New Hero: Sapphire[ | ]
- New Hero: Sapphire
- Sapphire of the Crystal Caverns is an ancient being, the last of her race of elemental channelers who once served as arbiters in the conflicts between Man and Beast. Sapphire lived among the tribes and packs of The Savage Lands, where the bloodshed was greatest, for she knew that if she could help create a peace there, the rest of Newerth may follow. She called sworn enemies to meet within the Crystal Caverns, deep beneath the northern Sang-La Mountains, to share their grievances and find common ground.
The crystals served dual purposes -- their energies created a soothing environment that made anger and resentment seem far off, like thunderclouds passing on the horizon. But should hostilities actually break out, Sapphire could channel those energies into spells that would incapacitate, protect, and, if necessary, kill.
Her efforts, and those of the other arbiters, seemed to be going well. Then came The First Corruption, and the eras of The Bestial Shift, Tooth and Nail, the Beast Bone Years...more and more corruption and death. Sapphire's hopes for a lasting truce between steel and claw dwindled. Peace was a jest, a word and notion that mocked her. The only remaining glimmer of a chance lay with the Red Sand tribe and their Warchiefs, who wanted to live in harmony with the Beasts -- with all beings, truly -- if the world would only let them.
When they were massacred by Apex's soldiers, leaving only the Warchief and Sapphire remaining, she finally realized why her beloved, healing crystals also possessed the power to kill. She had learned the hard way that sometimes peace required the utter and complete destruction of those who opposed it. - Stats
- Strength: 17 + 2 per level
- Agility: 23 + 2.7 per level (Primary)
- Intelligence: 19 + 2.2 per level
- Base Damage: 44-51
- Movement Speed: 300
- Attack Range: 600
- Armor: 4.2
- Magic Armor: 5
Ability 1: Reckless Charge
- Effect Type: Magic
- Range: 550
- Radius: 100
- Mana Cost: 90
- Cooldown: 14 seconds
- Surges into the target, dealing 50/90/130/170 Magic Damage and pushing the target back 400 distance.
- Sapphire flies back 200 units when this occurs.
- If the target gets pushed into an hero, tree, building or a cliff it takes an additional 50/90/130/170 Magic Damage and gets Stunned for 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5 seconds.
- If an enemy hero is hit by the target that was pushed, they will receive this effect as well.
Ability 2: Unstable Shard
- Effect Type: Magic
- Range: 700
- Radius: 450
- Mana Cost: 75
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
- Spawns an Unstable Shard at the target location for up to 10 seconds, initially pushing enemy units near the center of the Unstable Shard towards Sapphire.
- The Unstable Shard slows the Movement Speed of nearby enemies by 10/20/30/40%.
- Sapphire and his allies can attack the Unstable Shard up to 10 times to deal 100/115/130/145% of Attack Damage as Magic Damage to enemies within its range.
- Enemies can also attack the Unstable Shard to kill it in 3 hits.
- Gives enemies 50 Gold when killed.
Ability 3: Quickshield
- Mana Cost: 50
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
- Applies a Quickshield to self for 10 seconds.
- The Quickshield absorbs 100/160/220/280 Damage and increase Attack Speed by 20/35/50/65 for the duration.
Ability 4: Crystallize
- Effect Type: Magic
- Radius: 1200
- Mana Cost: 100
- Cooldown: 180/150/120 seconds
- Activate to Crystallize all enemy heroes within radius for up to 4/5.5/7 seconds.
- While Crystallized, enemies are Stunned and Invulnerable.
- This ability can be activated again to Uncrystallize the affected enemy units, ending the effect early.
Design[ | ]
General[ | ]
- Users now have the option of making their "Attack" command be usable with the Smartcast mechanic.
- This can be found in the Options menu via Options -> Controls -> Primary Hotkeys -> "Attack".
- Alt-Clicking on the Buyback button will now tell your team how many buybacks you have left, and how much gold it would cost to buyback if you do not have enough gold.
- Buyback announcements have been changed to be announced to All Chat (instead of Team Chat).
- The Item Shop has been expanded by 1 column to allow room for more items in the future!
- As a result, Master's Legacy has been moved from the Combative section to the Supportive section in the Item Shop.
Heroes[ | ]
- Spine Burst
- Radius increased from 625 to 650.
- Armordillo
- Damage reduction rescaled from 11/22/33/45% to 16/24/32/40%.
- Extra Spine Burst damage increased from 150 to 175.
- Restless
- New Staff of the Master effect:
- Range: 600
- Radius: 650
- Mana Cost: 200
- Cooldown: 50 seconds
- Target a location to turn into a ball and roll towards it. While rolling, Armadon is immune to Crowd Control effects, and Armordillo now applies in all directions.
- Upon reaching the destination, Armadon exits the ball and applies Snot Storm & Spine Burst to enemies within radius.
- Shell Surf
- Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 14/13/12/11 seconds.
- Song of the Sea
- Magic Damage increased from 60/120/180/240 to 100/160/220/280.
- Take Cover
- Mana Cost lowered from 50/40/30/20 to 20.
- Kelp Field
- Cast radius lowered from 400 to 375.
- Base Agility reduced from 16 to 15.
- Agility gain per level reduced from 1.7 to 1.6.
- Trample
- Cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 13 seconds.
- Mana Cost changed from 120 to 90/100/110/120.
- Magic Brew
- Health Regeneration reduced from 4/8/12/16 to 3/6/9/12.
- Bonus Health Regeneration is only active while off cooldown.
- Spider Mines
- No longer blocks neutral camps from spawning.
- Base Strength increased from 19 to 20.
- Strength gain per level increased from 1.5 to 1.8.
- Agility gain per level increased from 1.7 to 2.0.
- Nature's Wrath
- Cast Range increased from 600 to 800.
- Mana Cost decreased from 100 to 70.
- Cooldown lowered from 14 seconds to 13/12/11/10 seconds.
- Duration increased from 7 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Ophelia's Judgment
- Magic Damage increased from 75/150/225/300 to 100/180/260/340.
- Command
- No longer has charges.
- Cooldown reduced from 30 seconds (per charge) to 8 seconds.
- Maximum amount of creeps controlled increased from 1/1/2/3 to 1/2/3/4.
- New Staff of the Master effect:
- Now allows Ophelia to control Ancient creeps.
- Ophelia's Touch
- Staff of the Master no longer reduces the cooldown to 30 seconds.
- Strength gain per level increased from 2.5 to 3.0.
- Wish for Power
- Mana Cost lowered from 130 to 70/80/90/100.
- Avenging Leap
- Mana Cost lowered to a flat 50.
- Wish for Wealth
- Gold per non-hero & non-boss kill increased from 4/8/12/16 to 6/12/18/24.
- Transmute gold increased from 25/50/75/100 to 30/60/90/120.
- Mana Cost lowered from 50 to 0.
- Strength gain per level increased from 1.6 to 2.0.
- Base Strength reduced from 17 to 16.
- Strength gain per level increased from 1.8 to 2.5.
- Base Intelligence increased from 20 to 23.
- Intelligence gain per level increased from 2.7 to 3.0.
- Base Damage rescaled from 21-29 to 24-26.
- Starting Damage increased from 41-49 to 47-49.
- Chain Lightning
- Cast Range increased from 750 to 850.
- Cooldown reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
- Number of targets affected reduced from 6/9/12/15 to 3/5/7/9.
- Blast of Lightning
- Revelation time increased from 3 to 4.5 seconds.
- Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds.
- Lightning Rod
- No longer deals the Magic Damage around the target.
- Now deals the Magic Damage to all enemy heroes within 1500 radius of Thunderbringer.
- Magic Damage reduced from 4/6/8/10% to 2/4/6/8% of target's Current Health.
- Lightning Storm
- Cooldown reduced from 140/130/120 seconds to 90 seconds.
- Magic Damage changed from 215/335/460 to 250/350/450.
- New Staff of the Master effect:
- Globally target a location to spawn a Thunder Cloud there for 9 seconds. Every 3 seconds, a lightning strike occurs and hits all enemy units in a 600 radius, dealing 250/350/450 Magic Damage.
- Also grants 1000 Day Clearvision and 700 Night Clearvision for its duration.
- Lightning Rod is now activatable to swap between Lightning Storm (non-boosted skill) and Thunder Storm.
- Cyclones
- No longer blocks neutral camps from spawning.
- Typhoon
- No longer blocks neutral camps from spawning.
Items[ | ]
The following changes to Iron Buckler and Iron Shield were made to further solidify some of the melee Primary Junglers in their role, as well as simultaneously providing melee heroes in lane the edge against top tier ranged heroes in the current meta.
- Deflection value increased from 15 to 20.
- Block Chance decreased from 60% to 50%.
- Deflection value increased from 15 to 20.
- Block Chance decreased from 60% to 50%.
- Now outputs a chat message to your team to indicate that a player has applied Master's Legacy to another player on the team.
Neutral Creeps - Numerical Balance Adjustments[ | ]
Jungling at very early levels (~1-3) has been too easy for heroes that weren't initially intended to be able to jungle so early. Multiple goals will be met for doing a complete numerical overhaul of the jungle, namely:
- Ensures that Primary Junglers still have a relatively easy time and place in the jungle at early levels, while Secondary Junglers have a much harder time doing so and likely won't be able to jungle effectively until they obtain the proper items and levels to do so.
- Rebalances jungle difficulty so that each camp gives the proper amount of risk & reward relative to each other and with respect to each difficulty level.
- Improves consistency for the Experience, Gold, Damage Output & Health for each camp.
- When owned by the AI: Neutrals Creeps' attack damage against Heroes increased from 50% to 60%.
- The Antlore medium camp has been changed from "2x Antlings, 1x Antlore Healer, 1x Antlore Necromancer" to "1x Antling, 1x Antlore Healer, 2x Antlore Necromancer".
- Gold Bounty average per camp has been changed:
- Easy: ~72 Gold -> ~65 Gold
- Medium: ~95 Gold -> ~92 Gold
- Hard: ~102 Gold -> ~115 Gold
- Gold Bounty average per camp has been adjusted and normalized slightly to be more consistent when comparing jungle camps of the same difficulty level.
- Easy: ~65 Gold
- Medium: ~92 Gold
- Hard: ~115 Gold
- Ancients: ~220 Gold
- Gold Variance per jungle creep (the difference between the minimum gold and maximum gold you can obtain per creep) has been significantly tightened up to maintain consistency for junglers in the early game.
- Easy: max Gold Variance is +/-3 per jungle creep.
- Medium: max Gold Variance is +/-4 per jungle creep.
- Hard: max Gold Variance is +/-5 per jungle creep.
- Ancients: max Gold Variance is +/-15 per jungle creep.
- Average Health per camp has been adjusted and normalized to further maintain consistency for junglers in the early game.
- Easy: ~1400 Health
- Medium: ~1800 Health
- Hard: ~2000 Health -> ~2200 Health
- Ancients: ~3600 Health
- Average Damage per second (DPS) for each camp has been increased overall and made more consistent between camps to ensure that Primary Junglers are more reserved for the jungle compared to Secondary Junglers at early levels.
- Easy: ~45 DPS -> ~55 DPS
- Medium: ~60 DPS -> ~75 DPS
- Hard: ~85 DPS -> ~100 DPS
- Ancients: ~115 DPS -> ~145 DPS
- Average Experience per camp has been slightly adjusted (remains largely unchanged from before, but is more consistent per camp now):
- Easy: ~140 XP
- Medium: ~185 XP
- Hard: ~215 XP
- Ancients: ~340 XP
Other Neutral Creep Changes[ | ]
- Neutral Creep consistency changes:
- All neutrals with active abilities will now have Mana.
- All neutrals without active abilities will no longer have Mana.
- Max Mana reduced from 400 to 100.
- Kamikaze now costs 100 Mana.
- Kamikaze no longer automatically triggers on death.
The following neutral creep changes were made to allow Parasite to dominate Ancient creeps, thus opening up more options for item builds and decision-making in the mid and late game.
- Adjusted the model so that moving looks better at higher Movement Speed values.
- Now has 360 Mana and 1 Mana Regeneration.
- New Active Ability: Flame Bath
- Target Scheme: Target Self
- Radius: 500
- Mana Cost: 120
- Cooldown: 25 seconds
- Sets the area around the Dragon Master on fire for 10 seconds, dealing 40 Magic Damage per second to enemy units around him.
- Neutral AI will not use this ability.
- Now has 480 Mana and 1 Mana Regeneration.
- New Active Ability: Thundercrush
- Target Scheme: Target Position
- Radius: 300
- Mana Cost: 120
- Cooldown: 8 seconds
- Deals 250 Magic Damage to enemies in the area and 125 Magic Damage to structures.
- Neutral AI will not use this ability.
- Now has 360 Mana and 1 Mana Regeneration.
- New Active Ability: Dread Venom
- Target Scheme: Target Entity (Enemy Unit)
- Radius: 500
- Mana Cost: 120
- Cooldown: 16 seconds
- Applies a 40% Movement Speed Slow to the target for 4 seconds. Damage done to the target during this time heals the attacker for 40% of the Damage taken.
- Neutral AI will not use this ability.
Detailed Neutral Creep Changelog[ | ]
- Note that some Attack Damage values may appear to be too high/too low, but each creep has different Base Attack Times.
- DPS calculations factor in Base Attack Time, so any Attack Damage adjustments were made based on DPS comparisons, not flat Attack Damage comparisons.
- Easy Camps
- Antling
- Gold Bounty: 22-27 -> 20-22
- Attack Damage: 22 -> 30
- Experience: 47 -> 45
- Antlore Healer
- Gold Bounty: 21-26 -> 20-22
- Max Health: 450 -> 400
- Experience: 47 -> 50
- Earthoc
- Gold Bounty: 21-22 -> 17-20
- Attack Damage: 20 -> 24
- Experience: 47 -> 45
- Sporespitter
- Gold Bounty: 31-40 -> 27-30
- Attack Damage: 22 -> 26
- Experience: 48 -> 50
- Snotter
- Gold Bounty: 9-13 -> 10-12
- Experience: 23 -> 22
- Large Snotter
- Gold Bounty: 24-29 -> 21-24
- Experience: 48 -> 52
- Vagabond Assassin
- Gold Bounty: 10-19 -> 15-18
- Max Health: 300 -> 350
- Attack Damage: 10 -> 20
- Experience: 26 -> 25
- Vagabond
- Gold Bounty: 23-29 -> 26-28
- Attack Damage: 34 -> 35
- Experience: 59 -> 60
- Werebeast
- Gold Bounty: 20-23 -> 18-20
- Attack Damage: 15 -> 25
- Experience: 47 -> 45
- Werebeast Enchanter
- Gold Bounty: 31-40 -> 27-30
- Attack Damage: 33 -> 35
- Experience: 48 -> 50
- Medium Camps
- Antlore Necromancer
- Gold Bounty: 28-37 -> 24-27
- Max Health: 800 -> 600
- Attack Damage: 25 -> 42
- Experience: 47 -> 45
- Ebula
- Gold Bounty: 22-29 -> 23-25
- Max Health: 450 -> 500
- Attack Damage: 22 -> 32
- Experience: 57 -> 55
- Pustula
- Gold Bounty: 43-49 -> 40-46
- Attack Damage: 45 -> 48
- Experience: 70 -> 75
- Fire Ogre
- Gold Bounty: 24-34 -> 28-32
- Max Health: 700 -> 625
- Experience: 53 -> 60
- Ice Ogre
- Gold Bounty: 35-52 -> 28-32
- Attack Damage: 26 -> 38
- Alchemist Ogre
- Gold Bounty: 24-34 -> 30-34
- Max Health: 650 -> 625
- Experience: 53 -> 60
- Wild Hunter
- Gold Bounty: 44-52 -> 44-47
- Max Health: 800 -> 850
- Attack Damage: 31 -> 48
- Experience: 94 -> 93
- Wolf
- Gold Bounty: 20-24 -> 25-28
- Attack Damage: 23 -> 25
- Experience: 53 -> 55
- Wolf Commander
- Gold Bounty: 34-41 -> 38-42
- Max Health: 600 -> 700
- Attack Damage: 32 -> 35
- Hard Camps
- Catman Soldier
- Gold Bounty: 46-56 -> 55-60
- Max Health: 950 -> 1000
- Attack Damage: 56 -> 69
- Experience: 75 -> 100
- Catman Champion
- Gold Bounty: 59-70 -> 60-65
- Attack Damage: 69 -> 75
- Experience: 132 -> 115
- Goatar
- Gold Bounty: 17-20 -> 22-25
- Max Health: 500 -> 600
- Attack Damage: 26 -> 32
- Experience: 52 -> 55
- Minotaur
- Gold Bounty: 54-65 -> 65-70
- Attack Damage: 60 -> 65
- Experience: 101 -> 105
- Screacher
- Gold Bounty: 13-17 -> 22-24
- Max Health: 350 -> 550
- Experience: 35 -> 40
- Vulture Lord
- Gold Bounty: 51-71 -> 65-70
- Max Health: 950 -> 1100
- Experience: 132 -> 135
- Undead Warrior
- Gold Bounty: 21-28 -> 24-26
- Max Health: 500 -> 550
- Attack Damage: 17 -> 32
- Experience: 35 -> 40
- Skeleton King
- Gold Bounty: 42-49 -> 60-65
- Attack Damage: 50 -> 65
- Experience: 132 -> 135
- Vagabond Leader
- Gold Bounty: 69-80 -> 69-74
- Max Health: 1100 -> 1200
- Base Attack Time: 1.35 -> 1.05
- Experience: 120 -> 130
- Ancient Camps
- Dragon
- Gold Bounty: 31-42 -> 35-45
- Attack Damage: 27 -> 55
- Base Attack Time: 1.8 -> 1.7
- Experience: 71 -> 75
- Dragon Master
- Gold Bounty: 114-178 -> 130-145
- Attack Damage: 86 -> 120
- Experience: 178 -> 190
- Predasaur
- Gold Bounty: 50-68 -> 60-70
- Max Health: 800 -> 900
- Attack Damage: 39 -> 40
- Experience: 81 -> 80
- Predasaur Crusher
- Gold Bounty: 62-74 -> 70-85
- Max Health: 1200 -> 1300
- Attack Damage: 83 -> 85
- Experience: 137 -> 130
- Dreadbeetle
- Gold Bounty: 65-70 -> 55-65
- Attack Damage: 33 -> 45
- Experience: 60 -> 80
- Dreadbeetle Queen
- Gold Bounty: 110-130 -> 90-105
- Attack Damage: 65 -> 85
Matchmaking Maps & Modes[ | ]
- The following heroes cannot be picked in Tournament Rules (note that this does not affect Champions of Newerth):
- Champions of Newerth (CoN)
- Map: Forests of Caldavar
- Mode: Counter Pick
- Forests of Caldavar
- All Pick
- Single Draft
- Balanced Random
- Mid Wars
- Hero Ban
- All Random
- Team Deathmatch
- Blind Ban
New Content[ | ]
Sapphire[ | ]
- New Early Access Sapphire Avatar: Picaroon Sapphire
- Picaroon Sapphire is in high demand across the high seas of Newerth. When the battle flags fly and the cannons are primed with powder and chain shot, most sailors put on a brave face but secretly pray for Picaroon and her expert skills in the art and craft of parley. When she serves as the negotiator between two captains, her goal is to allow each of the fools to sail away feeling like they've won they day. And if they do manage to sail away, they have -- for if Picaroon can't achieve an armistice, she'll most likely sink everyone involved just to make sure they don't hurt anyone else in the process.
- New Sapphire Avatar: Kinetic Sapphire
- Most battles have a long, slow fuse leading up to the actual confrontation -- a misunderstanding here, a perceived insult there, sanctions, threats, etc. -- and Kinetic Sapphire does everything she can during that slow burn to convince all sides involved that war is not the answer. Her compassion, empathy, and tales of the carnage she's seen through centuries of slaughter are sometimes enough to dissuade eager combatants from pulling the first sword or trigger. But when she cannot guide them toward peace, her vast experience in the ways of battle and death is on full display as she goes kinetic, instantly pivoting from mediation to lethal military action.
New Moon Warriors[ | ]
Some believe Lunari the Moon Goddess has become desperate with the arrival of the Third Corruption and the crumbling of the heavens and hells -- and if she has, who could blame her? Still, many of her followers and even some outsiders question her choice of the naive schoolgirls from Adkarna as the New Moon Warriors, and it remains to be seen whether this selection is one of panic or divine brilliance.
- New Moon Queen Avatar: Moon
- When the fun-loving schoolgirl learned she had been chosen by Lunari to not only join the New Moon Warriors, but to become the heir to Moon Queen's throne, she couldn't stop giggling. Not because anything was funny; that's just how she reacted when she felt incredibly nervous and reluctant. When Lunari told her the first mission was to find and assemble the rest of the New Moon Warriors, things got a little better -- maybe some of her friends would come along? Then she had a sweet snack and began her journey towards possibly becoming the savior of Newerth.
- New Wretched Hag Avatar: Mercury
- A devout lover of books and learning, Mercury was at first quite resistant to Lunari's call to become the second New Moon Warrior. Time spent adventuring and fighting would mean less time studying quietly, though when her friend Moon pointed out that if they didn't save Newerth, all of the books would be consumed by corrupted flames anyway. Such a dilemma...but in the end, Mercury chose the devotion to her best friend and the survival of the planet over the comfort of a hushed library, though she did vow to learn everything she could about the enemy and use brains over brawn to defeat them whenever possible.
General[ | ]
- New Salomon Avatar: Yokai Salomon
- Deep within the Sang-La Mountains, in a valley almost entirely isolated from the outside world, a cluster of small villages lives in constant fear of the Yokai. These are creatures and phenomena that cannot be explained by the elders, the laws of nature, or any application of common sense. They simply should not exist -- yet they do. If the villagers were brave enough to venture beyond their sturdy, bamboo walls, they might discover a shadowed entrance tucked within a fold of the valley wall. An entrance with foreign, sinister runes carved around its mouth. And within that entrance, a cave, leading down, down, down, until the cold stone begins to grow warm. Then hot. Then blistering. It is a gateway to All Hells, and from there the Yokai scuttle forth from their corrupted dwellings to take the shape of nightmares.
Yokai Salomon is perhaps the most insidious of the Yokai because of her desire to make innocent villagers feel safe, protected, even amused, before revealing her true self. Disguised as a beautiful female merchant, Yokai Salomon roams among the villages of the Sang-La Mountains offering charms, bells, and lanterns to ward off the nasty ghosts who seek to infiltrate their homes and families. The lanterns are chchin obake, comical and harmless ghosts who like to surprise and entertain humans with their ridiculous expressions. This puts the villagers at ease, and just as they relax Yokai Salomon emerges from her lantern portal in full daemonic form to terrorize and slaughter the innocent.
- Renamed Avatar: Azurite Paragon Revenant
- Due to the introduction of the new hero ( Sapphire), "Sapphire Paragon Revenant" has been renamed to "Azurite Paragon Revenant" to avoid potential confusion.
Bug Fixes & Optimizations[ | ]
General[ | ]
- Health Bars are no longer displaced to the right when using resolutions that have an ultrawide (21:9) aspect ratio.
Team Deathmatch[ | ]
- Projectiles are now properly deleted before a round ends, preventing unwanted teleportation events when a projectile impacts after a round ends.
- As a result, units will properly remain in the spawn area after a round ends upon revival.
- Abilities and items can no longer be targeted out of bounds, preventing a multitude of unintended out of bounds bugs and interactions.
- The following abilities and items now toggle off properly when a round ends:
- No longer able to enter out of bounds & stay there after reviving from Pyroclasmic Rebirth.
- If Amun-Ra dies with Pyroclasmic Rebirth off cooldown and the round ends before Amun-Ra revives, then Amun-Ra will properly teleport back to the spawn area after he revives.
- If Amun-Ra dies with Pyroclasmic Rebirth off cooldown and the round ends before Amun-Ra revives, then Amun-Ra's invisible heropet unit will be properly cleared after he revives.
- Gawain now has the proper behaviour after a round ends.
- H.A.W.K. now expires properly after a round ends.
- Desert's Curse now expires properly after a round ends.
- Can now be sold properly in this mode.
Heroes[ | ]
- Take Cover now blocks damage correctly in Blitz Mode.
- Magnetic Surge now has True Strike when it is cast.
- Units lifted by Telekinetic Control or Mass Control now have their proper visual effects.
- Wish for Wealth can no longer target ElitePets.