Finally verified, YAY! Also, a lenghty introduction.

[[H3LP]Nospheratu]

Hi all.

I finally managed to become verified (level 5) and basically wanted to say hi, now that i can also write in the forums

Since i'm here, i'll write down some of my background and thoughts about HoN; i hope it's not too much off topic but since i consider myself a newb in HoN, i figured it would be a good place to post it (if it's not, please move it, thanks).

I've been playing DotA for years, but only casual and with friends, since i didn't have the incentive or the will to become any better at it. After some time it became boring and we played it less and less untill we mostly stopped playing altogether. We wanted to try out HoN becouse it looked much nicer and more professional, but unfortunately none of us had the funds or the will to pay for it (you can flame me all you want, but i won't feel bad for being poor and rather spending money on my roof and food).

After a couple of months another friend said that he plays LoL and that it's free to play, so we all gave it a try. There my problems began - i totally hated it while all of my former co-players loved it. I know that everybody looks at games, graphics etc. with their own eyes, but i just can't force myself to swallow stuff i don't like in order to play with the people i like; even so i managed to bring my LoL account up to level 5 and bought a hero but i felt no joy in it, so i stopped playing. My reasons were these:

1. I hated the graphic style. I'm sure that many people find it cute and fancy, but when i play a game where i'm a mighty hero and fight to the death with my enemies in order to save my land, i need stuff to look realistic, grim, brooding, menacing, so i can immerse myself and feel the incentive to fight; i just couldn't do that in LoL's cartoony, feelgood enviroment.

2. I hated the sounds for the same reasons i mentioned above; i just don't feel the incentive to fight, kill and die on the battlefield, when the announcer sounds like she's reading a story-book for 10 year old kids.

3. Being a long-time WoW player, i hated the unnecessary (copied) additions like the talent tree, the runes and the various hugs, laughs and whatnot. In my opinion - if you want to play a moba genre game, you don't need such things to draw your focus away from the main goal which is to be a good player and to learn using the heroes abilities; also I've spent my share of time browsing for talent builds and glyph combos in WoW and i surely don't plan on doing it again anytime soon. In co-relation with this, it also makes the players very imballanced imo: if a level 30 player with all his skills and runes would go 1vs1 with a level 5 player, the lower one probably wouldn't stand a chance, even if their actual playing skills are almost the same.

4. The general easyness and dumbing down of the game concepts and mechanics, like the circle which shows you the radius of a spell and the two extra spells, one of which can be a teleport. Seriously?
If i wanted to shoot someone with a bow or gun, i'd make damn sure to know the radius of the weapon and practice with it untill i could use it efficiently; i wouldn't expect a "you can shoot up to here" marker all around me. And if i wanna get from point A to point B in real life, i have to either walk there or buy gas for my car or buy a bus ticket, i can't just put some wheels on my legs and a motor up my ass. My point - if you wanna have a quick transport, you gotta go to the shop and buy it, period.

Anyway, those were the main reasons why I didn't feel like playing LoL with my friends, but as luck would have it, HoN became free to play in the same week, so i immideatly made an account and started playing.
Btw, S2 - thanks for that. I've seen so much hate and rage about that topic from legacy players who feel betrayed but i just wanted to say that many of us are grateful for the chance to play this awesome game for free. I agree that you could have made it in a different way (maybe without that 10$ discount), but as i somewhat understand the basic business mechanics, I've seen it many times before with other companies and i'm not at all surprised - friendship and loyalty DO NOT have a place in the modern corporate world; if a company wants to survive, they must do all they can - even screwing over their users and employees - to stay on top. If they don't, they'll go under, period.

But enough of that; i just wanted to leave you with my reasons why i like HoN so much and why I'll continue to play it even when Dota 2 and god knows what else comes out:

1. Obviously the graphic style and game sounds (i only hated the banjo in the beginning, but by now i'm used to it ).

2. The DotA style with some added features but without the unnecessary crap i found in LoL.

3. The difficulty and thus the challenge to get better at it; as Derek Sivers nicely explains in his video "Why you need to fail" - if you're only doing something that is easy and that you're good at, you'll never get any better at it or learn anything new. That's why i wanted to try something HARDER than DotA, not easier and that's also why i'm not ashamed about dying a lot and not having a good mmr (yet) - becouse the more i die, the harder i'll try and the better i'll become.

I hope that I didn't get too carried away with my first post and that i won't receive too much hating and flaming :P Anyway, i'll see you around, bye all!

[BaneElement]

Nice to see new players so interested in the game with a growing competitive spirit.

[[FIDL]DeathsAudit]

You seem motivated, good luck to you in your HoN endeavors.

The talent trees of LoL always rubbed me wrong as well, left WoW so I didn't have to see those damn things anymore.

[[weed]Mummpitz]

So much truth in your post - i really liked to read the whole Post - I say hello, be Welcome at HoN i wish you good Luck and have Fun, finally your friends may join you later, otherwise you will find good ppl you can play with... A good Team or at least some ppl you can communicate with will make your HON-Life much easier to learn and win this teamgame. Regarding the Things about S2 Business, most ppl know why S2 changed their Businessmodels - to stay alive they had to do a lot, but sad they dont communicate more about this with their Users. I love HoN, since Beta... and its a lot more Fun with friends/team... good Luck man and feel welcome, we may c us ingame ;P ok just in case if your mmr grows...

[GrymM]

I'm glad to hear new players are indeed enjoying themselves here.

I've supported HoN since the day I first played the beta.. I purchased immediately upon release, and even dropped another $40 once it went f2p.

Because I -LOVE- this game. The art, the sounds, the heroes, themes, etc. And once custom maps are up and running, just forget about it.

Now I'm not going to lie by saying I won't try DotA 2, I can't imagine any HoN player not at least giving it a good look once the open beta rolls around and it has become more of what it will be at release.

But HoN already has me and i don't expect that to change until I'm making my own MOBA .

Plus DotA 2 has a horrible art style as far as I'm concerned. I might have been able to get past that, cause the terrain is pretty, but as far as i can tell Pudge is now just a fat guy with a top knot.. and that simply won't do.

Good luck with your progress here in HoN, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have/do/will.

[TaroEld]

Thanks for that video.

[delux82]

hey there nice read

1. Dont care about Stats is a great thing so you are more grown than most of the comunity and for that i thank you

2. You see the Game in the same way as i thats cool i doubt im the only one after the past weeks

3. I wish you the best in HON on the way to get better

so stay dont get and have fun

[[H3LP]Nospheratu]

Hey guys!

I haven't looked here for some time and I'm VERY happy to read all of these friendly welcomes and replies, so thanks a lot for them

TaroEld, I'm glad you enjoyed that vid; ever since i've seen it, it became one of my best motivation sources and i also mentioned it so that more people would see it as well.

Delux82, always nice to see other thinkalotalikers I hope that in time the general HoN community sentiment will turn from mostly negative to mostly positive; that's also why i decided to make my first post, becouse a) you have to start somewhere and b) if you wanna have it done right, you have to do it yourself.

I'll do my best to keep improving in HoN; your replies have given me another big confidence boost to do it, so kudos to all ^^

See you guys ingame, GL & HF

[[iNF]Qrunir]

It's for people like the OP i feel sorry there is no such thing as a hero flatrate. I dunno whether he would be able to afford it anyway but its just a shame for a game like HoN, which is more or less based on knowledge and skill to limit the "new" players to always be "lesser class" players.

[D0ri]

Holy cow, thanks for that video.

[Anakha]

People like you are why I made that huge lot of mini-guides. Amazing stuff.

[Savaii64]

+10000 For the positive mental attitude.

[memeknas]

good luck OP, also almost 3 wards per game, impressive

[jerri`LEE]

Can't believe that I read that whole wall of text. Kudos to you newbie... Game on!

[[RawR]GrosFif]

Interesting video.

Also, being able to see your own mistakes and focusing on what you could have done different instead of always blaming teammates for what happened (which is the easy solution lots of people use) is the best way to improve. Sure sometimes you will die because your partner didn't stun when he obviously should have, but most of the times part of the mistake is yours, very often because you got caught out of position.

Here are a few questions i try to ask myself when i die :

Was i out of position ? IMO positioning is one of the most important (and hardest to develop) skills in HoN/DotA. Very often people will die because they are too far up, chase too far, get initiated on, etc.

Was I aware of my surrounding ? Map awareness is also important. You should always check the minimap. MIA calls are nice, but everyone knows that you can't rely on random teammates to call them. So instead of crying when you get ganked, check the minimap! (not saying op cries, just speaking in general)

I could go on but i gtg to work or i'll be late. You probably get the idea anyways. Don't ask youself about what others could have done differently (you have no control on that anyways), but about what you could have done differently. It's the only way you can get better and increase your win% (which is the only important stats beside MMR, the goal is to win not to collect kills and gpm)

[[P0KM]VoI`Jin]

Wow, my faith in this community has just been renewed, good luck sir. Maybe if you want you can add me or my other account The_Sky and play some games.

[[H3LP]Nospheratu]

Thanks for all the positive feedback; feels good man

Agreed, GrosFif; i've just noticed in the last few games, how much more i now depend on my minimap and on other players' positions, so i seem to be learning something
I try to ward as often as i can, when i play support (mostly); it helps a lot to have the edge of seing more stuff... that way i can also help the team even though i'm not the best hero-killer.
Zapdos, thanks; i'll make sure to add you.

See you guys later!

[[PDB]Kipper]

Prepare to get jaded, bud.

[[H3LP]Nospheratu]

Prepare to get jaded, bud.

Nah, i'm not so easily discouraged I'm aware that HoN is just another game played by thousands of random people all over the world and that the more people are involved in the same activity as me, the more douchebags i'm bound to encounter; so i usually prepare myself accordingly (just like when browsing 4chan, heh).

On another note: I've just discovered the Alienware icon and goblin coins giveaway (yeah, i'm slow), i got them myself and used the coins to buy my new favourite hero, the evil blue locomotive with tusks (no icon yet).
I've said to myself that I will buy him the minute i can do so with silver coins, but i was also a bit worried about how long i'll have to grind silver for him; now he's mine and i feel great

[Deityh]

OP will be good in notime. No doubt with that spirit.