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Primary Roles[ | ]

Carry[ | ]

See Also: Category:Carries

Carries generally start off weak, but as they accumulate gold and items, their damage output and effectiveness scales exponentially, enough to "carry" the team to a victory. Many carries are characterized by abilities that increase the damage they can deal through auto-attacks, usually by a percentage, but some carries are characterized by a skill that scale with their damage and some scale with their durability or even their mana pool. Carries also tend to have high stat growth.

Due to their scaling nature and their vulnerable early game, carries are a high-profile target and it is up to their allies to protect them and the enemy team to harass and eliminate them. It is also important for the team to forfeit as much hero and creep kills to the carry whenever possible, so that they can finish their core items fast and reach their peak potential as early as possible.

Hard Carries refer to carries that scale the hardest late game. Generally, hard carries are only good at carrying and are very ineffective early game and very gold-dependent, but become near-unstoppable with the right items and are much stronger than "softer" carries with comparable farm.

Support[ | ]

Supports are heroes that are effective early game and are not item-dependent. It is the support's job to aid the team in various ways. Some supports are designed for buffing and protecting their allies, while others are effective at harassing the opposing lane and disabling enemies. Supports should buy Wards and items that benefit the whole team, and are primarily responsible for actions such as counter-warding and stacking. Most support heroes do not scale well into late game, but there are a few exceptions.

Ganker[ | ]

See Also: Category:Gankers

Gankers excel in hero kills. Gankers have skills that allow them to deal high amounts of damage over a short time, likely to a single target, skills that allow them to close in on their target or keep them in place, as well as slows to keep them from running away, should they survive the first blow. Gankers are valued for their ability to disrupt the enemy's farm and setting up kills, as well as making it safer to push with less opposition.

Initiator[ | ]

Initiators are specialized in starting team fights. Initiators tend to have large AoE skills and strong disables with long cooldowns, and their purpose is to soften up the enemy team by dealing heavy damage and disabling them for the rest of their teammates to finish off. Many initiators are also durable, so they can take in as much punishment as possible once they jump in. Some initiators benefit greatly from a Portal Key.

Pusher[ | ]

See Also: Category:Pushers

Pushers are great at pushing lanes and taking down towers. Pushing helps gain map control by reducing the enemy team's "safe spots", increasing the gold flow from tower bounties, and directly help in winning the game by destroying the enemy's barracks. Pushers have abilities that can quickly clear enemy creep waves or deal massive damage to towers, usually in the form of summonable units.

Secondary Roles[ | ]

Jungler[ | ]

Junglers are heroes who are able to clear jungle camps at the start of the game instead of laning. The advantage of having a jungler is that it creates two solo lanes, and some are able to gank effectively from the jungle. Junglers have skills that either summon minions to tank the Neutral creep's damage, provide enough sustainability to outlast the Neutrals, or are just able to clear camps very quickly right from level 1. Heroes that are ineffective at jungling at level 1 are not considered true junglers, and some junglers are capable of laning as well.

Solo[ | ]

See Also: Category:Solos

Solo heroes often take a lane without a lane partner because either they are most effective from quick early levels or are adept at laning against two heroes. Solo heroes are typically gankers, and the faster leveling means they are able to gank effectively earlier.

Semi-Carry[ | ]

Semi-carries are heroes who lack a strong scaling skill, but can still carry to some extent. Initially, they focus on their main role instead of farming and transition to a semi-carry role once they have gained gold from kills and assists. While they make for weaker carries than dedicated carry heroes, an advantage they have over carries are that they can reach their peak potential quicker than carries and can fall back on their main role if they lack farm.

Babysitter[ | ]

Babysitters or Lane Support refer to strong laners who lane with a carry in order to assist them during laning. They excel in harassing the opposing lane or saving their lane partner from death. Babysitters are always support heroes, and are almost always ranged. As such, they are able to allow the carry to kill creeps more safely.

Disabler[ | ]

Disablers are heroes who are valued for their disables. They may have many different disables or one very strong one, in single target or AoE. The main roles of disablers are diverse, ranging from supports to initiators and gankers. Some disablers have skills which can bypass Magic Immunity, so the team can stand a better chance against carries with Shrunken Head.

Nuker[ | ]

Nukers possess powerful Magic damage potential capable of high burst damage. Nukers are generally in the same class as gankers, except they tend to not be as mobile as gankers, but are more well-rounded in terms of AoE and teamfight potential.

Tank[ | ]

The existence of tanks and the legitimacy of the role is a frequently debated topic. The traditional definition of tanks are high-defense characters who draw in damage from enemies towards them, but because HoN is a PvP game, their is nothing that prevents other players from targeting other heroes when given the choice (while there are abilities that can force enemies to attack themselves, they are classified under disables). Being "tanky" also does not necessarily mean a hero is a tank; a Glacius with 6 Behemoth's Hearts may be tanky, but is not considered a tank. Neither is a carry with 4k Health, because a carry should try to avoid taking damage and being disabled as much as possible.

In HoN and other games within the genre, being a tank means not only to possess natural durability and often builds defensive items, it also means they have to be enough of a threat to become a valid target. A tank hero can accomplish this in multiple ways:

  • They can output constant damage over a long period of time, unlike gankers who become a much smaller threat once their main damage skills are on cooldown. The longer they are left unchecked, the more damage they are able to deal.
  • They possess abilities that can become a major threat if the tank is left unchecked; for example, King Klout's Conscription morphs a hero and reduces their Magic Armor for a long time after hitting them 5 times, therefore it may be wise to disable or kill King Klout to prevent him from triggering it.
  • They are the first to go in and try to draw in as much enemy fire as possible without dying, before their teammates arrive to assist them. Unaware enemies may waste their high damage skills on the tank, increasing the chances that other less durable heroes can survive a fight. This method of "tanking" typically overlaps with initiation.

In short, tanks are heroes that become more effective with durability due to their ability to become a consistent threat over a long period of time.

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