DotA vs HoN

From HoNwiki

Introduction

This guide is mainly written for people who played the popular Warcraft 3 map Defence of the Ancients (DotA) for a while, got familiar with it and now made the transition to Heroes of Newerth (HoN). It will note most of the HoN items and heroes which have an equivalent in DotA, as well as new features of the game.

This guide is not meant for people who are completely new to both HoN and DotA.

DotA Helper Modification

One of the great features of Heroes of Newerth is the ability for users to create modifications to customize the game to their preference. The user Bangerz has created a very useful modification that changes all the hero and item icons to their DotA equivalent, as well as adding their DotA names beside their HoN names.

For a guide on how to install the DotA mod and to see screenshots of it in action, you can click here to visit the forums.

Starting out

Login Screen

The first thing you will see when you start the game is the login screen. Located along the top of the screen is the system bar (More information on that later)

In the bottom center of the screen is where you login.

Save Username will remember your username each time you start the game.

Auto Auth will remember your password and automatically log you in when you start the game.

Invisible Mode will hide you from friends and clan mates.

Create Account will bring down the account creation panel if you have not already purchased a HoN account.

Lost Login Info? will bring down a panel for retrieving your username or password if you have forgotten.

Main Lobby

Once you login you will be taken to the main lobby.

At the top of the screen you have the system bar.

In the middle of the screen you have the menu.

System Bar

In the very middle of the system bar you have your username which you can click to open a drop down box for purchasing a sub account, resetting your stats or changing your nickname. Beside that you have the View Statistics button which will bring up your personal statistics. The final button at the right is the logout button.

On the right of the system bar, you have the Notifications list. Notifications will pop up whenever a friend or clan mate joins a game (With an option to join that game), when a friend or clan mate logs in or out and when someone adds you to their friends list (With an option to approve or ignore the request). All your notifications will be stored in the Notifications List.

Menu

Tutorial

Clicking this will load up the tutorial for learning the basics of HoN.

Matchmaking

This will open up a visual map of matchmaking servers for you to select. You will have to complete a few provisional games at first to receive your rating. Once you've completely those games, Matchmaking will place you with similarly rated individuals.

Public Games

This will open up the public game list. This is a list of games players have created. There are a multitude of options on the left of this list for filtering out games for your preferences. In the very bottom list is an icon key that will explain all the visual icons on the game list.

Create Game

This will bring down a panel for hosting your own game.

Player Ladder

This will open up a list where you can see how you match up to other players. On the left are a number of game statistics that you can choose to show or hide.

Match Stats

This is where you can view matches at a glance, as well as download a replay of them to view at a later date. When you click this button, it will bring up your most recent game.

Hero Compendium

This is a list where you can view detailed statistics of every hero in the game.

Options

Clicking this will open up the options screen.

Game Lobby

You can view a list of available games by clicking the Game List button. You can apply filters to the current view by selection options on the left hand side of this panel.

Most DotA players will immediately notice the Type and game options that are indicated by icons in the games list. HoN currently supports five gametypes which are well known from DotA:

Normal mode
Single Draft (SD)
Random Draft (RD)
Banning Draft (BD) (This is similar to Captains Draft in DotA)
Banning Pick (BP)

And the various game options:

All Heroes: Allows both Legion and Hellbourne to pick heroes from both factions.
Random Hero: Selects a random hero for all players (like the AR game mode).
Easy Mode: The EM gametype from dota - awarding extra money to players and weaker towers.
No Leavers: If this option is enabled, you can't join if your leaver percentage is too high.
Auto Balance Teams: Automatically shuffles all players in the game lobby when the game starts, to balance the chances of victory for both factions.

The game lobby works much the same as DotA. When you join a game, you can select a slot and switch teams as you like. The host can shuffle teams and lock players to a slot (Those players will not be shuffled).

Located in the center of the screen are some details about the game such as modes and your ping to the server. It is important to remember that all games of HoN are hosted on S2's servers, so the hosts connection will not affect other players.

Clicking on the colored circle or the join button below it will place you in that slot. To the left of the circle are options to add the person as a friend, mute their voice chat or view their stats. The voice chat icon will turn green when they are talking. Clicking on it will change it to red to indicate you have muted them.

The Lock Slot and Kick Player options are only available to the host of the game.

PSR stands for Player Skill Rating. When you win or lose a game, you will gain or lose an amount PSR based on your teammates and opponents PSR. The Balance button in the middle of the Game Lobby can be clicked by the host to shuffle the players based on their PSR so that both teams are evenly matched.

Picking a hero is always done in the same way: The Legion players are aligned to the left, the Hellbourne to the right and in the middle is the grid with selectable heroes. The number of heroes you can select varies per game mode. If you hover your mouse over the heroes you will see a description of their stats and skills at the bottom of the screen.

Selecting a random hero is done by clicking the dice icon at the bottom of the hero screen, this will also give you 250 extra starting gold in normal mode (does NOT give extra gold in SD/RD/BD modes). Repicking and swapping can be done before clicking ready or timer expiration.

Repicking allows you to put your chosen hero back into the pool of available heroes and pick a new one. This is accomplished by clicking the tiny arrow beside your hero portrait, and costs 350 gold.
Swapping allows you to swap heroes with another player on your team. It is accomplished by clicking the arrow icon next to the hero portrait of who you want to swap with. If someone else has already offered to swap with you, their portrait will have gold arrows circling it, clicking on it will swap with them.)

In-Game Interface

Personal stats are indicated in the top left corner:

Hero portrait
Level
HP bar
Mana bar
Buffs and active effects

There is also a Share Courier button which will automatically give control of your courier to all your teammates.

Directly below this are small icons for each of your teammates.

Clicking the Share Control button once will change the icon to yellow and share control of your courier with them. Clicking it again will change the icon to green and will give full control of all your units to the player. Clicking one more time will return the icon to grey and remove control from them.

The Accept Help button works much like DotA. Clicking this button will prevent the person from assisting you with spells like Pebbles' Chuck (Tiny's Toss) or Andromeda's Void Rip (Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap)

The ability indicator's give you quick at-a-glance information about that teammate's abilities. A grey circle means they do not have the ability leveled yet. If the icon is green, they are ready to cast that spell. If it is dark green, it is a passive skill. Orange means the spell is on cooldown and blue means they do not have enough mana for the spell. Finally, red means that they are disabled in some form and are unable to cast the spell.

Game statistics are displayed in the center top of the screen:

Stats of your hero on the left: Kills / Deaths / Assists
Your creep stats on the right: Kills / Denies
Elapsed game time in the center.
Kills of both factions (Legion / Hellbourne) on the bottom.

The scoreboard can be viewed in the top right corner of the screen.

There is a full size version as well as a smaller version that only displays the hero portrait and levels.

The HUD on the bottom of the screen is mostly the same as in DotA

The purple bar around the hero portrait indicates the experience progress on the current level.

When you level up, a small button will pop-up above each one of your skills (and a plus icon for stats on the left) and you click one of these. These buttons may toggled on and off by clicking the up arrow to the right of the hero level or by pressing 'L' key (by default).

Heroes

Ported Heroes

HoN			Differences
Agility
	Andromeda	Shendelzare Silkwood the Vengeful Spirit	Skill 2 (Wave of Terror) - Is magic damage instead of Direct HP removal.
	Blood Hunter	Strygwyr the Bloodseeker	Skill 1 (Bloodrage) - DoT damage is reduced with each level Skill 2 (Blood Bath) - Now applies a debuff on the attacked unit for 1.5 sec. If the unit dies during this time, Blood Hunter will gain health Skill 3 (Strygwyr's Thirst) - Reveals invisible units Skill 4 (Rupture) - Goes through magic immunity
	Chronos	Darkterror the Faceless Void	Skill 1 (Time Walk) - Deals AoE damage Skill 2 (Backtrack) - Heals damage very quickly over time instead of instantly Skill 3 (Time Lock) - Steals agility and bashes every 8/7/6/5 attack
	Corrupted Disciple	Razor the Lightning Revenant	Skill 2 (Static Link) - Gives vision of linked unit. Cannot be cast as a hook.
	Flint Beastwood	Kardel Sharpeye the Dwarven Sniper	-
	Magebane	Magina the Anti-Mage	Skill 2 (Blink) - Increases magic armor of self and nearby allies when you blink Skill 3 (Spell Shield) - Now an aura that increases enemy cast speeds and deals damage based on the mana cost
	Moon Queen	Luna the Moon Rider	Skill 2 (Moon Glaive) - Can be set to hit all units or only heroes Skill 2 (Moon Glaive) - Orb effects work on bounces Skill 3 (Lunar Blessing) - Can be toggled to give a % increased damage to all nearby allied heroes or to all units.
	Night Hound	Rikimaru the Stealth Assassin	Skill 1 (Smoke Screen) - Cloud causes towers and creeps to ignore you. Cannot attack towers while in cloud.
	Sand Wraith	Mercurial the Spectre	Skill 1 (Spectral Dagger) - Pathing is much better Skill 3 (Dispersion) - Damage is dealt to all heroes in range, instead of divided equally Skill 3 (Dispersion) - Now deals magic damage instead of true damage
	Slither	Lesale Deathbringer the Venomancer	Skill 2 (Poison Sting) - Reduces health regen Skill 3 (Plague Ward) - Now builds up charges allowing multiple casts
	Soulstealer	Nevermore the Shadow Fiend	Skill 4 (Requiem of Souls) - Cast point is 1.4s, down from 1.5s in DotA.
	Swiftblade	Yurnero the Juggernaut	Skill 1 (Blade Fury) - Can attack while spinning at level four, but has -50 IAS Skill 2 (Healing Ward) - Is now a passive that launches a regular attack (no attack modifiers) from Swiftblade on the attacker
	Valkyrie	Mirana Nightshade Priestess of the Moon	-
	Wildsoul	Syllabear the Lone Druid	Skill 2 (Rabid) - Buff is applied to all units under your control
Intelligence
	Blacksmith	Aggron Stonebreaker the Ogre Magi	Skill 2 (Ignite) - Reduces Magic Armor - Magic Armor reduction diminishes over time
	Bubbles	Puck the Faerie Dragon	Skill 1 (Illusory Orb) - It travels at 850 units/second in HoN, up from 600 units/second in DotA.
	Defiler	Krobelus the Death Prophet	Skill 4 (Exorcism) - The ghosts have 400 movespeed, down from 500 movespeed in DotA.
	Demented Shaman	Dazzle the Shadow Priest	Skill 2 (Shallow Grave) - Now reduces non-DoT damage from heroes and towers 5 times or until a set amount is absorbed.
	Doctor Repulsor	Raijin Thunderkeg the Storm Spirit	Skill 4 (Ludicrous Speed) - Unable to ult out of roots and snares (as of 1.0.13).
	Glacius	Rylai the Crystal Maiden	Skill 2 (Frostbite) - Now castable on allied units to reduce damage taken.
	Ophelia	Chen the Holy Knight	-
	Plague Rider	Kel'Thuzad the Lich	Skill 3 (Dark Ritual) - Now denies 50% experience, down from 100% in DotA.
	Pollywog Priest	Rhasta the Shadow Shaman	Skill 4 (Mass Serpent Wards) - Aghanim's Scepter upgrade gives +3 wards in HoN; it increases the damage per ward in DotA.
	Pyromancer	Lina Inverse the Slayer	Skill 3 (Fiery Soul) - Applies a DoT on all attacks and spells. Also passively reduces cast time.
	Soul Reaper	Rotund'jere the Necrolyte	Skill 2 (Heartstopper Aura) - The range scales from 700 to 1000 (is fixed at 1000 in DotA at all levels).
	Succubus	Atropos the Bane Elemental	-
	Tempest	Darchrow the Enigma	-
	Thunderbringer	Zeus the Lord of Olympia	-
	Torturer	Leshrac the Malicious Tormented Soul	Skill 1 (Split Earth) - AoE is constant at all levels, rather than scaling with level like in DotA. Stun duration is constant at all levels in DotA.
	Vindicator	Nortrom the Silencer	-
	Voodoo Jester	Vol'Jin the Witch Doctor	Skill 2 (Voodoo Restoration) - Now heals in an area around the target. Can also be cast on enemies to deal damage
	Witch Slayer	Lion the Demon Witch	-
	Wretched Hag	Akasha the Queen of Pain	Skill 4 (Sonic Wave) - Also applies first skill to all targets hit
Strength
	Accursed	Abaddon the Lord of Avernus	Skill 4 (Borrowed Time) - No longer activated automatically
	Armadon	Rigwarl the Bristleback	-
	Behemoth	Raigor Stonehoof the Earthshaker	Skill 4 (Echo Slam) - Echo waves still spawn from corpses (they do not in DotA). The damage per wave from a regular unit is lower in HoN.
	Devourer	Pudge the Butcher	Skill 1 (Meat Hook) - Range is constant at all levels, rather than dealing true damage like in DotA. Skill 4 (Dismember) - Gives boosts to HP, damage and Rot radius after channeling the skill.
	The Gladiator	Kunkka the Admiral	Skill 4 (Ghost Ship) - Speed increased to 750.
	Hammerstorm	Sven the Rogue Knight	Skill 3 (Warcry) - Instant cast time in HoN.
	Jeraziah	Purist Thunderwrath the Omniknight	-
	Keeper of the Forest	Rooftrellen the Treant Protector	Skill 2 (Forest Sentinel) - Only gives vision from the tree, no activatable portion
	Legionnaire	Mogul Khan the Axe	Skill 2 (Battle Hunger) - Now charges at the target with increased movespeed. Reaching the target will increase their attack speed and decrease their damage respectively.
	Magmus	Crixalis the Sand King	-
	Pebbles	Tiny the Stone Giant	Skill 3 (Craggy Exterior) - Now reduces debuff durations and increases armor instead of passively stunning enemy attackers.
	Pestilence	Slardar the Slithereen Guard	-
	Pharaoh	Rattletrap the Clockwerk Goblin	-
	Tundra	Rexxar the Beastmaster	Skill 4 (Primal Roar) - Does not interrupt channeling like in DotA. Does not have full side-push length like in DotA.
	War Beast	Banehallow the Lycanthrope	-

New heroes

		Name	Information
		Arachna	Similarities to DotA "Drow Ranger" and "Netherdrake"
		Balphagore
		The Chipper
		The Dark Lady	Similarities to DotA "Phantom Assassin"
		Deadwood
		Engineer
		Electrician
		Fayde	Similarities to DotA "Nerubian Assassin"
		Forsaken Archer
		Gauntlet
		Hellbringer	Similarities to DotA "Warlock"
		Kraken
		The Madman	Similarities to DotA "Nerubian Weaver"
		Maliken
		Nymphora	Similarities to DotA "Keeper of the Light"
		Pandamonium
		Puppet Master
		Predator	Similarties to DotA "Lifestealer"
		Rampage	Similarities to DotA "Spiritbreaker" and "Batrider"
		Scout	Similarities to DotA "Bounty Hunter" and "Dwarven Sniper"
		Zephyr

Items

Supplies

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Mana Potion	Clarity Potion		50
Health Potion	Healing Salve		100
Runes of the Blight	Ancient Tango of Essifation		90
Bottle	Empty Bottle		600
Ward of Sight	Observer Wards		200
Ward of Revelation	Sentry Wards		200
Dust of Revelation	Dust of Appearance		180
Homecoming Stone	Scroll of Town Portal		135
Monkey Courier	Animal Courier		200
Winged Courier	Flying Courier		400
Mana Battery	Magic Stick	Heals 10 Health per charge	200

Accessories

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Crushing Claws	Gauntlets of Strength		150
Duck Boots	Slippers of Agility		150
Mark of the Novice	Mantle of Intelligence		150
Minor Totem	Ironwood Branch		53
Major Totem	N/A	Unique to HoN	540
Bolstering Armband	Belt of Giant Strength		450
Fleetfeet	Boots of Elvenskin		450
Apprentice's Robe	Robe of the Magi		450
Pretenders Crown	Circlet of Nobility		185
Blessed Orb	Ultimate Orb		2,100
Mighty Blade	Ogre Axe		1,000
Quickblade	Blade of Alacrity		1,000
Neophyte's Book	Staff of Wizardry		1,000

Weapons

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Punchdagger	Blades of Attack		500
Broadsword	Broadsword		1,200
Warhammer	Mithril Hammer		1,600
Iron Buckler	Stout Shield		250
Guardian Ring	Ring of Protection		175
Ringmail	Chainmail		550
Helm of the Victim	Helm of Iron Will		950
Platemail	Platemail		1,400
Steamstaff	Quarterstaff	Down from 900 gold in DOTA	800
Logger's Hatchet	Quelling Blade	Can be held by Gladiator (Admiral) but doesn't increase the damage of Flagellation (Tide Bringer).	225

Relics

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Gloves of the Swift	Gloves of Haste		500
Hungry Spirit	Mask of Death		900
Trinket of Restoration	Ring of Regeneration		350
Portal Key	Kelen's Dagger of Escape	Can be held by: Andromeda (Vengeful Spirit) Devourer (Butcher) Targeting beyond maximum range travels the maximum distance	2,150
Scarab	Sobi Mask		325
Marchers	Boots of Speed		500
Bound Eye	Gem of True Sight		700
Mystic Vestments	Planeswalker's Cloak		400
Snake Bracelet	Talisman of Evasion		1,800
Void Talisman	Ghost Scepter		1,500

Secret Shop

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Axe of the Malphai	Messerschmidt's Reaver		3,200
Dancing Blade	Eaglehorn		3,000
Acolyte's Staff	Mystic Staff		2,700
Slayer	Demon Edge		2,200
Warpcleft	Hyperstone		2,100
Lifetube	Ring of Health		875
Manatube	Void Stone		875
Sword of the High	Sacred Relic	Sacred Relic is 3800g	3,400
Beastheart	Vitality Booster		1,100
Glowstone	Point Booster		1,200
Pickled Brain	Energy Booster		1,000

Initiation

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Power Supply	Magic Wand	Recipe changed to Mana Battery, 2 Minor Totems, and 240 Gold recipe	546
Fortified Bracelet	Bracer		510
Soulscream Ring	Wraith Band		460
Talisman of Exile	Null Talisman		485
Blood Chalice	Soul Ring	Recipe changed to Crushing Claws, Mark of the Novice, and Trinket of Restoration. No Recipe. Cooldown is 35 seconds, mana gained is not lost.	650
Great Arcana	Oblivion Staff		1575
Sustainer	Perserverance		1750
Alchemist's Bones	Hand of Midas	Has two charges instead of a flat cooldown	1900
Firebrand	Yasha	Recipe changed to Fleetfeet, Quickblade, and 750 gold Recipe.	2200
Striders	N/A	Unique to HoN	800
Plated Greaves	N/A	Unique to HoN	1303
Ghost Marchers	Phase Boots	On Use effect does not cancel upon item or skill use	1500
Steamboots	Power Treads		1450
Post Haste	Boots of Travel	Provides +105 Movement Speed	2700

Supportive

	HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
	Ring of the Teacher	Ring of Basilius		500
	Refreshing Ornament	Headdress of Rejuvenation		603
	Shield of the Five	Nathrezim Buckler		803
	Ring of Sorcery	Arcane Ring		1485
	Tablet of Command	Force Staff	Recipe changed to Major Totem, Neophyte's Book, and 500 gold Recipe.	2040
	Abyssal Skull	Vladimir's Offering		2050
	Nome's Wisdom	N/A	Unique to HoN	2240
	Astrolabe	Mekansm		1703
	Puzzlebox	Necronomicon	Recipe cost changed to 1000 Limited stock; 2 stacks initially, gaining 1 per 10 minutes, up to 9	2350
	Stormspirit	Eul's Scepter of Divinity		3200
	Barrier Idol	Khadgar's Pipe of Insight		3653
	Restoration Stone	Refresher Orb	Refreshes item cooldown as well (except another Restoration Stone and Shrunken Head)	5200
	Kuldra's Sheepstick	Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse		5675
File:Recipe-Energizer.png	Energizer	N/A	Unique to HoN	1600

Protective

	HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
	Iron Shield	Poor Man's Shield		550
File:Recipe-Sols-Bulwark.png	Sol's Bulwark	N/A	Unique to HoN	2000
	Shaman's Headdress	Hood of Defiance		2050
	Barbed Armor	Blade Mail	Reflects 80% of damage for 5 seconds	2200
	Helm of the Black Legion	Vanguard	Blocks 30 damage(20 for ranged) on next attack so long as you have charges. Regains charges at a rate of 1 every 0.5 seconds. 5 charges are removed if hit by a hero, tower, or Kongor else only 1 charge is removed.	2225
	Icon of the Goddess	Soul Booster		3300
	Assassin's Shroud	Lothar's Edge		3300
	Shrunken Head	Black King Bar		3900
	Frostfield Plate	Shiva's Guard		4700
	Sacrificial Stone	Bloodstone	Grants bonus Max Health and Health Regeneration per charge	5050
	Null Stone	Linken's Sphere	Recipe cost reduced to 1000 Grants +10 Damage	4850
	Behemoth's Heart	Heart of Tarrasque	Grants +0.75% Health per second	5500
	Daemonic Breast Plate	Assault Cuirass	Recipe changed to Warpcleft, Sol's Bulwark, Ringmail and 900 Gold Recipe.	5550
File:Recipe-Genjuro.png	Genjuro	N/A	Unique to HoN	6300

Combative

	HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
File:Recipe-Spellshards.png	Spellshards	N/A		2575
	Riftshards	Crystalys	Recipe cost changed to 950. Can be upgraded 3 times.	2650
	Codex	Dagon	Recipe changed to Neophyte's Book, two Punchdaggers and 1000 Gold Recipe	3000
	Insanitarius	Armlet of Mordiggian	Recipe changed to Helm of the Victim, Gloves of the Swift, Steamstaff, and 500 gold Recipe.	2850
	Thunderclaw	Maelstrom		2900
	Brutalizer	Cranium Basher	Has a cooldown time of 2 seconds	3100
	Staff of the Master	Aghanim's Scepter		4300
	Runed Axe	Battlefury	Can be used to chop down trees.	4150
	Geometer's Bane	Manta Style		5100
	Nullfire Blade	Diffusal Blade		3300
	Hellflower	Orchid Malevolence	Hellflower causes the target to leave a trail behind him for the duration.	4775
	Mock of Brilliance	Radiance		4850
	Savage Mace	Monkey King Bar		5400
	Charged Hammer	Mjollnir		5400
	Wingbow	The Butterfly		5600
	Doom Bringer	Divine Rapier	250 damage	5600

Morph Attack

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Whispering Helm	Helm of the Dominator	The dominated creeps have a permanent life time.	1850
Elder Parasite	Mask of Madness	Take 20% extra damage	1900
Icebrand	Sange	Recipe changed to Bolstering Armband, Mighty Blade, and 750 gold Recipe. 15% Movement Slow always procs (Attack Modifier)	2200
Shieldbreaker	Stygian Desolator	Upgradable 2 times. Grants +70 damage on last level.	4600
Frostburn	Sange and Yasha	20% Movement Slow always procs (Attack Modifier)	4400
Frostwolf's Skull	Eye of Skadi	Recipe changed to Icebrand, Blessed Orb, Glowstone, and 700 gold Recipe. Slow works with single-target skills	6200
Harkon's Blade	N/A	Unique to HoN	4775
Symbol of Rage	Satanic		6150

Special

HoN Item	DotA Equivalent	Differences	Price
Token of Life	Aegis of the Immortal		N/A
Bananas	Cheese		N/A
Token of Sight	N/A	Unique to HoN	N/A
Token of Stealth	N/A	Unique to HoN	N/A

Shops

One of the greatest changes is the way shops are handled. Every base now contains only one building where all items and recipes can be purchased. The shop can be viewed by clicking the shop while standing in the fountain of the allied base, or by pressing the B key (by default).

Basic items can be found in the left column, recipes in the right column.
- The lower left two shops are special shops located in the jungle.
It is possible to buy parts of the recipe by clicking the recipe you want. A pop-up window will show the required parts, which can be purchased immediately (instead of going to the right basic item shop first).
It is possible to sell items instantly from anywhere on the map by dragging the item onto the shop building, the hero no longer needs to walk the distance to the shop.

Other differences between DotA and HoN

The Sentinel and Scourge factions are equivalent to the Legion and Hellbourne factions, respectively. There is no Neutral faction in HoN.
Games created by players are remotely hosted on S2Games' servers. This means that everyone will experience the same latency, assuming everyone has the same connection and are equally far from the server. The game is not dependant on the prescence of the host.
The abilities of every hero are controlled by pressing the Q, W, E and R keys (by default). Additional skills (i.e. Wildsoul's War Cry) are extended to D, F and G if necessary.
Players who leave the game during play can reconnect within five minutes. While the player remains disconnected, the hero will be shared by all remaining players, as in DotA. If the five minutes limit passes, the hero will be terminated. Terminated hero's gold will be split amonst remaining teammates and Items will drop in faction's pool. Unlike DotA, HoN has an option to have your hero automatically return to the fountain if you disconnect.
Game statistics are automatically collected after playing a game and can be viewed from the Match Stats panel.
Health bars can be switched on by pressing the apostrophe ' key or permanently by selecting the option from the Interface Menu.

Mechanics

Magic Armor is calculated the same way as armor, rather than a flat reduction.

Orb Effects

Orb Effects are known in Heroes of Newerth as modifiers. There are two different types of modifiers:

Attack Modifiers are buffs that do not stack with other attack modifiers of a different type. Some examples include Frostwolf's Skull (Eye of Skadi), Shieldbreaker (Stygian Desolator), Accursed's Sear (Abaddon the Lord of Avernus' Frostmourne), and Lifesteal.
Exclusive Modifiers are buffs that do not stack with buffs of the same type, but do stack with buffs of different types. These modifiers include Slow, Mana Burn, Bash, and Chain Lightning.

Movespeed Modifiers (Haste and Slow)

According to a thread on the official forums here...

DotA movespeed and HoN movespeed modifiers are handled differently.

In DotA, all modifiers are added together and then applied to a hero's movespeed. In HoN, modifiers are applied seperately and stack upon eachother.

For Example, lets say you have a buff that gives you 20% move speed, and then get hit by a debuff that slows by 50%.

In DotA: The system adds together the two modifiers and applies them to base move speed. That means that you would have 70% movespeed.
- 100% movespeed * (1.2 - .5) = 70% movespeed.
In HoN: The system applies the modifiers seperately. That means that you would have 60% movespeed.
- 100% movespeed * 1.2 * .5 = 60% movespeed.

Note that movespeed reduction and movement slow are not the same thing. Attack Slow also work a similar way.

Another important note: The haste rune provides max (522) movespeed, and units affected by it cannot be slowed.

References

This article was derived from "DotA vs HoN" (revision history) at the Heroes of Newerth Unofficial Wiki.

Credits

Warchamp7 for updating the page and doing all the grunt work Asator for creating the original page on honwiki.net ElementUser for telling Warchamp7 where he messed up