has freefarm and will outlevel you in no time!
This is gamechanging, a team with wards will always outplay a team without wards, regardless of their heroes
Midlane needs at least one ward at one runespawn to refill the bottle efficiently!
You want to stay in your lane as long as possible, you dont gain XP and/or Gold when you are running back to the fountain to heal!
- Wards of revelation to gain vision:
They do not give as much vision as wards of sight, and they last considerably shorter - should only be used to counter invisible heroes / and / or / to reveal enemy wards of sight also known as "counter warding"!
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Laning phase
If you are still reading, i thank you for taking the time to do so!
The laning phase is a crucial point of the game - it usually takes place in the first 10-20 minutes where you want to establish lane-control.
After gaining some levels (especially after hitting lvl 6) movement will start , heroes will change lanes and start to gank
During the laning phase, everyone has different objectives:
The carry tries to farm as much as possible without putting himself at risk, while the supporter tries to harass the enemies and keep them at distance.
The supportplayer should also ward and stack/pull neutral creeps (explanation follows)
Here is a Guide that explains WARDING
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...d.php?t=231437
The mid solo player wants to get levels as fast as possible to gank the sidelanes more effectively
The heroes at top will do everything to keep the enemie carry from farming and snatch some early kills
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MOST COMMON MISTAKES:
NEVER EVER run to the creeps and watch your hero bashing them like there is no tomorrow!!
If you dont keep your calm and try to only deliver the final blow on the creeps you will push the lane very hard, and opponents who do not autoattack will take full advantage of the situation
- it is very easy to get lasthits against autoattackers
- they will keep the creeps near to their tower, this means you put yourself in a dangerous position
you should never attack the creeps unless you deal the final hit to kill them.
If you press H your hero will stop any action - try to stand next to the creeps press H and only attack if you can secure the last hit to kill the creeps
Or run around constantly without attacking - once again only deliver the final hit.
if you press A and target your own creep with little health left you can kill it - the creep is then denied = no gold and less XP for your enemy!
- Steal farm from the carry:
If you want to lose the game, keep doing it, because this will secure you a complete loss.
As the support, dont kill enemy creeps, focus on harassing the enemies, stacking / pulling and denying your own creeps!
- Pulling without stacking:
First of all - what is pulling?
Pulling means, to draw the neutral creeps into the lane at the time when your creeps are passing - this will make your creeps attack the neutrals so you can kill them even on low levels!
You can pull on Botlane-Legion and Toplane-Hellbourne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuzUp0L3Ag
BUT if you pull a camp that has not been stacked before, you will automatically push your lane because after the creeps killed the neutrals they return to the Botlane/Toplane and team up with the following wave therefore the hellbourne creeps are outnumbered and get beaten quickly!
HOWEVER if you stack (pull the neutrals away from the camp at XX:55 time / when they return to the camp, the new camp already spawned as if the previous one was killed) the creeps cant handle 2 neutral camps and will be wiped out, this results in a complete wave of XP for the enemies being denied while you can farm some gold in one go!
Stacking and pulling are advanced techniques but i feel like you should know about it because it really helps you a lot, and more important: the enemies will do it as well! so now that you are aware of what they are able to do you can as well prevent it
Dont sit around and do nothing! let your enemy know that you are here, attack them, denie, but dont overdo it, or you will pay the price.
- Not getting the runes as mid player:
Every rune you dont pick up, will be picked up by the enemy and used against you! And your bottle will remain empty as well
Ganking is essential - if you kill your enemies often the difference of gold and levels will increase dramatically!
After a successfull gank it is obviously easier to push because one or more heroes of the opposing team are dead.
If the enemy leaves your lane, let your team know about it! If you call missing heroes the chances of a successfull gank from the other team will decrease
- No Scroll of Town Portals (TP) in your inventory
This applies not only for the Laning Phase, but for the entire game!If you carry a TP in your inventory you can escape ganks, help other lanes quickly (Countergank), meet up with your team at a specific location to push/defend a tower.
Some heroes are easily countered with this 135 gold item:
Arachna - if she uses her ultimate on you - port out!
Bloodhunter - if he uses his ultimate on you - port out!
you get the idea...
From now on, there are a variety of possibilities:
- keep up the pressure, continue ganking
- stack the jungle for more farm
- stack the ancients for more farm
- gather up and kill kongor
- push towers to increase the pressure
- dont push, but counterpush after genociding the enemies after a successfull towerdefense...
Whatever you decide to do
dont ever do NOTHING!
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Summary of gameplay
- Never leave the base without health-regenerating items
- Courier and Wards are essential
- If you run in front of your creepwave and block them with your hero you can manipulate the point where the creeps will meet
(try it in practice mode!)
- Don't waste your level 1 spells to harass the enemy
- save spells for kill-attempts / escapes
- keep an eye on your mana- and healthpool
- Don't stand still
- idle heroes are easy prey for e.g. HOOKS or JAVELINS
- try to move around constantly especially if the other team has heroes with ground-target spells
(Devourer/Valkyrie/Pharaoh...)
- Don't run in a straight line
- if you are on the run - try to do it more in a zig-zag-way
- be unpredictable, evade AOE-stun
- you can use Runes of the Blight/Loggers Hatchet/Runed Cleaver to cut down trees and create new paths to confuse your enemies
- Know when to TP
- if you TP to another lane to set up a gank, try to do it when the enemies have no vision on the tower you are porting to - if they see you coming they will most likely flee
- if you TP out of a gank try to run around some trees first - every moment where the enemy does not see you will help you to get out successfully
- Don't stun stunned targets
- if you and your partner both have a 3 second stun, dont stun at the same time, decide who stuns first to get the maximum of 6 seconds stun out of it
- Some spells have more than one purpose
- Pharaohs Tormented Soul is not only an AOE-nuke but also gives vision - you can scout e.g. the runespawns with it
- some spells destroy trees which can be used to uncover hiding enemies
- There are 3 types of damage - learn to distinguish them:
- Physical Damage
- Autoattackdamage of every hero
- Some spells deal physical damage
(all of Pandemoniums spells, Tundra's Ultimate...)
- Can be reduced with ARMOR
- Can be blocked with the item VOID TALISMAN
- Magical Damage
- Most spells deal magic damage
- Can be reduced with MAGIC ARMOR
- Can be blocked with item SHRUNKEN HEAD
- Superior Damage
- Few Ultimates deal superior damage
- Some spells can be altered with SHRUNKEN HEAD
- Succubus Ultimate disables, but deals no damage
- Don't read the spells of your hero and think about the items you want to buy during the game
- Make yourself familiar with the hero you will pick in advance (Compendium, Forums etc.)
- Try to figure out the items that you would want beforehand so you wont lose time searching for them
- If you say nothing, your team expects that you know the game,
tell them that you are new right from the start and ask for help
- DON'T IGNORE YOUR TEAM e.g.:
- if your lanepartner tells you to go back
- if they tell you to stun a certain hero
- if they call for help
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HoN vocabulary
Some usefull abbreviations and terms in HoN:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...ht=terminology
If there is something you did not understand feel free to ask / or search in other threads, i am sure you will find an answer : )
Please let me know if this was of any help to you, and tell me things you might miss here!
Originally Posted by jenzh
or
giveing the team crazy buffs this game is not all about late game rember that all and a guy w/ only 100 games and a bad kdr if his trying to teach you how to play then...... move on
I can help if you want?
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