Heroes of Newerth: Basic Guide
I write this guide in order to encourage more people to play HoN (not many of us in here, you know). I will try to cover up as many aspects of the game as possible, and bare in mind this guide is ever-expanding, as the HoN metagame is ever changing. I will edit and re-edit when neccessary. Without further due, the guide:
THE MAP
Laning:
Laning is definetly the main aspect in HoN. If you don't know how to lane, you're screwed. As simple as that. The game consists of three 'lanes'. A lane is a clear path which creeps follow. It has 3 towers per team. The 'bot' lane is how you call the lane in the lower part of the map. It has a short section for the Legion team, and a long section for the Hellbourne. Therefore, it is fair to have a long section for the Legion and a short section for the Hellbourne top. When I mean 'short' or 'long' section, I mean that as a lane would be long, there would be more space between its towers, and the towers would be farther from where the creeps start to fight. Then comes the almighty middle lane. When starting to play HoN, it is likely to send 2 heroes top, 2 heroes bot and 1 hero mid. This is due to the fact that:
-mid has quick access to both runes (will talk about them later)
-mid has quick access to 'gank' both bot and top
-mid lane doesn't have a shorter section for neither team, creeps fight right in the center
-whilst mid has all these advantages, a hero in mid lane will level up faster and therefore making him stronger than bot and top heroes
Teams who use the 2-1-2 strategy usually, and should, send a melee hero and a ranged hero. The idea is that the ranged hero bothers and harasses the other team, and brings the other team's creeps nearer for the sake of the melee hero. The idea of bringing the other team's creeps nearer to you or your tower is because it's obviously easier to last hit creeps whilst they are in front of you, and not behind your own creeps. The only way to do this is to right-click a hero (commanding to attack), and then pressing H(hold), S(stop) or just making your hero move back. Thing is, when you attack another hero or even try to attack it, its team's creeps near will attack you. Bare this in mind: THEY ALL SUCK THE HEROES' COCKS. This will also happen with towers. If you're attacking creeps and then attack a hero, if you're in tower range the tower will always attack you. If you are attacking the tower and your teamate is attacking the hero, the tower will always focus on your teamate. That's just how it works.
As you start playing you may realize that the idea is not just to attack creeps and stand there. The idea is to last-hit. What is this? This is the art (yeah, the art) of not attacking the creeps when they're not going to die. Each creep you kill gives you money, and catpults will give you more money. Therefore, to avoid lane pushing (it's not smart early game because you get near to their tower) you have to last-hit and deny. To deny is to attack your own creep in order to provide less experience for the other player, and not letting him last hitting it. The best way to do this is you move around the creep wave, safely of course, and clicking on the creep when he will die. Nevertheless, you may find this hard (not so easy to do in your first game) so you could press 'H' and stand there until you can kill a creep. But remember, a moving target is harder to get than a static target. Be active.
When you start playing you start with 1500 psr. Now you may think, 'ah this will be filled with new people like me'. Nah. Everyday less and less people join HoN, as it happens with every retail game. So 1500 psr is where 'average' players are at. Therefore, it wouldn't be a surprise for someone in your lane to tell you to 'pull' creeps. This is a rather easy subject. The idea to 'pull' creeps is to make your lane stronger than theirs, gain more experience, and deny their experience. You can do this in the bot lane for legion and in the top lane for hellbourne. All you have to do is wait for the x:15 or x:45 mark and attack the neutral creep spot to the north-west (legion) or south-east (hellbourne) of your tower. Then you get into your lane and the neutral creeps should follow you. You will meet your creep wave there, and as the neutrals are attacking you, the creeps will attack them. Then they will follow the neutrals to their creep spot and fight. Try to deny your creeps when they are low, and to last hit the neutrals.
Do not forget to call missing. When a hero leaves your lane, call missing, put 'mia, 'miss, 'ss', '-1', or 'missing (your lane)'. You have no idea of how many early game phases are lost due to lack of mia calling. Whether the hero may be ganking or just checking a rune, your team is in danger and it's your responsibility to make them aware of this.
As you become more skilled your PSR/MMR should go up. As it goes up, or as you start watching replays from better players (this is the best way to improve; watch the real pros play) you will realize that some teams use what we call a tri-lane strategy.
Will edit and add tomorrow.
To do:
-add jungle section under map
-add warding section under map
-add runes section under map
-add 'HEROES' section
-add hero roles under heroes
-add picking phase under heroes
-add hero strategies under heroes
Will continue tomorrow.
Originally Posted by RoflMyWaffle
