Version 3.6.0

New Hero[ | ]

New Hellbourne Agility Hero: Calamity

And the Codex Solaris states:

When the boy king falls from grace his tainted soul will be judged by The Three, and he shall be lost forever behind the calamitous Sunder, the great horror who traps all condemned souls within the endless Hells with his vast wings. And so begins the Third Corruption.

Sister Arete of the Sacred Order believed Sol had set her upon a path to be King Jeraziah's Queen and provide him with an heir. She knew the King was struggling to counter the brutality of the Hellbourne's dark magic, so she hid herself in the catacombs below the Cathedral of Arasunia and devoted her studies to the black arts until she was expert, able to consult Jeraziah on the daemonic forces that were turning his armies into corpses and dust.

When Sister Arete finally musters the courage to forsake her vows of the Sacred Order and present herself to the King, Jeraziah accuses her of being a daemon herself, trying to tempt him into the sin that would cast his soul down to be judged by The Three Judges of All Hells: Minos, Abaddon, and Aeacus, and forever imprisoned by the dragon guardian Sunder.

Sister Arete is expulsed from the Sacred Order and exiled from Arasunia, but her months spent with the dark arts have twisted her mind and spirit into believing she will stand beside Jeraziah whether he likes it or not, and she has a plan to do so. She bursts back into the Cathedral and gorges on poison on the altar, killing herself and sending her soul to be weighed by The Three Judges, who condemn her to an eternity of wearing a crown of corpses and being burned alive by Hellfire.

This is what Sister Arete wants.

She is sent to face Sunder, who hoards the souls within the Vault of All Hells, and she uses her powers to make the fearsome guardian her pet. Now she has become Calamity, breaking open the doors of hell and unleashing an endless stream of tortured souls upon Newerth. But she cares not about this - she will kill every one of Jeraziah's soldiers until only he is left standing, and then she will stand beside him, ruling the Third Corruption together.

Abilitiy 1: Firebomb
- Target a location to throw a Flaming Orb, dealing 40/80/120/160 Magic Damage
- The Orb bounces at that spot 4 more times, dealing 15/25/35/45 Magic Damage and pulling enemies towards it

Ability 2: Dragon's Path
- Passively creates 3 Dragons rotating around Calamity that deal 22/44/66/88 Magic Damage when they touch someone
- Grants 2 sub-abilities to move the Dragons towards or away from yourself

Ability 3: Funeral Pyre
- Passively deals an extra Attack to any target you deal damage to when off cooldown
- Heroes have 1 of all Stats and 3 Movement Speed drained, giving you the Movement Speed and 3 Agility for 30/60/90/120 seconds

Ability 4: Sunder's Vault
- Target an area to create a circular wall
- Once the wall is complete, enemies inside take up to 420/560/700 Magic Damage, with more dealt to those in the center
- Staff of the Master: Increases cast range to Global and lowers the cooldown to 80 seconds

New Calamity Alt Avatar: Wynd

Born with the mark of the sky, the princess of the plains knew from the time she could understand the tales her mother told her that she was destined for greatness. The mark had not been seen since the time of her grandfather's grandfather and it spoke of a great destiny for the one who bore it. When she was just a child she first summoned up the essence of the North. It was just a gust then, not even a breeze, but it became her companion, constantly at her side.

Now she has grown into the princess that she was meant to be, but has no people over which to rule-the waves of daemons have seen to that. Hearing of a greater battle in the forests to the east she has taken the journey there to aid the warriors in driving the daemons back to the Scar from which they emerged. She has taken the name of those she commands as her own and as Wynd she will ensure that no others fall to the Hellbourne scourge. This is what she was born for, this is what it means to bear the mark of the storm...a life in twisting turmoil and unleashing the fury of the sky spirits on the enemies of the land.

New Calamity Debut Avatar: Cassie Calamity and Stuffed Sunder

Cassie was always fascinated by video games in general and HoN in particular. When she saw the leaked images of the upcoming hero she just knew she had to put together her next amazing Cosplay. Unfortunately all she had to go on were some rough shots of that amazing dragon, so she just improvised from there. When she showed up at the convention with a massive stuffed dragon around her neck and a trio of stuffed baby dragons spinning around her on strings, the rest of the community was impressed with her ingenuity, even if they had no idea what she was doing. Their ignorance (they thought she was a champion!) enraged her and made her even more crazed to prove that she is the best Cosplayer out there.

New Calamity Ward Skin
- Calamity Ward Skin
- A seething dragon scanning the horizon from atop a pillar of hell!

Hero Balance[ | ]

Accursed

Faster cast speeds help Accursed to properly fulfill his niche of making clutch shields and heals.

Cauterize: Cast action time decreased from 500ms to 300ms
Fire Shield: Cast action time decreased from 500ms to 150ms

Andromeda

We wanted to bring her ganking more into focus and allow her to compete with more of the Intelligence-based supports by giving her more casts of her comet. This will make her more of a threat in lane and all around roaming

Comet: Mana cost reduced from 105/115/125/135 to 70/80/90/100

Arachna

Arachna is already only putting one point into this in the early game and the Magic Armor itself scales nicely so giving this a 5 second at all levels helps Arachna's defense during the early portions of the game.

Harden Carapace: Duration rescaled from 2/3/4/5 to 5 seconds at all ranks

Armadon

Armadon got a slight tweak to his stats allowing more spine spam.

Base Intelligence increased from 14 to 15
Agility gain increased from 1.8 to 1.9

Blacksmith

Some much needed tweaks to Frenzy, which will give Blacksmith a bit more utility

Frenzy: Cast Speed increased from 7/14/21/28 to 30 at all ranks
Frenzy: Mana cost decreased from 75 to 50

Blitz

A change in the charge system to make the damage done consistently rather than in 1 second chunks

Quicken: Cast Time removed
Pilfering: Movement Speed steal from 15/25/35/45 to 3/5/7/9 per charge
Pilfering: Maximum charges from 5 to 25
Pilfering: Time between procs from 1 to 0.2 seconds
- Decay time for loss of charges also rescaled properly to fit new mechanics while maintaining the same timepoint benchmarks as before

Bombardier

A small increase in the touch radius of Sticky Bomb will make this hero a bit more approachable for players.

Sticky Bomb: Increase touch radius of Sticky Bomb from 100 to 125

Bramble

Vine Wall is Bramble's bread and butter ability. Since Vine Wall was no longer refreshed by Restoration Stone, a cooldown decrease was warranted.

Vine Wall: Cooldown decreased from 90/80/70 to 80/70/60 seconds

Circe

The entire hero revolves around getting off her ultimate and these changes are directed at helping her do so.

Twisted Visage: Cooldown decreased from 120/100/80 to 100/80/60 seconds
Twisted Visage: Increased cast range from 700 to 750

Corrupted Disciple

Same as Blitz, we want the charge application to be smooth over time rather than one second chunks.

Corrupted Conduit: Damage steal from 5/10/15/20 to 1/2/3/4 per charge
Corrupted Conduit: Maximum charges from 10 to 50
Corrupted Conduit: Time between procs from 1 to 0.2 seconds

Cthulhuphant

Cthulhuphant had proven to be too frustrating to deal with and very easily disrupting teams with almost no effort. These nerfs will put Cthulhuphant in more of a skilled disruption role and become less annoying to play against.

Hook Em: Increased damage to heroes removed; now does 15/20/25/30 Magic Damage to all enemy units for each pulse
Dream of Madness: Cooldown increased from 32/30/28/26 to 40/35/30/25 seconds
Dream of Madness: Insanity aura now applies in a 180 degree arc in front of Cthulhuphant, rather than applying 360 degrees around him
Dream of Madness: Both the radius of the Insanity cone and the search radius for someone to attack when you go insane are set to 1000 units now

Deadwood

Although the numbers for Deadwood after his changes were still there and the later portions of the game even stronger than before in certain situations, we have heard your cries for aid. The following changes are aimed at bringing Deadwood back to his previous levels of enjoyment, especially at level 6, while maintaining a more anti-strength niche.

Uproot/ Oakbolt: Now deals damage equal to your Attack Damage when thrown. Will now apply Oakbolt's Movement Speed Slow effect on the final attack
Willowmaker: Increased Physical Damage from 225/450/725 to 250/475/725 and increased the strength reduction from 30% to 35%

Demented Shaman

Some consistency was needed across the board and small tweaks to keep him relevant with some of the other supports out there.

Armor increased by 0.5
Entangle: Now slows for 2 seconds at all levels
Entangle: Now stuns for 0/0.5/1/1.5 seconds instead of 0/0/1/1 seconds after the slow state expires

Flint Beastwood

More utility and more area denial to enhance that play-style which is overlooked a lot.

Explosive Flare: Increased duration from 4 to 6 seconds

Geomancer

This change allows Geomancer to set up ganks and better utilize his mobility.

Dig: Range Increased from 1000 to 1250

Gladiator

Gladiator's abilities have always been hard to land and learn. Since the game is constantly changing, we felt it was needed to improve some of the feel and use of his abilities.

Pitfall: Radius increased from 225 to 250
Showdown: Range increased from 500/650/800/950 to 650/750/850/950

Gravekeeper

The ultimate was on way too long of a cooldown at level 6 and too short of a cooldown at level 16.

Zombie Apocalypse: Cooldown rescaled from 140/100/60 to 100/85/70 seconds

Grinex

A small improvement to Grinex which we are still keeping a close eye on.

Agility gain increased from 1.8 to 2.0

Lodestone

Lodestone is a high-impact hero that has the potential for huge swings. Some of our previous nerfs made him fall out of sight in most all levels of play. These changes are meant to tweak his capabilities as a suicide and make his Drill more reliable, which will make his combo easier to obtain.

Rocket Drill: Projectile impact time decreased from 600ms to 400ms
Lodestone Plates: Charge refresh time decreased from 9/8/7/6 to 6 seconds at all levels

Magebane

The unique modifier that does not allow Magebane to use Nullfire Blade has been removed because it was an unnecessary limitation from a time long past. Magebane finally has a viable early/mid-game offensive item option!

Mana Combustion: Modifier has been removed from the game

Maliken

This is simply a consistency change.

Hellbourne Zeal: Attack Speed scaling from 0.5/0.8/1.2/1.4 to 0.5/0.8/1.1/1.4

Master of Arms

Blast Shot was doing too little damage earlier on and needed some better scaling.

Blast Shot: Magic Damage increased from 70/130/190/250 to 85/140/195/250

Martyr Reworked

Martyr has always had the problem of not really knowing if he wanted to be high health or low health. His abilities were giving him several mixed signals and this rework hopes to clear the air significantly. Hand in Hand before could really only be used to save an ally if Martyr was high health... which made Retribution terrible in terms of damage. Now, Hand in Hand can be used offensively and staying low health doesn't diminish your ability to save an ally with the new Guardian Angel. Finally, Sol's Conviction gives Martyr the amazing health manipulation tool he needs to be effective at all stages of a fight.

Retribution: Damage is now dealt in a 250 radius around the target
Retribution: Maximum Damage decreased from 550 to 420 Magic Damage
Retribution: Slow duration decreased from 3s to 2.5s
Guardian Angel: Reworked
Guardian Angel: Grants 55/70/85/100% Damage Reduction to the target for 5 seconds. After the effect ends, the target immediately takes all of the damage prevented as non-lethal Superior Magic Damage.
Guardian Angel: 800 range
Guardian Angel: 23/20/17/14 second cooldown
Guardian Angel: Can be double activated to cast on yourself
Sol's Conviction: Reworked
Sol's Conviction: Now grants up to 4/8/12/16 Health Regeneration as you get lower life
Sol's Conviction: On use, now swaps your current Health and Mana percents over 6/5/4/3 seconds
Sol's Conviction: 45 second Cooldown
Hand in Hand: Can now be cast on Enemy Heroes to lower both of your health pools to the lower of the two. Can lower an Enemy's health to a minimum of 40/30/20% of their maximum.
Hand in Hand: Can still be cast on Allies for the same effect it currently has.
Hand in Hand: Staff of the Master still heals both yourself and an Ally to full health. Now also removes the minimum cap for lowering Enemy health and Immobilizes any enemy Hero you cast on for the duration of the channel.

Midas

Midas has one of the coolest playstyles in HoN. However, he lacks a solid payoff for a well executed combo. These changes are geared towards increasing that payoff and allowing him a bit more utility across the board.

Base Armor increased from 2.2 to 3.0
Attack Damage increased from 45-51 to 48-54
Golden Salvo: Cooldown decreased from 18 to 16 seconds
Lion's Pride: Range increased from 800 to 1000
Lion's Pride: Projectile speed increased from 850 to 1000
Lion's Pride: Cooldown decreased from 13 to 12 seconds
Elemental Warp: Cooldown decreased from 17 to 15 seconds
Transmute: Now applies a debuff to enemies that allows Midas to deal an extra 40/80/120 Attack Damage per autoattack for the next 3 seconds
Transmute: Cooldown reduction on all skills from 2/4/6 seconds to 2/3/4 seconds

Moira

Moira had some minor issues we wanted to address. Ephemeral Forge was not nearly effective enough given the cost, so we made the first few seconds impossible for the illusion to die. This should let her be able to reach the effectiveness that we wanted initially. Arcane Vortex also had a very long cast time, which when combined with being a very small ground target spell, led to many frustrating situations. These additional changes should make it slightly easier to land.

Shards of Harkon: Will now hit units in fog
- Will not hit stealthed units unless they are revealed
Ephemeral Forge: Spirit is now invulnerable during the first 2 seconds of the spell's channel (in addition to being disabled)
Arcane Vortex: Cast action time decreased from 400ms to 200ms
Arcane Vortex: Initial radius increased from 125 to 150

Monarch

This rework is meant to finally put Monarch in a different role and niche than Glacius. There was often discussion about their overlapping roles and we wanted to come up with something unique to make it happen. Monarch now fills the counter-initiation and heavy defense role fantastically well. She is now the only support in the game who gets free wards, which can help her save up some money for bigger items. She retains a lot of her old utility, but now she truly can save a teammate who is on the brink of death and make sure vision on the map is always secured.

Starting Movement Speed changed from 295 to 300
Crippling Pollen: Damage increased from 70 to 70/80/90/100 at all levels
Crippling Pollen: Projectile speed increased from 800 to 1000
Chrysalis: Now reduces damage by 20/40/60/80%
Chrysalis: Mana cost is 100 at all levels
Chrysalis: Now instantly heals 75 HP and another 20/30/40/50 HP per second over 3 seconds
Noxious Cloud: Removed
- New Ability: Noxious Nightcrawler
Noxious Nightcrawler: Target a location to send a Noxious Nightcrawler there. While travelling to its location, the Noxious Nightcrawler can be killed in 1 hit. Once it gets there, it will go invisible and grant vision around itself similar to a Ward of Sight for 6 minutes
Noxious Nightcrawler: If an enemy comes within 250 units of the invisible stationary Noxious Nightcrawler, the Nightcrawler explodes into a Noxious Cloud
Noxious Nightcrawler: Nightcrawler travels at 1000 Movement Speed for the first 600 units travelled. After this point, its Movement Speed will rapidly decay
- The intention of this is to preserve the offensive capabilities of Noxious Cloud as much as possible.
- 1500 Cast Range
- 50 Mana Cost
- 30 second Cooldown
- 1/2/3/4 charges
Cleansing Wind: Movement Speed bonus rescaled from 80/140/200 to 100/150/200

Nymphora

Nymphora's heal was slightly hard to use even with good communication and the numbers were a bit low for what we wanted her to accomplish out of the laning phase. These small tweaks will enhance the use and allow for a better mid game transition.

Volatile Pod: Heal and Magic Damage increased from 60/120/180/240 to 75/135/195/255
Volatile Pod: Increased radius from 250 to 300

Parasite

After watching Parasite with the recent changes, we found that the level 4 HP Regen was just too frustrating overall, thus we have changed it to the following:

Infest: Health Drain Per Second changed from 3/1.5/0/-1.5 to 3/2/1/0%

Pharaoh

The mana drain was pretty unnoticeable and it needed some love. This change will help Pharaoh during the laning phase and make the mana burn be more of a threat than a novelty.

Wall of Mummies: Mana drain on walls increased from 55/70/85/100 to 65/90/115/140

Pollywog Priest

The overall mana costs compared to his total pool was deemed too high. These changes will allow Pollywog Priest to have more utility and options rather than a one-trick pony and run away with no mana.

Electric Jolt: Mana cost rescaled from 100/120/140/160 to 90/110/130/150
Morph: Mana cost rescaled from 110/140/170/200 to 90/125/160/195
Tongue Tied: Mana cost rescaled from 110/130/155/180 to 90/110/130/150

Plague Rider

Let's face it, putting one shield on an ally was super tedious. With this change, Plague Rider can also fill a nice pushing role by slamming down a shield on every creep in a wave.

Cursed Shield: Now applies a shield in a 600 radius around the target to a max of 6 targets. This prioritizes Heroes first
Cursed Shield: Cooldown increased from 10 to 30 seconds
Cursed Shield: Mana Cost increased from 25 to 75
Plague Carrier: Cooldown rescaled from 145/115/60 to 140/100/60

Pyromancer

Some consistency tweaks to his mana costs.

Dragonfire: Mana cost rescaled from 90/100/110/125 to 95/105/115/125
Dragonfire: Magic Damage rescaled from 90/150/210/280 to 100/160/220/280

Ravenor

A simple change to make the ultimate less tedious to play with and does not increase the power level that dramatically.

Power Overwhelming: Charges timer countdown increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds

Scout

Scout has always been a great roamer/suicide and with Vanish giving more Movement Speed, it will enhance his ability to move throughout the map.

Vanish: Bonus Movement Speed increased from 6/9/12/15% to 10/12/14/16%

Slither

Slither has an excellent skillset, but he was finding himself in the thick of danger due to his lack of Attack Range and range of his Poison Spray. With these changes, we feel that Slither will be a go-to hero for massive lane harassment and kill potential.

Attack Range increased from 450 to 500
Poison Spray: Range increased from 625/750/875/1000 to 700/800/900/1000

Swiftblade

Swiftblade has climbed to the top of our hero pool over the past six months in every region. The numbers took a small hit across the board to remove some of his killing power while remaining a competitive threat.

Strength decreased form 20 to 18
Blade Frenzy: Magic Damage per second decreased from 80/100/120/140 to 75/95/115/135
Counter Attack: Proc chance decreased from 15/20/25/30% to 10/15/20/25%
Way of the Sword: Critical Strike proc chance decreased from 12/20/28/36% to 10/18/26/34%

Succubus

Smitten was underused and not very effective. This change should give her a reason to put points into the ability at any stage of the game based on the play-style she chooses.

Smitten: Now reduces damage by 40% at all levels
Smitten: Duration rescaled to 4/8/12/16 seconds

Thunderbringer

Some minor tweaks and rescaling to not enhance the power level all that much but give his other utility options more shine so people will use them more often.

Chain Lightning: Mana cost rescaled from 65/72/79/86 to 65/70/75/80
Blast of Lightning: Allied buff rescaled from 75 to 60/75/90/105 bonus Movement Speed

Tremble

Some tweaks to make this guy ready for tournament play. He is a very strong hero and with these changes will be easier to deal with after his rework.

Dark Swarm: Damage reduction % decreased from 8/16/24/32 % to 5/10/15/20 %
Terror Mound: Gold bounty increased from 25 to 35
Added to Tournament Rules

Valkyrie

A cult classic that had fallen off due to some problems with a lot of numbers and feel. A lot of small tweaks were made to make her all around more useful and cleaner to play.

Base Damage adjusted from 39-50 to 42-47
Call of the Valkyrie: Cast time decreased from 600 to 500
Courageous Leap: Attack Speed bonus increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20
Valkyrie's Prism: Duration increased from 10/13/16 to 15 seconds
Valkyrie's Prism: Cooldown decreased from 120 to 120/100/80 seconds

Voodoo Jester

Some strong buffs were added to Voodoo Jester to let him shine with some of the top tier supports. With Acid Cocktail damaging heroes, he becomes more deadly. Also, an increase in Mojo radius will allow the ability to be more useful in all stages of the game, when before it was more of an afterthought.

Acid Cocktail: Now damages enemy heroes for 50 damage per bounce, in addition to the 1 second stun.
Mojo: Radius increased from 340 to 500

War Beast

Some small tweaks to War Beast to allow him to jungle more easily.

Summon Hellhounds: Mana cost reduced from 125 to 100
Metamorphosis: Mana cost reduced from 100 to 75

Item Balance[ | ]

Alchemist's Bones

Alchemist's Bones has had a rough time in HoN, as it has always tried to fill a role of enhancing farm, mainly for jungle heroes. With these changes we will see jungle heroes receive more uses and the projectile being instant will stop those pesky Parasites from denying their creeps before you own them!!!

Now grants 1.75 times XP upon killing target creep
Instantly kills target creep
- Visual projectile now spawns from target creep and travels towards the Alchemist's Bones user

Assassin's Shroud

This change was aimed at giving the player more wiggle room in setting up ganks or positioning for a tradeoff on cool down.

Duration increased from 9 to 11 seconds
Cooldown increased from 18 to 20 seconds

Dust of Revelation

With the added anti-juke utility it gives in addition to the clearvision, an increase in cost was warranted.

Cost increased from 180 to 200

Lex Talionis

A great item that was not being picked up nearly enough. We will see this item a lot more on supports and roamers with the following changes.

Range increased from 800 to 1000
Recipe cost reduced from 275 to 250
Mana cost Removed
Now dispels debuff from self if the target dies early

Icebrand

A small buff to an underused and undervalued item

Chilled effect increased from 2.5 to 3.5 seconds when applied by a melee unit
Chilled effect increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds when applied to a ranged unit

Ioyn Stone

We see Ioyn stone a bit, but the cost was a little too high to be worth it most of the time.

Cost reduced from 250 to 200

Shield Breaker

A small buff added along with Shieldbreaker's previous buffs to put this item in a solid spot.

Damage increased from 36/48/60 to 40/54/68

Stormspirit

Storm spirit allows for a lot of different uses and with carries on the rise, a cheaper support tool like this will be very useful.

Recipe cost reduced from 1000 to 800
Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30

Striders

A very cheap support/roaming boot that can be purchased early in the game allows for better roaming and more money saved on supports.

Recipe cost reduced from 300 to 150

Veiled Rot

Time to get your invis on~

Now allowed in tournament play.

Void Talisman

Made the build-up easier to help out lower income heroes trying to purchase the item..

Now requires a Major Totem and an 800 gold recipe

Ward of Sight

A reward for good ward placement.

Wards now refund half gold if it expires naturally instead of being destroyed

General[ | ]

New Holiday Edition Maps, Bosses and Creeps
- Holiday Celebration in the Forest of Caldavar
- Frost Field Mid Wars
- Abominable Kongor in Forest of Caldavar
- Santa Slayer Mid Wars Boss
- Holiday Hat Creeps
- Santa Merrick and His Holiday Shop
- Holiday Plinko
- New Holiday Grab Bag/Gifting
- The Holidays are here and the goodies are abundant! Look for special holiday grab bags in store and get your goodies while they last
- The contents of these Grab Bags vary from region to region

Assist Credit/Gold Changes

Historically, only offensive actions provided scoreboard credit and assist gold. The system design punished several interesting heroes who were most effective in reactive and defensive roles. We want to reward players for their performance, not be punished for their contributions; as such, all activated abilities, healing, and buffs on friendly targets who contribute to a kill, will also grant assist gold and scoreboard credit. Auras will not count as they are considered passive, not activated. #Martyr wings.

Players now receive assist credit and assist gold for providing active buffs, abilities or healing to their friendly combatants.

Forests of Caldavar Jungle Changes

With a lot of jungle changes over the past months, we wanted to update everything in the jungle that was causing more frustration than fun. In doing so we hope to see pulling, stacking and other general jungle activities be less frustrating and more consistent.

This allows the player to kill the camp outside the 500 radius spawn-check zone like every other camp

Chase distance increased from 300 to 650 for the Hellbourne easy camp
- Change still doesn't allow pulling the HB easy camp to lane

Enables more consistent stacking when pulling the camp out from different angles

Centered the 500 radius spawn-check zones
- Will have a negligible difference on ward placements for blocking camps
- Will have a negligible difference in terms of creep stacking/pulling "feel"

Allows melee heroes to pull the camp without having a Hatchet

Removed Antlore Necromancer camp only from the pull camps
- Removes the possibility that one team will get multiple Antlore Necromancer camps in the pull camp and gets a great advantage (by RNG) when it comes to denying creep waves

Neutral Creep Changes

The following changes to neutrals are meant to make pulling and stacking a more enjoyable experience. Some bugfixes were also implemented.

Antlings, Antlore Healers, Antlore Necromancers, Zomblings, Ebulas, Skeleton Kings, Werebeast Enchanters and Sporespitters all have their attack backswing reduced to 0.05s.
Antlore Healer's autocast Heal has a 0 cast point & 0 cast time, no longer interrupts his previous actions and no longer requires him to turn to cast
Antlore Necromancer's Summon Zombling no longer interrupts his previous actions and no longer requires him to turn to cast
Ebula's Attack Range reduced from 500 to 300
Zombling's Aggro Range reduced from 600 to 300
Zombling's Movement Speed decreased from 450 to 300
Zombling's Attack Range increased from 90 to 100
Catman Champions, Antlore Healer, Antlore Necromancer, Vagabond Leader and Minotaurs no longer cast their spells while asleep during night time if they are not player-controlled
Earthoc and Werebeast Movement Speed reduced from 350 to 290
Werebeast Enchanter Movement Speed reduced from 320 to 280
Sporespitter's Movement Speed remained the same due to potential usefulness when dominated
Werebeast Enchanter attack point from 0.49s to 0.45s
Skeleton King: The King's Grip state is now a debuff and is therefore purgeable
Vagabond Leader Movement Speed increased from 300 to 320

Casual Mode exclusive changes

The current distribution of experience has two flaws with it; it largely favors players that survive on the outskirts of the fight even if they contributed the least, and it punishes those that are first to engage even if they contributed the most. These flaws create a high level disparity among teammates and cause players to not be properly rewarded for their contributions. Distributing experience to dead players that have earned valid assists and kills in combat will serve as a level equalizer lowering the incentive to strictly survive and allow players to still progress in levels even if they're severely behind.

Players will now split hero kill experience with other players in range, even if they are dead, as long as they contributed to the kill.

Snowballing, when it occurs too quickly, can obsolete any meaningful decision making or good plays from the opposing team. We want matches to always be fair and interesting, when teams snowball too early, it can result in a long painful game where the result has already been determined. To combat this, we are reducing the experience bounties from heroes in the early levels and increasing it at the later levels. Teams that are behind will now gain a larger benefit when exchanging kills.

Hero kill bounty experience changed from 90 per level to base of 40 + 35 per level + a 10 increment per level.
Unshared EXP changed from 12 to 15

Gold distribution was largely favoring people that gain the killing blow. This caused a high gold disparity between teammates often times leaving supportive heroes with very little gold for their contributions while offensive heroes continue to scale excessively. We've tweaked the gold distribution in favor of team benefits to ensure all players amongst a team can have meaningful progression for their contributions in fights. Overall there will be a net increase of gold for a team, but reduction in individual snowballing.

Kill gold bounty decreased from 400 to 350
Assist gold increased from 50% to 70%

Early game deaths double down on the power difference between both teams. Firstly, a large gold and experience bounty is given to the killers. Secondly, the victims are denied valuable time to collect resources on the map. This can cause a large power difference between teams too early in the match and often times decide the result of the match before bases are even sieged. We're lowering the respawn timers in the early levels to allow players to recover quicker but evening it out at the later levels.

Respawn timers significantly decreased at early levels, small increase at later levels.

When progression is so heavily centralized around hero kills, comebacks can often times be difficult for a team to accomplish, especially if they lack the resources to combat the opposing team accordingly. We've reduced the timer for creep waves to spawn additional units. With the increased creep strength occurring much sooner, teams will have more opportunities to push with creeps, while the defending teams will have more frequent access to resources.

Additional melee creep spawn timer decreased from 16,44,49,58 minutes to 11,33,42,50
Additional ranged creep spawn timer decreased from 33 minutes to 22 minutes

Experience required to level has been tweaked very slightly to reduce snowballing by creating level milestones that serve as an equalizer.

Adjusted hero experience tables so that it will take slightly longer to level up in the mid game but faster to level in the end game.

New Content[ | ]

New Holiday Edition Klanx Avatar: Winter Soldier Klanx

North of Grimm's Crossing, where the Frost Fields begin their treacherous onslaught of sub-zero temperatures, Winter Soldier Klanx works in underground bunkers, dealing arms and and aiding mercenaries on both sides of the struggle for Newerth. As a benefactor of war, he uses his earnings to further his own ends, furnishing an entire subterranean lair from which he can remotely view and assist whoever he pleases. He yearns to control the positions of both sides like a twisted gamemaster, prolonging the war so he can profit further and destroying it all when he gets bored.

New Holiday Edition Monarch Avatar: Snowflake

Snowflake is a very graceful, kind, winged snow princess who knows how fragile and temporary life and peace can be, and all she wants is for everyone to stop fighting and enjoy the beauty of the winter season. But if these boneheads won't listen to her, it's time to chap some asses.

New Gold Edition & Holiday Edition Shadowblade Avatar: Ghosts of Christmas

The classic holiday story A Christmas Carol comes to Newerth in the form of Ghosts of Christmas Shadowblade, who begins as the ghost of Jacob Marley to teach your opponents the harsh lessons of being a Scrooge this time of year. Stroll with these ghosts down the memory creep lanes as he takes on the forms of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come!

New Holiday Edition Glacius Avatar: Snow Queen Shiva

In the deepest, darkest winters when even the sunlight is frozen before it can reach the icy treetops, the inhabitants of the Frost Fields keep their hopes burning by praying to Shiva, the benevolent goddess who floats across the icebound landscape, seemingly untouched by the frigid air and offering her most precious gift: freezing her people where they lay, allowing them to sleep until the towering mountains of snow melt and the streams run free once again. It is indeed a hardy, obstinate group of people who would rather freeze to death than relocate, and they embody the spirit of their goddess Shiva.

New Holiday Edition Pharaoh Avatar: Festive Pharaoh

Around this time of year, Pharaoh reserves the harshest doses of his wrath for those who won't join him in singing carols, making gingerbread houses, and fixing the dead strings of holiday lights. Why are they blinking?! When Festive Pharaoh arrives at the party, you'd better make sure your ugly sweater is Hellfire resistant and the dance floor is clear, because things are about to get Pharoah-ciously merry and the Wall of Jack-in-the-Boxes won't let you boogie into their circle.

New Holiday Edition Succubus Avatar: Mistletoe

What's this? A holiday tradition where you get to kiss anyone you want?! In classic Succubus behavior, the evil seductress has gone all-out in embracing the concept of mistletoe smooches, transforming her wings into smothering leaves and stems and adorning herself with ripe, swollen berries. And when she found out that mistletoe belongs to a family of parasitic plants that penetrate their hosts and absorb sustenance to survive, she decided she might want to stay this way all year...

New Holiday Edition Amun-Ra Avatar: New Year's Eve Reborn Ra

Amun-Ra has left a wide path of destruction behind him, and as the New Year approaches he is ready to ignite some changes in his life! He's made a resolution to bury his rage and grudges -- ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that -- and celebrate the stroke of midnight with a pyroclasmic rebirth! He also signed up for a gym membership, so we give the whole thing about five days before he's back to the old Ra.

New Holiday Edition Bramble Skin: Bramble of the Bells

Bramble joins the rest of the Newerth flora heroes by getting her own festive holiday skin! Christmas is here, bringing good cheer, to young and old, meek and the bold. And Bramble of the Bells will eat them all. It may be Christmas, but she's still a carnivorous plant.

New Holiday Taunt: Exploding Snowman

Nothing captures the holidays better than killing your enemy and dropping a stack of frozen, exploding balls on their face. Maybe our family dinners are different than yours...

New Holiday Ward Skins
- Christmas Tree: You don't have to be one of the three wise men to appreciate this bright star atop a festively decorated tree!
- Menorah: It won't burn for 8 nights, but this custom ward skin will still light up your holidays!

New Grimm's Crossing Martyr Avatar: Grimm's Medic

Before Maliken Grimm lost himself to the daemonic and became de facto leader of the Hellbourne, he was a brilliant, brutal military commander who used ruthless tactics to unite the Five Clans of Men beneath one banner. The final clan was the Savages, and Lord Commander Grimm was forced to launch a long, bloody campaign to defeat them that culminated on the bloody, haunted ground now known as Grimm's Crossing.

One of the other clans already under Maliken's fist was the Sacred Order, that of the Martyrs, and they served as his combat healers upon the battlefield. These battle-hardened chaplain warriors felt their souls slipping further toward peril with each life they took, but the cause was just, and they tried to save as many as they reaped.

New Ultimate Flint Beastwood Avatar: Rulian Warlord Flint

This avatar is part of the Dead-Eye Gang

This is Flint at his most evolved as a warrior! He is Rulian Warlord Flint, and now that he and his Dead Eye Gang have conquered every murderous inch of the Rulian Marsh, they have erupted from the muck and mire to expand their territory while the rest of Newerth is in war-torn chaos. The Rulian Warlord is not concerned with the myriad opposition they will face - if his gang of Boggus, Skiver, Killawatt, Sinew, and Dredger can't swamp them, the endless, custom-made arsenal he carries will no doubt have the firepower to clear the way through Caldavar and beyond.

Level Progression
- 1-5: Flint as a young, wild ruffian of the Rulian Marsh.
- 6-10: Flint as a brash rogue with an impressive number of kills to his name.
- 11-15: Flint as a grizzled veteran of countless battles. Shooting first has its perks.
- 16+: Rulian Warlord Flint, ruler of all he sees and killer of anything in his way.
Weapons and Effects
- Each of the items listed below changes the guns Flint holds, and your item slots determine which gun is in which hand.
- The system first checks your item slots, left-to-right in the top row, then left-to-right in the bottom row, to see if you have two or more of the applicable items.
- If you have two or more of the applicable items, the system recognizes the first item found and puts the corresponding custom weapon in Flint's left hand. It then recognizes the second item found and puts the corresponding custom weapon in Flint's right hand.
- If you only have one of the applicable items, Flint holds the corresponding weapon in both hands.
- Each custom weapon has new effects.
Weapons Included:

New Dead-Eye Gang Chipper Avatar: Dredger

The Rulian Gremlins are notorious for their speedy and chaotic dismantling of any equipment that rolls, stomps or flies within five leagues of the Marsh. There are countless tales of travelers stranded among the dark muck because they stepped away for relief among the shrubbery, only to return to a stripped frame and the lingering stench of gremlin farts. The other creatures of the Marsh only tolerate these devious imps because stranded travelers soon become screaming dinner, and the Rulian Warlord brought the squad of snotty gremlins aboard his Dead Eye Gang solely because they can create murder machines out of any piece of scrap they find, steal or scavenge as the crew grinds its way across Caldavar.

Owning Ultimate Rulian Warlord Flint gives Dredger an upgraded weapon and effects!

New Dead-Eye Gang Artillery Avatar: Boggus

Boggus earns his keep as a member of the gang by thrashing through the Rulian Marsh and tearing down any remaining structures from bygone eras, then selling the salvaged bits to the ruffians and privateers who prey upon anyone foolish enough to chart a course through the dark, forbidding territory. But he's always kept the best discoveries for the gang, and now that the Rulian Warlord has assembled the troops to exert his will upon Newerth, Boggus straps on the cannons, hefts the heavy weaponry, and lights his soggy linstock for some real, dirty fun.

Owning Ultimate Rulian Warlord Flint gives Boggus an upgraded weapon and effects!

New Dead-Eye Gang Valkyrie Avatar: Skiver

In savage times, when the Rulian Harpies swooped down and snatched hapless wanderers and warriors from the narrow marsh trails, it was thought they were carried away to be judged by the deities of vengeance. As it turns out, the Harpies care not for vengeance or judgement; they just want fresh meat. Those who are skewered by a Harpy spear or feel the crushing grip of her talons soon have their bones picked clean by the flock of ravenous harridans. Skiver has set herself above the other Rulian Harpies by expanding her appetites beyond mere flesh - she also wants loot, land, and power, and the best way to reap those is by joining the Warlord's Dead Eye Gang. Skiver's nests made of bones, shattered weapons and the remnants of her victims' banners are spreading through the trees of Caldavar. If you look up and see one, it's already too late.

Owning Ultimate Rulian Warlord Flint gives Skiver an upgraded weapon and effects!

New Dead-Eye Gang Electrician Avatar: Killawatt

Killawatt could have gone down in Rulian history for harnessing the crackling, viscous electricity of the marsh eels and using it to bring light and power to the dark corners of the swamp, but instead he used it to fry his enemies while protecting himself with charged shields. Classic Rulian. However, the shield could not protect him from the marsh eel swimming in his custom-made power vat, and when he prodded it once too often the creature responded by biting Killawatt's arm off. Again, this is common in the marsh. This did not thwart the industrious rodent, who built himself a mechanical appendage to serve as a constant conduit for his swamp shocks. Killawat now serves as the gunsmith for the Rulian Warlord, making sure his weapons are always functional and (mostly) clean.

Owning Ultimate Rulian Warlord Flint gives Killawatt an upgraded weapon and effects!

New Dead-Eye Gang Forsaken Archer Avatar: Sinew

Sinew and her vicious mount Varka were the advance scouts for the roving pack of Rulian Warg Archers, known primarily for scouring miles of the dense swamp at one time, driving all living things before them and leaving behind only claw marks and a trail of carcasses. When Sinew's scouting brought her into the Rulian Warlord's sights, Flint saw something his Dead Eye Gang lacked: speed and the necrotic ability to create soldiers from the gang's victims. Sinew saw an opportunity as well - the opportunity to join the Dead Eye Gang or be turned into pink mist by Flint's hand cannons. Easy.

Owning Ultimate Rulian Warlord Flint gives Sinew an upgraded weapon and effects!

New Legionnaire Avatar: Savior Legionnaire

The Savior Advanced Robotic Mobile Suits (or A.R.M.S.) were discovered in a sealed military bunker buried nearly a mile below the City of Iron, unearthed by the dwarves scraping every shred of ore from the endless tunnels and caverns. They seem to have been created by a previous civilization in a time of great conflict, designed to carry elite warriors into battle and protect them from harm while allowing them to carry weapons far beyond the capability of mere humans.

The Legionnaire was first in line to test the found technology, becoming Savior Legionnaire, and his thruster-aided charges and massive whirling blade have shown the Legion that while they have been searching for the weapon they need to defeat the Hellbourne, it is the warrior who wields it that will make the difference.

New Ravenor Avatar: Invader Ravenor

The Invader Advanced Robotic Mobile Suits (or A.R.M.S.) have been hastily constructed in the Electrician's Laboratory in response to the Legion's discovery of the Savior battlesuits, and a select few Hellbourne combatants have been drafted into testing them against live fire.

Ravenor was an easy choice to be among the first wave -- if the Invader suit malfunctions and electrocutes its pilot, he won't even notice. Invader Ravenor is an augmented, evolved version of the Hellbourne Daemon Lord, and the enhancements to his lightning attacks may be enough to short-circuit the Legion's Savior campaign.

New Limited Edition Zodiac Ophelia Avatar: Capricorn

Capricorn has always been helpful to those in need -- even if they happen to be Olympian gods. When the vengeful monster Typhon hunted Zeus, Hera, and Bacchus after the war with the Titans, Capricorn used his intimate connection with and control over the wild beasts to transform the gods into animals so they could escape. He turned Zeus into a ram, Hera into a cow, and Bacchus into a goat, then took charge of their flight paths to ensure survival. As thanks, the gods granted Capricorn a home in the heavens as well as a powerful human form with which he can continue to protect the victimized and oppressed.

New POGs Avatars: Scout and Glacius
- The POGs avatars are here! These high definition skins will be released one-per-patch and will be available via the store, Plinko, or both, depending upon the region.

Audio Changes[ | ]

Honmas music added to the game.
Honmas sounds added to the goblin store and game.
Owning Dead Eye Gang Flint gives you a unique level up sound for all the members of the Dead Eye Gang.
Dead Eye Gang Flint's voice changes when he is level 16 to an older more mature orc.
If Dead Eye Gang Flint spawns around other members of his gang, he will talk with one of them. If he spots them on the enemy team, he will also interact with the first character he sees, though not so friendly this time. At level 16, he will say something if he kills a member of the Dead Eye Gang.
Wards now got unique sounds that only the team placing the ward will hear.
Calamity will interact with the following characters: Aeacus, Abaddon, Minos, Jeraziah and Ophelia.
- Should she manage to kill any of them without being taunted or taunting, she will address the character she killed.
- Should she see Jeraziah or Ophelia during the laning phase on the opposite team, she will address the first one she encounters.

CET Implementations[ | ]

The grand winners for the Tremble Flavor Tooltip Contest have their suggested lines implemented:
- Dark Swarm: Is this bugging you? - The`Kurumi
- Terrorform: I don't think that's a rabbit hole, Alice. - MaTz0r
- Impalers: 2-hit combo! - PhoenixHawk
- Hive Mind: Oh, it's fun sized me. - Jitsuko