Version 2.0.14
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== 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
My take:
The item tweaks could basically be categorised into 3:
1. Logical changes: Stuff that just makes more sense
- Example: Nullfire Blade, Barrier Idol, Chalice, fixes to Frostwulf and Savage Mace.
- Nothing much to comment about these changes.
2. Relatively major changes
- Example: Alchemist Bones, Post haste, Frostfield Plate, Behemoth's Heart
- With this small buff, personally I find Alchemist Bones a lot more viable, especially in a trilane meta where you can basically secure it by 6 minutes.Would be interesting to see if any competitive team ever tries this. Heroes that had tendencies to buy this in the past like Keeper and carry Vindicator might be tempted to go down that route again.
- Post haste, bold move by S2, a change that MIGHT make it a little too powerful. It's now a very powerful countergank / buyback and join fight item but at a pretty high price. We might see Soulstealers rush Post haste again, not too sure about other heroes but this change certainly provides more incentive to get it early on other than getting it as a 5th item to clear up an item slot.
- With the changes to Torturer and Soul Reaper, Frostfield Plate might begin to see play more often with this change. The 2 second vision should provide interesting utility but teams will most likely be holding it for the slow more than anything else.
- Well, looks like Behemoth's Heart is now strictly a tanking item again, gotta admit I kind of miss the unique stat dependent thing, but it's probably for the best considering even the stats dependent thing wasn't always what you wanted.
3. Numerical changes:
- Example: Nome's Wisdom, Dancing Blade, Pickled Brain
- A lot of complaints were made when the mana regen component was removed from Nomes, and now it's back. Will powerful healer push strats reemerge with this small change? I don't think so, the selection of heroes has since then increased significantly and it should make the game slightly more interesting to watch.
- Small price decreases to Dancing Blade and Pickled Brain is basically another way of reducing the cost of their final items. The Pickled Brain buff will benefit Electrician the most, since he's already proven to be so good with the Ring of Sorcery, while the Wingbow buff is certainly welcomed given how rare it was picked up during the Geometers + Frostwulf era.
The item tweaks could basically be categorised into 3:
1. Logical changes: Stuff that just makes more sense
- Example: Nullfire Blade, Barrier Idol, Chalice, fixes to Frostwulf and Savage Mace.
- Nothing much to comment about these changes.
2. Relatively major changes
- Example: Alchemist Bones, Post haste, Frostfield Plate, Behemoth's Heart
- With this small buff, personally I find Alchemist Bones a lot more viable, especially in a trilane meta where you can basically secure it by 6 minutes.Would be interesting to see if any competitive team ever tries this. Heroes that had tendencies to buy this in the past like Keeper and carry Vindicator might be tempted to go down that route again.
- Post haste, bold move by S2, a change that MIGHT make it a little too powerful. It's now a very powerful countergank / buyback and join fight item but at a pretty high price. We might see Soulstealers rush Post haste again, not too sure about other heroes but this change certainly provides more incentive to get it early on other than getting it as a 5th item to clear up an item slot.
- With the changes to Torturer and Soul Reaper, Frostfield Plate might begin to see play more often with this change. The 2 second vision should provide interesting utility but teams will most likely be holding it for the slow more than anything else.
- Well, looks like Behemoth's Heart is now strictly a tanking item again, gotta admit I kind of miss the unique stat dependent thing, but it's probably for the best considering even the stats dependent thing wasn't always what you wanted.
3. Numerical changes:
- Example: Nome's Wisdom, Dancing Blade, Pickled Brain
- A lot of complaints were made when the mana regen component was removed from Nomes, and now it's back. Will powerful healer push strats reemerge with this small change? I don't think so, the selection of heroes has since then increased significantly and it should make the game slightly more interesting to watch.
- Small price decreases to Dancing Blade and Pickled Brain is basically another way of reducing the cost of their final items. The Pickled Brain buff will benefit Electrician the most, since he's already proven to be so good with the Ring of Sorcery, while the Wingbow buff is certainly welcomed given how rare it was picked up during the Geometers + Frostwulf era.
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
My take:
Sand Wraith nerf was seen incoming long time ago. Hopefully in his current state there's still the possibility of facing up against him lategame or gank him after he's finished his helm.
Sand Wraith aside, tank carries got a lot of love in this patch, with Soul Reaper and Torturer getting pretty significant buffs. There's almost no point leveling Torturer's stun beyond lvl 1 now which means he'll definitely get a stronger Bonds and Impalement. STR buff to SR was minor but hopefully this will be the nudge that will finally make him appear again. To date, Fnatic is the only team to field him in a high profile competitive game.
The return of junglers: Ophelia's new charge system is definitely better than her old self, some even argue that she's OP at the moment. But it should be fine for now unless proven otherwise over time. After all, ever since the command nerf she was only seen ONCE in a high tier game. Legionnaire was given a slight tweak to remove a slight RNG element to provide a floor of minimum spins, how he will be played should be interesting. It should be interesting to see if players opt to go for the creep cutting build, something that still isn't really done in competitive HoN. Zephyr as well has found middle ground between his old and post-nerf self, which should allow him to jungle again.
Arachna is starting to look like a viable solo mid again, with way more incentive to go for the old school Viper orb walking build raher than the farming one. CD might benefit as well from these minor numerical tweaks. Minor buffs were given to the likes of Blacksmith, Jereziah, Accursed, Plague Rider, Magmus and Pyromancer in hopes that they will be able to compete with the usual Voodoo Jester, Glacius and Andromeda. However, this significantly increased the firepower of a Magmus + Pyro lane, not to mention that Pyromancer can now effectively nuke down creep waves and guarantee himself a quick portal key.
Moraxus is now one hell of a beast lategame with his scaling axes, although granted it needs to be aimed. Demented Shaman's new skill, on paper seems very broken at lvl 7 if you choose to max it 1st, but on the other hand, should you choose that skillbuild you will have a mediocre heal and slow to back it up. So I guess in a way it's a this or that kind of depth that adds to the ways he can be played. Succubus was given some buffs which will help with laning but the problem I see with her is still that there are way better solos than her, which might still cause her to fall down the pecking order. The fact that Panda got a minor buff doesn't improve her chances of getting picked in my opinion, although one could argue that it's more worthwhile giving your trilane farm to a more DPS focused carry.
I feel that the other changes were just minor changes that have slight impacts on the competitive state of the game. Sure, on paper it will be more worth it to put a trilane farm on Hammerstorm compared to before but it's not like a Nullfire blade has ever stumped a Hammerstorm in a high tier game. Perhaps this is more of a counter-measure given the small "buff" to Nullfire.
The scout change was somewhat underwhelming, given how many were under the impression that he was gonna get a remake. Like others though, I'm a bit surprised that Fayde was not changed at all.
Sand Wraith nerf was seen incoming long time ago. Hopefully in his current state there's still the possibility of facing up against him lategame or gank him after he's finished his helm.
Sand Wraith aside, tank carries got a lot of love in this patch, with Soul Reaper and Torturer getting pretty significant buffs. There's almost no point leveling Torturer's stun beyond lvl 1 now which means he'll definitely get a stronger Bonds and Impalement. STR buff to SR was minor but hopefully this will be the nudge that will finally make him appear again. To date, Fnatic is the only team to field him in a high profile competitive game.
The return of junglers: Ophelia's new charge system is definitely better than her old self, some even argue that she's OP at the moment. But it should be fine for now unless proven otherwise over time. After all, ever since the command nerf she was only seen ONCE in a high tier game. Legionnaire was given a slight tweak to remove a slight RNG element to provide a floor of minimum spins, how he will be played should be interesting. It should be interesting to see if players opt to go for the creep cutting build, something that still isn't really done in competitive HoN. Zephyr as well has found middle ground between his old and post-nerf self, which should allow him to jungle again.
Arachna is starting to look like a viable solo mid again, with way more incentive to go for the old school Viper orb walking build raher than the farming one. CD might benefit as well from these minor numerical tweaks. Minor buffs were given to the likes of Blacksmith, Jereziah, Accursed, Plague Rider, Magmus and Pyromancer in hopes that they will be able to compete with the usual Voodoo Jester, Glacius and Andromeda. However, this significantly increased the firepower of a Magmus + Pyro lane, not to mention that Pyromancer can now effectively nuke down creep waves and guarantee himself a quick portal key.
Moraxus is now one hell of a beast lategame with his scaling axes, although granted it needs to be aimed. Demented Shaman's new skill, on paper seems very broken at lvl 7 if you choose to max it 1st, but on the other hand, should you choose that skillbuild you will have a mediocre heal and slow to back it up. So I guess in a way it's a this or that kind of depth that adds to the ways he can be played. Succubus was given some buffs which will help with laning but the problem I see with her is still that there are way better solos than her, which might still cause her to fall down the pecking order. The fact that Panda got a minor buff doesn't improve her chances of getting picked in my opinion, although one could argue that it's more worthwhile giving your trilane farm to a more DPS focused carry.
I feel that the other changes were just minor changes that have slight impacts on the competitive state of the game. Sure, on paper it will be more worth it to put a trilane farm on Hammerstorm compared to before but it's not like a Nullfire blade has ever stumped a Hammerstorm in a high tier game. Perhaps this is more of a counter-measure given the small "buff" to Nullfire.
The scout change was somewhat underwhelming, given how many were under the impression that he was gonna get a remake. Like others though, I'm a bit surprised that Fayde was not changed at all.
Links
HoN Forums - Patch Notes
