Heroes of Newerth Players

Hey.. I play HoN too, and my username is _DemonHunter. I'll add you.

xterm wroteI do couple of games every night and it would be great if I have some people to play with. My id is regex add me if you play HoN.

Off topic but weird... my hunter in WoW is called Legex

xterm wrote

vengeance666 wroteOff topic but weird... my hunter in WoW is called Legex

Regex

That was hell of an explanation...but i only ment the similarity in the word itself :P difference in first letter..we should make a team if i ever get HoN.. Legex and Regex

I've started playing HoN last week. I used to play DoTA a lot back in 2006 (that's 7 years ago, time flies...) so the game is not unfamiliar to me. I know how to farm, last hit, push but I'm still a newbie, namely because I don't know the heroes so I cannot predict what are my allies/enemies skills. For example, I never know who has a stun and how long it would last.

Another problem I have is this God-forsaken shop. I remember some basic builds (with some variations of Sange/Yasha, Perseverance, Power Threads, Soul booster, ... notice I don't know the HoN names and I've been playing for a week), but I still lose several seconds each time trying to locate the items I want.

Note that I'm not saying that HoN's shop system is bad (quite the contrary, I think it's better than DoTA's), but it's still one of my major weaknesses: I lose too much time in this shop. It might be just me but I have the impression there are a lot more items in HoN that what I remember in DoTA.

Anyway, I'd love to play with LebGeekers (?), so feel free to add me, username: babarock.

HoN 3.0
I'll seize this opportunity to present the newly released (today) version 3.0 of the client. I played 2 games and here are my impression on what's new:

• Learnatorium: A common complaint about HoN is the steep learning curve one has to go through in order to start enjoying the game. In this newer version, S2 puts the emphasis on newbies. They created something called the learnatorium. I haven't explored it fully yet, (it's a bit boring once you know the basics) but I've seen videos explaining the game, as well as a complete overhaul of the old (useless) tutorial. Note: the videos are streamed from Youtube.
• AI bots: This is also aimed at helping newbies. You can play with or against bots now. The bots are strong enough to teach you the game, but they're not very challenging once you reach a mid-high level of skills. The real challenge is still the multiplayer games, bots are really meant to help noobs. This was a major request, for years HoN kept loosing newcomers to competition (LOL, Dota) which had bots. I'm glad S2 finally reacted.
• Towns are redisigned: The map has changed. Not too much, so you still have the same understanding of where your targets are, but towns are designed differently. It looks and feel more like a real village now.
• Graphics overhaul: It may be a detail in competitive gaming, but an obvious lot of work has been put into the graphics of the game. In-game the heroes (apparently only some of them) have been redrawn, towers look awesome, and there's a great gradual transition between the leafy green life of the Legion and the fiery flames of death of the Hellbourne camp. Graphics have also been revisited off-game. The menus, heroes list, guides, etc have also been modified. For the better.

All in all, the game itself hasn't changed much. Hardcore players will barely notice any difference. The biggest change has been to make it more attractive to newcomers. Maybe I'm missing something, I've only played 2 games.

Also worth noting: Although the game feels as stable as usual, S2 has already shipped 2 patches to correct (I'm assuming) minor bugs. It might be best to wait a few days to see how this turns out.

How's the community over there? Tired of LoL's trolls.

I don't know LoL.

HoN's community has a terrible reputation, and to a large extent it's deserved. You will get yelled at for stupid mistakes, they are going to make fun of you for the items you buy, and if you happen to be the stunner in your team, it's always going to be your fault every time someone dies (because, obviously, you didn't stun when they wanted you to). More than 50% of the games I played (approx 20 games) will have someone complain because "team is such a noob lol" and it's never anyone's fault but yours.

That being said, this is just a first impression. The truth is, a majority of people are actually pretty cool guys. They're just silent. All it takes is one fucker yelling to make you feel inadequate or not belonging. The community is perfectly aware of this and, in a way, the whole 3.0 upgrade is aimed at this. For instance, S2, the publisher of the game, is now trying to push forward the "report" feature, where players can silently report on obnoxious players.

Here's how I deal with it: Don't be silent. I use and abuse the team chat, being polite and friendly. It encourages the cool guys on my team to speak up and the trolls to shut the fuck up. I always start a game saying stuff like "hello", "be patient with me I'm learning the game" and ask for all sorts of advice. Don't ask non-answerable questions. "Which items should I buy?" or "What skills should I level first?". There are literally thousands of answers and you can only find that out by yourself. On the other hand, here are some examples of questions people enjoy answering:

"Do they have a stunner?"
"Do we need wards?"
"Where's the best position to put the ward?"
"Which enemy should we focus on first?"

Go frenzy on the team chat. Most people are cool but silent.