Friday, February 25, 2011

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.16

HoN 2.0.16 Patch Notes

HoN 2.0.16 is now out with a new Colombian hero named Aluna.


Glacius betrays the Legion.

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.16 Changelog
-------------
- Added a new Gold Collection Alternate Avatar: Legendary Valkyrie
* She will be available for 14 days before being removed from the shop

- New Legion Intelligence Hero: Aluna
- Myrmidon and Glacius have defected to the Hellbourne

- When a player views their own match stats and history, the "Back" button will appear at the top of the screen
- The game lobby will now display the appropriate tooltip indicating the players MMR instead of PSR
- Fixed powerups not precaching in old replays
- Fixed souls now showing on Dampeer's Alt
- Added new account icons
- Updated Shaders
- Fixed some broken models
- Fixed a messy cliff on Caldavar

Empath
- Essence Link range from 600 to 500
- Essence Link break range from 850 to 750
- Essence Link Damage and Heal per second from 30/45/60/75 to 20/35/50/65

HoN Hero Video: Spotlight on Aluna

Aluna - HoN hero spotlight video

Welcome to the HoN University - where HoN gamers are taught how to play a HoN hero properly. Aluna means "student" in Portuguese and MsPudding is the teacher. For today's lesson, we shall talk about Aluna, a HoN hero that has been compared to DotA's Windrunner.


The student is ready with her deadly Macana.


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

HoN Hero Teaser Trailer: Aluna

Heroes of Newerth Hero: Aluna Teaser Trailer Revealed

Aluna, a new Legion hero joining the Battle of Newerth, is voiced by TV and movie actress Paula Garcés.


Aluna Teaser Trailer: (Youtube.com)


Subscribe to S2 Games on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/S2Games

Get the Latest HoN Updates on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/honupdates

HoN Alternative Skin: Legendary Valkyrie

Heroes of Newerth: Legendary Valkyrie - Mirana Nightshade, Priestess of the Moon (PotM)

S2 Games is proud to present Valkyrie's alternative skin, Legendary Valkyrie.


Legendary Valkyrie: It was said long ago that Valkyrie once rode a legendary beast. At last, that legend has become reality.
Legendary Valkyrie is Valkyrie riding on a mount and was inspired by the DotA hero, Mirana (PotM).

Legendary Valkyrie Alternative Skin Video:

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Heroes of Newerth at the GDC 2011

S2 Games is going to the Game Developers Conference 2011 in San Francisco.
The creators of the 2010 sleeper hit, Heroes of Newerth, will be at GDC this year accompanied by the real life version of the HoN hero named Aluna (Paula Garcés).

If you want to meet Aluna, drop by the Nvidia booth at the following times to get an autograph:



Aluna (Paula Garces Schedule at the GDC 2011 HoN booth):

March 2, 2011 (Wednesday)
11:00 Am to 12:00 Pm

March 3, 2011 (Thursday)
11:00 AM to 1:00 Pm

S2 Games location at the GDC 2011:
Heroes of Newerth will be located at the Nvidia booth #1802.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Aluna Guide - HoN Hero Guides

Heroes of Newerth Hero Guides: Aluna

Hero Name: Aluna
Affiliation: Legion
Primary Attribute: Intelligence
Introduced: HoN 2.0.16



Aluna is an INT hero on the Legion Side.

Aluna's Background Story:
Beautiful and spirited, Aluna carries within her the essence of Earth itself -- the old Earth, long since lost to the decay of ages. Endowed with its might, and carrying the power of the moon in a mystical emerald, Aluna strikes at her daemonic foes with deadly speed. Thanks to her skill in battle, she has already become a celebrity among the heroes of Newerth.

Aluna Skills Guide

Aluna Skill # 1: Emerald Lightning


Aluna launches a bolt of lightning that bounces off her enemies, stealing their attack speed and leaving them stunned.

Aluna Skill # 2: Power Throw


Channeling her strength into a single throw, Aluna is able to throw her weapon with deadly speed and accuracy.

Aluna Skill # 3: Deja Vu


Aluna can see the past and future on the surface of moonlit water, and she can travel there under proper conditions.

Aluna Skill # 4: Emerald Red (Ultimate)


Aluna's emerald draws its power from the moon and increases the potency of her other abilities.

What is your suggested Aluna Hero and Item Build?

Aluna Trivia:
Aluna uses a Macana as a weapon.
She is based on Latina superstar, Paula Garcés, with references to the moon.

Related:
Aluna will be battling it out with the other Heroes of Newerth.
Watch Aluna's Video Guide in the HoN Hero Spotlight.

Aluna is descending to HoN

Aluna joining the Legion in HoN

After Empath, a new female hero will be joining the battle for Newerth.
Aluna will be descending to the Legion side in the ongoing war among the Heroes of Newerth.


Click on Aluna's photo to zoom in.

Fun Fact: Aluna was inspired by Paula Garcés - a Latina celebrity.

To get the latest HoN Updates about upcoming HoN heroes:
HoN Updates via Facebook
HoN Updates via Twitter

Related:
Find out more about Aluna and her Macana.

Garena HoN Update for Garena HoN 2.0

Garena HoN 2.0 is launching soon for SEA players.


Garena HoN - Free 2 Play HoN server

Garena's product manager, Weicheng Zhou, has announced:
We are trying to hit the end of February timeline. There are still works pending to be done to port everything over on Garena HoN. In the meantime the Garena staffs are in the process of testing the 2.0 features. We are making sure to deliver the perfect HoN 2.0 to the community so please be a little bit patient.
Together with the planned update, Garena HoN is currently giving away Garena HoN beta keys via NeutralCreeps.com.

Read:
Interview with GG.MaRs - the Product Manager of Garena HoN (credits: neutralcreeps.com)

Become a fan:
Garena HoN on Facebook
HoN Updates on Facebook

Friday, February 18, 2011

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.15

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.15

HoN 2.0.15 is now out with a few fixes for the huge HoN realignment patch.


Dampeer
HoN 2.0.15 Patch Notes
-------------
- Fixed Armadon
- Fixed Alchemist Bones always starting with 1 charge
- Fixed the End Game Match screen so it properly references Silver Coins

Credits to the people below for their Flavour Tooltip implementation on Dampeer:

Dampeer Skill: (Q) Terrorize
Tooltip: "BOO!"
Suggested by: Killocity / Donovan / Jainay

Dampeer Skill: (W) Vampiric Flight
Tooltip: "Like a bat outta hell!"
Suggested by: Gorb

Dampeer Skill: (E) Bloodthirst
Tooltip: "Bloody Maries for everybody!"
Suggested by: ShAdOw_LaNcE / nuotti / CrimsonAdder / Imbisill

Dampeer Skill: (R) Consume
Tooltip: "To nom, or not to nom? That is the question."
Suggested by: iHurtZ

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.14

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.14

HoN 2.0.14 is the much awaited HoN realignment patch with a new announcer pack from Jon St. John.


HoN Version 2.0.14.1
-------------
- Fixed a derp that made tooltips not work at all

HoN Version 2.0.14
-------------
== Store Currency Update ==

- There are now Gold and Silver Goblin Coins in the Store
* Gold coins come from purchasing coins in the Store and on the website, while you receive Silver coins from matchmaking. Everyone has had their current stash of coins converted to Gold coins based on how many coins they have purchased thus far. If you have purchased 2000 coins and you have 2100 coins, you will now have 2000 Gold Coins and 100 Silver Coins. Similarly, if you purchased 2000 coins and currently have 500 coins, you will now have 500 Gold Coins.
- When purchasing items, your Silver coins will always be used first, then it will dip into your Gold coins. There is a coin breakdown showing how many of each type of coin will be used before you confirm your purchase.
* Past items and their prices remain the same

- Premium Items
* Premium items can be purchased at normal price with Gold Coins or at a premium price with Silver Coins. Gold and Silver Coins may not be combined on Premium items.


== General ==

- Added a new Announcer Pack: The Bad Ass Pack voiced by the great Jon St John himself
* This is the first Premium Item
- Added new Tempest Alternate Avatar: Mystic Tempest

- If multiple heroes do damage to a player and a creep/tower gets the final blow, it'll trigger Bloodlust with the gold being shared
- Fixed bug where double-tapping your control group for a pet while it was being summoned would end up having you control your hero, but have the pet selected
- Casual mode building armor reduction should no longer wonk out if someone disconnects
- Items bought on the Courier will no longer be credited to the owner of the Courier
- Added an "Off" icon for when you toggle off skills
- Upped number of state slots by 8
- Tweaked the appearance of the default arcade text slightly
- Fixed the Wells so they heal invulnerable units correctly
- Fixed the invisible rock in Caldavar bottom lane
- Fixed the overly-large blockers in Caldavar middle lane
- Courier spam share messages are now more restricted
- Fixed some model and linear affector errors
- Fixed up some animation jitters

- Fixed up a crash while loading into a game
- Added missing tooltip info to the "Weather Conditions" in the game options "Interface" section
- Added new account icons and bundles


== Items ==

Alchemist Bones
- Builds up to 2 charges, recharge cooldown of 100 seconds (allows you to instantly transmute two creeps in one jungle trip)
- Does not work on player controlled creeps
- No longer works on runes

Barrier Idol
- Added the missing +2 All Stats

Behemoth's Heart
- Heart now only gives .75% of Max Health in regen along with the Strength and Health, regardless of primary attribute

Blood Chalice
- Is now disassembleable
- Fixed the issue with only one person getting Health back instead of several

Bottle
- Renamed to Bottle of Tears for now =]

: Daemonic Breastplate
- No longer will place it's aura on gadgets

Dancing Blade
- Price lowered from 3300 to 3000 Gold

Dust of Revelation
- No longer has a maximum stack of 2

Frostfield Plate
- Blast now spreads twice as fast
- Gives a lingering 2 seconds of clearvision on use

Frostwolf Skull
- Fixed ability projectiles applying the slow

Nome's Wisdom
- Added an additional +50% Mana regeneration for the bearer

Nullfire Blade
- On upgrade, adds 8 charges instead of replacing unused charges (still can only be upgraded once)

Pickled Brain
- Price lowered from 1000 to 900 gold

Post Haste
- Movespeed increased from 95 to 105
- On teleport completion, gives you an additional +200 Movespeed buff for 5 seconds
* Movement speed buff breaks on entering combat

Savage Mace
- Fixed so it's bonus damage is not lethal to allies
- Fixed the popup so it is properly over the target
- Fixed the mini-stun so it won't own Bubbles


== Heroes ==

Accursed
- Fire Shield cast range increased from 450 to 700

Arachna
- Spider Sting Spiderling health increased from 3 to 4
- Webbed Shot now deals 4/8/12/16 Magic Damage per second to the target for its duration

Armadon
- Quill Spray mana cost from 35 to 30

Balphagore
- Demonic Pathogen can now be clicked again to immediately spread silence, but the original target becomes unsilenced
- Exploding Minions from Hell on Newerth will now explode when they expire naturally

Blacksmith
- Fireball cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds
- Flaming Hammer projectile speed from 950 to 1200
- Chaotic Flames previously reduced Fireball cooldown by 3/6/9 seconds. Now, reduces Fireball cooldown by 2/4/6 seconds
* Fireball cooldown at level 16 remains the same as previously. That is, 6 seconds.

Corrupted Disciple
- Movespeed from 290 to 300
- Agility gain per level from 2.5 to 2.8

Dampeer
- Fixed Bloodthirst so it doesn't reset on death

Demented Shaman
- Arcane Hide removed and replaced with Unbreakable
- Unbreakable: Target allied hero is affected with Unbreakable (state) for 6 seconds. Affected hero gains 15/30/45/60 Attack Damage and if he receives fatal damage while affected by Unbreakable, he does not die and is instead restored to 150/250/350/450 health
* Unbreakable is dispelled when it prevents the target's death

Empath
- Fixed so she does not draw on the map while using As One
- Fixed her Essence Link when she is inside of someone so it links correctly
- Fixed her Essence Link so it breaks if the target goes invulnerable
- Empath should now correctly get assists if her target of As One gets a kill or assist

Flint Beastwood
- Fixed his Alternate Avatar Hollowpoint noise

Hammerstorm
- Brute Strength can no longer be removed early

Jeraziah
- Movement Speed from 300 to 310
- Cast times on Inner Light, Protective Charm, and Sol's Blessing all improved to 700 cast time and 300 cast action time
- Any hero under the effect of Protective Charm that earns a kill grants Jeraziah an assist
- Any hero under the effect of Sol's Blessing that earns a kill grants Jeraziah an assist

Keeper of the Forest
- Fixed Tree Sight so they don't disappear if more than one person crowds around them

Legionnaire
- Terrifying Charge Movement Speed bonus from 60/100/140/500 to 100/150/200/250
- Terrifying Charge now gives Legionnaire 0/2/4/6 Armor and Magic Armor while he is charging
- Fixed Legionnaire attacking correctly after Terrifying Charge
- Whirling Blade modified to function as such: If Legionnaire is struck once, a counter is added to the ability. If the counter reaches 12 (On taking the 12th attack), Legionnaire spins, and the counter is reset
* If Legionnaire spins due to the 17% proc chance, the counter is reset
* If Legionnaire leaves combat for five seconds, the counter is reset

Magebane
- Base Strength increased from 17 to 18
- Void can now only be cast on units with mana to avoid misclicks

Magmus
- Base armor increased from 0.66 to 1.76
- Volcanic Touch no longer considered an Attack Modifier
- Volcanic Touch is now toggleable

Maliken
- Damage inflicted to self changed from True Damage to Magic Damage
- Fixed him always playing the heal sword sound in his ranged form

Moraxus
- More Axes damage from 60/80/100/120 to 30/40/50/60 + (3/4/5/6)% of target's max health

Night Hound
- Night Hound is able to be attacked by towers and creeps while in his Smoke Bomb, and Pollywog/Slither wards may attack while in Smoke Bomb
- Night Hound may attack towers in his own Smoke Bomb
- Fixed Night Hound's Smoke Bomb from being selectable and drawn on the map

Ophelia
- Command now uses a charge system, max of 1/1/2/3 charges. Charges gained every 30s.
- Command now also increases movement speed of creeps by 0/15/30/45
- Ophelia's Judgment normalized to 75/150/225/300 Magic damage
* Cooldown lowered from 30s to 16s

Pandamonium
- Missing Cannon Ball will no longer slow Pandamonium
- Fixed him being able to turn during Flurry

Pharaoh
- Fixed Wall of Mummies from grabbing people and then pushing them with the burn
- Fixed Wall of Mummies so that someone charging through it did not burn all of the mummy 'charges' in one go

Plague Rider
- Movement Speed from 305 to 320

Predator
- Fixed Carnivorous propagating to illusions

Puppet Master
- Agility gain per level from 1.5 to 2.0
- Fixed Voodoo Puppet so it gives assists to anyone who hits it

Pyromancer
- Base Damage from 37-55 to 43-49
* Same average value
- Phoenix Wave damage increased from 100/170/230/280 to 100/170/240/310

Rampage
- Attack action time improved from 600 ms to 450 ms
- Stampede range increased from 9001 to global
- At 4+ charges Stampede, Rampage is now Magic Immune instead of having Slow Resistance
* The Magic Immunity does not linger past the impact point

Sand Wraith
- Desert's Curse linger time lowered from 7 seconds to 3 seconds
- Dissipate range reduced from 1000 to 700 AoE
- Dissipate damage reduction and damage return lowered from 5/10/15/20% to 4/8/12/16%

Scout
- Fixed a bug where he would lose his attack speed if he canceled an attack without coming out of stealth
- Marksman Shot is no longer canceled if vision of the target is lost

Soul Reaper
- Base Strength from 16 to 18
- Strength gain per level from 1.7 to 2.0

Succubus
- Heartache cast range increased from 600 to 625
- Fixed Mesmerize so it properly puts things like Portal Key on cooldown
- Smitten mana cost changed to scale from flat 125 to 95/105/115/125
- Attack Range from 400 to 500

Tempest
- Fixed duplicated Elementals having full lifetime

Torturer
- Chain Reaction and Agonizing Bonds cast action times (the portion that may NOT be animation canceled) both reduced to 500 ms from 700 ms
- Torment radius changed from 300/350/400 to a static 400
- Chain Reaction stun duration changed from 1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds to static 2 seconds

Tundra
- Fixed a bug with Cold Shoulder that made him run in place like a boss!

Warbeast
- Hellhounds' attack damage normalized
- Metamorphosis duration changed from 14/15/16 seconds to static 16 seconds

Wildsoul
- Summon Booboo cooldown reduced from 180/160/140/120 seconds to static 120 seconds
- Booboo leash range increased from 925 to 1050
- Battle Cry hotkey changed from D to E

Witch Slayer
- Fixed Power Drain so it doesn't waste 10 Mana if used incorrectly

Zephyr
- Fixed Gust's Stun so it doesn't own Bubbles
- Cyclones now do 75% damage to neutrals and creeps, increased from 50%
- Cyclones will now teleport with Zephyr correctly
- Sped up the movespeed of the Cyclones so they keep up when he is just running around

Friday, February 11, 2011

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.13

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.13

Heroes of Newerth has just released HoN 2.0.13.
HoN 2.0.13 Changelog can be read below.


HoN 2.0.13 Patch Notes:
-------------
- New Monitor game feature
* Right click a friend or clanmate who is ingame to Monitor them, getting basic stats that update every minute

- Casual Mode changes
* Decreased creep bounty to normalized Normal Mode values, down from 1.25x
* Hero bounties to 2x of Normal Mode values, up from 1.5x
* These changes are aimed at addressing the dominance of carries by reducing creep farming rate and increasing the gap between killer and victim so early game power is more significant

- Added a new Alt Avatar for Soul Reaper, the Grim Reaper
- There are now keybinds in the options menu to level up each of your skills
* Default bound to ALT+Z, ALT+X, ALT+C, ALT+V, and ALT+O for abilities and stats
- Fixed a bug where mousing over the minimap would sometimes turn the cursor into a targeting cursor
- Fixed bugs with many of the models in the game. Results in a small performance increase

- Predasaurs no longer have evasion, now have additional Armor (same effective HP against attacks)
- Vagabond Assassins will not longer automatically purge nearby players
- Sporespitters no longer has +15 free damage per attack
- Antlore Healers will no longer heal themselves

- Empath
* Range on Illusory Veil changed to 800

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.13.1
-------------
- Fixes a cursor issue
- Added the missing Account Icons

HoN Version 2.0.13.2
-------------
- Fixed stringtable failure

HoN Version 2.0.13.3
-------------
- Fixed Grim Reaper death
- Fixed some missing UI textures

Thursday, February 10, 2011

S2 DivA talks about the HoN Realignment Patch

HoN Dev Blog: Realignment
S2 Diva gives some insight into the upcoming HoN "realignment" patch.


S2 Games - The Fabulous Company
[S2] Diva:
As we've stated previously, the realignment patch will be a large list of minor adjustments aimed to bring everything in the game more in line with each other in terms of balance. This dev blog will reveal how it is we're going about this process, as well as some hints as to what realignment entails.

Step 1: Houston, we have a problem
As with alcoholics and chocolate addicts, the first step of correction is always the acknowledgment that a problem exists. We've always known that a game as deep and expansive as HoN would be extremely difficult to balance, and the realignment process is the result of us listening to the community's input regarding the current state of balance and prioritizing its improvement.

Step 2: Finding the problem child(s)
We realized that if we are to "realign" the game, we needed something to realign to. That is, there needs to be a baseline to which we can bring up the underpowered and nerf down the overpowered. To ascertain the baseline and what lies above and below it, we quizzed our competitive players on the relative power and pick priority of each and every hero. After normalizing and pooling the data we gathered, we were able to come out with a neat little list ordering heroes by power and priority- and establish a baseline with which to proceed.

Step 3: I'm all about solving problems, baby
Having identified the problem areas, we needed to come up with solutions. Once again, we heavily involved our competitive players as we gathered suggestions on how to patch up the problem areas. These suggestions sparked a dialectic process in which we the developers and the competitive players went back and forth until we came up with a list of realignment changes that we're all happy with.

Step 4: Testing, 1 2 3
What looks good on paper doesn't always look good fully fleshed out. Just ask any catalog shopaholic. As with everything else we put into the game, we've immersed our realignment changes in extensive testing by both our beta testers and competitive players. With these tests, we hope to analyze whether our specific changes have had their desired effects and also if said effects do indeed "realign" the game.


We are currently in the testing step, and hope to be ready to release the realignment patch into retail soon- but not before we and the competitors are totally happy with it! To tide you over, though, here are some hints as to what's included in realignment- obviously these are subject to change and not anywhere near comprehensive .

- Plague Rider's ride is getting an upgrade so that it zooms faster
- Hammerstorm will no longer cry every time an enemy buys a Nullfire Blade
- Pandamonium will no longer be a masochist
- Sand Wraith is getting the nerf bat
- Booboo's leash is being extended so he may run more freely in Wildsoul's yard
- Rampage will be more rampant
- Ophelia buffed to Prophelia status

Stay tuned for the big realignment patch, coming soon.
Special thanks to all of our competitive players who have dedicated so much time and effort toward making this possible.

To get HoN Updates regarding the HoN realignment patch via social networks:
-Heroes of Newerth News on Facebook
-Heroes of Newerth News on Twitter

Monday, February 7, 2011

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.12

Heroes of Newerth Version 2.0.12 is now out!


Empath - Everytime We Touch - Cascada
HoN 2.0.12 Changelog
-------------
- Fixed an issue causing Myrmidon's Weed Field and Behemoth's Fissure to hit units in a wider area than they should have

- Empath's Essence Link will now display its beam properly through the fog of war
* Note: Empath will not be able to see the beam if her target is in the fog. The target will, however, be able to see the beam if Empath is in the fog

- If the target dies prematurely, Empath's Essence Link will no longer continue to give health to the host of her As One With Empath skill

- Empath can no longer target allied illusions with her As One skill

Friday, February 4, 2011

Heroes of Newerth Patch 2.0.11

HoN 2.0.11 Changelog

The Heroes of Newerth 2.0.11 Changelog is now out.
Empath is now in the realm of Newerth.


Boo Boo Returns!

Heroes of Newerth 2.0.11 Patch Notes
- Added a new Intelligence hero: Empath
* Empath has an alternate avatar, The Mage Empath
- Towers have had their damage normalized to have no damage range, dealing the average value at all times.

- Barracks, when they die, will award the killing team 100 gold for each player. The last hitter gets no bonus.
* In Casual Mode, this gives 150 gold to each player.

- Added cast-range indicator support
*When casting an AoE spell, the AoE will be colored green if you are targeting within range of your hero, yellow if you are out of range, or red if you are trying to target an invalid location. *When casting a direct target spell, the cursor will turn yellow if the target is outside of your range. Green and red still represent ally or enemy casts.

- Gauntlet can now double-activate Grapple and it will go in the direction he is facing and pull the target to right in front of himself.

- Debuffs that are flagged for giving assists will now award an assist if they were actively on a target within 20 seconds of it dying.
*Non-damaging abilities such as Voodoo Jester's Acid Cocktail will gives assists correctly now

- Beardulon has been renamed to Booboo (Boo Boo is back!)

- Fixed Swiftblade's Stringtables

- Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow players to change their vote after voting

- Fixed the scoreboard sometimes showing incorrect info when a player is terminated

- Added new account icons, including 8-Bit Heroes by the community's Aviseras

Related:
Watch HoN Hero Spotlight: Empath

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

HoN Hero Video: Spotlight on Empath

Empath - HoN hero spotlight video

This crafty support hero has been spotlighted by MsPudding and Nigma.
Behold Empath!


Empath - Getting The Inside Stuff

Get inside Empath's world:



HoN Updates - providing Heroes of Newerth updates since 2009.
Heroes of Newerth is a game developed by S2 Games under the DotA genre.